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MINUTES – Eugene City Council Work Session October 28, 2019 Page 2 <br />could help with affordable housing; asked for a brief recap on financial support or subsidies that the City has provided to recent affordable housing projects, either complete or in progress; mentioned that some of the other projects are still too vague to say they’re important or not important at this point. <br />•Councilor Pryor – said he’d like to understand more about each project’s relationship to otherprojects and to the City’s goals and strategies; said he’s interested in two directions for fundingstrategies: looking at how to do this without an increased tax to Eugene residents and/or what thepreferred methods are for funding these projects that might represent an increase to taxpayers. <br />•Councilor Zelenka – asked for more detail about the additional costs to the projects andwhether 30 percent was a standard contingency fee; said the City has continued to learn thatthe longer construction is delayed, the more expensive it gets; said he thought the redesign ofthe 8th and Hilyard railroad crossing would reduce the costs, but asked why the costs haveincreased; said the steam plant was his number one priority, but wants to know more aboutwhat the 2.8 million dollars would go towards; said he didn’t have enough information aboutthe other projects to make a decision about them; mentioned the importance of parking, butacknowledged how expensive it is. <br />•Councilor Semple – asked about the plaza and how much it would cost to get that piece going,because it’s so intertwined with development of the riverfront park. <br />•Councilor Syrett – agreed that the plaza is an important part of the development; asked whetherthe parking expense was included in the cost of the quiet zone, <br />•Mayor Vinis – asked what would happen with the lower road sections that don’t get built if theback-up infrastructure plan was implemented. <br />•Councilor Yeh – clarified that the parking structure in the picture was not yet part of thefunding strategy. <br />Mayor Vinis adjourned the meeting of the Eugene Urban Renewal Agency and convened a meeting of <br />the Eugene City Council. <br />3.WORK SESSION: Climate Action Plan 2.0 – Buildings Gap Strategies and Update on <br />Northwest Natural Gas Franchise Agreement ProcessIntergovernmental Relations Manager Ethan Nelson and Building Official Mark Whitmill gave anupdate about potential strategies to move closer to the City’s climate goals related to buildings.Council Discussion: <br />•Councilor Zelenka – asked what “funding allocated” meant in the presentation, clarifying that itwould be City funds put forward to promote the increased incentives/program acceleration. <br />•Councilor Syrett – said she is interested in thinking about ways to support EWEB’s incentiveprogram and energy efficiency retrofits; said she’d like to create a mandatory home energyscore program. <br />•Councilor Taylor – asked what a home energy score program would look like and whenbuildings would be scored. <br />•Mayor Vinis – asked if council could attach energy efficient building requirements to MUPTErequirements. <br />•Councilor Syrett – asked if the benchmarking for rental properties would be for any rentalproperty or just apartments; asked if new buildings would or could be required to meet energyefficiency standards; said that if the percentage of new housing being built continues to rise,more of an impact can be made when making requirements for new buildings; said she’d like toknow what the financial commitment is that EWEB has been able to make for electrificationincentives and how the City could support or enhance those programs. <br />November 25, 2019, Meeting - Item 2A