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HomeMy WebLinkAbout06/22/1988 Meeting e M I NUT E S Eugene City Council McNutt Room--City Hall June 22, 1988 11:30 a.m. COUNCILORS PRESENT: Ruth Bascom, Rob Bennett, Debra Ehrman, Freeman Holmer, Jeff Miller, Roger Rutan, Emily Schue, Cynthia Wooten. The adjourned meeting of June 15, 1988, of the Eugene City Council was called to order by Mayor Brian B. Obie. Mayor Obie asked that the council consider Item III (the ordinance concerning an interim Sign Code) first and defer Items From the Council, Mayor, and City Manager to the end of the meeting. The council agreed. I. WORK SESSION: ORDINANCE CONCERNING AN INTERIM SIGN CODE Mayor Obie announced a conflict of interest wi~h the item and left the room. Councilor Holmer acted as chair for this item. e Terry Smith, Assistant Director of Public Works, said staff had met with representatives of the sign industry recently as directed by the council. He said the meeting was successful and staff reached an agreement with the representatives on how the Sign Code would address most of the issues in question. Representativ~s of the sign industry took the position that murals should be regulated as all wall signs are. The representatives recommended that a mural be limited to a maximum of 200 square feet. Mr. Smith said staff agreed with this position which did not represent a change to the interim code. With regard to small signs, Mr. Smith said representatives from the sign industry recommended that signs of an area less than 12 square feet be exempt from permit requirements unless they are illuminated, in which case an electrical permit would be required. Signs up to an area of 16 square feet also would not need a permit, but would be required to undergo structural and electrical review if they are illuminated or of sufficient height. Mr. Smith said staff also agreed with this position which did not represent a change from the current code. Mr. Smith felt many people had misunderstood the change being made in the interim Sign Code with regard to reader boards. He said the change in the interim code permitted up to five square feet of a primary sign to be reader board, and also allowed a reader board of up to 40 square feet, if setback 15 feet from the property line. Mr. Smith said many people thought reader boards would be limited to only five square feet. He said the sign industry - MINUTES--Eugene City Council June 22, 1988 Page 1 e feels the IS-foot setback requirement creates sign clutter because reader boards must be setback, whereas other signs can be placed at the property line. This means many businesses erect two signs. The sign industry wanted to eliminate the IS-foot setback requirement in the interim code. Mr. Smith said staff agrees that this is a significant issue, but feels it should be considered during the full revision of the Sign Code. Ms. Wooten and Ms. Schue agreed that this change would have a significant impact and should be deferred until the full revision. Mr. Smith said the section of the Sign Code which deals with billboards was reinterpretted by the City Council in 1975 to prohibit billboards on limited access sites. Mr. Smith said the desire behind this ruling was to limit billboards as much as possible. It causes a problem for staff which feels it is inconsistent to permit billboards on surface arterials in the City, while banning them from all limited access facilities outside the City. He added that the Sign Code zoning map was never revised in accordance with the ruling and this has been a source of mistakes in the granting of permits. In response to a question from Ms. Wooten, Mr. Smith said an additional six to nine billboards could be permitted if the regulation were changed to eliminate the prohibition against putting billboard on limited access sites. Ms. Wooten said she is supportive of the change which would allow additional billboards on limited access highways. Ms. Ehrman said she would support the change also. Mr. Rutan said there are already explicit Federal and State laws governing billboards. He said he was supportive of this change which would eliminate the inconsistency in the regulation of billboards. e With regard to midget billboards, Mr. Smith said staff had suggested allowing wall signs of a maximum of 200 square feet. He said currently the Sign Code is so generous that the allowable area for wall signs is not generally used. This technically means that a person could lease another person1s excess wall signage and erect a billboard. Mr. Smith said the sign industry felt if this allowance were taken advantage of, it would generate negative public relations and recommended that wall signs be restricted to 200 square feet in area and that signage be limited to 1.S square feet per lineal foot of building space. Mr. Smith said staff was in agreement with this suggestion. Council members agreed that it was a good idea. II. WORK SESSION: ORDINANCE CONCERNING NUCLEAR FREE ZONE Ms. Schue said there was a petition circulating which would establish a nuclear free zone and an elected board that would be written into the charter so that it could not be changed by the City Council. She felt this would not be good for Eugene and that it would be the most radical version of the ordinance that has been proposed here. Ms. Schue said with t~is in mind, ordinance Option A is a compromise and felt it would be the most acceptable to the community. Mr. Holmer said the council needs to be consistent with the vote in the primary on May 17, 1988, and with its prior actions. He said it