Item B: Land Use/Transportation Framework

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roads, homes and commercial buildings, and our patterns of land use, land development and construction – that together make up more than half of our energy demand, determining much of our “carbon footprint.” 4. Integrated decision-making is essential In order to frame our policy discussions and make informed decisions for our community’s future, we must address the connections between land use and transportation. Our planning processes for transportation and the built environment are sophisticated, but they don’t integrate well and only occasionally address the concerns of energy security and climate change. We rarely explicitly consider land use and transportation together with an eye to our carbon footprint and its effect on our city’s and children’s future. We can no longer afford to make decisions separately. We need decision-making processes that ensure we examine land-use/transportation concerns through a twin energy/climate lens. 5. We must align the conversation The City of Eugene and its residents are already taking on many critical issues in land use, transportation and the nexus of the two. Many of these efforts will lower greenhouse gas emissions from buildings and vehicles, leave more dollars in our pockets, and create a more livable community. But these current land use or transportation efforts are often separate from each other. Some are led by advocacy organizations, others organized by city staff. Some are grassroots efforts focused on behavior change, others are focused on improving formal institutions and codes. In many cases, they have overlapping aspirations, but don’t reinforce each other. We need diverse efforts to create long-term, positive change, but without shared language and understanding, our work is vulnerable. Narrow short- term concerns can often pull us off the long path to realizing a new vision. Success comes when we can identify what we can agree on as a community. We’re more likely to reach that common vision when we engage each other in a clear discussion about the very real effects of the coming volatility in energy prices and climate change. We need to frame policy decisions in the context of the energy and climate future because these issues affect all three components of triple bottom line sustainability. Over time, the community is best served by the Council and staff integrating energy and climate concerns into all policy decisions, regardless of whether they appear to be energy or climate related. The current challenge is that many ad hoc decisions unintentionally move us in the wrong direction – toward sprawl, auto-dependence, decreased long-term livability and less economic security. Next Step for Eugene: A Detailed Vision, with Overarching Goals 1. Elements of a shared vision for Eugene’s future: ? We need a decreased reliance on energy from outside the community, energy sources with increasing and volatile prices, and carbon intensive energy sources ? For our future success as a city we must lower greenhouse gas emissions from businesses, households and economic activity ? Patterns of land use and modes of transportation must further energy and climate goals ? Policies, plans and Council-level decision making should incorporate climate and energy ? Economic development policies should encourage businesses that can prosper in a carbon- constrained economy and help all businesses lower their dependence on outside energy sources Z:\CMO\2010 Council Agendas\M100428\S100428B-attA.doc2