HomeMy WebLinkAbout181210 WSMINUTES – Eugene City Council December 10, 2018 Page 1
Work Session
M I N U T E S
Eugene City Council
Harris Hall, 125 East 8th Avenue
Eugene, Oregon 97401
December 10, 2018
5:30 p.m.
Councilors Present: Emily Semple, Betty Taylor, Alan Zelenka, Jennifer Yeh, Mike Clark, Claire Syrett, Chris Pryor, Greg Evans Mayor Vinis opened the December 10, 2018, Work Session of the Eugene City Council.
1. Committee Reports and Items of Interest
• Concern expressed about how little time councilors have to review agenda materials.
• The need for a downtown day center is more critical than ever; if the City Hall site is no longer an option, an effort should be made to identify an alternative.
• Lane Regional Air Protection Agenda is a good forum for those concerned about wood smoke and automobile emissions to express their opinion.
• Topics raised by constituents include natural gas, automobile inspections, and categorizing the homeless population to determine how many are homeless by choice.
• Providing council agenda materials earlier would allow the public and the council to better understand the issues and surface questions/suggestions on what action should be taken.
• December 10 is the 70th anniversary of International Human Rights Day; a celebratory event was held at Churchill High School.
• Support discussing ways with which to make work sessions more effective, including a look at the timeline for council agenda materials.
2. WORK SESSION: Housing Tools and Strategies Planning and Development Director Denny Braud, Policy Analyst Jason Dedrick, Economic Development Planner Anne Fifield, and Consultant Carrie Bennett presented a PowerPoint outlining the Housing Tools and Strategies project, including key takeaways, process and next steps. Council Discussion
• Important to acknowledge that there were many skeptics at the beginning of this project and the focus of the working group evolved as issues were surfaced and discussed.
• Challenging to bring very diverse perspectives to the table and negotiate a shared set of recommendations.
• The direction given in the original motion establishing the project timeline has not been completely fulfilled; the report before council is a first step.
• Important to have adequate technical and economic analyses to anticipate what will and will not work; preliminary recommendations reflect only what is politically and economically feasible.
• Questions asked about whether a budgetary resource for funding to cover the cost of the proposed City pick-up of the Construction Excise Tax had been identified.
• Disappointed that the recommendation didn’t show how different combinations of strategies might interact with each other and could help council move towards its housing goals; the suggested motions should be council-generated, based on their collective synthesis of the committee’s research and discussion.
• The composition of th e Hou s ing Tools and Strategies working grou p was admittedly lacking
in representa tion by the rental community.
• Concern expressed that there was no minority report provided.
• Clarification requested about whether the working group was addressing issues associated
with affordable hous ing or s ubsidized hous ing.
• Goa l of work is to identify what the City can do to increase the supply of affordable housing;
criterion used to assess each strategy s hould be how much it moves the dial to achieve this
goal.
• Further analysis requested that would add metrics to show the effects of each stra t egy.
• Expectation by work group pa r ticipants that a ny differences of opinion would be reflected
in r eport and that those opposing a recommendation would receive follow-up from staff.
• Unclear in report which items were being tacitly approved by council and which items
would require more discussion.
• Important t o have a r ev iew after two years of wheth e r the CET funds and other imp lemented
strategies are achieving the goals they are intended to address.
• Validity of study questioned, based on the composition of the work group members and the
inadequate timeline.
• Council not ready to act on recommendations; more a nalysis needed to deve lop better
strategies.
• Suggestion made to m ore clearly outline those strategies that are adm inistrative in nature
and r equi re no more analysis.
Th e meeting adjourned at 7:06 p.m.
Respectfully submitted,
/3u:Ji ~
Beth Forrest
City Record e r
Li nk to the webcast of this City Council meeting: here
MINUTES -Eugene C ity Council
Work Sess io n
Decembe r I 0, 2018 Pa ge 2