Item C: Ordinance on Downtown Urban Renewal Plan Amendment

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Station Draft Form Based Code included in the packet and emphasized the form-based nature of the text, the height regulating plan, and the transportation element. She referred to a map of potential road improvements on page 10 and said staff was attempting to draft the code in a manner that created incentives for the development of the connections shown. She reviewed the reduction in parking and landscaping requirements proposed for the area. Ms. McKinney reviewed the design/review process, a Type II application process focused on design. She noted that some elements were drawn from the Fairmount Area Plan, the neighborhood refinement plan. Ms. McKinney reviewed the amendments being proposed. She said staff would provide draft findings to the commission on the date of the public hearing, April 20. She anticipated the commission deliberations would occur about three weeks later, and a council hearing was scheduled for June 21. That hearing would be proceeded by a council work session. Mr. Hledik commended the plan, saying that it took the City in a direction significantly different than the prescriptive code. He thought it had potential to create a harmonious new look along Franklin Boulevard. He asked the source of the code language. Ms. McKinney said staff relied heavily on other models but the majority of the work was done by scratch by the technical advisory committee, consultants, and staff. Mr. Hledik referred to the listed conditional uses and asked why the City would include any of them as conditional uses as opposed to prohibiting them outright. Ms. McKinney said the uses were currently permitted in C-2 with a conditional use permit, and the philosophy of the project was not to take away any current uses. She confirmed that a conditional use permit was required for structured parking over a certain height. Mr. Hledik determined from Ms. McKinney that structured parking was an outright permitted use. Mr. Mills commended Ms. McKinney’s work. He determined from Ms. McKinney that Fairmount Park would be rezoned to match its current Public Lands designation and use. Mr. Belcher asked if the plan included a provision to address bicycle traffic east of Walnut Street traveling th east. Ms. McKinney noted that 15 Avenue was a bicycle path connection that ended at Franklin Boule- vard. She said the plan did not include a proposal for any bicycle facilities on that side of Franklin Boulevard, although there were recommendations with regard to the bicycle east-west connection on the north side. She said one idea was to create a multi-modal path along the south side of the Millrace, but the proposal involved many properties and would be expensive to implement. That idea was retained as a recommendation, but staff was not requiring it in the plan. Staff was proposing a connection from where the path began to enter Garden Avenue, and the alignment for that connection would be determined in the Bicycle Master Plan update. Responding to a question from Mr. Belcher, Mr. Inerfeld indicated there were no current plans to improve the bicycling experience along Franklin Boulevard but there was a regional vision for a bicycle path along the river. The Oregon Department of Transportation (ODOT) was building a viaduct along the river that would accommodate that path. However, that path project was not yet funded or designed, so until it was completed bicyclists would still have to travel along the sidewalk along Franklin Boulevard. Mr. Belcher felt that was still challenging for bicyclists. Mr. Inerfled concurred. He noted the limited space available for the City to work with. He invited more conversation with Mr. Belcher. MINUTES—Eugene Planning Commission March 29, 2010 Page 4