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HomeMy WebLinkAbout04/08/1991 Meeting e M I NUT E S Eugene City Council McNutt Room--City Hall April 8, 1991 5:30 p.m. PRESENT: Shawn Boles, Paul Nicholson, Kaye Robinette, Bobby Green, Ruth Bascom, Roger Rutan, Randy MacDonald. COUNCILOR ABSENT: Debra Ehrman The regular meeting of the Eugene City Council was called to order by His Honor Mayor Jeff Miller. I. CONSIDERATION OF NAACP FUNDING REQUEST Mr. Green explained that Planning Commissioner Greg Evans, on behalf of the Oregon/Washington NAACP, had requested $2,478 in City funds to support the attendance of three City officials at the 1991 NAACP Western Regional Confer- ence in Sacramento for the purpose of seeking a commitment from the NAACP to e hold the 1993 Western Regional Conference in Eugene. Mr. Green said this was a unique opportunity for Eugene to enhance its repu- tation as a progressive city and would bring in additional room tax moneys. Greg Rikhoff, Intergovernmental Relations, said the requested funds would help send the Mayor, Councilor Green, and Mr. Evans to Sacramento for the three-day NAACP conference. He said the Mayor had made his own transporta- tion plans which reduced the amount of funds needed. Mr. Green said this was a one-time funding request. He said that if the NAACP agreed to hold its 1993 Western Regional Conference in Eugene, its only additional request might be for conference rates on the Hult Center. Mr. Green said any other councilors who wished to go were welcome to attend the 1991 NAACP conference in Sacramento. In response to a question from Mr. Robinette, Mr. Green said the requested funding would come from the City's contingency fund. Mayor Miller pointed out that the Eugene Springfield Convention & Visitors Bureau (ESCVB) had supported and endorsed the proposal to hold the conference in Eugene. In response to a question from Mr. MacDonald, Mr. Green there was a 90-percent chance that the NAACP would decide to hold its 1993 Western Re- gional Conference in Eugene. He said there was some chance the 1992 confer- e MINUTES--Eugene City Council April 8, 1991 Page 1 e ence might be held here as well. He said the conference had never before been held in Eugene. Ms. Bascom pointed out that she had come to the council with a similar re- quest several months ago. She said the Visitor's & Convention Bureau could probably recruit for this event without the council making any additional efforts. She said councilors have discussed the need to limit the number of events they attend outside the city. Mr. Boles said the council has made a point of attempting to allow those councilors who have not made trips to Houston or Washington, DC, on behalf of the council to have the first chance to make these trips when the opportunity arises. Ms. Bascom said she felt the effectiveness of the councilors was diluted when they were not in town. Mr. Rutan moved, seconded by Mr. Boles, to approve the request for $2,478 in City funds (General Fund contingency) to support the attendance of three City officials at the 1991 NAACP West- ern Regional Conference in Sacramento for the purpose of seek- ing a commitment from NAACP to hold the 1993 Western Regional Conference in Eugene. Roll call vote. The motion passed unanimously. e II. WORK SESSION: SYSTEMS DEVELOPMENT CHARGES Les Lyle, of Public Works (PW), reviewed the activities to date of the Sys- tems Development Charges (SDC) Task Force. He said revised ordinances for the SDC must be completed by July 1, 1991. He said the key revised practices of the SDC would include the addition of a parks SDC, the suggestion that there be no exemptions, and a credit system. In response to a question from Mr. MacDonald, Mr. Lyle said any permit appli- cation filed before July 1, 1991, would be subject to current SDC rates. Mr. Boles added that the rates could be changed administratively without changing the entire SDC ordinance. In response to a question from Mr. MacDonald, Mr. Lyle said there is no stat- utory limit on the percentage which may be charged for administrative costs. He said the City planned to charge for actual costs to administer the pro- gram. Mr. Lyle reviewed the proposed SDC rate-setting methodology. Mr. Robinette asked what elements influenced costs in the transportation formula. Mr. Lyle said the system components include roads, arterial street lighting, signals, and off-street bicycle paths for each of which a cost per trip was calculated to determine the composite transportation rate. e MINUTES--Eugene City Council April 8, 1991 Page 2 - In response to another question from Mr. Robinette, Mr. Lyle said the task force had determined how many lane miles to include by reviewing TransPlan; evaluating the number of arterial/collector streets in the road network; and then computing a cost per lane mile. Mr. Boles said the rate methodology would be applied citywide. In response to a question from Mr. Nicholson, Mr. Lyle said that in order to determine the SDC charges for a specific development, the City would measure the thousand square footage of a development's floor area and multiply this figure by the specific development's trip rate and then multiply by the cost per trip. Mr. Boles said that the SDC Task Force had nearly completed its rate method- ologies for sanitary, storm sewer, and park SDCs. He said there was still a need for additional discussion about transportation rates. e Mayor Miller