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County’s employment center and provided jobs for people other than residents of the City. Ms. Gardner said the <br />community committee was a department advisory committee and the group functioned in such a way that no minority <br />opinion surfaced, although any member of the committee could provide their individual comments to the council. <br /> <br />Ms. Piercy said it appeared that there was a desire to have a policy discussion at some point on future economic <br />development, as well as how it could be guided by sustainability principles. <br /> <br />Mr. Zelenka observed that half of the people who worked in Eugene were not residents. He asked what prevented the <br />baseline assumption from becoming the only path forward, instead of using several scenarios to project future <br />growth. Mr. Dedrick said the decision to move away from scenarios, which had broad policy implications, was made <br />in order to complete the products required by House Bill (HB) 3337 in a timely manner. Staff was at the point of <br />beginning to look at variables and the committee had provided some guidance on the direction those should take. <br /> <br />Mr. Zelenka asked how the ECLA process and council’s policy discussions would relate to any consideration of <br />expanding the urban growth boundary (UGB). Mr. Dedrick said determination of a land needs number through the <br />ECLA process was not tied to any amendments to the UGB. There were three routes to meet that land need: <br />amendment of the UGB, efficiency measures established through policy or some combination of both. <br /> <br />Mr. Zelenka asked if it was possible to avoid using the initial baseline number unchanged through the entire <br />projection period. Mr. Dedrick said the economy over the past 12 months had been factored in to reduce the <br />employment base to a more realistic figure and the council could also discuss how it wished to alter that 1.4 percent <br />growth rate. <br /> <br />Mr. Zelenka noted that the proposed motion was to move forward with the baseline assumptions and questioned what <br />that meant. Mr. Dedrick said it was intended to indicate that staff was on the right track with respect to data <br />analysis, but periodic reports to the council over the next several months could include discussions of variations in <br />data that the council wished to have analyzed before any final determination. <br /> <br />City Manager Jon Ruiz clarified that staff would be testing some assumptions suggested by the advisory committee <br />and reporting results to the council in late September and the council would have an opportunity to direct staff to <br />explore other assumptions. <br /> <br />Mr. Pryor indicated that he was comfortable with using the baseline assumptions as a starting point for policy <br />discussions and in order to satisfy HB 3337 requirements to provide data. He said the assumptions did not commit <br />the council to a policy direction; those discussions would occur during the process. <br /> <br />Mr. Brown said the City’s current unemployment rate was approximately 15 percent and it would take several years <br />to recover at an employment growth rate of 1.4 percent. He asked if the baseline assumptions could be examined at <br />some point in the future to determine the real growth rate and adjusted if necessary before there was any considera- <br />tion of expanding the UGB. Mr. Dedrick said the periodic review process was intended to do that. <br /> <br />Mr. Clark asked how the new population growth figures developed by Portland State University (PSU) and adopted <br />by the County had changed the growth rates for surrounding cities such as Coburg, Veneta and Elmira; resulting in a <br />larger percentage of the projected population growth going to smaller cities than Eugene and Springfield. He <br />understood that the PSU number showed 12,000 fewer people in the City of Eugene as a function of projected growth <br />than the safe harbor numbers. Ms. Gardner agreed that was the general trend. <br /> <br />Mr. Clark questioned how those growth assumptions took into account the City’s growth policy related to working <br />cooperatively with urban partners and nearby cities to avoid urban sprawl and preserve rural character outside the <br /> <br /> <br />MINUTES—Eugene City Council August 10, 2009 Page 2 <br /> Work Session <br /> <br />