CC Minutes - 09/08/08 Work Session

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Ms. Bettman announced that the Metropolitan Wastewater Management Commission public hearing was postponed to September 26. She also assisted with patching potholes and enjoyed the experience. Regarding Item C on the agenda, she said she lived on the north end of Friendly Street and asked if that presented a conflict of interest. City Attorney Jerome Lidz replied that if she lived on a portion of the street not subject to road improvements there was no conflict. Mr. Ruiz invited councilors to stop by the Human Rights Center’s information table during the Eugene Celebration and participate in the United Way Community breakfast. B. WORK SESSION: West Eugene EmX Extension Update Lane Transit District (LTD) board member Greg Evans provided an overview of the West Eugene EmX project. He said for the past 18 months the City and LTD had been following the process established by the Federal Transit Administration (FTA) in order to qualify the project for federal funds. He said the West Eugene project was more complex than the process for the Emerald EmX line and the Gateway EmX line. He said a preferred alternative had not yet been selected and public input on options was still being collected. He noted that a preferred alternative had to be agreed upon by the council, the LTD board and the Metropolitan Policy Committee (MPC). He said LTD was asking for the council’s support of the district’s requests for state and federal funding for the local match portion of the project. LTD director of planning and development Tom Schwetz stated that EmX was the region’s adopted high- th capacity transit option. He said following the council’s recommendation of the West 11 Avenue corridor for the next EmX line the LTD board concurred and the project was initiated in early 2007 with a notice of intent to prepare an environmental impact statement (EIS). He reviewed the elements and timeline of the environmental process, which incorporated extensive public outreach and involvement and would culminate in selection of a locally preferred alternative. Mr. Schwetz said the West Eugene EmX Extension Corridor Committee had been formed to bring decision- makers together with stakeholders along the corridor to provide advice throughout the process. He said community design workshops to consider options for each alternative were currently in progress and would be concluded on October 20. He listed the points of coordination between LTD and the City, including the th corridor committee, a project management group, the City’s West 11 Corridor Study, the West Eugene Collaborative and the Metro Waterways Study. He briefly reviewed the Amazon alignment and fixed design elements such as preservation of multi-use path, separation of multi-use path from EmX, incorporation of Metro Waterways goals and objectives, enhancement of the channel and location of stations at cross streets. He said public outreach was conducted in a number of ways, using newsletters, email, community workshops, speakers, neighborhood presentations, websites and one-on-one meetings. He emphasized that the environmental process was intended to support complex decisions by the council, the LTD board and the MPC. In response to a question from Ms. Bettman, Mr. Schwetz said LTD was not requesting funds from Eugene for the local match. Ms. Bettman asked if the environmental process would vet all alternatives to the same level of thoroughness, even ones that the council would not support. Mr. Schwetz explained that the process was established by federal regulation, which envisioned a decision-making process whereby people made a decision at the point where the fullest amount of information was available. Ms. Bettman opined that the Amazon alignment had fatal flaws and the Amazon channel was an amenity to the community that should not be diminished. She said the transit corridor should access the area but not