CC Minutes - 01/22/01 Work Session

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Mr. Rayor suggested the plan was an attempt to go back to solid practices that had been in place prior to the construction of the mall. He said that the City had disconnected the views between the buttes with concrete monoliths and obliterated the view of those disembarking from the train. He said the council was attempting to go back and undo everything that City planners had done in 1974. He agreed with Mr. Meisner about the nature of the street and said he did not want to see traffic traveling down the street from Franklin Boulevard. He wanted to see great street standards developed, and for staff to develop a plan to implement the plan as efficiently as possible with current resources. Ms. Taylor thought it important to go slow to avoid making mistakes. She thought Willamette Street had been beautiful before the mall was opened. She did not think its reopening was an improvement or opening the street a "magic" thing. She asked if the City could try streets that did not look like streets but carried shuttle buses. Ms. Taylor thought two-way streets were better and the downtown was difficult to walk around because of the barrier created by 6th/7th avenues. Mr. Kelly underscored the importance of a consistent appearing street scape. He cited planters, street lights, and flower baskets as elements that could help tie the street together. Mr. Kelly expressed concern about the reference to a visual connection to Skinner Butte. He wanted to include in the final report the need for a pedestrian and bicycle connection as discussed by the North End Scoping Group to move people across or under the railroad tracks to the butte. Mr. Farmer noted that the committee agreed at its last meeting to take out the references to those connections and he would have recommended its retention. He did not think it was impossible to find a way to run a shuttle, for example, through that area. Mr. Meisner clarified it was not his intent that all the streets looked alike, but he would like to see that individual streets have some internal consistency. He hoped the City would learn from the lessons of East Broadway to maintain a sense of streets downtown. Ms. Bettman noted her discussions with the Lane Transit District (LTD) Board about a shuttle bus that traveled through downtown and served major destinations in downtown. She said that her vision of downtown included placing a downtown street car down Willamette Street, which would connect special places in downtown on fixed rails. She said that would be the unique element that helped create a place people wanted to be. The advantage of a fixed rail system would be once the community made the investment in infrastructure, the business community would know the fixed rail system would provide major access and the areas adjacent would become more attractive for redevelopment. Ms. Bettman suggested that if the council had the will to pursue the elements in the vision, it would pursue the funding. Mr. Rayor said he would prefer designating a one-lane alternative corridor and let LTD determine if it would be a fixed rail system. Mr. Farmer suggested that the City needed to create some relative permanence in downtown and for that reason he supported a street car system or something similar, which would signal to the investment community that the infrastructure was permanent. Mayor Torrey said that Joseph, Oregon, had a main street that had been a disaster a few years ago, but had improved by both resurfacing and brass monuments that the City had commissioned. He advocated for a similar approach in Eugene. MINUTES--Eugene City Council January 22, 2001 Page 7 Work Session