Planning Commission - Regular Meeting

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Heat. Heat. N. Heat. Heat. You Welcome to the January 27, 2026 Eugene Planning Commission meeting. I'd like to call this meeting to order. My name is Jason Leer and I'm chair of the Eugene Planning Commission. To begin this evening, I'd like to call on Commissioner Edwards for the city's land acknowledgements.

Thank you. Since time immemorial, the Kaluya people have been the indigenous stewards to our region, building dynamic communities, maintaining balance with wildlife, and enhancing sustainable land practices. This land acknowledgement is a way of resisting the eraser of indigenous histories, and to honor native communities by inviting truth and reconciliation. Following treaties between 1851 and 1855, Calipulia people were dispossessed of their indigenous homeland by the United States government and forcibly removed to the coast reservation in western Oregon. As we consider the impacts of colonization, we also acknowledge the strength and resiliency of displaced indigenous indigenous people. The city of Eugene is built within the traditional homelands known as Calapouya Ilhi. Calapouya descendants are citizens of the Confederated Tribes of Grand Vand community of Oregon and the Confederated Tribes of the Silots Indians of Oregon. They continue to make contributions in our communities here and across the lands. We express our respect for the inherent political sovereignty of all federally recognized tribal nations and indigenous people who live in the state of Oregon and across the nation. Therefore, the planning commission recognizes that what we do today will affect the many generations who will come after us.

Thank you, Commissioner Edwards. And uh thank you to everyone joining us in this hybrid meeting format. Today our meeting will begin with public comment followed by an informational work session on the urban growth strategies updates including hearing perspectives from a community advisory panel. Thanks to our panelists for joining us tonight. Anyone wishing to join the meeting can do so by following the instructions listed on the agenda for this meeting. Planning Commission meetings can also be viewed by watching the live stream available on our website or the broadcast on Comcast channel 21. For those who join the meeting via computer device or phone, your microphone, webcam, and phone are automatically muted when you enter the meeting as an attendee. If you wish to participate during the public comment portion of the meeting and haven't done so already, please raise your virtual hand now to join the speakers queue in one of two ways. For those viewing the meeting uh on a computer, laptop, or other device, click once on the blue hand icon. And for those listening to the meeting on a phone, please press star 9. Public comments an opportunity for individuals to speak to the planning commission on any topics except for items scheduled for public hearing or public hearing items for which the record is already closed. As a reminder, your hand must be raised in the to be in the queue for public comment. Is there anyone who wants to provide public comment?

We do not have anyone in the attendee list with their hand raised. Okay. Um, as uh as always feel free to contact staff if there are comments you are not able to provide or wish to get to us in a different manner. We'll now close public comment. Moving on to our next and main agenda item, I'd like to turn it over to Terry Harding to begin the staff presentation. And following that presentation, the commission will have the opportunity to ask questions.

Thank you, Commissioner Leer. Let Stuart have a moment to get the presentation up on the screen. Um, but I just want to say a hearty welcome to everyone who's joining us tonight. We have a really special meeting planned for you all. Um, as Jason said or commissioner earlier said, we have invited members of our urban grow strategies community advisory panel and one of our consultant facilitators MA who is online uh to join you tonight for the round table discussion and we had a surprise um appearance from Julie Fischer also our other consultant facilitator is here. Uh so this meeting will be a bit different than what you're used to. We're going to kick off the meeting with introductions and an icebreaker for everyone. And then staff are going to give you a very brief presentation about the community advisory panel and the work that they did, the topics that we covered in the meetings and some key takeaways. And lastly, we're going to spend most of our time this evening in conversation and plan to wrap up um by 7 o'clock. chair, we can begin with introductions from the community advisory panel members and then we'll go over to planning commissioners and lastly.

Okay, wonderful. Would you like to begin? Sure. Sure. Thank you. Uh hello everyone. My name is Carl Yam uh uh as a member of the uh committee subcommittee. Um uh I was well I guess I said my my day job is I'm the dean of person engagement at Lake Community College. Um, was there anything else that you wanted? Yeah. So, we're gonna ask the question on the screen.

Oh, there it is. Uh, oh, what about Thank you. I forgot we actually went over this before. Uh, what motivates you to to engage in city processes? Um, I've had a previous interest uh and I think what really attracted me to this was that it was there was a concerted effort to try to bring people from really various backgrounds uh but also uh so economic backgrounds and different interests. Uh and I think that was really what motivated me for this particular process, but I also really uh care about the city and uh and as a person who's lived in it for more than 20 years, uh it was really important for me to just be involved and so we're so grateful for the opportunity.

Awesome. So, uh I think Eva, if you're ready, we're going to pass it around to to you.

Um hi everyone. My name is Eva Kruvsky. She her pronouns. Um, I have been living in Eugene for a little over four years now. I'm originally from the Bay Area in California. Um, and I have, um, family living all over the country. Um, I'm a a citizen of Cherokee Nation, um, and out of, uh, northeastern Oklahoma. Um, and, uh, I studied city planning and the 3PM program, planning, public policy, and um, and management at the University of Oregon. Um, I did my under finished my undergraduate program there. Um, and I really uh appreciated the the challenge of planning in Eugene. Um, and just how um how I guess interesting some of the the planning challenges um are in the city of Eugene. Um, and then just I became to I came to see a lot of connections between like the kind of conversations I was having in the classroom and then also conversations I was having with the um native student community in the the long house on campus. Um, and so making those connections between, you know, what's what's important in terms of um connection to natural environment and then also what's important in terms of like creating healthy communities. Um, and so I felt really privileged to to be asked to join the the panel and I'm happy to be here today. Thanks.

Thanks, Ava. Welcome. I'm M. So, my name is Ming. They he pronouns. Um, I studied architecture and city and regional planning at UC Berkeley for a while and then graduated with a registered nursing degree um through a long series of stuff. Um, I'm disabled by narcopsy and also was like in the Bay Area. Um, and so I have a keen interest in urban planning and I'm also a board member for Square One. Great.

Um, hi everyone. I'm Gal Shake. I'm a high school at South Eugene. Um, I serve as co-chair for the mayor's youth advisory council as well. Um, one thing that motivates me is, you know, having been born and raised in Eugene and, you know, I guess this is all I've known basically the only place I've lived in and, you know, seeing the the difference in equity and accessibility between um, various areas of Eugene, either that be south versus west, the more industrial west compared to the more affluent south. Um, so think working towards breaking down those is something that I'm really passionate about and motivates me to, you know, continue working in city processes. Thank you so much.

My name is Timothy. You see him pronouns and I'm a cultural anthropologist and Dave's manager. And what motivates me um to engage with city processes. As a cultural anthropologist, I understand the many dynamics and intersectional ways on how peopleed and how community gets impacted. So, I saw the urban growth strategies as a really important opportunity to be able to see the intersections between health and environmental change and housing disparities and our um racial history um all kind of coming together to really motivate and plan for how our communities are going to live for the next couple of decades. So,

thanks. Thanks for joining all. Uh Commissioner Isacson, you want to continue? Uh sure. Um wish I small business owner in town of Ghana the pling commission for this city my sixth year um what motivates me to get involved in pl general is um how the commission has been to the community and and tackling um issues that really kind of shape the future of the city. It's one of the most um uh impactful commissions I think that the city has. Um, I've always found the staff to be incredibly helpful, especially to as a new commissioner, and I think the public always engages us whenever we we meet with them. Um, and I think that we have a lot of work to do in a bright area, so I'm excited to be part of it.

