HomeMy WebLinkAbout04/14/1999 Regular
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. MINUTES & APPROVED ':>}sJ11
NOTICE OF .BOARD ACTION
LANE COUNTY BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS
This document, upon approval in a public meeting by the Board of County Commissioners,
serves as official minutes of such meetings as required under the Open Meetings Law, ORS 192.650.
Pursuant to notice made by mailing agendas to news media, a selected list of jurisdictions and
individuals in Lane County, a meeting of the Board of Commissioners was held.
Questions should be directed to the Board Office Specialist 3, ext. 4203.
April 14, 1999
5:00 p.m.
JOINT ELECTED OFFICIALS MEETING
BOARD OF COUNTY COMMISSIONERS
EUGENE CITY COUNCIL
SPRINGFIELD CITY COUNCIL
Lane County
Fairgrounds
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Commissioner Bobby Green, Sr., presided with Commissioners Anna Morrison, Peter Sorenson and
Cindy Weeldreyer present. Bill Dwyer was excused. County Administrator Bill Van Vactor,
Assistant County Counsel Stephen V orhes and Recording Secretary Melissa Zimmer were also
present.
1. INTRODUCTIONS
Mayor Jim Torrey, City of Eugene, presiding, called the meeting to order and introduced the
Eugene City Council. Commissioner Bobby Green opened the Lane County Board of
Commissioners meeting. Green announced that Commissioner Bill Dwyer was excused.
Mayor Maureen Maine~ City of Springfield, opened the Springfield City Council meeting.
Eugene City Councilor Scott Meisner, announced they had an item on their agenda, an
appointment to the Board of Directors to ~e Lane Workforce Partnership. He moved to
table that appointment until the April 21 coimci1 meeting. Eugene City Councilor Nancy
Nathanson SECONDED. The motion carried unanimously.
Jim Carlson, Lane Council of Governments, reported that the presentation came out of a
request by Councilor Ken Tollenar for local elected officials in the Metro Area. Carlson said
it described some of the intergovernmental cooperative programs and what the urban
transition process was about in the 1980's., still being implemented in the local area He
noted that all administrators were interested in having a discussion about the issues that are
coming out in the various service areas. He added the work they did included three
background-documents,-(one-writtenspecifically for this ev:ent around intergovernmental
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cooperation and urban transition) a two page report that contained brainstorming ideas and
the issues the chief administrative officers had identified as being of concern to elected
officials in the local area. He said a third item was an historical piece that was updated in
1992 about the different activities that the three governments were involved with together. .
He said tonight they will focus on the history of the Metro Plan and the urban transition
process in eight service areas. He added that the three administrative officers and himself
had been present within the past 20 years and had lived through all the intergovernmental
activities. He noted that the first real comprehensive plan for the Eugene-Springfield area
was the 1990 Plan that was adopted in 1972. He added it established an urban service area
concept, compact urban growth and other key focuses that went into the Metro Plan when
it was developed. He noted the Metro Plan in 1982 was the first one that was developed
specifically to address the requirements of the statewide Land Use Planning Law. He added
the 1990 plan had pre-dated that law and the concepts.were incorporated into the state law,
but the Metro Plan of 1982 was the first acknowledged as meeting all the goals and
guidelines of the state planning program. He said the Urban Transition Project was an
attempt to implement the essence of the Metro Plan with ajoint resolution ofthe three bodies
in December of 1984. He added that the Metro Plan had not been a stagnant plan, but had
undergone periodic review in 1987 where new state requirements had to be addressed. He
noted that the key element the Metro Plan is built upon is that it established the. urban growth
. boundary, which separated urban uses from rural uses. He added the Metro P~an was based
on a number of fundamental principles: cooperation of all the local agencies, compacturban
form, and that Eugene and Springfield were the logical providers of urban services.
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Carlson reported that the Urban Transition Project was formed by a committee that was made
up of two elected officials from Eugene, Springfield and Lane County. He added in 1987,
that committee was transformed into the Metropolitan Policy Committee (MPC) and part of
the charge of the bylaws of that group was to continue as a forum for analyzing, discussing
and resolving issues related to urban transition-type activities. He noted that a key element
of the urban transition process was thinking about the urban transition area, not only outside
of the city limits, but inside the urban growth boundary. He said that since 1990, there had
been 230 annexations in the River Road/Santa Clara area. He said the focus of the urban
transition process is to transition services.