asked if the transportation SDC would be eligible for gas tax moneys. Mr. Lyle said the task force was interested in the non-assessable component and in assessing the appropriate share for new development to pay. If gas tax revenues were to become available, the council would need to make a decision as to whether the funds would be used to reduce transportation SDCs or to use the moneys for preservation of the existing system, for which funding is limited at present. Mr. MacDonald asked if ITE trip rates were region-specific. Mr. Lyle said the ITE manual had recently been updated and the City would soon receive a copy of the updated version and the rates are national evaluations. Tom Schwetz, Lane County staff, said the manual was updated as more studies were conducted nationally. Christine Andersen, Public Works Director, said the breakdown of types of commercial and industrial developments were more refined in updated versions of the ITE. Mr. Boles said the task force used the ITE because the cost of creating its own such study would have been excessive. Ms. Andersen added that the cost per trip was generated for the local setting but the trip rates were blased on national statistics. Mr. Lyle said that most jurisdictions with transportation SDCs use the ITE manual as their primary resource for trip rates. He said that not only would creating such a manual locally have been costly, but it would also have taken a considerable amout of time (years). Mr. Robinette asked if credits would be given to residential developments which promoted alternative transportation. Mr. Lyle said this had been dis- cussed and provisions had been made to provide credits for impact-reducing development. He said no formula for this existed yet, and any credits would have to be applied on a case-by-case basis. e MINUTES--Eugene City Council April 8, 1991 Page 3 e Mr. Boles added that although the City is not required to provide credits as a provision of its SDC charges, it plans to do so for all four SDC catego- ries. Mr. Nicholson asked what provision had been made for the change of use of a development, due to something such as the sale of the property. Mr. Lyle said a charge would be computed, using the proposed rates, for the existing use and the new use, and the new owner would pay the incremental difference. Mr. Lyle explained how SDC rates were set for sanitary sewers. In response to a question from Mr. MacDonald, Mr. Lyle said a single-family residential rate would be based on an equivalent dwelling unit (EDU) charge. He said warehouses might be charged less than the flat amount for single family resi- dential if they had fewer than 16 plumbing fixture units which is equivalent to a dwelling unit. Mr. Lyle reviewed the SDC Task Force recommendations for transportation, sanitary and storm sewers, and parks. Mr. MacDonald asked if those who annexed their property to the City at some earlier date, but were developing the land now, would be charged lower SDC rates. Mr. Lyle said the Metropolitan Wastewater Management Commission (MWMC) fee has a credit based on annexation date but the other SDC's would not be reduced based on annexation date. He said developers were usually more interested in the marketability of their property than the SDCs they would be required to pay for development, so the provision of annexation date e did not create the intended effect of compact urban growth. Ms. Andersen added that the City has been attempting to encourage the devel- opment of land already annexed to the city, although lower SDC rates do not seem to serve as an incentive. Mr. Nicholson pointed out that if a lot had been annexed to the city, the property owner was paying property taxes. He asked what services were pro- vided to empty lots. City Manager Mike Gleason pointed out that empty lots get police service, fire service, and other services funded by the General Fund. The amount of taxes paid is based on the valuation of the property. Thus, for vacant property the charges are less as are the services provided. Mr. Boles said property taxes were not part of the rate methodology for any of the SDC rates because these taxes do not support this kind of infrastruc- ture. Mr. Lyle said the SDC Task Force had spent a great deal of time discussing a possible exemption for low-income housing. He said the group had discussed three different scenarios including: 1) allowing an exemption; 2) charging interest if a low-income development decided to finance the SDC long-term; and 3) not exempting low-income housing. Mr. Lyle said the task force had discussed the fact that any development created an impact on the infrastructure. He said SDC charges are based on an e MINUTES--Eugene City Council April 8, 1991 Page 4 e e e impact approach. In addition, he said the group discussed the fact that there are other kinds of development that support public,good, such as daycare facilities, social service agencies, etc., and that it would be dif- ficult to determine where to draw the line on exemptions. Therefore, he said the task force felt that the community should find other ways to help fund low-income housing. Ms. Bascom pOinted out that in order to provide two-to-one matching funds for Federally funded low-income housing developments, the council must look care- fully at where it would get its share of this match. Mr. Nicholson said match money could be created by collecting funds from the low-income housing