HomeMy WebLinkAboutCC Minutes - 07/14/03 WS MINUTES
Eugene City Council
McNutt Room-City Hall
July 14, 2003
5:30 p.m.
COUNCILORS PRESENT: Gary PapS, Scott Meisner, David Kelly, Betty Taylor, Bonny
Bettman, George Poling, Jennifer Solomon.
COUNCILORS ABSENT: Nancy Nathanson.
In the absence of Mayor Jim Torrey, Council President Gary Pap8 called the meeting of the
Eugene City Council to order.
A. Items from Mayor, Council, and City Manager
Ms. Taylor said she was hearing a great deal from constituents about cats and called for a council
discussion of licensing cats.
Ms. Bettman congratulated the Friendly Area Neighbors for its use of a neighborhood matching
grant to highlight the businesses on South Willamette Street. She regretted that neighborhood
matching grants were no longer available.
Ms. Bettman highlighted a fund-raising drive organized by the Veterans of Foreign Wars to
rehabilitate the Veterans Building. They required $180,000 to do so. She believed the effort was
positive for the veterans as well as the community as the veterans intended to make the building
available for community events.
Ms. Bettman said that there would be an appreciation event for the Eugene Police Department's
senior volunteers at 2nd Avenue and Chambers Street on July 16 at 4 p.m.
Ms. Bettman noted her information request regarding what the council needed to do if it wanted to
identify the gaps in terms of needed housing and how it might reach a definition of needed
housing.
Ms. Bettman noted the council's receipt of a memorandum from Planning and Development
Department Tom Coyle regarding the Fall 2003 Land Use Code Update (LUCU) amendments and
Mr. Coyle's intent to seek a broader range of community input. She noted that she had talked to
neighborhood leaders about the issue, and they had heard nothing. She requested the status of
that effort.
Mr. Meisner said that Lane County had established an animal regulation task force, and he
requested a progress report on that effort and the task force's recommendations for long-term
solutions.
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Ms. Solomon arrived.
Mr. Poling said that he had walked by the new Northside School site that morning and viewed the
equipment being prepared for the construction that was to commence the next morning.
Mr. Kelly recalled the council's General Fund and Community Development Block Grant
contributions to the Planned Child Center. Because of funding problems, that project would not
go forward. He requested a staff memorandum indicating that the funding was being returned to
its initial sources.
Ms. Solomon had no items.
Mr. Pap~ said that he recently visited the new city hall in Boise, Idaho and had been impressed
with its accessibility and appearance. He hoped that Eugene could have a new city hall soon.
Mr. Pap~ congratulated the manager on his memorandum regarding his recommendations for a
council goals session and hoped the council proceeded as outlined.
City Manager Dennis Taylor had no items.
B.WORK SESSION: Annual Joint Meeting with the Eugene Planning Commission
The council was joined by Eugene Planning Commissioners Adell McMillan, Charles Rusch, Ann
Marie Levis, Jon Belcher, Mitzi Colbath, and Richard Duncan. Commission President McMillan
called the council's attention to the commission's annual report, and highlighted completed items.
Ms. McMillan called the council's attention to the proposed draft work program for fiscal year
2004. She said that the work program was very full, and consisted mainly of items that the
council had asked the commission to do. She highlighted several work plan items, including
revision of the nodal development overlay zone standard, site-specific nodal planning, completion
of periodic review and the Downtown Plan, and the High-Density Infill Examples and Education
Project.
Ms. McMillan drew the council's attention to the work program of the Historic Review Board, a
subcommittee of the Planning Commission. She said that the work program was very similar to
past years. This year the board did not request project funding. It recently completed the Modern
Context Statement and she anticipated that mostly routine work would occur in the coming year.
Ms. Levis discussed several commission recommendations for process improvements. She said
that among its objectives, the commission was seeking better communication with the council.
She said that the commission agreed that in addition to staff memorandums to the council, the
commission would take the initiative to write its own memorandums explaining its positions. She
commended the work done by staff but said the commission was seeking to give the council a feel
of its discussion. The commission also proposed to have a commission representative present at
council meetings to serve as a resource when commission recommendations were discussed.
She said that the last recommendation was for each commissioner to adopt a councilor. Each
commissioner would select one or two councilors with whom to keep in touch on various issues.
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Ms. Levis suggested that the council provide the commission president with more than three
minutes for explanation of the commission's position when major issues were discussed. She
recalled that, in the past, there were many occasions where a commissioner had been present at
the meeting to answer questions in the same way as staff, and the commission proposed to revive
that tradition.