Carlson noted with Planning and Building Services, the decision through the urban transition
project was to have the cities administer land use applications for building permits, and Lane
County adopted the City codes to apply to the lands inside the urban transition areas. He
added Lane County entered into intergovernmental agreements with both cities for them to
administer the codes in the urban transition areas. He said the County is still the government
that represents residents living in those areas, but they have gone through the process of
adopting a code and contracting through an intergovernmental agreement He added on the
Springfield side, the agreement went further in that the Springfield Planning Commission
is designated as the Lane County Planning Commission for legislative planning activities on
the Springfield side of the urban trimsition area. . He said on the Eugene side, the Lane
County Planning Commission still provides the review. He noted that historic preservation
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in the urban transition area is not currently part of the transition agreement, so Lane County
is still responsible for that and nuisance abatement in the urban transition area He added
another issue is the idea of establishing a fee in the Metro Area on land use related permits
and applications to help pay for the cost of doing metropolitan level planning.
Carlson reported that with police patrol and corrections, the Public Safety Coordinating
Council did not come out of the urban transition. He said it is a mechanism that is available
to address issues of metropolitan significance with regard to safety issues. He said what
came out of the urban ,transition issue was the recognition that Lane County should be the
sole provider of correction services. He added as a result of that, Springfield closed the jail
they were operating and Lane County now has responsibility for various corrections
programs. He said the cities do contract for jail services for their municipal prisoners,.and
the issues are still the ones that were present in 1986: an inadequate level of police patrol in
the urban transition area. He added the County does not have the resources available. to ..
provide an urban level of service in the urban areas of River Road, Santa Clara, North
Springfield and Glenwood, and there had been no resolution of that issue. He said the
resolution is annexation and as that occurs, the cities will be responsible for providing police
protection in those areas. He added there needs to be stable funding for countywide
community safety services. .
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Carlson noted the County had a small role in fire protection and emergency medical services
and the urban transition emphasized that the cities are the appropriate providers for fire
protection and ambulance emergency medical. He added that Lane County did adopt the
Countywide Ambulance Service Area Plan as was required by state law. He said there are
still two rural fire protection districts that provide volunteer fire protection, Santa Clara Fire
and Lane Rural Fire. He added transition agreements with them are in place and have been
. recently revised. He said the issue that remains is the fire/water district consolidation, as the
Metro Plan calls for the dissolution of those special districts.
Carlson said with regard to parks, the agreement in the urban transition was a major one as
it resulted in the separation of functions between Lane County Parks, the City of Eugene and
Willamalane Parks. He said the outcome was the County should be responsible for some of
the large regional parks, including Fern Ridge, Mt. Pisgah, and the Howard Buford
Recreation Area. He smd under a sep~te agreement, Lane County took over the
management of Armitage State Park. He added the smaller parks were transferred to Eugene,.
Springfield or Willamelane and the park districts are taking care of them. He said that
Eugene and Willame1ane have instituted a parks system development charge that is. designed
to pay for neighborhood and community parks, but not regional parks. He said an issue that
exists is acquiring regional open space to be preserved. He added there had been talk about
the formulation of a larger park district that would be created with a permanent tax rate.
Carlson reported that roads is the biggest subject because some roadway jurisdiction had
changed. He said. the history prior to urban transition, was as annexation occurred, the roads
didn't necessary transfer.-He-added~there-were County jurisdictional roads inside the cities
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of Eugene and Springfield that were unimproved. He said the urban transition required for
efficiency of service to transfer the jurisdiction of the roadways inside the cities; limit. He
added the County would transfer road fund money to pay for maintenance and preservation
activities. He said there had been an agreement that had been updated over time but th.e issue
on the agreement is that Lane County timber receipts are declining and the outlook for the
fund after 2003 is in question. He added assessment practices on unimproved streets,
collectors and arterials that are on the edge in the urban transition area have. become an issue.
Carlson said with regard to storm drainage, the Endangered Species Act will have a major
effect, but the urban transition process showed that no agency had taken responsibility for
storm water management outside ofthe road right-of-way in the urban transition area. He
noted the County uses road fund money to manage storm water related to the roads, but
doesn't have resources to manage .storm water outside of that. He said Eugene and
Springfield have developed a comprehensive funding mechanism through monthly sewer
fees and systems development charge for capacity increasing projects, for stormwater. He
said the issues they had identified were continuation of stormwater management in the urban
transition area, natural drainageways, and establishing an user fee.
