assets, including the Airport, and the wastewater and stormwater systems. However, other City <br /> infrastructure systems face a current, and growing, need for reinvestment in deferred maintenance. A <br /> Council goal could be to adopt a set of strategies that ensure funding to reduce or eliminate the backlog <br /> of maintenance needs for all City infrastructure. <br /> The City currently has approximately 140 structures, with a replacement value of about $120 million. <br /> Although the Council has supported a capital budget of $1.9 million for preservation of General Fund <br /> buildings, the annual investment in capital preservation and maintenance continues to be underfunded. <br /> The deferred maintenance on these facilities is increasing. The additions to builidng inventory, <br /> including the new Fire stations, the 911 Center and, in the next few years, a new Library, will increase <br /> the annual maintenance needs, further limiting the ability to commit funds to address the backlog in <br /> facilities maintenance. <br /> The development of new park facilities will also increase the demand on the General Fund to fund <br /> maintenance of those facilities. Currently, the City's investment in parks maintenance is below the <br /> average for similar communities within the region. Even with increased partnership with volunteers <br /> and community groups donating labor or funds for parks improvements and maintenance, the City will <br /> still need additional resources. In a survey done for the Mayor's Parks and Open Space Committee, <br /> Eugene ranked 16 our of 22 cities and parks districts in measures of expenditures per acre of park <br /> land and per capita. One of the recommendations in the Committee's final report to the Council <br /> included "...a tax measure to fund increased park maintenance should be placed before the voters <br /> within two years." <br /> The City's surface transportation system also has a backlog of deferred street preservation needs. The <br /> actual level of resources available to address street preservation has decreased in the past few years, as <br /> Lane County has reduced the level of revenue shared with cities within the County. In Eugene's case, <br /> this has meant a reduction of approximately $1 million over four years. The City's transportation <br /> services must also address the community's growing expectations around growth management, <br /> neighborhood livability and traffic calming at the same time that the City is faced with revenue <br /> constraints to implement additional services. <br /> As the cost of ongoing maintenance of the expanding street network increases, the ability of the City to <br /> adequately address the growing backlog of street preservation needs has decreased. The street <br /> condition analysis completed as part of the Transplan update found that a current backlog of $38.8 <br /> million in street preservation needs. Even with increases in State gas taxes, which are the City's only <br /> current source of revenue for maintenance of the transportation system, the City will not have enough <br /> resources to address the preservation backlog. A new local revenue source will be required to fully <br /> address this backlog. <br /> Potential strategies to address a Council goal of meeting this range of maintenance needs could <br /> include: <br /> - Reduce or eliminate the deferred maintenance backlog for General Fund buildings and <br /> facilities. <br /> - Adopt a long -range facility investment strategy to fund an adequate level of ongoing <br /> maintenance and preservation of City buildings. <br />