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HomeMy WebLinkAboutCC Minutes - 10/09/06 Work Session M I N U T E S Eugene City Council Work Session McNutt Room—Eugene City Hall October 9, 2006 5:30 p.m. COUNCILORS PRESENT: Jennifer Solomon, Bonny Bettman, David Kelly, Andrea Ortiz (via teleconference), Gary Papé, George Poling, Chris Pryor, Betty Taylor. Her Honor Mayor Kitty Piercy called the meeting of the Eugene City Council to order. A. COMMITTEE REPORTS AND ITEMS OF INTEREST FROM MAYOR, CITY COUNCIL AND CITY MANAGER Mayor Piercy reported that she attended a biking and walking summit on October 7, 2006. She thanked Lee Shoemaker and Rob Inerfeld for organizing the event, and acknowledged the work of Congressman Peter Defazio and former Mayor Ruth Bascom for their presentations. She thanked everyone for attending the event. Mr. Papéarrived at 5:32 p.m. Mayor Piercy reported she attended the Gilham Elementary School Walk/Bike to School Day on October 4. She said the most recent evolution at the Fifth Street Public Market was successful, and a good thing for downtown Eugene. She said she contacted councilors Bettman, Pryor, and Taylor regarding whether the Council Committee on Intergovernmental Relations should consider if the City Council should take a position on some of the initiatives on the November ballot that would affect the City of Eugene. She felt the City had a responsibility to take a position on Ballot Measure 39, Prohibits Public Body from Condemning Private Real Property if Intends to Convey to Private Party, and Ballot Measure 48, Amends Constitution: Limits Biennial Percentage Increase in State Spending to Percentage Increase in State Population, Plus Inflation. Ms. Taylor said the Lane Regional Air Protection Agency would meet October 10. She recently attended the League of Oregon Cities (LOC) Convention with Mayor Piercy and Mr. Papé. She said the presentation by Brady Adams on homeownership for low- and moderate-income people was particularly informative. Mr. Kelly said the Human Rights Commission scheduled a conference on October 20, at the University of Oregon, entitled, Choice in Mental Health Care as a Human Right: A Vision of Recovery and Success. He encouraged members of the public to attend. Mayor Piercy introduced Flo Alverge from the League of Women Voters. Ms. Alverge introduced a Russian delegation comprised of women from various cities in Russia who worked with government MINUTES—City Council October 9, 2006 Page 1 Work Session agencies and had political party experience. The delegation traveled to the United States under the sponsorship of Open World Leadership Center. Ms. Bettman said Angie Sifuentez, Vice Chair of the Police Commission, invited councilors and councilors- elect to the October 12 Police Commission meeting. She announced that Tod Schneider of the Eugene Police Department would offer a presentation on crime prevention through environmental design, and patrol officers would talk about strategies for making downtown safer. Mr. Pryor reported he attended the Workforce Summit sponsored by the Lane Workforce Partnership. He said a key point made at the event was the notion that economic development was not so much about jobs as about creating skilled workers, which placed a great emphasis on education and emphasized the need to be supportive of students in the Eugene area. Mr. Pryor thanked Richie Weinman, City of Eugene Planning and Development Department staff, and Pearl Wolfe, Lane County Human Services Commission staff, for their work on a presentation regarding an ambitious project of ending homelessness in ten years in Lane County. He expressed hope that the City Council would be able to dovetail its efforts on the priority issue with that project. Mr. Papé reported he attended the League of Oregon (LOC) Cities Conference, noting incoming councilors Mike Clark and Alan Zelenka also attended. He recommended an article in the September LOC newsletter entitled Large Format Stores and Transportation Choices: Where We Put Things Matters. He expressed his appreciation to City Manager Taylor for the manner in which the residents of Santa Clara had been kept informed about the construction schedule delays on River Road construction. Ms. Solomon indicated that the Housing Policy Board received a report that would be forwarded to councilors in the near future regarding on the first year of the rental housing code. She opined the first year of the code had been successful. She said the Active Bethel Citizens meeting at 7 p.m. on October 19 would feature a debate between candidates Chris Edwards and Debi Farr. She added that the Friends of Golden Gardens were hosting a walk in the park on October 21, between 11 a.m. and 1 p.m. City Manager Taylor extended congratulations to City Recorder Mary Feldman for her recent election as First Vice President of the Municipal Recorders Association. He went on to say that he recently toured Martin Luther King Avenue in Portland, a linear tax increment district, with the Portland Development Commission (PDC) in which development activities occurred on a neighborhood scale. He encouraged councilors to visit a business called Henry V Events, a national events management group that was an excellent example of adaptive reuse of what