Planning Commission - public_hearing

Hey, Commissioner Lear.

Crystal, how you doing?

I'm all right. How are you?

Oh, enjoying the nice stretch of weather we're having beginning of the summer here?

Yeah.

Hey, Commissioner Isaacson.

Commissioner Lear, how are you?

Doing pretty good here.

Good. Good.

What about yourself?

Here we go.

Good evening and welcome to the June 23rd, 2026 meeting of the Eugene planning commission. I'm now calling this meeting to order. My name is Jason Lear and I'm chair of the Eugene planning commission. I'm joined by my fellow Eugene planning commissioners and it looks like we have Commissioner Ramey, Commissioner Beeson, Commissioner Belling, Commissioner Edwards and Commissioner Yang as well as Commissioner Isaacson tonight. To begin this evening, I'd like to call on commissioner Ramey. It looks like if you're ready for it for the city's land acknowledgement statement.

I am ready wonderful since time immemorial. The people have been the indigenous stewards of our region, building dynamic communities, maintaining balance with wildlife and enacting sustainable land practices. This land acknowledgement is a way of resisting the erasure of Indigenous histories and to honor Native communities by inviting truth and reconciliation. Following treaties between 1851 and 1855, Kalapuya 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 peoples. The City of Eugene is built within the traditional homelands known as Kalapuya Ilihai. Kalapuya descendants are citizens of the Confederated Tribes of Grand Ronde Community of Oregon and the Confederated Tribes of the Siletz 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 Ramey, and thank you to everyone for joining us in this remote meeting format. This format enables planning commission to meet here from the community and take care of business efficiently. Anyone wishing to access and participate in the meeting can do so by following the access instructions listed on the agenda for this meeting. Eugene Planning Commission meetings can also be viewed by watching the live stream available on our website or the broadcast on Comcast Channel 21. Tonight, we are holding a public hearing on the Urban Growth Strategies Adoption Package Number 1. Before we begin receiving public testimony, we'll have a brief presentation from staff to introduce the project. And when we're ready to begin the public hearing, staff will provide instructions about the virtual hearing format and how to participate. To provide some context, the Eugene planning commission is not the final decision maker in this matter after planning commissioners have reviewed the proposed amendments and other relevant material provided by staff, including testimony from the public. The planning commission will make a recommendation to the Eugene city council. Then city council will consider the planning commissioners or the planning commission's recommendation and will hold their own public hearing before making their final decision on adoption of urban growth strategies adoption package number one. So I'd now like to introduce Rebecca Gershow from the Eugene Planning Division to begin the brief staff presentation. Nice to see you, Rebecca.

Nice to see you too, everyone. Can you hear me okay?

Yes.

Great. Let me get my slides adjusted. Can you see our presentation, everyone?

Yes.

Great. So thank you, Chair Lear. As you said, this is just going to be a brief presentation. I'm going through a quick project overview, our timeline, and what's included in this package under consideration by the Planning Commission. Urban Growth Strategies is identifying the tools, actions, policies, and land needed for the next 20 years to support living wage jobs and housing that everyone can afford. Building off the years of planning and community engagement through Envision Eugene, Urban Growth Strategies is evaluating the land needed for housing, jobs, parks, and infrastructure, as well as schools and identifying tools that can help Eugene grow more efficiently. So tonight's public hearing is on adoption package one, the first of our two 2026 adoption packages. As you can see here, the Planning Commission will be recommending at least four packages of proposed policies and actions through 2030. In a moment, I'll go through the proposed land use regulations included in adoption package number one. For all other topics included in later adoption packages, we encourage members of the public to hold your testimony until that topic is being considered by the Planning Commission. Again, tonight's hearing is on package number one. These are proposed actions that remove barriers to housing and jobs with end of year deadlines and that respond to state legislation. The next few slides are the proposed code amendments under consideration by the Planning Commission in this adoption package. Much more detail is included in the public hearing materials. So the proposed code amendments under consideration include establishing new development standards for a new housing type, micro village housing, and for single room occupancies. updating middle housing development and land division standards, increasing the maximum allowed building height in the R1 low density residential zone from 30 feet to 35 feet, allowing adult and child daycare centers and daycare homes outright in more zones, allowing residential treatment facilities, residential treatment homes, and similar uses outright in more zones, streamlining some residential land use applications by adding a new expedited application process, and temporarily extending the expiration dates for certain land use approvals. So tonight is the Planning Commission's public hearing. The meeting materials are available to members of the public at our project page website. here we also have complete project information and we also have information on the last planning commission work session from may 26th which is a good one to watch for more background information the planning commission will decide at the end of the meeting when to close their public record and then they will be deliberating and making a recommendation to council on july 14th and likely July 28th as well. Then the process moves to City Council and City Council's public hearing is scheduled for October 19th with action needed by the end of the year. And that's everything I have tonight. So I will turn it back over to Chair Leer. Thank you.

