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MINUTES <br /> <br /> Eugene City Council <br /> Work Session <br /> McNutt Room, City Hall <br /> <br /> May 30, 2001 <br /> Noon <br /> <br />COUNCILORS PRESENT: Betty Taylor, David Kelly, Scott Meisner, Gary Rayor, Gary Pap~, <br /> Bonny Bettman, Par Farr. <br /> <br />COUNCILORS ABSENT: Nancy Nathanson. <br /> <br />CITY COUNCIL WORK SESSION <br /> <br />Mayor James D. Torrey introduced Julia Chambers and Frances Hacker, his assistants for the day. <br />Ms. Chambers called the meeting to order. <br /> <br />A. Work Session: Parking Options to Support Compact Development <br /> <br />The council was joined by former Planning and Development Department Director Paul Farmer for the item. <br />Mr. Farmer introduced Terry Moore of EcoNorthwest. Mr. Moore had been asked to prepare the presentation <br />in response to some of the issues the council had been considering, including the Growth Management Study <br />policies, the need to reduce vehicle miles traveled (VMT) in the region, the need to reduce reliance on the <br />automobile, and the need to reduce reliance on parking. Mr. Farmer identified a paradox in that to meet the <br />larger regional objectives, the City must continue to supply downtown parking. Given that much of downtown <br />parking was in surface parking and a more intensive use was desired for those sites over time, the City faced <br />the additional paradox in that for Lane County to succeed as a region, the City needed to build more downtown <br />parking. Mr. Farmer suggested that the questions to be answered included how to provide that parking in the <br />best way while maximizing the use of parking that was constructed, and what could the private sector be <br />expected to contribute. <br /> <br />Mr. Farmer commended Parking Manager George Jessie for his oversight of the Parking Program, saying his <br />hiring had allowed the City to proceed with work on a variety of parking-related issues that had been "on hold." <br /> <br />Mr. Pap~ arrived at the meeting. <br /> <br />Mr. Moore provided a slide presentation on downtown parking that included both the private and <br />public economics of parking. He compared costs to revenues for structured and surface parking. <br />The presentation indicated that structured parking came at a significantly higher cost than surface <br />parking and that it was unlikely to be built by the private sector unless economic factors combined <br />to make it profitable. Mr. Moore briefly discussed the public policy implications of subsidized <br /> <br /> MINUTES--Eugene City Council May 30, 2001 Page 1 <br /> Work Session <br /> <br /> <br />