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Mayor Piercy believed Ms. Bettman was intending to ensure that no one could base anything on the <br />possibility of the WEP returning at some future date. Ms. Bettman confirmed that was one of her intentions. <br />Mayor Piercy asked if the current language of staff recommendations would also ensure the same thing. Mr. <br />Klein replied that the language suggested by ODOT would ensure that no one could rely on the WEP’s <br />existence in the TransPlan in order to try to justify a re-zoning or similar re-designation. <br />Mr. Pryor, seconded by Mr. Clark, moved to extend the City Council meeting by ten <br />minutes. The motion passed unanimously, 8:0. <br />Mr. Pryor believed that the WEP was most likely never going to happen. He was committed to a variety of <br />post-WEP projects such as the West Eugene Collaborative. He felt the staff recommendations were <br />probably the way the council needed to go. He said he would not be supporting Ms. Bettman’s motion, <br />primarily because he felt the timing of the relevant issues were better addressed by staff’s recommendations. <br />Mr. Clark could not support Ms. Bettman’s motion primarily because he felt it would lead to an inefficient <br />use of staff time in relation to the other corridor studies, as well as because of the potential for other people <br />to abuse the WEP as justification for Goal 12 findings. <br />Ms. Bettman said removing the WEP from the RTP only meant that it would not receive Federal funding <br />and that leaving it in the TransPlan with the caveat that you could not use it to develop would not mean that <br />the WEP could never be built. <br />Ms. Bettman, referring to the record of decision from 2006 on the matter, felt a 2011 update of the <br />TransPlan was overly optimistic. She felt that her motion to delete the WEP was timely as the council was <br />initiating TransPlan amendments anyway. She said leaving the WEP in the TransPlan would lead to a huge <br />public outcry and take focus off of other important transportation issues. She said the council needed to put <br />a stake in the heart of the project. <br />Mr. Zelenka felt the City’s relationship with ODOT was actually quite good despite rumors to the contrary. <br />Mr. Zelenka asked why the staff’s recommendations to amend the TransPlan were not required to be <br />initiated as motions brought by the City Council. Mr. Inerfeld did not believe staff needed a motion by the <br />council to initiate amendments. Ms. Bettman said that motions were indeed required and that the staff’s <br />recommended amendments were due to be tabled as a motion at the City Council meeting as part of the work <br />plan on September 15, 2008. <br />Mr. Zelenka said the City did not actually have a regional transportation plan, but rather grouped several <br />local transportation plans into what City Staff referred to as a regional transportation plan. <br />Mr. Zelenka said it was very inefficient to have to employ both State and Federal processes with regard to <br />transportation planning. Mr. Inerfeld commented that the City was moving in the direction of having its own <br />transportation system plan and that the City would need to have at least two plans. <br />Mayor Piercy called for a vote on Ms. Bettman’s motion to initiate a TransPlan amendment <br />to delete the West Eugene Parkway (WEP) from the project list and Plan as part of the <br />short term amendments, and to add the two Oregon Department of Transportation (ODOT) <br />th <br />facility projects, West 11 Avenue from Terry Street to Greenhill Road, and the Beltline <br />Highway from River Road to Delta Highway, into the constrained project lists. The motion <br />tied, 4:4; Zelenka, Bettman, Taylor, Ortiz in favor; Clark, Poling, Solomon, Pryor against. <br /> <br /> <br />MINUTES—Eugene City Council August 13, 2008 Page 11 <br /> Work Session <br /> <br />