Item 3A: Approval of City Council Minutes

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4. ACTION: th An Ordinance Vacating a Portion of the Alley Right-of-Way Located Between 10 Avenue and Broadway, Parallel to Olive and Charnelton Streets; Providing for and Effective Date; and Providing for a Sunset Date Councilor Poling, seconded by Councilor Solomon, moved that the City Council adopt th Council Bill 4911, an ordinance concerning alley vacation between 10 Avenue and Broadway. City Attorney Klein noted that Attachment C on page 341 of the council packet contained an improved version of the ordinance that indicated the alley vacation would not go through should the Oregon Research Institute (ORI) deal not go through. He asked that Councilor Poling specify which version of the ordinance the council would consider adopting. Councilor Poling specified that he moved Ordinance B, from page 341 of the council packet. City Manager Taylor said this issue was a matter of some urgency as the financing for the ORI was conditioned on new market tax credits that would expire at the end of 2005. He urged the council to adopt the improved version of the ordinance and underscored its specificity to the ORI deal. Councilor Bettman supported the motion. Roll call vote; the motion passed unanimously, 8:0. 5. ACTION: Land Transfer to Bureau of Land Management (Environmental Education Center) City Manager Taylor asked Sarah Medary, Natural Resources Manager for the Parks and Open Spaces Division of the Public Works Department, to speak to issues that had been raised. Ms. Medary said that staff was working through the next steps of building the Environmental Education Center (EEC). She stated that the federally owned “Red House property” had to be transferred into local ownership in order to continue working towards a multi-partner development of the site. She explained that in working with the Federal Congressional Delegation, they had been contacted by the Association of Oregon and California Counties (O & C) and it identified that the BLM site was purchased with funds generated from O & C lands. She stressed that the O & C had a “no net loss” policy with the BLM for O & C lands and asked the BLM to honor the policy. She said staff felt the land transfer would be a “win-win solution,” in that a parcel in West Eugene had been identified that had a majority of BLM funds in it as they had purchased an overlying/underlying conservation easement on it. She conveyed staff’s proposal that the City give the remaining fee title ownership on that piece of property to the BLM so that it could honor the “no net loss” policy with the O & C Counties. Ms. Medary noted that under the City ownership, the goals for the property proposed to be transferred were habitat conservation, natural resource values, recreation connections and the BLM shared those same goals. She stressed that this transfer did not represent any loss to the city. She asked the council to support the proposal, which would happen if and when the “Red House site” was legislatively transferred to the City of MINUTES—Eugene City Council November 28, 2005 Page 9 Regular Session