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Carlson reported that with regard to sanitary sewers, the County Service District was created
in 1978 and consisted -of the incorporated cities of Eugene and Springfield, and as
annexations occurred, there were automatic annexations to the County Service District. He
added it was formed to allow for the bonding ofthe local share of the sewage treatment plant
construction site. He said there is a Metropolitan Wastewater Management Commission that
oversees the operation of the plant and the treatment facilities. He noted that in the 1980's
as a result of the groundwater pollution issues, sanitary sewers were extended into-the River
Road/Santa Clara area. He said sanitary services are provided everywhere in the River
Road/Santa Clara area. He added that sewers had not been extended in a similar matter to
North and South Springfield or Glenwood. He said the original bonds will be paid off in
September 2002 and the County Service District needs to exist until the bonds are paid off.
Carlson stated that Eugene and Springfield have city tax supported libraries. He said the
unincorporated areas had tax supported library service until 1988 until when a levy (that
would have continued the program) failed. He noted that non-city residents have to pay an
out of city fee to obtain certain services provided in the city libraries. He said the issue is
a lack of tax-supported library services in unincorporated areas, but there is planning that
needs to be coordinated.
Carlson noted that regarding intergovernmental coordination, the Metro Plan is a unique
document that actually covers two citIes. He added there are f~xlsting structures in place to
deal with 41tergovemmental issues. He said for thCf most part, the result of the urban
transition project and the language in the Metro Plan i.t1dicates that annexation is the ultimate
solution to many of the urban transition issues, arid the cities are the logical providers of
those types of urban services. He said the County is the logical choice for many other types
of services including elections, assessment and taxati.on and corrections.
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Nathanson said regarding page 4 of the handout, on the building services, that Springfield
handles legislative issues and Eugene doesn't She wanted an example of a recent legislative
issue that Lane County handled for Eugene.
Carlson responded that the W est Eugene-Wetlands would be an example of a legislative-type
activity where the Lane County Planning Commission was involved. He noted that the Land
Use Code Update was another example where the Eugene Planning Comm.ission had done
most of the work, but it would be going to the Lane County Planning Commission, and
action by the Lane County Board of Commissioners.
Nathanson noted that on page 7, the issue ofan equalization charge was absent.
Kelly requested a history of the transition process where Springfield made one choice and
Eugene made another choice, or if the decision came down from the County level.
Jim Johnson, Eugene City Manager, recalled that the City of Springfield desired to handle
it that way in theirjurisdiction. He added it wasn't an issue for the City of Eugene or Lane
County.
Kelly said that Springfield's process seemed more straigh~forward. .
Mayor Maine said she appreciated their cooperative agreements and their coordinated efforts
and the flexibility to allow them to implement what best suits their jurisdiction. She wanted
clarification of a statement with regard to policing services. She said if the ultimate goal in
the boundary is-annexation for a full compliment of urban services, a statement was made
that the County should provide urban level policing until such time as there is annexation.
She said they are contradictory statements because there would be no incentives.
Carlson responded that if he said the County should provide the service, he misspoke. He
said he meant there is inadequate service and the County does not have the resources to
provide it.
Sorenson suggested having more joint elected official meetings more often. He said there
have been areas that have been inadequately addressed. He said human services wasn't
mentioned and there area lot of homeless people. He said that stormwater was a big
unaddressed issue that is coming up in light of the endangered fish issues that will address
urban Oregon. . He added that something should be done about a greenbelt around the Eugene
and Springfield area and unless a mechanism is in place, funding would be hard to get. He
noted that 70% of Oregonian's unserved by a public library live in Lane County.
Green commented on Public Safety as it relates to the River Road area. He said there are
residents that are located within the city, but there is an expectation that the sheriff will be
able to provide protection and enforcement, which is not the case. He said 25% of those
dwellings are annexed to the City ofEugene;-He-said ther~ are inadequate levels of police
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protection. He favored taking one or two of these issues and assess what can be done under.
this type of an agreement. He said annexation would be a solution, but he wanted to know
where the City of Eugene patrol stops and the sheriff picks up. He wanted to give staff
direction to address the inadequate public safety so the citizens in the area of~e County can
know who will respond to police calls. He-agreed annexation may address a lot of the issues,
but there still needs to be coordination for the services. He said to give policy direction
around the public safety issue as the PSCC will not solve this issue.