was once a warehouse, now transformed into a 100 percent green building. th B. ACTION: Supplemental Funding for WestTown on 8 Stephanie Jennings of the Planning and Development provided the staff report. She recalled that in 2005, the City Council selected the Metropolitan Affordable Housing Corporation (Metro) development proposal th for the WestTown on 8 project. She said the project consisted of 102 affordable rental units, and nine market-rate live-work units that would support the Downtown Plan with street-level activities and downtown housing. During the past year, Metro had worked to assemble financing for the project, overcoming a number of design-related and financing challenges. The project went out to bid during summer 2006, with a planned ground breaking in September 2006. When bids were returned, a significant funding gap remained MINUTES—City Council October 9, 2006 Page 2 Work Session that could not be covered by Metro’s existing contingency funds. Metro requested a loan from the City of Eugene that would allow Metro to fill that gap. Staff analysis of the request determined there would be a number of consequences of further delay that would result in additional project costs. Additionally, a staff review of readily available resources, determined the City of Eugene could make a loan up to $450,000 and that Metro has the capacity to repay the loan. Ms. Jennings added Metro received a commitment from Liberty Bank to cover the balance of the gap. Ms. Jennings stated that both staff and the Housing Policy Board recommended approval of Metro’s request. She said if the request was approved, Metro would be able to submit its final financial packet that would allow it to proceed with the State’s bond sale and groundbreaking in December. Ms. Jennings understood a citizen had raised a concern that the request would be in violation of United States Department of Housing and Development (HUD) regulations for public process. She offered a clarification of HUD procedures, asserting that HUD did not set a specific threshold for project change notification, but rather asked the City to designate the process. She added that the concern raised by the citizen was based on his experience with another project that had requested additional federal funds. The Metro proposal included only local funds in the additional request. Due to his relationship with Liberty Bank, Mr. Papé recused himself from participating in the discussion and th action on the WestTown on 8 request. Mr. Kelly said this was a great project at a great location. Ms. Ortiz looked forward to the groundbreaking. In response to Ms. Taylor, Ms. Jennings said there were nine live-work units. Ms. Solomon, seconded by Ms. Taylor, moved to direct the City Manager to approve the use of City funds for a loan to Metropolitan Affordable Housing Corporation for the West- th Town on 8 project, as proposed, and to include the necessary budget transactions on Sup- plemental Budget #1 in December. The motion passed unanimously, 7:0. C. WORK SESSION: Campaign Finance Reporting Process City Recorder Mary Feldman offered the staff report. She said the purpose of the work session was to make the council aware of the campaign finance reporting process for candidates and political committees and to provide an opportunity for the council to consider whether the City of Eugene should require campaign finance reports in addition to those required by the State. If additional reports were required, those reports, at least, must be filed with the City elections officer. She said the cost for the City to implement its own electronic system would be in excess of $700,000. In response to a question from Mayor Piercy, Ms. Feldman said the new system had been developed at the State level to streamline and simplify the filing process, and to reduce filing errors and violations, while having a uniform procedure throughout the state. MINUTES—City Council October 9, 2006 Page 3 Work Session Mr. Kelly said the State system would provide more timeliness in reporting requirements, and said the City of Eugene should not duplicate the State’s plan. Mr. Pryor asked what advantages the City of Eugene would have by duplicating the State system. Ms. Taylor was concerned about when contributions would be published, and asked what publication requirements were in place. Ms. Feldman explained how the private electronic workspaces for individual candidates and political committee worked, and how they linked to the Secretary of State’s webpage. In response to Ms. Ortiz, Ms. Feldman said the existing $2,000 threshold for filing detailed reports would remain in place. Mr. Poling said accessibility of information on campaign activity for the public was a great benefit. He asked if the system could be revisited if there were problems with the State system. Ms. Feldman said the issue could be brought back to the City Council in the future. In response to Ms. Bettman, Ms. Feldman said campaign treasurers would be required to track aggregate contributions by donors. Ms. Feldman confirmed no City policy issues were related directly to the issue, and required that no local ordinance be repealed. Mr. Pryor hoped the Eugene Public Library could provide accessible electronic filing services for candi- dates. There