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HomeMy WebLinkAboutCCMinutes - 07/14/04 WS MINUTES Eugene City Council Work Session McNutt Room--City Hall July 14, 2004 Noon COUNCILORS PRESENT: Bonny Bettman, George Poling, Nancy Nathanson, Scott Meisner, David Kelly, Betty Taylor, Jennifer Solomon, Gary Papd. His Honor Mayor James D. Torrey called the meeting of the Eugene City Council to order. A. WORK SESSION: Civic Center Vision Next Steps City Manager Dennis Taylor said years of work had gone into the discussion for the present meeting. He asked Assistant City Manager Jim Carlson to summarize the information in the packet. Mr. Carlson thanked City staff members Sue Cutsogeorge, Glen Svendsen, and Mike Penwell for the comprehensive work they had done in developing the information for the agenda packet. He provided an overview of the information provided in Attachment A: Council Action History on Downtown Space Plan. Mr. Carlson stated that staff had provided revisions to the policy principles that were based on comments received through the public process. He said the major changes included broadening the parking principle to address all transportation modes, adding sustainability to the cost-effectiveness principle, adding a principle related to the desire for mixed-use along 8th Avenue, and adding a specific principle related to the inclusion of housing opportunities along 8th Avenue. He conveyed staff's belief that the process had resulted in an improved set of guiding principles and staff's recommendation for approval. Mr. Carlson said the second policy issue to be considered at the present meeting was the location of the police facility and City Hall. He recalled that the council had unanimously adopted the Eugene Downtown Plan in April, and at the time there was a policy in the Great Streets section that stated the City should strongly encourage the location of significant civic buildings along 8th Avenue. He related staff's recom- mendation for approval of Option 1, wherein City Hall would be redeveloped at its current site and the Community Safety Building would be built on the City-owned parking lot that was located across 8th Avenue from City Hall. Mr. Carlson explained the third policy issue to be considered at the work session, and asked for direction from the council on the next steps for the Civic Center vision. He listed five suggested options and briefly discussed each, as follows: MINUTES--Eugene City Council July 14, 2004 Page 1 Work Session · Option A: Allows the City to build a new Community Safety facility that would meet current needs with internal financial resources. Some of these resources were still subject to final liti- gation. · Option B: Takes Option A and adds elements taken from the civic visioning exercise, both the charette and the Mayor's Civic Center Visioning Committee, and would include additional space for private non-profit victim service providers in the Community Safety building, allow for expansion of the downtown park blocks, and provide some streetscape improvements along 8th Avenue. This would require asking the voters for a $12.6 million general obligation (GO) bond in November. · Option C: Shows what a 20-year community safety facility would look like including Civic Center amenities, considered the ideal Community Safety Center with full consolidation and room for expansion and accompanied by two financial strategies, C 1 and C2. · Option D: Shows the cost of replacing all of the functions that currently exist in City Hall as well as consolidating the other City office function located in the downtown area. This option included two new buildings to be constructed on current City-owned land. Some additional in- ternal funding was possible in this scenario based on some ongoing contributions to the facility reserve over time. Mr. Carlson commented that, while Option D was optimal in resolving all of the downtown space needs, staff was recommending the more modest incremental step outlined in Option B. He added that all of the options were within the debt policy limits passed by the Budget Committee, but Option D would leave the City without very much capacity for additional bonded debt in the short-term He noted the July 21 work session would focus on the potential bond measure. Mayor Torrey called for a motion on the issue. Ms. Bettman, seconded by Mr. Poling, moved that the council adopt the ~major policy principles" proposed by the Mayor's Committee, as revised. Mayor Torrey solicited council comments. Mr. Meisner anticipated that he would support the motion. He thought the wording %onsolidate civic functions" was unclear. He wished it to clearly state that one of the goals was to combine City offices. He remarked that he had not heard unanimity regarding the placement of other government partners in the building, but he had heard unanimity regarding the consolidation of City functions. Mr. Meisner offered a friendly amendment to change the language, as fol- lows: ~Consolidate civic City functions in and around the future Civic Cen- ter...'' The maker and second of the motion accepted the friendly amendment. Mr. Meisner was uncertain whether the inclusion of housing opportunities needed to be a stand-alone policy principle. He questioned whether it was appropriate to situate housing next to the courthouse or the police station. He wondered if this was the intent of the policy principle. MINUTES--Eugene City Council July 14, 2004 Page 2 Work Session Mr. Kelly expressed appreciation for the fast staff turnaround in regard