Miesner noted that the residents of the non-annexed portions of River Road/Santa Clara want
services that t~e City does not have the resources to pay for. He said the agreement does not
provide for the City to pay for it. He added he gets constant complaints from residents who
are currently not complaining about taxation without representation, they 'are demanding
representation without taxation. He noted island annexation is creating more problems in
the long term.
Carlson responded to Meisner's issue. He said it was done by the City of Eugene and was
a budget issue. He noted it was not clear whose jurisdiction the area is.
Meisner noted that the conclusion in Carlson's report stated that annexation was the ultimate
soluti9n and Mayor Maine used the term "goal." He said the two terms are different and
wanted to know the essence of the agreement. He added the residents of Santa Clara/River
Road wanted to know if it is their goal to annex, . or if it was a solution.
Carlson responded the assumption ofthe Metro Plan is that all the territory within the urban
growth boundary will ultimately be annexed, but the time and method is unknown.-
Meisner reported that he was troubled because he couldn't get any information from the
County about the consultant and the areas to be studied with regard to the library. He said
it will be difficult to find an equitable way for County voters to pay for the capital costs
being undertaken in Eugene and the additiona11evy cost. He added it would be hard for
Eugene voters to vote for another library levy that would benefit someone in another city.
Rayor stated this meeting was a good forum to discuss the overlapping concerns of all the
jurisdictions. He said the underlying theme was finding ways to fund. He noted the police
issue had the best ingredients because of the County's jail and the city's enforcement and
interaction. He said he would like this group to engage in that discussion as it is the best way.
to show everyone is working together and to sell the voters on funding mechanisms.
Pape stated the most important issue is police-and public safety in the River Road area and
planning and library services. He said it couldn't be the only time and place in the country
where there is rural transition intermixing and he is open to any ideas and is getting
frustrated. r
Ballew said people get confused as to who is actually serving them. She added if citizens
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did not want to be annexed and undergo the urban city government cost, others in the cities
would not want to support people who could not help themselves;
Simmons stated the habitat issue with the endangered species will be an important part of the
area's future with the listings. He said the other-issues that needs to be focused on jointly is
the issue of disaster planning. He added these types of meetings are productive and there
should be more meetings on different subjects.
Morrison echoed Simmons with regard to the issue around .the endangered species and
salmon listings. She added the annexation issue has been present for the past 20 years and
people understood and realized that it is inevitable, and they don't want it to happen.
Hatfield noted that their goal is annexation of the area and at some point it will become part
of Eugene and the planning is a sound investment in the future liveability of Springfield.
Taylor asked if, without this system, there was a way the Springfield and Lane County
Planning Commi~sioners could deal with the same things to resolve problems.
Carlson said the Lane County Commissioners have ultimate legislative jurisdrction over the
territory outside of the .City. He said he didn't believe the County could delegate its
legislative authority. . He added the issue is more of an efficiency standpoint, resolving the
issues at the elected official level. .
Farr noted there were excellent points about Morrison's comments on the annexation and the
delivery of service. He said there is a tremendous inefficiency of service delivery north of
the Beltline. He said the City does not have the resources to deliver services. He wanted to
find a way to get the annexation accomplished.
Nathanson thought the discussion was more of a beginning than a conclusion of information
that was presented. She said a number of topics were raised and it was hard to guess which
is the most pressing issue for the staff to work on and bring to them. She said there are at
least three issues in every topic area that should be worked on to some degree. She said she
is interested in doing something.
On annexation, Wee1dreyer noted that it is still looked upon as having emotion attached to
it and needs to be approached carefully. She said there are historical lessons that can be
learned from the Bethel area being annexed to Eugene. She added it took over a decade to
get a library levy finally passed because so many citizens thought they were forced into the
city to pay higher taxes, without having. a say in the matter. She said for the citizens who nre
County residents in areas that are in urban transition, it would be respectful if they tried a
kindlier, gentler approach to annexation. She added it will also be a cost to the current
taxpayers to expand the large geographic area and extend the services. She said with regard
to library services, there are some rural libraries that have been run by volunteers. She said
. she would not support creating a new taxing district that was countywide for a countywide
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library service dIstrict. She said with regard to police services in the Metro Area and the
inequity of service levels in unincorporated areas, that issue comes up but there would be a
value in looking at a Metropolitan Policing concept. She hoped that the PSCC would
support this. She said for the County residents who are being charged because they have
property that has a front footage, it is not fair to make them pay a large amount. She added
it forces the residents to be in a position of having to subdivide their property and the road
project tends to force that amount of growth in the particular area. She said equities need to
be looked at and having more of these meetings would help. .
