Item A: River Road/Santa Clara Transition Project

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Benchmarks In undertaking research for this White Paper, and identifying initiatives and options that may work for the City of Eugene, other local service providers, and the communities of River Road and Santa Clara, six “unifying” categories were considered. Although the options contained herein are listed by service type, they could as well have been listed by the categories below. These categories could potentially be “themes” around which one or more transition and heritage strategies coalesce. Note: In many instances these categories will overlap. For example, initiatives and options involving local fire protection service could be discussed in the context of Governance, Institutions, and/or Services. Governance 1. - Options that preserve, or perhaps create, processes that provide residents, business owners, and landowners in the River Road and Santa Clara neighborhoods with a sense of community and of having an effective voice over their future. Institutions 2. – Options that preserve or create institutions (such as community centers, volunteer fire brigades, etc.) that sustain or strengthen the distinct neighborhood identity of the urbanizing areas. Communications 3. – Options that preserve or create outlets and processes for communicating within the neighborhoods, not just for the purpose of assuring that residents know what is going on in the community, but to also foster a sense of neighborhood identity as well. Landscape 4. – Options that allow urbanizing areas to preserve some of the physical attributes of a more rural or suburban community, such as differing street standards, open space, preservation of agricultural lands, lot and housing types, etc. Phasing 5. – Options to phase or time incorporation within the benchmark of feasibility under Oregon statutes. This is not necessarily limited to physical phasing. For instance, the options identified could be a simple as phasing of a City fee. Services 6. – Options for services that are designed primarily to enhance current provisions in the urbanizing areas in ways that address existing community needs, not those of the fully developed “post-incorporation” community (but that still have “utility” for future residents and businesses). Additionally, in identifying and analyzing the White Paper initiatives and options, the four major themes identified in the 2002 River Road/Santa Clara Urban Services Committee Report were used as “benchmarks” against which the relevance and potential effectiveness of each option was tested. The four , themes/benchmarks are: Trust, Voice, Equity, and Collaboration as defined in the 2002 report. These themes, having been distilled by the very people thinking most deeply about the impact of urbanization and annexation, and being based on what is perceived as being unsatisfactory in the past, provided a unique opportunity to filter results through the lens of the local communities. A fifth benchmark used was Assumptionsand Limitations statutory and policy feasibility, as described in the section of this White Paper. 6 River Road/Santa Clara Transition/Heritage White Paper DRAFT 11-24-05 Service provider Review