Item 2A: Approval of City Council Minutes

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focus of opportunity siting was trying to find ways to encourage development that was good for neighbor- hoods and neighbors would welcome. Ms. Taylor asked if there was currently any way to prevent incompatible development. Ms. Harding replied that it could be limited only to the extent allowed by current zoning regulations. Ms. Bettman stated that bifurcating the process into infill compatibility and opportunity siting meant it was no longer consistent with the original objective to absorb more housing units within the urban growth boundary without destroying existing neighborhoods. She said the result would be density that was no longer compatible. She said one of the problems with lack of higher density development was that they were originally intended to occur in mixed use centers where appropriate services were available; there was a disincentive to develop away from those services. She said allowing indiscriminate density everywhere eliminated the effectiveness of leverage such as incentives. She stressed the importance of a firm urban growth boundary to maintaining the value of land. In response to a question from Mr. Clark, Ms. Harding said one of the criteria for identifying an opportunity site was active property owner participation. She said the task team felt it was critical to work with a willing owner of property, whether the owner was the developer or not. Ms. Piercy asked if neighbors had discussed what they wanted their neighborhood to look like in 20 years. She encouraged that discussion as a part of the process. Ms. Thomas said there was a workshop exercise that did look at current neighborhood character and what needed to be protected, but not necessarily at a long-range vision of the neighborhood. She said that conversation could be included in the future. C. WORK SESSION City Council Goal Update – Neighborhood Empowerment Renee Grube, Library, Recreation and Cultural Services, said the council’s neighborhood empowerment goal focused on two things: building strong leadership in neighborhoods and working collaboratively with residents to deliver City services and achieve neighborhood priorities. She said a joint committee of neighborhood leaders and City staff had been meeting monthly for the past year to work through the 23 action items identified in the Neighborhood Empowerment Action Plan. She recognized a number of committee members in the audience. She introduced Carolyn Weiss, project lead, to discuss the committee’s progress to date. Ms. Weiss said the committee had focused its efforts on the following action items that were identified as high priorities for the neighborhoods at the 2007 neighborhood summit: 1. Shift involvement of neighborhood associations to be earlier in the land use process. 2. Infill compatibility standards and opportunity siting. 3. Increase ongoing support for neighborhood associations. 4. Integrate neighborhood priorities identified in the City’s operating budget and capital improvement program and the council’s goals. Ms. Weiss said progress on those items included hiring a neighborhood planner to assist neighborhoods to be more informed about and effective in the land use process. She listed a number of steps taken to improve communications with neighborhoods and said the City had provided 14 scholarships to the Oregon Planning Institute conference to interested neighborhoods. She said an assessment of the neighborhood services program had just been completed to identify ways to improve support for neighborhoods. She announced that another neighborhood summit was planned for March 7, 2009, with a focus on identifying methods to MINUTES—Eugene City Council December 8, 2008 Page 6 Work Session