Item 5: Ordinance Levying Assessments for West University Alleys

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