Springfield City Council — September 3, 2024

0:08 I'm going to call the Springfield City Council regular session to order with a roll call May Van Gordon here councelor Weber here councelor Mo here Council rodley here councel Blackwell here councelor Doyle here and councel pisher councel pisher is excused for the evening there and we got the order different this time around please join me for the play of

0:54 Allegiance there is one time designated for public testimony this evening under business from the audience actually there are two times for uh it's our first time back so we'll for for the fall there are two times for public testimony one is under business from the audience and one is under public hearings if you're attending in person please complete the request to speak card located at the city coun city Recorder's desk in the council chambers and turn it into the city recorder if you're joining us online with a tablet smart phone or computer and wish to speak to either of those times please use the raise your hand feature in Zoom the order of public testimony is as follow follows anyone in

1:40 person in the council chambers and then anyone who has raised their hand first item please first item is the consent calendar I would like to move approval of the consent calendar for September 3rd 2024 second anel could you call the vote please yes councelor Weber yes councelor MO yes councel rodley yes councelor Blackwell yes councelor Doyle I councelor pisher motion passes five yeses zero NOS one absent next item please you have four public hearings this evening public hearing number one is a request for Springfield comprehensive plan map Amendment and zone change for 26.7 3 acres of property located at 5230 High Banks Road excuse

2:26 me this is ordinance number one ordinance amending the field comprehensive plan map by redesignated designating approximately 25.4 acres of land from Sand and Gravel to light medium industrial redesignating approximately 1.59 acres of land from low density residential to light medium industrial amending the Springfield zoning map by rezoning the same 2.14 acres of land from Cory and Mining operations to light medium industrial and mending the Springfield zoning map by rezoning the saying 1.59 acres of land from R1 residential to light medium industrial adopting a severability clause and providing an effective date this is a first reading only and no action is required Andy

3:12 limbert is here for this item right we're gonna go to Mary Bridget first uh thank you mayor before um Andy does the staff report I just want to handle one procedural matter uh so the hearing tonight is characterized as a quaza Judicial hearing that means that the applicant and public are entitled to certain rights and processes and that includes the right to notice present evidence and d a written decision based on standards it also includes an impartial decision maker this matter was already heard by the Planning Commission who conducted a public hearing uh the packet includes their recommendation Oregon land use law also requires that the city council act as an impartial decision maker and counselors must disclose any exp parte

3:57 contacts or conflicts of interests related to this matter a conflict of interest would occur when the decision maker or their family or their business would benefit or suffer by the decision by their decision an expart contact is a communication to the decision maker that includes substantive issues regarding the application but it occurs outside the public venue and bias is an actual personal interest in the outcome of the decision or prejudgment and I would just ask now mayor that you and the council um or that you query the Council about if they have any expar context that they need to declare before the hearing gets going all right thank you mayor Bridget we'll start down with Michelle to declare any expar contacts or conflicts of interest no expar contacts or

4:43 conflicts of interest no expar no expar contacts or conflict of interest I've got no expar uh contacts or conflicts of interest t I have none either thank you all right Andy thank you good evening mayor and Council welcome back um in your absence staff has been busy so we've got some items for you tonight this is an interesting application uh this site is located um north of high Banks Road off of 52nd Street Extension to the north and you can see a context in the site there this property is located between

5:28 the former Bluewater Boats site which is now occupied by aune foods to the north and to the South by a business park there's also a fairly recent development which is the Latter-Day Saints Bishop Storehouse uh which is located off high Banks road so the flavor and the nature of development in this site in this area is Industrial in nature and there is a residual piece of residentially zon and designated land um that is sandwiched between this side site and that of the latterday Saints property um that is proposed for redesignation with this application this site was formerly a gravel Quarry Santa gravel Quarry the resource is depleted and the applicant

