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MINUTES – Eugene City Council Work Session January 29, 2020 Page 1
MINUTES
Eugene City Council
Harris Hall, 125 East 8th Avenue
Eugene, Oregon 97401
January 29, 2020
12:00 p.m.
Councilors Present: Betty Taylor, Emily Semple, Alan Zelenka, Jennifer Yeh, Mike Clark, Greg Evans, Claire Syrett, Chris Pryor Emily Semple opened the January 29, 2020, work session of the Eugene City Council in Mayor Vinis’ absence.
1. WORK SESSION: Urban Reserves Planning Senior Planner Rebecca Gershow and Planning Director Alissa Hansen gave an update regarding the urban reserves project, including outreach process, study area, land supply, land suitability, and development options. Council Discussion:
• Councilor Clark – asked questions about the legal reasons for amending the Metro Plan; requested a timeline for when the process would be completed; asked if there had been policy assumptions made previously and if they had been voted on; voiced strong concerns about the use of Portland State’s numbers, without consideration of other factors.
• Councilor Zelenka – addressed the policy assumptions question raised by Councilor Clark; stated that this was to be a regularly scheduled process; asked about the development options and requested more detail; questioned the removal of the south airport section.
• Councilor Pryor – clarified that the lands are based on suitability and not affordability; questioned the ability to research which lands could be developed at a lower cost; encouraged consideration of affordability of development when looking at the 400 acres, to help with the affordability housing issue.
• Councilor Semple – agreed with Councilor Pryor’s position on the affordability issue; questioned the population estimate numbers in the presentation; asked if the urban reserves will need to be adjusted based on the numbers.
• Councilor Clark – appreciated what Councilor Pryor stated about affordability; questioned the growth and population number differences; discussed the average population calculations provided by PSU and asked what can be done if the numbers are radically off; spoke about the frequency of the PSU numbers and the long-term effect on some policy decisions.
• Councilor Zelenka– reminded council of the previous Urban Growth Boundary planning process; asked about the triple bottom line sounding board and the outcome of the analysis; asked if some of the areas will be being taken out of the analysis as the result of feedback from the group; said that it is the committees’ purpose to delve into the details, further and asked for the names and the groups who were involved.
• Councilor Taylor – concurred with Councilor Zelenka about wanting to know who was in the meetings; expressed concern about climate change and the preservation of the open space, forest and agricultural land; spoke about single and multi-family options and limiting what and where to build; expressed disappointment about having the urban reserves and supported preserving the urban growth boundary