Item 3A: Approval of City Council Minutes

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Mayor Piercy also expressed appreciation to the staff that had been involved in working with Occupy Eugene. She said she did not how the movement would evolve over time or if it would be able to do anything that made a real difference to the community, although she hoped so. She believed those participating in Occupy Eugene had high aspirations and wanted to make a difference and improve the community. The motion passed, 4:2; Mr. Clark and Mr. Farr voting no. Mr. Brown left the meeting. B. WORK SESSION: Envision Eugene—Land Need for Single-Family Homes and Public Uses The council was joined by Planning Director Lisa Gardner, Metropolitan Community Planning Manager Carolyn Weiss, and Associate Planner Heather O’Donnell. Staff distributed a correction to the Public Lands Needs Summary included as Attachment A to the Agenda Item Summary and copies of a memorandum entitled Envision Eugene: Follow-up from Council Work Session on Housing Mix. Ms. Weiss and Ms. O’Donnell led the council through a PowerPoint presentation entitled Envision Eugene: Project Update for City Council Work Session November 9, 2011. The presentation included information on the public land need through the planning period as well as site maps identifying the locations proposed for inclusion inside Eugene’s urban growth boundary (UGB) for public land purposes. The presentation also included information about the single-family housing land framed in terms of capacity inside the UGB and the remaining land need after that capacity had been determined. Councilors asked questions clarifying the details of the information presented. Mayor Piercy solicited additional council questions and comments. Mr. Clark requested a regional analysis that considered the single-family housing mix over time for Veneta, Elmira, Coburg, Creswell, Harrisburg, and Cottage Grove to determine how Eugene’s land use decisions in the last 10 to 20 years had affected those communities to ensure the council’s decision regarding the land supply was balanced with that more regional look. He said the City lacked a reasonable market analysis of the data to determine what type of housing that people moving to Eugene wanted to live in. He understood that at least 70 percent were looking for single-family houses. Mr. Clark asked if the council would have market data to help it in its decision-making. Ms. O’Donnell referred Mr. Clark to the memorandum distributed by staff, which addressed his question. Mr. Clark was concerned that experts in the housing industry believed the City needed more land than the City’s studies suggested it did. He said Eugene continued to have a housing affordability problem and he feared that further artificially constraining the land supply would increase the price of land and housing and exacerbate the affordable housing problem. He was also concerned the council was not doing a better job of creating a market environment that allowed for the construction of affordable housing for all. City Manager Ruiz responded that his recommendation attempted to avoid artificially constraining the market. He believed reasonable people could make a logical argument about any of the housing mixes under consideration. He anticipated the council would have an extensive policy discussion based on all the information presented before it reached a decision. Speaking to Mr. Clark’s remarks, Mayor Piercy said that presenters at recent conferences she attended had suggested that the past housing trends could no longer be relied on and the United States was moving MINUTES—Eugene City Council November 9, 2011 Page 4 Work Session