Item 6: Public Hearing on Ordinance Concerning Alley Vacation

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ATTACHMENT D 9.8725 Approval Criteria for the Vacation of Improved Public RiQht-of-Wav. Public Ways ACQuired with Public Funds. and Undeveloped Subdivision and Partition Plats. The city council shall approve, or approve with conditions and reservations of easements, the vacation of improved public right-of-way, public ways acquired with public funds, or undeveloped subdivision and partition plats, or portions thereof, including public right-of-way and improved public easements located therein, only if the council finds that approval of the vacation is in the public interest. On May 12,2003, the Urban Renewal Agency of the City of Eugene (URA) reviewed responses to a formal Request for Proposals for the sale and development of the Sears building site located at 1 oth Avenue and Charnelton Street. The URA selected a commercial office proposal submitted by the Oregon Research Institute (ORI). On June 23, 2004, the URA authorized the sale of the Sears building property (tax lot 6600) and adjacent parking lot (tax lot 5300) to ORI. The pending sale is conditioned on ORI's commitment to construct a six-story commercial office building of approximately 96,000 square feet. The pending sale is also conditioned on the City's vacating of a portion of the north/south alley that is east of the existing Sears building structure. The new ORI building will generally be constructed on the south one-half block bordered by loth Avenue and Broadway, and Olive Street and Charnelton Street. In order to efficiently and effectively utilize this site for the construction of the ORI building, a request is hereby submitted to vacate a portion of the north/south alley bisecting the property. Approval of the alley vacation is in the public interest. It is clear that the ORI project furthers the City's Growth Management goals, and advances the Vision for Greater Downtown Eugene and the Eugene Downtown Plan. The Vision includes a dense, vital, more attractive downtown that encompasses a variety of different uses such as office, housing, retail, and entertainment. The promotion of additional office development in downtown is a "key next step" identified in the Vision. Additionally, a high-density redevelopment concept for the Sears property is a specific "key next step" in the Vision. The recently adopted Downtown Plan includes implementation strategies for using tools and incentives to help employers locate downtown, and to attract high-density commercial development. The proposed six-story, 96,000 square-foot facility will bring 300 employees downtown. Additionally, the ORI project is responsive to the following Growth Management objectives: Policy 2: Encourage in-fill, mixed-use, redevelopment, and higher density development. Encourage a mix of business and residential uses downtown using incentives and zoning. Encourage the creation of transportation-efficient land use patterns and implementation of nodal development concepts. Development shall be required to pay the full cost of extending infrastructure and services, except that the City will examine ways to subsidize the costs of providing infrastructure or offer other incentives that support higher-density infill, mixed use, and redevelopment. Policy 3: Policy 10: Policy 14: - 1 -