Thank you so much, Rebecca. Before we open the public hearing, I want to let the public know a bit about the Planning Commission and our role. We're unpaid volunteers appointed by the Eugene City Council. As planning commissioners, we're committed to balancing all of the community's needs and to making the best recommendations we possibly can based on city policies, Oregon laws for us and for future generations. That can be very difficult to do and we know not everyone will agree with every recommendation that we make. I want to thank everyone for their patience and flexibility as we work within the virtual meeting format tonight. As always, feel free to contact staff if there is testimony you were not able to provide during the public hearing or wish to provide in a different manner. I'd like to invite our moderator, Crystal Fisher, to provide instructions on how to get into the queue for providing verbal testimony at tonight's hearing. Crystal?

Thank you so much, Chair Lear. So hello, everyone. I am Crystal Fisher, and I will be the moderator for tonight's meeting. I'm going to cover a few items before we actually jump into the public hearing portion. But first off, I want to thank everyone for joining us in this virtual hearing and note that tonight's meeting is being recorded. It is time to sign up to speak if you wish to provide testimony tonight. You can get into the speaker's queue by raising your virtual hand. To do this, please click the raise hand button in the menu if you're joining on a computer or smart device. If you're joining us by a phone, you must dial star nine and you'll receive audio confirmation that your hand was raised. You can start raising your hands now as I continue to provide more instructions. I'm going to announce whose turn it is to provide public testimony, as well as announcing who is up next. When you are called to provide testimony, you'll be promoted to a Zoom panelist, which will allow you to unmute and turn on your video if you choose. Please do not unmute or turn on your video until it is your turn for testimony. Regular practice of the Planning Commission limits testimony to two to three minutes, depending on the number of speakers. For tonight's public hearing, testimony will be limited to three minutes per person. I will notify you when there are 30 seconds remaining in your allotted time. Each person is also allowed only one opportunity to testify. We will be allowing verbal testimony tonight, which means we will not be using the Q&A or chat functions here in Zoom. At the start of your testimony, please clearly state your name and your address for the record. When your public testimony is concluded or you reach the time limit, you will be muted and returned to the attendee status. So please be mindful of your time. And all that said, I'll hand it back to you, Chair Lear.

Thank you, Crystal. As Crystal just stated, if you'd like to speak and have not already raised your hand, please raise your virtual hand now to get in the queue. Testimony presented at this public hearing should be directed toward the applicable approval criteria or other criteria that the speaker believes apply to the decision. The applicable approval criteria for this decision, located in Eugene Code Section 9.8065, require that any land use code amendments must be consistent with applicable statewide planning goals, the Metro Plan and the Envision Eugene Comprehensive Plan, and any applicable adopted refinement plans. With that, I'm now opening the public hearing for the Eugene Planning Commission. Moderator, how many speakers do we currently have in queue?

We have 10 speakers in the queue right now.

Perfect. So we should have plenty of time tonight. And based on the numbers of speakers in the queue, each will be given three minutes to speak. We encourage you to submit any written testimony you have to the dedicated email address for this project, which is UGS at Eugene-OR.gov. Crystal, will you please provide any further instructions and then we can begin the public hearing testimony.

Thank you so much, Chair Lear. So again, if you wish to speak tonight, have not already done so, please raise your hand now. I'm going to announce whose turn it is to provide public testimony as well as who is up next. You'll be promoted to a Zoom panelist, which you'll have to accept to be able to turn on your video and then unmute. Please do not unmute until it is your turn. And also don't turn on your video until it's your turn to speak. As a reminder, we will not be using the Q&A or chat functions in Zoom tonight. When your public testimony is concluded or you reach the time limit, you will be returned to the Zoom attendee status. We are going to begin with testimony tonight from Greg Bryant. I'm going to be sending you a panelist invite now, followed by Joe Liebersbach. You're going to be getting a panelist invite now as well. Perfect, okay. All right, so Greg, you are up first. Your time will begin when you start speaking. And don't forget to say your name and your address for the record.

