HomeMy WebLinkAbout06/09/2008 Work Session
City of Springfield
Work Session Meeting
MINUTES OF THE WORK SESSION MEETING OF
THE SPRINGFIELD CITY COUNCIL HELD
MONDAY, JUNE 9, 2008
The City of Springfield Council met in a work session in the Library Meeting Room, 225 Fifth
Street, Springfield, Oregon, on Monday, June 9,2008 at 5:33 p.m., with Mayor Leiken presiding.
ATIENDANCE
Present were Mayor Leiken and Councilors Lundberg, Wylie, Ralston, and Woodrow. Also
present were Assistant City Manager Jeff Towery, City Attorney Joe Leahy, City Recorder Amy
Sowa and members of the staff
Councilors Ballew and Pishioneri were absent (excused).
1. Bob Straub Parkway Discussion.
Traffic Engineer Brian Barnett presented the staff report on this item. At the May 12, 2008
Council Meeting staff presented an update of summer construction activity. Intersection control of
Bob Straub Parkway and Mount Vernon Road was discussed. Council requested st3.ffprovide a
list of potential traffic control and management actions, including a traffic signal and an analysis of
costs, advantages and disadvantages of the alternatives.
The matrix in Attachment A in the agenda packet compares several alternative traffic control
choices. Options 3 through 13 may be used independently or in combination.
Staff recommends the project be completed as designed by Lane County with the addition of
Option 3 - advance intersection warning signs,' and Option 9 - extruded curbs and modifications to
the stripes to reduce the pedestrian crossing distance across Bob Straub Parkway. Once the road is
opened to traffic, the operational and safety characteristics should be monitored. After one year,
actual traffic volumes may be used to conduct a reevaluation of the intersection.
If Council desires more active control of the intersection than the actions recommended above the
second tier staff recommendation is Option 13, the installation of a pedestrian activated warning
beacon. The third tier staff recommendation is Option 15, the installation of a roundabout due to its
superior safety performance and good capacity.
The cost of these options will impact the Capital Improvement Program. Fund sources for the high
cost options (#2, #14, and #15) include canceling one or more of the following projects:
City Participation in Private Projects -- $200,000 Gray Jaqua Agreement -- $100,000
Slurry Seal and overlay -- $300,000 Pioneer Parkway Lighting -- $250,000
Mr. Barnett said at the last work session, discussion was held regarding a traffic signal at the Bob
Straub and Mt. Vemon intersection. He referred to Attachment A in the agenda packet which listed
15 alternatives. Each alternative listed the pros, cons, comments and funding sources. Attachment
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Council Work Session Minutes
June 9, 2008
Page 2
B provided information on Federal rules regarding traffic signals. Attachment C was two different
drawings at different scales of a proposed roundabout, and a bicyc1,e/pedestrian path.
Councilor Woodrow thanked Mr. Barnett for his work on this, but he disagreed with staff's
recommendation. He again noted that the only access out from South 59th was at Bob Straub
Parkway. Most of those would be turning to the right, but some would be turning left. At the end of
the day, traffic would be turning left across Bob Straub Parkway. There were bus stops and kids
going to the playground at that same location, which would mean a lot of pedestrian traffic. He
asked about the $210,000 to $260,000 cost that would be due to the County.
Mr. Barnett said the cost of traffic signals had increased due to an increase in the cost of cement
and steel. The change in the code for highway construction adopted by ODOT also increased the
foundation depth and the cost.
Councilor Woodrow asked if ODOT put the traffic lights on South 57th at the same depth.
Mr. Barnett said he was not sure.
Councilor Woodrow said from the reports he saw, the County expected to put a traffic light in at
this location at some point. If we waited two years, that cost could increase even more. He asked
what risk we were willing to put the children in that lived in that area, until a signal was warranted.
Trucks that currently traveled Jasper Road would now take the Bob Straub Parkway to get to
Highway 126. He asked that Council consider this carefully. He would prefer to err on the side of
safety for the kids. Putting it in now would save a lot of money rather than waiting two or more
years. He didn't feel traffic warning signs or reduced speed signs would be effective.
