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HomeMy WebLinkAboutCC Minutes - 10/10/07 Work Session M I N U T E S Eugene City Council McNutt Room – City Hall 777 Pearl Street—Eugene, Oregon October 10, 2007 Noon COUNCILORS PRESENT: Andrea Ortiz, Chris Pryor, Betty Taylor, Bonny Bettman, Solomon, George Poling, Mike Clark, Alan Zelenka. ABSENT: Jennifer Solomon. Her Honor Mayor Kitty Piercy called the meeting of the Eugene City Council to order. A. WORK SESSION: Minor Code Amendments Assistant City Manager Luell introduced Principal Planner Steve Nystrom to present the minor code amendments. Mr. Nystrom presented an overview of the progress made to date on amending the land use code to address a variety of issues. He said Phase I, focusing on clarifying ambiguous or conflicting language, was completed a year ago; Phase II began in early 2007 and focused on improving the land use code. He said a consultant was hired as project manager for Phase II and extensive community outreach was conducted to solicit suggestions from the public for amendments. He said over 220 amendments were suggested and the staff, consultants and Planning Commission began the process of working with the public to determine which were priorities. He said the Planning Commission eventually selected a working list of 20 amendments that were representative of community priorities and the purpose of the work session was to share that information and receive feedback from the council on the process before proceeding with the next steps. He briefly reviewed the Planning Commission's list of amendments, noting that the list described an amendment, assigned a level of complexity, identified the source of the suggestion and provided explanatory comments. He said a white paper would be developed on each amendment before beginning the formal hearing process before the Planning Commission and the City Council and final approval by the council. Ms. Piercy expressed her appreciation for organization of the material. She said the Neighborhood Leaders Council (NLC) had indicated the issues they raised were well represented on the list. MINUTES—Eugene City Council October 10, 2007 Page 1 Work Session Mr. Clark thanked staff for the thorough work. He noted that suggested amendments 204, 206 and 209 all related to stormwater issues and asked why only 206 and 209 were selected for white paper development while 204 remained a low priority. Mr. Nystrom said that 204 represented a much more complex issue that would far exceed the limited scope of the minor amendment process. He said 204 would remain on the full list of amendments for future consideration. Mr. Clark asked if a thorough analysis of 206 and 209 could be made without considering 204. Mr. Nystrom said it was possible to consider those more limited amendments at this time and that information would contribute to a more extensive analysis of stormwater issues in the future. Ms. Taylor asked when the council would be involved in the process. Mr. Nystrom said he anticipated the council would be engaged in the process in late winter, depending on how long hearings were conducted by the Planning Commission; those hearings would not commence until early 2008. Ms. Taylor asked if the council would receive copies of the white papers as they were developed and whether action would occur on all amendments simultaneously. She asked how the public would be involved in reviewing and commenting on the white papers. Mr. Nystrom replied that the council could be provided with the white papers and any other information it wanted, either incrementally or when all were completed. He said the process could bundle smaller numbers of related amendments for council considera- tion. He said public involvement would include workshops, informal meetings with the Planning Commis- sion and finally, formal hearings. Ms. Taylor remarked that the NLC was composed of individuals and might not always reflect the interest of entire neighborhoods. She urged staff to include neighborhood associations in their outreach efforts. She questioned why the height of backyard houses, which was important to neighborhoods, was not on the list. Mr. Nystrom said there were a number of suggestions related to infill issues, including height restrictions. He said the review to determine what could be addressed in the limited scope of the minor amendments process had concluded that those issues would be better addressed in the infill standards project. Ms. Bettman commended staff for the minor code amendments process and the public participation component. She noted that density, as it applied to zones other than residential, did not appear to be on the list of suggested amendments. She did not feel that residential zones should absorb all of the responsibility MINUTES—Eugene City Council October 10, 2007 Page 2 Work Session for density; commercial and industrial should have the same expectations. She asked how the list of recommendations from the council was developed. Mr. Nystrom said the recommendations came from council work sessions and comments and emails from councilors. Ms. Bettman stated that she had asked for growth management policies to be adopted as part of the land use code, but that was not on the list. Mr. Nystrom explained that the Planning Commission had identified that as a significant issue, but felt it was too complex for the minor amendments process; he expected that it would be included in the commission's upcoming work program. He noted that a majority of the amend- ments