Item 2A: Approval of City Council Minutes

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thought that particularly important across from the library. Mr. Clark expressed support for the location of the police substation across the street from the library. Mr. Zelenka favored taking more time to make a decision. Mr. Zelenka, seconded by Ms. Bettman, moved to ask City staff to ask Opus and WG to re- fine their proposals before the council break and come back to the council at a future work session to be scheduled by the Mayor, council officers, and City Manager. Mr. Zelenka suggested that two weeks was sufficient time for the two firms to refine their proposals, and said he would like them to “sharpen their pencils” and develop a final proposal. He wanted staff to do a financial comparison of the two proposals when the proposals were received. Mr. Zelenka wanted the developers to provide more detail about the final design in the form of refined architectural renderings and a timeline. He thought that some of the other questions raised by the council should be addressed as well. At the request of Mayor Piercy, Mr. Zelenka restated his motion as follows: Mr. Zelenka moved to ask staff to ask both developers to refine their proposals and bring that back for council consideration before break. Ms. Bettman again seconded the motion. Mayor Piercy called for discussion on the motion. Mr. Poling thought the council had enough information from the two firms to make a decision. He thought otherwise the council risked losing another developer. He liked the way that Ms. Ortiz described the sense of community she found in the WG Development proposal. He thought there would be considerable turnover in the student housing proposed by Opus NWR Development. He thought the inclusion of retail and office space would add to the sense of ownership in the space. Mr. Poling pointed out the council had been working to secure housing, retail, and office space in downtown and he thought a decision to build only student housing worked against those past efforts. He noted that the council would later discuss three student housing projects within walking distance of the University of Oregon, and he thought locating student housing downtown was not a good idea. He could not support the motion and preferred to discuss the motion Mr. Zelenka had intended to offer. Mr. Pryor agreed with the manager’s remarks about the need to be timely. He said he hesitated only because he did not want to regret the $30 million expenditure in the future and because he liked the WG Development proposal and wanted to give the firm time to submit additional information. He wanted more specifics about financing, phasing, a market feasibility study, and if that was not available, a pro forma in regard to what the firm was seeking in regard to who the commercial tenants might be and how those properties would be managed, and a specific subsidy request. Mr. Pryor preferred to see the information within a week rather than before council break, although he acknowledged he did not know when it could be fit into the schedule. Ms. Solomon believed that what Mr. Zelenka requested was a lot to ask to have in two weeks; however, she was willing to take more time to make a decision but wished to do so before the council break in August. She said she liked both proposals but preferred the WG Development proposal because it was a local firm already invested in the community and she considered that more sustainable. MINUTES—Eugene City Council July 14, 2008 Page 7 Work Session