Councilor Lundberg asked how many years before the County anticipated putting a signal in.
Mr. Barnett said the warrant analysis didn't specifY when it would require a signal, but they had
chosen a date of about 2012. The City provided the County a list of activities that were anticipated
to occur in that area, and they used that information to choose that year.
Councilor Lundberg asked about tort liability on signal placement.
Mr. Barnett explained that there could be liability if an accident occurred at a location where a
signal was not warranted. That was a concern of the County's. If the City put in a light, the County
Commissioners would ask the City to take over that liability.
Councilor Lundberg said the Council could put a stop sign in now with a recommendation to revisit
this in one year. A stop sign didn't cost any additional funds.
Mr. Barnett said his recommendation was to install the stop sign, 'intersection ahead' signs on Bob
Straub Parkway and also put some curbing out into the paved area, extending the pedestrian area
closer to the crossings and to a three lane width, rather than five lane width. Councilor Lundberg's
idea of waiting one year would allow them time to watch the traffic once the road was opened and
re-evaluate.
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Council Work Session Minutes
June 9,2008
Page 3
Councilor Lundberg asked about the 'intersection ahead' signs. She asked about the difference
between that lighting and option number 13.
Mr. Barnett said option 3 was a warning sign without lighting, although lights could be added.
Option 13 was a pedestrian activated light.
Councilor Lundberg said the crossing at Guy Lee was engrained in the driver' s rrtind and was only
activated when someone was preparing to cross.
Councilor Woodrow said the stop signs would be on Mt. Vernon, which did nothing to impede the
traffic on Bob Straub. If the County didn't assume there would eventually be a stop signal, they
wouldn't have put in the conduit for a light. He noted that the Council had already approved
putting a stop light back in at 14th and E Street even though it didn't meet the warrants, but
because the people wanted it for safety. He didn't want a tragedy to occur in order to bring about
installation of a signal. This was a high speed area. When people saw the warning signs, it didn't
affect traffic; they only slowed down if they saw a traffic light. He noted how quickly the traffic
count had increased since he had moved to that area with the addition of the new development, and
said the same logic should transfer to the Bob Straub Parkway and Mt. Vernon intersection. He
also noted that the traffic counts didn't include truck traffic. He would implore Council to look at
this from a safety standpoint.
Mayor Leiken asked if the expressway coming in to the Bob Straub Parkway would be turned over
to the State.
Mr. Barnett said that had been discussed over the last several years, but he had not heard if it was
officially going to change.
Mayor Leiken said the City would need that information. Expressway management did not want
any traffic lights. He suggested this come back again to Council for a 30 minute work session with
information about the expressway management plan. The speed limit went from 55 mph on
Highway 126 to 45 mph on the Bob Straub Parkway which went into a neighborhood. Those were
things to consider.
Councilor Lundberg asked if after a year, it was warranted to put a signal at that location, the
County would be responsible to put that in. She would like clearer definition of the project money
and where funds would come from for this intersection, including specifics on the projects.
Mayor Leiken asked for information on the number of trips and the triggers.
Councilor Woodrow asked if they could also consider a way to extend South 59th to South 58th or
South 57th for egress.
Councilor Lundberg suggested also taking a broader look at other options to alleviate this
intersection.
Mr. Towery asked if Council would be willing to come in early for a meeting on this subject in
order to have the discussion before their summer break.
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Council Work Session Minutes
June 9, 2008
Page 4
Council approved coming in early (at 5:30pm) for the work session on this item.
2. Economic Opportunities Analysis / Economic Development Strategy.
This was a joint meeting between the Planning Commission and City Council
Present from the Planning Commission were Chair Frank Cross, and members Johnny
Kirschenmann, Terri Leezer, Eric Smith, Sheri Moore, Lee Beyer, and Steve Mae.
. City Planner David Reesor presented the staff report on this item. The purpose of this joint City
Council/Planning Commission work session is to provide Springfield decision makers with '!-
summary of economic trends affecting Springfield and discuss economic development priorities,
ECONorthwest will facilitate this work session.
