CC Minutes - 02/09/09 Meeting - Laserfiche WebLink

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M I N U T E S Eugene City Council Regular Meeting Council Chamber—Eugene City Hall 777 Pearl Street—Eugene, Oregon February 9, 2009 7:30 p.m. COUNCILORS PRESENT: Chris Pryor, George Brown, Andrea Ortiz, George Poling, Jennifer Solomon, Mike Clark, Alan Zelenka, Betty Taylor. Her Honor Mayor Kitty Piercy called the meeting of the Eugene City Council to order. 1. PUBLIC FORUM Mayor Piercy reviewed the rules of the Public Forum. John Brown , Ward 5, thanked the councilors and mayor for their service to the community. He recalled his testimony from two weeks earlier regarding the undue burden placed upon an elderly landowner who had transients camping on her land. He reminded the council that she had tried for years to get the City to respond to complaints and when the City had finally responded the landowner had been given ten days to clean up the area at a cost of $7,000 to $12,000. He commented that the sad thing was that the transients were already back; city employees were not able to return to the property to verify the mess without police escorts. He stated that he had taken pictures of transient camps on public lands and had provided those pictures to the council along with a request that the council clean them up within ten days. He related that nothing had been done and the camps were still there. He emphasized that if the intent of the ordinance was to protect the environment – the camps he had provided pictures of were within feet of class 1 streams with protected or endangered species. He underscored that nothing had been done. He did not understand the double standard in holding the private sector to a different set of rules. He averred that everyone should be a good steward for the environment and no one should have a license to pollute. He noted that he had spoken with Assistant City Manager Sarah Medary several times and city staff had been very cordial with him but for him the bottom line was that nothing had been done. Joe Collins , P.O. Box 24411, commented that the council might have been “bamboozled.” He was referring to the Crest Drive, Storey Boulevard, and Friendly Street project. He recalled that area residents had not wanted their streets to be called collector streets. He did not think the residents really knew why they did not want the streets to be collectors. He had read an article that indicated that people who lived on collector streets had to move their cars off the streets during snow storms. He thought this could be why those residents opposed changing the street classification. He noted that all of the councilors except for Councilor Solomon had voted against changing the street classification to collector. He added that he was appreciative of the hearing device he was provided that allowed him to hear the council meetings and testimony. Zachary Vishanoff , Ward 3, provided the council with packets of information. He reviewed and hig- hlighted the photocopied articles that the packet contained. He noted that a public workshop was planned for the Walnut Node. He underscored his preference for a public hearing. He asked that the City provide notice in advance about the workshop so that business owners and others along Franklin Boulevard who had not supported the node could attend. He felt that the message the City would hear would be that “new MINUTES—Eugene City Council February 9, 2009 Page 1 Regular Meeting