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more industrial acres to support such firms and suggested that an expansion of 800 acres would be better than the 400 -500 acres proposed by City Manager Ruiz, which he also supported. Jim Welch, 2139 Centennial Plaza, representing the Eugene Association of Realtors, submitted written testimony on behalf of the association. He recommended that there be less regulation, less paperwork, and fewer delays in the provision of infrastructure in the developing areas. He believed that the community's focus in land development should be on the local economy. He emphasized the importance of industrial land development. Mr. Welch said the association supported City Manager Ruiz's recommendation for industrial acreage, which would provide more large industrial parcels necessary to attract larger employers. Deborah Smith, 2982 Martinique Street, representing the Eugene Water & Electric Board (EWEB) executive management team, reported that EWEB had delivered a letter of support for the recommendations before the council earlier that day. Ms. Smith emphasized the importance of the planning process to EWEB's ability to deliver services in the future. The focus on flexibility and adaptability, as described in Pillar 7, was critical to EWEB. Ms. Smith spoke on her own behalf as a member of the Community Resource Group's (CRG) Economic Development Industrial Lands Committee in support of City Manager Ruiz's recommendation to expand the urban growth boundary (UGB) for industrial land. Such expansion would allow the City to assemble a portfolio of sites for various needs. Ms. Smith noted the high priority placed on such land in the Regional Prosperity Plan and suggested an even higher priority was the community's need for new family -wage jobs. She believed the lack of industrial land represented a crisis, and said an adequate supply was a key strategy to attracting employers, for which competition was fierce. Sue Prichard, 2671 Emerald Street, expressed support for City Manager Ruiz's recommendation to increase the supply of industrial land because of its importance to job creation. She suggested it would take a minimum of 400 industrially designated acres to meet the need and to accommodate the demand for larger parcels. She believed the community should reuse land inside the UGB but that would not be sufficient. She spoke of her work as a commercial real estate broker and offered three examples of companies who looked for land in Eugene unsuccessfully and went elsewhere in Oregon. Ms. Prichard agreed with Ms. Smith that the industrial lands supply represented a crisis, and asked the council to support the manager's recommendation. Pat Hocken, 338 West 11` Avenue, representing the League of Women Voters, expressed the league's support for the Envision Eugene community outreach process and the conceptual framework represented by the Seven Pillars as a good first step toward improving and maintaining community livability. Ms. Hocken expressed the league's concern that many implementation details were still unknown and some of the goals appeared to be incompatible with one another. She suggested any UGB expansion needed to be accompanied by a realistic assessment of site suitability for new uses and of neighborhoods to ensure the preservation of high -value farmland while also accounting for the draft recommendation to maintain current single - family densities. Ms. Hocken cautioned that the draft's simultaneous support for 20- minute neighborhoods, transit corridor development/redevelopment, multi- family housing, urban agriculture, and neighborhood support for higher density development created an inherent tension in the draft with a potential for community controversy. While Opportunity Siting (OS) might help, the league recommended the City consider a pilot project to demonstrate the benefits and potential of the plan's recommendations. MINUTES — Eugene City Council April 25, 2011 Page 6 Regular Meeting