Thank you so much. Uh, my name is Jason Leer. I'm the chair of the Eugene Planning Commission. This is my fourth year, I think, on that commission. Uh, I got involved with, uh, the commission, with other city boards. I've served for four or five years on the affordable housing trust fund advisory committee because I come from a background working with rental property owners and in development and became really motivated seeing the need in our community to engage really deeply in affordable housing policy and ultimately affordable housing development. um definitely want to see a community where there's less rent burden and more economic opportunity and thought that this was a key opportunity to to to engage in that process and to really represent those views. I think that, you know, for largely positive reasons, the city has for decades kind of embraced the philosophy of um avoiding growth, uh avoiding development and avoiding creating housing opportunity. And so, it's been really rewarding to be involved as there's been kind of a mindset shift. Um, and it's a fantastic chance to learn a lot about city planning and just the way that the future of the city is getting fitted together. Vis, um, let's see, I've been on the planning commission about six years. Uh, I've lived in Eugene most of my life. Uh, I worked at Eugene Water and Electric Board for a good number of years. is a lot of a lot of my connection to city processes. I've been involved with the city in a number of different ways over the years and uh planning commission being the most recent. I I'm um interested in all things the planning commission works on. It's highly

interesting work and engaging. I'm particularly interested in housing. It's kind of happened over the last several years. A lot of what we do is focused on it. And I guess within that, I'd also say I'm particularly interested in how we in processes like urban growth strategies and others, how we um work to get engaged with people in the community who are um underserved or that we don't normally communicate with. How do we communicate with them and understand their needs? understand the needs of people who are maybe most impacted by some of the policy work we do. So that's

Thank you very much, Commissioner Edwards.

Oh, thank you. Uh well, my name is Tiffany Edwards and I um I've been serving on the planning commission. This is my eighth year, so I think I'm the senior planning commissioner. Um uh I I serve on a number of uh various city boards and commissions as well as um like the lane transit district committee and a county committee. Um I I really enjoy being involved. I professionally I um I work for the I'm a vice president of the Chamber of Commerce here in Eugene and I head up all of the policy work for the chamber. So, I have a team um and we we're constantly tracking all the policy things that are happening in and around our community. And for me, I really appreciate um the involvement because it gives me a tremendous sense of belonging and and meaning because when you're, you know, when you're in when you're in the rooms where decisions are being considered and things are happening, um it really does help feel like this is this is home. I I'm was new to Eugene in 2012 and so one of the first things I began to do was just get in get involved. So um I I I also professionally encourage other people to get involved. So um I'm a big proponent of and I really appreciate all of you that um had have chosen to engage with the city and help us with this process. So thank you guys.

Thank you Commissioner Edwards. Um, maybe we'll go to uh Commissioner Bailing if you're ready before Commissioner Yang. Yes. Can you hear me? All right. Hello. Yes, we can hear you.

Okay. My name is Diane Bailing. I've been on the planning commission for four years this May. Um, my background was in capital planning at the University of California, San Francisco and um, facilities, corporate facilities management in corporate Silicon Valley before I moved to Oregon six years ago. And uh, it's in my nature to get involved. Um, I've done that all my life. I went to Berkeley in the 60s, so I've been an activist my entire adult life. And um I am on my local area neighborhood board. And I um believe it was city councilman Greg Evans who encouraged me to apply for the planning commission. Um, I live in the Bethl area and we have kind of considered ourselves to be the poor stepchildren and there's a lot of room for improvement. So, I'm happy to be on the planning commission and I'm serving this year as the um vice chair.

Yeah. Excuse me. I'm getting over bronchitis. Thank you so much. and Richard Yang.

My name is Kathleen Yang. I'm the baby on the uh planning commission. It's my first year. Uh thank you all. Um I my background is medicine. I'm one of the GI oncologists in town. And so uh I'm particularly interested in the health impact that some of decisions that we make uh on the uh commission that u impact the citizens and vice versa. And um I've been in Eugene for about 15 years now. I also came from the Bay Area, went to Cal too. So um so um I want to be invested in not just you know I raised my kids here so I really want to be invested in the city's future. That's why I'm participating.

Thanks Commissioner Yang. It's all red staff too.

Yeah. But could we um grab MA off the Oh first? Hi. Uh, good evening everyone. Um, my name is Ma Cotier Oan. I use she they pronouns. Um, I was one of the community engagement facilitators uh for the urban growth strategies project. And um I have a uh a professional background, educational background in biology and urban planning um from the University of Oregon. And uh but what motivates me to engage in city projects I think is a combination of uh grief and hope. um a lot of grief and frustration uh because of the barriers to opportunity and and quality of life that stems from um unjust and biased and unsustainable um city planning and policy decisions. Um, but also the hope that I've seen and experienced. Um, just seeing the the healing and uplift and community building um that happens when more people have a say in in shaping their communities in their own image. And so, so yeah, excited and and really honored to be um to have worked with this this group of really great individuals. Thank you.

You're joining me. And did we have another consultant that you said that joined Julie? I worked with a May and provided a lot of organizational and logistical uh support for the panel and just feel honored to have had such a a great experience. Thanks. Thanks for being here tonight. Uh Leah, I I probably should be updated. Thought I was gonna get out.

Hi everyone. Uh Leah Roush. I am a senior planner on the team and was um helped to support the community advisory panel experience. Um mostly with the elements of the housing planning work and housing actions that they helped to inform. Um, I actually really resonated with what Commissioner Edwards shared that um, being in a community the size of Eugene, really feeling like you can be a part of the decisions that are being made and understand them and know who um, is influencing them, I think was something that attracted me to Eugene and um, motivates me to be involved in community projects, community process. So, including at the city. So, excited to be here. Thanks for being here, Stuart. Hi

everyone. Stuart Warren. I'm an associate planner on the community planning and design team. I worked mostly as the um comprehensive plan kind of liaison with this group. Um and I will correct something that Julie said. She also helped to advise staff a lot. Um I can't undersell how important that is with our relationship with both Amay and Julie is how much they advised us on on project content, facilitation, meeting dynamics, the whole nine yards. It's crucial. Um what really enga like what really gets me um excited about engaging city process is community. I think from very young age I've been um taught that being involved in your community is important and so that's what brings me here and um I've had a long history outside of a city as a city planner of being involved with community. This is just a great way to continue that work.

Awesome. Crystal. Oh hello. I'm Crystal Fischer. Um I'm the senior program coordinator in planning. Um, so I'm kind of doing a lot of the behind thescenes work to get agendas out and stuff like that. That's my role. Um, and what motivates me to get engaged in city process is well, this has been my home. I'm born and raised here. Um, uh, you know, graduated at Sheldon and everything. So, um, you know, this is I want home to feel like home to everybody. So, um, that's really what kind of motivates me and and I I really shine on that back end. So, you know, helping out with facilitating meetings um, on Zoom and stuff. That's that's where where my role is. Thank you. Thank you. Make Terry the last one.