was consensus that the council should take no action relating to ORS 260.163 at this time so the State’s electronic system and filing requirements would become effective January 1, 2007, without special provisions for Eugene candidates and committees. D. WORK SESSION: Transportation Priorities for North and West Eugene City Engineer Mark Schoening provided the staff report, reviewing the transportation priorities for West and North Eugene for consideration by the City Council. He introduced Mark Gillem from the University of Oregon (UO) School of Architecture and Allied Arts, and Stephano Viggiano from Lane Transit District (LTD). Mr. Schoening welcomed questions from the City Council. Ms. Solomon expressed concern about how access issues had been managed around the Norwalk Furniture Store during a prior construction project. Referring to the LTD corridor study, Mr. Kelly said he preferred to conduct two corridor studies, including Highway 99/6th-7th Avenue/7thAvenue and 11th Avenue, noting both were ultimately EmX corridors, but acknowledged there were not sufficient resources to do both studies. He said he was comfortable moving forward with the West 11th Avenue project. Mr. Kelly said the Oregon Department of Transportation MINUTES—City Council October 9, 2006 Page 4 Work Session (ODOT) had not been collaborative in the Norwalk Furniture Store, adding the existing geography did not provide easy alternatives. Mr. Pryor liked the way the project was moving along, and said he would support an amendment that included a study of Beltline-Roosevelt Boulevard to West 11th Avenue. Ms. Bettman said she could not support studying West 13th Avenue, and noted that West 11th Avenue had good ridership. She said it was important to increase ridership rather than simply transferring the current ridership to the new system to make best use of the funding. Mr. Poling said when the Coburg Road EmX study was conducted, options along Crescent Drive, Chad Drive, Harlow Road, Garden Way, and Martin Luther King Boulevard were included in the discussion. He said it was imperative that property and business owners on other roads in the vicinity be included in any conversations that would impact them. Mr. Papé wanted to hear about land issues and Ballot Measure 37 issues that should be taken into consideration when conducting the transportation studies. Mr. Schoening said those elements had been included in the traffic model. He said the City of Eugene would be the lead agency on the transportation study, with the UO, LTD, ODOT, Lane County of Governments (LCOG) and Lane County as partners. In response to Ms. Solomon, Mr. Schoening said it would be difficult to study the River Road to Coburg Road corridor without including the Delta Highway/Beltline interchange. Mr. Kelly there was an opportunity to get some community consensus going with the West 11th Avenue corridor study, by involving businesses, 1000 Friends of Oregon, and other interested parties, in a short, th collaborative brainstorming process. He noted planning was completed for improvements on West 11 Avenue between Terry Street and Greenhill Road. Mr. Kelly said it was important that a corridor study for West 11th Avenue include the surrounding road network, including parts of Roosevelt Boulevard, West 13th Avenue, and others. In response to Ms. Bettman, Mr. Viggiano said including West 18th Avenue in the West 11th Avenue corridor study would be a stretch, in that the industry standard was one-quarter mile walking distance from an arterial. He added LTD would consider West 18th Avenue a different corridor for transit uses. Ms. Bettman said Highway 99 was a better fit for a corridor study than West 11th Avenue, and she would vote against the corridor for EmX. In response to a question from Ms. Bettman, Mr. Schoening replied there were multiple ways to do access management: amend the land use code to allow looking at each new development with access management in mind; and, look for opportunities to increase safety and mobility on existing corridors. Responding to Mayor Piercy, Mr. Viggiano said LTD staff thought West 11th Avenue was a strong transit corridor. He added the LTD Board of Directors had not yet taken a position, but would likely defer to the City of Eugene on corridor selection. Mr. Poling hoped the City of Veneta would be invited to participate in any West 11th Avenue corridor discussions. MINUTES—City Council October 9, 2006 Page 5 Work Session Mr. Pryor saw two times as many people getting on buses per mile on West 11th Avenue than on Highway 99, and it made sense to put the new service in this area. Mr. Papé disagreed with Mr. Pryor, noting the quality of the bus service was an unknown factor. He asked why the UO was a partner in the process, rather than a hired consultant. Mr. Schoening said the UO was participating as a technical partner in the process for planning and transportation issues. Ms. Taylor remained skeptical about EmX, suggesting that the City of Eugene should be studying street cars instead. She asked why the improvements would be made where people were currently riding rather than encouraging new riders along Highway 99. She asked how frequently service went to Veneta and if EmX service would be provided to Veneta. Mr. Viggiano