CC Minutes - 07/21/08 Public Hearing

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vacation be used on mitigating the arena’s impacts. He pointed out that the arena would also be used for volleyball, and many people, not just basketball fans, would enjoy it. A. D. Smith , 1546 Erie Lane, former Oregon basketball player, expressed his support for the arena. In general, Mr. Smith believed that public financing of arenas was a bad idea because the cost outweighed the positive aspects. In this case, he thought the UO was in a unique situation. He believed that the UO had done its homework in regard to the arena and was not asking the City to pay for the arena; it had a range of donors, large and small, giving for the arena. He said the UO was asking the City for its support for something that benefited businesses and the commu- nity. As a 20-year resident, he supported that. Mr. Smith saw the UO as a partner to Eugene. He did not think the process should be compromised, but he thought the council should facilitate the process for the UO. Bob Jensen , 86635 Pine Grove Road, called on the business community to speak with a voice of determination and resolve. He said he was a former business owner downtown and the downtown had lacked such a voice and many of the issues he faced continued to exist. He had since moved his business to Villard Street near the location of the new arena. He said this was an opportunity for the council to speak to the business community and say it was interested in doing business and interested in the welfare of the business community. The business community needed support from the council. He asked the council to set a tone that it cared about business and let it be heard throughout Eugene. He thought the arena was something to be championed, not merely supported, as it would be a state-of-the- art facility and an opportunity for the community to shine like it had at the Olympics Trials. Bev Smith , 2150 Onyx Street, a former UO student and currently the coach of the UO women’s basketball team, supported the street vacation and asked the council to cast a vote before the summer recess. She said that Mac Court was a wonderful place on game night, but the biggest reason was the people of Eugene, who could be moved into the new facility. She said George Schroeder of The Register-Guard had given the community a bird’s eye view of the underside of Mac Court, which was a “grand old dame” loved by many but which was also an aging facility in need of replacement. She shared information about the women’s locker rooms at Mac Court to illustrate the inconvenience of the facilities. She said student athletes did not complain because of their love of the UO and Eugene community. Ms. Smith asked the council to support the alley vacation so fans could enjoy the new facility and student athletes could continue to have a great experience. Ms. Smith said “Go Ducks!” Alice Plymel , 1887 Fircrest Drive, a long-time patron of women’s basketball at Mac Court, spoke to the difficulty of being a disabled fan at both women and men’s home games at the current arena in terms of parking and access to seating. She asked the council to approve the alley vacation th Elise Ironmonger , 1425 East 20 Avenue, a student athlete, spoke of the positive and energetic environment at Mac Court but said that the facility was so old it was sometime dangerous and needed to be replaced. She said students loved it but knew it needed to be replaced and the council could help make that happen. She spoke of the birds that lived in Mac Court and sometimes dropped onto the court. She agreed with Ms. Smith’s remarks about the condition of the existing locker room facilities and said that, particularly when compared to other Pac 10 facilities, they were inadequate. She said a new arena would mean functioning locker rooms for both the home and visiting teams. She asked the council to approve the proposed vacations. David Hauser , 2168 Elkhorn Drive, representing the Eugene Area Chamber of Commerce, said that these were exciting times for Eugene because of the Olympic Trials and the new regional hospital. Many legacy projects had been built because of vision and hard work and collaboration. He suggested the arena was another such legacy project. It would enhance the entrances to the UO and the community and provide a significant economic benefit at a time of economic unease. He said that over the last decade, several construction projects helped to provide family wage jobs for about 2,000 people working in the industry, with average wages of $40,000 yearly, contrasted to the local average wage of $31,000 yearly. In the long-term the arena would provide a great venue for events and bring MINUTES—Eugene City Council July 21, 2008 Page 11 Public Hearing