Uh, sure. I'm Terry Harding. I'm the principal planner for the community planning and design team. Coming into my 20th year with the city of Eugene. So, I'm the grandma, I guess, for the planning team. Um, I get a lot of fulfillment out of the work that I do. I've had the absolute pleasure of seeing us become so much more inclusive and equitable in our work. And so, we're doing what we need to be doing. And we've come a long way. and yet we still have so far to go. Um, one thing that motivates me to engage in city processes and to focus on equity in particular is that I raised a daughter with a hearing disability and that I had zero experience with before um raising her and so making spaces, meetings, processes accessible is a passion of mine and I I feel that really deeply.

Great. And then uh I guess are we going back to presentation now for the Yeah. And now I get to I get to talk some more.

Um we have a pretty short presentation for you because we want to lay the foundation for what the panel talked about and then get right into people's perspectives. Um so as a reminder, urban grow strategies has four phases. Community engagement phase which we're constantly doing. uh the policy development phase, the housing and jobs actions phase, and the land supply study phase. We're going to take a deeper dive today into community engagement and discuss one way that our team is working with community to better understand the needs and priorities for housing, jobs, and access to community access. This is a simplified project timeline that is focused on the urban growth strategies components that were reviewed by the panel. So you may have seen a colorful bar chart with even more bars um and that includes all of the project components. These are the ones that the panel spent some time um working on and they included the comprehensive plan, housing and jobs actions and our housing planning work including fair housing issues. Next, thank you. The urban growth strategies community engagement plan was approved by this body, the planning commission, in February of 2024. The plan serves as a guide to engaging community members throughout the urban growth strategies project. And it outlines the goals of our engagement, levels of involvement, and the principles that staff are committed to. It describes opportunities for people to engage in different phases of the project. It details how different individuals and organizations can effectively participate and stay informed. And it clarifies the city's commitment to equitable community engagement.

And now I'm going to hand it off to Stuart.

Thank you, Terry. So, I'm going to provide you with a really brief overview of uh the panel, um what topics that they advise staff on, as well as some of our super duper high level key takeaways. And I want to just like really emphasize that the takeaways I'm going to talk about tonight are summaries of summaries of summaries. All of the summaries from every single meetings in your attach in your AIS tonight. So you can look through those. You can see detailed notes. You can see kind of the words from panel members mouth um without any sort of staff interpretation. So I want to start off with a quick photo because obviously we did not invite all of our panel members here tonight. Well, we did invite everyone who was willing to come tonight but only a few of them could come. So, this is a picture of some of our panel members. Not everyone on the panel is pictured here. And you'll also notice that staff and Julie are pictured as well. The panel contained 13 different folks. Um they are all members of black, indigenous, Latino, Latina, Asian, Pacific Islander, and other communities of color. They um represent a range of abilities and gender identities. Their lived experiences range from personal to professional, from housing insecure to homeowner to high school student to retiree and a range of different transportation users. We have folks who rely on bicycles. We have folks who rely on the bus. We have folks who rely on cars as well. So just a really awesome group of people. I mean, you couldn't describe them as like more than a diverse group because they're diverse in so many different ways. Attachment B in your packet has more information about the panel guidelines, objectives, and the topics we covered with them. But in eight meetings between March and November of 2025, the objectives of the panel were to establish a baseline understanding of the urban growth strategies project, including barriers to housing and the

breadth of topics to be covered in the comprehensive plan. to also employ an equity lens to advise staff on how projects and policies may benefit and burden members of underserved community groups, to connect with other community networks to expand the reach of the project and really expand that reach out into other underserved community groups. And lastly, to support ongoing communication between the panel and staff on proposals and upcoming decisions by the City Eugene Planning Commission and City Council. And I think them being here tonight is a prime example of how they're still engaging in this project. The panel heard a wide variety of topics related to me strategies project. We started off with a group orientation overview of the project and discuss discussed our group guidelines. Then we grounded the group in some historic discrimination and housing and land use. Next, over two meetings, we discussed the comprehensive plan and the breadths of topics that are covered there, including community engagement, compact development, housing, and community health. We then talked about fair housing issues, housing actions, and ended up with a wrap up, an opportunity for panel members to provide us feedback on their panel experience. So, here are our summary of a summary of a summary of a key takeaway situation. encourage you all to u ask the panel members more on some of these if you'd like. The first panel or the first key takeaway I want to cover with you is um that home is more than a physical space. Panel members emphasize that it's a place that they can feel and be safe and where someone lives impacts their ability to access goods and services. The panel emphasized the importance of housing supply that meets the diverse needs of the community including cost, location, and accessibility. The panel also supported the work the city is doing to better understand the

history of discriminatory policies and practices in housing, land use, and dispossession of land. And they advise staff to learn from the past to ensure that similar harms are not inflicted in the future. The panel discussed the importance of city building relationships and trust with members of underserved communities. And lastly, panel appreciated the city's efforts to plan for better access to goods and services through our cent's work. The panel expressed that centers could be a great opportunity for neighborhood identity formation and centers should consider cultural consideration as well. This is my last slide. Um so in our final meeting we asked the panel members to provide us um some feedback on their panel experience and we also gave them a survey digital survey they could take um on their own time um and once again another summary of a summary there's a lot more information in your packet in attachment D that has the full summary of the survey um but in general panelists felt that areas of success where recruitment of a panel composed of a diverse welcoming intelligent and collaborative group of people and it just they want to highlight that because I've been reflecting about that a lot today and I really feel that way. And then we thoughtfully planned logistics thanks to Jubilee NMA and supported panel members and feeling engaged and valued. The panel process balanced educating the panel while also hearing diverse perspectives and mindfully managing meeting time that was very limited. And we also learned that panelists thought it was so successful that they wish to remain engaged in the project which is really a gold star in my mind. Areas for future improvement include they wanted more meeting time. Many of them expressed that they wanted to spend more time diving deeper into the weeds somewhat like the city the planning commission does. The hybrid meeting format that we

utilized needed an improvement. I think we're always trying to improve these hybrid meeting formats. There could have been improved communications including more succinct emails. And lastly, the panel asked for more varying meeting formats, locations, group discussion sizes, and ensuring that future meetings ensured balancing the voices of all participants. And with that, we're going to pause for clarifying questions on anything in our presentation. And if nothing then we'll go straight into our group discussion and then you can ask panel members questions and maybe vice versa.

Okay. It doesn't look like we have any initial questions here. Yeah. Um well thank you all. Uh I just I had a question about you you talked about the recruitment process and I'm very curious as to how if anyone is willing to share how did you find out about the opportunity or like how did you hear about it? Did did you hear from a friend or did you get an email? I'm just kind of just kind of curious. Sure. Um, at least for me, I was going to I was invited by the Department of Sustainability for an event that was happening at the library. I can't remember off the top of my head what event it was.

Um, but when I was there, um, Julian kind of noticed some of the comments that I was making and it really stood out to her. So, she followed up with me after that to tell me about this initiative. So, that's how I heard about it. Um, I can go after that. Um so Stuart has Stuart and other um city faculty or city staff have been very involved with the youth advisory council with the usually the mayor's youth advisory council and um from that opportunity um there were some discussions of maybe having a couple of council members um be a part of the council um the advisory group and um so basically Stuart was the conduit through which I got involved on on the advisory group. So thank you.

