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MINUTES – Eugene City Council Work Session February 12, 2020 Page 1 MINUTES Eugene City Council Harris Hall, 125 East 8th Avenue Eugene, Oregon 97401 February 12, 2020 12:00 p.m. Councilors Present: Betty Taylor, Emily Semple, Alan Zelenka, Jennifer Yeh, Mike Clark Councilors Absent: Greg Evans, Claire Syrett Mayor Vinis opened the February 12, 2020, meeting of the Eugene City Council. 1.Work Session: Incentives for Accessory Dwelling UnitsEconomic Development Planner Anne Fifield presented information about financial incentivesthat could lower the cost of building ADUs.Discussion Councilor Clark – said although he was assured he doesn’t have a conflict, to be safe he wantedto declare a potential conflict because his job involves lending people money to buy and buildhouses and ADUs; said he asked for this work session to talk about the idea of a property taxexemption; discussed implementing a waiver for the City’s portion of property taxes thatdoesn’t have to rely on state statute; said he had talked with the previous city manager aboutvoluntary annexation in Santa Clara and River Road and had been told that the City could offer a10-year tax waiver for joining the City; said he’d like to see what a path forward for this optionmight be; said that there were many pros and cons missing from the lists, including oneadvantage that even if an incentive only resulted in a small percentage, the ability to borrow canturn on a very small amount of money and the impact could be significant; said he wants todiscuss hooking up ADUs to the existing house instead of new hookups to the street. Councilor Zelenka – asked how many ADUs were built 2018 and 2019; asked if there wasevidence that the already-reduced SDCs have stimulated construction of ADUs; asked about thecurrent practice of waiving SDCs for affordable housing units; talked about how SDCs aren’t justfees used to cover costs, but to pay for future infrastructure and when they’re not collected, lessinfrastructure is built or money must be found somewhere else; asked if the City is seeing anylow-income SDC waivers for owner-occupied single family dwellings; asked if the City’s buildingpermit services are entirely covered by fees; asked at what cost an ADU mortgage would be ator below the workforce affordable housing threshold. Councilor Taylor – asked whether adoption of any of the proposed incentives would allowcouncil to limit them to owner-occupied ADUs; said she might support the property taxexemption if limited to owner-occupied units. Councilor Pryor – said fractions of a percent in costs can influence whether someone can buildor not and supported the development of pre-approved building plans; said that MUPTE shouldnot be the mechanism used for ADU property tax exemptions; said he’s been consideringLIRHPTE expansions and using this is a starting point; said waiving or scaling SDCs is a goodidea if it applies specifically to ADUs; said the council has to commit to ADUs and be willing toendure the cost impact if SDCs, building fees, or land use application fees are lower. Councilor Yeh – said she’d like to consider developing pre-approved plans because this couldresult in significant savings and would be a one-time initial fee for an ongoing resource;supported targeting low-income folks if possible and to identify ways to target that April 13, 2020, Meeting – Item 2A ATTACHMENT B CC Agenda - Page 5