is clear e MINUTES--Eugene City Council June 22, 1988 Page 2 e that the citizens want a nuclear free zone ordinance and recommended adoption of Option B as the most realistic of the options. Mr. Holmer felt the council should continue to give voters a choice by adopting Option Band waiting for petitioners to propose a charter amendment. He said another way to give the voters a choice is to put the MRV and Bennett proposals on the ballot and see if the voters are willing to go this far. Mr. Miller agreed that it is important for the council to respect the voters and expressed concern about the expense involved with the MRV and Bennett versions of the ordinance. He felt the council needs to make a decision about the best way to spend funds to benefit the citizens of Eugene and that Option B was the best choice for this reason. Ms. Bascom said the council should take a risk by appointing a board and passing Option A. She said this is a risk but that it more strongly controls the amount of money to be spent. Mr. Bennett felt he could not support Option A because it is not in the best interests of the community; he said it goes too far and is hard to understand. Mr. Bennett felt a less broad ordinance could be just as effective and said he would support Option B. Mayor Obie said he heard much discussion at the public hearing about the fact that the council was not keeping its integrity with the voters because it was not supporting the most stringent version of the ordinance. He said he would not favor a board of any kind because he would not want to empower another e group of people to oversee the economic and philosophical standards of the commun ity. Mayor Obie said the council administers many ordinances and does it very well; the same would be true with this ordinance. He distributed a tally of votes from the November 1986 election in which the Lane County nuclear free zone ordinance received more "yes" votes within the City of Eugene than the Eugene ordinance did. Mayor Obie said there is no question that Option B keeps the faith of the voters. Ms. Wooten felt the council should adopt Option A because by doing so, the council could get the item off its agenda. She said it is essential that a board be established to work with other jurisdictions and for purposes of education and information. Ms. Wooten said the board set up by Option A would not have enforcement powers and very little investigative powers, so it would not dictate the economic and philosophical standards of the community as feared by Mayor Obie. She also did not feel the figures distributed by Mayor Obie indicated that the majority of voters support Option B. Ms. Wooten said an elected board, as proposed by petitioners, is bad government. III. PROCESS FOR DETERMINING FUTURE USES OF LINCOLN Sr.HOOL BUILDING Jan Bohman, Development Specialist, said the council approved allocations for security, maintenance, and repairs to the Lincoln School in May and requested that staff draft motions expressing the two process options discussed at previous council meetings. Ms. Bohman said some interim security measures e MINUTES--Eugene City Council June 22, 1988 Page 3 e have been taken and more long-term measures will be taken when the City owns the building. Ms. Bohman said staff has begun drafting a request for proposals (RFP) which will specify that the City would like to see the maximum possible amount of usable space be made available for public or private nonprofit agencies, with preference given to proposals which show up to 50 percent of space available for such uses. She said housing will be another considered use. Ms. Bohman said the RFP will also indicate that all proposals must meet the Secretary of Interior's guidelines for historic rehabilitation and that the project for head-injured housing will be on the site. The RFP will indicate the City's desire to maintain the publicly owned and used play area adjacent to the building. Ms. Schue felt it should be possible to get input from the community without such an elaborate program. Ms. Bohman said the time line was developed in response to community interest in having a broad examination of community need for such a facility. Ms. Schue said there has been much discussion of the community need already and felt it would be beneficial to have an appointed task force draft a tentative proposal and seek reaction to the proposal. Mr. Gleason said he was skeptical about the ability to reach an agreement about process, if the input time were shortened. He felt shortening the process would create controversy and would give the impression that the council and staff are trying to dominate the process. Mr. Miller was in favor of giving the community a chance to generate options e for the building and funding sources. He asked if it would be possible to use funds allocated for office remodeling and rehabilitation in the capital budget to fund this project. Ms. Bohman said the revenue for this project will be varied and will take a lot of work to develop. Ms. Wooten supported a reduction in the scope of the task force. She said the joint funds need assessment is available and that a very comprehensive public meeting and hearing process would not be necessary. Ms. Wooten said the task force should begin by identifying potential users rather than uses for the building. She suggested that a consultant be hired to help identify funding sources and to help develop a successful financial package. Mr. Bennett said this type of bUilding is difficult and costly to rehabilitate. He recommended that the council pursue