development for SDCs, and then subsidizing the development using other funds. Mr. Boles said that if the SDC rate methodology were to be based on the full impact of growth, then it must apply across all classes of development. He said this left intact the principle that the City was not playing favorites with its rate methodology. Mr. Boles said that a burden would be placed on the community to pay for the portion of the City's infrastructure represented by a low-income housing development if the City granted SDC exemptions to such developments. Ms. Bascom said it could be difficult to find matching funds and that the timing of such funds was very crucial. Mr. MacDonald suggested that SDC funds might prove to be a better source of match money than other moneys which are generated by the General Fund. He said the City might find that it could tap into other previously unavailable funds such as road and sewer funds. Mayor Miller asked staff for further information on this subject. Mr. Lyle discussed credits for permit applicants. In response to a question from Mr. Green, Mr. Lyle said charge ownership was difficult to track, but the City would record credit information with the property records so that future property owners could determine if credits were due their develop- ments. In response to a question from Ms. Bascom, Mr. Lyle said off-street bike paths had been included as part of transportation SDCs. He said the rate would be calculated according to the mileage of bike paths (current standard) to compute mileage per population. Ms. Andersen said these statistics were converted to cost per trip. Ms. Bascom said it was important to locate off- street bike paths where they were most needed. Mr. Lyle indicated the CIP identified the Greenway Path as one of the priorities. Mr. Boles pointed out that the rate methodology for the transportation SDC is the most difficult to calculate based on a reflection of true costs. Mr. Rutan pointed out that the discussion of transportation SDC rate methodology involved subjective decisions. As an example, he referred to the McDonald's Restaurant at 29th Avenue and Willamette Street. He said the SDC Task Force MINUTES--Eugene City Council April 8, 1991 Page 5 . had to consider how much traffic this restaurant generated and how much its placement had been based on existing traffic counts. Mr. Rutan said another issue was the increase in traffic due to changing lifestyles which cause people to make more car trips. Mr. Boles said the task force attempted to differntiate between pass-by and end-of-trip traffic. Mayor Miller suggested benefits should be tied to costs, for which reason it might be beneficial to initiate a gas tax. Mr. Lyle said a gas tax could be used for expansion of the transportation system and thus reduce the transpor- tation SDC. However, the council would have to decide how to use those funds. Mayor Miller said that when the City needed replacement revenue, due to the effects of Ballot Measure 5, it would be helpful to tie benefits to costs. e Mr. Boles said the City's SDC policy should be based on the truth in impact. He said the City could attempt to offset impact through such measures as a gas tax. Ms. Bascom thanked councilors Boles, Green, and Rutan, as well as staff, for their work on this complicated issue. Mr. Green said he was concerned about how SDC rates related to road mainte- nance. In addition, he said he regretted that the task force had not recom- mended an exemption for low-cost housing. Mr. Lyle said the Council Commit- tee on Infrastructure (CCI) would discuss unimproved local streets at its April 17 meeting and that SDC's could not be used for operation and mainte- nance. Mr. Lyle referred to statistics on Eugene's proposed SDC rates in the council packet. In response to a comment by Mr. Nicholson, Mr. Gleason said none of Eugene's arterials are operating at peak capacity and that TransPlan recognized a reduction of service from level of service C to D. Mr. Boles added that the rate methodology created by the task force is predicated on the recognition that pass-by trips can constitute a proportionately larger transportation SDC than end-of-destination trips. Mr. Rutan said City and Lane Council of Governments (L-COG) staff are at- tempting to calculate the City's future transporation needs. He said this is very difficult. He said the SDC Task Force has recommended a first-year review of the SDC program. Mr. Nicholson said the city could be expected to grow and that this would mean the demand for more new businesses, such as restaurants. However, he said that if the City had a fee which limited development, the effect would be that few new restaurants would be built, but the demand for them would not decrease. Therefore, the lack of new restaurants would have a greater nega- tive effect on infrastructure, than the addition of new restaurants. e MINUTES--Eugene City Council April 8, 1991 Page 6 e Mr. Lyle said the program would be evaluated triannually. Mr. Boles said the task force recommended that a first-year review be conducted. He said such items as expenditures, revenues, operational costs, inequities, and adminis- trative costs would be reviewed. e Mr. Lyle reviewed SDC alternatives for residential development. Mr. Boles pointed out that Eugene's SDCs have not kept pace with inflation. Mr. MacDonald said he was pleased with the work of the CCI and the SDC Task Force. He asked when the