HomeMy WebLinkAbout06/28/2004 Regular
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MINUTES OF THE SPECIAL REGULAR MEETING OF
THE SPRINGFIELD CITY COUNCIL HELD
MONDAY, JUNE 28, 2004
The city of Springfield council met in special regular session in the Jesse Maine Room, 225 Fifth
Street, Springfield, Oregon, on Monday, June 28 at 7:00 p.m., with Mayor Leiken presiding.
ATTENDANCE
Present were Mayor Leiken, City Councilors Fitch, Woodrow, Lundberg, Ballew and Ralston,
Also present were Assistant City Manager Cynthia Pappas, City Attorney Meg Kieran, City
Recorder Amy Sowa, and members of the staff.
PLEDGE OF ALLEGIANCE
The Pledge of Allegiance was led by Mayor Leiken.
BIDS
1. Bid A ward for Police Communications Grant.
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Police Chief Jerry Smith presented the staff report on this item. In April of2003, the Police
Department applied for $300,000 in Homeland Security Grants to upgrade the police radio
system. The funding request was based on market research into the cost of microwave repeater
systems. The intent of the grant is to install Microwave connections to repeater sites on Quarry
Hill, a current repeater site and Coburg Ridge.
The department was awarded $293,000 in Homeland Security Grant funding to improve the
stability and interoperability of the department's radio communications system. The grant does
not require matching funds from the city. After the award of the grant, the department contacted
DAY Wireless to begin actual design work within the available grant budget.
Equipment purchased must be compatible with the existing Motorola Astro radio system, and
DAY Wireless is the only local authorized Motorola dealer.
Using Motorola (and DAY Wireless) as the vendor will save about $50,000 in project costs, as
we will be able to reprogram some of the existing equipment to use in the new system. A
different vendor would require purchasing additional equipment.
Finally, Springfield has the opportunity to join the City of Portland and Washington County
Oregon Contract # 29763 with Motorola to purchase the equipment and services for the
installation.
Councilor Ballew said in Washington DC, the county was looking for grant funds for
communication. She asked if the county received any funding or if these repeaters would help
them.
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Mr. Smith said the county did not receive assistance for their system. It is a major project. It
would not help the city if the county got the system immediately because the city would have to
buy a lot of equipment to take advantage of it because it is a completely different kind of
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operation. If the county were to go digital, they would have better inter-operability between the
City of Springfield and the City of Eugene. The current system allows Springfield and Eugene to
hear the County, but we must know they are trying to talk back in order to receive them in return.
Mayor Leiken said the Federal Government allocates a certain amount of funding for each state
for Homeland Security based on formulas, mostly based on population. Last year, Oregon
received about $45M in Homeland Security Funds. That leaves the state about $50M short.
Homeland Security wants the funds channeled appropriately through the state and the committee
Mayor Leiken serves on then makes recommendations on disbursement of that money.
IT WAS MOVED BY COUNCILOR FITCH WITH A SECOND BY COUNCILOR BALLEW
TO APPROVE THE BID AWARD FOR DESIGN AND INSTALLATION OF A GRANT
FUNDED MICROWAVE BASED RADIO REPEATER SYSTEM, NOT TO EXCEED
$293,000 TO DAY WIRELESS. THE MOTION PASSED WITH A VOTE OF 5 FOR AND 0
AGAINST.
Mayor Leiken officially welcomed CoUnty Commissioner Peter Sorenson to the council meeting.
BUSINESS FROM THE CITY MANAGER
2. Council Initiation of an Amendment to the Metropolitan Area General Plan (Metro Plan) Text
and Diagram and Gateway Refinement Plan Text and Diagram (PeaceHealth)
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Mayor Leiken clarified that tonight was not a public hearing. There will be many opportunities
for citizens to speak at public hearings on this item in the future.
Planner Colin Stephens presented the staff report on this item. PeaceHealth has requested that the
City Council initiate Metro Plan text and diagram amendments and Gateway Refmement Plan
(GRP) text and diagram amendments to respond to the recently released Oregon Court of Appeals
decision on the PeaceHealth Metro Plan and GRP amendments approved by the council in April
of 2003.
On April 21, 2003 the City Council approved Metro Plan diagram and GRP diagram and text
amendments to allow PeaceHealth to submit permit applications necessary to site a regional
hospital, medical office buildings and a mixed use retail area at the McKenzie Gateway Medium
Density Residential Subarea (Gateway MDR Site). The council's approval was appealed to the
Land Use Board of Appeals and to the Oregon Court of Appeals. The Court of Appeals
ultimately ruled that the Medical Services (MS) zoning district applied to the MDR Metro Plan
designation was not suitable to accommodate PeaceHealth's proposed hospital. The attached
plan amendments respond to the Court of Appeals' decision by applying a commercial plan
designation in areas where the hospital will be developed.
If the proposed plan amendments are approved by the City Council, they will replace the two
previously approved plan amendment ordinances that are currently under appeal.
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Mr. Stephens said tonight's initiation is not to change the master plan in any way. He explained
the issues the Court of Appeals ruled against the city regarding Goal 9, Economic Development
and Goal 12, Transportation. Specifically, LUBA ruled that the Transportation Planning-Rule
(TPR) requires the city to show not even a temporary degradation of level of service at any
transportation facilities for the entire planning horizon. In this case, that would include fifteen
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years. LUBA also ruled that the city did not include sufficient Goal 9 findings to show how the
PeaceHealth proposal conformed with the Springfield Commercial Lands Study, specifically
some implementation actions within that document.
