CC Minutes - 04/26/00 Work Session

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Mayor Torrey noted his own long-term opposition to the proposed Valley River Bridge because it was intended to provide access to a single commercial center, and that was a not a community priority; the community's priority was good transportation. He did support improving and enhancing Washington-Jefferson Bridge and the widening of Delta Highway at Beltline. Mayor Torrey pointed out that although safety and seismic conditions were improved, the Ferry Street Bridge project had resulted in no more lanes than it had before retrofitting and contained no additional capacity. For that reason, he thought a study was needed. He suggested that such a study could focus on the area east of the Ferry Street Bridge. Acknowledging the Federal Highway Administration's continued opposition to the concept, he continued to support a southbound lane from I-5 to Franklin Boulevard to reduce traffic on the Ferry Street Bridge. He said that he wanted the federal and State governments to examine the impacts of their programming on local communities such as Eugene. He said that in the absence of an alternative, there would be gridlock on the Ferry Street Bridge that would not be alleviated by widening Beltline or improvements to Washington-Jefferson Bridge. Mr. Meisner did not believe that more street or crossing capacity was needed to improve the transportation system. He said that the plan addressed both land use and alternative modes, and if the City's only choices were widening existing bridges or adding more smaller bridges, the council had missed the point of TransPlan. The document was premised on the connections between land use and transportation. He agreed with Mr. Pap8 that the City must recognize that growth was significant and it must find ways for those people to cross town, he did not want that to occur at the expense of neighborhoods in the center of Eugene. Mr. Meisner said that the City needed to find a way to provide a transportation system that did not damage what already existed. He cited Jefferson Street as an example of a neighborhood degraded by traffic because of recent growth. Regarding Option D, Mr. Meisner said he understood the need for a 20-year plan, but he interpreted Option D as placing a new bridge crossing higher in priority as a result of the study than the other projects in the plan. He said the option called for evaluation of the regional system of river crossing alternatives as if there was a need to find an alternative. He believed that the option was "just a study about finding a different location and naming it something other than the Valley River Bridge." Mr. Meisner said that he would support a comprehensive study on the transportation and its impact on the city and its neighborhoods, but the option did not say that; instead, the option stated "find another site for the bridge." Referring to the statement in the option that the plan would have to be amended to advance the bridge project to the design and construction stage, Mr. Meisner asserted that placed the bridge higher in priority than the Valley River Bridge was in TransPlan. Mr. Kelly concurred with Mr. Pap8 and Ms. Nathanson that TransPlan was a 20-year plan, but the plan called for periodic reviews, and nothing would prevent the City Council from placing a study in the plan in the future. He suggested that the City would look at the existing crossings when transportation demand measures (TDM) had been implemented. Mr. Kelly agreed with the mayor about the I-5/Franklin option. He thought it made sense for the future and could be footnoted in TransPlan. Regarding the proposed bridge study, he suggested that another bridge in the area was not the answer to congestion on the Ferry Street Bridge because a new bridge would not reduce traffic on the existing bridge by more than three percent. MINUTES--Eugene City Council April 26, 2000 Page 7 Work Session