Thank you. I got involved through Square One and Julie came to uh Peace Village to do a presentation about you, Eva.

Um I I got involved um originally through my professor at the University of Oregon. Um it was sort of like indirectly through this program. Um uh and he has a has a connection with with Julie. um and he recommended three students in um in our graduating class of 2023 to um work with Julie uh to kind of like learn about um this facilitation style. Um and so we um helped organize the the the sustainability workshop that Timothy mentioned at the library. Um and then after um that process, Julie asked if I wanted to continue um participating in this work and and join the panel. And uh I got involved because uh I failed to find a college student for Julie. And Julie was very nice because she was like, "Hey Carl, I could really use your help in being a college student." Um and I I do want to add there's a the in addition to the challenge was that um we were asked to be able to uh attend uh I think it was eight all eight sessions. All right. And that is can can be challenging for some people. something to think about. But I think but I have to say it really enhanced the experience because everyone making that commitment. Uh I just want back what Stuart said like yeah we all want to hang out with each other more not just socially but also to do more work. Um but uh yeah so the uh so my with my past uh participation in other uh civic uh committees and uh the fact that I heard such great things about what they were planning to do. Uh and my my hope was to try to represent not only uh what I felt I represent demographically but also what my my 25 plus years of working with college students try to put that bring that to the table too.

Great. Well great job Julie. I think that's one of the challenges that we always hear about is that it's really hard to find the find the right mix of opportunity that works for a lot of people and and time commitment and everything. So, well done.

Also, just a couple of notes. We've got five questions that staff have prepared to kind of give us a jumping off point. And I think with five panelists, there's probably enough time to get a reply from everyone on each of those questions. but don't feel that you have to if you don't have something to contribute to that. And then planning commissioners, we're here to kind of listen and learn a little bit, but also to ask questions and dive a little deeper. So, if you've got a follow-up question after somebody speaks, that's probably a good time to raise your hand and jump in. And then if you want to ask questions, then maybe we'll make an opportunity after we've clicked through some of these for additional questions. Uh the first question that we've got on the list is what's one thing that stands out to you from your experience on the panel? There are some examples like facilitators, relationships, and meals. And maybe Timothy if you want to start again.

Yeah, definitely. Um, what's one thing that stood out to me? Um, well, just kind of being able to work on the comprehensive plan because since it is such a big document, um, and that kind of ties into us wanting more reading time because it's such a big document. I felt like we barely got to skim the surface of it and I would have really liked to be able to get into the weeds, but even just skimming the surface. Um, I think it was a really amazing opportunity to be able to give feedback on the various chapters and to kind of see those revisions. Um, really be heard and reflected as some of the changes that they made. Um it wasn't like they just invited us just to say we're doing community engagement in Czech, but um I really felt like they were taking um our experiences, stories, and feedback into heart and was um trying to incorporate that. So um I found that meaningful and something that stood out to me.

That's great. and I'll just kind of look around and try to keep an eye for Commissioner Bailing. And if you again want to make a comment from one of the plan commissioners or ask a followup, feel free to throw your hand into the mix.

Yeah. Um well, one thing that stood out to me was something that you know typically be considered like mundane, you know, like um but rather a breath of various people and lived experiences are engaging with it on a on a high level and um having these really deep, meaningful, impactful conversations with each other and bouncing ideas off of each other to, you know, really break it apart and be involved. So that's something that I don't know, being in a high school like setting most of the time, I don't really see most of my classmates be engaged and involved that way. and you know being surrounded by other people like that was really really impactful and you know shaping my own thinking as well. Wonderful.

Thanks. Um experience there was a lot of active listening feedback.

Great. Um I think one thing um the relationships um that that we made were were just really um really special and um you know Eugene's such a small town that now every time I go out into the community I feel like I see um some some people you know like we've run into each other before and then I've you know gone to Gash's parents restaurant many times and um and so just making those kind of connections um I think is um something that will keep this work going on further into the into the future. Um and then one just sort of like smaller um logistical thing was that there were lots of ways to contribute ide your ideas in the meeting. So there was a um a worksheet that we had every every meeting. Um, that sort of felt a little bit like school, but it also was like really comforting that like I had this little square where I can put my ideas and if I was feeling kind of shy that day, I knew I could still like turn in a piece of writing to um be have my thoughts incorporated. Uh, one thing that stood out for me was that I thought the facilit facilitators did a great job of making the deliberate choice to make sure that we were all on the same level in terms of how much background information we needed going in because they didn't make the assumption that we just all like knew all the same stuff about housing, transportation, neighborhood planning. Uh, some of us have more experience than others and some of us have just more lived experience than others. And so just having that making sure like uh sometimes I will admit I don't I don't think I expressed this so it's like like it's like okay I've heard this before but but I recognize we had to go through it together to get to that level so that we could have that discussion with each other otherwise someone's going to one or more people will get left behind and we can't really have that true uh discussion on on uh this the same plane. Now, one of the things that planning commission folks talk about a lot is getting more representation and getting

more out into the communities so we can understand what these viewpoints are from folks that have difficulty expressing them and participating in the process. So, really heartening to hear what a positive experience everybody had. It was like a summer camp or something like that. A retreat. Yeah. One thing I would say is that the group was very accepting. Like I usually stand in meetings because it makes me a little really tired to exit. So I'm going to actually choose to stand because that was one thing that the group was very um very accommodating. Yeah. So

okay. Well, let's maybe go on to our next question unless any planning commissioners have a comment. Commissioner Mason, do you have something? No.

Okay. Don't hold for now. So the next question and we can go around again and think we got plenty of time to maybe get everybody's take on this. So in your opinion, how can the city improve future advisory panels and some examples here? Maybe dive deeper into content formatting or communications. Maybe uh Carl can start this time and move back around. Um the thing that stands out in my mind and it's the hardest thing when I was serving on the Lane Transit District board um that was a board that was made up of mostly non riders and that's just because of the way these people are appointed. I was one I I was more of a rider before, but my primary transportation is usually a bicycle or car, which is valuable in that sense. But the point I'm trying to make is that how it relates to this is that sometimes the people I think that are the most valuable that you're, you know, the planning commission and others are trying to reach are going to be the ones that are the most difficult to access. And so this is we're I think what you're doing is in the right step in the right direction. Uh but that's always going to be a challenge in just how do you get to those people who can't make all eight meetings or uh have bad Wi-Fi or uh just for other reasons they just cannot have you know adult uh child care issues. Um it's I don't have the answer. I'm just that that's just my uh feedback on that one.

Um

um I think that the city did a really great job with this advisory panel. Um, and I think going forward, um, I I know that there are a lot other like a lot of other types of panels, um, in that the city works on, and I'm not as familiar with those. Um, but I know that something that made this panel in particular really accessible for, um, for, you know, the this group of people was that it was compensated. Um and I think that really is a plays a huge role in terms of um when and and who can show up to these kinds of meetings. Um and so I think particularly um if it is um if you're hoping to attract um a diverse group of people whether that's um you know bipok community um or like renters um uh or just lower income people in the city you know we know that there's a lot of low-income people live here. Um, I think just adding making sure that that those extra resources are available um is just really crucial to make sure that that the um um that uh that people with different abilities and and different um uh levels of income can can participate and and just the the you know um being being compensated for your time. Um, I think, uh, one, it allows us to, um, show up and kind of like ready to to engage. Um, and then also, um, really makes it feel like our time is being valued and that our perspectives are being valued. Um, and I think that really goes a long way.