Okay, nobody can see me. Oh, there I am. Whoops, no, there we go. Yes, my name is Greg Bryant. I'm on the board of the South University Neighborhood Association. and speaking to you from Alder Street in Eugene. And I've been a resident of Eugene on all for over half a century. Can you hear me, everyone? I'm sorry, I have to look at you to see the nods. Yes, there it is, you're nodding. All right, good. Well, some of you may have gotten message that Suna has sent to you regarding our requests that you do not accept the extra five feet for middle housing in R1 and actually remove the roof bonus because it was very badly abused by the first people who used it here in our neighborhood. And I wanted to say that one commissioner, you know, questions are lovely. And so one commissioner asked quite reasonably if developers like the extra height or they needed it as an incentive. And the idea behind that made me feel a little bit like I was being kicked while I was on the ground. And the same would be true of everybody, I think, in the neighborhood, because the 22nd and Alder project is a predatory development. Its investors are extracting the value of the neighborhood at the expense of the residents and everybody in Eugene. So you offer an incentive to the developers and then we suffer as a result. And the suffering is real. I really want people to appreciate it. I think most people who have been to the site appreciate it and can see what's going on. The investors essentially have been given vastly more rights than the people who live here. In a wide swath of houses around this project, I've seen so many people traumatized, crying, asking why they were so unlucky to have their lives uprooted by this monstrous project, has forced them to move or forced them to suffer or stress about the future, to wonder if they're ever going to see the sky again from a window or not have dozens of windows looking into theirs or lit windows disturbing them all throughout the night. with or have a phalanx of heat pumps raising the temperatures around them with a building that itself is a massive heat island for this level of neighborhood because it covers so much of the lot with concrete as well as having storm water shedding issues because there's no absorption and no greenery these people have acted very badly they've been fined very heavily and they don't care they are building expensive housing that will raise the rental rates in Eugene, as all market rate housing has been doing. And this is, quite frankly, has made the people in the neighborhood feel that their neighborhood is being attacked and destroyed. If you'd like more information, I refer you to our letter. Thank you very much.

Thank you so much, Greg. Jill, before you begin, I'm going to go ahead and promote the next person. The next person we have after Joe will be Julie Rosberg. I'm promoting you to a panelist now. And Joe, you may begin whenever you are ready. And Joe, we cannot hear you. Can you hear me now? Okay, yes, we can hear you, yeah.

All right, it looks like my video is not working, so I apologize for that. But thank you for having me. Chair Lear, Vice Chair Beiling, and the members of Eugene City Planning Commission, my name is Joe Liebersbach. I'm here on behalf of the Eugene Chamber and the Eugene Young Professionals in support of these proposed code changes. We know Eugene needs more housing options, and middle housing is one of the most practical ways to create them within our existing neighborhoods. More broadly, we support policies that make it easier to create new units of housing, including the related housing policies included in the proposed urban growth strategies package one. One specific change that we want to highlight is the proposed increase from 30 feet to 35 feet in height. And that may sound small, but based on feedback that we've heard from developers, this change can be the difference between a project moving out of the ground or not. It can allow a clean third story, better roof design and more flexibility without forcing builders to cut corners on livability or quality of design. That extra story is often the difference between a fourplex and a sixplex on the same lot, which could drop costs significantly up to a third. In middle housing where margins are already thin, that is moving the needle significantly toward affordability and allows for lower rents to pencil these projects. This is a kind of practical targeted code change that we need to help Eugene create more homes more efficiently and while still fitting into the fabric of our neighborhoods. We urge you to support these updates. Thank you very much.

Thank you so much. And do you have your address that we can include in the record as well?

Yes, I apologize. 1401 Willamette Street.

Thank you so much. Thank you so much for your testimony, Joe. I'm going to return you back to the attendee. Julie, before you begin, let me go ahead and get the next person who will speak after you, which looks like that's Alice Ann. You should have a panelist invite coming your way. Julie, you may begin whenever you're ready. Oh, it looks like you're still muted. You might have to unmute first. Julie, we still cannot hear you. And Julie, we're still having some issues hearing you. You have to unmute yourself if you haven't already. Okay, Julie, we're gonna come back to you. So we're gonna let, oh, wait, did you get, I think I see you lighting up. Julie, are you there?

Yeah.

Oh, okay, there we go, now we can hear you.

Sorry about that. Okay, I'm Julie Rosberg, a resident homeowner at 2437 Riverview Street. in Eugene 97403. And I just wanted to comment that when we purchased our home, the laws in effect then were strictly against increasing density in R1 areas. The only way we were able to make the sale happen was to save a large down payment and craft our own personal middle housing model, so to speak. We had to wait to purchase until we found one that would pay for itself as a rooming house in addition to being our primary residence. So if the intent of the changes to the laws are to make it easier to support arrangements, such as aging in place, generational living, adding ADUs and flag lots, and individual room rentals, et cetera, I applaud those efforts. And I would hope that the intent of the changes to these laws take into consideration that there is a very real sensibility to maintaining the character of Eugene's older rural feel neighborhoods. When a location with a stated agreed upon neighborhood plan is in an urban wild land interface area, is accessed by narrow streets and has a history of being prohibitive for emergency response vehicles to navigate in a timely manner, not to mention no public transit and challenging terrain far from services, it is a location better preserved for what it is, a historical part of our city. There's also a very real place for multipurpose infill, which serves to avoid sprawl and revitalize underutilized urban lots near infrastructure, near public transportation and other services. So respecting each of these approaches, Eugene could achieve its density goals with integrity. However, allowing corporate developers to exploit the letter of the law by imposing maximum density developments in places where they really don't make sense is a mistake that the City of Eugene really should seek to avoid. That's my public comment.

