CC Minutes - 10/13/10 Work Session

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common ground that could be built upon. WEC members had expressed consistent support for transporta- tion corridors with mixed -use development. She believed the community owed the WEC "a lot" and reported that WEC members had begun to meet again on issues related to food localization and the protection of farmland. Speaking to Mr. Zelenka's remarks about the CRG panel, Mayor Piercy believed there was considerable push -back by CRG members from both sides of the political spectrum to the traditional economic model discussed by the consultant and she recalled the outcome of the discussion was agreement the traditional model was not what was best for the community. Mr. Clark endorsed Mr. Poling's remarks about the timeline. He also agreed with a suggestion from resident Paul Conte that the City seek legislation that endorsed the outcome of the Envision Eugene process. He asked how that goal could be realized. City Attorney Jerome said she had not seen the legislature take such action, but it could do so. She anticipated that before the council approached the legislature it would want to discuss the political, policy, and public involvement aspects of the subject. Mr. Clark anticipated that following the completion of the Envision Eugene process, staff would return to the council by the deadline with a decision package that provided the organization with direction about the necessary implementing amendments, but the large -scale decisions would have been made. He wanted legislative endorsement of those large -scale decisions. If the answer was, we cannot do that until the details are actually done," he believed the City would not have finished by the deadline. City Manager Ruiz indicated staff would do more research into the issue and return with that information. Mr. Zelenka endorsed Mr. Clark's proposal and suggested that City Councilors update the Lane County legislation delegation as a group or as individuals about the progress of the process on a regular basis. He believed the City was on a path that demonstrated it was willing to move forward. He wanted the process to be done right so the City could avoid the years of appeals that had delayed the actions of other Oregon communities. Mr. Zelenka noted that over 25 years, manufacturing employment in Lane County fell from 22 percent to 9 percent while the service sector grew from 17 percent to 41 percent. He suggested the council needed to be cognizant of future sector job growth projections and focus its thinking on best strategies to foster growth in those sectors. He emphasized the importance of redevelopment and suggested a slow economy gave the City the opportunity to get tools to foster redevelopment in place. Mr. Pryor suggested that if the legislature was going to take action because it did not think Eugene was doing due diligence in accomplishing the goals set out in House Bill 3337 it would be because someone lobbied for that action. However, he agreed that the City Council needed to meet the deadlines it had set. Speaking to Mr. Poling's comments about the depictions prepared for the WEC, Mr. Pryor agreed that the City needed to be clear those depictions were hypothetical. Speaking to Mr. Zelenka's remarks about past economic development incentive approaches, Mr. Pryor pointed out that Hynix had not left the community because it no longer received a tax exemption. The company left because the bottom fell out of the chip market. While the company was in the community, it had more than 1,000 employees in family -wage jobs with benefits, and was the largest single property tax payer in Lane County. The company had been an enormous economic engine for Eugene, and he regretted its loss. He said if such an opportunity came along again, he wanted to take advantage of it and thought MINUTES— Eugene City Council October 13, 2010 Page 3 Work Session