The LUBA decision was appealed to the Oregon Supreme Court. The Oregon Supreme Court
issued their decision on June 9, 2004. In addition to upholding those two assignments that LUBA
ruled on, the court added an additional point that the city could not rely on the Medium Density
Residential (MDR) plan designation to apply the medical services zoning district and to site the
hospital upon that site.
Mr. Stephens said in response to these three points, the City Council is ;lsked to initiate new Type
II plan amendments. Both LUBA and the Court of Appeals found in favor of the city that plan
amendments and decisions relating to Metro Plan diagram and Metro Plan policies that are site
specific, in this case the Gateway MDR sub-area that are entirely in the city limits, are within the
sole jurisdiction of the City of Springfield. These new amendments are as follows: 1) an
amendment to the Metro Plan diagram and the Gateway Refmement Plan diagram to re-designate
approximately ninety-nine acres ofMDR land to a combination of Mixed Use (MU) and
Community Commercial (CC); 2) to add a site specific Metro Plan policy that recognizes the
Gateway property as an appropriate area for medical, commercial and residential uses; and 3)
amend the Gateway Refmement Plan consistently with the plan amendments that were approved
by the council in April 2003 except for the consideration that the ninety-nine acres would be a
combination ofMU and CC and not Commercial and Residential, as the previous iteration
reflected.
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Mr. Stephens said the applicant had also submitted recently a letter to the city requesting the
Springfield Commercial Lands Inventory be amended to add an implementation strategy that
recognizes the development of the regional hospital at the Gateway MDR site. Mr. Stephens
entered that letter into the record.
Mr. Stephens said a recent staff review of Article 22, the Medical Services Zoning District,
indicated that amendments to that zoning district are desirable in order to apply the district at this
site to accommodate the PeaceHealth proposal. These five items will address the Goal 9 issue
and the issue of the residential versus commercial plan designation. The Goal 12 issue will be
addressed in fmdings of fact that will accompany the plan amendments if council approves them.
The fmdings will be specifically to the LUBA and Court of Appeals rulings on that issue.
Mr. Stephens said in summary, council is asked to initiate Metro Plan and Gateway Refmement
Plan Text and Diagram amendments to redesignate MDR property to a combination of CC and
MU to allow for the development of the Gateway MDR site with a regional hospital commercial
and residential uses. Council is further asked to initiate an amendment to the Commercial Lands
Study to assess the need for adequate commercial land at the Gateway MDR site and to amend
Article 22 as appropriate to allow for a regional hospital at the Gateway MDR site. If council
approves this motion tonight, staff will begin notification protocols to the state and schedule
public hearings before the Planning Commission for recommendation, possibly near the end of
the summer, and then to City Council later in the fall.
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Councilor Ralston asked if Goal 9 was Economic Development and what LUBA's objection was
regarding this Goal.
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City Attorney Meg Kieran said the Springfield Commercial Lands Study states that ten to fifteen
acres in the Gateway MDR site should be designated commercial. LUBA said the city did not
need to do anything other than make some findings.
Mr. Stephens said the Commercial Lands Study is the city's analysis and implementation strategy
for Goal 9.
Councilor Fitch said tonight's action would just be to initiate the plan amendments. It would then
go before the Planning Commission for one or more hearings and then to the City Council public
hearings.
Mr. Stephens said that is correct. If council approves going forward, staff will move forward
with the necessary notification, analysis and will hold public hearings with an opportunity for the
public to provide both oral and written testimony.
Councilor Ballew said the text refers to what council approved originally.
Mr. Stephens said he thought it best to use the original as the base case.
Councilor Ballew said it reads better this way.
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Mayor Leiken thanked Jon and Robin Jacqua for attending tonight. The Jacqua's have had
continued conversations with PeaceHealth and he hopes they continue to have those
conversations. He appreciates their willingness to meet with PeaceHealth. The Jacqua's have
been outstanding citizens in the community for a long time and are highly respected by himself
and the council.
IT WAS MOVED BY COUNCILOR FITCH WITH A SECOND BY COUNCILOR BALLEW
TO INITIATE METRO PLAN TEXT AND DIAGRAM AMENDMENTS AND GATEWAY
REFINEMENT PLAN TEXT AND DIAGRAM AMENDMENTS TO REDESIGNATE 99
ACRES OF MEDIUM DENSITY RESIDENTIAL (MDR) PROPERTY TO A COMBINATION
OF COMMUNITY COMMERCIAL AND MIXED USE TO ALLOW FOR THE
DEVELOPMENT OF THE MCKENZIE GA TEW A Y MEDIUM DENSITY RESIDENTIAL
SUBAREA WITH A REGIONAL HOSPITAL, COMMERCIAL AND RESIDENTIAL USES
AND TO INITIATE AN AMENDMENT TO THE SPRINGFIELD COMMERCIAL LANDS
STUDY TO ASSESS THE NEED FOR COMMERCIAL LAND AT THE GATEWAY MDR
SITE AND TO AMEND ARTICLE 22, MEDICAL SERVICES ZONING DISTRICT AS
APPROPRIATE TO ALLOW SITING OF THE HOSPITAL AT THE MCKENZIE GATEWAY
MEDIUM DENSITY RESIDENTIAL SUBAREA. THE MOTION PASSED WITH A VOTE
OF 4 FOR AND 1 AGAINST (RALSTON).
Councilor Ralston asked ifhe should give his opinions at this time.
Mayor Leiken said there would be opportunity for council to express their opinions on this during
the public hearings.
ADJOURNMENT
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The meeting was adjourned at 7:15 p.m.
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Minutes Recorder Amy Sowa
Attest:
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Amy So
City Recorder
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