CC Minutes - 02/13/06 Work Session

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certain if Whole Foods planned to include a housing component in its development and voiced concerns about the possible negative impact of Whole Foods on small organic stores as well as its position on organized labor, but noted Whole Foods was widely recognized as a good place to work. Mayor Piercy solicited council comments and questions. Ms. Taylor said that opportunities were being cut off, such as extending the Park Blocks to the river and other possible uses for the land. She said that the issue deserved more time and a public hearing before a decision was made. She thought there could also be an impact on larger businesses and the community already had an abundance of organic food suppliers. She said if the development was another theater it might increase the interest in theater rather than hurting other venues, but people would not buy more groceries because there was another grocery store. She said it was a prime location and the City did not know what other opportunities might appear and would be cutting off the possibility of something else. She said if Whole Foods wanted to build a store it should be treated just like any other store. She said that th Market of Choice was building a store at 29 Avenue and Willamette Street and the City was not doing anything special for it and should not do anything special for Whole Foods. Ms. Bettman said she supported the land swap to provide The Shedd with contiguous property with its existing music school. She had concerns with the proposal as presented in terms of subsidizing retail space and because it circumvented the competitive bidding process. She said the City’s provisions regarding competitive bidding and contracts would be circumvented by Whole Foods building a parking garage if it was established that there was a public benefit to the garage. She asked if Whole Foods was subject to fair employment and prevailing wage provisions, plus other provisions related to minority- and women-owned businesses. Mr. Klein said the developer was subject to prevailing wage provisions. He said the parking garage/credit union part of the project would be subject to prevailing wage and related requirements. He would determine whether the other provisions related to a public improvement would apply. Ms. Bettman asked for language for amendments to put the public parking garage out to competitive bid instead of the current configuration of the proposal. She also wanted language that created an option where the commercial retail space was not being publicly built. She suggested combining the square footage being used to accommodate the publicly built retail space, selling it, and using the revenue to help fund a more consolidated public parking garage. She was also concerned that the “Great Street” side of the project would be dead space with a parking garage being at least 50 percent of the frontage. Ms. Solomon stated that she supported the project. She said that nothing special was being done for Whole Foods, which could proceed with the project with or without the City’s involvement. She said the City should take advantage of the opportunity and cost savings provided to it to meet the need for downtown parking. Mr. Pryor said the project was reasonable and he supported it. He did not perceive the parking garage to be built by the City to serve the courthouse area and east downtown to be a subsidy for Whole Foods. He said Whole Foods was pursuing its project and the City was partnering with it, which was different than a subsidy. With regard to the potential market impact, he believed it was unlikely that shoppers at stores such as Kiva or Sundance would switch to Whole Foods; if they did, he questioned whether that was a public policy decision or a market-driven decision. He said Whole Foods should be allowed to build its store and let the market determine where people would shop; that was not a matter of public policy. MINUTES—Eugene City Council February 13, 2006 Page 3 Work Session