Item 2A: Approval of City Council Minutes

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Mr. Pryor reported that the Red Cross facility had also experienced the theft of catalytic converters and those thefts were raising community awareness of the problem of metal theft. He said the Council Committee on Intergovernmental Relations included the issue in its recommendations. He intended to make a motion at the regular meeting requesting funding to complete the West Eugene Collaborative’s (WEC) work. Assistant City Manager Sarah Medary reminded the council of a tour of neighborhood matching grant sites. She said the “Tom Brokaw Reports” show was in Eugene filming various sustainability projects in the community. She said the issue of metal theft was being discussed at the regional level and partners were working together to find solutions. Ms. Piercy commented that Eugene’s Slug Queen had been featured in the Wall Street Journal. B. WORK SESSION: Willamette Street Study Chris Henry, Public Works, said the Willamette Street Study grew out of the Central Area Transportation Study (CATS), which considered converting Willamette Street from one-way to two-way operation. He thth noted that conversion of the section between 13 and 18 avenues had occurred, but concerns had been thth raised by businesses and the neighborhood about converting the remaining segment between 18 and 20 avenues. He said the Willamette Street Study was further analysis of that issue and a stakeholder group met over an 18-month period to discuss possible solutions; that group developed the recommendations presented to the council. He described the process used by the stakeholder group to develop its report on existing conditions and an alternatives analysis, as well as the major issues that were taken into consideration. He said the group concluded that any degradation in level of service in the intersections analyzed was unacceptable and that was reflected in the final recommendation that Willamette Street remain one-way thth between 18 and 20 avenues, pending a major study to find an alternative route for a large portion of commuter traffic. He thanked stakeholder group members for their efforts and said the City Manager recommended acceptance of the group’s recommendation. Mr. Pryor agreed with the City Manager’s recommendation. He asked if there were financial implications for the other recommendations, such as studying bicycle lanes and adding bump outs, and whether they could be accommodated in other studies that were being conducted. Mr. Henry said there would be costs to implement, but those recommendations represented operational changes. He said the feasibility of those would be further investigated and the City intended to implement them. He said many of the improvements could be made for tens of thousands of dollars. Ms. Taylor asked if there had been consideration of changing Oak Street from one-way to two-way at the same time. Mr. Henry said that was significantly different from what was proposed. He said that was not considered during the Willamette Street Study, but was included in the 2004 CATS update. He said there was some discussion of changing the direction of the Pearl and Oak streets couplet so it could connect with Amazon Parkway to handle commuter traffic. Ms. Taylor asked if there was a long-term plan to make all streets two-way. Mr. Henry said CATS adopted several strategies that identified streets for conversion from one-way to two-way; some of those conversions had already occurred. He said there were no plans for conversion beyond those strategies. MINUTES—Eugene City Council September 22, 2008 Page 2 Work Session