Item 2A: Approval of City Council Minutes

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were done now the City would have nothing to replace it with. He further explained that the staff’s recommendation to change the language as suggested by ODOT was designed to prevent developers from exploiting the WEP project to re-zone their properties. Mr. Zelenka said it was his understanding the WEP did not solve the transportation problems in west Eugene in the first place and that the City was already non-compliant with State and Federal guidelines. Mr. Klein said that the WEP, as part of TransPlan, was already considered consistent with State planning goals, the TPR and Goal 12. He further stated that any opportunity to amend the TransPlan was also an opportunity for government officials to say that the plan was not consistent with State requirements. Mr. Zelenka, noting the population projection from the second of the five staff recommendations, asked if that figure was based on the slower population growth that Mr. Inerfeld had mentioned earlier. Mr. Inerfeld confirmed that it was. Mr. Poling, referring to the third of the five Staff recommendations, said a recently formed stakeholder group looking at the Beltline improvements had actually focused on the area from Coburg Road to the Beltline’s potential intersection with Crocker Road. He asked if the wording of the recommendation or Ms. Bettman’s motion would need to be changed to reflect that determination. Mr. Inerfeld commented that when the RTP was updated to a financially constrained plan, the area from River Road to Delta Highway was specified because it was identified as having the most severe problems. He commented that the section of the Beltline from Delta Highway to Coburg Road remained on the Illustrative list. Mr. Pryor said he was satisfied with staff’s recommendations, and subsequently could not support Ms. Bettman’s motion. Mayor Piercy believed Ms. Bettman was intending to ensure that no one could base anything on the possibility of the WEP returning at some future date. Ms. Bettman confirmed that was one of her intentions. Mayor Piercy asked if the current language of staff recommendations would also ensure the same thing. Mr. Klein replied that the language suggested by ODOT would ensure that no one could rely on the WEP’s existence in the TransPlan in order to try to justify a re-zoning or similar re-designation. Mr. Pryor, seconded by Mr. Clark, moved to extend the City Council meeting by 10 minutes. The motion passed unanimously, 8:0. Mr. Pryor believed that the WEP was most likely never going to happen. He was committed to a variety of post-WEP projects such as the West Eugene Collaborative. He felt the staff recommendations were probably the way the council needed to go. He said he would not be supporting Ms. Bettman’s motion, primarily because he felt the timing of the relevant issues were better addressed by staff’s recommendations. Mr. Clark could not support Ms. Bettman’s motion primarily because he felt it would lead to an inefficient use of staff time in relation to the other corridor studies, as well as because of the potential for other people to abuse the WEP as justification for Goal 12 findings. Ms. Bettman said removing the WEP from the RTP only meant that it would not receive Federal funding and that leaving it in the TransPlan with the caveat that you could not use it to develop would not mean that the WEP could never be built. MINUTES—Eugene City Council August 13, 2008 Page 10 Work Session