[WEC] Eugene City Council agrees to relax setback requirements of West 11th Avenue (and looking to Veneta)

Thu Jun 10 10:20:09 PDT 2010

Dear WEC friends,

Although I missed the meeting, Rob Inerfled reports that yesterday the Eugene City Council voted unanimously to "direct the City Manager to move forward with amending the Street Right of Way Map (Figure 61) for West 11th Avenue to allow for future improvements to that street," following up on concerns the WEC first raised almost two years ago. Thanks to Chris Pyror for putting this on the agenda, and Rob for moving it forward. We on the WEC can count this action as a concrete, if small, success stemming from all our hard work together.

In other news, at the West Eugene EmX Extension (WEEE) open house yesterday, Tom Schwetz and I were talking with fellow WEEE corridor committee member, Eugene Sustainability Commissioner member and Churchill neighborhood leader Will Shaver about traffic along West 11th. He noted that in his experience, there is actually a bottleneck west of Beltline, extending presumably much of the way to Veneta. Thus morning traffic is not so bad once you are east of Beltline. But afternoon traffic is often congested, as traffic trying to go west gets backed up east of Beltline, even as far east at Bertelsen.

I mention this just to highlight how interconnected our transportation system is, and how actions in one place can have ripple effects in other places:

Veneta strives to build identity: 
Civic leaders envision more than a bedroom community
By Winston Ross
The Register-Guard
Sunday, May 30, 2010
VENETA — Just before school let out on a recent Tuesday, Lee Kelley was unlocking a row of shiny new lawnmowers outside his True Value hardware store, preparing to load one of them into the waiting minivan of a customer who’s lived here for 50 years. (read more...)
http://www.registerguard.com/csp/cms/sites/web/news/sevendays/24816434-35/veneta-downtown-town-ingham-lane.csp

GUEST VIEWPOINT: Selling EWEB water to Veneta is a win-win for both cities
By John Brown
The Register-Guard
Monday, June 7, 2010
Eugene residents are fortunate to have access to an ample supply of some of the purest water in the world, drawn from the pristine McKenzie River. When I consider the worth of the resource portfolio held by the Eugene Water & Electric Board and its citizen-owners, nothing outranks the significance and value of our state-recognized right to draw water from that river. (read more...)
http://www.registerguard.com/csp/cms/sites/web/news/sevendays/24861161-35/eweb-veneta-river-surplus-wholesale.csp

I'm just saying that as the City of Eugene looks to improve West 11th Avenue, as the City of Eugene looks to "Envision Eugene" and possibly adjust our urban growth boundary, as Lane Transit District looks to extend bus rapid transit to west Eugene, as EWEB looks to manage our water supply, as Veneta looks to envision its future and grow (perhaps to a city of 20,000 people by the year 2050), as ODOT looks to make investments in the regional transportation system, etc., we need to keep communicating and collaborating so that the left and right hands aren't working at cross purposes. Given the current trend towards self-rule, I believe that the cross-jurisdictional communication and coordination will become increasingly important.

Best wishes,
Rob Z

------ Forwarded Message ------
From: Kitty Piercy <cemayor at earthlink.net>
Date: June 6, 2010 4:54:40 PM PDT
To: Rob Zako <robzako at gmail.com>, West Eugene Collaborative <wec at westeugenecollaborative.org>
Subject: Re: [WEC] Eugene City Council to discuss setback requirements on June 9

I guess I would say that I not a strong admirer of “get in touch with your feelings” type things.  But, in this case, I think it was not so much about that as a pragmatic effort to get 50 community members to look at how we are functioning in getting things done in our community.  In particular how more conservative and progressive points of view can be held and still have the ability to work together in a practical way.   It was sort of ‘seeding” the community with more WEC like community building and planning.   I really appreciated everyone and especially all of you who came.  Kitty

------ Forwarded Message ------
From: Rob Zako <robzako at gmail.com>
Date: June 6, 2010 3:28:37 PM PDT
To: West Eugene Collaborative <wec at WestEugeneCollaborative.org>
Subject: Re: Eugene City Council to discuss setback requirements on June 9

Dear friends,

The work session on setback requirements is scheduled for:

    Wednesday, June 9, noon
    McNutt Room, Eugene City Hall

Attached is the 4-page agenda item summary.