responded that there were currently six trips daily to Veneta. He added that EmX was intended as an urban service, and there was likely not sufficient demand to offer EmX service to Veneta at the present time. Ms. Taylor believed the City of Eugene made too little use of the expertise at the UO. Mayor Piercy said the idea of a collaborative discussion about the corridor would be very helpful. She added she attended the city design institute where the UO was cited one of the best in the country for urban and transportation planning. Ms. Solomon agreed that the UO did have great programs, but expressed concern that the City transporta- tion study would be conducted by students rather than fully trained professionals. She did not want the project to be a “class project”, but supported student participation in the process. She asked if access management changes would come back to the City Council. Mr. Schoening said access management would come back to the City Council through the Planning Commission for changes to the land use code. In response to a question from Ms. Bettman, Mr. Viggiano said typical spacing between bus stops was approximately two blocks or six stops per mile. He added that spacing was approximately one-third of a mile on the EmX corridor. Ms. Bettman said the EmX gained time by offering fewer stops, and riders would get less service by needing to walk much further with EmX system, thus decreasing rather than increasing service. She said most communities that currently had EmX service used it as a commuter route to bring workers into the city core from outlying areas. She said she could not support EmX on West 11th Avenue as the only corridor study. She said she could support a study that included both corridors. Ms. Solomon, seconded by Ms. Taylor, moved to: ? Identify the Beltline Corridor from River Road to Coburg Road as the City’s top priority for funding in the State Transportation Im- th provement Program and West 11 Avenue from Terry Street to Greenhill Road as its second priority; ?th Identify West 11 Avenue as the City’s priority for the next EmX corridor study; ? Support a transportation corridor study of West 11th Avenue and the City’s application for $150,000 of STP-U planning funds for the study; and, MINUTES—City Council October 9, 2006 Page 6 Work Session ? Support the initiation of regulatory changes to the land use code and associated administrative rule that would implement access man- agement on the City’s arterial and collector street system. Mr. Papé, seconded by Ms. Taylor, moved to separate the motion into four separate mo- tions. The motion passed, 5:2, with Mr. Pryor and Mr. Poling opposed. Mr. Kelly said the idea behind transportation planning was working as an integrated system. He wanted the four elements to be looked at as one. City Attorney Glenn Klein explained that the under parliamentary procedures, the four motions were all on the table. Mr. Kelly offered a friendly amendment to the first motion adding the following: Identify a study of the Beltline Corridor from Roosevelt to West 11th Avenue as a third priority for funding in the State Transportation Improvement Program. Mr. Papé expressed concern that the council had insufficient information to support Mr. Kelly’s amendment. The motion passed, 7:1, with Mr. Papé opposed. Mr. Kelly said most of the communities that Ms. Bettman said used the EmX as a commuter service were larger than Eugene, and this proposal was suited a community the size of Eugene. He said a light rail-like system was a key to improved transit service in Eugene. Ms. Bettman expressed concern that a lot of money would be spent on a study that was never implemented. In response to Mr. Papé, Mr. Viggiano said while two corridors were originally considered for the initial corridor (Coburg Road and Pioneer Parkway), only one could be funded, and the Pioneer Parkway corridor was ultimately selected. He added that only one corridor could be funded every six years. He said Coburg Road could be considered for future study. Mayor Piercy called for the question on the second motion. The motion passed unanimously, 8:0. Mayor Piercy called the question on the third motion. The motion passed unanimously, 8:0. Mayor Piercy called the question on the fourth motion. The motion passed unanimously, 8:0. Mr. Kelly, seconded by Ms. Bettman, moved direct the City Manager to schedule a work session before year’s end on ways to improve the functionality of Roosevelt Boulevard as an east-west arterial by moving the necessary projects forward in a timely manner. MINUTES—City Council October 9, 2006 Page 7 Work Session In response to Ms. Solomon, Mr. Schoening confirmed that Mr. Kelly’s motion would include improvements to the Highway 99 and Roosevelt Boulevard intersection. The motion passed unanimously, 8:0. A brief discussion about the council’s schedule through the end of the year followed. Mayor Piercy announced the council would discuss the Sustainable Business Initiative on Wednesday, October 11, but would not vote on the issue because councilors Ortiz and Pryor would not be in attendance. The meeting adjourned at 7:17 p.m. Respectfully submitted, Dennis M. Taylor City Manager (Recorded by Linda Henry) MINUTES—City Council October 9, 2006 Page 8 Work Session