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HomeMy WebLinkAboutCC Minutes - 12/09/09 Work Session M I N U T E S Eugene City Council McNutt Room—City Hall—777 Pearl Street Eugene, Oregon December 9, 2009 Noon COUNCILORS PRESENT: Alan Zelenka, Mike Clark, Andrea Ortiz, Jennifer Solomon, Chris Pryor, George Poling, George Brown, Betty Taylor. Her Honor Mayor Kitty Piercy called the work session of the Eugene City Council to order. A. WORK SESSION: Eugene Comprehensive Lands Assessment Planning Director Lisa Gardner provided an overview of the Eugene Comprehensive Lands Assessment (ECLA) process to date. She said the Community Advisory Committee (CAC) had been reconvened and met several times. She introduced Jason Dedrick, Planning Division, to present the resolution to accept the draft products associated with ECLA. Mr. Dedrick stated that the resolution and attachments were the same documents presented to the council in October 2009, and constituted the City’s compliance with House Bill (HB) 3337. He said the resolution was an acknowledgement of the work that had occurred to-date and the fact that further work would continue until April 2010, which was why it was draft in nature; further work would address data issues that arose late in the process. The CAC had reconvened to continue that effort, but wished to recognize the amount of work that had already been completed by the CAC and staff to produce a baseline land need of approximately 2,200 acres. Based on guidance by the CAC, he said a range of 33 percent higher and lower than the baseline had been created. He said CAC members indicated they were comfortable with acceptance of the draft land need by the council as long as it was acknowledged that the ongoing process would likely change that number. Mr. Dedrick said the broader objective was to produce the data needed by the community to understand its land need in the future. He said the process could require involving additional stakeholders and partners and forming work groups to meet as needed on specific topics. He said there was no one right answer to the land need question and the statute spoke to holding the data to a reasonable level of precision. He said the data should be the foundation for a community-wide discussion around the larger policy issues. He said data would continue to be refined and a final land need determined in April 2010. Ms. Piercy was pleased that stakeholders were in agreement on the process for moving forward. Ms. Gardner described a recent training session attended by many throughout the community, including representatives from the CAC, which helped participants develop skills related to exploring hopes and fears as part of the visioning process. Ms. Ortiz agreed that the training was insightful and a valuable tool for finding common ground. She was pleased to have been able to participate. MINUTES—Eugene City Council December 9, 2009 Page 1 Work Session Ms. Piercy noted that the ECLA work was responding to a legislative mandate that Eugene and Springfield establish separate urban growth boundaries. She asked for a summary of Springfield’s progress. Ms. Gardner replied that the results of Springfield’s land study changed based on correction of an error in the slope assignment of buildable and non-buildable land. That changed the result from a need to a surplus of residential land. She understood that the Springfield City Council had accepted the revised result. Mr. Dedrick added that Springfield’s data problems had prompted Eugene to closely examine its own calcula- tions to assure their accuracy. He said it underscored the need for the extensive amount of data generated by ECLA to be reviewed by as many people as possible. City Attorney Emily Jerome said that Springfield’s resolution, like Eugene’s, was intended to address HB 3337 and therefore specific to residential land need. She said the council had provisionally adopted a non- final preliminary step with respect to housing only. Mr. Zelenka pointed out that the range of 1,500 to 3,000 acres was referenced in the agenda item summary, but not in the resolution or Exhibit A and associated reports. Ms. Jerome said the range applied to all three types of land and she had some concern about adopting it because the resolution only addressed residential land. She said that Section 1 of the resolution specified it was adopting the draft inventory of buildable land supply and determination of housing capacity and there were portions of the attachments related to public, commercial and industrial land that were not being accepted as part of the resolution. She said the resolution also acknowledged in Recital D the additional work that would be done on the documents. Mr. Zelenka said that adopting a range would avoid the conflict that came with adopting a number. He was concerned that adopting a number, even though it was draft, would be taken out of context. Mr. Clark commented that there had not been an agreement by the council to accept a range. He asked why commercial and industrial land needs were not being accepted simultaneously, as the council had decided to inventory those lands along with residential land. Ms. Gardner said as a result of the council’s October work session, there was direction to develop a preliminary draft that would be accepted for purposes of meeting the requirements of HB 3337, with acknowledgement that the period January through April 2010, would be spent addressing technical and methodology issues and producing results for all land types. By addressing the legal requirements of HB 3337 now, the remainder of ECLA became a local process. She noted that Portland Metro had adopted a range for its housing need. Ms. Taylor was concerned that ECLA estimates did not consider