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PROS plan when it went into the separate project district areas. He was appalled that a neighborhood park could be redesignated to a community park without due public process. He called it excessive to have three sports park facilities within a two-mile radius. He submitted his testimony in writing. He requested the record remain open until the project list and the PROS plan could be considered at the same time. Charles Moss , 4255 Burrywood Drive, stated that it had cost him $15 to obtain a copy of the PROS Plan. He noted that the copy available at the Public Works Department was a draft, dated July 2005. He felt there had been big changes from the draft to the final copy, including the following changes: ? Chapter 4 changed from strategies and actions to only strategies; ? Chapter 5 changed to funding options and did not explain where the money would be spent; ? Chapter 6 included performance measures that, as indicated, still needed development. Mr. Moss said he would like to see where the money would be spent and then he would be able to measure performance. He noted that Appendix A described the benefits of a public plaza including that it provides positive community identity. He opined that if community identity was so important, why were the City and School District 4J standing by the decision to raze the Santa Clara Elementary School building? He asserted that residents wanted the historic building as part of their community identity. Mr. Moss reviewed Appendix B, which delineated the proportion of population to developed acres of park by areas of the community. He underscored that the Santa Clara/River Road area of the City contained 18 percent of the population and one percent of developed park acres. Zachary Vishanoff , Patterson Street, echoed the comments made in previous testimony. He averred that the City’s parks had been stolen from the people. He reiterated concerns he made in the summer regarding the park in the University area. He blamed the media for not paying better attention to the issue. He felt that developers wanted to do public/private partnerships outside the UGB and that parks were a “trick” to get people to agree to “break” the UGB in order to further development. He repeated his objections to the River Play playground development under construction in Skinner Butte Park. He said the City needed to stop using parks as “weapons against neighborhoods.” Jerry Finigan , 1250 Irvington Drive, said he was a resident in Santa Clara and had been a stakeholder in the 1989 parks plan. He underscored that 15 years later, not much had happened. He had been encouraged by the PROS plan, but after reading it he did not feel it told him very much. He agreed that without a project list, the plan did not hold as much weight. Dan Arkin , 655 Goodpasture Island Road, #28, stated that he had served on the committee that developed the PROS plan. He said the citizens who sat on the committee for 2-1/2 years tried to do their best job. He thought the one word that would sum up the goal the committee tried to keep in mind for the process was “balance.” He hoped that even Ms. Cuellar would admit that. He commented that it was an impossible goal to achieve perfection. He was proud of what the committee had done, as it was the best it could be. He underscored that it was impossible to please everyone but he believed the committee had done a “damned good job” in its attempt to do so. He said the committee was very aware that the City had no right to dictate to jurisdictions outside of the boundaries of Eugene what would happen to property, but nonetheless, the committee sought to create a whole plan that needed to be integrated into a region and coordinated with what was going on and available in other areas. The concept was to do this through negotiation, cooperation, and mutual assistance. He wished to address two other issues and did so in written testimony submitted to the council. MINUTES—Eugene City Council December 12, 2005 Page 8 Regular Session