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expense. Steve Adamson, 1436 East 22nd Avenue, Eugene, said he was present as a representative of the business community and is a partner in a downtown law firm that focuses on business law. He said that improving TransPlan is not only an issue of the vocal minority but of mainstream Lane County residents as the quality of life is at stake. He encouraged officials to look at Western Europe as an example for TransPlan. He added communities with good mass transport are often healthier communities. He urged the adoption of the proposals by the Friends of Eugene, having no bridge at Valley River Center, increasing mass transit, and to think how mass transit could solve the problems of TransPlan. Tom Lester, 1826 Lincoln Street, Eugene, stated he was speaking on behalf of the Mill Street Bridge Committee. He said the Mill Street Bridge Committee urges the officials not to provide $30 million to the Lane Transit District for BRT, instead they urge that all references to BRT be removed from the TransPlan and establishment of a ten year moratorium on funding and implementing this project. He said there is no need to rush the implementation of Bus Rapid Transit as building BRT lines before traffic congestion would result in an extremely expensive, under utilized system. He said to construct BRT at this time, within the context of a street system absent of traffic congestion, results in alignment choices for BRT that would ruin the quality of urban environment. He added it will not increase ridership nor decrease the levels of traffic congestion. David Zupan, 87 West 23rd Avenue, Eugene, said he works with the Eugene Peaceworks and disagrees with the draft of the TransPlan. He said the problem is air pollution that is in the community already and the TransPlan does not reflect that. He said Eugene should be a city for everyone and suggested revising the TransPlan. Judy Granatstein, 390 North Polk Street, Eugene, stated she does not support the draft TransPlan as it is currently written. She said it is written for the past, reflecting a culture that dwindling resources can no longer support. She said that TransPlan fails to find a realistic balance between transportation modes and sets the future up for sprawl and suburban growth. She said existing infrastructure needs to be worked with to ease congestion instead of adding another bridge to compete with operations and maintenance funds. She added that TransPlan should be a vision based on community values. Anand Keathley, 389 North Polk Street, Eugene, said that TransPlan as it is currently envisioned, is expanding car access. He said if it goes forward as it is, it will end up in the courts. Wendy Lowe, 65 West 29th Avenue, Eugene, stated she bought her house so she could be within walking and bicycling distance of the things that were important to her. She said time is important, but what lies in the path of the proposed Valley River Bridge took the park 86 years to reach and if the new bridge is built, all the labor will have been sacrificed to shave less than two minutes off of a bus ride. She urged the officials not to vote for the bridge. Page 9 -- Continued Joint Elected Officials' Meeting -- October 20, 1999 WP bc/m/99136/T