6:13 is now looking to reuse the site with a different type of activity in this case they're proposing to redesignate and rezone the property to light medium industrial which is consistent with the joining properties to the north and south and it offers the opportunity for some type of um use on the site such as outdoor storage the applicant is reclaiming the property from its former uh mind gravel status under a state permit and that is included uh with your packet this evening the application was reviewed by the Fair Housing Council of Oregon and actually they had provided a letter in support of this recognizing that the orphaned piece of residential propert

6:59 was not a desirable location for residential it actually would probably um be detrimental to residential development being isolated um far from services and due to the industrial nature of the of the environment in in its vicinity so you have an application um and a supporting letter from the from the Fair Housing Council of Oregon with with the packet this evening the proposal was reviewed by the Planning Commission and they unanimously adopted a recommendation of Support also in your packet um the applicants representative is here this evening and um we be making a brief presentation as well um and I'd

7:44 be happy to answer any questions there was no public comment uh related to this aside from the letter from the Fair Housing Council so no um other written comments were provided either in support or against this proposal all right are there any questions okay then I'm going to go and open the public hearing and I have one card uh for uh for this public hearing which is Zach Galloway for the applicant good evening Mr Mayor and counselors um I am Zach Galloway as you said with uh tbg Architects and planners we're representing the applicant Sean Highland on this application um we are

8:31 uh what kind of at the midpoint of a long process going through the land use application process we were before you um seeking annexation approval in January of this year um this is our next step and uh we're looking forward to moving into a site plan review uh with staff uh once this step wraps up so I'm uh available for questions uh and concur with everything Andy described and and said we're happy to receive the recommended approval from Planning Commission so if there's any questions I'm happy to answer those I'm looking around for any questions for the applicant all right I think we're good all right thank thank you I don't have any other cards for this item in the room um Neil do you have any hands up there's a hand up I we like to check um Curtis if you can hear us um you can

9:17 unmute your microphone if you're here for this item Curtis okay we believe Curtis is here for business from the audience so we can come back to them okay great thank you I'm going to go ahead and close the public hearing this is the first reading

10:03 no action requested next item please mayor before you go on to the next item since this is a plann Amendment could you also make a point to close the record as well I'm going to close the public hearing and close the record uh next item please uh yes mayor the next item is public hearing number two that's annexation of territory to the City of Springfield Annex approximately 4.71 Acres of vacant residential property located at the southeast corner of 19th Street and Hadden Bridge Road that's map 17- 03-242 tax slot 5202 and concurrently Annex approximately 70 foot wide by 294 ft

10:50 long segment of undeveloped Hayden Bridge Road public right of way again this is ordinance number two an ordinance annexing certain territory unaddressed proper at the southeast corner of 19th Street in Hayden Bridge Road and identified as assessors map 17- 03-242 tax slot 5202 an approximately 70 foot wide by 294 ft long segment of Hayden Bridge Road right of way to the City of Springfield and Maman Park and Recreation District withdrawing the same territory from the rainbow water district adopting a severability clause and providing an providing an effective date again this is a reading and no action is required Andy limbert is here for this item thank you um again Mr Mayor and

11:37 Council um just going to provide a map of orientation this is in the Hayden Bridge neighborhood um far Northern portion of that neighborhood at the intersection of 19th Street uh which is a largely undeveloped uh public RightWay it serves as a essentially a Gravel Lane and a stub of Hayden Bridge Road this property um is a currently a filbert Orchard and the applicant is proposing to Annex the property in order to derive uh Sewer Service there is Sewer Service in 19th Street and because of its proximity to the property boundary any development on the site which is in this case residential dwelling uh is required to connect to

12:22 sanitary sewer Under Oregon law uh therefore the applicant is proposing to Annex the entire property they are looking to construct a single detached dwelling in the extreme northeast corner of the property uh which would derive access from extension of a driveway off of Hayden Bridge Road the stub of Hayden Bridge Road um so that is the purpose of the annexation there is no land division proposed at this time and therefore the property frontages on 19th Street and Hayden Bridge Road will remain undeveloped for the time being at such time as the property is divided then there would be requirement for Frontage improvements and that's spelled out in an annexation agreement you have a draft copy of it this evening in your

