Item 3: Ordinance Concerning Jefferson/Far West Plan Amendments

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Policy 8 Promate the canstrllctWn af affardable hausing. There are two types of affordable housing, reasonably priced homes offered for purchase and affordable rental housing. The latter is most commonly found in the fonn of apartments in small apartment b~ldings, duplexes and four-plexes. By limiting the density this type of development is clearly not being promoted which in turn means that affordable rental housing is not being promoted. This basically limits new development to single-family dwellings aimed at the owner- occupier market. Generally speaking, new detached single-family dwelling units are not . purchased for the purpose of renting out. The existing housing market is where investors tend to go to find houses to rent out. The lots in Area 15 are generally larger then the lots found in new tievelopment, because of their clo~ proximity to downtown they tend to co1l'ln1and a higher value then lots of similar size on the outskirts of town. In Oregon, generally speaking, what is built on large expensive lots is large expensive housing, which is by its very nature is not affordable. By decreasing density, these proposed amendment and code changes make the development of the only type of affordable housing that can be built, small rental apartments difficult to impossible. This is not promoting affordable housing and thus is directly contrary to this policy. Policy 11 Encallrage the creation af transportaJi,an-elficient land use patterns and implementation af Nadal devewpmentconcepts. The most transportation-efficient land use pattern for a city is to have a dense core and ever decreasing density as you move away from this core. Currently Eugene is developing in exactly the opposite manner. It is denser at the edges where the bulk of newdevelopment is going on small lots, while the core inter-city neighborhoods are less dense because of their relatively large lot size and lower density development. Overtime market forces if given a relatively free rein would correct this situation through the development of small apartment buildings and four- plexes. By reducing the allowable density in Area 15 as these amendments and code changes propose to do, this densification will never happen. The result of this will be to make this hollow-core development pattern pennanent a result clearly contrary to this policy. Another transportation-efficient land use pattern is to have the housing located on arterials and major collectors developed to a higher density then local streets. One of the m~or benefits of this is that this increases the number of people living along the Bus and transit lines tbat tend run on arterials mdmajor collectors. Increasing the number of potential riders and encouraging transit use. By imposing the same density standard on parcels fronting on 13th and 18th Avenues, and Jefferson and Olive street, the arterial and collectors located within the boundaries of Area 15, as are imposed on the interior local streets this transportation development pattern can never de'velop One of the few functioning nodes in Eugene is the area centered on 13th Avenue and Lawrence Street. While the center of this nodal area is not within the boundaries of Area 15, it is directly adjacent to the area and as the population of this node increases it has caused the development of higher density residential development across the ally and over the Amazon into Area 15. This represents the natural expansion of the node and not an undesirable development activity. By f-linkley rrestirnony on MA 06-5, Ra06-3 and C~A 06-1 5 Decellloer 2006 Page 1 () of 12 pages