Well, thank you so much, Julie.

We appreciate that. Thank you.

Alice Ann, before you begin, I'm going to promote the next person who is Alyssa Gilbert. And Alice, you may begin whenever you are ready. You will have to unmute. And Alice, if you're speaking, we actually cannot hear you. And we still cannot hear you, Alice. We still cannot hear you, so what we're going to do is we're going to come back to you and then we will have, let's see, Alyssa testify, but Alice, we'll come back to you. Alyssa, whenever you're ready, your time will begin when you start speaking.

Hi, everyone. My name is Alyssa Gilbert. I live at 2520 Jefferson Street in Eugene. I work for Shelter Care, which is a housing, mental health, and shelter organization that has been serving this community for over 55 years. We serve about 800 people a year, but despite that work, like ShelterCare is doing and many other shelter organizations, we still need a lot of help to get out of this homelessness crisis that we're currently experiencing. And unfortunately, the 3% rental vacancy rate is not really cutting it when we had over 10,000 people in this community that experienced homelessness last year in Lane County. In the next 20 years Lane County needs to build over 38,000 new housing units and we're only building around 1,800 to 2,000 units per year at this point. And recent construction efforts in Eugene Springfield only met about 40 to 50% of the calculated necessary annual growth. So that being said, I am advocating in favor of the adoption package number one which will make the necessary adjustments to our land use code in order to reduce barriers for housing developers and increase our housing supply while also allowing for more diverse types of housing for this very diverse community that we all live in a couple highlights for me are establishing new development standards for micro village housing and single room occupancies allowing these models to be used as rental or homeownership housing rather than only as temporary shelter, which will make these opportunities significantly more available to our low-income neighbors. Additionally, we also need to follow suit with the whole state as well as Salem, Bend, and Springfield by increasing the maximum allowed building height in the R1 low-density residential zone from 30 to 35 feet, That could mean the difference between a two story and a three story building, adding extremely necessary housing units in our new developments, making processes simpler and reducing barriers for developers to build diverse types of housing is what we desperately need to happen right now. And I urge you all to support adoption package one. Thank you.

Thank you, Alyssa. Alice, if you want to try to See if your mic is working. I'm going to get the next person promoted up to panelists. That's Joshua Purvis. And Alice, we still can't hear you. Looks like we might still be having some issues hearing you, Alice, so we will try again after Joshua here. Joshua, if you're ready, go ahead and you can unmute and turn on your video if you'd like, and your time begins when you start speaking.

Hey, Crystal, can you hear me okay?

Yes, I can.

Excellent. Good evening, Chair and Commissioners. I'm Joshua Purvis at 4810 Mahalo Drive. I'm the co-chair of Southeast Neighbors, and I'm here on behalf of a board which authorized this testimony by vote. Our written comment is already in the record, so I'll try to be brief. You don't often hear a neighborhood association ask the city to allow more housing in its own backyard, yet we're here to do exactly that. Southeast Eugene is small households and large homes. About 69% of our households are one or two people. Three quarters of our housing is single-family detached. More than a third of our households are 65 or older. Over 70% of new development here happens in R1. The homes this package would allow are the homes we don't have. Three pieces matter most to us. burst the streamlined approvals. Our members named process delay as the barrier most worth fixing. Eugene permits about 100 mental housing units a year against an adopted pace of 151, while the state now puts our overall need near 26,000 homes over 20 years, a roughly 70% jump from what we build today. One recent South Eugene project spent six months in review against a two-month state clock. Streamlined paths for projects that meet clear standards, paired with well-publicized hearings like this one, serve both production and real public input. Second, the micro village and SRO standards. Our written comment cites Square One's Rosa Village. Its sibling, Peace Village, is finished. 70 homes occupied since 2023 at about $163,000 each, all in. Proof that these smaller forms reach prices conventional construction cannot. Third, the R1 height increase, 30 feet, 35. springfield has allowed 35 feet since 2022 as have bend and salem the same comparators your site staff excuse me your staff site five feet is the difference between two stories and a third under a pitched roof one note is to go forward in our part of the city attention to wildfire hillsides And the pace of infrastructure will matter with simply observed that building in the urbanized core is itself I take pressure off the fire prone hills Thank you will look forward to staying engaged.

