Item 2A: Approval of City Council Minutes

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akin to Wal-mart. He thought it would drive local markets out of business and would restrict the city’s food supply. He opposed “wasting time and revenue” on this. He opined that the City should be talking about giving the Farmers Market more space. He averred that the Whole Foods Grocery would take money from the community and send it elsewhere, while local growers kept money in the community. Joseph Young , 3045 Harris Street, believed the project would do nothing but take money out of the community and drive local businesses to failure. He felt it made no sense to give money to a large corporation. He did not think money should be thrown around in a “haphazard” manner. He echoed concerns that the hearing had been rushed through. He thought the process should slow down. He related that he ate locally grown foods almost exclusively and he felt this had greatly reduced his allergies. Athena Yemaya-Perkins , 311 Merrill Court, recalled ten years earlier when a major magazine declared Eugene to be one of the ten best places to live in the United States. She attributed this to having both a big city and a small town feel. She felt that part of the small town feeling was due to the number of small natural food stores scattered around the area and Eugene’s resistance to national corporations. She opined that this supported the community and decreased its dependence on fossil fuels. She did not believe a centrally located downtown grocery store was needed. She opposed the project. She opined that money and the power should be kept in the city of Eugene. She suggested the citizens of the community decide how to best use the space downtown. She supported building an indoor, year-round Farmers Market structure. Moshe Immerman , 1295 McLean Boulevard, called Whole Foods Grocery the opposite of sustainable business. He alleged that $46 million would “leave the city” annually should Whole Foods Grocery be located here. He opposed the use of City staff time and money to support the project. Michelle Emmons , 132 East Broadway, #103, said in six years of working downtown she felt there had never been a more exciting time for the future of the downtown area. She averred that downtown was no longer lingering at the tipping point but was now at a “critical juncture of critical mass.” She said Whole Foods Grocery had a record of providing family-wage jobs, insurance, community reinvestment, and supported both local and global sustainable business practices. She commented that she would not stop shopping at her other favorite natural food markets. She stated that a new parking garage would serve parking needs into the future as the courthouse neighborhood continued to develop. She reiterated that city parking studies indicated the need to provide more parking in order to serve the mixed-use, dense urban development described in Eugene’s Growth and Sustainability Principles. She stressed that the community spent several years and “hundreds of thousands” of hours to accommodate the kind of development described in the Downtown Plan. She averred it was a valid plan and it was now time to realize the vision and move forward, stepping into the future of a safe, attractive, inviting, and economically vital downtown that would be a source of pride for everyone. Kevin Matthews , PO Box 1588, called the turnout at the council meeting a “great showing that the people of Eugene really care about their city.” He stated that the Friends of Eugene submitted written testimony. He related that the Friends of Eugene met the previous evening and had spent six hours listing “the problems and the points that need to be clarified.” He wondered why the City of Eugene was in this situation. He felt that developers were “always” going to try to approach the City looking for “sweetheart deals.” He opined that the City was not getting staff work that was “accurate and of the highest integrity.” He opined that the “low quality of the facts and findings” would leave the City “without a legal leg to stand on.” John Flanery , 1641 Broadway, commented that a market that built its strategy around shipping foods for thousands of miles was not a good future bet for the downtown area. He also wondered what the City would do if the Whole Foods Grocery failed. MINUTES—Eugene City Council -- March 13, 2006 Page 24 City Council Meeting