Item 2A: Approval of City Council Minutes

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Ms. Taylor said urban renewal was intended to clean up blight, and if empty spaces were blight, certainly the hole on Willamette Street qualified in that regard. She suggested it was an appropriate property for the application of eminent domain. Ms. Taylor wanted to drop the options on all but two sites and wanted to complete the housing project on the Sears site. She thought public involvement should come before any decision. Regarding existing businesses, she said the details indicated an upscale environment, which was not what everything was or should be. She did not think the project would protect existing local businesses. Mr. Poling thanked staff for the materials provided to the council and said he currently favored the KWG proposal. He acknowledged the addition of housing in the Beam proposal but said that KGW also proposed housing and a grocery store. KWG was also talking about LEED certification, reuse of existing buildings, and its interest in working with local businesses. Mr. Poling asked the status of the housing project at the Sears site. Mr. Braud said that KWG asked that the process be suspended while the larger scale project was being reviewed. Mr. Poling asked if KWG would still develop that site if the larger project did not go forward. Mr. Braud said yes. Mr. Poling questioned how long the City could drag out the process before residents lost interest. He emphasized that the council would only be examining concepts initially, and those concepts could be modified by public and council input before a final project was selected. He thought it preferable to do the large scale development and “kick-start” downtown. Mr. Pryor said the downtown panel presentation demonstrated to him the complexity of the topic. He saw the pros and cons of each option. He thought staff did a good job of framing the information, but was concerned the council was moving in the wrong order. It needed more clarity on what it wanted. He was not particularly enamored with the Beam proposal but feared the KWG proposal was too big for the community and would reach a certain point and begin to unravel. He suggested it would not be the end of the world if the options expired. Mr. Braud said the options would expire and he did not know if they could be extended for all the properties involved. Mr. Pryor did not know what to do at this point and preferred to be more deliberate. He suggested that waiting might be the better strategy. Ms. Bettman thought if the City wanted to kick-start downtown it needed to go with the “bird in hand” with regard to the rehabilitation of existing buildings. The use was supportable and it was a small investment on the part of the City. If the City committed to KWG it would not know for a year if it was viable. Then the City could be in the position of doing nothing and having to do damage control, which did not leave it in a good negotiating position. Ms. Bettman indicated her intent to offer a motion related to the options the City held on downtown property. Mayor Piercy closed the meeting of the City Council and convened a meeting of the Urban Renewal Agency. Ms. Bettman, seconded by Ms. Taylor, moved to direct the manager to renew options #11 and #12 regarding the West Broadway project. Responding to a question from Ms. Taylor, Ms. Bettman declined to amend the motion to drop the other options. MINUTES—Eugene City Council April 25, 2007 Page 6 Work Session