CC Minutes - 03/15/06 Work Session

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conclusion was the right decision. She said this was just one project and there was much left to be done in downtown and many more decisions facing the council. Mayor Piercy believed the council owed the community a larger, broader, deeper conversation about downtown. She acknowledged the existing Downtown Plan but suggested the community had changed since 2002 and there might be a different vision of where the downtown should be going. She invited all who were concerned to participate. Mayor Piercy expressed pleasure in the civic interest shown in the downtown by the community and residents’ desire to participate in the public process. Mr. Kelly said he previously raised the need for a work session to look proactively at downtown green space, with which the mayor concurred. He asked that Assistant City Manager Carlson attempt to schedule such a session. The motion passed, 5:2; Ms. Taylor and Ms. Bettman voting no. Ms. Solomon, seconded by Ms. Ortiz, moved to authorize the City Manager to enter into a Development Agreement with Broadway & High Associates and Gerding/Edlen Develop- ment Company for the public garage as part of the East Broadway Development Projects, in substantial conformity with the outline of terms described in Attachment C. The Devel- opment Agreement shall include a maximum payment to Broadway & High Associates and Gerding/Edlen Development Company for the garage construction of $7 million. Mr. Kelly clarified that the version the council was voting on was at members’ places and reflected changes agreed to by the council on February 22. Assistant City Manager Carlson further clarified that the version at councilors’ places was labeled Attachment B but should be considered Attachment C for the purposes of the motion. Mayor Piercy referred to page 269 of the packet and asked the source of the $475,000 in the Library Bond Debt Service. Assistant City Manager Carlson said that was General Fund money put aside in 1999 in a reserve fund as a portion of the reserves for the library construction project. The money was not taken from the Library Fund or the local option levy. There was no general obligation bond for the library. It was not library operations money. Staff was proposing to move the funding in question from one reserve to another. The City was coming to the end of the funding for the Library project and had adequate remaining reserves in the Urban Renewal Fund to protect the City from any kind of default in the Library Construction Bonds. He indicated that $400,000 would go into a reserve for the loan related to the parking structure, and $75,000 would be used to underwrite the financing for the loan. Ms. Bettman explained for the public’s benefit that the project would cost $11.5 million. Of that, $8.035 was intended for the construction of the garage, about $1 million would be used for the site itself, and about $2.5 million would be spent on financing for the bonds to provide the funding for the garage. Speaking to the public process, Ms. Bettman said public participation had been phenomenal, even after the public was overlooked in the planning process. The project was about to be approved when the City acknowledged a hearing was needed for the bid exemption. The council and organization were forced to hold a public hearing, or the project would have gone through without public input. Ms. Bettman said it was nice to hear people say they wanted a broader public process, but she was aware of projects being proposed that did not have a public process, and if there was no legal requirement for a public hearing, none would occur. MINUTES—Eugene City Council March 15, 2006 Page 5 Work Session