CC Minutes - 05/26/09 Meeting - Laserfiche WebLink

Home Browse Search

Councilor Zelenka, seconded by Councilor Clark, moved to approve the Consent Calendar. Councilor Zelenka pulled Items D and E. Roll call vote; the motion to approve the Consent Calendar with the exceptions of Items D and E passed unanimously, 7:0. (Councilor Solomon had temporarily left the dais.) Councilor Zelenka explained that he had pulled Item D not because he was opposed to it, but because he liked the fund allocation and wanted someone to talk about it. Grants Manager for the Community Development Division Stephanie Jennings explained that Item D was a special allocation from the Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) funds that had been created through the American Reinvestment and Recovery Act (ARRA). She said the City of Eugene was eligible to receive a formula allocation of $371,021 of the stimulus money to carry out CDBG activities with an emphasis on job creation and other things meant to address the immediate economic recovery needs. Counselor Solomon returned to the dais. Ms. Jennings said the first of two programmatic pieces that staff was proposing was the Business Development Fund, a fund used to support a variety of community businesses that had resulted in the creation of over 1,000 jobs to date. She related that the other piece was funding for foreclosure prevention counseling, provided by a local agency for people who earned 80 percent of the area median income and below. Mayor Piercy remarked that they could not ask for better things to be able to do. Roll call vote; the motion to approve Consent Calendar Item D, approval of the Community Development Block Grant Recovery Funds allocation, passed unanimously, 8:0. Councilor Zelenka explained that he had pulled Item E because of his long-standing objection to utilizing the Multiple-Unit Property Tax Exemption (MUPTE) in the West University Neighborhood. He believed that the money would be spent on housing regardless of whether the developer was granted a MUPTE or not. He supported the MUPTE boundary expansion in the downtown area and the Trainsong area. He averred that development in the WUN was “going gangbusters.” Councilor Taylor also opposed the MUPTE. She also disapproved of placing a MUPTE in the Consent Calendar. She considered the item to be controversial and the Consent Calendar to be for routine items. Mayor Piercy read from page 82 in the Agenda Item Summary (AIS), which explained the difference between a market product and the product that could be offered for a MUPTE application, which exceeded the code requirements in several areas as a result of the tax exemption. She noted that the project would include one handicapped-accessible unit and that the Eugene Water & Electric Board (EWEB) had indicated that it would meet the Silver Earth Advantage energy conservation benchmarks, among other things. She felt the project was moving in a direction that the City wanted to go and the development would be a better product for the neighborhood that fit with community goals. She averred that this was why the neighbors supported it. Councilor Brown asserted that the “whole situation” had arisen from the University of Oregon’s “unwillingness” to house students. He agreed that it was a “wonderful project,” but he was not sure that the MINUTES—Eugene City Council May 26, 2009 Page 5 Regular Meeting