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Purpose of Staff Report Staff reports provide community members an opportunity to learn more about the land use request and to review staff analysis of the application. Per Eugene Code (EC) 9.7320-Type III Application Procedures, staff reports shall be made available seven days prior to the public hearing. The staff report provides only preliminary recommendations, and information. The Hearings Official will also consider additional public testimony and other materials presented at the public hearing before making a decision on the application. The Hearings Official's written decision on the application is generally made within 15 days following the public hearing (see EC 9.7330) and following the closing of the public record. For reference, the applicable quasi-judicial hearing procedures are described in EC 9.7065 through 9.7095. Staff Role City of Eugene Planning staff will be present at the public hearing to assist the Hearings Official. Staff may provide advice and recommendations based on their professional expertise and familiarity with the application and record of materials to date. The Hearings Official may choose whether or not to follow staff's recommendations at his or her discretion. Staff also serves as a contact for applicants, neighbors, and other interested parties. In this role, staff often hears from the people who may be directly impacted by a particular project or decision. When issues are raised, staff works to help people better understand how to frame an issue in terms of the approval criteria. Staff listens carefully to all issues, seek to fully understand the issues and impacts of land use applications, and attempts to provide the best service possible to everyone involved. While all issues are important, staff also make every effort to help our community understand that all land use decisions must be made based on the approval criteria located in the Eugene Code and our community's adopted plans and policies. Site Background The subject property is the site of the former Santa Clara Elementary School, which was de- commissioned and sold by the 4.1 School District in 2006. The site is located in the Santa Clara Community Organization neighborhood on the east side of River Road, north of Green Lane, and south of Hunsaker Lane. Formerly designated and zoned for Government and Education Uses, the City Council approved amending the Metro Plan and the refinement plan designations to Commercial in 2008 (Ordinance No. 20407). The site consists of 11 tax lots covering approximately 7.8 acres and is zoned C-2 Community Commercial with /SR Site Review and /PD Planned Unit Development overlays. Tax lot 800, at the southwestern end of the site, is zoned C-1 Neighborhood Commercial. A site-specific text amendment to the River Road-Santa Clara Urban Facilities Plan was initiated by Lane Transit District (LTD) to facilitate the development of a transit station on the subject site. City Council approved the text amendment on July 10, 2017, which revised the refinement plan to allow "transit facilities" on the subject property (Ordinance No. 20583). In 2017, City file PDT 17-2 was submitted for approval of a tentative planned unit development for the entire site and included mixed use development on the northern portion of the site, with residential and commercial, and included a transit station sited on the southern portion of the site. The applicant, Lane Transit District, elected to withdraw PDT 17-2 and is now phasing the development. The current request includes the transit station and associated uses, as phase one of the project, located on the southern portion of the site, a 2.7-acre section. No development is proposed on the remainder of the site at this time. The northern portion, future phase two, will be reviewed under a separate planned unit development application to be submitted at a later date. June 2019 Staff Report: Santa Clara Transit Station - PDT 19-1/ARA 19-1 Page 2 of 23