Item 3A - Minutes Approval - Laserfiche WebLink

Home Browse Search

needed EWEB. He thought the vacated EWEB yard could be sold as commercial space and the building could be used for the City's Central Services Department and City Council meetings. He felt EWEB represented a redundancy in functions that were already being provided by the City. Beth Hjelm, 920 Crest Drive, urged the council to vote against the plan to make Crest Drive a collector. She cited the minutes of the most recent Eugene Planning Commission meeting and asserted commission- ers' questions were not answered. She noted that Commissioner Duncan had asked how street assessments would be made and that another commissioner had asked for an explanation of contextual-sensitive design standards. The former had remained unanswered and the latter had been deferred as staff had responded that this was a neighborhood decision. She cited Commissioner Lawless' concerns regarding erosion as another unaddressed issue. She related that Commissioner Rusch had asked staff to compare and contrast other collectors and also how the change could be considered less safe to the neighbors and what the disjoint was between what was being heard from the neighborhood and what was being heard from staff. She said Commissioner Belcher asked for parking information and an accident history. She underscored that the decision should be a neighborhood decision and the council should summarily reject the recommen- dation because the neighborhood did not want or need the change. Vikki Stea, 130 Crest Drive, asked the council to vote against the plan to reclassify Storey Boulevard, Crest Drive, and Friendly Street as collectors. She noted that Wayne Morse Ranch was a park for all citizens and was used by busloads of children in the summer and hundreds of families in the spring and fall. She commented that many deer cross the street by her house daily. She asserted that the new designation would increase the hazards to both cars and deer. She felt traffic was already heavy. Maurie Denner, 3853 Blanton Road, shared that he walked in the neighborhood and had talked to many people. He was stunned by the universal belief that designating the neighborhood streets as collectors was wrong. He asked the council to look at the confusion around the issue and send it back to staff. He felt the process used to gain neighborhood input, that of a random sampling of opinion, did not show the proper amount of respect for people who lived on Crest Drive and Storey Boulevard. He noted that he lived a block from Crest Drive and had known nothing of this redesignation. He opined that City staff and elected officials need to create confidence and trust in the City process. Mr. Denner added that neighbors of the Willakenzie School would be testifying in the Public Forum and asked the council to ~listen carefully." Janetta Overholser, 30300 Cottage Grove-Lorane Road, Cottage Grove, brought a kitten to the council Public Forum to emphasize that it was kitten season and feral cats were breeding. She noted the kitten had been abandoned. She said several thousand feral cats had been altered in the Eugene area through Feral Cat Coalition of Oregon. She underscored that there was no where to take stray cats from Eugene as, by law, Greenhill Humane Society was only allowed to receive cats from owners. She reiterated that the cost of fixing the problem would be greater than the cost to prevent it in the first place. Ron Teninty, 999 Brookside Drive, spoke in opposition of the development of a Wal-Mart %uperstore." He submitted copies of articles on Wal-Mart development to the council. He noted there was a letter to the editor in the Register-Guard signed by Ted Oliver, district manager of Wal-Mart stores. He related that the letter asserted that Wal-Mart offered great jobs that paid above union scale, a full range of benefits, including 401 (K) programs and health insurance benefits, and profit-sharing. He pointed out that this was a contradiction to what was being experienced all across the country with regard to Wal-Mart. He MINUTES--Eugene City Council April 12, 2004 Page 6 Regular Meeting