CC Minutes - 11/08/00 Work Session

Home Browse Search

feet than the sidewalk, which would slow boarding and introduce conflicts between pedestrians on the north and pedestrians crossing those paths. Ms. Taylor said that it sounded to her as though too many people would be going to one spot at one time. She liked Mr. Kelly's suggestion for limitations if TDM did not work. She thought the University should put the station on its own property. She did not object to helping out WISTEC given its service to the community. She suggested more shuttle buses. She thought the CPC should be involved in discussions on how to protect the park. Ms. Bettman said that all the options appeared to be predicated on the assumption that the University did not want to build a parking structure because it was expensive. She also did not think it was reasonable for the University to externalize its impact and costs on the City. She thought that it was in the City's best interest not to require a parking structure for the displaced parking, but give the University the opportunity to decide if can find another option to satisfy that. She suggested that the University consider what could be done if there was a parking structure just for the displaced parking so the University did not rely on the City to provide parking. The structure would be less expensive and would give the University the chance to relocate the transit station. Ms. Bettman suggested looking at the parking absorbed by the neighborhood and add that to the parking structure. She wanted to internalize the impact of additional parking to the degree possible. She wanted the City to advocate for the CPC's recommendations, particularly as they related to pedestrian impact. Mr. Farr said that WlSTEC provided a tremendous service but he did not want to minimize the University's football program, which had a tremendous economic impact on the community as well as providing entertainment. He said that he could only agree with a parking structure if the City could manage egress and ingress better than it did at Hult Center events. Mr. Kelly said parking structures were a challenge but the same was true of parking lots and bus queuing lines. He said the IGA included one proposal he liked, and he requested staff response to the proposal that the University pay for parking control officers on game day. He asked if officers were available. Mr. Johnson said yes. Mr. Kelly appreciated the field survey done that demonstrated existing parking and litter problems. He said that the information was silent as to whether automobiles were towed for illegal parking. Tom Mason of the Traffic Enforcement Division indicated that the police were able to respond to complaints by citation or through towing, if necessary. He said that there was a great deal of illegal parking that went on throughout the entire area, and the City did not have the staff time to deal with every one of those beyond a parking citation. In some cases there were other public safety issues involved, such as the danger of fire from cars parked on grass. Mr. Meisner was not prepared to make a choice among the options. He said that TDM was a very useful tool and he appreciated what the University was trying to do in minimizing the stadium impact, even for the few days that games occurred during the year. He said that if the outcomes were not meant, he wanted some teeth in enforcement. He liked Ms. Taylor's idea about locating park and rides at other locations. Mr. Meisner wanted to find a way to accommodate the additional crowds without more surface parking. He thought that parking structures were great, but questioned the construction of one for six days' use each year. Unless there was a way to integrate its use for other times of the year, he did not think that was a solution. MINUTES--Eugene City Council November 8, 2000 Page 8 Work Session