CC Minutes - 01/22/01 Work Session

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He wanted to explore Ms. Bettman's idea regarding the impact of parking outside downtown. Mr. Kelly suggested that the last thing the City wanted was redevelopment on the street incompatible with its vision, so he felt that an overlay zone and multi-structure design review should be tied to the street reopening. He acknowledged the code language might not be ready prior to the reopening, but he wanted the code language in place prior to redevelopment. In response, Mr. Farmer said that it would not take any time to secure code language from other cities, and the council might wish to model its code language on the text used by those cities. Ms. Nathanson did not disagree with anything in the section and noted her support for a celebration plaza, connection of great streets, and 8th Avenue as prime connection to the river. Transforming Broadway and relationship of overlay zone and create new zoning district were also important to her. Ms. Nathanson said that the emphasis was on ensuring people want to go downtown and use the streets for that purpose. While it was not specifically mentioned, Ms. Nathanson was interested in seeing in a further phase: discussion by a Planning Commission subcommittee on what would give great streets a distinctive and consistent appearance in the short- and long-term. She also wanted to form a group to discuss the overload and visual clutter of street signs, and whether signs were in the right number in the right places. Ms. Bettman agreed with the overall theme of the section. She thought there were areas where the plan could be clearer about the goal. She wanted to strengthen the statement related to the connection of 8th Avenue to the riverfront and Willamette Street to the train station. She agreed with Ms. Nathanson that the plan was lacking specific reference to the street scape concept, or the way the street functions as public realm or open space. Ms. Bettman said that when talking about creating great neighborhoods, one had to consider housing. She liked the zoning district idea and envisioned residential streets in downtown with different feel because they were residential. She suggested the council consider other activities, such as loud noises, that will work against housing downtown and how to mitigate those impacts through some kind of housing code. Ms. Bettman wanted staff to return with a council decision item on boundaries for downtown. Mr. Farr did not think great streets were one-way streets. He wanted to convert the one-way streets downtown to two-way streets. Mr. Meisner noted his concurrence. Mr. Meisner wanted the city to open Broadway in the context of everything else it planned to do downtown. He did not want to open the road so that it became a through corridor from Franklin to Washington. He endorsed Ms. Betttman's suggestion regarding downtown boundaries, suggesting some sort of boundary landmark might be appropriate. Mr. Meisner said the theme title did not initially address all the elements that made a street great. He said that opening Broadway in isolation would accomplish nothing without having the zoning district in place. He wanted to open the street with a vision to the future and in context of the whole plan. He was not enthusiastic about implementing elements separately without knowing more about the whole plan. Mayor Torrey said he supported being able to close the street for special events and wanted to be able to close it off with something better than sawhorses. MINUTES--Eugene City Council January 22, 2001 Page 6 Work Session