Kelly noted that earlier in the discussion, someone used the phrase, "perhaps some sort of
special status is in order." He said he was leery of any phrase like that and is concerned that
it would lead to an inequitable fiscal burden on current city residents. He said he agreed
about the sensitivity of annexation and if there is outreach to the citizens in those areas from
the County, it needs to be shown as a benefits cost equation. He said he would like to see
some innovative ways to bring the services and costs to bear.
Mayor Maine recommended that the Springfield Council process this discussion and start
thinking about which areas were highest priority and bring those to the MPC meeting. She
stated she was reluctant to hold these sessions every month, because they d6i:1~t always have
everyone at the table to get at the policy level.
She recommended having a MPC meeting to do some individual processing and continue
to speak and hold these meetings occasionally, but not as a way to set countywide policies.
Green agreed that the MPC is the body where those issues could be brought for broader
policy discussions. He said the citizens want to speak with their direct representatives. He
said he had been working with some of the citizens in the River Road area. He suggested
to get councilors from the City of Eugene that would be interested in related issues around
annexation and efficiencies as they relate to public safety. He suggested that the CEO's
create some options so the citizens will know exactly what they are. He noted in the River
Road area that most people know if they get annexed, they get to become part of the city but
what they get with that becomes the issue. He wanted to go out and 1istento a smaller group
representing the joint elected officials.
Mayor Torrey suggested that the e~ecutives working with LCOG prepare a set of itemS for
future discussion that are not binding and present them to the three governmental bodies.
. He added the individual governmental bodies could set up their own process for dealing with
them. He added it could be worked through MPC and then brought back to the individual
government bodies.
Mayor Torrey closed this portion of the meeting to reconvene at 7:00 p.m.
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7:00 p.m.
.' 1. PUBLIC HEARING
a. SECOND READING AND PUBLICHEARlNG/Ordinance P A 1128/In the Matter
of Amending the Eugene-Springfield Metro Area General Plan to Adopt a New
"Residential Land Use and Housing Element" and Related Changes to the Plan Text
and Glossary; and Adopting a Severability Clause. .
2. WORK SESSION
a.
Intergovernmental Cooperation in the Eugene-~pringfield Metropolitan Area.
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Clair Van Bloem, L-COG, noted that the Public Hearing is an opportunity for the
public to provide testimony for the residential land and housing study, specifically the
recommended Metro Plan amendments that are contained in the
Eugene/Springfield/Lane County Planning Commissions' recommendations report.
She stated the unanimous recommendations from the three planning commissions
upon adoption, will replace the existing Metropolitan Plan Residential Land and
Housing elements with a new introduction, findings and policies, She noted that the
Metropolitan Residential Land and Housing Studies are part of the Metro Area State
Mandated Periodic Review. She said the Eugene/Springfield metro area entered the
periodic review in 1993. She said between 1993 and 1995, the metro area community
developed a work program to address periodic review ofthe general plan. She added
it was decided at that time by the elected officials that a complete and total revision
of the Metro Plan could not be undertaken due to fiscal constraints caused in part by
the passage of statewide Ballot Measure 5. She said what was adopted was a
minimalist approach and did not contain any activities that were not absolutely
required. She said the residential land study is an important work task in periodic
review and addresses state p1amiing Goal 10, to provide for the housing needs of
citizens of the state. She said the study began in 1995 and was guided by citizen
advisory committees and approved by the local jurisdictions. She said in January
1998, the citizen advisory committees released their recommendations and fOIWarded
their recommendations to the three planning commissions. She noted thatafter the
release of the report, two open houses were conducted (one in Eugene and one in
Springfield) and four Public Hearings occurred. She said the record was left open for
four months and in January 1999, with the approval of all three planning commissions,
a unified set of policy recommendations was fOIWarded for hearing and action by the
elected officials. She added that since February, each of the three elected official
bodies had conducted work sessions to become familiar with the recommendations
and the background infonnation.-She said in addition, attached to tonight's agenda is
a briefing memo which covers the key policy recommendations and some of the
discussions that occurred at the work sessions. She said the record will be held open
until Apri126 at 5:00 p.m.
