BY ALAN PITTMAN
City Hall vs.
Developer Subsidy
City may have to choose one or the other
T
he city of Eugene may have to
choose between spending millions
on subsidizing a downtown devel-
oper or a new City Hall.
“Once this council moves to spend $50
million and give it to a private developer,
they’re going to be very hard-pressed to
find voters willing to hand them another
$100 million” for a new City Hall, said
Councilor Bonny Bettman at a July 11
meeting.
Councilor Betty Taylor also questioned
whether the city could do both. “People are
going to say, why didn’t you save that
money instead of spending it there” on the
developer, Taylor said.
Portland developer KWG has proposed
replacing local downtown businesses with
upscale chain stores, restaurants, condos
and parking garages.
Even without the massive developer
subsidy, the City Hall proposal will face a
tough time passing next November. A May
poll by city consultants found majority sup-
port for only a $50 million bond measure
for a new City Hall.
That’s far less than the current estimated
cost of up to $163 million for a new City
Hall. The poll found 59 percent support for
a $50 million City Hall measure, declining
to 26 percent support for a $200 million
measure.
Even after pushed with biased argu-
ments in support and no estimate of average
taxpayer cost, a $155 million City Hall
measure garnered only 48 percent support
in the poll.
Bettman argued that instead of spending
$50 million subsidizing the downtown
developer, the city should use that money
for a new City Hall to reduce the cost to
taxpayers.
The city estimates that about $40 mil-
lion of the money will come from urban
renewal funds with another roughly $10
million from city tax breaks.
The new Eugene Public Library was
built mostly with urban renewal funds, and
the City Hall project could legally tap the
funds also.
The city’s controversial urban renewal
program creates a funding stream by divert-
ing some property taxes from schools and
other government services. About 40 per-
cent of the money is diverted from state
school and community college funds, 51
percent from city of Eugene tax revenue
and 9 percent from Lane County revenue.
To fund $40 million in urban renewal over
the next 24 years, the program would take
about $16 million from school funds, $20
million from Eugene funds and $4 million
from county funds.
If the city used $40 million in urban
renewal for City Hall, it could add that
money to the roughly $40 million it has
stashed away in recent years for the project.
The City Hall stash was created in recent
years by not providing some services to cit-
izens while still collecting taxes. Along
with a $50 million bond, that’s almost
enough to pay for some of the more modest
City Hall proposals the city has examined.
The city might also save about $2 mil-
lion in rental and moving costs if it chose a
different site rather than tearing down the
existing City Hall.
Councilor Taylor said the city should
use its pit across from the library plus pur-
chase options on adjacent property for a
new City Hall. The city has proposed using
the sites to subsidize the downtown rede-
velopment plans of KWG.
Council conservative Mike Clark joined
progressives Taylor and Bettman in voting
against using the current City Hall site.
With the downtown redevelopment project
up in the air, “I think we don’t have as clear
enough picture of our downtown to make
this decision” to chose a site, he said. Clark
also argued that the city should spend its
City Hall money to “fix the potholes first.”
One wildcard in passing a City Hall bond
measure is the police station. Bond votes for
a new police station have failed three times
at the polls. In the most recent 2004 vote, the
‘Once this council moves
to spend $50 million and
give it to a private
developer, they’re going
to be very hard pressed to
find voters willing to
hand them another
$100 million.’
— C OUNCILOR B ONNY B ETTMAN
city asked voters for only $7 million, pro-
posing to use about $29 million then in the
City Hall stash for the rest. But the measure
still failed with 60 percent voting no.
Bettman said the city appears to be
heading toward repeating that failed vote.
In an earlier council vote, the city decided
to move police patrol out of City Hall into a
separate building. Now the council has
voted 6-2 to consider an “incremental”
approach to a City Hall that could involve
building the police station first.
City staff denied it, but Bettman said
that could result in two bond measures: one
for a police station followed by one for City
Hall. Bettman said given that the 2004
measure “failed miserably,” the two meas-
ures would fail. “It will never happen.”
If so, the city would have come full cir-
cle back to the same failed ballot measure
after spending $2 million on City Hall con-
sultants.
ew
EUGENE
WEEKLY
CAMP
GUIDE
MA K E I T S H OJ I ’S
F OR D IN N ER
A ND A S H O W!
Tableside
Teppanyaki
Sushi Bar
'EMSTONES
Awesome Gemstone Beads
from JR Perez at Beadrageous
Come and enjoy the cream of
the gemstone crop from our
favorite stone vendor
Friday & Saturday
August 3 & 4
Birthdays
High Country Expeditions
Anniversaries
Daily rivers trips on the Upper McKenzie and Klamath Rivers.
FUN, FRIENDS, FIRE
& FLASHING KNIVES!
Orders to go!
Early Bird Specials 5 to 6pm
Gift Certificates Available
Menu at makeitshojis.com
3 4 3- 8 4 8 3
*$ 45
Open Late Friday
Live Music with
Green Mountain Bluegrass
* Trips also available on other great NW Rivers *
WEDNESDAYS!
*Must mention special at time of booking
Come see us at Belknap Hotsprings • Everything you need to know @
2645 Willamette
(Also in Bend & Medford)
5pm-9pm Tu–Th & Su • 5pm-10pm F–Sa
www.HighCountryExpeditions.com
888-461-7238 • 541-822- 8288
AUGUST 2, 2007
13