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HomeMy WebLinkAboutCC Minutes - 11/28/11 Work SessionMINUTES Eugene City Council McNutt Room —City Hall 777 Pearl Street—Eugene, Oregon November 28, 2011 5:30 p.m. COUNCILORS PRESENT: Betty Taylor, George Brown, Andrea Ortiz, George Poling, Mike Clark, Chris Pryor, Alan Zelenka, Pat Farr. Her Honor Mayor Kitty Piercy called the November 28, 2011, work session of the Eugene City Council to order. A. WORK SESSION: Envision Eugene Senior Planner Robin Hostick of the Planning and Development Department joined the council and led it through a PowerPoint presentation entitled Envision Eugene: Project Update for City Council Work Session November 28, 2011. The presentation included an update on the multi - family housing land need and commercial land demand. Mr. Hostick reported that staff found a multi - family housing land need of about 6,340 units with a 55/45 single - family /multi - family ratio and a need for commercial land sufficient to accommodate 16,000 jobs. He suggested there were interventions the City could employ to facilitate development, such as mixed -use development and the rezoning of industrial areas for commercial and mixed use. Councilors asked questions clarifying the details of the presentation. Mr. Brown determined that staff had an assessment of vacant office space and intended to review it more carefully.as the inventory was a constantly changing moving target. Mr. Brown requested that information when it was available. He also requested a more fine - grained map of commercial employment and the industrial lands proposed for redesignation to commercial. Mr. Pryor observed that many of the topics mentioned in the presentation, such as financial incentives and EmX, were controversial and difficult. He did not envision the process ahead would be easy. He believed each issue needed to be addressed in the context of the overall goals and the connections between items clearly mapped. He asked staff to provide the council with information about best practices in other areas and the "track record" of recommended choices. Mr. Clark agreed with the remarks of Mr. Pryor. He observed that many of the incentives mentioned in the presentation were already used to achieve the goal of greater density and more mixed -use development. He recalled that the City offered similar incentives when it identified areas for nodal development without significant success and hoped the City could think more creatively about additional incentives. Mr. Clark said the City was basing its land need on the State's projection rather than its own aspirations. He challenged the council to do better than that if it was serious about increasing employment. He did not think. the State's .9 percent job growth number was adequate because the community needed more jobs at a faster pace. MINUTES— Eugene City Council November 28, 2011 Page 1 Work Session At the request of Mr. Zelenka, Mr. Hostick explained the methodology used by staff to create the baseline for redevelopment for commercial redevelopment and multi - family development. City Manager Ruiz emphasized the relationship of the Seven Pillars to the methodology and said he encouraged staff to be aggressive but reasonable. Mr. Zelenka endorsed the standard of "aggressive but reasonable." Ms. Weiss said the City could employ the State "safe harbor" projection mentioned by W. Clark or it could develop its own growth forecast based on local conditions; that would not be a safe harbor. Another State projection was expected in January 2012. The council would ultimately decide what projection to use. Mayor Piercy suggested the council needed to consider both the Seven Pillars and its own council policies as it moved forward. She questioned the use of past trends in light of what she believed was a national trend toward more multi -unit dwellings. She asked how the council could reframe the issue of multi- family dwellings for Eugene to get greater community acceptance. The City was experiencing multi - family development people did not like in many areas and she suggested the council frame what a good multi- family dwelling was, how it would work in Eugene, where such development had been successful, and why. She agreed that the financial incentives could be controversial and emphasized the need to tie the incentives to the council's goals. She liked the idea of having more incentives. Mr. Clark asked about the likelihood of a legal challenge if the City decided to adopt a higher job growth percentage. Ms. Weiss said the City had to have a basis for its projection and could not merely be aspirational. The City must be specific about what it would do to create those jobs and able to justify its projections. Mr. Clark asked if the City could use the Joint Elected Officials Regional Prosperity Plan for that purpose. Ms. Weiss said the Technical Resource Group believed the City needed to develop an implementation plan for the Regional Prosperity Plan. Mr. Clark suggested a work session be held on the topic. Mr. Brown wanted the council to give the current list of incentives more scrutiny and recommended that staff look into the more modest development incentives offered by Boulder, Colorado. He said that Boulder required companies to remain in the community for a mutually agreed number of years before they received tax rebates. He also wanted the council to look into the Arizona law that severely limited the development incentives that cities could provide. B. WORK SESSION: Tri- Annual Report to City Council from Police Auditor The council was joined by Police Auditor Mark Gissiner. Mr. Gissiner reviewed highlights of his tri- annual report, copies of which were provided to the council. Councilors asked questions clarifying the details of the report. Mayor Piercy thanked Mr. Gissiner for the Police Auditor's newsletter, which she frequently shared with others. She continued to be concerned about the nature of the oversight system for the University of Oregon's Department of Public Safety (DPS), the relationship between the DPS and EPD, and the importance of ensuring people's rights were preserved. Ms. Ortiz and Mr. Brown concurred as to the value of the newsletter. Ms. Ortiz shared Mayor Piercy's concern about the lack of civilian oversight for the DPS. Responding to a question from Ms. Ortiz about the potential involvement of the Civilian Review Board (CRB) and Police Auditor in the proposed Hate Crimes Conference, Mr. Gissiner anticipated that some CRB would be interested in participating. Ms. Ortiz encouraged that participation. MINUTES— Eugene City Council November 28, 2011 Page 2 Work Session Mr. Farr referred to the remaining items of interest related to the DPS identified by Mr. Gissiner in his presentation and suggested the council review those items to determine how to be better prepared to address them in the future. Mayor Piercy concurred. At the request of Mr. Zelenka, Mr. Gissiner provided a brief overview of the proposed DPS oversight system. Mr. Zelenka was glad to see Mr. Gissiner was involved in the UO Police Complaint Resolution Working Group. He believed that the presence of the DPS officers would take pressure off the EPD for responses at the periphery of campus. Mr. Brown expressed appreciation for the Police Auditor input into the search and seizure policy recently reviewed by the Police Commission. Mr. Clark expressed appreciation to Mr. Gissiner for his continued communication with the council. The council then addressed the Consent Calendar, which was on the agenda of the regular meeting scheduled for 7:30'p.m. 2. CONSENT CALENDAR A. Approval of City Council Minutes - September 26, 2011, Regular Meeting - October 17, 2011, Work Session B. Approval of Tentative Working Agenda Mr. Brown, seconded by Mr. Poling, moved to approve the items on the Consent Calendar. The motion passed unanimously, 7:0; Ms. Taylor was out of the room at the time the vote was taken. Mayor Piercy adjourned the meeting at 7:10 p.m. Respectfully submitted, '8 "� J Beth Forrest City Recorder (Recorded by Kimberly Young) MINUTES— Eugene City Council November 28, 2011 Page 3 Work Session