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HomeMy WebLinkAbout11/17/2008 Work Session City of Springfield Work Session Meeting MINUTES OF THE WORK SESSION MEETING OF THE SPRINGFIELD CIIT COUNCIL HELD MONDAY, NOVEMBER 17, 2008 The City of Springfield Council met in a work session in the Library Meeting Room, 225 Fifth Street, Springfield, Oregon, on Monday, November 17, 2008 at 6:02 p.m., with Mayor Leiken presiding. ATTENDANCE Present were Mayor Leiken and Councilors Lundberg, Wylie, Ballew, Ralston, Woodrow and Pishioneri. Also present were City Manager Gino Grimaldi, Assistant City Manager Jeff Towery, City Attorney Joe Leahy, City Recorder Amy Sowa and members of the staff. 1. Planning Commission Interviews. Development Services Department Director Bill Grile presented this item. There are two candidates for one position. Incumbent, Terri Leezer resigned October 31, 2008 as Planning Commissioner. Ms. Leezer was elected to the City Council from Ward 3 and will be sworn into office on January 12,2009. Ms. Leezer's now vacant Planning Commission appointment expires on July 31, 2011. The City received two applications for one vacancy during a one month recruitment process. Mr. Sean VanGordon resides at 2327 Clear Vue, Springfield and is a supervisor with the United Parcel Service on Nugget Way in Glenwood. Mr. Garold Ropp resides at 4691 Holden Court, Springfield and is employed as an architectural designer with McKenzie D & D In9.10cated at 4691 Holden Court Springfield, OR. The Springfield Planning Commission is a seven member volunteer Commission appointed by the City Council. The members serve four-year terms. Ofthe seven members, two appointments may live outside the City limits, and two appointments may be involved in the Real Estate profession. Positions are "at-large", and do not re~resent specific geographic areas. Currently one Planning Commissioner resides outside the City limits, and none work in Real Estate. The Council decision on appointments is scheduled for the Regular Meeting of December 1, 2008. Council discussed the questions and decided which Councilor would ask which question. 1. Mayor Leiken: Why are you interested in serving on the Planning Commission? 2. Councilor Ralston: Many of the land use laws applied by the Planning Commission are state or federally mandated. During a Planning Commission hearing how would you City of Springfield Council Work Session Minutes November 17, 2008 Page 2 reconcile your own personal opinions with the applicant's interests when those interests do not comply with the land use laws? 3. Councilor Ballew: How familiar are you with planning laws and policies and the purpose they serve in Springfield's land use decision making process? If your experience with these laws is limited, what actions would you take to become familiar so that you can function fully as a Planning Commissioner? 4. Councilor Woodrow: How would you recommend balancing the community's need for attractive commercial and industrial development with the rights of property owners? 5. Councilor Lundberg: What is your general understanding of the relationship between the Planning Commission and City Staff, the Planning Commission and the City Council? 6. Councilor Pishioneri: The State of Oregon is performing the first comprehensive review of the Oregon land use system since adoption of Senate Bill 100 in the 1980's. It's being called "The Big Look". If you had 2 minutes to testify before the statewide task force charged with performing "The Big Look", what would you advise them? 7. Councilor Wylie: What roll do you think the Planning Commission should have with the revitalization of downtown? Council discussed the candidates and noted the quality of both of them. Mayor Leiken suggested staff provide a 30 minute work session on "The Big Look". The public could use more education on this subject. Mr. Grile said staff would get that scheduled. Council decided to appoint Sean Van Gordon to the Planning Commission on December 1. Council encouraged staff to talk to Mr. Ropp about applying for the Ward 4 position on the Budget Committee. Councilor Ballew encouraged Council members to try to recruit more Planning Commission applicants from other areas around the City in the future. 2. Land Supply / Urban Growth Boundary Proiect: Request for Comments on Draft Reports and Committee Recommendations. City Planner David Reesor presented the staff report on this item. He was joined by Beth Goodman from ECONorthwest. The purpose of this Council work session is to provide additional opportunity for comments on the draft reports included in the October 27th, 2008 joint work session packet: (1) draft Economic Opportunities Analysis (including Inventory Chapter); (2) draft Economic Development Objectives and Implementation Strategies; (3) Preliminary CIBL Stakeholder Committee Recommendations (Attachment 4-1); and (4) Stakeholder Committee Redevelopment Recommendations (Attachment 5). ECONorthwest (ECO) and City Staff have held periodic work sessions with the Planning Commission and Council to assure timely review of technical documents and recommendations as they arise and to receive direction regarding next steps. City of Springfield Council Work Session Minutes November 17, 2008 Page 3 On October 27th, 2008, ECO facilitated a joint work session with the Planning Commission and Council to seek initial feedback on draft technical documents and Stakeholder Committee recommendations. ECO presented preliminary project fmdings and solicited comments from the Planning Commission and Council. The draft technical documents were created with prior input from the Planning Commission, Council, Stakeholder Committee, Technical Advisory Committee (T AC), and the general public through public workshops and a community visioning survey. Stakeholder recommendations include assumptions related to the following information: inventory constraints; redevelopment; and employment infill. As mentioned during the October 27th work session, staff requests that Council consider the following questions: 1. Based upon information found in the Economic Opportunities Analysis, do you agree with the Stakeholder Committee recommendations? 