CC Minutes - 06/15/09 Public Hearing

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de sacs, the council should see if there was not a way to make the assessments more equitable for everyone. He had lived on Crest Drive for most of his life and agreed that the streets needed improving. Ron Gietter , 990 Sundance Road, stated that he was speaking on behalf of the 23 homeowners who were in the South Point Homeowners Association. He had lived in that area for 29 years. It seemed to him that the roads were just as bad 29 years ago as they were in the present. He had been pleased to see that the City was taking action to improve the roads. He acknowledged the work that the City had done collaboratively with neighborhood residents to come up with a sensitive design for the project. He recalled that in the meetings there had been discussions of how the project would be paid for. He found it hard to believe that th the assessments were a surprise to a lot of people “in the 11 hour.” He thought the process had been “great,” noting that the council and Mayor had praised the project. He stated that when he had bought his lot in South Point, he had paid for the roads. He said the assessment policy might take years of discussion, but the roads needed to be fixed now. He pointed out that delaying the project would run the risk of having costs skyrocket again. Wendy Dudelheim , 3385 Storey Boulevard, asked that the council reevaluate assessments. She said the assessment was a tremendous burden. She echoed the suggestion that assessments be spread over the residents who accessed their cul de sac properties via the LID streets. She pointed out that other traffic traveled on the streets, notably traffic coming from Lane County roads, and suggested that the City see if it would be possible to garner funding from the county. She felt that the assessment policy was archaic. She added that she did not have children and wondered if some of the taxes she paid for the public school system could be diverted into the roads. Steve Hirons , 736 Crest Drive, stated that his house was for sale and the assessment would affect the selling price. He averred that 70 percent of the traffic consisted of vehicles traveling through the area and not people who lived there. He reiterated that 65 percent of the area residents had signed a petition of remonstrance. He declared that it was a “terrible time” to burden people with a bill to fix the streets. He asked that the council consider adding more subsidies given that the bids had come in lower. He predicted that a lot of people would face a painful burden. He said the residents in the LID would welcome monetary involvement from the residents who could only access their houses via Crest Drive. John Rude , 1207 Courtney Place, Ward 2, spoke on behalf of the Crest Dive Community Team Advisory Group. The association believed the Crest Drive project was in jeopardy due to the remonstrance. He asked that the council have a solution in mind, should it honor the remonstration. He said there was no need to change the assessment, but the council could influence how the City and the neighbors shared the burden of the cost. He noted that the City had estimated its share to be $3.5 million and the residents’ share to be $2.6 million. He related that the recent bids had changed the overall cost from $5.75 million to $3.79 million. He noted that the City’s portion had dropped by 44 percent, but the residents’ portion dropped only 22 percent. He said though this improved the situation, it only dropped the residents’ portion from approximately $20,000 to approximately $15,000. He suggested that the City could consider paying its original estimate, which would drop the residents’ portion to $641,376. He thought the City could also cobble together money from its potential swap of $1 million with the Lane County Road Fund. He said the funding sources could create a more reasonable assessment, approximately $5,000 per property, and would help the remonstrators support the project to move forward. Rick Robertson , 839 Crest Drive, Ward 2, said he had purchased his house knowing about the assessment. He supported the project as designed and wanted the project to proceed as planned. He asked the council to look at all of the options to reduce the financial burden of the assessment policy, even if it would not reduce MINUTES—Eugene City Council June 15, 2009 Page 8 Public Hearing