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HomeMy WebLinkAboutCC Minutes - 04/10/00 Meeting MINUTES Eugene City Council Regular Meeting Council Chamber--City Hall April 10, 2000 7:30 p.m. COUNCILORS PRESENT: Bobby Lee, Nancy Nathanson, Gary Rayor, David Kelly, Gary PapS, Betty Taylor. COUNCILORS ABSENT: Pat Farr, Scott Meisner,. Mayor Torrey called the meeting to order. Councilor Lee suggested that the council should not go through an interview process to fill the interim chair position on the Human Rights Commission, since it would only be for 45 days and then they would have to go through the process again. Councilor Nathanson commented that she did not have enough information to make a decision on an interim chair. City Manager Johnson said that he would check to see if it was a requirement to fill the position for a such a short amount of time. I. CEREMONIAL MATTERS Mayor Torrey proclaimed April 30 through May 7 as "Days of Remembrance" in memory of victims of the holocaust and in honor of the survivors as well as the rescuers and liberators, and further proclaimed that the citizens of Eugene should strive to overcome intolerance and indifference through learning and remembrance. ii. PUBLIC FORUM Lizzy Hughes, 953 West 8th Avenue, provided information on Project MECCA. She said that the project worked with "at-risk" youth and would benefit the community. She asked for any help that the council could offer and commented that she was looking for a building to house the project. T. L. McDonell, 2795 Chuckanut Street, called for answers from the individual councilors regarding a question he had asked at a previous meeting about the availability of C-2 zoned land. He commented that he had not yet received any answers from the City. MINUTES--Eugene City Council April 10, 2000 Page 1 Regular Meeting Start Taylor, 1285 Mclean Boulevard, called for an anti-World Trade Organization (WTO) resolution from the City Council. He commented that it was an issue of democracy for decisions about the city to be made by true elected representatives. Bob White, 876 Nadine, spoke on the Rasor Park issue in the River Road area. He supported the annual car show at that location and commented that the event contributed to the community. He called for a fair hearing on the subject and invited the council members to attend the next event. Councilor Rayor suggested to Ms. Hughes that she take her MECCA project information to an appropriate City department. He said that he would contact her with more information. Regarding a response to Mr. McDonell's question about zoning, Councilor Rayor apologized and said that he was not aware that Mr. McDonell had wanted an answer from each individual councilor. Regarding Mr. Taylor's WTO request, Councilor Rayor said that a WTO item would be scheduled on a future meeting agenda. Regarding Mr. White's comments on the car show in Rasor Park, Councilor Rayor said that he had discussed a compromise with the Mayor. He added that he had walked the site and planned to attend the annual Cruise-In. Addressing Ms. Hughes, Councilor Kelly suggested that she needed to get specific as to exactly what kind of help she wanted from the City Council. Regarding the question of Mr. McDonell, Councilor Kelly said that he was waiting for information from staff before responding. Regarding Mr. Taylor's proposal for a WTO resolution, Councilor Kelly said that he would be interested in hearing both sides of the argument. Councilor Taylor commented that she was also waiting for information from staff before responding to Mr. McDonell's question. Regarding Mr. Taylor's call for a WTO resolution, she said that she had already requested a resolution. Addressing Mr. White's comments about the Rasor Park Cruise-In issue, she commented that there were other sites that could accommodate the event. Councilor Nathanson commented to Ms. Hughes that there were many groups that were competing for facilities at no cost. Addressing Mr. McDonell, she noted that there was not an infinite supply of land within the Urban Growth Boundary. MINUTES--Eugene City Council April 10, 2000 Page 2 Regular Meeting Mayor Torrey expressed a hope that city staff would call a meeting of parties interested in the Rasor Park issue and have presentations from both sides of the issue. He said that both sides should be able to discuss the issue and come up with a resolution. Addressing Ms. Hughes, Mayor Torrey said that he had given copies of the information he had received from her to the Eugene/Springfield school districts as well as the Chamber of Commerce and asked them to distribute the information to various real estate agencies to try to find a site. Regarding Mr. McDonell's question, Mayor Torrey said that the Metropolitan Area General Plan would have to be revised to add to the inventory of available C-2 land. CONSENT CALENDAR A. Approval: Council Minutes: February 21, 2000 Work Session; February 23, 2000 City Council Meeting; February 28, 2000 Work Session; February 28, 2000 City Council Meeting; March 8, 2000 Work Session; March 13, 2000 City Council Meeting; March 15, 2000 Work Session. B. Approval: Resolution 4627: Approving Capital Improvement Project # 93073 and assessment of certain real property per Lane County Assessment Policy on Coburg Road under the provisions of ORS 203.132, the subject property being Lane County Tax Assessor's map number 17-03-17-11, Tax Lot 1316 Councilor Lee, seconded by Councilor Taylor, moved to approve the items on the consent calendar. Councilor Taylor offered a correction to the minutes of March 15. She suggested changing "paper" to "report." She offered a wording correction to the February 26 minutes: "She preferred that, when a point had already been made, people voluntarily limit comments to indicating their agreement or disagreement with previous speakers." Councilor Kelly offered a correction to the minutes of February 28 work session. He suggested substituting "phrase" for "list." He also offered a correction to the item lettering