Mr. Rusch read a statement regarding the Natural Resources Study. He said that it was a
personal statement, but the commission had supported its recitation. Mr. Rusch's letter
advocated for the council's adoption of the standard approach to the uplands sites in the Natural
Resource Study Inventory, rather than the safe harbor approach that the council had tentatively
directed staff to implement.
Mr. Belcher acknowledged the fiscal issues that led the council to consider adoption of the safe
harbor approach but urged the council to adopt the inventory recommended to it by the
commission and to consider the safe harbor approach when the City reached the Economic,
Social, Environmental, and Energy (EESE) analysis stage.
Mr. Belcher believed that the commission's presence at work sessions would facilitate
communication between the two bodies.
Mr. Belcher thanked the council for the opportunity to work on the residential infill study and
believed that the result would be a win-win situation for all. He said that the City needed to
determine how the community would grow, and he did not think there was an answer to that yet.
Ms. Colbath read a statement conveying her hopes that the City recognized the need for balance
and the connections between things. She called for caution in the application of tax incentives.
She advocated for support of education and affordable homeownership, the latter particularly on
the periphery of downtown. Ms. Colbath also advocated for support of the environment as an
economic driver for tourism and for continued support of agriculture. She called for forthright
dialogue and decision-making that recognized the interdependence of many factors. She called
for independent and adequate information to support decision-making, community involvement in
decision-making, and an evaluation of the decisions that were made. She supported regional
planning.
Mr. Duncan thanked the council for appointing him to the commission. He said he found the
commission's work both challenging and enjoyable. He said that the residential infill study was of
importance to him. He recalled that the Growth Management Study (GMS) results had indicated
that the community had an interest in vertical growth, but the commission was finding not-in-my-
neighborhood opposition to that throughout the community. He said that the subcommittee
working on the infill study had begun to formulate ideas to help people to realize that infill was not
a bad thing, and that housing could be intensified in already developed areas. Mr. Duncan said
that it was his hope the work led to more redevelopment of the community's many aging industrial
and commercial properties. He said that one of his concerns was based on his involvement in the
Region 2050 study, which indicated there would be considerable pressure on the community in
terms of population growth. He shared Mr. Rusch's interest in long-range planning and said the
commission would take a look at where Eugene would be in 20-40 years. He thought such an
examination was due.
Mr. Pap~ solicited council question and comments.
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Mr. Kelly thanked the commission for the high-quality work it did over the past year. He
appreciated the time the commission took to deliberate key issues. He endorsed the
recommendations set forth by Ms. Levis, and observed that sometimes the council got a good
idea of the commission's deliberation from the minutes, but outside delving into the minutes the
council sometimes did not know the commission's reasoning. He favored the suggestion for a
memorandum from the commission for that reason and thought having a commissioner present at
council work sessions would be useful.
Mr. Kelly noted his concurrence with Mr. Rusch's remarks regarding the council's direction to staff
about the safe harbor approach but said he did not expect any change, which he considered
short-sighted. He expressed appreciation for Mr. Belcher's suggestion that the council adopt the
inventory and reduce the analysis level.
Referring to the work program, Mr. Kelly noted the funding allocated for site-specific nodal work
and the land use code amendments, but the schedule indicated nothing about site-specific nodal
planning. He asked what in the work plan addressed that funding. Planning Director Jan Childs
indicated that it was omitted as the result of an oversight. She anticipated that the work would
touch both the first and second half of the years, with work commencing in the fall and the bulk
occurring after the first of the new year.
Mr. Meisner thought the recommendations very useful and endorsed the idea of a commission
memorandum. Speaking to the suggestion for an "adopt the councilor" he recalled that the
Human Rights Commission had suggested the same approach at one time, but that effort had not
lasted. He encouraged the commissioners to keep after the idea if they decided to implement it.
Mr. Meisner emphasized the importance of long-range planning and said that the GMS did
Eugene little good if other communities nearby ignored the policies that were adopted by Eugene
or adopted policies that were odds with Eugene's policies. He noted that the commission often
had joint meetings on specific topics with the Lane County and Springfield planning commissions,
and he wished that the commissions had more joint meetings about how the jurisdictions
approached regional planning within the context of the Eugene-Springfield Metropolitan Area
General Plan to ask such questions as what was being done, and how it could be done in a better
way.
Speaking to the commission's effort on City policies related to infill and redevelopment, Mr.
