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HomeMy WebLinkAboutCC Minutes - 07/28/99 WS MINUTES Eugene City Council McNutt Room--City Hall July 28, 1999 5:30 p.m. COUNCILORS PRESENT: Scott Meisner, Pat Farr, David Kelly, Bobby Lee, Nancy Nathanson, Gary PapS, Gary Rayor, Betty Taylor. I. CALL TO ORDER The adjourned July 26, 1999, Eugene City Council meeting was called to order at 5:30 p.m.; His Honor Mayor James D. Torrey presiding. II. ITEMS FROM MAYOR AND COUNCIL A. TransPlan Citing several community requests to postpone the TransPlan public hearing (scheduled for September 8, the first day of school and two days after Labor Day), Ms. Taylor asked the council to do so. Mr. Rayor said he received a request from the Bicycle Alliance Coalition to postpone the hearing. Mr. Kelly said the request to postpone the hearing to September 22 should be honored if at all possible. City Manager Jim Johnson said there was no logistical reason why the hearing could not be postponed provided that a new date was chosen soon so the change can be made on the material scheduled for printing. Springfield Mayor Maureen Maine said some of her key staff may be unavailable and she has yet to poll the council for availability so if a quorum was possible, Springfield was open to postponing the hearing. Lane County Commissioner Bobby Greene said the Board of Commissioners was not opposed to postponing the hearing although some members may be unable to attend. Planning Division Manager Jan Childs said the material had to be published next week if the hearing date is unchanged. She urged a decision by July 31. Mayor Torrey polled the council and there was unanimous support for postponing the hearing and being flexible about the new date. MINUTES--Eugene City Council July 28, 1999 Page 1 5:30 p.m. B. Sister Cities Conference Ms. Taylor reported on the National Sister Cities Conference in Little Rock, Arkansas, noting that programs are carried out in a variety of ways across the nation with varying degrees of government participation. C. Bethel Branch Library Mr. Fart said there was a potential for losing the favored site for the branch library in Bethel so he has written Albertson's Chief Executive Officer to explain the critical need and urge his cooperation. He said the issue will likely come to the council's attention if not resolved in a timely manner. Mayor Torrey asked to confer with Mr. Fart before any further steps were taken. D. A& K Development Mr. Meisner indicated that a second vacation of related property for the A & K Development has been granted and asked for a progress report on traffic calming devices. E. City Legislative Effort Mayor Torrey encouraged the council to express its appreciation to Mike Redding and Lee Wilson for their legislative work during this session. He also extended his appreciation for the work of the Council Committee on Intergovernmental Relations. F. Emergency Preparedness Recalling the large number of people providing public testimony on the emergency preparedness ordinance, Ms. Nathanson said it seemed that people were unprepared for what the council had planned for some time. She asked Mr. Johnson to clarify for the council and the public before the ordinance comes before the council for approval why the ordinance was needed and what would happen if it were not approved. Mr. Rayor asked what would be the State and Federal safety nets should the council not approve the ordinance. G. Agenda Control Ms. Nathanson asked staff to avoid scheduling more than one potentially contentious public hearing on an agenda unless there was a time-sensitive issue that must be addressed. H. School District 4J Intergovernmental Agreement Mr. Rayor asked to have the intergovernmental agreement with 4J School District sent to him for input because he will be unavailable from August 3 to August 14. I. Matching Grant Program MINUTES--Eugene City Council July 28, 1999 Page 2 5:30 p.m. Mr. Rayor asked to have clarification on the After School Matching Grant Program allocation. City Manager Jim Johnson said staff has been instructed that the request for proposal (RFP) process will be fully competitive with no set aside for any one particular group. The maximum grant will be for $75,000. J. Lane Council of Governments Mr. Pap~ reported on the Lane Council of Governments meeting at the coast. K. New Bike Bridge Mr. Pap6 reported he had run across the new bike bridge adjacent to the Ferry Street Bridge and expressed a desire to have the bridge open to the public in time for the first University of Oregon home football game. L. Council Wednesday Meeting Time Mr. Johnson shared results of the council poll on the Wednesday meeting time, and reported that the majority of councilors favored the 5:30 p.m. time slot. There were two against the time and two who expressed no preference, and the remainder of councilors indicating a preference for the 5:30 p.m. start time. The council agreed to retain the 5:30 p.m. meeting time. M. Lane County/PSCC Measure Mr. Johnson indicated that staff was working with the City of Springfield and Lane County in developing a work plan for a public information effort related to the Lane County/Public Safety Coordinating Council measure. He said he would be bringing back a funding request on August 11 to support that effort. N. Services to River Road/Santa Clara Area Mr. Johnson reported on a meeting he held with councilors Meisner, Fart, and Pap~ and County commissioners Bobby Green and Anna Morrison about service delivery issues in the River Road/Santa Clara area. He said he planned to work with Planning and Development Director Paul Farmer to develop a work plan to address those issues in greater depth. The council had no objection. iii. WORK SESSION TO DISCUSS THE PROPOSED PUBLIC SAFETY COORDi-NATiNG COUNCIL PROPOSAL WITH LANE COUNTY COMMISSIONERS Mayor Maine joined the council at the table. Mr. Johnson acknowledged the presence of County commissioners Bobby Green and Bill Dwyer