to incorporating the hearing comments, adding that the principles had been improved by the changes. He felt there was value in having housing called out separately, particularly because it could add to the life of a street in a different way than commercial enterprise. He liked the word ';additional housing," as it delineated it from existing housing. He thought there was merit in having housing in the same building with civic functions. Ms. Bettman noted that the policy principle regarding housing did not mandate housing be developed but rather suggested housing opportunities should be explored. As such, she was amenable to allowing the policy to remain as written. Ms. Bettman asked staff to define ;;urban campus." Mr. Carlson responded that it recognized that there were multiple buildings and not that the civic functions of the City and County were consolidated in a single building. Ms. Bettman liked the idea of having the different jurisdictions grouped within the same area, but did not approve of having them built contiguously. She wanted the legislative intent of the language to be clear. Ms. Nathanson did not want to preclude evening and weekend pedestrian activity by covering full blocks with government buildings. She commented that the part of town covered by the City Hall and County buildings felt like a barrier to people. She asked to what extent the City intended to consolidate its functions. In response to the council's comments, Mr. Taylor said that the long-term vision sought to optimize consolidation. He said the proposal had a range of options that included all of the City functions that were currently being leased out. He noted that the only options not directly addressed were the ideas of bringing the forensics building and the property control building within the community safety structure and, additionally, the notion of the inclusion of non-profit victim service providers. Mr. Carlson added that the only reason the City rented space was that it did not own enough property in the downtown area. Ms. Nathanson pointed out that the downtown vision and plan emphasized the inclusion of housing within the mixed uses. She did not think it necessary to have a separate item regarding housing in a document that addressed the development of a Civic Center. She noted there was language regarding the fostering of mixed uses and suggested that the emphasis on housing be added to this language. Mr. Pap6 also thanked staff for the quick turnaround. He wondered if the designation of 8th Avenue as a Great Civic Street, as per policy principle (2), should be extended from Charnelton Street. Mr. Pap6 offered a friendly amendment to change policy principle (3) so that it did not refer to the courthouse area as ';Cannery Square." The maker and second agreed to the amendment. Mr. Pap6 offered a friendly amendment to change policy principle (6) so that the second sentence read: ';Facilities, including parMng, for each mode should support not only the civic center but also surrounding mixed uses." The maker and the second accepted the friendly amendment. MINUTES--Eugene City Council July 14, 2004 Page 3 Work Session Ms. Nathanson offered a friendly amendment to include policy principle (9) with policy principle (8) and not to call it out separately. The maker and second of the motion accepted the amendment. Mr. Pap6 moved to amend the motion so that policy principle (2) indicated that the ;;civic promenade" began at Charnelton Street and not Willamette Street. The motion died for lack of a second. Ms. Taylor asked why it was urgent to adopt the principles. Mr. Carlson replied that staff was trying to make forward progress. Ms. Taylor asked staff to determine how much space would be freed up if the Human Rights Commission could be moved into the Eugene Police Department and Fire and Emergency Services Department portion of the building once the departments moved out. Ms. Taylor expressed concern that adoption of the document would make the City Council ;;wedded" to it. She supported having proximity of services, but did not necessarily feel the services should include public safety. She did not want the City to commit to having the public safety activities next to the Civic Center. She asked if there had been any thought on whether just the services the citizens needed to use should be the services housed in the Civic Center. Mr. Meisner asked to what extent the City intended to talk to the County. He noted the County's recent purchase of a property to house the elections portion of local government. Mr. Carlson replied that the City had specifically included the LCSO and the county administrator on the Mayor's Civic Visioning committee to ensure this communication occurred. The motion, as revised and amended, passed, 7:1; Ms. Taylor voting in op- position. Ms. Bettman, seconded by Mr. Poling, moved that the council adopt Op- tion 1 for siting a City Hall and Community Safety Building. Mr. Kelly asked why it had been said at the public hearing that the 8th Avenue location was not the sheriffs preferred site for collocation. Mr. Carlson responded that he did not have the sense that the LCSO did not prefer the site, but rather, that it was a financing issue. He noted that part of the sheriffs facility was the intake center for the courts and this function would not work at the 8th Avenue site. In response to a second question from Mr. Kelly, Mr. Carlson stated that the Good Times lot presented practical operational issues as it was adjacent to the raised viaduct. He said the site