Item 2A: Approval of City Council Minutes

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“do something tried and true from the past.” She cited the City Council goal for being the City of the Arts and Outdoors. She felt that the Tango Center had already reached the City’s goal. She underscored that the center needed a place that was secure and stable. She noted that she taught in one of the at-risk alternative high schools and some of her students were learning the tango. She reiterated the request for help. Rebecca Oswald , 685 Figueroa Street, explained that she was a professional composer and pianist and served as the volunteer music director for the Tango Center. She related that she had been dancing the tango for four years and had been accompanying the classes for three years. She said she would love to provide the Tango Center with a greater variety of music. She related her wish list for the center: a better piano, better acoustic treatment in the interior, a larger library of tango music to play, and to develop a local house band to play musical arrangements and to invite tango musicians from “all over the world” to include Eugene in their tours. She did not think any of these things would require much investment. She thought the center could develop an annual festival. She asked the City to consider facilitating taking over the lease. Maggie Tryk , 1992 Washington Street, stated that she was a single working mother. She had started dancing the tango and had started hosting the Monday night tango event. She invited the councilors to join her. She said a lot of people come to the downtown area because of the center and that if it closed down there would not be a place to gather downtown. She listed the things that were happening in the center, which included a farmers market. She underscored that all of the people who worked at the Tango Center were volunteers. Zachary Vishanoff , Ward 3, passed out some photocopied information. He congratulated the council on its vote to explore the possible use of the Eugene Water & Electric Board (EWEB) headquarters building for a new City Hall. He thought that with some work the existing City Hall could be the police department. He related that he had been talking to a planner about form-based land use codes and the Walnut Node. He had urged the planner to “ask the difficult questions” so that the City did not “repeat past vision failures in the Walnut Node.” He stated that two forums on the Walnut Node were being held on February 24 at the Northwest Christian College (NCC) in its banquet room. He said it was not listed on the City’s Public Meetings Calendar, though it was listed on the City’s Web site. He urged the council to ensure that such meetings were on the calendar. He averred that the problem with node visioning was that “a lot of pretty pictures were put up” and there was no back and forth about what the past “sticking points” were. He asserted that they did not talk about the price tag on the project, which he believed to potentially be $100,000. He suggested that the historic preservation staff be brought in so that buildings such as the Joe Romania building could be integrated into “some future neighborhood.” He felt that densification would then not happen in four- or five-story blocks. Lucille Schaffer , 580 Crest Drive, expressed concern about the road conditions of Crest Drive but she was also concerned about the cost of improvements. She questioned how Crest Drive residents could afford it. She asked the council to “please take it easy” on them. Marion Eddie , 830 Crest Drive, Ward 2, felt that living in a city or town had advantages in the services it provided such as fire protection and library. She asserted that the City of Eugene had antiquated codes that “allowed” the City Council to “single out” a small group of citizens to pay “a large amount of money for the benefit of the entire city.” She declared that taxing “the few” for the benefit of everyone was not “the American way.” She asserted that a history of having a “bad law” did not make the practice right. She questioned the constitutionality of the code. She opined that the residents of Crest Drive, Storey Boulevard, and Friendly Street should not be “singled out” to pay for street improvements. Kim Heddinger , 763 Crest Drive, was unhappy about the way that City of Eugene charged homeowners for rebuilding the street they lived on. She took issue with the small number of people who were being asked for a benefit to “many.” She averred that there were approximately 183 homeowners who would be asked to pay for a $6 million project. She noted that approximately 143 homeowners resided on the streets that emptied into Crest Drive, Storey Boulevard, and Friendly Street. She encouraged the councilors to study the engineer’s report on the traffic MINUTES—Eugene City Council February 23, 2009 Page 2 Regular Meeting