CC Minutes - 07/24/00 Meeting - Laserfiche WebLink

Home Browse Search

be provided by a slender driveway coming off of 11th Avenue that could not be developed into any major access. Councilor Rayor commented that a small amount of wetland would be affected by extending 13th Avenue to Willow Creek. He added that the benefit would be to provide access to a large amount of developable land. He stressed that people needed to look at the big picture. Mr. Bj0rklund pointed out that the portion of the speedway site that laid in the path of the proposed extension did contain rare plant species. He added that this was the reason that the Planning Commission and staff had recommended protection. He went on to say that there were federally listed rare plants that would lie in the way of the road extension as well as other significant obstacles. He added that the area was one of the highest priorities of the West Eugene Wetlands program for protection. Councilor Rayor said that if 13th Avenue could be curved to the north it would avoid the rare plants entirely. He stressed the importance of providing access to developable land. Councilor Kelly emphasized the importance of the rare plants located in the path of the extension. He added that connectivity of wetlands was also important and commented that if a wetland was bisected with a road both sides would be downgraded. He opined that an adequate collector street could be built in the existing 40 feet of access. In response to a process question from Mayor Torrey, Mr. Bj0rklund said that both items 9 and 10 needed to be discussed if the prospect of extending 13th Avenue was going to be feasible. He said that the issues of access to the speedway facility could be addressed by altering the multiple sites ordinance or by altering the speedway site ordinance itself. Mr. Bj0rklund said that he had reviewed the record and found a gap in the rare plants between Willow Creek Road and the speedway facility. He opined that an extension of 13th Avenue would be, theoretically, possible. In response to a question from Councilor Farr regarding access to the commercially zoned land, Planning Director Jan Childs said that there were two possibilities for access into the speedway portion of the property that was not designated. The first was use of the existing access road into the property. She noted that the existing access was, in essence, a private driveway. The second possibility was to create a public street into that property. She noted that a public street would need more right-of-way and more pavement width. She added that it was not a requirement to do a local street. In response to a question from Councilor Farr regarding the uses for C-2 zoned land, Ms. Childs said that C-2 was a general commercial zoning district which allowed a wide variety of commercial services. She added that, in many cases, such property was accessed off of a driveway and not a public street. Councilor Farr raised concern that the existing access could not handle the traffic generated by an 18- acre commercial development. In response to a question from Councilor Farr regarding how much commercial land was available in such large parcels, Ms. Childs said that there were other large parcels. MINUTES--Eugene City Council July 24, 2000 Page 12 Regular Meeting