on the list came from the community. Mr. Zelenka praised the work of all those involved in the process to date. He agreed with Ms. Taylor's suggestion to involve the neighborhoods directly. He hoped that amendments would be bundled and brought to the council over a period of time instead of all at once. He said the amendments that were important to him were 8, 101, 12, 109, 95, 151, 192, 193, 206, 209, 35 and 114. Regarding 95, he expressed concern about eliminating site reviews. He asked how the noise and smoking ordinance fit into the process. Mr. Nystrom said the smoking and noise ordinance would amend Chapter 6, not the land use code in Chapter 9. In response to a question from Ms. Piercy, Mr. Nystrom said the downtown code amendments were in Chapter 9. He said the minor amendments process also received many comments regarding downtown and those were referred to the concurrent downtown code amendments process. Mr. Clark took note of the council's recent discussions regarding the need to have representative groups involved in processes like the minor code amendments to mitigate potential conflicts. He felt the list of people invited to participate was reasonably well balanced and most of the items recommended for white papers were from the NLC, although that body was distinct from the neighborhood associates. He supported gathering input from the associations during the next steps. He also noted that with the exception of two items, the remainder of the amendments on the list came from the council. In response to a question from Mr. Zelenka, Mr. Nystrom explained that the downtown amendments process arose from an earlier effort to examine existing and potential tools for downtown; recommendations were forwarded to the council, which identified the issues it wished to see addressed. MINUTES—Eugene City Council October 10, 2007 Page 3 Work Session Ms. Taylor asked how "resident" was defined when identified as the source of an amendment. Mr. Nystrom said that the process was open to anyone who wished to comment and "resident" defined an individual who was not associated with or representing a specific group. MINUTES—Eugene City Council October 10, 2007 Page 4 Work Session B. WORK SESSION: City Council Goal – Enhance Understand of Race Issues and Improve Race Relationships Action Plan Update Human Resources Executive Director Lauren Chouinard described the purpose of the work session to review a more detailed version of the action plan and obtain assistance from the council on the following: ? Prioritization of action items. ? Elimination of mid-long range action item #4 and the work session associated with it. ? Identification of council champions for each of the action items. ? Discussion of potential funding source(s). Ms. Bettman listed items 2, 9 and 10 as important to her. She said she had anticipated a comprehensive update on recruitment and hiring as well as things that had occurred in the City and metro area that the council should know about. She wanted to receive status reports three or four times a year, including information on key, high profile issues. She agreed with the suggestion to eliminate the work session. Ms. Ortiz said it was of critical importance to her that a strategic plan be created, supported by the council and have staff resources assigned to it. She said the plan should include many of the action items in the staff report. She said the community had been clear about the desire for a cultural center that could be used by many groups and cultures. She said her priorities were items 1 and 7. She was agreeable to eliminating item 4, but wanted that addressed in the strategic plan. She also placed importance on dedicating funds to the work and establishing a budget process that aligned funding with the City's values, as well as holding ongoing discussions with communities of color. She said that items 11 and 12 were also essential. Mr. Zelenka said item 1, creating a strategic plan and institutionalizing it within the organization, was his highest priority, followed by items 11 and 12. He emphasized the need to meet with communities of color on a regular basis in the mid- and long-term and agreed to dropping item 4. Mr. Pryor was supportive of the idea of a cultural center, but the purpose should be to facilitate conversa- tions and interactions between people. He felt that communication and interaction was the key and his is only concern with eliminating item 4 was whether that would eliminate an opportunity to have that MINUTES—Eugene City Council October 10, 2007 Page 5 Work Session conversation, although study circles and forums could be better opportunities to increase communication and understanding than a council work session. Ms. Piercy thought it was premature to identify champions until there was a strategic plan. Her priority was to integrate thinking about race relations into everything the City did and not place it in a project-specific silo. She believed that the people long to see the diversity in the community reflected in a building. She observed that people often did not know how to react when confronted with inappropriate behavior and it was important to put those tools out for the community to use. She said there was grant funding available for community initiatives to improve race relations. Ms. Taylor said it was not necessary to build a cultural center; the City could make facilities like the Bascom-Tykeson Room available to community groups free of charge. She preferred to build a youth center open to all races