Alyssa Hunter, the city's planning director, opened the second half of the Nov. 12 work session with a focused briefing on voluntary annexations as a tool to unlock housing production for property inside the urban growth boundary but outside Eugene city limits.

Hunter outlined four potential incentives: (1) proactive outreach, education and partnerships (low-cost, staff-managed); (2) leveraging Public Works'led street or public-land annexations to invite adjacent owners to join at no cost; (3) waiving or reducing the annexation application fee ("a little over $5,000," Hunter said) to remove a financial barrier; and (4) using a state-authorized property-tax differential to phase in the city tax rate over up to 10 years.

Hunter presented numeric examples. Using typical assessed values in River Road and Santa Clara, she estimated annexation would increase a typical River Road household's total annual tax bill by about $545 (roughly 16%) and a typical Santa Clara household's bill by about $1,400 (about 51%). Hunter also presented estimated general-fund revenue per annexed home (approximately $1,350 in River Road and about $1,400 in Santa Clara) and noted roughly 3,300 unannexed lots in River Road and about 4,400 in Santa Clara.

Hunter described two recent local redevelopment examples to show revenue impacts: a divided lot now contributing roughly $2,710 annually to the general fund and a vacant R2 site redeveloped with 31 townhomes that now contributes about $14,000 per year.

She also briefed the council on possible legislation under consideration by housing advocates that would remove the contiguity requirement for annexation (allowing annexation of properties inside the UGB that are not contiguous to city limits). Hunter cautioned that staff had not yet seen bill language and that service-delivery implications (for fire, water and other providers) would need careful analysis.

Councilors generally expressed support for exploring incentives but repeatedly asked that any fee-waiver or tax-differential proposals be targeted (for new housing or specific outcomes) rather than universally applied. Councilor Clark asked how many years of additional tax base would result once a 10-year deferral expired; councilors also raised concerns about the fiscal impact of waiving application fees, staff capacity to process more annexations, and the complexity of service provision in a "patchwork" of jurisdictions.

Mike, the city's fire chief, described practical public-safety consequences of patchwork service boundaries and mutual/automatic aid: the city often provides partial or non-reciprocal responses into unannexed areas, which strains city resources and complicates dispatch.

Hunter said staff intend to proceed with more proactive outreach and continued use of street/public-land annexations, and asked the council for direction on piloting an application-fee waiver and the tax-differential option; staff offered to return with pilot parameters, revenue-replacement options and more detailed tax modeling. No ordinance or vote was taken Nov. 12; councilors asked staff to return with targeted options and further analysis.