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HomeMy WebLinkAbout05/10/1989 Meeting . e e M I NUT E S Eugene City Council McNutt Room--City Hall May 10, 1989 11:30 a.m. COUNCILORS PRESENT: Ruth Bascom, Rob Bennett, Shawn Boles, Debra Ehrman, Bobby Green, Freeman Holmer, Roger Rutan, Emily Schue. The adjourned meeting of May 8, 1989, of the Eugene City Council was called to order by Mayor Jeff Miller. I. ITEMS FROM THE MAYOR, CITY COUNCIL, AND CITY MANAGER A. Policy for Disclosing City Attorney Opinions Mr. Holmer asked for clarification on the City's policy about disclosing opinions from the City Attorney's Office to private citizens. He said Monte Marshall had requested a copy of the City Attorney's opinion regarding the Laurelwood Golf Course, but did not receive the opinion as requested. City Attorney Tim Sercombe said that, in general, the City treats all attorney opinions to staff persons or City Councilors as confidential unless those persons wish to let others see the opinion. In Mr. Marshall's case, the division manager decided against disclosing the opinion. Mr. Whitlow added that Mr. Marshall did receive the Findings of the City Attorney, but the opinion with complete legal reasoning and citations was withheld. He said it is the City's policy not to disclose opinions to members of the public if there is reason to believe the opinion might be used against the City in future litigation. Mr. Gleason explained that the City Attorney is the attorney to the City, not the attorney to the citizens. The distinction is drawn when a citizen wants to sue the City. He said the City does not want to do the legal research for a citizen who wishes to sue the City. Mr. Holmer said opinions of the City Attorney are paid for by public funds and thought the council should discuss the City's policy for disclosing this information to the public at a future meeting. Mr. Boles agreed. Ms. Bascom and Ms. Ehrman indicated that they were not interested in pursuing this issue at a future meeting. MINUTES--Eugene City Council May 10, 1989 Page 1 e B. Commercial and Industrial Zoning Activity in the Coburg/Crescent Area In response to a memorandum sent to councilors regarding commercial and industrial zoning activity in the Coburg/Crescent area, Mr. Holmer expressed concern that rezoning applications are being denied because "approving major additional commercial zoning for discount shopping may not be in the long-term interests of the City." He asked if other councilors feel this is an appropriate reason for denying a zone change request. Mr. Holmer said staff recommended denial of three zone change requests because of ongoing work on the Commercial Lands Study, Industrial Lands Study, and Willakenzie Refinement Plan. He said it will be some time until these studies and plans are complete and asked whether the council is comfortable with halting rezoning activities in areas under study. C. Progress Report on Recycling Efforts in Eugene Ms. Bascom requested a report from the Solid Waste and Recycling Board on the status of the City.s recycling program under the new ordinance. She did not feel Eugene is on the forefront of recycling efforts in the country. Mr. Holmer suggested that as part of that work session, the council should discuss implementation of a purchasing policy to ensure that goods purchased by the City are recyclable. Ms. Bascom suggested that the council consider legislation to accomplish this goal. e D. Periodic Economic Reports Mr. Bennett suggested that the council receive periodic reports from consultants on economic trends in Lane County. He felt the council could develop more effective economic development strategies if they had a better understanding of the local economy. Other councilors agreed that it was important for the council to be well-informed about economic trends, but felt this information should be brought to the council through the Council Committee on Economic Diversification. II. CONSENT CALENDAR A. Approval of City Council Minutes of February 27, March 6, April 10, April 12, and April 19, 1989 B. Approval of Concepts Reflected in Legislative Committee Minutes of April 24, 1989 Ms. Bascom moved, seconded by Mr. Rutan, to approve the items listed under the consent calendar on the City Council agenda. The motion passed unanimously, 8:0. e MINUTES--Eugene City Council May 10, 1989 Page 2 e III. DISCUSSION OF METROPOLITAN PLAN AMENDMENTS RELATED TO URBAN GROWTH BOUNDARY EXPANSION NORTH OF AWBREY LANE (MA 87-6) Teresa Bishow, Planning and Development Department, gave the staff report. In March 1988, the Eugene City Council tentatively adopted three significant amendments to the Metro Plan. These included: a 200-acre expansion of the urban growth boundary (UGB) north of Awbrey Lane; changes to the plan diagram text affecting existing special-heavy industrial land within the UGB between Awbrey Lane and Enid Road and the Murphy Mill site or Natron site in southeast Springfield; and related text changes to the Economy Element of the Metro Plan. During the past year, the Springfield Planning Commission and City Council have held several