Item B: Ordinance Concerning Goal 5 Natural Resources Study

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1000 FRIENDS OF OREGON 534 SW Third Avenue, Suite 300, Portland, OR 97204. (503) 497-1000 · fax (503) 223-0073 · www.friends.org Southern Oregon Office. P.O. Box 2442. Grants Pass, OR 97528. phone/fax (541) 474-1155 Willamette Valley Office. 388 State Street, Suite 604. Salem, OR 97301. (503) 371-7261 . fax (503) 371-7596 Lane County Office. 1192 Lawrence. Eugene, OR 97401 . (541) 431-7059 . fax (541) 431-7078 Central Oregon Office. P.O. Box 8813. Bend, OR 97708. (541) 382-7557. fax (541) 382-7552 September 26, 2005 RECEIVED l SEP ~ 6 1005 CITY OF EUGHIE PLANNING DEPARn\i1n~T Mayor Kitty Piercy and the Eugene City Council 777 Pearl St. Eugene OR 97401 SUBJECT: GOAL 5 NATURAL RESOURCES CONSERVATION PROJECT (CA 05-1, Z05-8) Honorable Mayor and Councilors: As most of you are aware, the City of Eugene and it's Metro partners are more than a decade behind in the effort to bring the Metro Plan into compliance with the GoalS rule. Since the late 1980's, and up until a couple of years ago, Eugene officials had been committed to a standard methodology for establishing a city wide natural resource inventory. Unfortunately, in the spring of2003, the previous Council and Mayor performed a political maneuver that had the effect of removing approximately 1900 acres of upland habitat from the natural resource inventory. What we are left with today is a relatively short reach of the Amazon and some other stream segments, some with connectivity with the Amazon, some without. Without further ado, the time is past ripe to adopt protection measures for the remnants of Eugene's natural resource inventory. -Natural resources inside the urban growth boundary of Eugene/Springfield have been imperiled for decades. As a result of bipartisan political maneuverings throughout the 1990's, and into the early 2000's, Eugene has been able to do little or nothing to protect wildlife habitat and other natural areas, beyond preserving and restoring the renowned, but threatened, West Eugene wetlands. As a result, the diversity of wildlife that once blessed our city with beauty and natural bounty has been diminished by poorly considered residential development that has not contemplated the benefit of natural resource conservation as a component of profit margin potential. As Eugene Planning Commissioners have seen with the help of staff slide show presentations, many of the natural resource sites that were finally adopted as part ofthe urban growth boundary's natural resource inventory have already experienced degradation. While some degradation may be unavoidable (development in the Willamette Greenway to allow construction of a new 1-5 bridge over the Willamette, for example), concrete poured in creek beds and grass planted in riparian areas are actions that should never be tolerated. However, ~0a:vF