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December 5, 2003, First Friday Artwalk. In addition to visual displays and handouts, staff encouraged comments. That event was advertised in both the Register Guard and Eugene Weekly. Council Action History Please refer to Attachment A for recent council history. Policy Issues Improving the viability of downtown has been a community and City Council goal, in some form, for decades. The adopted Growth Management Policies, the Vision for Greater Downtown Eugene, the council's 2001-2002 Vision and Goals Statement, and the new Downtown Plan all include policies or strategies to create a more vital downtown. There is a close relationship between urban renewal goals and these policies. The Downtown Plan, for instance, includes a policy to "use downtown development tools and incentives to encourage development that provides character and density downtown." Council Goals The recently adopted Downtown Plan provides policy direction for financing tools, including urban renewal. This plan also reflects City Council goals, particularly "Sustainable Community Development." Financial and/or Resource Considerations The proposed Downtown UR Plan does not recommend a change in the boundary area or reflect any changes to the maximum indebtedness. Changes in these provisions of the plan would jeopardize the URA's ability to collect the special levy that is needed to repay the library debt. Other Background Information Responses to Comments from the July 12th Work Session Councilor Bettman asked about the $1.5 million shown as project expenditures in FY04-05 in Table 5 of the Draft Downtown Urban Renewal Report on the Plan. The figures shown in this table represent the amount of funds that are projected to be available for project expenditures in each future year, based on estimated tax rates and estimated property values in the district. It is not possible to accurately predict exactly which project will occur in what year. The figure shown for FY04-05 of $1.5 million under the category of development and redevelopment assistance is a placeholder for the amount of funds that are projected to be available in the current fiscal year for projects. Before any of those funds could be spent, the urban renewal plan would have to be amended and the City Council, acting as the Urban Renewal Agency, would have to approve a budgetary appropriation. At the time that a budget request is made of the agency, staff would provide an explanation of how the funds would be used. As stated in the plan, any project over $250,000 would be explicitly approved by the City Council acting as the Agency. Councilor Pape' and Councilor Taylor asked for information about the use of urban renewal funds in this district in the past. Attachment E provides an overview of that history. A detailed report that includes specific expenses is not available. It might be possible to research those costs in the future, but it would take substantial staff time to locate and analyze documents that were archived long ago. It is important to note that the definition of"Urban Renewal" has changed since 1968 when the district was created. In Oregon, the term now essentially refers to the use of tax increment financing to fund projects. When the downtown district was created, it took advantage of substantial federal grant funding. Grants were authorized by congress to respond to the deterioration that was taking place in L:\CMO\2004 Council Agendas\M040809\S0408093.doc