CC Minutes - 04/25/01 Work Session

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Mr. Johnson said that the laboratory, evidence, and special operations functions have no need for public access because they were not visited by the public. Ms. Bettman asked about Eugene Police Department staff, suggesting that they were going to be driving out to the facility from City Hall. Mr. Johnson clarified that would be their reporting place of work. He acknowledged evidence would have to be delivered to the facility. However, providing a space in a new downtown facility would be very expensive, as opposed to a less expensive, Iow-cost utility building at the Roosevelt facility. Ms. Bettman persisted, reiterating that she wanted to look at the recommendation in the context of the big picture: what were the efficiencies, what could be gained, and could the City separate some of those uses but combine others. Once the money was spent on the Roosevelt facility, the City did not have it to create more space so it could consolidate services, and she was trying to avoid the expenditure. Mr. Johnson said that staff was trying to give the council the data to make the comparison Ms. Bettman sought. Responding to a question from Mr. Rayor, Mr. Johnson confirmed that the master plan was a long- term plan so land could be acquired as it came up for sale. Mr. Rayor wanted to ensure that support for the master plan was not support for condemnation. Mr. Johnson said that Mr. Rayor was talking about a plan that was not yet developed. If the programming and space needs indicated a building of a certain size was needed and more land required, and the sellers were not willing, the council would have to make a choice about condemnation. Mr. Rayor said it was clear more space was needed at the Roosevelt site. He questioned whether the nature of the facility lent itself to multi-story development, suggesting that in a public works setting requiring lots of vehicles and pavement it might be unrealistic. He said he wanted to think more about that. He also did not want to disturb the existing neighborhood. Mr. Johnson pointed out that the adjacent neighborhood was zoned industrial. Mr. Rayor acknowledged that but noted it was true of other Iow-income residential neighborhoods as well. Mr. Svendsen said staff was thinking of approaching the master plan by combining long- and short-term views. In the short-term, there were options to address the property as currently configured; that could include a minimalist acquisition strategy. He thought the master plan would have elements that addressed some of the concerns about the adjacent neighborhood expressed by councilors. Ms. Nathanson said that there were certain uses that the council wanted downtown and other uses more appropriately located elsewhere. She said that given the fact the 2nd Avenue and Chambers Street site was the geographic center of the city, there was a certain efficiency to its use. She thought that explosives disposal or equipment storage were land-intensive uses without a lot of public traffic and did not need to be downtown to support either compact urban growth or the public transportation system. Ms. Nathanson wanted to locate uses with public traffic in downtown. Mr. Meisner was comfortable with the first motion recommended for consideration and hoped the staff would look carefully at the programming to determine whether the staff needed to be moved along with the vehicles. He said that the Public Works yards also contained office operations, and he hoped the City could integrate some of those functions with leased space now used by the Public Works staff in downtown. He reiterated his concerns about sprawling into the adjacent MINUTES--Eugene City Council April 25, 2001 Page 4 Work Session