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Summary In January 2004, the Eugene City Council approved the Mayor's request to establish the Mayor's Committee on Economic Development. The City Council charged the Committee "to provide for reviews of past economic development strategic plans, identification of elements that are relevant today, and identification of gaps and areas of opportunity for improvement." The Mayor called upon the Committee to forward meaningful and specific recommendations to the City Council for consideration in the fall of 2004. The charge from the Mayor to the Committee was to move quickly to agreement on a few key actions that could be accepted by the City Council and could have immediate effects on economic development in Eugene. The Mayor acknowledged the history of controversy in Eugene regarding economic development, and the difficulty of agreeing on policies to encourage economic development in ways that are compatible with other City goals regarding environmental quality, public amenity, 'fiscal responsibility, and fairness. Thus, he did not charge the Committee with creating a complete economic development plan. Rather, his hope was that the Committee members, whose backgrounds reflect the diversity of opinions in Eugene, could find some common ground that could be the foundation for a community-supported economic development strategy that the City Council coutd adopt. The Committee met eight times from March through July. It discussed existing economic policies and different tools that could improve the economic climate in the City of Eugene. It recommends that the following tools be adopted by the City Council: · The City Council should support and contribute to a regional buildable lands analysis of available commercial and industrial land that is consistent with state requirements and that earns broad public support. The inventory should include vacant and underutilized land, and identify the potential for assembling small parcels to create larger parcels. · The Committee recommends that Chapter 9 of the Eugene Code be made simpler, and that it be intuitive, adaptable, enabling to staff, logical, strategic, and fair. Additionally, the code should be reviewed on an annual basis. · The City Council and Budget Committee should fund a facilitator to assist businesses with expansion, coordinate multi-agency review of development permits, assist in developing methods and policies to help streamline permitting process, and make recommendations on addressing Chapter 9 revisions suggested in the above recommendation. · The Committee recommends that the City of Eugene establish an Enterprise Zone. Its boundaries should include the previous West Eugene Enterprise Zone properties, plus a relatively small amount of adjacent industrial-zoned properties that were not included in the previous zone. An Mayor's Committee on Economic Development July 2004 Recommendations Page i