District 16 Planning Council

January 8, 2004

Members Present: Brostrom, Clapp-Smith, Dobson, Flahaven, Hardy, Harrison, Konstan, McKeen, Orman-Awe, Odman, O’Toole, Rathman, Reding-Galarneault, Smith, Sanders, Siekmeier, Wichman, Zoltai

Members Absent: Linder, Preus, Barrera, Wolf, Rapp

Clapp-Smith called the Meeting to order at 7:00 PM

1. Additions to the Agenda: There were no additions to the agenda

2. Approval of November Meeting minutes

Approval of the November Meeting minutes where delayed until next month.

3. GABA Request for Grand Old Day

Amanda Schultz made a request to allow Grand Old Day stay open for an additional hour until 6:00 p.m.. This would raise additional money that could be used to beautify the avenue, add a progressive supper and to also do more children’s activity. This is one of the only fund raising activities that GABA and businesses make money by selling the wristband plus 10% of the liquor sold. GABA already plans to increase the cost of the wristbands from 4 to for dollars. GABA is trying to increase sponsors. They also make money off of the vendors.

The hours of activities would last from noon until six pm. The run and the walk is the first event of the morning and it dictates the start of the parade, which starts at 10 am. The neighborhood churches do not want it to start any earlier. The additional hour cannot be gained by starting the events earlier, and would have to be at the end of the day.

GABA’s expenses include Cops, beer, toilets, and advertising. Members asked what amount of revenue is generated. The committee wanted to understand better the cost benefit to GABA in order to make any kind of decision. Many believe that this is a difficult and imposing day on the neighborhood, so what’s an additional hour. There will be a neighborhood meeting coming up and this should be discussed at this time

A motion was made to table the decision until the neighborhood can discuss this issue and GABA comes back with more specific cost information. This request is to be published in the
“The Avenue” (Grand Gazette) to notify the neighborhood prior to the February 12th meeting.

A friendly amendment was made to receive the cost benefit projection prior to voting.

Motion was seconded and approved

4. Executive committee Report

Update on Executive Director Hiring Process.

The selection has been narrowed down to 5 highly qualified candidates.

Update on Chipolte Restaurant at Grand and Victoria

The city has approved the renovation of the old Lotus space into a smaller size Chipolte Restaurant in order to accommodate the additional parking needs. The city cannot deny a license based on parking issues alone. The city has no grounds to prevent Chipolte from moving in to the space. Licenses can be withheld if it jeopardizes the health, safety and welfare of the community. This may be a long shot, however it gives us something to argue about.

The SHA notified the neighbors about the development. We encouraged them to notify the city council of their concern of the development. Many of them did because they copied SHA on their letters.

Bostrom suggested that we get an understanding of the turn over that was generated by the Lotus to compare it against a typical Chipolte. This would be considered an increased intensity of use. The next step is to gather data to bring to the discussion for traffic and compare it against the Lotus. Dobson volunteered to count the traffic on the traffic at the Chipolte in Highland.

The city views the parking in an un-real world. They do not require additional parking as long as the new use does not increase the parking needs.

SHA has been unsuccessful at getting the city to get a real parking count on Grand Ave. so that we can have a better handle on the parking shortage.

A few of the executive committee members will meet with Dave Thune to discuss how to stop the opening of Chipolte.

5. Committee Reports

A. Communications Committee

Update on Web site Development. We are still waiting for the design elements from the Web design firm. They should have something to show us by next Monday. Once we approve the design, it should be quick to get it up and going. The main framework of the site is complete. It should take about two more weeks and it should be up and running.

B. District 16 Planning Committee

Clapp-Smith provided the update on the District 16 Planning Committee. The committee met this Monday. We got through all of the major points of discussion. It should be distributed by the end of January. The draft should be completed by Saturday Feb 28^th. We are also going to send it to GABA for this distribution.

B. Environment Committee

The committee is getting organized. There is nothing happening at this time.

D. House Tour – Development Committee

Fall fund raising is doing well. Pledges and contributions have increased over last year at this time. It also helps that we are saving on expenses. Final selections of the houses will get rapped up at the next meeting. We are close getting all 15 houses lined up. We still have no word about the governor’s mansion.

E. Pedestrian Safety and Traffic Calming Committee

Monica Beeman from Public Works attended the last meeting. A number of things were discussed such as additional signage and a device map of all of the lights in the district.

F. Zoning and Land use

Two zoning variances where presented prior this meeting.

The committee approved the first proposal.

The second proposal was for 1026 Kenwood Parkway, which proposed a connection of a house addition to the existing garage. There was discussion about erosion control. The connection made it a major variance, however it really was not. There was only one neighbor objection represented through by a letter from their lawyer. The committee granted approval.

Discussion of Carriage houses was laid over until our next Zoning and Land Use meeting in February.

Bonfire Restaurant and Bar liquor license transfer at 850 Grand Avenue will be discussed at the next meeting. Their current liquor license is a provisional left over from Ciatti’s.

The next meeting is January 20^th, 2004.

6. Executive Director’s Report:

Bialles is leaving and currently working for both SHA and her new position. She will be difficult to get a hold of.

7. Treasurer’s Report:

Bialles made a quick treasurers report. The year-end report indicates we did much better then anticipated. We are down about $34,000 instead of the $56,000 projected. If not for the planning expenses, our expenses would have been equal to our income. This is astonishing on a non-house tour year. We only have good things to look forward to.

8. GABA report:

GABA was not present to make a report.

9. Old Business/New Business/Announcements:

“Coffee House” is a series of meetings with Matt Entenza at different neighborhood houses. Everyone is welcome.

No other announcements where made.

A presentation was made to Ellen Biales for her years of service. She was presented with a plaque, gift certificates and cake.

10. Adjournment:

A motion was made to adjourn the meeting at 8:30 P.M. The motion received a second and passed unanimously.

Next meeting will be held Thursday, February 12, 2004 at 7:00 P.M. at the Linwood Center, Meeting room.

Minutes recorded by Deborah Rathman, Secretary