Meisner said he was excited about the effort and hopeful about its results. He said that resistance
to infill had been universal throughout the city. He said that he had previously been optimistic
about nodes but the community opposition had been massive and came in some cases from
unexpected sources.
Ms. Bettman said the work program was very ambitious and she thanked the commission for its
willingness to do the work needed. She asked how the issues formerly addressed by the now
disbanded Citizen Involvement Committee (CIC) were to be addressed in the future. Ms. Childs
indicated the CIC's work would be added to the commission's work program item, noting the work
program was drafted before the Budget Committee decided against funding staff support for the
CIC.
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Ms. Bettman supported the process objectives outlined by Ms. Levis. She thought that having a
commissioner at the table was a good idea, and wanted to ensure that the commissioner present
represented the entire commission.
Speaking to the issue of infill and design, Ms. Bettman disagreed with the contention that people
did not want density in their neighborhoods. She believed that residents wanted design that was
compatible with the neighborhood and that the council had eliminated the mitigating elements that
could have made such density more palatable to neighborhoods, such as pocket parks, narrow
streets, and wide sidewalks, because they were regulatory in nature. Ms. Bettman said that when
the Land Use Measures Task Force discussed density, it discussed it in combination with those
mitigating factors. She said that as long as the City was "cramming density down people's
throats" without compatibility, it would meet resistance.
Ms. Taylor thanked Mr. Rusch for his statements and said she hoped the council could reconsider
its direction to staff as it regarded the upland sites in the inventory. She believed it would be good
if commissioners were present and said she had appreciated having the minutes to review when a
controversial item came up. She said she would appreciate an explanation of the two points of
view and having a commissioner present to explain even one no vote would be useful.
Mr. Poling thanked the commissioners for their work. He said that reading the commission's
minutes had been a real learning experience for him. He said that a memorandum reviewing the
commission's discussion and the thought process that had gone into its decisions would be
useful. Mr. Poling welcomed any commissioner who wished to adopt him. He said that he had
met Mr. Belcher for coffee once and learned a great deal. Mr. Poling said that while he
appreciated the commission's work, the councilors were the elected officials who had to make the
final decision on policy. He took into account all information from the commission as well as the
input he received from staff and the community.
Ms. Solomon said that several commissioners had reached out to her and she appreciated that
outreach. She looked forward to working with the commission in the future.
Mr. Pap~ thanked the commission for all the work that it did. He appreciated the commission's
deliberations and the time it took to reach a decision.
Mr. Pap~ thought that the Planning Commission Plus Three had been a very good process and
questioned why there were no councilors on the commission, given that there were councilors on
other bodies such as the Police Commission and the Human Rights Commission.
Mr. Pap~ called for a second round of comments.
Mr. Kelly found it sad that the commission's heavy work load and continued staff reductions made
it impossible for the commission to take on the three highest priority post-LUCU work program
items: the South Hills Study update, the alternate code path, and asset mapping for selective
intensification of use. He thought all three items would have made a difference in the long-term.
Mr. Kelly requested an update on the progress of the LUBA remand work on LUCU and the
estimated time line for completion of the remaining items. Ms. Childs responded that staff had
been overly optimistic in its previous estimates. The needed ordinances will take longer to
prepare than originally anticipated. In the case of the needed housing ordinance, the council had
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returned the ordinance to the commission for further work. The remaining items that had been
remanded were largely dependent on the completion of the Natural Resource Study as well as the
ESEE analysis and needed protection measures. That was why there was no additional remand
ordinance work on the work program in fiscal year 2004.
Ms. Childs said that, realistically, the inventory and protection measures would not be done in time
to bring the remaining remand issues back to the council in the next fiscal year.
Mr. Meisner regretted the upcoming retirement of Ms. Childs and wished her luck in the future. He
appreciated her ability to serve as a resource to the council and the brevity of her responses to
council questions.
Mr. Meisner asked Mr. Coyle to speak to the department's loss of staff, skill, history, and
knowledge, saying that loss would make the commission's job more difficult.
Regarding the LUCU, Mr. Meisner asked what the commission would do differently if it had the
opportunity to do the process again. He asked how the commission felt about the LUCU and what
the council had asked it to do with the LUCU. He requested a response in writing if possible.
Ms. Bettman shared Mr. Meisner's regret about Ms. Childs' retirement.