and said this was an opportunity for the three jurisdictions to discuss the proposed Public Safety Coordinating Council (PSCC) recommendation to the Board of County Commissioners regarding a personal/corporate income surcharge as a method of financing public safety improvements. Mr. Green thanked Mayor Torrey for his support and passion around youth services at the State legislative level. He said he assumed that the council was familiar with the components of the public safety measure, which was essentially the same one placed before voters last fall. Mr. Green said the County Commissioners believed the jurisdictions needed to gain the public's trust to be successful at the polls. MINUTES--Eugene City Council July 28, 1999 Page 3 5:30 p.m. Mr. Dwyer thanked the council for the opportunity to speak to the topic. He reviewed the personal/corporate income tax approach, calling it a progressive tax that did not add an additional burden to property owners. He discussed the concept of creating a "system balance reserve fund" to meet public safety unforeseen/unmet needs that would be available to all communities. Mr. Dwyer expressed the County's willingness to work with Eugene and the rural communities to ensure the success of the measure. Mr. Green added that the matters of rate administration and collection had not been decided but the council will be apprized of progress in that area. The logical service provider, he said, was the State but it could not provide the service at this time. Mayor Maine said she was interested in what this council had to say and relay that to her council at its August 2 meeting. Mr. Kelly said he was pleased with the proposed measure, particularly the revenue-sharing aspect, which he called "the difference between success and failure" at the polls. He appreciated that there was a provision for review by the PSCC but program flexibility for the individual jurisdictions. He opposed setting a sunset date for the measure at this time. Mr. Kelly expressed concern about the proposal to delete the phrase "but not limited to" in the document alluding to the types of programs covered. Mr. Rayor asked for more information on tax collection and more specifics on what the measure covers. Mr. Green invited Mr. Rayor and other with concerns and questions to submit them to the PSCC for responses. Mayor Torrey said the council's August 11 meeting would provide more information. Mr. Meisner described the proposal as fair and said he was disappointed that the State was unable to handle tax collection. He agreed that the sunset was too early, preferring none at all but at minimum an 8- to 1 O-year sunset. He commended the PSCC for its work. Ms. Nathanson said the question of delaying the measure to the spring has surfaced but she believed the time was right to do something collectively this fall. She described the scale of the proposal as reasonable and doable. Mr. Pap~ commended PSCC Chair Mayor Maine and Former Eugene City Councilor Ken Tollenaar for their work. He agreed with others that the sunset was too short. Mr. Pap~ asked what strategy would be use to sell the measure. Mr. Farr said he was not a supporter of new taxes, particularly at the local level, but he would support the measure because of the benefits it holds for all the jurisdictions. Addressing Mr. Papa's question, Mr. Farr said the measure could be successful by selling its benefits. He predicted resistance from employers. Mayor Torrey expressed support for the 45/55 percent split and the concept of a reserve fund, adding that he believed the latter could be developed above the pooled funds. He said outcome measures were key and would need to be reported and justified to the public. Mr. Green encouraged communication from the council on the measure. On a related issue, Mr. Green said he followed the council's July 12 discussion on public safety substations and asked what the council hoped for as an outcome. He noted that a study conducted by the National Institute of Justice has shown that substations do not reduce crime. MINUTES--Eugene City Council July 28, 1999 Page 4 5:30 p.m. Mr. Johnson distributed a draft concept for expenditure of PSCC revenue sharing funds. IV. WORK SESSION: ORDINANCE GRANTING TO ADVANCED TELECOMMUNICATIONS GROUP (ATG), A NON-EXCLUSIVE FRANCHISE TO USE THE PUBLIC WAY TO CONSTRUCT AND MAINTAIN PUBLIC COMMUNICATION FACILITIES WITHIN THE CITY OF EUGENE Mr. Johnson introduced the topic and acknowledged the presence of Franchise Manager Pam Berrian. Mr. Kelly complimented staff on the agenda packet, and asked if the non-monetary terms outlined in the document were comparable with similar projects. Ms. Berrian indicated that construction requirements such as the engineering and construction permit fees were the same for all applicants as they were based on cost recovery. Addressing a follow-up question, City Attorney Jerry Lidz indicated that the many of the provisions were lifted out of a comparable franchise with U.S. West Communications. Mayor Torrey said the item would be scheduled for a public hearing. V. WORK SESSION: TRANSPLAN Planning Division Manager Jan Childs introduced Tom Schwetz and Lee Shoemaker of Lane Council of Governments (LCOG), Dave Reinhard from Public Works Transportation, Nick Amis from the Oregon Department of Transportation (ODOT), Lisa Gardener from Lane Transit District (LTD), and Planning Commissioner Art Farley. She indicated that Planning Commissioner Anne Marie Levis was en route. Ms. Childs noted that the Joint Elected Officials have received a request to reschedule the public hearing on the TransPlan update for later in September and polling for availability is underway. Mr. Schwetz noted that the TransPlan process was nearing its 7th anniversary and the planning process was largely complete. Inevitable changes to the plan, he said, would be the result of decisions made by the jurisdictions prior to adopting the plan. He provided a history of the process through that