CC Minutes - 09/12/05 WS - Laserfiche WebLink

Home Browse Search

suggested that may be better ways to employ existing surface parking, such as shared parking arrangements. Mr. Kelly said "need" was an interesting word; while the US Bank Building "needed" surface parking, there were eight-story banks in many locations without surface parking that thrived. He said market needs and land use needs must be balanced. Mr. Kelly had no interest in reducing the FAR but would like to have a discussion in which it was recast as two functional floors. Ms. Ortiz questioned whether the downtown needed more parking, but she did believe downtown needed longer term parking. She asked if three-hour parking could be tried, pointing out that most of her constitu- ents had to drive to downtown rather than walk or ride their bicycles and were unhappy when they received tickets, which kept them from coming back downtown. Mayor Piercy suggested that the council needed to have a broader conversation about parking in general to determine what was working. In regard to the development of first floors, she expressed concern that the City would react to past patterns as opposed to thinking about the future. Mayor Piercy did not know what would happen if development downtown accelerated and downtown became more energized. She suggested that could change how much people wanted to have the storefronts. Mr. Poling, seconded by Ms. Solomon, moved to extend time for the item by ten minutes. The motion passed, 5:3; Ms. Taylor, Mr. Kelly, and Ms. Bettman voting no. Mr. Poling, seconded by Ms. Solomon, moved to initiate amendments to Eugene Code Chapter 9 to more closely align the Land Use Code with the Downtown Plan. Mr. Poling pointed out the motion merely started a public process that could lead to possible changes to the code. Ms. Bettman, seconded by Mr. Kelly, moved to amend the motion to initiate a scoping process to bring a broader range of Eugene Code Chapter 9 options back to the council to more closely align the Land Use Code with the Downtown Plan. Ms. Bettman questioned the commission's decision to charge the ERAC with identifying issues related to the code and downtown, as the committee had a narrowly defined charge and the land use issues were of great interest to many residents. She believed there were more options the council should be considering, and she wanted to see those options and give more clear direction to staff before doing something as serious as initiating amendments to the code. Ms. Bettman said the process being proposed seemed premature. Ms. Solomon thought the amendment undermined the work already done by the Planning Commission. She pointed out that the commission had received input from a council-directed committee that was invested with the task of considering the downtown. Ms. Solomon thought that input was appropriate. She thought the proposed process a good start, and broadening the scope would threaten the commission's ability to do the needed work. Ms. Solomon trusted the work done by the commission and preferred to stick to the topics identified by the commission first. Mr. Kelly said the minutes indicated that commission had not determined that the issues identified by ERAC were priorities, merely that they deserved further examination. The commission only spent a small amount of meeting time on the issue. He supported the amendment because staff was asking for direction on the MINUTES-Eugene City Council Work Session September 12, 2005 Page 9