Councilors hit `pause' button.

Byline: Edward Russo The Register-Guard

Eugene planners wanted a green light from the City Council on Wednesday to move ahead with a public parking garage next to the proposed Whole Foods Market downtown.

They got a flashing yellow light instead.

The City Council decided that it should hold a public hearing on March 13 in order to exempt the garage project from public bidding requirements. After that, the council will take key votes to move the overall project forward.

With the procedural decision on the public hearing, the council may have slowed the downtown redevelopment project a tad.

But they refused to put up a red light on it: They declined to go along with Councilor Betty Taylor, who asked the council to hold a public hearing to gather comment on whether the city should even be part of the Whole Foods project. Taylor didn't get a second on her motion.

Councilors opted to promptly hold the hearing on whether to hire a public garage builder with a no-bid contract before they decide the overall project's fate.

Councilors did so mainly to avoid the appearance of taking key votes on the project now, then holding the hearing later, and appearing biased in favor of the Whole Foods developer, who wants to build the parking garage and sell it to the city.

The council should "follow the letter of the law and keep this process as clean as possible," Councilor George Poling said.

Whole Foods Market would have two levels of its own parking above the store at Broadway and High Street. But the developers would like a city-funded adjacent public parking garage.

City Manager Dennis Taylor and city planners had wanted councilors to endorse the entire project on Wednesday, and then for councilors to hold the public hearing on bidding issues. The hearing is required under state law before the City Council can waive the public bidding rule.

Some councilors weren't happy about learning only recently that a hearing was needed.

"Mr. City Manager, who is asleep at the switch?" Councilor David Kelly asked. "This project has been in the works for months."

Investors made up mainly of the local Giustina family own the property that would house Whole Foods. They have hired Portland-based developer Gerding Edlen to build the store. The developers have proposed that Gerding Edlen build the adjacent 260-space public parking garage for the city at the same time as the store is built.

City planners like that idea, saying Gerding Edlen could build the garage for $7 million during the store's construction. City planners have said they believe that would be cheaper than if the city were to bid the project separately.

Councilor Bonny Bettman last week voted against the city's participation in the project. On Wednesday, she objected to the council voting on the overall project before having the public hearing on the bidding exemption.

The council's endorsements were to include whether to direct city staff members to swap city-owned land with a nearby landowner and enter into an agreement with the developers for the public garage.

If councilors went ahead and endorsed the project with Gerding Edlen as the developer of the store and the public parking garage, "then we are already pre-supposing the outcome of a legally required public hearing," Bettman said.

The public hearing could yield information about whether exempting the garage project from bidding rules is the correct thing to do, she said. For example, the hearing might reveal interest from other potential garage developers, she said, or it might show that waiving the public bidding rule would result in a "demonstrable public benefit."

Councilors on a 7-0 vote ultimately agreed with Bettman. The council is to vote on March 15 - two days after the public hearing - whether to endorse the project.

Taylor, the councilor from south Eugene, wanted a more expansive public discussion.

Poling said the public hearing on the bidding exemption should not be used by people who object to the project, including those who are opposed to Whole Foods Market coming to town because they fear the nation's largest natural foods grocer will harm locally owned organic food stores.

"The purpose of the hearing is on the exemption, not on the project," he said.