council would be given the chance to discuss the SDC recommendations. Mr. Lyle said the group would have time to do that later in this meeting and at another work session on April 24. Mr. Lyle presented a chart comparing Eugene's single-family residential SDC rates, currently, and as proposed, to those for Corvallis, Gresham, Portland, Salem, Springfield (proposed rates), Medford, and Washington County. He pointed out that some of these communities collect for such services as water, which Eugene does not. He said most communities in the state are updating their SDCs. Mayor Miller asked what proportion of the total costs of the SDC program were spent on administration. Mr. Gleason said administration of the Uniform Building Code (UBC) was one percent of the total construction cost of a project, while the SDC administration cost for a residential development was about five-percent of the SDC fee collected. Mr. Boles said these costs were approximately the same for all cities. In response to a question from Mayor Miller, Mr. Gleason said development costs in Eugene were the same as in any community in Oregon. He said the schedule of payments in the UBC were administered uniformly throughout the state, with the only differential being SDCs. He said Eugene currently charges less in development charges than most other communities. Mayor Mill- er said this was not what he had heard from developers in the community. Mr. MacDonald pointed out that the location of a building would greatly af- fect its final development costs. Mr. Robinette said he felt that Mr. Gleason had oversimplified the cost of building fees which are very diverse. He said he agreed with Mr. MacDonald that land costs vary greatly. In response to a question from Mr. Robinette, Mr. Lyle said Portland uses gas tax revenues to pay for transportation facilities; however, they are contem- plating developing a transportation SDC. Mr. MacDonald said Eugene should develop a solid rationale for its SDC rate methodology. Mr. Lyle added that Eugene's rates are within market and that the rates in other communities can be expected to increase for a variety of reasons. e MINUTES--Eugene City Council April 8, 1991 Page 7 e Mr. Schwetz said the City of Portland's main concern at present is to ensure that its existing SDC ordinance is legal. Jim Carlson, Lane County staff, added that since Portland does not have transportation SDCs it is not faced with updating such charges by July 1, 1991. In response to a question from Mr. Nicholson, Mr. Lyle said there were no State constraints (other than the need to be tied to capital facility needs to support new development) on rate methodologies for SDCs and no mandate that the City charge a fee. Mr. Boles said the only constraint on the SDC methodology was that the City could not charge more than it calculated to be the true systems development costs. Mr. Nicholson suggested a provision be made for the City to charge less than the true costs if this would accomplish a council goal such as subsidizing low-cost housing. Mr. Lyle said the coun- cil would have to establish the groundwork for creating a unique and differ- ent rate. e In response to a question from Mr. MacDonald, Mr. Boles said the City could collect SDCs for the school district, the lane Transit District, Lane County, and other local jurisdictions and language was in the draft ordinance to that effect. Mr. Gleason added that public structures built by School District 4J, the City, etc., would not be exempt from paying SDCs. Mr. MacDonald said he felt regional facilities should be included as one of the elements comprising the park SDC. He said new development led to the need for new park facilities. Mr. Lyle explained that the SDC Task Force had not recommended an SDC for parks initially because of the development community's concern that parks were not impacted by development. However, he said the group finally took the global perspective that development does impact neighborhood park sys- tems. He said the group felt it would be difficult to include regional cen- ters in the park SDC, especially due to the fact that the entire park SDC must be paid by residential development. He said the final decision was a compromise. Mr. Nicholson said he did not understand the rationale of charging the entire park SDC to residential development. Mr. Boles said the SDC Task Force felt it should not attempt to collect a parks SDC from commercial and industrial developments because this practice has been attempted in so few jurisdictions statewide and nationally. Mayor Miller pointed out that the entire community benefits from positive growth. He said the issue was shared versus unique benefits and costs. Mr. Rutan said the City Attorney would probably wish to remind the council that if the City attempted to collect a parks SDC from commercial and indus- trial developments, it would be the first community in America to do so. Mr. Boles added that there are potential costs associated with being the first community to issue these charges to this type of development. He said the SDC rate methodology could be expanded at a later date. - MINUTES--Eugene City Council April 8, 1991 Page 8 e e e In response to a question from Mr. Green, Mr. Lyle said LTD would be assessed for SDCs when its new transfer site is built. The meeting adjourned at 7:15 p.m. (Recorded by Kris Bloch) mncc 040891 MINUTES--Eugene City Council April 8, 1991 Page 9