CC Minutes - 01/29/01 Work Session

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Mayor Torrey reviewed the history of the project, dating back to 1976. He pointed out that the connection was also to I-5 south. Mayor Torrey said that growth was occurring in small communities like Veneta, which were acting to accommodate growth. When Veneta completed its new sewer system, it would spur massive growth in west Lane County, and those residents would expect a way to get to and from Eugene. Mayor Torrey was concerned about what the council would do if the City did not develop a way to get from the west side of Lane County to the core other than West 11th Avenue. He said that he had heard many references made by councilors to "access management," and he wanted residents to know it meant that direct access from West 11th Avenue would be eliminated. He said that "access management" was a catch phrase the public did not understand the implications of. Referring to Growth Management Study Policy 13, Focus future street improvements on relieving pressure on the City's most congested roadways and intersections to maintain an acceptable level of mobility for all modes of transportation, Mayor Torrey said that the parkway was intended to accomplish that goal on West 11th Avenue. Mr. Fart thought Mayor Torrey's points regarding growth in the outlying areas were well-taken. He said that while he was not saying constraining growth in Eugene was a bad thing, it did have an impact elsewhere. If the council was not going to allow his children to grow up in Eugene, they would have to move to an outlying community and then would need a way to get into Eugene. Mr. Fart said that the traffic on Highway 126 was heavy all hours of the day, and it impacted West 11th Avenue. He asked Mr. Reinhard for information on the projected reduction in congestion. Mr. Reinhard said that it referred to peak hour reduction projections for one segment of West 11th Avenue between Garfield Street and Bailey Hill Road. The source of the projection was the TransPlan model. Mr. Fart said the issue facing the council was one of how to respond to what the voters mandated, and another was how to respond to the demand in west Eugene for traffic flow. He heard no answer to the second issue. He questioned the projected eight percent reduction in traffic. If the council eliminated the project, it would have failed to address the issue of congestion in west Eugene, and he had a problem with the arrogance that demonstrated. Responding to the mayor's question, Ms. Bettman thought the council had already indicated by majority vote that it did not support the parkway. She addressed the issue raised by Mr. Farr regarding the projected traffic reduction and pointed out the projections were drawn from the TransPlan model. Ms. Bettman continued to advocate for her proposal. She was opposed to spending the needed funding to achieve the projected congestion reduction when facing a scarcity of funding. She did not consider the parkway a good use of dollars. Ms. Bettman wanted to move forward with an access management study for West 11th Avenue and recommended that the City employ the expertise of someone like Dan Burden to making the corridor workable. She said the City must move swiftly to recapture the $17 million allocated for Unit lA by substituting projects 312 and 333 for the parkway funding. Ms. Bettman said that constructing a freeway between Veneta and downtown Eugene would only impell Veneta to become a bedroom community of Eugene, and when that happened to a city, the urban core suffered blight. The life and resources were drained out of the urban core, and that was expensive to retrofit 20 years later when everyone had moved out. MINUTES--Eugene City Council January 29, 2001 Page 9 Work Session