On Monday, September 26th at a work session, City Council discussed the outcomes of the Mayor's Forum, and the Brown/Clark proposal for how to move forward in South Willamette. A formal motion and vote on the Brown/Clark methodology for planning was delayed until October 10th, in light of the absence of some councilors.
Since the Brown/Clark proposal was first drafted in the spring, there has been significant discussion among various members of the community about what is needed to ensure that future land-use discussions are undertaken in a truly collaborative, constructive fashion that represents the diversity of our community; addresses the issues with the South Willamette process that lead to this impasse; and support the widely-accepted goals identified during the Envision Eugene Process. The notes and concepts that came out those discussion are collected on the WE CAN website, termed the "Collaborative Community Object Setting" process and are continually evolving as more community members have a chance to weigh in. The conclusion is that a two-step processes is needed-- first, a city-wide process to clarify the way in which different areas will take on their share of the benefits and burden of supporting the city-wide goals in Envision Eugene, and then, once that framework is established, localized planning processes such as refinement plans for specific areas.
On October 10th, Council will have to chose if they would like to allow the community to continue to move towards a collaborative, hybrid option that reflects the impact that the decisions made in South Willamette will have on the rest of Eugene, or if they would like to cut off that discussion by mandating a specific localized planning methodology through the Brown/Clark process. The time to let City Council know how the community wants to move forward is now. Contact Council now. Let them know that you would like the next steps for South Willamette be based on a community-develop procedure that ties local plans to city-wide goals and allows neighborhoods to develop their local plans with greatly clarity as to how it fits in the big picture.