HomeMy WebLinkAboutPublic Comment9/2/2015 Testimony from Tom Halferty on the Laurel Ridge zone change
I would like to supplement the oral testimony I gave at the hearing on August 26,
2015. I live at 4510 Manzanita Street in Eugene. This testimony addresses the
approval criteria in Eugene Code 9.8865 (1) metro plan compliance, and
specifically use of the metro plan diagram to determine the extent of parks and
open space (POS) designated by the diagram on the applicant's property.
I would like to point out that the question of POS on the applicant's property has
already been addressed by the Eugene Planning Commission, the Land Use Board
of Appeals, and the Oregon Court of Appeals. In that case, the applicant
maintained that no POS designation existed on their property. LUBA said that
they should work with the City to "do the best they can with the tools at their
disposal to accurately overlay their property onto the metro plan diagram to
come up with a delineation of the POS portion.
The applicant actually already did that as a part of their whole development
proposal last time using the most up-to-date and accurate mapping and GIS
including tax lot and Lidar (laser aerial photography accurate to within about 3
inches). That, I believe was their map 7.0. It showed about 40 acres of POS.
Instead of using the best tools at their disposal, this time they crudely manipulated
their property over the metro area diagram to come up with a little over 20 acres.
Engineering geologist and neighborhood co-chair Gunnar Schlieder did an
excellent job at the hearing of showing that manipulation (whether innocent or
intentional) in the rotation of the diagram with respect to the property (not skewed
the same) and a mistake in east-west alignment. Correcting for those, Gunnar
came up with 40 acres, about the same as the applicant's previous map 7.0.
The applicant's attorney stated that they want to know where that line is, if their
demarkation is not the correct one - and that the City should tell them where it is
(so they don't have to waste time and money going through this exercise again.)
LUBA's advice to the applicant still holds true to work with the City to "do the
best they can with the tools at their disposal." That process would likely come up
with a map very similar to the applicant's 7.0 showing the POS lands on their
property. Please deny this current zone change application. ,-Received
Thank you.
SEP 0 2 2015
City of Eugene
Planning Division