And, uh, maybe before we jump to this side of the table, if uh, Aay or Julie have any comments on the last question or this one, please feel free to share. Um, yeah, sure. Thank you. Um, I think something that I've brought up with staff a few times, um, is I'd love to see more embodied engagement. Um, a lot of our time was spent, you know, in the library or in the Campbell Community Center, but kind of in a traditional meeting setting. And I think particularly for this project, there was a lot of um opportunities to get out to see this particular sites that we were talking about to just have a more hands-on and practical um way of engaging with the things that we're learning. Um and so I think that could have just um yeah, added a little more fun um made it more engaging. Um so that's something that that stood out to me and that could be cool to see in in future projects, future panels.

Thank you. Do you want to add anything, Julie? I'll get on to this one. Mike, I like that suggestion that was just made. Uh you were making a comment about some of the uh riders that you want to, you know, on on the uh transportation board. Uh if they cannot participate because they have limited means to ride, maybe we can take the meeting to them or go on field trips together. um or you know take the advisory uh panel to uh micro village one of the model or or model ones to check out what that mean and what's the impact. I think that could be really fun. Great.

I would echo that what Carl had said about uh getting the populations that are going to be most impact or most taking out the surfaces and moving the population that are in the panels to that direction. Like I think there's going to be more people needing affordable housing and more people who are going to be getting older and living longer lives. So getting that kind of population more into the uh future advisory panels I think would be very beneficial. People who don't take bus I mean people who take buses don't have individual cars and stuff like that. So

um I think well naturally whenever it comes to councils or groups that are voluntary or self- selected um you have people who are very passionate and vocal about what they believe in which is amazing. Um but sometimes that can create a sort of imbalance in you know speaking time or who holds like you know them like who talks more right. Um, and maybe it was a bit daunting for me the first couple of meetings, but I had like a bit of trouble, you know, speaking up a bit, especially towards the beginning. Um, but I think, you know, as the meetings went on, I, you know, was able to find my my footing and my place along on the council as well. Um, so I mean, I'm not sure how you would, you know, really go about combating that, especially as like a facilitator, as a city, but u maybe laying some groundwork about, I don't know, sharing air time or something of the sort. And that's definitely something that I'm sure all the planning commissioners will say is true when you join this as well. Come in and there's so much information and got people that are so knowledgeable. Um it can be a little bit daunting trying to even participate. But being on these commissions and committees is such a good way to learn about it too. And I think that's underplayed sometimes and it's as much an educational experience for the people that are doing it as they're sharing their view. learning about the process and learning from staff and understanding kind of more about how the city works.

Um, and then for me, it's kind of building off of what was saying, but I think kind of field trip opportunities, especially around urban planning. Um, I think it would have been great to kind of talk about like some of the city centers that we're talking about and with the urban growth boundaries like going to each of the different ones and like actually talking about like what works well in each one, what doesn't work well and what some of these proposed changes we're talking about in the future, what challenges we'll see, but like actually being there I feel like could provide um some context that you just can't with a presentation in the room. And then yeah, especially getting out to like Highway 99 out in the Bethl area and to kind of really highlight the contrast of where there's city infrastructure and support and where it may be lacking because yeah, we talk about it and look at it in the maps, but I think actually physically being there can kind of really um help facilitate those discussions, especially if people haven't been to those areas um are not as familiar with them. Okay. Um, seeing nothing from planning commissioners yet or we're going to move on to the Do you want to jump in there?

I just want you want questions. Well, if you got anything that you want to follow up on, we're trying to keep it kind of free flowing. Feel free to jump in.

I was just wondering if there's any any perspectives or communities that you felt were missing from the panel that uh we can build on for next time. I obviously had a very diverse panel to begin with, but if there's a community or experience you think that was missing from the panel, what what are your what are your thoughts? mobility disabled people I think were kind of lacking and non you know other disabled groups we had like myself as the one identified disabled person I think I don't know if we had do we have anyone above age 70 one person and I thought he was younger

because I get enough like other our other population representation then he's like me he has the most energy out of anyone he's feel fantastic if he's watching this right but still I agree more population as well

well that kind of dubtales perfectly into the next question and I know we've covered this in some angles but a little bit more directly How might the city encourage people with diverse experiences and backgrounds to participate in planning projects in the future? I know some of you kind of spoken to this a little bit, but if you want to do any more followup or have other specific ideas, feel free to share them. Okay.

Uh comment as well some of the community that are missing with just people that may speak English as a second language. um whether um they're primarily a Spanish speaker, indigenous language speaker um or the many different languages spoken here um in Eugene. So I think being able to provide interpretation for um people that know English as a second language to be able to participate a little bit more and then the second thing about encouraging people with diverse experiences. Um, most of our meetings were around the downtown location, whether it was at the library, community center or here in this building. Um, but I think potentially getting out to other areas um, and maybe providing transportation support uh, could help kind of like with Bethl and Santa Clara or West Eugene. Um, I think people living out there, especially if they're transportation challenged, would have a hard time getting to downtown. So, I think just sometimes, yeah, more diverse locations to host meetings.

Is is that a viable option for these types of things, just to staff to provide transportation support? I bet that's a big barrier. Well, we can ask Carl to talk to his LPD contact, ride a bus. That has happened in the past. Yeah. Um, LPD has donated a bus and a driver for, you know, special events. Seems like that would be one of the biggest challenles, too. So, yeah. Yeah. We have mini vans. We're offering like So, um, Eva mentioned the panelists were compensated. We could also do like compensation for transportation costs. If you have to like take an Uber or something from where you live to the location, um, you know, we could build that into a budget um, in the same way or bus passes or whatever. Was there hybrid participation as well?

Say that again. Was there hybrid participation as well? I know you get so much more done in an inerson meeting that it's really nice to get people together when it's possible. And Julie, correct me if I'm wrong, but I think we offered transportation support to this panel as well. Yeah. Okay. I'm curious. I'm sorry. You got a point.

Um I'm curious. I you know, we have a person that works full-time on our staff that uh is a child care strategist. So all she does is work on trying to improve the landscape for people in their child care needs. So I'm curious if that was something that came up as a barrier and if there was anything, you know, did you have folks that participated that or would have participated um if not for issues or care? Just curious about that. Anyone know came up in recruitment. Yeah, we we had that in the budget and the group of folks. We we did have one person that um Yeah, we we just didn't have that demographic. Okay.

I think it's a time constraint. Yep. Um families. Yeah. It's the hardest. Yep. Young kids. That's helpful. Did anyone else have a comment? I would say recruitment at like affordable housing projects and stuff like that would be getting a diverse group of people within that population and you know if you wanted like a tour at Peace Village or rent or borrowing a room at Peace Village that could be done a meeting at Peace Village Cornerstone or through yeah organizations like that

you know we and I want to go to a next. Um, we definitely relied on Amay and Julie's networks and previous events that they had put on. So, um, we did a listening session at Peace Village, um, before this panel started that, um, I think being participated in. And so, that like examples like that are great opportunities. Same with the youth advisory council and the sustainability event. um having those one-time events as opportunities to broaden those networks and meet people and recruit them into kind of longer term engagements like this one I think is a is a great strategy. Um and certainly we communicate with kind of housing professionals, developers, affordable housing folks um more broadly through this project and so some of those connections we could tap into.

