CC Minutes - 07/25/01 Work Session

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Ms. Bettman thought that Willamette Street was in failure even with the Amazon Parkway nearby, and pointed out the Amazon Parkway's terminus was in Eugene and served the Eugene community, as opposed to serving people outside the city and outlying areas. She said if the West Eugene Parkway was built, it would stimulate development at its terminus outside the urban growth boundary and create more traffic. Ms. Bettman suggested that the council endorse those projects with the most support and get them before ODOT by October 2001 to compete for the State Transportation Improvement Program (STIP) funding. She favored completing improvements from Beltline to West 11th Avenue, limiting access to West 11th Avenue from Commercial to Fisher streets and designating that section an expressway, improving east-west traffic on Roosevelt and Royal, and improving safety conditions on Highway 126 from Greenhill Road to Veneta. She suggested the council examine those projects, determine what they cost, and rally support to get them in the STIR Mr. Rayor thought the best thing the City could do was ask the State that the money formerly designated for the parkway be redirected to other local projects that were needed in addition to the parkway. He cited Phase III of Beltline and expressway status on West 11th Avenue as examples. Mr. Rayor said that, according to ODOT, there was no way to build the east portion of the parkway without the west portion. The design failed even with the projects proposed. He opposed the west end because it would bisect a large contiguous wetland. Mr. Rayor thought citizens needed to understand there is no money for the parkway anyway. If the people wanted the project, they would have to vote to fund the entire project; he did not think the State would do so. Mr. Rayor said that if the parkway were built, it would halt the construction of many other needed projects in TransPlan because no funding was available. He did not think that the traffic issues on West 11th Avenue had a State solution and they needed to be solved locally. Mr. Farr said he had begun to resign himself to the fact the parkway was gone. There was no political will on the part of the council or community to move forward. The result was continued degradation of West 11th Avenue that would soon begin to affect residential neighborhoods unless something was done. He said that a potential solution was to route traffic off West 11th Avenue to Beltline to Roosevelt Boulevard out to Highway 99, but that would require reconstruction of several intersections. He asked what would happen if the City came up with such a solution: could the engineering be done by October in time for submittal to ODOT? Mr. Reinhard thought it would take more study than could be done by October. Mr. Farr asked what chance the City had to get funding from the State for those projects. Mr. Pirrie responded that the money reallocated from the parkway would go to other State projects. ODOT had no authority to spend those dollars on right-of-way outside the State system, unless it was associated with a major State project. Mr. Pirrie noted that ODOT would not be able to identify the portion of West 11th Avenue inside the City's jurisdiction as an expressway. He noted that the expressway status did not generally involve much funding. He further noted that improvements at the intersections mentioned by Mr. Farr would require study before any improvements were contemplated. Mr. Farr said that it appeared the majority of the funding allocated for the parkway would be directed elsewhere in the state, although there was a possibility some would come to Eugene. Mr. Pirrie agreed with Mr. Farr's summation. Mr. Reinhard also agreed. He said the amount of funding in the State STIP for Unit 1Awas about the same as the amount needed for Phase III of MINUTES--Eugene City Council July 25, 2001 Page 4 Work Session