meetings to review the amendments. In February 1989, the Springfield City Council took tentative action on the plan amendments. Ms. Bishow said there were some differences in the amendments to the Metro Plan tentatively adopted by the two cities. She said the council packet included a description of both Eugene and Springfield's amendments to the Metro Plan and recommendations from the three local planning directors on how to reach consensus on the amendments. Ms. Bishow said the purpose of this discussion was to give the council an opportunity to comment on the consensus recommendations. She said if the council was comfortable with the consensus recommendations, staff would recommend that the Lane County Board of Commissioners adopt them. e Mr. Rutan complimented staff on the consensus recommendations which he felt presented a reasonable compromise to the disagreements between the two cities. Mr. Boles said he remains unconvinced of the merits of this expansion. Regarding the text amendments to the Economy Element, he asked about the assertion that "changes in technology and environmental regulations have lessened the environmental impact of these industries (i.e., heavy industry)." Mr. Boles said recent national surveys coming from public right-to-know laws show that environmental regulations have not lessened the impact of heavy industries on either water or air quality. He did not feel the council should encourage heavy industry by expanding the UGB to accommodate more heavy industrial uses. Mr. Holmer felt Mr. Boles' point might warrant a modification of the language proposed, but said the fact remains that increases in environmental regulations and recognition of environmental effects of heavy industry has decreased the danger of heavy industry because people are more sensitive to the environmental impacts. Ms. Bascom said the council was conscious of environmental concerns regarding expansion of the UGB to accommodate more heavy industrial uses when it last addressed this issue in 1987. She said the council included constraints in the requirements for heavy-industrial development which were sufficient to protect the environment. e MINUTES--Eugene City Council May la, 1989 Page 3 e e e Ms. Ehrman emphasized that an important reason for the expansion is to provide large lots (of approximately 40 acres) for heavy industrial development. She felt that this large lot size should be maintained. Ms. Schue agreed. Ms. Bishow said the council had tentatively approved an amendment which would permit a minimum lot size of 20 acres following annexation for the area between Enid Road and Awbrey Lane. She said this is still considered a large lot; the average parcel size of all industrial land is approximately 2.3 acres. Ms. Bishow said Springfield was not interested in holding Eugene to a specific lot size in the plan itself. She added that LCDC felt the plan should include a minimum lot size, so the planning directors agreed on Eugene's original proposal of 20 acres. The area north of Awbrey Lane would have a 40-acre minimum lot size. IV. WORK SESSION ON SEWER RATES Christine Andersen, Director of Public Works, introduced the item. She said staff provided preliminary information concerning local and regional sewer rates to the council at a work session on April 10. The Metropolitan Wastewater Management Commission (MWMC) recommended approval of a regional sewer rate schedule at its April 20 regular meeting after conducting a public hearing on the proposed rates. Ms. Andersen said the purpose of this work session was to update the council on the need to revise both the regional and local rates to provide adequate funding for sanitary and storm drainage service over the next two-year rate period. George Jessie, Department of Public Works, said there are three basic services funded in the Sewer Utility: regional sanitary service, which includes sewer lines and pump stations of 24-inches or larger, and the Wastewater Treatment Plant; local sanitary service, which includes maintenance of sewer lines less than 24 inches in diameter; and local storm drainage service, which includes channel maintenance and street sweeping. Bob Hammitt, Department of Public Works, showed several slides depicting activities that the City performs through the Sewer Utility. Several programs areas are funded as part of Eugene's sanitary sewer service. These include: opening of plugged sewers; repair and replacement of damaged sanitary lines; maintenance of pump stations; monitoring, cleaning, and preventative maintenance of sewer lines with the aid of cameras; industrial monitoring activities; engineering-related activities and master planning; and capital improvements. Program areas funded as part of Eugene's storm drainage service include: maintaining ditches and channels; cleaning catch basins, and stormwater inlets and outlets; repairing and replacing damaged storm drainage lines; collecting leaves through the leaf pick-up operation; street sweeping operations; spill prevention and cleanup activities; engineering-related activities and master planning; and capital improvements. Mr. Jessie