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<br />to her property. Ms. Grey explained that after she had given permission for the City <br />crews to come on to her property, the sidewalks on the property had been removed. This <br />not only caused immediate damage to her property, but also increased erosion. Mr. <br />Klope and Mr. Gallup, the project engineer, acknowledged that the sidewalk had been <br />incorrectly removed. Mr. Gallup explained that after investigation, the City felt that it <br />would be best to replace the sidewalk. Mr. Gallup promised to work with Ms. Grey to <br />start the process to replace the sidewalk. <br /> <br />The next property owner was Mr. Rob Bennett, the owner of the Eugene Manor <br />Apartments. Mr. Bennett was one of the property owners who had requested <br />reconsideration of the assessment. As he explained, his property does not make use of <br />the alley. The alley does not go all the way through to the next street and the height of <br />the property and the alley is different, so that changes to the property would need to be <br />made to make use of the alley. Mr. Klope responded that it was the conclusion of the <br />engineering staff that the property could make use of the alley if they chose to do so, and <br />it was likely that use would increase sometime in the future. For that reason, the <br />engineering staff concluded that the present decision to abstain from use did not lessen <br />the overall benefit the property received from the improvements. The hearings officer <br />asked Mr. Bennett about other uses of the alley, pointing out that the Task Force report <br />had discussed emergency vehicle access. Could, for example, the improvements help <br />access for fire vehicles? Mr. Bennett replied that he did not think so, since there was <br />adequate access from the street to the property. <br /> <br />Janet Calvert appeared on behalf of the Eugene Garden Club. Ms. Calvert, the <br />President of the Garden Club, questioned the accuracy of the City's calculations. Ms. <br />Calvert acknowledged the value of the improvements. The alleys were better, and the <br />Club's access was better. Nevertheless, the Garden Club disputed the reasoning that <br />assigned a value of 10 - the value to be assigned to commercial property - to the Garden <br />Club, a non-profit operation. Ms. Calvert argued that the weighting factor should be <br />reduced to a lower weighting factor. City Engineer Mark Schoening acknowledged the <br />Garden Club's request and the difficulty in determining the weighting factor. Mr. <br />Schoening explained that he had determined that, within the limited discretion allowed <br />him by the Eugene Code, he felt that he was required to conclude that the non-profit was <br />in the same class as for profit commercial property. <br /> <br />Mr. Frank Krebs was the next person to address the hearing. Mr. Krebs described <br />his property as being used for residential purposes for a long time. Even though the <br />property is zoned commercial, it contains only residences, residences that are now being <br />used by several families. The alley does not provide parking access for his property, and <br />it is mostly used by other property owners along the alley. Mr. Krebs acknowledged that <br />the alley should have been improved, but he reiterated that the assessments on his <br />property should not have been based on the highest category of weighting for commercial <br />property. <br /> <br />The next member of the public to speak was Mr. Dennis Burri. Mr. Burri owns <br />several small buildings at the entrance to the alley near 14th and Mill. Mr. Burri pointed <br /> <br />Alley Assessment Minutes <br /> <br />Page 3 <br />