CC Minutes - 02/18/98 Meeting - Laserfiche WebLink

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Melody Clarkson, PO Box 3082, Eugene, represented the Eugene Natural History Society, said her society supported the plan as recommended by the planning commissions. She said that wetlands served many purposes and were complex environments for plants and animals. The society members residing in the area affected by the plan recognize that the appointed and elected officials must recognize economic implications of the plan. To that end, the society supported use of the WEWP inventory to depict current and accurate wetland boundaries. Ms. Clarkson said the society opposed the plan amendments proposed by Mr. Cornacchia, not only for their implications for further wetland degradation, but because of the disdain they demonstrated toward the existing policies reflected in the WEWP, which was a result of community and scientific input. Regarding Mr. Cornacchia's remarks in his letter to Ms. Childs regarding the need for balance, Ms. Clarkson said that every time a wetland was compromised by development, it lost something that was previously existing, and development gained something it never had. She perceived a striking imbalance in Mr. Cornacchia's proposal. Mike Farthing, PC) Box 1147, Eugene, representing Oscar Saudri, owner of the Eugene Speedway property. He suggested that site-specific changes be eliminated from the nonpolicy changes proposed to the plan. Mr. Farthing pointed out that all the sites in the plan were urban or urbanizable. He believed that people who supported preservation of wetlands to all other uses were latecomers who did not recognize the long-term planning and money that had gone into the area. Mr. Farthing said that as property was removed from the buildable lands inventory, where was the replacement land to be found? He said that the community must compensate for the loss of that land because he believed the community would continue to grow. Mr. Farthing said that the elected officials must consider many plans and policies and strike a balance between those competing policies. Mr. Cornacchia left the meeting at 7:50 p.m. Lisa Arkin, 29136 Gimpl Hills Road, said that the elected officials should not assume that environmentally minded people oppose all development. She asked the board and council to accept the plan amendments as recommended by the planning commissions and to reject Mr. Cornacchia's proposals. She said that they would nullify the impact of the plan. Ms. Arkin believed that submitting the proposals at this point demonstrated disregard for the public process. She questioned a process that reworked the plan for the sake of a single company wishing to expand, and suggested that adoption of the proposals would mean the community could not meet the goal of balance at the heart of the plan. Ms. Arkin noted Mr. Cornacchia's suggestion that planned expansions be allowed made it possible for anyone with a dream or desire to fill a wetland. She said that was not balance but was a lack of planning. Jennifer Guard, 132 East Broadway, Suite 423, said that she owned a wetland consulting business and had served as the consultant for the City inventory and worked with dedicated City staff on the plan. She questioned the changes proposed by Mr. Cornacchia, terming them "eyebrow raising" and expressed suspicion that they were raised so late in the process. Ms. Guard said that wetland ecologies were complex and balancing the environment value with an economic value was very difficult. Ms. Guard asked the elected officials to extend the comment period for two weeks so the community could examine the changes proposed to facilitate Hyundai's expansion. MINUTES--Joint Elected Officials-- February 18, 1998 Page 10 Eugene City Council/Lane County Board of Commissioners