Ms. Bettman expressed enthusiasm about the commission's residential infill project and hoped to
see some results soon. She hoped that the recommendations included some of the mitigating
strategies she had mentioned earlier. She said that they were called for in the GMS policies but
apparently that was not enough for staff to implement them. Ms. Bettman suggested that the
commission might want to consider initiating some amendments to the LUCU that allowed the City
to "add a little sugar with the medicine." Recalling the visual preference survey done in
conjunction with the TransPlan update, Ms. Bettman said that it got to the heart of how density
could be livable. She said that when the City Council discussed density, it backed away when the
discussion concerned commercial development. If the City was going to require residents to
densify, it needed to require other uses to densify as well.
Ms. Taylor, seconded by Ms. Solomon, moved to approve the fiscal year
2004 Planning Commission work program, including the fiscal year Historic
Review Board work program.
Ms. Levis suggested that the commission brainstorm responses to Mr. Meisner's question about
the LUCU. She also asked that the council indicate if it wanted the commission to take on its
recommended process objectives. Mr. Kelly determined that Ms. Taylor and Ms. Solomon would
accept as a friendly amendment the addition of a phrase "and pursue the suggested process
objectives."
Ms. Bettman noted that the work program omitted mention of the Planning Commission role in the
selection of the new Planning Director. Ms. Colbath noted that Mr. Coyle had indicated to the
commission that the selection of a new director was his task and that for the commission to take a
major role would be at odds with the City Manager form of government. The commission was
awaiting to see if there were any opportunities that arose that members could take advantage of
to provide input. Ms. Bettman asked what the City's policy was in regard to the issue, noting the
Police Commission's input in the desired characteristics of a new police chief. City Manager
Taylor indicated he would follow up with a memorandum. He said that there were legal
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ramifications to the topic that would inform the discussion. Mr. Coyle reiterated that staff had
been advised by legal counsel that there were legal issues related to the commission's
participation, and it was not solely an issue of ownership.
Responding to a question from Mr. Kelly, Mr. Taylor recalled that the Police Commission had
provided input into the police chief search through the outreach sessions held with the public and
was not involved in the recruitment process itself. Mr. Kelly suggested that the Planning
Commission could provide similar input regarding attributes, competencies, etc. City Manager
Taylor concurred. He encouraged the commission to find the time to provide similar input to the
Planning and Development Department director.
Mr. Pap8 recognized the effort of former Planning Commissioner Art Farley and that of
Commissioner John Lawless, who was unable to be present tonight.
The motion passed unanimously, 7:0.
Mr. Pap8 called a brief meeting recess.
C.WORK SESSION: Lane Metro Partnership Presentation on Industrial, Commercial, and
Residential Lands Inventory
The council was joined for the item by Lane Metro Partnership Board President John Arnold and
Executive Director Jack Roberts. Mr. Arnold thanked the council for the opportunity to speak to
the issues raised in Mr. Roberts' letter to the council dated May 30, 2003. He also thanked the
council for its contribution to the Metro Partnership and expressed appreciation for Mr. Kelly's
input and hard work as a member of the board.
Mr. Arnold presented background information on the partnership's goals and mission, which was
to bring business investment to the community with the goal of diversifying and fostering the
economy and increasing the local tax base. He said that the partnership assisted both local
businesses wishing to expand, and businesses from outside the community wishing to relocate in
Eugene. Mr. Arnold noted the existing poor economic conditions that existed throughout the
country, and said that the partnership wished to be in a position to assist the community when
conditions improved.
Mr. Arnold said that the board held several sessions on the issue of the community's buildable
lands. He shared some information that the board learned at those sessions regarding the
community's supply of buildable commercial and industrial lands. He noted that the information
was based on information provided to the partnership from consultants Dick Sheehy and Richard
Duncan of Duncan and Brown. Mr. Arnold emphasized that those communities that were
exceeding in economic development were those with "ready-to-go sites" available when a
business was ready to expand or come to the community. He said that Mr. Sheehy recommended
that the community plan ahead for such sites using existing State land use law because "time was
of the essence."
Continuing, Mr. Arnold said that Richard Duncan of Duncan and Brown provided information to the
partnership's board regarding the adequacy of commercial and industrial lands in Eugene. Mr.
Duncan had determined that the existing supply of such lands was not adequate at the current
time, and had attributed that to the fact that some lands designated as available may have other
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constraints, such as natural resources or a lack of access, as well as to the rate of land use
absorption during the 1990s, which exceeded the projected rate of use. Mr. Duncan's findings
indicated that Eugene had a greater shortage of commercial land than of industrial land. Mr.
Arnold noted John Tamulonis of the City of Springfield presented information to the board
indicating that there was a substantial supply of industrial land in that community, although not all
was immediately available. However, Springfield was short of commercial lands.