and cultures. She also wanted to see greater recognition of Eugene's four sister cities. She suggested that the council's ceremonial matters could be used to celebrate different cultures with dance and music. Ms. Ortiz appreciated the suggestion to make meeting rooms available to community groups. Ms. Bettman stated her support for the other priorities within the context of the strategic plan. She reemphasized value of Eugene sponsoring the hate crimes conference, as it was an excellent way to reach out to the broader community and continue dialogue and education. She had learned through her participa- tion in the Portland conference about an educator who contracted with school districts to go into schools and work with children while they were young to promote appropriate behaviors. She wanted to see the City contract for that training on behalf of the school district. Ms. Piercy said the district's response to a racial incident at North Eugene High School could possibly be replicated at other schools. She said the youth action board regarded themselves as a diverse group and wanted to be part of community cultural diversity activities, including a cultural center. Mr. Zelenka said his interest in a cultural center was related to providing space and a forum, possibly in City Hall, than building a new facility. He liked Ms. Taylor's suggestion to celebrate cultural diversity at MINUTES—Eugene City Council October 10, 2007 Page 6 Work Session council meetings and Ms. Bettman's suggestion for educating young people to promote understanding and tolerance. In response to a question from Ms. Ortiz, Mr. Chouinard said staff was already working on the rough draft of a strategic plan to present to City diversity committees, executive and division managers for feedback. He said staff would continue to refine the plan over the winter months and hoped to begin outreach to community groups for their input in the spring, but resources were needed for that effort. Diversity Manager Jason Mak explained there were three options for the community outreach process: a low cost option predominantly using staff resources at a cost of $5,000, a medium-cost option using graduate students at the University of Oregon at a cost of $50-70,000 and a high-cost option using a consultant at a cost of several hundred thousand dollars. Ms. Ortiz, seconded by Mr. Zelenka, moved to use $50,000 from the Council Con- tingency Fund for item 1 to create an over arching strategic plan for the organiza- tion that addresses diversity and human rights which includes defined mission and goals. Mr. Clark said he would support the motion because the amount was modest, it could be covered by the contingency fund and he supported what the council was trying to accomplish, but when larger sums were being discussed he felt it should be part of the larger discussion and balanced against other priorities such as increasing police staffing. Ms. Bettman asked when the strategic plan would be completed if the council provided one-time funding. Mr. Mak said that would be dependent on the availability of professors and students at the University, but he estimated two or three months once there was approval to move forward. Ms. Bettman offer a friendly amendment to require the strategic plan to come to the City Council for approval and implementation of the plan would be part of the FY09 budget process. Ms. Ortiz and Mr. Zelenka accepted the friendly amend- ment. MINUTES—Eugene City Council October 10, 2007 Page 7 Work Session Mr. Zelenka agreed with the importance of finishing the strategic plan and having it approved by the council in time for it to be part of the next budget process. Ms. Bettman wondered if some of the less expensive items, such as regular work sessions to update the council on what was happening in the community, could be done with existing resources. Mr. Chouinard suggested that might be more within the purview of the Human Rights Commission to address community issues of race as the staff work group's efforts were more internally focused. Ms. Bettman said she saw a work session to provide the council with a comprehensive look at community race relations as similar to how staff currently brought issues to the council. Ms. Ortiz observed that the Human Rights Commission previously had reported to the council on the demographics of City staff. Mr. Chouinard replied that the structure of the strategic plan would include that information as an appendix that was updated annually. Ms. Piercy said that race relations work should be both internal and external as the City had a responsibility to be a good model for the rest of the community. The motion passed, 7:0. Mr. Zelenka confirmed that the public hearing on McKenzie-Willamette scheduled for October 23, 2007, had been cancelled and that councilors should still not discuss the matter. Ms. Bettman indicated confusion about what the council could discuss with respect to hospital siting. City Attorney Emily Jerome explained that councilors could not discuss issues related to the substance of the application. She cautioned councilors to use care in their comments and avoid giving the impression they could not be objective when making a decision. She said that would include discussions regarding alternate sites. The meeting adjourned at 1:25 p.m. Respectfully submitted, MINUTES—Eugene City Council October 10, 2007 Page 8 Work Session Angel Jones Interim City Manager (Recorded by Lynn Taylor MINUTES—Eugene City Council October 10, 2007 Page 9 Work Session