On March 11th, the City Council/Planning Commission held a joint "kickoff' work session for the
CffiL / Goal 14 Study. ECONorthwest staff facilitated the March 11th work session where they
presented the work program and state planning requirements, and gathered input on desired
outcomes of the studies.
The purpose of the June 9th joint City Council/Planning Commission work session is to provide
Springfield decision makers with a summary of economic trends affecting Springfield and discuss
economic development priorities. ECONorthwest will begin the work session by presenting
research related to economic trends as they may affect Springfield's economy and then lead the
group in a "snow card" process to help prioritize economic development strategies.
ECONorthwest would like to understand the decision makers' priorities for economic development
in Springfield. The discussion of economic development priorities by Council and the Planning
Commission will help guide the development of economic development goals and implementing
strategies, which will be developed in a later work session.
Mr. Reesor said two stakeholder meetings had been held so far. The technical committee met, an
online survey completed and the first public workshop held. Mr. Reesor introduced Bob Parker
from ECONorthwest.
Mr. Parker discussed what they hoped to accomplish during this meeting. He went through the
power point presentation about Springfield UGB Planning: the Implications of Economic Trends
on Economic Development in Springfield. He referred, to a chart that showed some comparatives
on education, the labor work force, income, owner-occupied housing, median home value and
average age between Springfield, Lane County and the U.S. He discussed some of those figures.-
He noted that the population in Springfield was aging. He discussed the population growth and
how that would drive growth in certain service sectors. He noted that service industries dominated
employment in Lane County. Wages for th9se types of jobs varied from industry to industry.
Services would account for most of the employment growth in Lane County. Manufacturing was
also a strength in Lane County's economy. He referred to statistics regarding the percentage of
people living in Springfield and working in Lane County. The structure of Springfield's economy
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Council Work Session Minutes
June 9, 2008
Page 5
was similar to that of the County. He noted the health care cluster developing in Gateway at the
RiverBend campus. He referred to a map showing the location of employers in Springfield by size.
Mr. Parker discussed international and national trends affecting Springfield's future growth. He
noted that high-quality natural resources would continue to be important in our area, butthe affects
of energy price increases and global climate change on the Pacific Northwest was difficult to
predict. He discussed potential areas for growth in Springfield. He referred to a chart that was
included in the packet that showed Oregon's Statewide Traded Clusters. The clusters in Lane
County were similar to Oregon clusters. The clusters Springfield would look at would be those that
were growing quickly and had growth in wages. He reviewed which of those clusters that would
include. Service sectors had the most growth potential in Springfield.
Planning Commissioner Moore asked what category Symantec would fall into.
Mr. Parker said they would fall into a service category. He discussed how the government
categorized businesses. There was a range of occupations within each category. He discussed basic
and non-basic industries.
Planning Commissioner Moore said she thought of Lane County as being very large. She asked if
all cities in Lane County were included in these statistics.
Mr. Parker said they were all included, but most of the economic activity was in the southern
valley. Cities in this region did function tightly and were interconnected.
Planning Chair Cross asked for clarification on the cl~sters on the chart. They were representative
of clusters that were currently here.
Mr. Parker said in the report those clusters were broken down in more detail. Part of the concept of
clusters, was looking at spinoffs or related industries.
Planning Chair Cross asked if there were ways to identify which groups would cause more
opportunity and spinoffs.
Mr. Parker said that would be part of the analysis ECONorthwest would go through after they
determined what the City Council, Planning Commission, and community wanted.
Planning Commissioner Mae said when putting together Springfield Tomorrow, there was concern
about the number of owner occupied housing decreasing. Typical cities with populations over
50,000 had just over 50 percent owner occupied. This information would be important when
looking at urban renewal and using urban renewal funds to attract businesses.
Mr. Parker said assumptions and objectives were in the Eugene/Springfield Metro Plan. The plan
acknowledged there would be economic growth. The State required the City to identify economic
development objectives. The policy objectives could identify the level of short-term supply of land
and needs within a year. The State's administrative rule focused narrowly on land use which was
appropriate for this exercise and for urban growth boundary review. The key strategies for this
work would be to identify what kind of sites were needed to draw in the types of industries
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Council Work Session Minutes
June 9,2008
Page 6
Springfield wanted. He would like the City Council and Planning Commission to write down what
they felt was the City's top economic development objectives should be over the next twenty-year
period. From that, they could get more refined definitions of how to proceed.
