CC Minutes - 04/13/09 Meeting - Laserfiche WebLink

Home Browse Search

at 4:20 p.m. at Kesey Plaza. He explained that at that time every year for five years running, he would sit and play his drum for four minutes and twenty seconds. Joan Kelly , 3265 Elmira Road, Ward 7, wished to speak to the issue of street assessments. She referred to the council’s March 9 work session, at which most councilors had acknowledged the need for further discussion concerning the City’s policy for road improvement assessment. She thought the burden of cost should be shared by the people who used the road. She said that there were “in excess of 2,500 trips per day” on Elmira Road. She averred that after the assessable property owners left and came back, there were approximately another 2,000 drivers on the street. She noted that there was a development that had no ingress or egress except via Elmira Road. She stated that it was classified as a collector and could qualify for federal dollars as such. She understood the need for construction to occur in the coming summer because of the bid that had been received. She hoped that if the council determined, through further discussion of the assessment methodology, that the burden on properties immediately adjacent to the roads that were being improved should be reduced, it would retroactively include the Elmira Road/Maple Street project. She said there were 120 assessable properties in the project and approximately 40 percent were rentals, making it difficult to contact them about remonstration. She stated that she had collected more than 72 signatures to remonstrate. She gave the following quote from C. Wright Mills, writer of The Power of the Elite: “As the means of information and power are centralized, some men [and women] come to occupy positions in American society from which they can look down upon, so to speak, and by their decisions mightily affect the everyday morals of ordinary men and women.” She averred that the council was in such a position with the vote on the Local Improvement District (LID) for the Elmira Road/Maple Street project. She had sent the councilors an email about it, adding that she never knew if her emails were actually read because she never received responses to them. She hoped the councilors would look at the email because it included information about interest rates, assessable properties, and the number of vehicles on the road during the day. Jim Wilcox , 205 West 31st Avenue, Ward 2, stated that he was the director of Bike Lane Coalition (BLC). He related that BLC supported House Bill (HB) 2690, the “Idaho stop” law. He averred that it had been successful in Idaho, a state with “nearly identical population density and transportation infrastructure.” He said the City was correct that cyclists sought the same rights and responsibilities as operators of vehicles, but because of the “car culture,” vehicles meant cars and this attracted many cyclists who “literally ride in the margins” to support the same rights movement. He disagreed with City staff’s position that HB 2690 would modify one of the main safety rules for bicyclists and would add to the rift between them and automobile drivers. He said different vehicles operated on the city streets with different traffic rules or use patterns based on “practical realities.” He suggested that this included a wide variety of vehicles on the streets and skateboards and pedestrians on the bike paths. He averred that there were sufficient differences between cyclists and vehicles to warrant the “reasonable exceptions” provided by HB 2690. He opined that bicyclists were better able to use sight and sound than a driver of a motor vehicle, when approaching an intersection, and operated at a slower speed. He declared that bicyclists offered a personal, plant-friendly alternative to the car, lowered pollution and added to public health, and kept dollars normally spent on imported fuel within the local economy. He did not believe we could advance the agenda to provide sustainable, healthy, and environmentally healthy transportation without questioning the “unbridled dominance” of the automobile. He urged the City to take a leadership role to advance the public benefits of bicycling by endorsing HB 2690. Mayor Piercy ascertained from Mark Schoening, City Engineer with the Public Works Department, that he had suggested to people testifying before the Hearings Official on the Maple Street/Elmira Road project that they could bring their concerns before the City Council. She noted that the written instructions indicated that an item that had gone before the Hearings Official could not ordinarily be brought up in the Public Forum, but made an exception based on the information Mr. Schoening had given the Elmira Road area MINUTES—Eugene City Council April 13, 2009 Page 2 Regular Meeting