the RFP process which would lean toward obtaining community service organizations as tenants for the major portion of the building. He felt an RFP process would attract outside capital and secure the building for the future. Mr. Rutan said the Lincoln School project is the epitome of how the City gets into budgetary problems. He said the City cannot ~fford to develop Lincoln School and creating a task force will only raise expectations in the community. He said there are contradictions in the RFP process because rent would be too expensive to accommodate substantive occupancy by nonprofit or other public organizations. Mr. Rutan said he would support the RFP process, but felt no City investment should be involved. e MINUTES--Eugene City Council June 22, 1988 Page 4 e Ms. Schue agreed that the City cannot afford to spend money on this building. She said there will be a lot of controversy, however, if the groups that want to be located in Lincoln School cannot afford it once the building has been developed. For this reason, she felt it would be best to have representatives of those who want to occupy the building look at the reality and let them try to generate funding to rent space in the building. Ms. Wooten was concerned that the council was overlooking the importance of involvement of the neighborhood with regard to what type of uses will be in Lincoln School and how the facility will be rehabilitated. She added that it is an overreaction to say nonprofit and community service organizations could not afford the rent. Mr. Miller said it would be desirable to combine the RFP and task force processes if possible. Ms. Bohman said it would be possible to have an advisory group work with staff to develop an RFP, although staff felt this would make drafting the RFP more difficult. She said citizens serving on the advisory group would need to understand that there are realistic parameters that must go into an RFP to get proposals back. Ms. Ehrman said she would support this process as a compromise. She added that the RFP should be as open as possible so that several proposals are received. Ms. Bascom expressed concern that the council js dreaming of providing a facility and use that is too expensive for people who think they are interested in the building. Ms. Ehrman said an RFP process must be done to e see if a developer is willing to take a chance on the building. She reiterated her opinion that an advisory group should be formed to work with staff on the RFP. Mayor Obie said he woulq support an advisory group after the RFP process is complete. He felt the RFP should be out for at least six months and should not be subject to any restrictions. Ms. Ehrman felt it would be better to have an advisory group at the beginning of the process because many citizens would feel shut out otherwise. Mayor Obie said it is unfair to limit the creativity of those who might submit proposals and felt forming an advisory group to begin with would have this effect. Mr. Gleason said there are some general land use restrictions on the property which the RFP would have to reflect. Ms. Bascom moved, seconded by Mr. Bennett, to direct staff to develop and distribute a Request for Proposals for development of the Lincoln School building. The RFP shall call for maximizing public and private nonprofit service-oriented use of space, maximizing private investment, minimizing City investment, and shall be out for ~ine months. Ms. Ehrman moved, seconded by Mr. Miller, to amend the previous motion by directing staff to develop a Request for Proposals for development of the lincoln School building with advice from an advisory group of seven people appointed by the e MINUTES--Eugene City Council June 22, 1988 Page 5 e mayor, with the RFP containing the same stipulations cited in the previous motion. Mr. Rutan felt the advisory committee would limit the creativity of the proposals submitted and that it would raise expectations among neighbors. Ms. Wooten said she does not support the RFP process because members of the community and potential users would not be involved as directly as they would in an advisory group process. She also felt a group of nonprofit organizations would need staff assistance to put together a development proposal. Ms. Ehrman's motion to amend the original motion carried 5:3, with Mr. Rutan, Ms. Bascom, and Mr. Bennett voting opposed. The amended motion carried 5:4, with Ms. Wooten, Mr. Rutan, Ms. Schue, and Mr. Holmer voting in opposition. IV. LAND PURCHASE OPTION FOR HEAD-INJURED HOUSING PROJECT Mr. Holmer moved, seconded by Ms. Bascom, to authorize the City Manager to enter into a lease/purchase option with D.H., Inc. for a portion of the site at 12th and Jefferson for the development of a housing project for head-injured individuals. The option will be subject to the conditions outlined. e Mayor Obie asked to what extent this agreement would limit options for utilization of the property through the RFP process. Ms. Bohman said it would limit the net amount of land. She said a separate lot would be created for the head-injured housing project. Mr. Holmer asked if this would foreclose the option of utilizing the entire property. Ms. Bohman said it would. Ms. Wooten said the head-injured project would be a separate and distinct use of space from Lincoln School. The motion carried 7:1 with Mr. Holmer voting opposed. Mayor Obie adjourned the meeting to June 27, 1988. Respectfully submitted, ~ftf".' Micheal Gleason City Manager (Recorded by Tanya Northman) mncc 062288 e MINUTES--Eugene City Council June 22, 1988 Page 6