CC Minutes - 10/19/05 Workshop - Laserfiche WebLink

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Mr. Pryor observed that the council was talking about what could be the values for the project versus what will be the value of the project. He thought the council would be “telegraphing” to the community that this list would be the values for the project. Ms. Kennedy asked if the council wished to make the list more firm. Ms. Bettman surmised that it would be reasonable at this point not to do so. Ms. Taylor indicated her wish to wait on this action. Ms. Kennedy observed that the council already indicated a commitment to explore the options. City Manager Taylor reiterated that staff and the consultant team hoped to come away from the workshop with a notion of the “leanings” of the council. He said the workshop would be the basis for a summary document. Mr. Papé said while he did not espouse expansion of city government, it was noteworthy that the City had built the City Hall building 40 years ago and now, in 2005, the amount of space was very inadequate for the government’s needs. Ms. Kennedy stated that the process of decision-making also had to reflect some of the values. She related that the team had been studying values-based decisions. She said, in addition to architectural considerations, there was a growing movement in sustainability. However, she pointed out that it cost substantially more to build a “green” building. She stressed the importance of fleshing out all ideas, even those that were not one’s own. Mr. Hardy reviewed the Matrix of Leanings. He underscored that councilors unanimously supported the incorporation of meaningful sustainable design goals. He stated that depending on the level of sustainability in the construction it could add between two and six percent in costs. In response to a question from Mr. Papé, Mr. Hardy said one could not answer specific questions regarding how expenses would be recouped over time until specific ideas were implemented. Ms. Bettman asked how the council would determine its “leanings.” She pointed out that councilors had been polled separately and had not had a chance to discuss these items on the record as the full council. Mr. Poling averred that the council should find where its differences lay. Mr. Hardy moved on to the topic of the planning horizon. He recommended thinking of the building as a 100-year building. He added that there was a minority opinion relating to the philosophy of no growth. He agreed that one approach would be to not increase staff and work load incrementally with the population. Mr. Hardy related that most agreed that there needed to be some room for growth. He said it should be considered whether the expansion would be vertical or horizontal. He pointed out that vertical expansion could cause trouble because it was difficult to consider space needs in advance and that horizontal expansion presented challenges in that the availability of land tended to change. He noted that the average of the councilors’ views was a 28-year planning horizon. He stressed that the first step would be to conduct a space needs study. MINUTES—Eugene City Council October 19, 2005 Page 3 Workshop