Planning Commission

AGENDA Meeting Location: Sloat Room—Atrium Building Phone: 541-682-5481 99 W. 10th Avenue www.eugene-or.gov/pc Eugene, OR 97401 The Eugene Planning Commission welcomes your interest in these agenda items. Feel free to come and go as you please at any of the meetings. This meeting location is wheelchair-accessible. For the hearing impaired, FM assistive-listening devices are available or an interpreter can be provided with 48 hour notice prior to the meeting. Spanish-language interpretation will also be provided with 48 hour notice. To arrange for these services, contact the Planning Division at 541-682-5675. MONDAY NOVEMBER 26, 2018 – REGULAR MEETING (11:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m.) A. PUBLIC COMMENT The Planning Commission reserves 10 minutes at the beginning of this meeting for public comment. The public may comment on any matter, except for items scheduled for public hearing or public hearing items for which the record has already closed. Generally, the time limit for public comment is three minutes; however, the Planning Commission reserves the option to reduce the time allowed each speaker based on the number of people requesting to speak. B. WORK SESSION: MOVING AHEAD UPDATE Staff: Chris Henry, 541-682-8472 C. WORK SESSION: CLEAR & OBJECTIVE UPDATE Staff: Jenessa Dragovich, 541-682-8385 C. ITEMS FROM COMMISSION AND STAFF 1. Other Items from Staff 2. Other Items from Commission 3. Learning: How are we doing? Commissioners: Steven Baker; John Barofsky; Tiffany Edwards (Vice Chair); Lisa Fragala; Chris Ramey; William Randall; Kristen Taylor (Chair)  AGENDA ITEM SUMMARY November 26, 2018 To: Eugene Planning Commission From: Chris Henry, City of Eugene Transportation Planning Terri Harding, City of Eugene Planning Division Andrew Martin, Lane Transit District Subject: Update on MovingAhead Project INTRODUCTION The City of Eugene and Lane Transit District (LTD), with the help of other regional partners, have collaborated on the MovingAhead project to determine how best to invest in the main streets that connect our neighborhoods, shopping areas, and places of employment. After years of long-range planning in our community, MovingAhead is an implementation effort that will prioritize transit, walking, and biking projects in each of five corridors so they can be efficiently advanced to design and construction. It focuses on the key corridors identified in Envision Eugene, LTD’s Long-Range Transit Plan, and the Eugene 2035 Transportation System Plan. In 2019, MovingAhead will move into the formal decision making process by the Eugene City Council and LTD Board of Directors. That decision will identify investments in each corridor, combined into packages, and prioritize which corridor(s) is ready to move into final design and construction. PROJECT UPDATE The Eugene City Council and LTD Board of Directors have twice taken action to focus the MovingAhead analysis on five major corridors. In October 2015, the Council and Board advanced the following MovingAhead corridors for further study to evaluate an EmX alternative, an Enhanced Corridor alternative, and a No-Build alternative: • Highway 99 Corridor • River Road Corridor • Coburg Road Corridor • 30th Avenue/Lane Community College Corridor Also, they recommended that the Martin Luther King, Jr. Boulevard Corridor advance as an Enhanced Corridor alternative and a No-Build alternative. This direction was reaffirmed in April 2016 by a joint action. With Council and Board direction to proceed, MovingAhead developed the groundwork for five transportation corridors all at once instead of one by one, as has been the common past practice. This systematic approach readies projects for funding and construction on parallel 1 paths. It also gains efficiencies in the environmental analysis and reduces the time to deliver important transportation services to our community. It’s a responsible approach to understand the complexities of environmental impacts and benefits as required by the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA). Technical Analysis The technical analysis (known as the Alternatives Analysis), that is required as part of the NEPA process, was completed in 2018. This comparative analysis helps us understand the potential environmental effects, both impacts and benefits, of the different alternatives and will inform decisions for selecting and prioritizing corridor alternatives. Evaluating strategic opportunities by assessing community values and priorities will also assist in selecting a package of prioritized alternatives. (Attachment A provides an Executive Summary of the Alternatives Analysis with corridor descriptions and their evaluation.) Public Outreach and Feedback Following completion and publication of the Alternatives Analysis, the MovingAhead project focused on public involvement. A series of community open houses and outreach events were held in September and October 2018, to facilitate public review and feedback on the Alternatives Analysis. The project team employed varied methods to share project information and enable meaningful feedback. Those methods included conventional open houses, surveys, tabling, and neighborhood meetings, as well as online open houses, small group listening sessions, targeted outreach to under-represented groups, a video presentation, and infographics to distill the complex information. Through community outreach, the project team learned what evaluation criteria were most important and what investment options were preferred in the neighborhoods along the MovingAhead corridors. This community feedback informed the creation of packages of investments for further analysis and consideration. NEXT STEPS Decision-Making Process In early 2019, the project team will provide an update to Eugene City Council and the LTD Board in advance of another round of public review of packages of investments along the project corridors. Then, in mid-2019, the Eugene City Council and LTD Board will be asked to select a locally preferred alternative (No-Build, Enhanced Corridor, or EmX alternative) for each corridor, and consider “packages” of multiple corridors to prioritize for investment. PLANNING COMMISSION ROLE The MovingAhead project includes an Oversight Committee and a Sounding Board. The Oversight Committee is comprised of elected officials and executive staff from the City, LTD, ODOT, and Lane County, while the Sounding Board’s members come from and represent numerous City of Eugene and LTD committees and commissions. Both entities review project proposals and offer critical feedback to the project management team. They also act as 2 conduits back to their constituencies and fellow committee/commission members. Planning Commissioners participate on the Sounding Board, which has met regularly leading up to Council and LTD Board decision making. The next meeting is scheduled for December 17th. Participating Planning Commissioners or project team members will update the full Commission after this meeting to facilitate communication. RELATED CITY POLICIES The MovingAhead project is in alignment and consistent with policy direction contained in the following: Envision Eugene, Eugene 2035 Transportation System Plan, LTD Long-Range Transit Plan, and Regional Transportation Plan. COMMISSION ACTION This is an informational item. No action is requested. ATTACHMENTS A. MovingAhead Alternatives Analysis Executive Summary (handout at meeting) (http://www.movingahead.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/LTD-Moving-Ahead-Exec- Summary-FINAL-2018-09-05.pdf) FOR MORE INFORMATION Staff Contact: Chris Henry, Transportation Planning Engineer Telephone: 541-682-8472 Staff E-Mail: CHenry@eugene-or.gov Staff Contact: Terri Harding, Principal Planner Telephone: 541-682-5635 Staff E-Mail: THarding@eugene-or.gov Staff Contact: Andrew Martin, Lane Transit District Development Planning Associate Telephone: 541-682-6116 Staff E-Mail: Andrew.Martin@ltd.org 3