had received minority support in the design charette and also was too small. Mr. Kelly offered a friendly amendment that would retain the possibility of rebuilding City Hall and a future Public Safety building at the current block and a half City Hall site. The maker and the second accepted the amendment. MINUTES--Eugene City Council July 14, 2004 Page 4 Work Session Mr. Carlson pointed out that redevelopment of the City Hall site would make phasing of the construction difficult. Ms. Taylor said she could only support expanding City Hall. Mr. Carlson said, in response to a question from Ms. Taylor, the public safety building could be oriented toward High Street. Mr. Pap6 called it critical to push hard to get the public safety, the police and the sheriff's office, into one building. Ms. Bettman supported the motion. She did not read the motion as excluding the possibility that there would be a consolidated facility. She reiterated her opposition to combining the City police and Sheriff's Office. She approved of the 8th Avenue site because the City already owned it. In response to a question from Mr. Poling, Mr. Carlson explained that there were different seismic building standards for the Police Department than for the City Hall. Mr. Poling asked if this would increase the cost of the City Hall building. Mr. Carlson affirmed this. Ms. Nathanson supported the motion. She respected the work of the people who were asked to advise the process. While she did not support consolidation of all civic functions, she thought that consolidation based on function would be beneficial. She reiterated her concern that a multi-block Civic Center would create a ;;dead zone" at night. Mr. Kelly asked what the implications were of constructing the two buildings side by side in order to address the different levels of seismic preparedness. Mr. Kelly reminded the council and staff that one possibility was a ;;lease-to-own" structure. He asked staff to pencil out the costs and provide the figures to the council. The motion passed, 7:1; Ms. Taylor voting in opposition. A third motion was deferred until the next work session. B. WORK SESSION: Parks, Recreation and Open Space Bond Measure Discussion Andrea Riner, Parks and Open Space Division Planning Manager, expressed appreciation for the public support the division had received. She said it was gratifying to know that in these fiscally constrained times, the public was willing to consider a possible bond measure for the improvement of existing parks. She noted that issues regarding parks maintenance and operations were consistently raised when staff met with neighborhood groups for planning and design of neighborhood parks. She listed the projects that have been or will be completed with funds from the 1998 bond measure. Ms. Riner stated that as the first step in understanding deferred maintenance, a Parks and Open Space inventory had been completed and presented to the Mayor's Committee on Parks, Recreation, and Open MINUTES--Eugene City Council July 14, 2004 Page 5 Work Session Space. She conveyed the commitment of staff and the mayor's committee to complete a comprehensive and detailed Parks, Recreation, and Open Space plan. She said it would be ready by 2006, but would not be available prior to a bond measure in 2004. Mayor Torrey called for council comments and questions. Ms. Nathanson commented that, having attended the mayor's committee, there were interesting, big-scale ideas presented to the committee. She recommended that staff choose projects that would be undoubtedly included in a comprehensive plan should the council choose to pursue a bond measure in the fall. She expressed concern that existing parks needed improvement as they were showing signs of age and use. Some parks simply needed modernization. She advocated for working toward more equity as some neighborhoods were underserved, especially those in north and west Eugene, and suggested more program- ming diversity should be pursued due to the increase in mean age within the community. Ms. Nathanson opined that the needs of senior citizens were being generally ignored. Mr. Meisner thought a discussion on a fall bond measure for parks and open space without the parks master plan and how it fit with other pieces such as stream corridor acquisition or the Goal 5 inventory process was premature. He also opposed setting a bond measure into motion without a comprehensive solution for maintenance and operations. He commented that the City should not talk about building a new pool only one year after discussing the closure of an old one due to financial issues. Mr. Meisner noted that he had been lobbying the Parks and Open Space Division to replace benches in the park and a number of them had been replaced. He said part of the comprehensive planning should include such amenities. Ms. Taylor disagreed with the perception that there were more parks in south Eugene than in other neighborhoods of the city. She asserted that the City would not need to maintain open space, and this would reduce such costs. She thought the City should purchase open space and thereby preserve it. She supported sending the voters a fall bond measure to preserve land and also because she did not believe a bond measure for a new police building would be approved. Once approved, she advocated for bringing the public ;;in on the details" when planning. Mr. Kelly felt the work on a comprehensive plan was far enough along that a list of needs could be devised. He supported placing a bond measure on the ballot in the fall. He