said approximately 520 miles of sanitary sewers and 176 miles of storm sewers fall under local responsibility. During FY89, the Department of MINUTES--Eugene City Council May 10, 1989 Page 4 e e e Public Works cleaned 1.5 million lineal feet of sewers, did preventative maintenance of 244,000 lineal feet of sewers, excavated over 8,000 lineal feet of channels, swept and flushed over 38,400 curb miles of streets, cleaned over 7,000 catch basins, and picked up over 11,500 cubic yards of leaves. Mr. Jessie reviewed a chart and maintenance cost since budgets for FY90 and FY91. increase in the operations several years. summarlzlng the budget for local sewer operation FY87. The chart also depicted the proposed In general, the chart reflected a moderate budget, without adding new programs, over the past Mr. Jessie reviewed a chart summarlzlng the local sewer capital budget since FY87. He said in prior years, much more support from sewer user fees went toward capital expenditures. In response to concerns about increasing sewer fees, capital programs were reduced significantly (approximately 32 percent in FY88 and 38 percent in FY89). Mr. Jessie said the proposed budgets includes an increase in capital funding. Mr. Jessie described the process for distributing user fees. These fees are collected by Eugene Water and Electric Board (EWEB), who distributes the revenue to the City Finance Division where it is split into a regional fund and a local fund. The regional share goes to MWMC to pay for wastewater treatment. The local share funds storm drainage, sanitary service, and limited capital needs. Summarizing his presentation, Mr. Jessie said there are three trends in local sewer rates. These include moderately increasing operation costs, a large need for infrastructure improvements, and moderate growth in the customer base. The projected budget increase in FY90 will be 6.1 percent and 4.4 percent in FY91 for a typical single-family dwelling. There are four trends in regional sewer rates: declining administrative costs; moderately increasing operation costs; larger than anticipated reserves; and a moderate growth in the customer base. These add up to a projected budget increase in FY90 of 2.2 percent and of 2 percent for FY91, for a typical single-family dwelling. Mr. Jessie said currently the monthly sewer rate for a typical single-family dwelling is approximately $11.04. The proposed monthly rates would increase to $11.51 for FY90 and to $11.89 for FY91. Mr. Jessie said the proposed rate structure will allow for single year rate changes. There are two advantages associated with this type of structure: there is no overcharging in the first year to pay for cost increases in the second year, and it will result in smaller percentage increases in the first year for the majority of users. Ms. Andersen reiterated an earlier point that there will be a shift in the local capital increment that will be included in the proposed rate. She said when developing the budget and capital program for FY90, staff had originally anticipated that the regional rate would be increasing substantially. This MINUTES--Eugene City Council May 10, 1989 Page 5 e e - will not occur, however, because the shift in the regional rate has been mitigated. As a result, staff has reassessed possible options for retaining a competitive local rate while still accounting for needed capital improvements. Ms. Andersen said that as a result, staff has included additional revenue for capital that was not included in the operating and capital budgets when council previously reviewed them. This additional revenue is not currently tied to specific projects, but will provide a resource for dealing with upcoming sanitary and storm sewer projects as well as funds needed to rehabilitate the existing sewer system. Ms. Andersen said staff anticipates that the Infrastructure Subcommittee will review how to best use sewer capital funds and will also review options for financing other major sewer needs. Ms. Andersen said another issue raised by the proposed ordinance is a shift in the approach taken toward construction of sewer rates. This year the proposal is for single-year rate changes; this was recommended by MWMC for regional sanitary service rates and was modeled for local sanitary services. Ms. Andersen said the draft ordinance will also contain a proposal for administratively-developed rates. She explained that under this system, the operating and capital budget would reflect the program areas that are used for sewer revenues. These programs would be reviewed through the normal budget process. Based on the outcome of the budget process, staff would be developing the rates to support revenue needed to match the budget. Ms. Andersen said the process would involve notification to interested parties, public hearings at the council-level, and would then be administratively adopted. At 1:20 p.m., the meeting adjourned to May 17, 1989. Resp#ctful .Y submitteq, ''''--: -~~~ /~.:. ...~y ! ..,,;.~../: -~~T , MiCZ Gleason . City Manager (Recorded by Tanya Northman) MNCC 051089 MINUTES--Eugene City Council May 10, 1989 Page 6