13:07 packet uh so there are trigger mechanisms for public improvements however a single detached dwelling on this legally created lot um does not trigger such requirements um I did I did have H one phone call asking about the nature of the annexation um annexation being somewhat of a Hot Topic right now and so staff was able to to respond to the questions um we did not have any written comments either in favor or opposed uh to this annexation request and I'd be happy to answer any questions are there any questions okay then I'm going to go and open the public hearing I do not have any cards for this item is there anybody that's got their hand up online Neil no

13:53 has for this item I'm going to close the public hearing this is first reading all man all right we had a last minute card it looks like just one and you're going to state your name and location in the city for the record and then you'll have three minutes to talk specifically to this

14:50 sure okay yay Joyce Roman R OE M 2727 20th Street Springfield anything else nope okay you're on all right well um we're in that neighborhood and we're on 20th so um our concern is if that is annexed right there at the Hayden Bridge stub that's going to cause more traffic onto our street and possibly open up 19th behind eventually where the light well there isn't a light but eventually I don't know when what year what we're looking at but that's our concern is traffic and um if there's going to be um

15:35 restrictions as far as other homes to be built back there I mean it Apartments I don't know and I guess maybe that's it all right thank you okay all right then I'm going to go ahead and close the public hearing and Andy you want to come back up for a second sure at this at this point um The Proposal is for a single detached dwelling um legally Under Oregon law they could the property owner could develop up to four dwelling units on the property without dividing it um those would be in form of potentially middle

16:20 housing uh which would be duplex Triplex or fourplex um the same height limits would apply to those dwellings as would are currently apply to the R1 uh zoning District to the east on 20th Street um with a single attached dwelling um I guess technically you would expect there to be an incremental amount of traffic uh for one house and a couple Vehicles potentially um at this point there is no plan to extend Hayden Bridge Road through to connection with 19th Street and improve 19th Street as well that would happen with intensification development on the property likely through a subdivision in which case there would be notice given to the neighborhood again as to some type of a

17:05 land use action which would be leading to more housing so this annexation does not require neighbors to Annex um and it does not lead to I guess an un a conspicuous amount of traffic on the on the uh Street beyond what the neighborhood already generates with one house proposed Victoria um I think I also understand that with middle housing they don't necessarily have to even put in driveways right so there doesn't have to be parking so there may not be cars at all if there's a fourplex that's correct which seems like a lot of them are building that way trying to limit traffic so thank you all right thanks Andy all right so this is this was the first reading no action required next

17:51 item please next item is public hearing number three it's annexation of territory to the City of Springfield Annex approximately 2.44 Acres of industrial property in Glenwood located at 3331 Franklin bivard map 17- 03- 34-33 tax lot 100 Andy limber returns again for this item we need to get to a frequent flyer punch card three public hearings fourth one's free yeah we go I'll take it um thank you uh mayor and councel um this is an item that had been brought before you a couple of times and the hearing had been continued so the the public hearing is still open the record is still open at the dust has settled on the discussions with the

18:36 applicant and staff the applicants legal council and the city attorney's office agree that no annexation agreement is required at this time um or for this application the the public services and and transportation network is improved along the front edge there is Sewer Service along the boundary of this property and so there is no um exactions or dedications will be required through an annexation agreement if the site redevelops in the future Frontage improvements would be required along Franklin Boulevard similar to what is uh occurred to the West which is the the hotel properties uh therefore the applicant can proceed to annexation um and then look at Future site Redevelopment that

