CC Minutes - 02/12/07 Work Session

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a portion of the Willamette Substation and the portion east would probably not be involved in the disposi- tion. Mr. Menegat said that the board saw value to EWEB as it related to economic value to reduce the costs of the new facility. He said that the board was looking at multi-use high density commercial and residential development consistent with the City policy. He said that the board needed some sense of certainty about the value and timing of sale in order to move forward with its plans. Mr. Menegat said that the bottom line questions were: What was the City Council’s position regarding the value of the property? Would the City be willing to purchase the property at an appraisal based on multi- use high density residential/commercial? Mayor Piercy said that the council’s interest was also in how master planning would be undertaken together. Ms. Bettman welcomed the EWEB commissioners and thanked them for joining the council for a discussion. She said that she welcomed a conversation but noted that the council had a staff recommended motion in front of them and did not have the luxury of simply having a conversation. She said that the council would have to deliberate to a conclusion. She said that this was unfortunate because she did not think there was enough time for this deliberation. Ms. Bettman asked where the money came from for EWEB’s purchase of the property in 1908 and 1998. EWEB staff member, Mike Overly, said that the property had been compiled by many pieces over many years. He said that every piece, with the exception of the original purchase in 1908, came directly from EWEB rate payer funds. He said that the 1908 purchase was made by the City of Eugene from the Willamette Valley Water Company and included the steam plant and part of the property east of the steam plant where the substation was located. He said that the property was included in the purchase of Skinner’s Butte, the reservoir and the water systems that were up there. He said that when EWEB was formed in 1911, those water properties and the debt associated with them were transferred to the new utility board. Ms. Bettman addressed Mr. Menegat’s question about the City’s position regarding the value of the property. She said that, as the council had discussed many times post-Ballot Measure 37, zoning and regulation often create value. She said that in this situation in which the City had the opportunity to up zone and adopt a Metro Plan amendment, the City would be creating value. She said that the number depended on whether it was before or after the master plan, whether it was before people were committed to transportation capacity improvements or after. She said that from the City’s point of view, this was a monumental and unprecedented redevelopment opportunity. She emphasized that this was a very important piece of property to the public and that she did not see the benefit of transferring the master planning process to EWEB. She said that for an asset this significant to the community, the City should initiate and manage the master planning process. She said that once EWEB relocated, that property would become a City asset. She said that she thought that there was wisdom in the initial agreement for the City to have first right of refusal and she thought that the City should exercise that right. She suggested a strategy that would include a mixture of Strategy 1 and Strategy 3, in which the City would declare its intent to purchase and then would include EWEB and other stakeholders in a process of doing the master planning. She said that to get the maximum value out of the property would take a huge public investment and infrastructure. Mr. Brown pointed out that Public Land (PL) could not be valued. He said that when he did the appraisal of the land several years ago, he assumed it was non-PL and used the information he received from staff in a memo that said to consider it as two-thirds commercial and one-third residential. He said that an appraiser MINUTES—Eugene City Council February 12, 2007 Page 5 Work Session