2. Does the draft Economic Development Strategy accurately reflect your prior input regarding Economic Development Objectives and Strategies? 3. Are there any additional comments / issues you see with the draft Economic Opportunities Analysis? The Planning Commission's review of the planning material will be ongoing. Having the collective comments from the City Council on November 17, 2008 will be timely and enable the process to continue meeting work program deadlines. Councilor Woodrow asked Mr. Reesor to clarify the difference between redevelopable land and infill. Mr. Reesor said infill would create jobs in areas where there was existing employment already, such as a large warehouse where there was still capacity to put additional employees without taking additional land. Redevelopment involved redeveloping a building and bringing in additional capacity. Ms. Goodman said redeveloprrtent often occurred when old retail was torn down and new offices or some other use was built in that spot. The idea was to replace a lower density employer with a higher density employer. One ofthe keys with redevelopment was that there was often a need to relocate the present employees or the company could cease to exist. An increase in employees was needed to make it feasible. Councilor Woodrow referred to pages 46 and 113 that discussed the Labor Market and asked about the statement "The workforce in Springfield differs from the workforce in Lane County and Oregon in terms of educational attainment and Ethnicity". He asked if that could be reworded. Mr. Reesor said they had made that change following earlier feedback. Mayor Leiken asked how the Hammer Industrial Park on 420d Street would be classified, redevelopment or infill. He noted the history of businesses on that site. Mr. Reesor said he would consider it redevelopment because the type of use was changed and the structure had changed. City of Springfield';' Council Work Session Minutes November 17, 2008 Page 4 Mayor Leiken asked for an actual example in Springfield of infill. Ms. Goodman said the Symantec building would be an example if they had space for additional employees or the Royal Caribbean Building. The Tru Value warehouse was another example. Councilor Ballew discussed the prison that was scheduled to be built in Junction City and said there could be Springfield residents that would go to work there. She asked how that was included in the analysis. Mr. Reesor said the study did take into account that some residents would work in other cities and that residents from other cities would work in Springfield. Ms. Goodman said one of the items in the report was an analysis of where people lived and worked. It was a regional issue. It was important to try to get as many Springfield residents to be able to work in Springfield as possible. Councilor Woodrow asked how the nodal overlay and the State goal of reducing miles traveled had any effect on this report. Mr. Reesor said they did look at the different plan designations in this study, such as nodal development. Those types of mixed-use areas didn't always fall into one category, so zoning was also considered to determine the primary uses in those areas. They would also be looking at ways to reduce vehicle trips. Councilor Woodrow asked about the nodal overlays that had been discussed during the last meeting on this item. Mr. Reesor said several of those areas mentioned at the last meeting had been identified as potential nodal areas, but had not been formally adopted. That was why they were not shown on the map. He noted the overlay areas that had been adopted. Discussion was held regarding the nodal areas. Councilor Wylie complimented staff and ECONorthwest on the maps that so accurately showed areas that were redevelopable or vacant, and referred to several of them. Councilor Ballew referred to the chart on page 56 showing employment growth in Springfield. She said she assumed the column labeled Total Employment included people that lived outside Springfield, but worked in Springfield. She asked if they had information on what percentage of the population of a city was employed. Ms. Goodman said the chart did include all employment in the City whether the workers lived here or not. Springfield's population/employment ratio was about 1.6 people per job. That was close to the State average. The forecast showed the employment ratio going down slightly. Councilor Ballew asked if they knew how many of the Springfield residents were employed anywhere. City of Springfield Council Work Session Minutes November 17,2008 Page 5 Ms. Goodman said the labor force for Springfield was slightly higher than Lane County, somewhere near 60-65%. Councilor Ralston noted the lack of Campus Industrial in Springfield and that most of that was in the floodway. He would like plan designations somewhere in Springfield to show Campus Industrial. Community Development Manager John Tamulonis discussed the Jasper Natron area and noted that area had potential for a Campus Industrial designation. Mr. Reesor said that was something they could look at through this process, either through redesignation of land in the existing urban growth boundary (UGB) or when the UGB was expanded. Mayor Leiken said he appreciated this work. The economy had gone down in the last year, but eventually the economy would come back up and this work was preparing the City for that recovery. He felt that when that occurred, there would be some changes in what that new economy would be. He asked staffto continue to be flexible on land designation. He understood certain things needed to be in place to receive approval from the Department of Land Conservation and Development (DLCD), but we needed to be flexible and prepared for opportunities, such as PeaceHealth. This was very good work. It was a lot of information with a lot of good ideas for this Council and future Councils. ADJOURNMENT The meeting was adjourned 7:00 pm. Minutes Recorder - Amy Sowa Attest: rJWa--