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Mayor Torrey stated there would not be a decision made this evening, testimony will
be taken, and then there will be questions from the elected officials following the
testimony.
Mayor Maine opened the Public Hearing for the City of Springfield and read into the
record the matter of Amending the Eugene-Springfield Metro Area General Plant to
Adopt a New Residential Lane Use and Housing Element and Related Changes to the
Plan Text and Glossary; and Adopting a Severability Clause and providing an
effective date.
Commissioner Green opened up the Lane County Board of Commissioners Public
Hearing and read the Ordinance P A 1128 into the record.
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Barbara Cole, stated she was speaking on behalf of the Lane Regional Air Pollution
Authority (LRAPA), 1010 Main Street, Springfield. She raised the issue that
decisions have a long range impact on air quality in the community. She noted that
over the past 25 years, stringent motor vehicle and fuel standards have reduced the
emissions from individual cars by 95% and at the same time populations have grown
and the number of vehicles and miles driven has grown faster than the population. She
said the cost for building more roads to accommodate a growing population is
prohibitively expensive. She said transportation demand management needs to be
thought about. She added if more people are able to use mass transit, walk or bicycle
to get around in the future, there will be cleaner air and a more livable community.
She said a way to reduce the dependence on the automobile is to encourage high
density mixed use communities that accommodate people's basic needs within a short
distance to where they live in close proximity to shopping and jobs. She stated that
LRAP A supports the plan that is present tonight for recognition of the housing impact
having infrastructure decisions on environmental and other resources. She added they
specifically endorse policies 15 through 18 and measures 8 to 20 that encourage
development of high density and affordable housing in mixed use communities.
Eleanor Mulder, 2775 Emerald, Eugene, stated she had attended many of LCOG's
Development Committee meetings. She said the study should respond to people's
housing dreams and wants and not to what they could afford. She said the theoretical
demand should be expanded and the land supply lessened by changing the variety of
the components that compute both figures. She said she was enthusiastic about the
comments the Department of Land Conservation and Development made to ad<4"ess
the draft's shortcoming. She said too much apartment development has not been
aimed at the more narrowly affordable market but attached development has targeting
the high end of the housing market. She asked to heed de-sale of the
recommendations.
Randy Prince, P. O. Box 927, stated he was in favor of utilizing market principles
wherever possible. He said homeownership is more dependent on policies set at the
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federal and state level. He said that .Eugene has more regulations, the quality oflife
is higher and that is why people want to move here. He suggested eliminating the
pressure of people wanting to own homes from the equation, because the factors of
homeownership are wrapped up in Washington, D.C. He suggesting allowing people
to have extra bedrooms or parking spaces and leave it to the market. He asked the
officials to support the economic growth by non-real estate indicators.
Roxy Cuellar, 1255 Pearl St., Eugene, stated she is the Director of Government Affairs
for the Lane County Homebuilders Association. She said they are recommending that
council members and commissioners adopt and approve the recommendation that the
planning commissions did with respect to the inventory on supply and demand. She
said one of the reasons they are willing to accept the fact is the study concludes that
. there is a 20 year supply of buildable lands in the area. She said if the homebuilders
think that they can use time most productively for the concept in the report there
would be a better monitoring system for how much land is being used as they are
developing it. She noted policy number 7 is too vague and asked that the language be
clarified. She said they want to encourage all the parties interested to work together
before the next periodic review, to arrive at a policy Jor dealing w~th the fact that
seven years from now they will not have a 20 year buildable land supply.
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Mark Radabaugh, Oregon Department of Land Conservation and Development, 635
Capital St., NE, Salem, stated their department is close to endorsing the work. He
went over minor points of a letter dated April 14. He said they endorse the monitoring
system. He noted that for the nex!periodicreview, they will be under SB 2709 of
1995 that requires more effort in terms of developing good land use efficiency. He
said they are suggesting stronger language for the cities dealing with housing supply
and needs analysis. He said the plan is an excellent one as it has citizen based
involvement throughout, to monitor it closely. He said he will be recommending it.
Max Liebreich, 1969 Columbia, Eugene, stated he is against high apartment complex
'densities and wants to see them spread out farther. He added he is against putting low
income people into bigger projects with smaller areas around them. He said the city
needs to be looking at smaller lot sizes with green areas around them for open spaces.
