Item 2A: Approval of City Council Minutes

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nd Eben Fodor , 394 East 32 Avenue, thanked everyone for the “outstanding citizen participation.” He said he had never seen the Council Chamber so full of people. He called the hearing the “Texas Chain Store Massacre.” He asserted that the planned parking garage was 53 percent more expensive than the City’s own estimates for a garage. He calculated it would cost $29,000 per parking space. He thought it would be a $2.6 million subsidy. He opposed the no-bid contracting process. He alleged that the City had no plans for a parking garage on this site prior to the submittal of the proposal from the developer. He submitted his testimony in writing. Krishna Singh Khalsa , 4521 Wagner Street, thanked the smaller store owners for sharing the impact they felt a large store would have on their respective businesses. He said he was a member of the newly formed Lane Food Policy Council. He called food security an important issue to every citizen. He commented that the average food item traveled 1,500 miles from the farm to the plate. He thought the local food supply needed to be vastly expanded in order to provide true food security to the community. He asked that public funds not be used to “damage the very goal we’re working to establish.” th Dustann Jones , 650 West 12 Avenue, #108, a member of the Urban Design Studio, opined that mixed-use was how the site should be developed. He brought a drawing of his project, which included the 52,000 square foot Whole Foods Grocery, two floors of parking above, and 52 units of walk-up housing. He thought along with the density, a mixed-use area could provide semi-private green spaces. He called it enhanced architecture. He reported that he had run a pro forma on his proposed alternative project and it had come back with a seven-percent return. He noted that the residential units at the Broadway Place apartments subsidized the commercial space. Otto Poticha , 1820 Kona Street, spoke in support of the Whole Foods project but he did not support the parking structure at the “entrance to downtown.” He felt the site would be better used for a new City Hall. He commented that he waited 30 years for someone to build the four floors of parking on the County’s public service building parking lot. He stated that he designed that building and it had been set for four more floors. He described the structure as having a three-foot slab for a foundation over the entire block which had taken 48 continuous hours to pour. He said it was made as ballast so that it does not “pop out of the ground like a swimming pool.” He did not know why the City and the County could not use that building. He had heard rumors that it had been said the structure would not hold up. He maintained that it would hold up and offered to put his engineering study up against any engineering study that asserted otherwise. Russ Brink , 132 East Broadway, provided the names of 225 people who visited the Downtown Eugene, Inc. website to show their support for the project. He acknowledged that Whole Foods Grocery could build a store on any properly zoned land in the City. He predicted the store would come to this community at some time and that parking would be key to its location at any site. He wondered how many parking spaces th Whole Foods Grocery would be required to build under current code on West 11 Avenue and Coburg Road. He asked why people would want to encourage surface parking at a suburban location when a City center location was more consistent with smart growth principles. He pointed out that the City built and operated parking in the downtown area because it was a parking exempt zone, which meant that developers were not required to provide parking. He stressed that the City provided parking as a public service and as a means to implement city growth management policies. He thought the site could be documented by any common sense analysis given the recent developments in that area such as the federal courthouse and the Shedd Institute. Bart Ricketts , 921 Southwest Washington Street, Portland, President of Lease Crutcher Lewis, spoke as a construction professional and contractor with a great deal of experience with the no-bid delivery method. He MINUTES—Eugene City Council -- March 13, 2006 Page 16 City Council Meeting