Mayor Leiken asked if the Commercial and Industrial Buildable Lands (CffiL) committee was
doing that.
Mr. Parker said they would like the City Council and Planning Commission to provide sideboards
for the committee. Mr. Parker said that had been done in the Metro Plan, but the difference was
that this was for economic development and provided a strategy. When ECONorthwest reviewed
the Metro Plan strategy and found there were some differences they felt the City of Springfield
should do this exercise separately. He said they were looking for some education on the City's
goals.
Mayor Leiken said he wanted to make sure the information provided by the City Council and
Planning Commission was what they needed that justified our position to the State.
Mr. Parker said that was correct. This information was required by the State.
Planning Commissioner Beyer said they needed to keep this in the context of what related
'economically to the land use. The statistics shown tonight related well to the vision the Council had
in the Glenwood area: a high quality of mixed-use office retail and residential community. Looking
at the map, the largest concentration of employment was in the Gateway area.' That growth was
driven by the desire to create large areas for businesses to create jobs. It paid off, 'but we no longer
had those large areas. One strategy he would suggest would be to create places like that with 20-50
acre lots. It tied in to what the State said we didn't have in place.
Mr. Parker said the councilors and commissioners didn't need to limit themselves to looking at land
use. Typical goals would be how to implement ways to attract high wage jobs. The question was
how to get there from here.
Mayor Leiken said sometimes that happened by accident, such as PeaceHea1th. He explained.
Having the land available did help to make it happen, but it also included changing what had,been
envisioned in that location for many years. The land was the issue more than. anything. He asked
how the City went about looking at ways to expand in the future to create those opportunities.
That's what he wanted to get out of this process.
Mr. Parker said that was what this project would provide. He was hoping the City Council and
Planning Commission would give broad direction to ECONorthwest. They could then take their
expertise back and let Council know what they could do to facilitate that.
Councilor Woodrow said at the Lane Metro Partnership there were five or six companies looking
at 100 acre sites with certain conditions. Manufacturing, in addition to the service industry, was a
key factor to consider. The question was how we found that much property to expand and how to
accommodate those types of requests while maintaining residential areas.
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Council Work Session Minutes
June 9, 2008
Page 7
Mr. Parker said if the direction from Council was to find the type of property that would be
suitable, they could do that. The rule allowed the City to be aspirational. Economic development
tended to be opportunistic, and without the sites, they couldn't be in the game.
Councilor Lundberg said a common theme would be family wage jobs. That was one of the
Council's goals. Some of our biggest success had been the centers that had spun off other
businesses. Besides the land issues were transportation needs that came with the location.
Springfield was hinged by rivers, so we needed to look for places that we could provide
transportation. Part of it would be to look at what type of industries weren't as transportation
dependent. Health care wasn't as dependent on transportation in the same respect as industrial
businesses. Crossing the river had been done and could be a consideration.
Councilor Ralston said he wanted to target high tech manufacturing jobs such as the solar panel
company. That type of industry would be something for the future and he would rather get ahead of
the curve. A lot of companies would love to locate here. Springfield had a great environment, a
great work force, and low cost energy.
Planning Commissioner Smith said he would like to see some land dedicated for higher education
and education in high tech. He would love to hear the superintendent's perspective of what we
could do to draw upper education to Springfield.
Planning Chair Cross asked what type of transportation limits we had besides money. He asked if
it was the access to the airport, the size of the airport, I..:5 or the railroad.
Mr. Parker said good points had been made regarding transportation issues. He discussed
transportation, access and how that affected business locations.
Discussion was held regarding the size of properties needed for technical industries.
Planning Commissioner Mae said it would be interesting to see Springfield more aggressive about
accumulating land. Close proximity to I-5 was important to all.
Councilor Wylie said since PeaceHealth was building a regional health care facility, the City
should focus on associated health care services and products. Jobs in the health care field were
family wage jobs and they were clean businesses. She liked the concept of nodal development
including a variety of businesses, retail and residences.