Mr. Roberts noted his membership on the Governor's Industrial Lands Task Force, which was
examining the issue of the industrial lands supply on a statewide basis. Four metropolitan areas
in the state had identified problems with their land supply. The remainder of the state had the
same problem as the rural areas of Lane County; there was plenty of land, but no services or
infrastructure to serve them, and no demand for their development. He discussed the different
approaches taken by Portland, Salem, and Bend to addressing their land supply problems. The
fourth community, Eugene-Springfield, had taken no steps to address its land supply issue. Mr.
Roberts said that the task force had expected that the testimony it received would identify
impediments to the land use system as an obstacle to maintaining an adequate land supply, but
that was not the case. Most of the problems that were encountered were the results of the
community's failure to use the land use system appropriately. He believed the task force would
recommend that all jurisdictions do an inventory of their buildable lands and address any shortfall
in the supply within the parameters of existing law.
Mr. Roberts outlined a recommendation from the Metro Partnership for the City's support for
commencing a process to evaluate whether the Eugene-Springfield area currently had an
adequate supply of industrial and commercial land. That process would involve a consultant. Mr.
Roberts suggested that such an evaluation was a way for the community to 'get ahead of the
curve.' He said that he had consulted with Terry Moore of EcoNorthwest regarding the work to be
done, and Mr. Moore had indicated it would not be a major undertaking, and that the effort would
likely cost less than $50,000. Mr. Roberts asked that the council consider funding a portion of a
consultant's work. He said that the partnership was meeting with the Eugene and Springfield
councils and the Lane County Board of County Commissioners to see if there was interest in
making the evaluation happen. He was hoping to see the three bodies take positive action on the
request in September 2003 so the elected officials could determine locally how best to meet the
requirements of the law and the needs of the community and economy.
Mr. Pap~ invited council questions.
Mr. Meisner said that it was difficult for him to consider the issue of land supply without also
considering the broader questions of industries and jobs. He said that he frequently saw
underused industrial land in the community, or sites zoned industrial and occupied with a retail
store and where people lived as well. He asked if the evaluation proposed to look at both supply
and use.
Mr. Meisner said that the economy was changing. He asked if, in the context of looking at its land
supply, the community also needed to look at its definition and lists of industrial uses. He asked if
the community was putting the right uses into its industrial zones, or would it merely increase the
land supply and see that squandered.
Mr. Meisner asked if the City's basic zones-residential, commercial, and industrial-were still
correct, and how their use was related to their availability. He noted that many of the uses in the
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Whiteaker mixed-use zone were industrial uses, and asked if those were appropriate and how it
was counted in terms of categories in the land supply.
Regarding the issue of commercial densities, Mr. Meisner questioned whether the community was
wasting its resources and asked how the community could ensure that it was a good steward of
that supply of land.
Mr. Meisner recalled the interest he had expressed in the past in using tax money to prepare
brownfields for redevelopment so that land was once again available for development.
Mr. Kelly indicated interest in knowing the answers to the questions raised by Mr. Meisner. He
said he had supported forwarding Mr. Roberts' letter to the local jurisdictions because the letter
proposed to address what was clearly a need in a comprehensive way. However, Mr. Kelly
thought it would be premature for the council to act to fund the request without more definition of
the scope of work and what questions should be answered in the evaluation.
Mr. Kelly expressed appreciation that the letter mentioned the potential of private fund-raising. He
noted the council's earlier discussion with the commission, during which a recurring theme was
the lack of resources needed to accomplish what was desired.
Mr. Kelly suggested that the three jurisdictions work collaboratively to determine what questions
they wanted to have answered, and let that effort evolve toward a proposal.
Ms. Bettman thought it inappropriate for the council to take any action at this time, given that the
item was scheduled as a work session and the time scheduled for the presentation did not leave
much time for council discussion.
Responding to a question from Ms. Bettman regarding the level of private funding received by the
partnership, Mr. Roberts anticipated that the partnership would receive $100,000 in fiscal year
2004. He added that fund-raising had been down considerably in fiscal year 2003 because the
organization lacked an executive director much of the year.
Ms. Bettman said the community had met all the State's requirements related to land supply and
she questioned why the community would want to redo a task that had already been done.