May you want to share something?

Yeah, thanks. Um, I think something that I heard throughout the panel was kind of maybe um a mistrust like how do we know that our voices, our perspectives are actually going into making change in the community? And so I think one interesting way that I've seen um uh you know a planning department engage is through kind of more on the lines of this embodied engagement but through like tactical urbanism projects. Um if there's a way that we can get um panelists or community members involved in something more practical, more you know short-term um able to be executed um on a you know lower budget, lower cost and it's a very community-led thing. um they could actually see the perceivable difference that they're making in their community. Um and so just yeah, just just an example of of ways that could bring people along when there might be a bit of you know distrust distrust or um you know reticence to to engage because they're not sure that it'll actually make a difference.

Just Oh, go ahead.

Well, I was going to add a comment about the budget. Um, as you might imagine, we uh needed to make sure that this process was funded uh to be able to do the things that we wanted to do with it. And so part of the funding, most of the funding, everything except the staff time was funded through a grant from Department of Land Conservation Development. Um and so we wrote that grant with the express purpose of forming this panel um compensating the panelists, budgeting for the recruitment and the activities that were to be done. And I can't stress enough how important it is to do that on the front end and to make sure that we budget for a successful process. I think it paid off for this process really beautifully. Um and I think it can be vulnerable in the city budget process. um to do things that some folks might perceive as extra or not. Uh yeah, just extra when they're really not. They're really quite central to the goals of the housing planning that we're doing and the comprehensive planning that we're doing. I was going to pee about make, but since uh uh Terry brought up this other thing about compensation, I wanted to add I I've had a lot of experience with uh compensating people uh for uh their time at the community college for students uh trying to uh participate. And the one thing I found this is kind of interesting is that um there is a sweet spot and I don't know what that sweet spot is here. is why I'm encouraging the sellers to try to experiment and figure that out which is that you you want the enough compensation so that they could participate if they otherwise couldn't but you don't want to make it so highly compensated that then you attract people who are do not have would not actually participate in the way that you would want them to in a in a more genuine kind of way that's going to be useful for actual um information that you could

actually utilize and I'm not saying that over I don't want to overstate that uh because um people have all sorts of reasons about why they want to participate. Um so I want to throw that out there. The other thing too that um uh in terms of um feeling like you belong and part of part that your participation is valued I think other people have mentioned that the facil facilitators did a really good job of doing that and I I just want to emphasize like my parents are immigrants and uh I think there was uh and with the time they immigrated and I think just in general there were a lot of places I they've never been civically involved that was not taught to me. I learned that from outside the family and um I think and I know I've been to committees where I feel like I've been very welcomed in like I feel like yeah this is a good place for me and I've been in other places where that has not been the case and that wasn't the case here. I was thinking like my family is also one of the air group areas that I don't feel welcome in that's that's a separate that's a separate issue. Um but so I think that's important too and I think um the fact that we're they're able to do this and I think I think this could be a really good template for other panels and committees throughout the city. If I can ch add one thing on that, not I just don't want to underell the importance of having both Julie and Amay help us through this process, right? Their connections, their attention to detail, their knowledge of um different cultural considerations was so paramount to us. Creating an environment, I think, where where folks felt comfortable participating and then not to underell the actual panelists showing up, right? Because that's really how this whole process has to work is they need to show up so they can build those relationships, so they can have the trust with each other, to be willing to debate like hot topic items or be willing to open up about um experiences in their lives. And I think this panel is what made this panel so successful. We tried and we could do what we can do

on our end of things, but without them being there and being willing, you really don't have a successful um engagement event. And then uh if Julie or Ava or Gosh wanted to comment on that last question.

Okay. And then uh let's go ahead with Gosh Commission. I'll get to you. Um well I think most of our meetings were in the evenings um if not all of them 5:30 to 7:30 or so. Um and I think one of the big factors was having a meal. Um, it may sound like a little thing, but I can't underscore it enough how important having a meal is to be able to, you know, fully be present and, um, you know, be able to present ourselves to the best of our abilities. Yeah, great. That's definitely a good practical one. Commissioner Veent,

could you possibly remove the document from the screen so that we can see the people because right now the people are this tiny tiny tiny little box on my That's the sign.

Wonderful. Thank you. Um I I also wanted to reiterate the food and you know just after coming in from a long day of work be like I know I'm going to have a meal tonight. I'm so excited. Um and sometimes that's Indian food from Evergreen and I'm so excited. Um the one one idea I wanted to mention about just other planning projects in general um is uh I just thought it was really really wonderful that that there were two high school students on the panel. Um and you know policy and um city planning is um something that I think a lot of people learn about later in life. Um, I felt really lucky to have like learned about city planning just from being like curious about my city that I grew up in. Um and uh and kind of to Amay's point about um like you know tangible and seeing like tangible change um I think that working with uh students and working with either like college students or high school students or even middle school students um could be a really great way of like building trust with um younger people and um you know I think it it could happen in so many different ways. Um, uh, I think after school programs or, um, like summer camps are, uh, programs that I've worked in a lot. I've done a lot of youth development work and they're always looking for, um, ways to engage with the community with new activities to do. You know, they're, um, the YMCA, I used to work for the YMCA in the after school program. Um, the after school directors are like constantly looking for, you know, activities, things to do. And so like designing um a playground or designing like drawing your perfect neighborhood or something like that is a really um really beautiful way to um to connect with young people. Um I think

particularly with this with this content it can sort of feel like it's just like long looking at long documents and things like that, but at the end of the day it really is like your built environment and that um that has like a really um a really exciting aspect to it. I think that would be a really really cool way of kind of um bringing these conversations into um into community particularly with young young people. We're doing pretty good on time. We're about 20 a little over 20 minutes left probably before wrapping the meeting up. If you want to be out by seven, so if any planning commissioners want to add or comment or follow up, feel free to do so at any time. Y

um with all the wonderful work that the panel has done, I wonder what's the process next that we can showcase, highlight some of these experiences, the takeaway lessons uh and also almost serve serve as a dashboard of our progress so that each time when we continue this project, we don't start from scratch all over again, but build on that. And the other thing is that I think a lot of what I've heard from the presentation is that it's not just limited to you know sort of historic truthtelling storytelling and we're trying to do something a bit more tangible and how do we show that impact the feedback actually led to this change or we're on track for that. How do we do that? Yeah,

those are excellent questions and I don't know if I have excellent answers yet, but I think that's exactly what we are charged with doing is surfacing um to you all directly what the panelist shared with us. You know, as Stuart said, we can share what we hear. We but it ends up being these kind of highlevel key takeaways. A lot of um community engagement is informing staff and then um informing the proposals that we bring back to you. Um so opportunities like this, opportunities like having the youth advisory council members come and speak to you all directly, I think are great ways to kind of take us out of the middle and and um give them the opportunity to speak to you directly. And so I hope we can do that with some of our time remaining. Here are some of their kind of key takeaways from the experience related to the content that they talked about. Um to your point around not asking the same questions and kind of learning from what we um get got out of this experience. I think that is certainly a best practice and engagement and something that the new safe rules are actually recognizing that um just because you know this project touches housing and that project over there touched housing and that project over there touched housing, we don't have to ask all the same questions over and over again, but learn from all of those things across the organization. So um we're able to actually summarize and take you know the last five years of engagement that was relevant and pull that all into um our org strategies work and how the planning works. So there are certainly opportunities to do that and I think we need to continue to do more of it and get better at it and um make a better more coherent feedback loop with folks who engage um and share with them how they're they directly influence the proposals that come to you all. Um

keep keep working on it. Um but encourage you all to keep asking those questions of us when we come to with policy proposals of like how did the community influence this. The other thing I was thinking about is that if there's a um that these information or the work that's been done live um we talk about building trust improve or even expand our recruitment you know what are the uh people who may not self- select to be on the panel that we can reach out to. I think that if there's a place that these informations live or this effort live uh it would help them to like see what's been done and become you know inspired to participate. Yeah, that's part of

Yeah, for sure.

