River Road/Santa Clara Urban Services Committees Final Report and Recommendations

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i MAJOR THEMES 0 A COLLABORATIVE APPROACH TO THE RIVER ROAD/SANTA CLARA TRANSITION by Charles Kittleson A persistent theme in the committee's discussions has been concern for more active collaboration between River Road/Santa Clara residents and local government in managing our transition into the City of Eugene. We have been in an incremental transition for fifteen years under the City's policy of non-contiguous annexation. We find that everyone affected by this policy has some sort of problem stemming from it: Indeed, that was the reason given us by the Councils for the formation of our committee. Perhaps the time has come to reconsider that policy, rather than to attempt to band-aid the effects. In any case, the Committee has come to believe that we could do better with updated policies, a clear- to- all transition plan, a defined program for implementation, and, certainly, with active management of the transition. We believe that constructive changes can occur if the City Council and Lane County Board of Commissioners will choose to actively collaborate with the mainstream of River Road Santa Clara residents. The committee recognizes three distinct orientations to urbanization/annexation: Ruralist, Urbanist, and Suburbanist. The ruralist wants minimal government, urban services, and taxes and wishes to sustain a rural atmosphere in the face of growth. The urbanist wants and presumes the necessity of the full spectrum of city services, wants a quality local government to provide services, and considers the city template a `middle class bargain.' The suburbanist falls somewhere in between the ruralist and the 1! urbanist. If our committee is, in fact, a representative cross section of the River Road/Santa Clara population, this. ' finding is troublesome. The large majority of the committee are suburbanist, but the discussion about transition issues and annexation questions is being framed by the strongly positioned views of ruralist and urbanists. From our public hearings, we learned that the ruralists are centered in the `old guard' who have lived in the River Road Santa Clara area `forever'. Besides their ruralist preferences, they tend to be especially anxious about pocketbook issues, and may be retired or on fixed incomes. The committee believes that their views deserve respect and reasonable accommodation; after all, they have deep roots and commitment to the area. Yet we do not believe that, as an apparent minority, they should control discussion of urban transition by way of negative activism. In fairness, urban fundamentalism is also I, troublesome. The management and planning staffs of local government naturally tend to be professional urbanists and they can become overbearing in recognizing the legitimacy only of the urban template, which-is the only image of the future that has been projected for us. Therefore, we hope the City Council and Lane County Board of Commissioners will deliberately build i bridges to the suburbanist majority of River Road Santa Clara residents. Continuing the polarized status - quo probably means many years of creeping, incremental annexation that builds an ever higher wall of ignorance on each side of the Chambers Connector. One of Einstein's conclusions was: `You can not solve a problem with the same mind that created it.' We wish the City Council and Lane County Board of Commissioners would set aside the mind that has us trapped in a stand off transition, and help to find some creative new directions to collaborate with our communities. We ask you to shape majority ' oriented policies, plans, action programs and undertake the active management of our transition into the City of Eugene. This is too important to leave in the hands of malcots of any stripe. 11