19:22 would potentially trigger other types of improvements so um that concludes The Saga of this anex ation and uh staff is recommending uh that Council consider adopting this ordinance to finish the annexation all right are there any questions about this all right the public hearing is still open I don't have any cards for this item uh Neil do you have anybody online no hands for this item okay I'm gonna go ahead and close the public hearing and I believe we can vote tonight on this I would like to make a motion to adopt an ordinance annexing certain territory property addressed as 3331 Franklin Boulevard and identified as a cessor map 17-3 d34 d33 tax loot 100 to the City of

20:12 Springfield and waman Park and Recreation District withdrawing the same territory from the Glenwood waterer District adopting a severability clause and providing an effective date second y can you call a vote please yes councelor Weber yes councelor MO yes councel rodley yes councel Blackwell yes councel Doyle I councel pisher motion passes five yeses zero NOS one absent next item please and next item is your fourth public hearing it's Surplus land designate City own land as Surplus Jeremy Shar is here for this item

21:01 good after or good evening mayor and Council um I think this is the fourth fourth time I've I've come to you on this matter um so I'll keep it very brief but I will uh refer you to um exhibit B um six U page six of six it really illustrates um what's happening here um which is essentially um a Holmes bought this flag lot and wants to connect their Woodland ridges uh subdivision uh to Pine Crest and in order to do that um effectively U we had we needed to um realign one of the uh streets and so as part of this um uh

21:46 sales uh sales offer an agreement uh they will realign 54 Street so it has better connectivity and then they also will um connect Street and Piner Street as well so that's what this uh offers offer and purchase sales agreement does um it holds holds them accountable to take part in what they're supposed to do um and all we really need to do at this point is uh we've already um we've already uh vacated the road um it's a limited uh interest that the city has on it we have to divest ourselves into it so that they can take it and then realign the the roads or excuse me the streets um we've already vacated it so

22:33 uh the next step is would be to declare this a surplus land and directing the city manager to accept this offer from h Homes and we entered into that and then from that point on we would execute um uh instruments like a quick claim deed um to to De divest ourselves from that land um and that that's pretty much all I have for you on that one all right any questions I don't see any questions I think we still have to have a public hearing so I'm going to open the public hearing I don't have any cards for this item Neil do we have anybody online no hands for this item I close the public

23:19 hearing I would like to move to adopt a resolution declaring certain real property owned by the City of Springfield Surplus and directing the city manager to accept offer from Hayden Homes in exchange for street right of way second NE could you call a vote please yes councelor Weber yes councelor Mo yes councel rodley yes councelor Blackwell yes councelor Doyle I and Council pisher motion passes five yeses zero NOS one absent next item please next item is business from the audience I have one card for business from the audience this is Mary Sharon Moore come on up please state your name for the record and then you have 3

24:08 minutes good evening mayor and council members and city manager I'm Mary Sharon Moore and I live in Ward 4 I would like to address City Council on the urgent need for fireworks no zones this past July 4th at 11: p.m. during intense EXP explosions from fireworks in my neighborhood I got out of bed put on my jeans shirt and hiking boots filled two water bottles and placed my go now bags by the door I was prepared to flee for my life given the pattern of hot dry high wind Summers Springfield needs to stop

24:53 playing with fire over Independence Day weekend neighborhoods erupt with explosions from sources far more powerful than the permitted backyard fireworks one thing I love about Springfield is its wooded butes and densely forested Hills mature conifers Stand Tall throughout our residential areas we are Timber town so we need to stop playing with fire now before the great burn sweeps through another thing I love about Springfield is its distinctively Springfield way The Prudent forward-thinking

25:39 action-oriented lowcost way of doing things our people our residential and Commercial neighborhoods our industrial districts schools and public buildings and forested hills are irreplaceable sooner or later when wildfires Spark marked by fireworks rips through Springfield taking action will be tragically too late I ask that spry uh Springfield City Council in partnership with fire police and other Emergency Services develop a plan now while we still have time for fireworks no zones in our most