under-developed land, the trend toward multi-unit housing, the prospect of changing policies, or growth in outlying smaller communities rather than expansion of Eugene. She questioned why the council was required to adopt the resolution by the end of the year, and was hesitant to vote in favor. Ms. Jerome explained that by law the City was required to complete certain steps by the end of 2009, and that achievement was being documented through adoption of the resolution, rather than an ordinance. She emphasized that the adoption was only of the resolution, which was clear that specific numbers were not being adopted at this time. Mr. Pryor remarked that the City was legally bound to have a product by the end of 2009, and the resolution was accepting a product that was crafted with the intent of being revised and updated in the future. He felt it was appropriate for the council to accept only what was necessary to meet the requirements of HB 3337 and continue to pursue final numbers. MINUTES—Eugene City Council December 9, 2009 Page 2 Work Session Mr. Zelenka said John VanLandingham, chair of the Land Conservation and Development Commission (LCDC), had indicated that adopting a range rather than a specific number was acceptable and had pointed to Portland Metro as an example. He asked staff to provide a memorandum explaining the Portland Metro process that resulted in an adopted range. Ms. Gardner said that while Portland Metro adopted a range, policies had to be based on a specific number and adopting a range allowed the technical process to move forward without second-guessing what the policy outcome would be. Staff would provide a summary of the Portland Metro process. Mr. Zelenka read a proposed motion drafted by Ms. Jerome. Ms. Jerome explained that the implication of the motion was that the range would be used as the “bookends” for work by the CAC and others in all three land categories—public, employment and residential—and assure that all three categories were addressed within the January through April 2010 time period. Mr. Zelenka, seconded by Mr. Clark, moved that the City Council accept, for the purposes of continued review and refinement, to be completed by April 2010, a 20- year land need for employment land, public land and residential land that falls with- in the range of 1,500-3,000 acres. Ms. Solomon reminded the council that staff had indicated the final numbers might be outside of that range. She was not certain how identifying a range was to the council’s advantage and concerned about putting limitations on the CAC’s work. Mr. Dedrick said staff did not spend time trying to quantify a range; it was intended to be illustrative of the fact that additional work had to be done. Ms. Gardner said the range was the most reasonable one that could be provided based on the work to-date, but would not limit future work and could be shifted if necessary. Mr. Clark said the work was about providing a minimum number of acres for appropriate planning. He would support the range as preliminary, but not constraining future work. Mr. Zelenka restated his motion: I move that the City Council recognizes for the purpose of continued review and refinement, to be completed by April 2010, a 20- year land need for employment land, public land and residential land that is likely to fall within the range of 1,500-3,000 acres. Mr. Clark accepted the restated lan- guage. Mr. Poling observed that the phrase “purposes of continued review and refinement” provided the authority to change the range if necessary. The motion passed, 6:2; Ms. Taylor and Mr. Brown voting no. Mr. Zelenka, seconded by Mr. Clark, moved to adopt the draft resolution enclosed as Attachment A that accepts the draft inventory of Eugene’s buildable land supply, determination of the housing capacity of that land, analysis of housing need and de- termination of the number of units and amount of land needed to meet Eugene’s 20- year housing needs that have been prepared through the Eugene Comprehensive Land Assessment project with the intention of concluding City Council review and MINUTES—Eugene City Council December 9, 2009 Page 3 Work Session refinement of those materials in April 2010. The motion passed, 7:1; Ms. Taylor voting no. City Manager Jon Ruiz stated that the council would be reviewing several broad policy issues during the coming year related to economic development, full spectrum public safety and budget. He said ECLA would be one of the significant projects that the council would continue to discuss as a priority and consider alongside other competing needs in the community. Mr. Zelenka asked if the council wished to select additional Budget Committee members through a ballot or conduct interviews. He determined the consensus was to review applications and conduct a ballot; if there were no clear choices from the ballot, interviews would be conducted with the top three candidates. Mr. Clark asked when the report from the Downtown Safety Task Team would be provided to the council for review at a work session. Mr. Ruiz replied that the task team was advising the Police Chief on recommendations for public safety in downtown and those recommendations would be considered within the context of the budget process. He did not anticipate that the council would conduct a work session or formally accept the task team’s report. Mr. Clark said he understood from previous conversations that the task team’s report would come to the council and had therefore not made any specific motions to that effect. He was concerned if there was no intent to hold a work session on the subject. The meeting adjourned at 12:50 p.m. Respectfully submitted, Jon Ruiz City Manager (Recorded by Lynn Taylor) MINUTES—Eugene City Council December 9, 2009 Page 4 Work Session