CC Minutes - 09/14/09 Regular Meeting

Home Browse Search

th Ron Doerr , 3012 West 11 Avenue, representing M & G Collision Specialists, stated that of the three routes being thth set forth for a west Eugene EmX corridor, the 6/7 Avenue route was being strongly suggested. He stated that the th suggested Amazon Canal and West 11 Avenue route would impact both of the businesses’ tax lots and its structures. He said the business had made it through tough times and supported 12 families. He noted that the 12 employees had a total of 120 years of service in the business between them. He was concerned that building an EmX route through their tax lots would cause them to lose their business. He pointed out that the business had been in its th location long before West 11 traffic had become dense. He thanked Councilor Pryor for holding a meeting with thth area residents and businesses. He asked the council to consider the routes carefully and to pick the 6/7 Avenue option. Jozef Siekiel-Zdzienicki , 1025 Taylor Street, Ward 1, said the draft EIS for the West Eugene EmX corridor project had been slated to come out on January 1, 2010, but had been delayed a couple of months. He had attended the thth workshops on the corridor and he had not noted the attendance of anyone from 6 or 7 Avenues nor from any th businesses on 13 Avenue. He said the proposed routes would traverse Councilor Ortiz’ ward and recommended that she hold a meeting for residents that might be affected by them. He asserted that LTD was not doing their job in talking to people. He averred that this was a major decision. He urged the council to start some stakeholders groups. thth George F. Cole , 2760 West 11 Avenue, noted that he also owned the properties at 2770 and 2780 West 11 Avenue. He was concerned about the potential EmX route by the Amazon Canal. He recalled a conflict he had with LTD six years earlier – LTD had wanted most of his property for a park and ride facility and it allegedly cost him $160,000 in legal fees to keep the property. He was suspicious that objections to how his property looked had something to do with it. He related that his father had started the business in 1935 and it had grown from then. He had started his own construction business because there had not been enough income generated by the small furniture business. Because of this, he had acquired several pieces of obsolete equipment. He said after the bicycle path had been developed, people had complained about the view. He stated that since then he had planted an “urban forest” to th obscure the equipment. He requested that the council listen to the business owners of West 11 Avenue. th Brent Woodrich , 2700 West 11 Avenue, representing Autocraft Auto Body and Repair, said an EmX corridor along the Amazon Canal would take out part of their parking lot, which he needed to store the vehicles they were working on. He did not think the councilors understood just how many businesses and residents would be affected by thth choosing this corridor. He said the 6/7 Avenue corridor would not affect as many people. He underscored that th West 11 Avenue was an industrial area. He did not believe it could be developed into something akin to what would be found in the City’s core. Kimberly Gladen , 361 West Broadway, supported moving the NCS into the Pearl Street building. She commented that anything that kept drug dealers and panhandlers off the streets would benefit the community. She stated that she lived and worked in the downtown area and did not own a car. She liked to have everything within walking distance. She remarked that she liked to smell the petunias and watch ducks in the fountain. She said there were problems in the downtown core and strongly suggested that the bicycle patrol be expanded to work at night, from 9 p.m. to about 4 a.m. which was when most of the vandalism happened. She thought a night time patrol should be deployed from Wednesday through Saturday nights, if not all week long. She believed a bicycle patrol was the only way to police the area, because an officer in a patrol vehicle would not be able to tell the difference between patrons of a bar or restaurant outside having a cigarette and panhandlers and drug dealers hanging out on the corner. She also felt that bicycle officers would be better equipped to thwart vandalism that occurred after the bars closed because they could hear the noisy bar patrons from a distance and could monitor their activities. She believed a foot patrol officer would be a waste of taxpayer money. As for panhandlers, she remarked that there were some that she gave money to every time she saw them, but there were too many of them. She averred that most people did not want to walk downtown because they would get panhandled five or six times on every block. She related that she had been panhandled five times just walking by the library and around the corner to the Kiva grocery store. She said she had been yelled at MINUTES—Eugene City Council September 14, 2009 Page 4 Regular Meeting