CC Minutes - 10/10/01 Work Session

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Mr. Rayor said he supported the first recommended motion. He expressed a desire to move ahead with street planning and follow it as soon as possible with land use decisions. Ms. Taylor commented that arbitrary deadlines were not important and said that design standards needed to be completed first. She stressed that it took time to develop a great street and added that there needed to be a high level of public involvement. She said she was in favor of using the Commercial Revitalization Fund for completing design work. She added her support for examining the possibilities of using SDCs. She went on to say that there should be some way of assessing the people who wanted the street to be opened. Mr. Pap~ expressed his pleasure that the process had begun. He expressed his desire to see the project done right but was in favor of keeping to staff's timeline. Ms. Nathanson commented that design of the street and surrounding buildings were two different processes. She stressed moving forward expeditiously with opening the street. Mr. Meisner was against making SDCs a primary focus. He commented that if the City tried to do assessments it would give up all hope of getting private contributions and expressed his doubt that assessments would bring in $375,000. Mr. Meisner said that the Broadway and Westside neighborhood associations would be outraged by the suggestion that Broadway was anything but a local street. He said that the City had guaranteed that there would be no through traffic feeding arterial and collector streets. Mayor Torrey stressed the importance of moving forward quickly to show the public that the City Council could get things done. Ms. Taylor, seconded by Mr. Kelly, moved to approve the proposed work plan for reopening Broadway from Oak Street to Charnelton, including the transfer of the Commercial Revitalization Loan Fund appropriation to the Broadway Street opening project, to direct the City Manager to include the appropriation transfer in the next supplemental budget, and to bring back a final street reopening cost estimate and financing plan for City Council approval. Ms. Bettman reiterated her desire to see SDCs examined as a potential funding source. In response to a question from Ms. Bettman regarding the reason the Eugene Planning Commission had final approval for the project, City Manager Johnson said that was per City Council direction. Ms. Nathanson suggested that the cost estimate be structured so that the project could be completed in phases if there was not enough funding to do all the desired work. Mr. Kelly acknowledged that there was some consternation on the part of downtown property owners to contribute $375,000 but commented that 14 percent of the overall costs was not excessive. He expressed a hope that the Chamber of Commerce could do some public outreach to a citywide fund raising base. The motion passed unanimously. MINUTES--Eugene City Council October 10, 2001 Page 7 Work Session