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Regarding each councilor appointing a commission member, Ms. Bettman remarked that while Mayor <br />Piercy had a significant positive influence on the sustainability initiative, she would not always be mayor. <br />She felt that each councilor appointing a member and four members being appointed by the full council <br />would facilitate a buy-in by each councilor’s constituency. She said that the future direction of sustainabil- <br />ity would require the support of the entire community and each councilor’s constituents, instead of moving <br />the initiative forward with a split vote. She hoped the makeup of the committee would help avoid divisive- <br />ness and polarization. <br /> <br />Mr. Zelenka thought that all commissions should have an odd number of members. He noted that all other <br />commissions had a councilor as a member and he thought that created a liaison and provided input from a <br />council perspective. <br /> <br />Mr. Zelenka proposed a friendly amendment to change the composition of the sus- <br />tainability commission to 13, with the thirteenth member being a city councilor ap- <br />pointed by the mayor. Ms. Bettman accepted the friendly amendment. <br /> <br />Mayor Piercy supported the friendly amendment. <br /> <br />The motion as amended passed, 8:0. <br /> <br /> <br />B. WORK SESSION: River Road/Santa Clara Annexation Policy <br /> <br />City Manager Taylor introduced Central Services Executive Manager Jim Carlson to present an overview <br />and background of the City’s existing approach to annexation policy. <br /> <br />Mr. Carlson said the issue arose with respect to River Road/Santa Clara annexations, but related to the <br />City’s annexation policy in general. He provided an excerpt from the Eugene-Springfield Metropolitan <br />General Plan (Metro Plan), as that was the basis of the City’s annexation policy. He said the Metro Plan <br />assumed that the cities of Eugene and Springfield were the logical service providers within the urban growth <br />boundary (UGB). He said it was clear during meetings with citizens in the River Road/Santa Clara area <br />than many of them did not agree with those principles of the Metro Plan and believed that the existing <br />provision of services by multiple service providers, special districts, Lane County and the City of Eugene <br />was adequate and acceptable. He noted letters from both the River Road and Santa Clara neighborhood <br />associations supporting that position. <br /> <br />Mr. Carlson used maps to illustrate current city limits and recent annexation activities in the Bethel/Danebo <br />and Willakenzie areas. He said that hundreds of annexations had occurred in the River Road area since <br />adoption of the Metro Plan in 1982 and those were all voluntary annexations in the sense that they were <br />initiated by the property owners, frequently because annexation was required in order to allow development <br />of property at an urban density. He said about 40 percent of the River Road/Santa Clara area was inside of <br />Eugene’s city limits and many of the annexed areas were noncontiguous to the main body of the City. <br /> <br /> <br /> <br />MINUTES—Eugene City Council – Work Session January 24, 2007 Page 4 <br /> <br />