CC Minutes - 07/18/05 Mtg - Laserfiche WebLink

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facto message that the City was not interested in companies growing in west Eugene would discourage Hynix Semi-Conductor Incorporated from expanding. He noted that Hynix currently paid six percent of City tax revenue. He noted that other businesses were looking to expand and if they chose to go elsewhere, as Williams Bakery had recently done, it could be the makings of “a perfect financial storm a few years down the road” with tough decisions to be made about where to cut vital services. He said bearing the frustrations of the process involved in the enterprise zone and helping it along could provide several million more dollars to spend three to five years down the road. He thought this could be used to expand fire and public safety services and help fund the action items resulting from the Cultural Services Division Comprehensive Plan. He encouraged the council to act with caution and accept the City Manager’s first proposal so that the City could return to the table and talk with the County and bring the zone to fruition. Dan Herbert , 1913 Potter Street, spoke on long-range planning. He noted it was his third presentation to the council on organization for urban development in the next decades. He recapped his presentations, to date, the first of which focused on the need for public/private partnerships and the second argued that such partnerships would require proactive efforts by specially designated public agencies. He offered five examples of such agencies and commented on their role in planning and development. He suggested that elements of any of the examples could be utilized to benefit the city and none were meant to be taken in their entirety. The examples he provided were, as follows: 1. The Brookings Institute research paper he already distributed to the council; 2. The Portland Development Commission, a separate city department with its own policy board and staff which brought together the public/private partners needed to realize complex projects, coordinating land acquisition, financial resources, market analysis, etc.; 3. In 1967, the City Council set up the Eugene Renewal Agency, much like the Portland Development Commission, though on a smaller scale. In 1982, the City Council dissolved it and it was subsumed into the Planning and Development Department (PDD), which took over its policy functions; 4. Public/private partnerships, set up in 1997 for the Mixed-Use Broadway Place; and 5. The City’s affordable housing program, lauded for doing an excellent job in its area, having built 20 successful projects since its advent in 1989. Mr. Herbert indicated that he would return to the next City Council meeting and summarize his points made over three Public Forums. Zachary Vishanoff , Patterson Street, provided a packet of articles for the council. He commented that sustainability, smart growth, and “branding” were intertwined. He thought the City of Eugene should have a dialogue about “branding” the town to determine why Eugene should be branded and who this might attract. He felt the brand should not be egocentric or overstated. He thought the current suggestion exuded ignorance and if Eugene were, perhaps, Barcelona, Spain, it might qualify to claim it was the world’s greatest city. Mr. Vishanoff asked if Eugene was trying to attract the Olympic Trials in 2008. He said “track and doping” were having a bit of a crisis and some of the technologies that were coming up were not traceable. Mr. Vishanoff questioned the need for economic development incentives because it was difficult to know who to attract. He was concerned that not enough regulation was in place to govern bio-hazards. MINUTES—Eugene City Council July 18, 2005 Page 3 Regular Session