And I'll say all of our engagement summaries that we write get posted on our website. They're public information. They will live on forever and ever. And I know that we constantly go back to them. I know I can't speak for Leah, but I'm constantly going back to our engagement summaries as I'm working on conference of plan goals and policies and just double-checking to make sure that what I think I heard I actually heard and trying to include it when appropriate is to the best of my ability. But I think it's the hardest thing that we do is trying to connect those two dots, right? Between what what like Gaus said about whatever it is and then how it impacted the outcomes because there's so many steps between those two places and then once we draft the goal or policy, then it comes to you all and then it goes to city council for decision. Right? So there's all these different steps along the way that could change or alter the way that we had originally written it based off what Gow had told us. So just a point of um consideration for your

Yeah. Is is there more question for staff? Is there something that the planning commission does in terms of processes been changed through your lens by the experience that you've had through this feedback? Is there something that we could be doing in the in the future because we are the citizen, you know, we're the front facing civic engagement committee. So given the feedback you've seen, the experiences you've had, is there a process that we are not doing that we should be changing to or altering going forward to better align with what you're hearing? Question you.

Thanks. Um, one thing that comes that comes to mind is the connection to youth advisory council and um, youth in general. We've talked about this commission and potentially creating a seat um for a youth a youth commissioner and whether what that would look like, we're not sure, but it's kind of an idea that some cities have implemented. Um so that could look like um participation in non-land use meetings. You're welcome. Or we're not really sure what it would look like, but I think there are opportunities to involve and Stuart has worked most closely with the youth advisory council, so could speak to that. Um that that's one example I think of something that has surfaced and worth thinking about. I think it's phenomenal.

Um yeah, I also wanted to second that that idea. Um in uh a different you know project um uh I was a part of this like dayong meeting um and uh all these different breakout groups talking about this like complicated natural resource policy about offshore wind. Um and there was a group of high school students from the local coastal town who came um and everyone was going around sharing after you know I don't know an hour of meeting together you know how are we going to solve this complicated problem and of course the high school students came up with like the most comprehensive

A to B to C plan and everyone was just like floored like how clear their uh their comprehension of the problem was and then their solutions. And so I think just um having that sort of like crossgenerational um uh work just helps so much also with like bringing everyone to the same level of comprehension um and and using different language u or like you know easier to understand terminology. Um anyway, but then um I had another thought about um uh Commissioner Yang, what you were mentioning about how do we continue this work? Um and uh I think couple I have a couple thoughts on that. one just kind of going back to the idea of relationships. Um, and like now that we have have all met and connected like hopefully um, you know, if we run into each other again in the future, we maybe we'll have a casual conversation. What are you all talking about on the planning commission next week, you know? Um, and so just kind of making longer connections, inviting um, panel members or um, members from other other groups to these kinds of meetings like, hey, I know we're going to have this big decision coming up and it would be great to hear your thoughts on that. Um, and I think, you know, something that I thought about as, um, as a a panel member was like, um, thinking about these these questions about, you know, what do I want my community to look like? Um, you know, how far do I have to walk to get to the grocery store? Like those kinds of things. I start thinking about it more as just as like someone living. Um, and uh, and so I think kind of what I'm interested in is like bringing those those discussions into everyday life. Um and and one way that that um happens more naturally is through like stories and storytelling. Um and so uh if if there's an opportunity to um uh hear from from uh you know a community member of like um how this uh living in a certain

apartment style like impacts their life. Um, I feel like just like recalling um, a story like that could be just a great way of of maintaining that connection to to the work that we already did here. Um, and uh, yeah, I think just uh, remembering stories is just a good way of kind of continuing that. Um, and then the one one thing I want to respond to um, you mentioned about like what if we just like start all over again, you know, in 10 years or something like that. Um, I don't necessarily think that's a problem, you know. I think like with the um the final product being this this long range plan um we will naturally be asking the same questions um about our community uh in 10 20 years um and I think that the the conversation we'll be having will be in a different context then. So I I wouldn't um from my perspective I wouldn't like worry so much about kind of kind of doing that again.

Ava um they mentioned takeaways and I think that's great. Next question is something we're all really interested to hear. So maybe we'll loop around one more time and ask what's a takeaway that's sitting with you from one of the meetings and some examples are community spaces or housing needs or cultural considerations. So if you had one or two items that really resonated with you want to talk a little bit about them.

Um one thing that definitely resonated with me a lot that I learned from just the people on the panel kind of mean how you kind of brought up disability. um issues and how we're often times not planning with disability in mind. And I just like learned a lot about the context of it even about um the federal building and some of the challenges. Was it the federal building with the elevator or it was something

Marcy was talking about you and Marcy? I can't remember the specifics, but just kind of like learning all the different codes and challenges um to more around different ability and disability needs um because there's such a big range of needs and often times I kind of felt that gets locked out of the conversation. So, um, it really helped me kind of just frame all my discussions on kind of with that mindset because I'm abled body and I sometimes tend to overlook those things quite a bit. Um, so that's a big gap in my uh, planning and how I think of things. So just kind of being part of this panel and being able to hear those experiences and those considerations was really impactful for me.

Yeah. Um, one thing I that came up often and um that I heard a lot from other council members was the importance of third spaces and you know public spaces either that be like the library or other um multicultural centers or um you know shared spaces either that be a gym or place where you can hang out with other people in your apartment complex, right? Um it was this importance of being like having that area to express yourself but also have that community, right? Um I don't know coming into the into the council group I wasn't I didn't really think about it that much but you know hearing it from my fellow council members I was um pretty eye opening to hear about that.

Thank you. I think I was hearing um during one of the meetings or maybe a couple meetings about how there were conflicting regulations and rules on like how far a parking lot could be from the curb and how much green space needed to be and where people were architects putting green space that was not necessarily the best placement but it fit the requirement. Yeah, we talked about the multi-unit design standards in one meeting which are a really complicated part of our code and I will say they're they're definitely the most technical thing that we brought to the group and I was so impressed by people's willingness to like jump in and learn about setbacks and open space requirements and um I think what you're referring to me and you should correct me is um how we sometimes apply those differently um in like a dense this urban area versus in a um outside of that.

