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

Home Browse Search

th Paul Conte, 1461 West 10 Avenue, thanked the council for its support for Eugene residents and neighborhoods. The council had shown it understood that strategies for a diverse and vibrant city could be based on actions that degraded and destabilized established neighborhoods. Past actions and code provisions had led to damaging infill in more and more areas of Eugene. Density could be achieved with reasonable standards and appropriate design. There was community support for twelve of the proposed amendments as evidenced by support by community organizations and a petition signed by over 300 people. According to the HPB minutes there was no quantitative discussion about the proposed amend- ments. The connection between affordable housing and the effect of the proposed standards was not supported by data, but was rather an emotional reaction. An emotional reaction resulted in tenement housing rather than affordable housing. He urged the council to adopt the proposed amendments. Mandi Butler, P.O. Box 7425, represented Future B Homes and was an HBA Board member. The MCA process was intended to make minor code changes, which implied non-controversial changes that did not affect policy. She found many of the proposed amendments were not minor, were controversial and effected policy. Amendment 5, graduated building heights and Amendment 7, had grave effects on housing in Eugene. Reduced density in R-3 and R-4 would limit if not prevent infill, reduce campus housing and was at odds with the GMPs. Amendment 8, related to RR/SC stormwater issues, took poorly written language from the Stormwater Manual and placed it into the code and would result in a reduction in the City’s buildable residential land. It would also raise the cost of housing and make it difficult for families to buy a house in Eugene. The amendments should not be passed at this time. Amendments 5, 7 and 8 should be referred to the ICS for a more comprehensive review. Lloyd Tolbert, 83 Centennial Loop, Suite 1, had worked with the City’s land use code as a local land surveyor for 15 years, in doing infill partitions, property line adjustments, and subdivisions. He currently was monumenting the exterior boundary of the newly acquired Ridgeline Trail. He had been involved with the MCA and supported those amendments that went through the entire process, but had issues with Amendments 5, 7 and 8. The original 200 proposed amendments were ranked based on criteria that included consistency with GMPs, level of concern, cost, public involvement, complexity, intensity of impact, environmental impact and controversy level, as well as other criteria. The Planning Commission, interested community members, and the consultant reduced the number to approximately 20, with a focus on those that were less controversial due to the necessity to get the first round of the MCAs passed for the good of the public. Amendments 5, 7 and 8 were not housekeeping items and needed a closer review. He asked that Amendments 5, 7 and 8 be forwarded to the ICS or separated into their own bundle. He thanked the City Council, the Planning Commission and staff for their work. Dan Neal, 1361 Pearl Street, said Amendment 7 would increase the amount of required parking for multi- family development in the Agate Street to Hilyard Street corridor (corridor), which amounted to “downzon- ing in disguise”. The SUN concerns about height did not address parking because they were aware of the affect increasing the parking requirements would have on meaningful multi-family development in the area next to the University where thousands of students wanted to live in quality housing. In recent years, some of the eyesores in the WUN and the corridor had come down and been replaced with high quality housing projects. He displayed photographs of his recently completed Coho project, that contained many th sustainability features on 14 Avenue between Hilyard Street and Patterson Street for which he had received accolades from the City of Eugene and the University of Oregon School of Architecture and Allied Arts. In order to do this project with the proposed increased parking requirements it would be necessary to MINUTES—Eugene City Council June 16, 2008 Page 9 Work Session