Ms. Bettman expressed concern about the role of the partnership as it related to City policy
making. She said she had read the Intergovernmental Agreement between the partnership and
the City. She viewed the proposal as advocating policy rather than fulfilling the partnership's
contractual obligation with the City and the other jurisdictions to recruit jobs. She requested a
legal opinion from the City Attorney's Office. Ms. Bettman said that this was the second time she
had reason to question the role of the partnership, noting that Mr. Roberts had previously lobbied
her to support a hospital site in north Eugene when the council was on record as supporting a site
in the central core south of the river.
Ms. Bettman noted that the analysis called for an additional 2,500 acres of land to be designated
for commercial or industrial uses and questioned how that could be done without expanding the
urban growth boundary, which she did not support. She pointed out that those additional acres
would also have constraints.
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Ms. Taylor said she had not favored funding the partnership at all, and she did not favor allocating
more money to the partnership. She noted that a recent opinion piece by Bob Doppelt of the
University of Oregon had mentioned the folly of using incentives for businesses. She wanted to
state that she was opposed to business recruitment. However, facilitation was another matter.
Ms. Taylor thought the partnership's function should be to look at underused land in the
community and to help existing businesses to relocate when they wanted to expand.
Ms. Taylor did not think it mattered if a business was in Springfield or Eugene, or if Springfield had
more industrial land than Eugene and Eugene had more commercial land than Springfield. She
did not perceive that the community had received much in taxes from businesses such as Sony or
Hynix. It was her perception that businesses that were recruited with incentives remained in a
community until their tax breaks expired, and then they leave.
Ms. Solomon supported the proposal and did not perceive it as an infringement on the council's
policy prerogatives. She said that without the information generated as a result of the study, the
council would be unable to make good policy decisions. Ms. Solomon supported the three-
jurisdiction approach, suggesting that should resonate with the council given its recent discussion
with the Planning Commission and its general agreement that there was a need to take things to a
more regional level. She did not think the discussion was one about incentives, but merely putting
on the table what was out there.
Mr. Pap8 agreed with the comments of Mr. Meisner and Mr. Kelly. He found them very
appropriate.
Responding to a question from Mr. Pap8 about when the City last inventoried its land supply, Ms.
Childs reviewed the information included in the Agenda Item Summary provided to each councilor,
which indicated that the Metropolitan Industrial Lands and Eugene Commercial Lands studies
were adopted in 1992. The Metropolitan Residential Lands Study was adopted in 1998.
Springfield had recently completed an inventory of its commercial lands as part of periodic review.
Ms. Childs suggested that the council also needed to consider the impact of the natural
resources protection measures on the buildable lands inventory, and the City did not have that
information at this point, although the partnership could do some preliminary work with the
information that was available. However, she suspected that work would have to be redone when
the extent of regional protections was established.
Mr. Pap8 hoped the two jurisdictions' inventories could be done in common with common criteria
in the future.
Responding to a question from Mr. PapS, Mr. Roberts said that the partnership proposed to take
the information that had been gathered in both communities and analyze whether there was an
adequate supply of commercial and industrial lands. Mr. Roberts believed that the points made by
Mr. Meisner and Mr. Kelly were well-taken. There was available land inside the urban growth
boundary that was underused or may not be "ready to go," and that needed to be examined as
well. He said that an inventory would allow the elected officials to make decisions with up-to-date,
comprehensive factual information.
Mr. Pap8 solicited another round of council comments and questions.
Mr. Meisner was not interested in doing an inventory in isolation. He said that the mechanisms
that were identified to remedy any land shortage were as important an issue to him as the
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inventory. He said that the questions about what industrial uses were, what those uses were now,
and what they should be in the future must be answered. He said that the community needed to
determine what it wanted to use its industrial lands supply for to avoid shortages in the future. He
did not want to lose land to inappropriate uses.
Mr. Kelly said that the studies that had been mentioned had done a very good job of gathering
data, but did not look at the redevelopment of land on a detailed level. The supply projections did
not address issues such as the changing nature of industries. He said that was the sort of
question that must be answered as part of any new project.
Ms. Bettman said that many of the issues mentioned by councilors, such as the redevelopment of
industrial land, would be addressed through a study supported by a Sustainability Economic
Development grant. She said that there were many things the City could do already, such as
limiting the conversion of land, cleaning up brownfield sites, consolidating sites, and making
existing land shovel-ready. She thought there many opportunities to take advantage of before the
City had to consider expanding the urban growth boundary. She pointed out that many of the
lands outside the urban growth boundary were not served, and it would create a burden on the
taxpayers to extend services to those lands.
Mr. Pap8 adjourned the meeting at 7:25 p.m.
Respectfully submitted,
Dennis Taylor
City Manager
(Recorded by Kimberly Young)
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