Item B: Ordinance Concerning Goal 5 Natural Resources Study

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931 Lorane Highway Eugene, Oregon 97405 26 September 2005. The Honorable Kitty Piercy, Mayor of Eugene Members of the Eugene City Council 777 Pearl Street Eugene, Oregon 97401 REC::EIVr:D I would like to address Goal 5 from my perspective. The original purpose of Oregon's Goal 5 process was to identify the state's natural resources, including wetlands, uptands, and riparian sites. For future preservation of significant sites, the municipalities could use a Safe Harbor designation or, if the city or county felt the site was endangered by its property owners, a regulated setback could be applied. This is what the Eugene Planning staff has proposed. I:s r:: f~:~ ? c ^nn:l L: ' C Lcv:J CITY OF-EUG~E PLANNll\lC1 DFPA;::'TMENT Dear Mayor Piercy, Dear City Councilors, My area is E81, a riparian site. Its main feature is a 1-2'-wide drainage ditch. It has been protected by a 30' setback since 1969. It is a stonnwater drainage ditch, it runs for about two blocks and then disappears into a culvert. To call this ditch significant is quite a stretch, and to protect it from its property owners with a total of 80' of regulated setbacks is pure overkill. My point is this: the reason the city could designate this site in the first place is because the 40+ property owners have preserved it intact for over 40 years. They have practiced good stewardship. The Planning Department has now decided to protect this site from its lawful owners, the ones who have cared for it. With these huge setbacks, the owners will no longer be able to be responsible for its condition. Beyond that, in our case, you will be taking over 30% of our property, which we have owned for over 40 years. You will not be compensating us in any way, we will be paying taxes and insurance as usual. We have been assured by staff that the city will not maintain the site, it will only regulate it. I am sure you can see this regulated setback is not a good property owners morale builder. The E81 drainage ditch protection is about one half that of the Willamette River. And that's ridiculous. I would hope you will consider the recommendation of the Crest Drive Citizens Association to lower the setbacks to 20' and make some effort to help property owners to continue to be involved in the care of this site. In Eugene's quest to be the only city in Oregon to take property under the guise of Goal 5 protection and its haste for an end of the decades-old Goal 5 process, the Planning Department either forgot or dismissed one of Eugene's most valuable natural resources: the property owners. It simply refused to involve the true stakeholders in a collaborative way to work together as a community towards a solution that could work. In its complete disregard for property owners' rights, the city is surely setting a bad precedent, particularly with the recent message of Measure 37. There must be a more creative way to address the protection issue. The staff and Planning Commission recommendations before you, as well-intended as it may appear, is not the right solution. It will only continue to build a more divisive community. Bruce Wild.