Item A: City of Coburg Request for Connection to Regional Wastewater Facilities

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? Within 50 days of initiation, a staff report shall be delivered to each member of the Eugene, Springfield and Lane County planning commissions. ? Within 30 days of receipt of the staff report, the planning commissions shall conduct a joint public hearing. ? Within 30 days of the close of the hearing or close of the evidentiary record, the planning commissions shall make a recommendation to their respective governing body. ? Within 30 days of the planning commission recommendations, the elected officials of Eugene, Springfield and Lane County shall conduct a joint public hearing on the amendment. ? Within 30 days of the close of the joint public hearing the elected officials shall approve, modify and approve, or deny the proposal. Strict adherence to this timeline would result in a final decision within 200 days from the initiation preparations. It is not a violation of the Development Code or Metro Plan to take “A different process, time line, or both …may be established by the governing more time: bodies of Springfield, Eugene and Lane County for any government initiated Metro Plan amendment.” (Springfield Development Code, Article 7, Section 7.110) It is common place, if not entirely without exception, that participants of the Metro Plan amendment process request record extensions at each required public hearing. A minimum of one week and up to 30 days is typically given by the planning commissions for record extension. The hearing before the elected officials is intended to be limited to the record developed at the planning commission hearing, but past practice has never limited testimony. The give and take of new testimony eliciting new questions extends the record several more weeks. The elected officials then reconvene to consider the whole of the record. If no additional questions are raised during the reconvened meeting, the elected officials adjourn to deliberate, usually taking another 2-3 weeks before all three governing bodies make a final decision. What under ideal circumstances was designed to take 200 days can easily become 250-300 days. The City of Springfield charges $21,000 for an amendment to the Plan text, and $416 per acre for amendments to the diagram. It is assumed that this fee, on average, will recover approximately 60% of actual cost. This is a complex and precedent-setting action, therefore 60% cost recovery will likely be reduced by half or more. This puts the actual costs associated with Planning Division processing closer to $70,000. The number of agency staff, legal counsel, consultants, and public participation that would be involved in this process could add significantly to this cost. An estimate of total costs and time involved is included in Attachment A. It should be noted that if this process becomes similar to the Short Mountain sewer line proposal, costs will increase proportionally. GOVERNANCE, ADMINISTRATION, AND INTERGOVERNMENTAL COORDINATION This section addresses how services would be provided and the IGAs that would be needed if the Governing Bodies decide to extend MWMC services to Coburg. As a baseline, the current MWMC IGA would have to be amended to permit MWMC to provide services to Coburg. Development of additional IGAs between Coburg and MWMC, and potentially between Coburg and Eugene and/or Springfield as providers of specific (contractual) services would be necessary depending on the levels of service desired by Coburg. Page 14