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Cornacchia also recommended that the interconnectiveness of underground waterways and aquifers be ignored, and those waterways should clearly be protected. He said that the criteria were designed with the expansion of Hyundai in mind. Mr. Immermann said that the semi- conductor industry has damaged underground aquifers wherever it has located. Jeff Miller, 2225 Lariat Drive, said that he was opposed to the recommendations of the planning commissions and supportive of the plan's original approach to preservation. He said that the original plan represented a "win-win" situation for the environment and for the business community. The plan allowed the community to put together a contiguous supply of quality wetlands and allowed development on marginal wetlands while maintaining the urban growth boundary. Mr. Miller said that the plan had been working and had been recognized nationally. He said that the amendments would not work and would not benefit anyone in the community. He recommended the elected officials return to the original plan intent and adopt criteria that maintained the intended balance. Mr. Miller endorsed Mr. Cornacchia's recommendations as "being on the right track." Mr. Miller suggested that the planning commissions were biased by a lack of information and given misinformation that prevented them from seeing what was best for the entire community. He urged the elected officials to show leadership and support a balanced approach. Mary O'Brien, 3525 Gilham Road, asked the elected officials to retain protection criteria 6, 7, and 8 as independent protection criteria. She did not support Mr. Cornacchia's proposal to collapse the three criteria into a single criteria. She noted that protection criteria 6 called for the protection of a wetland site that contributed to the diversity of wildlife habitat in the region, even if the wetland does not provide wet prairie. Ms. ©'Brien said that the wetland south of the Hyundai factory provided the only prairie habitat corridor between oak savannah habitat and the Willow Creek natural area. Protection criteria 7 called for protection of a wetland site that played an important role in the functioning of the larger wetland system because it combined several characteristics. The wetlands south of the Hyundai factory combined size, location, hydrological, and biological corridor connections with other wetlands and presence of rare plants and animals. Ms. ©'Brien said that protection criteria 8 called for protection of wetland sites that included the last remaining 0.03 percent prairie habitat in Oregon. She observed that the wetlands south of the Hyundai factory contained four acres of that habitat. Ms. ©'Brien said that the rationale behind Mr. Cornacchia's proposal to collapse the three criteria into one could be discovered by looking at the other changes he proposed. Mr. Cornacchia proposed eliminating the protection criteria that protected any wetland site with a hydrological connection to another wetland in spite of the fact that the formerly natural hydrological connection had been directed through pipes. If the criterion was adopted, Ms. ©'Brien said, the wetlands south of the Hyundai factor would fail to meet the protection criteria. Mr. Cornacchia suggested a new development criterion to allow expansion of existing business onto a wetland site so Hyundai can expand to the wetlands south of its present factory. Ms. ©'Brien said that additionally, Mr. Cornacchia proposed expanding another development criterion by suggesting that the campus industrial designation were as unique to economic development as wet prairie was to wetlands. Ms. ©'Brien said that Mr. Cornacchia's proposals had nothing to do with seeking a balance, nothing to do with retaining the ability of a planner to distinguish between different wetlands sites, nothing to do with meeting the WEWP goals, and nothing to do with two years of community and staff planning. The proposal appeared instead to crudely twist the WEWP amendments process to bend to the wishes of Hyundai to expand onto ecologically important wetlands. MINUTES--Joint Elected Officials-- February 18, 1998 Page 4 Eugene City Council/Lane County Board of Commissioners