Um and then how developers can get adjustments to some of those standards. Um and so we were talking through which of those things um when you're weighing uh added costs to a development and then outcomes for either the resident or the community and like that weighing process that happens in all of the work that we bring to you all um was one of those topics. Yeah,

I think it was also like I was thinking of like East Village where they have a large fire lane and people keep putting residents keep putting stuff in the fire lane because they see this empty space but it needs to be a fire plane and you know then other spaces are kind of compacted and like that. So yeah,

um it's really hard to just pick one thing because it's always spiraling up there. Um, but I think the uh the meaning when we talked about the neighborhood centers um uh really really stuck with me um because I think it's really important for every neighborhood to really have a culture and for people to um feel a sense of place and identity in in whichever neighborhood you're living in. And um you know I think it can be really harmful to cities for like certain neighborhoods to um just have a different you know a more extravagant feeling and I I kind of felt that when I first um came to Eugene. I've always coveted South Eugene and the South University neighborhood. Um and you know I don't know if I'll ever be able to afford to live there but um I think it's really really special to um uh just foster a sense of of identity in each neighborhood. And I think the idea of of third spaces like Gaus mentioned or like a community center or neighborhood center is just one really great way of um of having a little taste of that um because it brings people together um and uh just uh provides a safe place for people to to be Carl.

Yeah. So, we had this uh great activity that we did. We had different shapes that represented like great green spaces, water spaces and different kinds of uh like housing like uh dense or or single family homes. And but now now the facilities can correct me if I messed up on what the takeaway of that was. Here's my takeaway which I would my colleague should definitely chime in on this which was um more about less about like designing like you know like you're playing a video game and like design perfect city but more about like what's possible like what would you like to see in your neighborhood? What kind of things do you know do you would you want uh planning to be able to to make possible? And then and then uh piggy back what Eva said, I I mean I think we would all want access to these things and the importance of having the ability for people of all incomes and so economic backgrounds to be able to access. So not all the water stuff is in one neighborhood or all the parks are in one area. And I just want to tap this just because I think it's just so important especially as our climate keeps changing. uh having green spaces are interconnected so that people can travel from neighborhood to neighborhood uh to do their tasks uh with green spaces so that they don't have to drive to green space or even have to travel from one neighborhood to another without the coverage of green space. That's it.

A or Julia, do you want to share anything in terms of takeaways?

Sure. Does Julie want to go first? Do you have anything, Julie?

No. Um, yeah. Yeah. Just quickly, I think um kind of going back to the the meeting that Ming brought up about the multi-unit design standards um when we were talking about setbacks and I think um we were really like understanding setbacks and making decisions about them based on um cars, you know, whether we're setting back to create greater distance from the street or we were afraid that that space was going to be then taken up by parking or other um car related uses. Um and so it just kind of stood out to me that you know we really don't allow you know a car dominated culture to continue to like arrest us not only conceptually but you know physically and that it it can cut short our lives um recently um a community member was um cycling and and was killed just yesterday on on Patterson Street. um they were a Kenyan international student at the University of Oregon. Um and so and he and I were, you know, the same age. And so just um it really stood out to me that you need to continue to imagine differently um imagine beyond a car centric um built environment and and really be taking um actionable, you know, steps and and building building that building that for us. um you know, build environments that center safety and and health um for everyone. Um or else it'll just, you know, continue to cost us, continue to cost our most vulnerable members. Um so that is just kind of front of mind for me.

Well, yeah, I'd love to make more time for uh planning commissioners to ask questions and make comments, but we do have one question left. I think this is a rare opportunity for us to listen instead of talk during the meeting. Do you have something you want to share? Okay. But I do know um I want I want to uh thank all of you. Um as I worked through the material the last couple of days here became clear the kind of the quality of work that had been done here and the way that it's organized the way I liked as you went through the meeting summaries and seeing kind of the takeaways people had some of the thoughts. There was a lot in there and I I as Scroo said, I'm thinking to going back into it. Uh a lot of stuff there that kind of informs my thinking or can inform our thinking and I think it will be very helpful process going forward. Part of the part of the reason for that and maybe a big part of it is everybody who's here. I mean, you had the staff design this thing and figure out how to get it going with the help of the facilitators figuring out how to get it implemented. and then populating the group as you did and having it all through the through your process and over the meetings getting everyone working together to kind of produce this a really quality informative piece of work. Um, I have one other thing quickly. I keep hearing I I thought about this today while I was kind of going through it and I keep hearing things like gosh I wish we had more meeting time and uh uh we want to do more work and uh one of my favorites of course is we want to go into the weeds one favorite term. I I I guess I would I don't really know any of

you. I've uh heard you talk. I've looked at the product of your work, but but we're the council's recruiting for boards and commissions right now and they are through the end of the week. And I I guess I would encourage you to the extent you're interested in all of those things that I just said or that you've said. Um you could apply for the planning commission. uh there's a lot of opportunity to do work to get into a lot of material to go into the weeds to have some impact and share your share what you've learned here and be part of uh work in the community. So I'll leave it at that. But I I really appreciate I appreciate everything that you've done here. This is really good work.

Thanks for being uh so we probably have enough time maybe to get a few responses to the last question if anyone wants to share. What would you like the planning commission to consider in upcoming UGS work? And that's definitely I think we've got a lot of takeaways here for us to consider, but if there's anything else that you think you'd like to add or emphasize, please feel free to contribute.

Well, okay. I was just going to say um I know that the racial equity atlas is supposed to um inform some of your decisions making forward, but it's not really any particular policy or procedure on how that's done. So, but yeah, I just really hope that you all continue um incorporating the racial equity at this um into your future work because we all got to give feedback to it and um be able to contribute to that as well in addition to all this other work with the driven growth strategies. So, that'll be my one comment for you all. Great.

Anything else any anyone wants to share? We've got about 5 minutes left in the meeting, so definitely time for a couple more comments. We'll probably have a few things that we need to say to wrap up, and I want to get y'all out of here at 7 o'clock like we promised. Anything else from planning commissioners to add on to tonight's meeting? It's been really, really interesting session here tonight and definitely hope we get more opportunities to do stuff like this. It's really cool to to see what you all been working on and and I'm really impressed with the staff. I got to say, do you all sleep or

No, several of us are out sick this week. I know you got the email from Alyssa, but I can mention your upcoming meetings if that would be helpful. Um because they're all devoted to urban growth strategies. So, I know about those meetings. I don't I'm not as familiar with your upcoming meetings on land use, but I don't think you have any scheduled. So your February 10, February 24, and March 10 meetings are all devoted to some urban growth strategies topics. Then we'll be giving council an update in April, and this is all building towards sending a big package of things to the state in May, and that kicks off our formal adoption process for the 2026 adoption package for urban growth strategies. So, um, we're kind of running, um, on several different fronts trying to get all of this work done, but, um, this has been really excellent to hear from you all tonight. I really appreciate everyone's willingness to participate in a different kind of meeting. I too hope we can do it again. And I I think that's it. Not even seven. Well,

I think that constitutes our items from staff. Are there any other items or info to share from commissioners? Looks like we are all set. So, thanks again to our panelists for all the work you did on this and thanks for coming and sharing your experiences with us tonight. It's been a real uh eye opening and enjoyable experience talking with everybody here. Um, with that, thank you. The meeting of the planning commission is now adjourned.