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
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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.
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Council Work Session Minutes
November 17, 2008
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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.
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November 17, 2008
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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.
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Council Work Session Minutes
November 17,2008
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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:
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