[NLC] * Heads Up * Envision Eugene timeline shortened

[Paul Conte]

The scheduled date for City Council to make decisions on "Envision 
Eugene" had been moved from March 14 to March 9. The details:
City Council Work Session
Wednesday, March 9 at Noon
McNutt Room
Agenda:
A. Envision Eugene (45 minutes)
B. West Eugene Extension of EmX (45 minutes)
Although the Planning Division hasn't made any public announcement of 
how this affects the schedule for public involement, here's what 
Sarah Medary e-mailed me:
"We may need to move [the decision] again as there may not be a full 
council on the evening [sic] of the 9th. ...
      So, what does that all mean in regards to how you and others 
can weigh in. We will put a revised draft [recommendation] in the 
Council's March 4 packet that incorporates the input we have received 
to date.  We'll continue to take input and surveys through the 7th 
and will include those in the presentation on the 9th. You might 
remember from an earlier email from Jon that we aren't asking the 
City Council for a final decision on the 9th.  We're asking them to 
approve a proposal that will then go back out for review and comment 
for an additional 45 days."
So, if a typical schedule is followed, late next Friday evening you 
can go on the City's Web site and find the revised version of the 
Draft Recommendations. You then have Saturday, Sunday and Monday to 
review it and provide comments that councilors will see at the 
beginning of their 45 minute discussion & vote.

It's still not clear exactly what the City Manager intends to add to 
the recommendations that he presents to Council. There have been 
indications, the recommendations may include one or more quantitative 
assumptions about housing mix, residential density or other key 
factors, in addition to the "Seven Pillars" and accompanying strategies.

A few thoughts ...

Neighborhood leaders will have to decide for themselves whether this 
approach provides their boards and members a reasonable opportunity 
to develop well-informed comments on the actual recommendations about 
which Council will be asked to make decisions March 9.

As experienced advocates know, the ability of individuals or 
organizations to actually effect outcomes is much greater before 
Council (or the Planning Commission, etc.) makes "tentative" or 
"preliminary" decisions. After such decisions are made, the hill is 
much steeper. So the fact that there will be a follow-up period is no 
substitute for a reasonable opportunity to be engaged before the 
March 9 decisions.

In the past, I've observed Council spend more time on leaf blower 
noise and other incidental issues than the 45 minutes being allocated 
to each of the hugely important subjects of Envision Eugene and the 
West Eugene Extension of EmX. The absurdity of this scheduling is 
exacerbated by the major gaps that remain in the supporting analysis 
in both areas. Further, in both cases, there is absolutely no 
essential requirement to make a decision in March. There's no "hard" 
deadline for EE (now that the original February 28 date has long 
since been set aside), and LTD has said a decision on the WEEE 
alternative could be made as late as June.

If you're not so frustrated by this kind of mismanagement of public 
involvement that you've just given up, you might consider sending an 
e-mail to MayorAndCC at ci.eugene.or.us requesting both the EE and EmX 
decisions be rescheduled to allow reasonable time for the public (and 
councilors) to be fully informed and weigh in on these important decisions.

-- Paul 
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://www.designcommunity.com/pipermail/nlc/attachments/20110226/c73a0ea4/attachment.html