Jim Croteau, City of Eugene, reported the public notice that went out advertising this
hearing and study indicated to the public that they did have until April 26 to submit
written comments. He added they have tentatively set work sessions with all three
jurisdictions and made a handout for members of the public. He noted that all M~tro
Plan Amendme~lt; require unanimous approval by all three jurisdictions and if there
is disagreement, the dispute resolution process is with the MPC. He said the Eugene
City Council has scheduled Work Sessions on May 24 at 5:30 p.m. and May 26 at
5:30 p.m. He said that Springfield City Council will have theirs on June 7 at 6:00
p.m. He said that the Lane County Work Session is tentatively set for June 16, but not
an exact time. He noted that staff will provide a listing of all work sessions to anyone
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that submitted testimony or had testified tonight.
Sorenson questioned protecting high quality agricultural soils within the residential
land study.
Croteau responded that staff wanted to prepare additional material for the Work
Sessions. He added at the Work Session the County Commissioners had, they
produced a map that showed that everything within the urban growth boundary is high
value soils. He said the sites that are vacant and in farm deferral are at the periphery
in the North Coburg Road area towards Armitage Park and in Springfield in the Jasper
area. He noted they will provide all three groups more infonnation about that and the
applicability of state law. He said that once land is put inside the urban growth
boundary, the state and local laws claim the land is then considered urbanizable. He
added ifthe elected officials decided to take the land out of the inventory, there would
need to be a process to make up the land that had been set aside for residential uses
and either increase the density or redesignate other lands within the urban growth
boundary or expand the urban growth boundary onto other non-resource lands. He
noted that with regard to wetlands, open space and other resource areas, the planning
commissions' recommendations take into account that approximately 32% of the land
that is designated for residential use will be in other uses. He said in addition, the.
planning commissions are recommending that certain constrained lands not be
assigned to development in the future. He said the recommendations do contain
analysis that constrained lands and resource lands should be protected.
Green requested that when the analysis is done to include the costs for the options.
Kelly said with regard to policy 20, he wanted to know what zone it related to and
wanted clarification about prescribed standards of manufactured dwelling parks.
Simmons wanted to know if they would be receiving an impact analysis prior to
adopting of 4D Rules to show that there may be federal impact upon the adoption of
the plan.
Croteau responded that they will include any information on the Endangered Species
Act implications. He noted that one' of the constrained areas the planning
. commissions excluded from the inventory was land within a certain setback of both
Class A and Class B streams.
Mayor Maine questioned the elected official process and what provisions had been -
made to either reconvene the joint planning commissions, ox: have the citizens advisory
committee come together for agreement after "the work sessions.
Croteau stated the staffs and the groups have not talked about the changes going back
to either the citizen advisory group or the planning commissions. He said they
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anticipated with the elected officials, they would get the changes from each planning
commission.. He said they could go back to the planning commission but the work
program is a minimalist approach and they need the budget for other items in their
periodic review board.
Nathanson said there are not only economic but social considerations that are
important when acknowledging rental vs. ownership housing in the c<?mmunity. She
favored including a housing ladder concept (emergency housing transition) that was
presente~ to the City of Eugene.
Torrey reminded the public that they could submit written testimony until April 26,
and it could be submitted to the Cities of Eugene and Springfield and the Lane County
Planning Offices or directly to the Lane Council of Governments. He added that the
record will be open until April 26.
Mayor Maine closed the Public Hearing for the Springfield City Council, adjourned
the meeting and noted that the record will remain open until April 26 and reminded
council that their Work Session is scheduled for June 7.
Commissioner Green closed the Public Hearing for Lane County and kept the record
open until April 26. He noted that the tentative Work Session for Lane County will
be June 16.
Mike Copely, Lane County Land Management, recommended that the Board continue
the matter to a Third Reading and Deliberation on June 16.
Commissioner Green adjourned the meeting for Lane County.
Mayor Torrey closed the Public Hearing for the City of Eugene. He complimented the
staffs for their efforts at tonight's meeting and thanked everyone in attendance and
thought it was an excellent discussion. He adjourned the Eugene City Council
meeting at 8:10 p.m.
,N (VLffl 0 6~)
Melissa Zimmer
Recording Secretary
Adopted by the Springfield City Council on May 17, 1999.
ATTEST:
~?^-~
Mayor
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