echoed Ms. Taylor's concern that there was not public support for a police measure. He said the parks bond measure had enjoyed 72 percent support in a recent survey. He added that land costs were rising and the amount of land available was disappearing. He circulated a %traw man" list that was a compilation of emails he had received from Art Farley, Steve Johnson, and Roxie Cuellar of the mayor's committee. Mr. Pap6 was undecided about what direction to take. He expressed his unequivocal support for parks in Eugene, calling it a service that serves more citizens than any other. He related that the council had, in the past, indicated it wanted to use the tax increment increase that came in every year to take care of the deficiency in operations and management. This had not been done. He said his support was conditioned on solving the operations and management problem. He stressed the importance of acknowledging the change in land inventory within the urban growth boundary (UGB) when land was acquired for parks purposes. MINUTES--Eugene City Council July 14, 2004 Page 6 Work Session Ms. Bettman commented that the City had invested $200,000 in the committee's work. She felt the results should inform the composition of a bond measure. She said she might have been persuaded if the City aimed to acquire land for future parks development. As this was not planned, she did not support placement of a bond measure on the upcoming ballot. She stated that her highest priority was the replacement of City Hall, including police services. Mr. Poling advocated for allowing the division to complete its comprehensive plan prior to placement of a bond measure on the ballot. He opined that it was important to identify and save some of the land in the community for park space. Mayor Torrey felt there was a tremendous opportunity to pass a bond measure in November. He listed five "pet" projects he would hope to see completed, should it be approved: · Development of fields in the Sheldon area, as school closures were causing soccer fields to be taken out. He supported replacing lost fields with new fields near those owned by the 4J School District. He thought it possible to forge a long-term agreement to partner in the maintenance of the fields; · The Echo Hollow Pool; · The Wetland Education Center represented a "tremendous" opportunity to construct a building for the education program; · An urban downtown park; · The purchase of open spaces, which cost little in operations and management and were disap- pearing quickly. Mayor Torrey declared he would not support the bond measure in the event of a tie. He stressed the importance of a decisive vote when sending a bond issue to the voters. Mr. Kelly felt the public was "rolling" with this and represented an opportunity to be seized. He asked for staff and committee reaction to council input and to the "straw man" list of projects. Ms. Nathanson suggested that staff develop a proposal on what a bond measure would include. She was uncertain the public would be as supportive of a bond measure that only acquired open space. Ms. Nathanson conveyed the committee's emphasis on the provision of access to parks so that all people could easily get to them and easily traverse them. Ms. Nathanson expressed uncertainty regarding the development of an expensive urban park in the downtown area. Ms. Taylor said the mayor had raised an important issue. She also felt the loss of school fields was an impetus for lands acquisition. She also agreed that Echo Hollow Pool should be upgraded. She supported the purchase of the "butterfly" parking lot on 8th Avenue and Oak Streets. Mr. Pap6 asked if systems development charges (SDCs) would be used to develop the Willakenzie School site. Ms. Riner replied that the division had the money to buy the property and then would have to do some prioritization. She noted that the bond measure included acquisition of 12 neighborhood park sites. MINUTES--Eugene City Council July 14, 2004 Page 7 Work Session In response to another question from Mr. Pap6, Ms. Riner said the division would continue to work on the projects from the last bond measure for the next two years. Mr. Meisner agreed the council should act from a plan and not from opportunism. He hoped the committee, in developing a master plan, would also prioritize activities and acquisitions. Mr. Meisner approved of the use of the northwest Park Block as an urban park. Mr. Taylor said the question on the bond measure was not "if," but "when." He said that when the City Council and staff had done things well and had been successful in engaging the interest of the community, it had done them in a thoughtful and methodical way. He predicted the support would be stronger when the end results being sought were better known. Ms. Bettman remarked that senior citizens would need parks that were "more of a corridor" as activities for seniors tended to involve walking. She suggested the committee take this configuration into consideration. Ms. Nathanson asked if the council was anticipating that staff would work on a rough outline of a bond measure. Ms. Taylor reiterated her concern that land for open space would only increase in value, should the bond measure be delayed until 2006. Mayor Torrey polled the council to determine whether there was support for such an outline. There was not majority support for it. The meeting adjourned at 1:28 p.m. Respectfully submitted, Dennis M. Taylor City Manager (Recorded by Ruth Atcherson) MINUTES--Eugene City Council July 14, 2004 Page 8 Work Session