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The existing financial situation causes both the district and the City to have a structural imbalance with <br />the growth in revenues not keeping up with the costs to maintain the current service system. Both <br />agencies have been using reserves in the past few years to maintain services. No amount of transferred <br />money will solve the structural problems. <br />Annexation Policy <br />The City Council last reviewed River Road/Santa Clara annexation strategy at a council work session on <br />January 24, 2007. The council passed a motion which halted the practice of adding right -of -way to <br />annexation requests in the River Road/Santa Clara area where such additions would create islands. <br />The City of Eugene's annexation policy is primarily derived from the Eugene - Springfield Metropolitan <br />General Plan (Metro Plan). There are seven themes or principles that are basic or fundamental to the <br />entire Metro Plan. <br />6 The Metropolitan Plan is based on the premise that Eugene and Springfield, the two existing cities, <br />are the logical providers of services accommodating urban levels of development within the urban <br />growth boundary. <br />One of the objectives in this section of the plan is to: <br />11 Identify methods of establishing an urban transition program which will eventually reduce service <br />delivery inefficiencies by providing for provision of key urban services only by cities. <br />The policies section addresses annexation specifically as follows: <br />16 Ultimately, land within the urban growth boundary shall be annexed to a city andprovided with the <br />required minimum level of urban services. While the time frame for annexation may vary, <br />annexation should occur as land transitions from urbanizable to urban. <br />18. As annexations to cities occur over time, existing special districts within the urban growth boundary <br />shall be dissolved. The cities should consider developing intergovernmental agreements, which <br />address transition issues raised by annexation, with affected service districts. <br />These policies have been implemented in both the City Code and Lane Code to require annexation <br />before new development is permitted. All of the annexations in the past 20 years in the River Road area <br />have been at the request of property owners, primarily to develop property. Most of the undeveloped <br />properties have been annexed to the City. In recent years, most of the annexations have been single lots <br />intended to be partitioned to allow additional development. It is highly unlikely that additional major <br />annexations in the River Road area will occur under the current policy. <br />The 2007 Oregon Legislature eliminated the Lane County Local Government Boundary Commission <br />and the responsibility for approving annexations transferred to the City on January 1, 2008. The City <br />was scheduled to review the first two annexations under this process on July 14, 2008, neither of which <br />is in the River Road area. There are no annexation requests currently pending in the River Road area. <br />The transition from the Boundary Commission to the City eliminated the opportunity for non - contiguous <br />CADocuments and Settings \cewmjrm\Local Settings \Temporary Internet Fi1es \0LKE8 \S080723A.doc <br />