Thank you so much for your testimony. Alice if you want to try again, we can see if maybe your microphone is working, you will have to unmute i'm going to go ahead and promote the next person to speak, which will be dame butler. And Alice, we still cannot hear you, and it looks like you're still on mute. Okay, Alice, I think we're going to return you to the attendee status, but if you want to raise your hand again, we can try to get you back in here after. Dane, before you begin, I'm going to go ahead and get the next person who will speak after you, which is Abby. And Dane, you may begin when you're ready and your time starts when you begin speaking.

Okay. Can you hear me?

Sure can. Yeah.

Okay. Dane Butler reside at 3343 Wyndham Court. Our family's been building houses in Eugene Springfield for 46 years. And I'm joining in this on behalf of actually our architecture firms that we work with. And the 30 feet... uh probably seemed to be ample for a while when you're had completely flat lots and under older code code amendments the new codes require wider webbing for floor trusses and We've ran into this height restriction. So you have two projects. We finished a project at Skinner's Butte and another one currently on Gillespie Butte. And when you get into hillside development, which is pretty much all Eugene has left, I have two projects, and we've actually had probably seven that I've been knowledgeable of, that have ran into these height restrictions on two-story houses. And how the code was interpreted before was bottom finished floor to what I call the top elevation and then the roof from there. How it is being interpreted now even on hillside lots is they're taking the finished floor Then the pony wall, so if you have a downgraded lot, they're going to go below that finished floor. So say you have five or six feet, they're going to add that to it. And then the code actually now, according to my architects, goes out five feet. From the dwelling, and they'll shoot that grade. So we have in my structure right now, just based on topography has reduced 10 feet from the 30 feet. So we're running into even on 2 story structures. That 30 feet is not sufficient. And so our recommendation as a home building group is that we, if that is the new interpretation of hillside developments, that we increase it from 30 feet to 35 feet, because I think it will even help review staff on what I call the remaining lots that we have in the city of Eugene.

Thank you so much, Dane. And Abby, I did try to promote you to panelists. I'm going to send you an invite one more time. If you prefer, I can also just give you the ability to speak. Okay. Abby, you'll be up next, but let me go ahead and get John Stapleton. You'll be up after Abby. And Abby, you may begin whenever you're ready.

Hi, my name is Abby Brown. I currently reside at 890 East 22nd Avenue in Eugene, Oregon. I'm joining this public hearing specifically in support of micro village housing, a new typology that will provide an innovative approach and enable organizations aiming to move the needle in our heavy local homelessness crisis and make real progress. Micro village housing will enable ultra affordable housing models and housing development to occur by decreasing barriers to developing unusual sites and less unusual sites within the urban growth boundary. These ultra affordable neighborhoods will fill the gap for individuals currently making between zero and 30% AMI a group for which there are no housing options in our current housing stock. This ultra affordable housing model will also enable these individuals to stand on their own feet and rely less on local infrastructure or unhousedness. Thank you.

Thank you, Abby. And could you provide a last name for us?

Brown.

Sorry. Thank you so much. And thank you for your testimony. Okay. And John, you're up next, but let me go ahead and promote the next person, which is Bill Cluse. Okay. And John, you may begin whenever you're ready. Oh, and Bill, if you can hold off on having your video on until you're ready to speak, that'd be great. Thank you.

Can you see me and hear me?

We sure can.

Commissioners staff appreciate you being here and listen to our testimony. I'm here in support primarily the micro village housing, but all of the forms. That your proposals are taken for increasing our housing stock. We've been working with the city for a number of years now to figure out how to. Connect those very low income housing dots. We've been working primarily with square 1 and everyone village. I don't know if you're familiar with those organizations. They have figured out many of the solutions are our stranglehold point. Now our choke point now is land. And so, with your adoption of this, we will open up a lot more options and possibilities for land acquisitions to get these lower income folks into some more appropriately. Uh, price housing, so, oh, by the way, my address is 1645 East 43rd, same neighborhood as Joshua. So I want to just reinforce that we are in support of the of these proposals and we've been working for years to figure out how to make them fit into neighborhoods without undue burdens on the neighbors. And so I'd love to see this move forward.

Thank you so much, John. And Bill, before you begin, let me go ahead and get the next person promoted to a panelist, which looks like Sylvia Barry. And Bill, your time starts when you begin speaking. And you can turn your video on if you would like as well.

