CC Minutes - 04/08/98 Work Session

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first finish consideration of the plan and then consider how to address the impact of the plan on the land supply. Mr. Farr stated his belief that the City Council had been "quite unyielding" with its intergovernmental partners. He endorsed Mr. Cornacchia's request that the elected officials attempt to find a middle ground supportable by all. He agreed that everyone wanted to protect wetlands and suggested that Eugene protected wetlands better than anyone else in the nation. Mr. Farr said that true to form, Eugene wanted more and better protections, but he said that as the council moved forward it must consider what was happening elsewhere in the metropolitan area and the county and attempt to reach a compromise that was mutually satisfying to all parties. Ms. Taylor agreed with Ms. Nathanson that the issues of industrial land supply and wetlands protection were different. She asked Mr. Cornacchia to explain his remarks regarding Springfield's urban growth boundary. Mr. Cornacchia responded that he was suggesting that given that the issues of industrial land and wetlands protection were embodied in the WEWP, he did not think that they could be divided, and if the elected officials were to deal with wetlands protection they should also be prepared to deal with the industrial lands supply. If the council was to be consistent with the Growth Management Study policies related to retention of the urban growth boundary and refused to expand the urban growth boundary to make up for the loss, if any, of industrial land with the WEWP boundaries, it should be willing to discuss allowing Springfield to consider such an expansion. Ms. Taylor observed that twice in recent times the council had approved rezoning of industrial land to commercial uses, and suggested that those occasions were the appropriate time to consider the amount of industrial land. Ms. Weeldreyer also supported removing the site-specific amendments at this point. Ms. Weeldreyer agreed that WEWP was a national model, adding it represented the best thinking of the community. She acknowledged the rationale of clarifying the intent of the plan through the proposed amendments. She endorsed Mr. Cornacchia's information requests. Ms. Weeldreyer advocated for intergovernmental cooperation as the elected officials sought to balance differing interests and expressions of livability voiced by various residents and communities within Lane County. She said that jurisdictions should not impose their values upon each other as had occurred in the past. Ms. Weeldreyer said that the elected officials should have flexibility and respect for the way other communities chose to develop and accommodate the growth levels projected for the Willamette Valley while protecting the wet prairie habitat. Mr. Meisner asked that the staff analysis of the industrial lands inventory include the redesignation of commercial or residential lands to mixed use, which included the possibility of light industrial. Mr. Meisner said that he understood that the existence of the plan had provided for greater development certainty because developers were aware of their lands' status. Ms. Childs concurred. MINUTES--Eugene City Council April 8, 1998 Page 6 11:30 a.m.