on the consent calendar. For the minutes of March 15, he noted that when the motion of the ballot measure committee was listed, the name "John Brown" should be replaced with "David Kelly." Councilor Rayor offered a correction to the March 8 minutes. He noted that on page 7, the name should be "River Front Urban Renewal Plan." MINUTES--Eugene City Council April 10, 2000 Page 3 Regular Meeting Councilor Nathanson offered a correction to the March 8 work session. She wanted to substitute the words "the majority of the trip was concerned with" for "...her role in the meetings focused primarily on..." The motion passed unanimously. IV. PUBLIC HEARING: AN ORDINANCE CONCERNING OPEN WATERWAYS, AND ADDING SECTIONS 6.650, 6.655, 6.660, 6.665, AND 6.670 TO THE EUGENE CODE 1971 Mayor Torrey stressed that the item was a public hearing only and that no action was going to be taken that evening. Les Lyle provided a staff report. He said that staff had had an opportunity to involve the public as well as the Planning Commission in following through with council direction to put together a waterways ordinance. Mr. Lyle said that, based on the public feedback and staff input, the Planning Commission, on March 20, recommended two items be considered by the City Council: 1. An ordinance that would adopt an interim provision for open waterways that would prohibit filling and piping until such time as the natural resource study and related Endangered Species Act (ESA) issues had been resolved. He said that the ordinance would prohibit filling and piping on approximately 95 miles of open waterways within the city limits. He called attention to page 348 of the council packet which had a copy of the recommended ordinance that the Planning Commission had forwarded. The other item for consideration is: 2. Consider interim buffering or setbacks and direct staff to evaluate that idea and return to the council with a scope of work. He said that the ordinance had been reviewed on April 3 by the Planning Commission. Mr. Lyle also called attention to a table in the council packet that the evaluation of the policy development from the November 22 proposal to present. In addition staff provided a table at the meeting that showed updated information on the total amount of land that 95 mile of open waterway protection (non-buffered) would affect. In response to a question from Councilor Lee regarding the land impact from waterway protection, Mr. Lyle said that the land affected was from top of bank to top of bank and did not take into account any buffering. Councilor Nathanson clarified that the ordinance was never designed to completely prevent development where water was present. She also clarified that the ordinance did not constitute a moratorium on building. Mayor Torrey opened the public hearing. MINUTES--Eugene City Council April 10, 2000 Page 4 Regular Meeting Margaret (Peg)Waite, 34152 Del Monte, submitted written material. Betty Hemmingsen, 1860 Riverview, spoke as the co-chair of the Laurel Hill Valley Citizen's Association. She said that her neighborhood executive committee had passed a motion in support of the protection of open waterways. She said that the open waterways ordinance was a step in the right direction toward addressing the problems of the Endangered Species Act. She specifically responded to Exemption 2 in Section 6.660. She opined that a land use application must have final approval priorto the effective date of the ordinance to receive an exception to the ordinance. She said that a land use application that had been accepted as complete did not guarantee the protection of any affected waterways. Terry Connolly, Eugene Chamber of Commerce, supported waterway protection, but not at the expense of buildable land. He raised concern over loss of land to buffer zones. He said that property owners needed to know how they are being affected in total (buffers) and how long the process would take. He raised concern that the city could waste time considering interim buffers when Goal 5 information could call for very different measures. Tom Slocum, 1950 Graham Drive, supported Mr. Connolly's comments and said that there would be a significant impact on buildable land when you consider buffering. Tom Bowerman, 33707, McKenzie View, raised concern that the wording of the proposed ordinance was too weak and suggested stronger wording. He said that decisions regarding mitigation of waterways needed to be made with a clear reference to scientifically based reasoning. He also called for a clear reference to buffering in the ordinance language. Jan Spencer, 1266 West 5th Street, displayed a chart showing the remaining percentage of original open waterways in the city. He said that business-as-usual practices would no longer work and that an effort needed to be made toward restoration. He also called for no retroactive permits for parties who filled or piped waterways. He opined that they should be fined instead and be required to restore what they had damaged. Bob O'Brien, 3575 Gilham, spoke in support of open waterway protection and interim buffers. He raised concern over the ability of the City Manager to grant exemptions and called for an appeal process for City Manager decisions. He also called for stronger ordinance language on compliance and suggested language that would require restoration of waterways for those found not in compliance. Roxie Cuellar, 1255 Pearl Street, supported protection of open waterways but spoke against interim buffers. She urged the council to direct the Storm Water Department Advisory Committee to address the issue of proposed buffers. She raised concern that the city would not make its periodic review threshold of available land if buffers are imposed and would have to expand the urban growth boundary. Jim Reed, PO Box 2077, Eugene, showed a map of city boundaries in 1905 and showed all of the streams that had been impacted since then. He stressed the importance of keeping the waterways that remained in the city open and let their natural