I'm trying to turn my video on here. That's what I'm really trying to do. Let's see what I can do. I'm not doing too well at that. I think I'm done. I think I'm done. Okay. Thank you. And I have no idea how I look here because I've got a new setup. Oh, there I am. Okay. All right. My head's too big. New setup. We'll fine-tune this. Missioners, go close. 375 West 4th Avenue, Suite 204 in Eugene. You have two letters for me in your stack of materials. One from... the 19th of June, and it is a big picture letter. It suggests that the commit, it says, I understand that this phase one package is really fixed and locked in. I'm urging you to focus on the phase two package or the adoption package number two. and get on the staff and urge them to raise their sights higher. I have listed a role model for the Commission to use, and that's the state, which over the last decade has passed a dozen bills which have really taken an axe to barriers to housing. All this legislation is crammed down legislation applies directly to the cities and cities have to comply. It's pretty significant stuff, ADUs, middle housing and so on. My suggestion to you is that when you're working with staff on the number two adoption package, you know, encourage them, challenge them to be as aggressive on removing barriers as the state has been. It's not happening so far. Adoption package number one is fine. It's positive. Maybe step in the right direction. Really, it's time to focus on phase two. Staff's going to say we don't have time to do all this stuff that Bill's suggesting. Of course. So take some things out of the current agenda for phase two and put in some bigger stuff, some stuff that aims higher. challenge them to match the governor. That's what I'm suggesting. You also have a bonus letter for me today. Today's date and it focuses on four items in this package, three of which. I think violate state standards for middle housing and middle housing land divisions. These items, if they stay in the package, really need to be challenged on appeal because otherwise they stay in code for everybody and they continue to they will continue to frustrate middle housing on a month to month, year to year basis. So those are very, very pointed points. criticisms explaining why I think they are not consistent with state law. So those deserve attention to in my 30 seconds. Perfect. In my, um, June 19th letter to you, I also included as an extra bonus, the staff's response to my really 10 questions that I put to you earlier in March. They responded March 30th. I was suggesting some very specific things that need to be done to really clear barriers in Eugene to housing. And I got a response from the staff on the 30th of March. They weren't too excited about my suggestions, but I'm not sure that they provided those to you. So I've attached them to that letter. Thank you very much.

Thank you, Bill. Okay, Sylvia, you're up next. And I just wanted to remind anyone if you haven't already provided testimony, I would like to please raise your hand. At this time, we don't have anyone else in the queue after Sylvia provides testimony today. Sylvia, you may begin whenever you are ready.

Thank you. Good evening, commissioners. My name is Sylvia Berry. I reside at 2105 Musket Street in Ward 5. And over the past four years, I have been working with an incredible group of community members to address our housing and homelessness crisis. What started as research and conversations evolved into a truly cross sector coalition called Act Now Lane with 49 partner organizations and growing, including businesses, government, nonprofits, health care individuals with lived experience and many more. We're all working together to reduce the number of people who are experiencing homelessness. And while staffing this coalition, one of the most important things that I have learned is that you cannot talk about homelessness without talking about housing. As you're well aware, Oregon has underbuilt for decades. In my lifetime, we have more than doubled in population in Oregon. In recent years, we were only building one unit per every three residents. So we've been under building for decades and research shows that our high rents and low vacancy rates have contributed to some of the highest rates of homelessness in the nation. I want to pause because a previous testifier talked about suffering, and there is a lot of suffering happening in our community right now. There are thousands of people living on the streets, and if we want to reduce the number of tents on the street and the nearly 1,500 people that are backlogged at our shelters right now, we have to build more housing. Act Now Lane partners are working hard to find land and funding and thoughtful but cost-effective models like some of the ones mentioned earlier. We're working with city staff on process improvements, but we need your help and urge you to fully adopt the Urban Growth Strategies Housing and Jobs Action Package. Oh my gosh, that's a mouthful. Including all components, the SROs and innovative micro village housing model that will provide deeply affordable options, especially for our unhoused and vulnerably housed community members, the updates to the middle housing development and land division standards, and the additional changes to reduce barriers to housing and job development, including the height restrictions, which I know everybody is not a fan of, but as previous testifiers have been so articulate, are really needed to get that extra third story, the extra units, and bring us into alignment with sister cities. So thank you so much for your work and for hearing our testimony tonight.

Thank you so much, Sylvia. Okay.

Will that be the last person, Crystal?

