CC Minutes - 07/14/08 Regular Meeting

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Roll call vote; the vote on the substitute motion was a tie, 4:4; councilors Solomon, Poling, Clark, and Pryor voting in favor and councilors Ortiz, Zelenka, Bettman, and Taylor voting in opposition. Mayor Piercy voted in favor of the substitute motion and it passed. 8. ACTION: Downtown Code Amendments An Ordinance Amending Sections 9.0500, 9.2161, and 9.4530, of the Eugene Code, 1971, Adding a New Map 9.2161(6) (Downtown Plan Map) to that Code; and Amending Map 9.4510 and Figure 9.4530(3) Councilor Pryor, seconded by Councilor Bettman, moved that the City Council adopt Council Bill 4980, an ordinance concerning downtown code amendments. Councilor Bettman indicated that she had a list of intended amendments to the ordinance amending downtown codes. Councilor Bettman, seconded by Councilor Taylor, moved to delete Section 1 of the Ordi- nance, to delete the proposed changes to EC 9.4530(3)(b) in Section 3 of the Ordinance, and to delete the proposed changes to EC 9.4530(3)(d) in Section 3 of the Ordinance. Councilor Bettman asked Nan Laurence, Associate Planner for the Planning and Development Department (PDD), to describe what her amendment would alter in the ordinance. Ms. Laurence understood that the changes had to do with counting the basement as part of the Floor Area Ratio (FAR) and would keep the code the way it is regarding the basement; regardless of how the basement was used it would not be allowed to be counted as part of the floor area in determining the FAR. Councilor Bettman was concerned that counting the basement regardless of what was in it would further decrease the density that would be realized in the downtown area. Councilor Solomon found all of Councilor Bettman’s amendments to be “utterly hostile” to the businesses and people who had worked “so honestly and thoughtfully” to improve the situation in the downtown area. She averred that the downtown area had been deteriorating since the codes they were seeking to amend were instituted. She said the proposed changes had come from “a group of folks who worked downtown and tried to make downtown happen.” She declared that these were items that those people had identified that were doable, workable, and would help improve the situation. She pointed out that they had received a lot of testimony about buildings that existed in the downtown area that could not be built under today’s code. She was disappointed in the hostile nature of the amendments. Councilor Clark respected Councilor Bettman’s desire to make amendments she felt would add strength to the code. He said, however, the City had made code revisions a number of years earlier that were not working. He respected the number of people who had worked on the code amendments. He looked to experts such as Hugh Prichard who had been speaking to as many people as possible about the value of making minor alterations to what the council had done years earlier in order to make the possibility of success in the downtown area more probable. He felt the Beam project and the work the council had initiated at its earlier work session had started some momentum to change the downtown. He did not want to “step backwards.” MINUTES—Eugene City Council July 14, 2008 Page 13 Regular Meeting