Planning Commissioner Moore said education and research parks tied into the medical field. She
said we needed to look beyond reasons we couldn't expand. Springfield could be even more
beautiful and could accommodate growth.
Councilor Lundberg said education and hospitals weren't always taxpaying and she was interested
in some taxpaying industries as well. Some industries paid more based on different factors. An up
side to economic development was that it brought a tax base to accommodate the growth. She
would encourage looking at economic opportunities that would bring that tax base.
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Council Work Session Minutes
June 9, 2008
Page 8
Councilor Woodrow agreed. He said one reason to look at high tech manufacturing was because of
the high inventory and tax base. As our population grew older, the less our property tax would
become as people moved into smaller housing or retirement communities. It was important to look
at the balance of family wage jobs to facilitate paying the taxes. He spoke of the range of wages
within the different industries.
Planning Commissioner Leezer read from a list of items she had noted throughout the meeting: high
tech manufacturing; research and development; alternative energy; and a second medical campus.
She noted that the older population would need medical services. She spoke of Scottsdale, Arizona
where they catered to seniors. The seniors were often afl:1uent and wanted a community that
provided activities and was livable.
Mr. Parker said what she described was called an 'active retirement community' in the literature.
There were high amenity uses for seniors.
Planning Commissioner Beyer said they didn't want to lose sight of the primary industries that
would provide spinoff businesses.
Mr. Parker said the other employers ended up being quite important. If the State was correct, 57
percent would be office type uses. He talked about the potential in Glenwood.
Planning Commissioner Beyer said we had a lot of zoning codes; some businesses would be more
attractive looking than others and would be located in those types of clusters. One of Eugene and
Springfield's biggest economic advantages was being between Seattle and California along I-5.
There were a lot of distribution related companies that would be attracted to that type of site.
Mayor Leiken asked how much acreage internet hotels, such as Google, would need.
Mr. Parker said about 30 acres. He discussed such a business in another town.
Planning Commissioner Beyer noted that the low rates from the Springfield Utility Board would be
a benefit.
Mayor Leiken said a good focus would be to look at possible 30-50 acre sites and what could site
at those locations. We needed to look at our strengths. It would be great to have those lower impact
industries with a higher tax base.
Planning Commissioner Smith said a golf course would be beneficial and could draw in the
demographic of those that liked to golf.
Planning Commissioner Moore said she would like a geographic layout on the map showing the
rivers and hills so they could get a better sense of areas that could be potential sites for growth.
Mr. Parker said the alternatives analysis would include that. He noted that the information from the
City Council and Planning Council was exactly what they wanted. They would then look to see
what types of sites were needed for those types of industries. Creative thinking was needed. Part of
the problem with long-term land use planning was zoning.
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Council Work Session Minutes
June 9, 2008
Page 9
Planning Chair Cross said Seattle and San Francisco were both hilly areas. He asked what type of
industries worked in that type of location.
Mr. Parker noted that some medical didn't require flat land. Slopes were not necessarily something
that would kill projects, but industrial businesses needed flat surfaces.
Planning Commissioner Beyer discussed the location of the County Disposal center in Glenwood
and the difficulty of siting an expensive office building next to a dump.
Mayor Leiken said this was a good exercise.
Mr. Parker said the State required the City to identify or target industries and identify the site needs
of those industries. A good list had been created from tonight's meeting. ECONorthwest may
supplement this list with some other ideas. They did get a good idea of where the Planning
Commission and City Council wanted to go.
Mayor Leiken said PeaceHealth realized the special campus they had now and would continue to
expand. Their relationship with the City had been positive. The City had excellent conversations
with the University of Oregon (UoID) about opportunities, particularly in Glenwood because of the
location. Springfield always had to work hard for what they got.
ADJOURNMENT
Mayor Leiken adjourned the meeting of the City Council.
Commission Chair Cross adjourned the meeting of the Planning Commission.
The meeting was adjourned at 7:10 pm.
Minutes Recorder - Amy Sowa
Attest:
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