filtering work on the water. MINUTES--Eugene City Council April 10, 2000 Page 5 Regular Meeting Lisa-Marie DiVincent, 2955 Mckendrich Street, supported a prohibition on filling and piping waterways and called for a conservative approach on exemptions. She stressed the importance of public involvement for any exemptions. Bruce H. Anderson, 777 High Street, submitted written material and raised concern about the potential loss of developable wetlands in the West Eugene Wetland plan were resulting from this proposed policy. He wanted clarification on the connection to the wetlands plan and noted that there were properties in the wetlands plan that were designated as developable. Emily Fox, 455 East 31st , supported the Planning Commission recommendation until the Goal 5 inventory was established. She seconded Ms. Hemmingsen's comments. Sharon Teague-Blick, 3957 Potter, spoke of the educational value of open waterways to local schools. She called for stronger language in the ordinance regarding penalties for non- compliance and called for more language in the ordinance addressing restorative efforts. Junior Robertson, 640 West 15th, raised concern over exemptions granted by the City Manager. He called for stronger language in the ordinance regarding failure to comply with the rules. He called for restoration language to be added to the proposed ordinance. Jan Wostmann, 2645 River View, spoke in support of the no pipe, no fill rule. He called for an erasure of the distinction between key and non-key waterways. He called for interim buffers. He seconded Ms. Hemmingsen's comments and called for stronger language in the ordinance regarding mitigation requirements. Norman Riddle, 1238 Crest Drive, commented that clean water was becoming more and more rare and that the issue would not go away. He suggested adding wording be added to the ordinance that would require developers to day light casting piped streams as a requirement for new development. Art Farley, 907 Woodhill Drive, spoke in support of the changes in the proposed ordinance and supported the idea of getting rid of the "key" distinction. He supported the idea of interim buffers. Mayor Torrey close the hearing. In response to a question from Councilor Lee regarding best practices, Mr. Lyle said that he was not aware of any national best practices procedure that dealt with this proposal, but noted that protection and buffering of stream coridors was becoming more prevelant in other cities in Oregon and the northwest. Staff are in contact with these other cities. Councilor Lee commented that there was some denial in the State about the actual quality of Oregon's water. Councilor Nathanson commented that managing water in an urban environment is much different that managing water outside of an urban environment. She suggested that the council adopt the recommended ordinance first and then consider the question of interim buffers. MINUTES--Eugene City Council April 10, 2000 Page 6 Regular Meeting She called for information from staff on how the proposed ordinance relates to the Eugene Wetlands Plan. Councilor Kelly thanked staff for their work on the proposed ordinance. He was in favor of taking action, recognizing that it would be an interim strategy. He said that his first desire was to do no harm to the remaining waterways and see how protection would work into the broader context of Goal 5. Councilor Kelly noted that exemption decisions by the City Manager were appealable. He called for information from staff regarding additional language in the ordinance on mitigation. He announced that he would move to delete the exceptions in Section 6.660 la. and commented that the completeness of an application before a certain date was not an appropriate reason for granting an exception. He expressed a desire for staff to work with applicants to help them fit the new criteria rather than granting an exception. He called for stronger language in the ordinance on penalties for violators. Regarding buffers, Councilor Kelly said that Goal 5 would address the issue but called for staff to research interim buffering. Councilor Pap8 raised concern over an accurate definition of an open waterway. He also raised concern over the lack of a time limit on interim measures and stressed the importance of setting such a limit on the interim phase and completing the Goal 5 study. Councilor Taylor raised concern over any delays in passing the ordinance. She commented that the Planning Commission had made some improvements but expressed a desire to strengthen the ordinance language before passage. In response to a question from Councilor Rayor regarding ordinance language requiring the restoration of illegally impacted streams, City Attorney Glenn Klein said that in Section 6.665 there was language that authorized abatement of unlawful actions and authorized the City Manager to direct restorative measures. Mayor Torrey again stressed that no action would be taken on the item that evening. V. ACTION: AN ORDINANCE CONCERNING PUBLIC CONTRACTING REGULATIONS THAT AMENDS SECTIONS 2.1210, 2.1220, AND 2.1255 OF THE EUGENE CODE 1971 City Manager Johnson asked the council to consider Council Bill 4728, an ordinance concerning public contracting regulations and amending sections 2.1210, 2.1220, and 2.1255 of the Eugene code 1971 Councilor Lee, seconded by Councilor Taylor, moved that the bill, with unani- mous consent of the council, be read a second time by council bill number only, and that enactment be considered at that time. The motion passed unanimously. MINUTES--Eugene City Council April 10, 2000 Page 7 Regular Meeting City Manager Johnson asked that the council consider Council Bill 4728 by number only. Councilor Lee, seconded by Councilor Taylor, moved that the bill be approved and given final passage. The motion passed unanimously. Mayor Torrey adjourned the meeting at 9:45 p.m. Respectfully submitted, James R. Johnson City Manager (Recorded by Joe Sams) MINUTES--Eugene City Council April 10, 2000 Page 8 Regular Meeting