Yeah, I do not see anybody else who has their hand raised at this time. So yeah, I believe Sylvia was our last person to provide testimony tonight.

yeah thank you everyone for taking the time out of your evening to share your thoughts with us and to hear so many different perspectives from the community is always extremely valuable um and rebecca i'm assuming nothing else from you i can proceed to close the public hearing nothing else from staff thank you all right So I'll now close the public hearing. Planning staff has recommended that the commission hold the planning commission record open for a week to allow interested parties to submit additional written testimony. All testimony considered by the planning commission, as well as any testimony received following the close of the planning commission record, will be forwarded to the council for their consideration. Council will also hold their own public hearing on UGS adoption package number one. Do I have a motion to hold the planning commission record open until June 30th? At 5 PM, so moved.

I'll make that motion.

Thanks commissioner. There are seconds. Thanks commissioner. All those in favor if you'll put up your hand. Looks like that is unanimous. So that motion passes. Written testimony received by June 30th at 5 PM will be forwarded to and considered by the Eugene planning commission written testimony received after that date will be forward to the Eugene city council for their consideration. along with the recommendation from the planning commission there's a dedicated email address the public can use for submitting testimony it is ugs at eugene-or.gov staff will be preparing a memo to the planning commission in response to testimony before deliberations on july 14th 2026 at this time do any commissioners have questions for staff Not seeing any. Commissioner Ramey?

I do, and I'll be quick. Just stating the obvious here, I didn't have a chance to go through all of Carol Shermer's 179 pages, but because her comments are sort of scattered through there, so I'm hoping that staff is going to be able to summarize that for us. I think that would be helpful. Um, obviously bill closes 3 points about. Whatever is going on with the state law that we might be in conflict with. I'm sure that's got your attention and you'll sort those out. And then finally. I don't know where we are on the 7 foot bonus if we're is that I believe that's still part of the proposal. And what what is our flexibility to discuss that at this point?

Part of the information we're preparing is more input and information on height because it's so complicated. We've done more research and we're including the seven-foot addition for peaked roofs as part of that memo. And we will attempt to summarize Carol's input.

Okay. Any other questions from Commissioners? So the next step in this process is that the Agene Planning Commission will hold time on its July 14th agenda to deliberate and possibly make a recommendation on this matter. Next on our agenda for tonight is items from Commission and staff any other Commissioners have anything to share. Doesn't look like it. I did want to share a few thoughts myself. This will be my last meeting serving on the Planning Commission and as chair for the last couple of years in the Planning Commission. I wanted to share a few thoughts on that. It's really been a privilege and honor and a joy to work with everybody here. The most meaningful part to me has been engaging with people who really care deeply about the city. And when you do this type of work, those people are neighbors, they're not abstractions, and they show up because they want the city to be a better place than when they found it.

Here's my dog in the background.

This work that we're doing, it matters because it's rooted in real people that care about the place around us. And we increasingly live in a world where we have to question what's real and what's synthetic. Um, so much public life happens online, like this meeting where it's easy to reduce people to comments and labels and positions. But, you know, the people that show up are people, they're complicated and local government really reminds us that our neighbors are not just. Avatars that are making comments on Instagram, that they're people with real histories and concerns and hopes and fears. And Planning Commission and all the local commission and committee work is one of the rare places where people still have to encounter each other as human beings. It's so easy to shout at someone kind of online. but it's much harder to make time in your day to read stacks of municipal code and to review long staff reports and to attend meetings at night and to speak publicly and to look people in the eye and to respectfully disagree and to share your story and listen to the stories of the people around you. This kind of participation that we're doing is not always glamorous, but I think it is incredibly meaningful. It is the joys of meeting at home and managing your dog, seeing another dog down the street. Um, We use this term human scale development, and I really think of this work kind of as human scale democracy, where the act of just showing up and being respectful is itself a civic contribution. And so, yeah, I guess I wanted to thank staff directly and acknowledge the complexity of your work and the difficulty of it. And it's just the idea of working in the government at a time when public trust and public process and public expectations are so challenging. and to have the technical knowledge and the patience and the emotional discipline and to genuinely care is really impressive. So thanks for everything that you do for preparing staff reports and answering questions and taking our calls and helping commissioners understand complicated issues and for spending long evenings in public meetings like this and for putting your heart into the work. We know you carry a heavy load and that professionalism and care deserve recognition. I want to thank all my fellow planning commissioners as well. You all have your own full, complicated lives, and you've got families and friends and work and responsibilities and personal challenges, and you're spending your precious time here doing things that really help the people around you. So thanks for everything that you do, and this kind of volunteer service, as we say at every meeting, is easy to overlook, but it really matters. So thanks for giving your energy and your time and your care to the city that's around you and your neighbors that are around you. I want to repeat a little bit of what Bill said earlier today, and I want to invite staff and commissioners and community members to be bold. I want to encourage you to take risks and put your neck out and to remember that at whatever position you sit in the city and in government that you can make a difference by asking questions that other people are not and by challenging assumptions and by pushing the ideas that you care about and by helping everyone kind of imagine something a little bit better. Standing up for your community is a contagious act. more positive energy really creates a virtuous cycle that i think continues to benefit everybody i would finally note you know that development is at its best anyway not just about buildings it's it's about problem solving in real life it's about housing people it's about creating places for businesses to succeed and supporting jobs and helping people pay their bills and HELPING FAMILIES BUILD STABILITY AND CREATING CONDITIONS THAT ALLOW FOR OPPORTUNITY. PROCESS MATTERS A LOT AND PUBLIC INPUT MATTERS A LOT AND THOUGHTFULNESS MATTERS A LOT BUT ACTION REALLY DOES MATTER TOO. WE CAN'T SPEND A DECADE DEBATING EVERY ISSUE WHILE HOUSING GETS MORE OUT OF REACH. for the people that are around us and where businesses struggle and where people's lives become harder. A healthy city needs really strong public institutions, but it also really needs private initiative and energy and builders and employers and small businesses and medium businesses and risk takers and people that are willing to invest in the idea of a better future. You know, planning shouldn't just manage constraints. It should be thought of as creating conditions for progress and for opportunity. So I want to thank you all for the time that I've spent with you. I look forward to continuing to come and testify and have coffee with you and continue to work in the community from a different position. This work is imperfect. It's human. It's slow. But it's real. It's about what kind of city, we want to become and the invitation is to keep showing up to keep listening to keep building and to keep believing that Eugene can be a better place for everyone. So thank you so much for that. Commissioner Beeson.