26:24 vulnerable areas to hold our entire Community safe neighboring Eugene may serve as a model thank you thank you I don't have any other cards Neil do we have anybody online uh we have Curtis blankin ship and Curtis you should be able to unmute your microphone can you hear me we can go ahead Curtis all right um yeah my name is Curtis Blankenship I live at uh 1286 32nd Street uh I've paid taxes in Lane County

27:11 since 1985 and um I just want to say um I think we all agree uh liberal or conservative that um allowing uh Banks to uh just leave zombie properties un uh undeveloped and uh commercial property that's left undeveloped is lowering all the property values and then lowering your uh ta the city tax revenue and it amounts to a subsidy to the bank to the banks and uh and um these absentee land owners so uh I'd like to um uh I'd like you to concentrate on on uh getting these zombie properties uh

27:57 rented out using them for the homeless somehow getting a third party to to run them for homeless or tearing them down and putting and at least temporarily using them for temporarily homeless shelters but um in addition to that uh our the we're we have a lack of federal I think we can all agree that we need more funding for the homeless and that that money needs to come from the federal government more so than um the middle class taxpayer uh homeowner in in Springfield and so have you guys thought of um getting with your mayor's councils and your your city council uh groups and the governor's Council and pressuring our our state government to demand that federal dollars go to homeless programs

28:44 at least temporarily and um you know get off of this supply side trickle down economics Theory uh stuff and go more with the at least temporarily go with the Keynesian economics just to just until business you know it's not I'm not advocating going socialist you know CH changing Springfield in a socialist economy just using Keynesian economics until business to move business to the you know 20th century and um to adopt that that's what keyen economics is for is to adopt new technology you know we're not using wheel oil anymore and move towards uh getting federal dollars to uh work with the homeless

29:29 uh and and help trans transform these zombie properties into homeless centers and I know I've been talking to I know there's uh difficulty getting a third party to run these properties but I've been talking to several uh homeless organizations and they would be willing to run these these uh zombie properties if asked so all right so that's all I've got for you this week for this meeting thanks for your time thank you are there any other hands Neil no other hands mayor okay is there any Council response Victoria um so I wanted to just comment on the

30:15 last speaker's um comment about zombie properties because I think it's important to note that those properties do belong to somebody their private property and I'm trying to understand if the intent was to advocate for the government coming in and taking people's personal property because we don't like how it looks um and we don't like the way that it's being used and I think that it's important to remember that we um have some pretty specific laws around personal property rights and um so that's something to just kind of keep in mind that these are these properties that are sitting empty are not just empty they belong to to someone and so I think that if that's idea that somebody's interested in then it would be a good idea to talk to those private

31:02 property owners and see what their intent is with those properties and see if they're interested in doing that but unfortunately at this point I don't think with our system of government we have the um ability to just go in and take people's property and do with it what we will so I just wanted to mention that thanks anybody else all right next item please next item is any business from the city council know we're just back so and some meetings are picking up go ahead Corey I just wanted to mention that yesterday was Labor Day and um for the last several years I go to the um the the central labor party the AFL CIO puts on a a big barbecue at a lively Park in Springfield which is great and I was

31:48 there and it was very well attended and the weather was awesome and there were no Bees which is rare um and just an opportunity to celebrate workers and know Labor Day is you know comes out of the labor movement and um was brought to us by unions along with eight hour work days and all sorts of other wonderful things that we appreciate so it was a great time it was in Springfield and I hope we will see more folks out there next year all right thank you anybody else next item please next item under business from the city manager is ratification of contract with American Federation of state county and Municipal Employees also known as me Jame Herz is here for this

32:42 item you you're unmuted I stood up here sorry can you hear me now we can hear you now somebody switch it I'm pretty sure it was green so um anyways good evening mayor and Council uh I'm Chim Herz the director of HR here at the City of Springfield and I am here seeking a thumbs up or thumbs on ratification vote for the city successor contract with asme which represents our primarily our street Crews but also our security and custodial staff uh here at City Hall um this is a group uh that has um previously had a contract that was pre the inflation and so as you're looking at the components of this contract uh the three-year comp strategy was really one of getting to Market in some meaningful way uh recognizing that we didn't have the full budget to unilaterally move each indiv idual to

