CCMinutes - 08/09/04 WS - Laserfiche WebLink

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Mr. Kelly remarked that it was clear from reading the minutes that the committee had worked through many issues in a short amount of time. He wished they had settled on principles and goals that would drive the recommendations. He thought that to be the "biggest vacuum" he saw in previous discussions. He appreciated that the committee had reached a 75 percent agreement, as it had been charged to do by council order. Mr. Papd thanked the committee for its work. He commented that the City had "been around and around" on the second recommendation. He asked if there was any sense from the committee as to how this would be accomplished. Ms. Smith replied that the committee had discussed the logistics of an annual review. Mr. Coyle commented that, in a perfect world, a piece of land use code would be adopted and it would be used for a period of time to determine its efficacy and then either revised or retained. He opined that the challenge in Eugene was that what was administrative and what was policy became longer in time. In response to a question from Mr. Pap~, Mr. Coyle affirmed that an annual review was part of land use code in cities in which he was previously employed. Mr. Taylor added that staff was beginning to incorporate such review as part of the process in a routine way. Mr. Pap~ appreciated the Addendum: The Drama of Compromise, written by committee member Don Kahle. Ms. Solomon lauded the report and the work of the committee. Ms. Bettman thanked the committee for the time they had put into the work. She said it had done the "best with what it had to work with." She thought the recommendations were "recycled old tools." She had hoped that the committee would determine that a long-term committee should be formed to look at what the City's role in economic development should be and what the real opportunities were, instead of looking at one tool and "looking at it in a vacuum." She bemoaned that the committee had not been able to look at the cost benefit analysis of economic tools. She opined that the discussion had yet to happen in which the City considered what it could do with the resources the committee was asking for in these recommendations if the could be invested in economic development in other ways. She would have liked to have seen a definition of economic development "that the community would buy into." She reiterated her objection to the makeup of the committee, calling it representative of "only a small sliver of the population." Mr. Poling also commended the work of the committee. He hoped the City Council would take the recommendations and put them to use. He noted that two surveys, conducted in 2002 and 2004, indicated that constituents wanted the City to take an active role in economic development. He disagreed that the makeup of the committee was not diverse. He thought the members were very representative of the diversity of the community. Mayor Torrey thanked all of the members of the committee. He noted that initially there was hesitation on the part of the committee on whether it should proceed. He believed there were a number of recommenda- tions that the City Council could work with, but the council would only address the first one at its regular meeting following the work session. He stressed that the committee had given the City Council a "tremen- dous leg-up" by tackling the issues. He felt comfortable that the council had received great work from them. He expressed hope that the council would have the courage to move forward with it. He called the report the beginning and expressed hope that it would be put into action and not placed upon the shelf. MINUTES--Eugene City Council August 9, 2004 Page 4 Work Session