CC Minutes - 06/16/08 Work Session/Public Hearing

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3. PUBLIC HEARING: Downtown Code Amendments Mayor Piercy opened the public hearing on the Downtown Code Amendments. She explained the process for conducting a public hearing. She said speakers would be limited to three minutes each and asked that City of Eugene residents identify which ward they lived in. John Brown, 101 East Broadway, Ward 5, was speaking on his own behalf, and not on behalf of any board or commission of which he may be a member. He distributed photographs of property at 260 West th 10 Avenue, consisting of commercial space on the ground floor and housing on the second floor, which had been the subject of a Ballot Measure 37 claim brought against the City for a density variance in the 1.0 Floor Area Ration (FAR). The development was not financially feasible with the code required density. If the Measure 37 claim procedure had not been available and had gone back through the entire code, he would not have had to comply with stormwater standards and some other development design standards that had been included in the project. If the variance had not been granted, the site could have been sold to neighbors who wanted the site for a parking lot. He asked the Council to listen to local people, consider financial feasibility and understand that sometimes it was necessary to subsidize development downtown. The Council could not legislate financial feasibility unless it was willing to subsidize it as it had done in the past. It was important to listen to the people who lived in the community and wanted to do development “right”. Terry Connolly, 1401 Willamette Street, on behalf of the Eugene Area Chamber of Commerce, supported the proposed Downtown Code Amendments and urged the City Council to approve them as recommended by the Planning Commission. Individually and collectively each of the proposed code amendments would remove some of the barriers that were in the way of attracting new investment, new projects, and more employers in downtown Eugene, and was especially true for local businesses that may wish to invest in downtown. The proposed code amendments were a step in the right direction for the City Council to achieve an economic vital downtown featuring a diverse mix of uses as envisioned in the Downtown Plan. Current code requirements such as the 1.0 FAR and 20 space parking maximum may have been well intentioned when first enacted but they have had unintended consequences as evidenced by seven years of very little private sector development activity in downtown compared to the development activity going on elsewhere in the community. The proposed code amendments were more in line with the basic economic and market conditions and/or limitations for a city the size of Eugene. Allowing adjustment review for all parcels was a good thing. This was not the first time a Eugene Planning Commission had recommended .65 FAR as being appropriate for the overlay zone. It should be noted that .65 FAR was precisely what the Planning Commission recommended eight years ago when it forwarded the Land Use Code Update (LUCU) to the City Council. This was an important opportunity for the City Council. The Chamber of Commerce urged the Council to approve the Downtown Code Amendments. He thanked the City Council and Planning staff for their work and public involvement opportunities provided through the process. Lisa Warnes, 5020 Nectar Way, Ward 2, said there was an implementation strategy in the Downtown Plan that said, “in order to identify impediments for achieving higher density in mixed use development and redevelopment downtown a regulatory audit is necessary.” The Plan further said, “perform a regulatory MINUTES—Eugene City Council June 16, 2008 Page 14 Work Session