33:28 that um so there was an agreed upon way to move to a market-based wage strategy and then how those individual employees would move into that particular pay range followed by the unknown certainty of the future so the parties agreed to a CPI in year two and year three uh that is a 2 to four CPI CPI has been hovering in and around 3% now um so that's basically what we budgeted and anticipated uh the contract also included a sizable amount of language changes that we were using to uh one move away from our existing apprenticeship program which has been a fabulous and amazing program but has its um challenges uh primarily both in the administrative work but also the administrative costs associated with maintaining the apprenticeship program and then through the recent um

34:16 generational change with the Baby Boomers that that particular group has seen a sizable um number of individuals who've retired out of that group and has um recognized the true challenges of being able to get Talent into positions in a timely fashion and so the parties have agreed to uh a similar plan that's going yet to be developed that's really an in-house training program that the labor union wanted as well as management and we feel is going to allow us to stay uh competitive uh our primary challenges that we try to tackle is both the Recruitment and the retention uh and as we all know the trades has seen a sizable um change in its economic uh pay for those particular positions um your pack included the overall assumed cost that we anticipated it had a little bit

35:01 larger startup cost um but longterm we think that falls within the overall three-year strategy so with that I will pause and see if there's any questions are there any questions okay Corey I think you're up I would I move that we authorize the city manager to ratify collective bargaining agreement with asme second Neil could you call the vote please yes councelor rber yes councelor Mo yes councelor rodley yes counc Blackwell yes councel Doyle I councelor pisher motion passes five yeses zero Nos and one absent next item please any other business from the city manager no

35:47 further business thank you next item is business from the city attorney item number one is the Springfield election information voters pamplet for the 2024 general election ction Mary Bridget Smith is here for this item good evening mayor and Council I am here uh this evening uh to bring you a matter regarding elections to specifically ask if you'd like to authorize a Springfield specific voters pamphlet either an electronic form or printed form uh or both this is in the Springfield Municipal Code it would be for the upcoming general election the items that are um Springfield specific on the election actually are the open sub uh positions they are all

36:32 uncontested um but there is a candidate for each of those open positions one of the candidates does want to submit something for a voter's pamphlet Ryan Thomas and the rest of them um do not um this uh process requires Council approval um I don't know if you have any other questions I'd be happy to answer them we estimate it would take probably 8 to 10 hours of Staff time to put together the pamphlet and post it online uh and then you can also request that it be printed uh and that could be left in places like City manager's office or the library um I don't think it was intended to have a mailing go out or to have the expenses for a mailing to go Citywide all right Victoria so these are positions that are

37:18 going to be in the Lane County correct guide so the only thing we would be doing is subsidizing the sub correct positions okay so I'm not in favor of that and uh and they would qualify for the state guide as well I believe so okay are there any other questions all right I think yeah I'm I'm comfortable canceling it this time around and then maybe finding a different time to have a broader conversation about our strategy here um because this thing's probably 10 years old at this point

38:03 no I'm um I move to not approve the preparation of either a print or electronic voters pamphlet or both for the 2024 general election for the Springfield Utility Board positions second Neil could you call the vote please yes councelor Weber yes councelor Mo no councelor rodley yes councelor Blackwell yes councelor Doyle I and councelor pisher councelor Mo did you want to do something to your okay like a double netive I was going to ask for a clarification too so Mo motion passes five yeses zero NOS one absent great thank you and I'll put a reminder in the calendar to come back to you at a time not by the election so we can take a look at this and mayor Bridget your

38:49 any questions you get from Sub sub candidates you're you're just going to refer them back to either the county or the state right you bet perfect thank you mayor any other items from the city attorney no no other business thank you all right we are wrapped um we're adjourned thank you everybody have a good night