Item 3A: Approval of City Council Minutes

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B. WORK SESSION: Ordinance Concerning GoalS Natural Resources Study City Manager Taylor asked Neil Bjorklund from the Planning and Development Department to provide an update on the follow-up work done in response to testimony on the Goal 5 Natural Resources Study. City Manager Taylor noted that this was a project on which Mr. Bjorklund had been working for 17 years. Mr. Bjorklund opened his presentation by saying that the project was close to being completed. He referred councilors to their meeting packets, which contained all of the written testimony that was entered into the record, a memorandum that responded to all of the written and oral testimony, a revised ordinance that reflected the changes that staff was recommending to the ordinance based on the testimony, and the legislative findings that went with that. He noted that the councilors did not receive all of the exhibits because they had not yet all been revised as staff was waiting for direction from the council. Mr. Bjorklund said that staff was asking for direction from the council as to which ordinance to bring back for adoption, presumably on November 14 when the item was scheduled for action. Mr. Bjorklund referred councilors to two maps on the wall which reflected the recommendations being brought to the council. He said that the recommendations affected only a few sites and therefore were not readily visible on the maps. He said that he would make a PowerPoint presentation of four samples of difficult sites and how they would be addressed and then ask for questions and comments from the council. The first sample presented by Mr. Bjorklund was an example of when a street or building isolated a portion of the setback. The example showed an area where the setback was cut off from Amazon Creek by a street. He said that the recommendation was to not apply the provisions to those areas that were isolated by being on the opposite side of a building or a street. In response to a question from Mr. Pape, Mr. Bjorklund said that an exhaustive analysis had not been done to determine how many sites were like this because such an analysis would be extremely time consuming. He said that he was aware of only a handful of sites like this. The next slide was a sample of the adjustment to standards with a 33 percent threshold, in which an owner would qualify for some reduction of the protected area if the setback area exclusive of the water feature takes up 33 percent of the site. Mr. Bjorklund said that the slide illustrated why the water feature was not counted. He said that the reduction would be based on what area was actually made unbuildable as a result of the regulations. Mr. Kelly said that what Mr. Bjorklund was describing was not what he read in the language. He referred to page 34 of the council packet, Section 9.8030(21)(a)(1): More than 33 percent of the development site is occupied by the combined area of the /WR conserva- tion setback and any portion of the Goal 5 Water Resource Site that extends landward beyond the conservation setback; Mr. Kelly said that he always thought of streams, not ponds, when he pictured this statement. Mr. Bjorklund acknowledged that most people did the same and that was why he had shown an example of a property with a pond. In response to a question from Mr. Kelly, Mr. Bjorklund said that the setback was defined in Section 9.4920. He said that the setback, in the case of a site like the one on the slide, would be measured from the ordinary high water line or the top of bank, depending on the situation. He said that the setback was that area from the edge of water or the top of bank out the specified distance. Mr. Bjorklund explained the difference between the term "conservation area," which included the resource and the setback and any riparian vegetation that extended beyond the setback and the term "conservation setback," which was only the area measured from the resource out the specified distance and which did MINUTES-Eugene City Council Work Session October 24, 2005 Page 4