Thanks,
Rob Z

P.S. In other news, several of us WEC members, including Rick, Lisa, Rob I, Don, Kevin, Kitty, Faye, Rob I, Rusty, Jack, Faye, Gary and me (did I miss anyone?), participated last week in a 3-day Envision Eugene workshop. This was aimed to heel and overcome divisions in our community around growth and development issues. For now, I would say that it felt like three days of intensive group therapy and was much more "touchy feely" than any other land use effort I have been involved in. But as the way we have been approaching these issues over the last several decades has not served our community very well, trying a different approach makes sense. At the end of the three days, everyone of the roughly 50 people there committed to continue to work together to try to reach consensus on a vision for Eugene and, in particular, what to do with the urban growth boundary (UGB). Kudos to mayor Kitty Piercy, city manager Jon Ruiz, planning director Lisa Gardner and facilitators Bob Chadwick and Diane ___ for bringing us all together. I'd be interested in what other participants thought.

------ Forwarded Message ------
From: "Chris Pryor" <ceward8 at comcast.net>
Date: June 3, 2010 7:00:27 PM PDT
To: "'Rob Zako'" <robzako at gmail.com>, "'West Eugene Collaborative'" <wec at westeugenecollaborative.org>
Subject: RE: [WEC] Eugene City Council to discuss setback requirements on June 9

I was the one who asked for the work session, so I plan to be an advocate for the Collaborative position. I will share the letter as well.

Chris

Chris Pryor
City Councilor, Ward 8
chris.e.pryor at ci.eugene.or.us
(Messages to and from this account are public records and subject to review by the media and the public)

------ Forwarded Message ------
From: Rob Zako <robzako at gmail.com>
Date: June 2, 2010 10:06:32 PM PDT
To: West Eugene Collaborative <wec at WestEugeneCollaborative.org>
Subject: Eugene City Council to discuss setback requirements on June 9

Dear WEC friends,

Rob Inerfeld tells me that on June 9 the Eugene City Council will be discussing setback requirements, per our recommendations (see below).

Materials for the meeting should be available online by the end of this week.

Rob Z

------ Forwarded Message ------
From: Rob Zako <rzako at efn.org>
Date: October 16, 2008 10:26:09 AM PDT
To: West Eugene Collaborative <wec at WestEugeneCollaborative.org>
Subject: Final letter re building setbacks going to Council and EPC

Dear WEC friends,

Later today, the attached signed letter on building setbacks along West 11th Avenue will be distributed to the Eugene City Council in their weekly packet. It is also being distributed to members of the Eugene Planning Commission.

The letter is the second draft I circulated a week or two ago, tweaked slightly to address concerns Lisa Gardner raised: She wanted to make clear that buildings are not required to be built right up to the right-of-way, but that the standards actually provide for a range of setbacks from the right-of-way.

CHRIS: I expect it will primarily fall on you to bring the letter to the attention of the Council, or at least to be the primary spokesperson offering additional perspective on the intent of the letter. Staff in the Planning and Development Department have indicated they are prepared to answer technical questions around the letter, should any arise.

JAN & GARY: Although I have NOT taken any special steps to make the letter public, it is now a matter of public record. The media do get copies of the Council's packet, and so might have questions about the letter as early as this week. If the media has questions, they will go to you.

ALL: By my count, this letter is the third formal recommendation coming out of the WEC:

    1) West Eugene EmX Extension purpose and need statement.

    2) Study of Highway 126 between Eugene and Veneta. 

    3) Building setbacks along West 11th Avenue.

While these are all modest efforts, I believe they do demonstrate the ability of the WEC to find solutions and reach consensus on a variety of transportation-related issues in west Eugene. I look forward to the heavy lifting we will be doing in the next month or two, and our final recommendations.

Lastly, I am sending this message to the WEC list—not the larger WEC_ALL list of interested parties (including media). I leave it to others(Emily? Tim? Jan? Gary?)  to decide if and when to distribute the letter to our interested parties.

Thank you all around for good work,
Rob Z

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