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

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Gerry Gaydos, 2820 Emerald Street, said that at the time the plan was adopted there was no immediate development pressure in the plan area. He said that the plan probably achieved the best possible balance at that time. Mr. Gaydos was concerned that people were attacking the process. He support Mr. Cornacchia's courage in offering the community a proposal it could respond to. Mr. Gaydos said that if the criteria proposed by Mr. Cornacchia were actually developed for Hyundai, that would be doing a disservice to the WEWP and to the community. He suggested that given the dramatic development pressure in west Eugene, it was perhaps not the best time to amend the plan. He agreed that wetlands protection was needed, but he questioned how the community could maintain the balance the plan attempted to achieve. He encouraged the elected officials to consider Mr. Cornacchia's proposals even if they did not accept them. Paul Engelking, 32 North Alder Street, Lowell, identified himself as a chemistry professor at the University of Oregon. He addressed Mr. Cornacchia's proposal to modify protection criteria 5. Mr. Engelking was opposed to changes to the criteria that could harm a wetland, and a wetland could be harmed or destroyed by cutting off its water supply, whether the source was a pipe or a spring. Mr. Engelking cautioned the elected officials against making last-minute amendments that have not received public review. He asked the elected officials to consider those recommendations that have been reviewed by many committees and experts and to refrain from making large-scale modifications that would have a broad effect, such as Mr. Cornacchia's proposed changes to protection criteria 5. Kathy Brubaker, 1255 Pearl Street, represented the Lane County Homebuilders Association. She called for a balance between the Metro Plan and the WEWP. Ms. Brubaker said that if development could not occur within the urban growth boundary, it would occur outside the boundary and Eugene would lose the economic benefit of compact urban development. She asked the elected officials to provide the business community with fairness and predictability. Ms. Brubaker asserted that no on-site wetland delineation has been done for the Phase III Hyundai site; therefore, the proposed criteria were based on assumptions alone. She further asserted that the criteria were developed using information from 1989 without taking into account the acreage that had been eliminated from the land supply. John Newsome, 2999 Gilham Road, said that he had participated in the public review process for the last two years and was outraged that two years of public planning could be discarded because of greed. Charlie McGee, 2679 University Street, said that without wetlands and plant life there would be no jobs on the planet. He discussed global environmental degradation and said that activities favorable to the environment were on the increase. Mr. McGee said that the wealthy communities of the future would have clean water, good parks, fewer homeless citizens, wildlife, and wetlands. He said that Eugene could be one of those communities. He asked the elected officials to consider future generations. Ann Sellers, 2495 Columbia Street, objected to restoration criteria 4 and said that as development occurred there would be places accessible by roadways and no restriction should be placed on restoration in appropriate sites. She objected to Mr. Cornacchia's new proposed development criteria as overly random and not focused on the most important functions. Ms. Sellers said that no matter how legal it was, she objected to Mr. Torrey's participation in the process. MINUTES--Joint Elected Officials-- February 18, 1998 Page 7 Eugene City Council/Lane County Board of Commissioners