period and said that the plan did not detail implementation, which would be identified during the adoption process from the various jurisdictions. Mr. Schwetz said that in adopting the plan the council would be adopting the goals, policies, financially constrained project list, and the TransPlan as a functional plan of the Metro Plan. More importantly, he added, adopting TransPlan provided an agreed-upon conceptual framework within which each of the adopting bodies will pursue implementation. In response to a question from Mr. Kelly, Mr. Schwetz confirmed that performance measures were based on a model of full bus rapid transit build-out. Mr. Kelly expressed concern that the funding model showed only the funds for the pilot corridor. Planning Commission President Levis and Commissioner Farley joined the council. Ms. Levis reviewed the commission's July 28, 1999, memorandum to the council and highlighted the following changes: 1) timely implementation of nodal development; 2) bus rapid transit (BRT); 3) transportation demand management (TDM) on a voluntary basis; 4) level of service; and 5) financially constrained project list. Ms. Levis said two projects raised in discussion have been deferred to the council: the Valley River Bridge and the I- 5/Franklin interchange. MINUTES--Eugene City Council July 28, 1999 Page 5 5:30 p.m. Mr. Meisner commended the group for the document. He acknowledged the importance of TDM but noted enormous resistance to the concept, adding that locally Eugene may want to "do more." He opposed speedy implementation of nodal development, saying the phrase was vague and there was disagreement about what it meant. Mr. Meisner said the plan's policy statement was vague and did not provide clarity and guidance. He said the summary, likewise, needed more detail, specifically on the consequences. Mr. Kelly described the document as unacceptable and criticized it for the following: 1) an enormous disconnect between the policies, the projects, and the outcomes; 2) low return on capital system improvement investment; 3) insufficient transit share, and similar problems with other measures; 4) imbalance in the capital project spending; 4) 20-year project list described as legally binding but unclear what the legal status of other items are, e.g., future projects, policy enforcement mechanisms, etc; 5) no interest in a transportation utility fee (TUF) yet it continues to be raised as a revenue source; 6) what was described in the document is not nodal development; and 7) concern that the scale of specific projects (e.g. West Eugene Parkway, Valley River Bridge, Belt Line/I-5 interchange) is too large--shift some of those dollars for the Franklin/I-5 interchange. Mr. Rayor said he was disappointed in nodal development as described in the document and was concerned that traffic congestion would not be improved by the plan. He highlighted some of his concerns: the planning aspect of downtown parking, the modal split (high speed, high capacity roads discouraged bicycling), more emphasis needed on connectivity, parking lot size/new development (include bike parking and other standards). Mr. Rayor said he believed there was resistance from Public Works staff to anything other than curbed, urban, standard paved roads. He expressed concern about the Franklin/I-5 interchange, saying it was almost impossible given the constraints of the river. He also expressed exception to the aesthetics of the proposed Belt Line/I-5 interchange, adding that he doubted most citizens wanted visitors greeted with that view. Ms. Nathanson said she was also interested in connectivity and believed that off-street bicycle paths or other bicycle routes might be a better investment than bicycle lanes on heavily traveled arterials. She referred the council to page 3 of the commission's memo and wondered if there had been any discussion with the school district in developing TransPlan and in developing TDM programs given that there has been an increase in nonwork trips such as school-related and KidSports trips. With respect to the Valley River Bridge, Ms. Nathanson asked if a majority of the commission supported a bridge in that general area. Mr. Farley clarified that the commission thought that issue should be revisited sometime after completion of the Ferry Street Bridge improvements and the new bike bridge, asking itself "Do we need an additional bridge, and where?" Mr. Lee asked for information about how the new gas tax impacts TransPlan. Mayor Torrey said he believed another bridge would be needed, perhaps in Alton Baker Park. He warned the council to expect a large turnout at the public hearing. Ms. Taylor suggested the plan be adopted by sections. She opposed to an additional bridge and emphasized that the TUF was "dead." She said part of the TDM problem was the lack of community centers and neighborhood parks. She agreed with Mr. Rayor that traffic congestion, parking safety, and other problems have reduced the use of bicycles as a mode of transportation. She called the plan unbalanced and believed the council was far from adopting any portion of it. Mr. Farr encouraged the commission to refine the document and thanked it for the effort. Mr. Farr left the meeting. MINUTES--Eugene City Council July 28, 1999 Page 6 5:30 p.m. Mr. Papd said a focus on nodal development was imperative. He was encouraged by the success of the parks and open spaces measure, saying it would certainly relieve some of the traffic congestion. Ms. Childs indicated that the report will be presented to the other jurisdictions and staff would develop a consolidated memo on all the questions raised during the series of work sessions. She thanked the council for its input. Mr. Meisner asked to be notified as soon as possible of the rescheduled date for the public hearing. The meeting adjourned at 7:28 p.m. Respectfully submitted, James R. Johnson City Manager (Recorded by Yolanda Paule) MINUTES--Eugene City Council July 28, 1999 Page 7 5:30 p.m.