Thanks. I want to say thank you very much to Commissioner Lear, Chair Lear, Jason. Thank you very much for your comments. I appreciate your perspective. Appreciate having worked with you last couple of years and your work as chair and your work as a commissioner. So I wish you the best and look forward to seeing you in the community. Thank you.

Thank you so much, Commissioner Beeson. It was a pleasure. Commissioner Isakson.

I just want to echo that as well. It's been a real pleasure getting to know you, Commissioner Lear. And we're all, I think, all sad to see you go. It's been fun because I think that you've added a lot of insight and context that I hadn't thought about in a lot of these different issues. So, you know, I for one wish you well and look forward to hearing what you're going to be doing in the future. I think Commissioner Beeson They're all jealous of your hair.

That's very kind, Commissioner Isaacson. It's been a real pleasure to get to know you as well. And Commissioner Ramey.

So again, to start with the obvious, yes, I wish I had your hair, but I'm late for that. But beyond your hair, what I appreciate you bringing to the meetings is this sort of work ethic that was important. I mean, not only did you show up, but you kind of did your homework. And I think That was really important. And watching you grow from just, you know, first meeting to be chair. It's been fantastic. Anybody can do it who has the sort of commitment and wants to spend the time learning about it, and has interest and passion for their community. And so you've been a great example of that. And I wish you well, wherever you go next. And maybe we'll see you here on the big screen soon.

Thank you, Commissioner Rainey. Thank you for the kind words. And Commissioner Yang, thanks.

Chair Lear, I'm new to the commission, but I want to thank you for your leadership. And I really appreciate when you brought your viewpoints forward in our meetings. They are well-grounded, and they're very thoughtful, and they're very balanced. So I always appreciate that quality in the chair. I wish you the best. Thank you very much.

Well, thanks everyone for being so kind and look forward to seeing you all again soon. Some other capacity on behalf. And I guess I can't skip ahead too fast. Terry, do you have any items to share for staff?

I do. Thank you so much. I want to echo all those comments and do your very last screen share here, Jason. Can you see this beautiful certificate?

Yes. Oh, look at that.

So this is your digital thank you. You'll get a real one. We're going to put this in a frame for you. And I'll ask you to meet up somewhere so I can hand it to you in person. But I just wanted to echo those thank yous to you. You've served as chair for two years out of your four on the commission. And it's been a really great experience for us to have you in this position. So thank you from all of the staff. That's item number one. My other things are really quick. They are, as already was mentioned, your next meeting is July 14th. You'll be having elections at that meeting. We need a new chair. So we'll have elections for a new chair and vice chair at that meeting. And also welcome and also do deliberations for UGS. welcome our new commissioner, Ethan Clevenger, to that meeting. We also have a new term for Commissioner Edwards, so that'll be our commission going forward into the next cycle. And that's all I have for staff updates.

Anyone else from staff have anything to share? On behalf of the Eugene Planning Commission, thank you all for joining us and speaking tonight. This meeting of the Eugene Planning Commission is now adjourned. Have a great evening, everyone. Enjoy this next phase of summer.

Thanks, Jason. Good night. Thank you.