CC Minutes - 07/27/05 WS - Laserfiche WebLink

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cial redevelopment so a coordinated planning effort was warranted at this time. He announced that the Planning Commission would start discussing citizen involvement efforts in August 2005 on this project. Mr. Hledik reported that the Planning Commission was also continuing outreach and collaboration with neighborhoods regarding the MUCs. Staff made 28 presentations that were showing general support among the residents for providing small shopping opportunities within neighborhoods. Not surprisingly, neighbors were not keen on introducing traffic into their neighborhoods for shopping, nor were they particularly keen on walking down established busy streets to these shopping centers. Continuing concern existed about densification in the neighborhoods. The initial findings of the MUC status report should be available in time for the October joint meeting between the City Council and Planning Commission. Mr. Hledik said that based on the City Council’s July 20, 2005, work session, the Planning Commission would also address opportunity siting, which the commission understood to be a strategy to put density where it made the most sense, and not just anywhere or everywhere. Additionally, the Planning Commission planned to review the long-range growth projections for the community to determine where future popula- tions could fit in. Mr. Hledik said the scope of the South Hills Wildlife Habitat Study would encompass 7,000 acres and 2,000 separate lots. The focus of the study was to determine the extent to which the natural resources could legally be protected, rather than protecting the importance of the natural resources involved. Much of the south hills were either already built up or included a good deal of still buildable lands. The Planning Commission would be struggling with the issues involving regulations, incentives, and perhaps even acquisition in appropriate cases. Mr. Hledik said if success in achieving a balanced outcome in this type of a land use matter could be measured by how little controversy a final project generated, the water resource conservation plan and ordinance coming to the City Council in September represented a fair job of balancing. The relatively small number of issues that were raised at the Planning Commission’s final Goal 5 hearing evidenced this. Achieving a similar level of balance or public acceptance for the South Hills Wildlife Habitat evaluation could well require a similar and considerable amount of public outreach as that provided by staff and the Planning Commission for the Goal 5 effort. The public outreach process used for Goal 5 seemed to work well in informing the public about objectives and ramifications of that effort and should be considered in this undertaking as well. The Planning Commission would begin work on the South Hills project in the fall. Mr. Lawless introduced Commissioner Phillip Hudspeth, who addressed “Building Effective Relationships.” He asked if the council was getting what it needed from the Planning Commission, and how commission could provide more and better information to the council. He asked if council “buddies,” email and written communications, and individual meetings were working for the council. Mr. Hudspeth said the Planning Commission was looking forward to the October meeting. He said the commission wanted to be more effective in providing direct input to the City Council, and asked if it would be effective to have a Planning Commissioner attend City Council meetings when the council debated issues on which the Planning Commission had worked. Mr. Hudspeth said identifying recommendations for success included recognizing the differences in the roles of the council and commission to ensure success. He cited the July 26, 2005, Planning Commission public hearing on the Chambers Reconsidered Project as a good example of positive citizen involvement under Mr. Lawless’ leadership. MINUTES—Eugene City Council July 27, 2005 Page 3 Work Session