July 8, 2004 - Summit Hill Association

Board of Directors of the

Summit Hill Association

District 16 Planning Council Minutes

Thursday July 8, 2004 7:00 – 8:45

Members Present: Barrera, Breymeier, Clapp-Smith, Dobson, Flahaven, Hardy, Harrison, Konstan, Odman, Orman-Awe, Reding-Galarneault, Siekmeier, Wichman, Zoltai

Members Absent: Brostrom, Johnson, Linder, O’Toole, Preus, Rathman, Sanders, Smith

Guests: Councilmember Dave Thune, Eric Thompson, Lori Kustritz, Lee and Paul Gieser.

Meeting was called to order at 7:05 by President Merritt Clapp-Smith

1. Addition to agenda: John Siekmeier asked that Eric Thompson from City Park and Rec be added to the agenda before item #4 regarding “Livable Lexington”. Maureen Flahaven wanted to put the “60 day time limit for appeals” and it was added under agenda item # 10.

2. Livable Lexington: To keep the agenda moving President Clapp-Smith had Eric Thompson address the board. Eric is the Director of Park Security and is also in charge of City Bike Coordinator. It is the Mayor’s goal to address the city’s “speed”, “access”, “pedestrians”. The conceptual plan is to make St. Paul a “Livable Community”, and under that plan is to make Lexington Parkway a 2 lane, with center median with bike route. The reason for this is that Lexington is a direct connect from West 7^th to Center City. It could be a linkage if Light Rail was to go through University, but Lexington is linkage to the current bus system. Lexington is also a linkage to schools and park areas. Eric addressed that according to studies, traffic lanes that are narrowed slow traffic down. Lexington is a County Road, so this will take the county commissioner, Ramsey County, City and MNDOT to agree for this to get off the starting block.

Q and A

Q. Maureen: How wide are they now? A. Not sure

Q. Jim Harrison: Census of bike use? A. No actual counts, however, Biking and Walking are the 1 and 2 choices for recreation.

Q. Marcia: Is there a Precedent for Right on Red elimination? A. Don’t Know.

Q. Dan Dobson: Has anyone looked into using Fairview verses Lexington? A. Yes, many routes have been looked at.

Q. How does Public Transit fit in? All MTC busses are equipped with Bike racks.

ACTION ITEMS

Direct all letters to the SHA office or to Eric before September

3. Permit Parking

Several residents have indicated interest in changing the hours or boundaries of the Zone 9 Parking Zone or petitioning to create other permit zones within the Summit Hill Neighborhood. Lori Kustritz, Bill Skally and Dee & Paul Gieser attended the meeting and were among those interested in making changes. Karen Chen from Avon Place Condominium could not attend. The proposed changes are the following:

Extend hours on current Zone 9 signs from 1 am to 2 a.m.
Create permit parking both sides of Summit from Victoria to Dale
Create permit parking to include the square block of Grand/Dale to Dale/Lincoln to Lincoln/St. Albans, St. Albans/Dale

City Council Member Dave Thune was present and said that extending the time from 1 am to 2 am could be done by the City Council without using the petition process. However, the new areas would need to have 60% of all neighbors sign a petition. Discussions of the following: Have this process tied to Bar Owners Licenses. Could the Vic Ramp be used for workers? Courtesy to leave all walkways open for pedestrians? Ability to deputize residents to write tickets? City allows permits to apartment dwellers? Currently, residents have 4 permits and can purchase Special Events permits at the SHA office for special occasions.

Motion: To have the city change the current Zone 9 signage from 1am to 2 a.m.. Passed

Ad Hoc Parking Permit Subcommittee was set up to work with Councilmember Thune and craft comprehensive solution to the residents’ concerns and the need for changes or additions to the permit zone: Dan Dobson, Nancy Breymeier, John Siekmeier, Dave Thune, Bill Skally, Eduardo Barrera.

Ad Hoc Parking Enforcement Subcommittee will be put together by Dan and Charlie to work with residents to document who is doing the violations and which bars they are coming from. Dan Dobson had the luxury of doing a ride along with the police and learned that Target Rich Environment (TRE), is an area that you are able to write a large volume of citations in a small amount of time such as University Avenue, Ayd Mill and 35E.

A letter drafted by residents concerned with Bonfire and other establishments was approved by SHA and already distributed in the Lincoln Avenue area informing people of how to deal with any violations of Bonfire’s zoning requirements.

Maureen congratulated Dave Thune on his work on the Smoking Ban. She asked about the 60-day time frame to hear appeals. He mentioned that it will probably pass based on the fact that the Mayor, City and the PED staff are asking for it also.

3. District Council Funding:

Board reviewed draft SHA letter to all City Council members in support of the recommendations coming from the 2004 Ad Hoc Committee on Citizen Participation that was charged by the City Council in April with creating recommendations on City-wide District funding, accountability, inclusiveness and city staff support. Discussions followed regarding recruiting more renters for the SHA Board. Letter should add Councilmember Thune’s name to the addressees and spelling of Lee Helgen’s name.

Motion to approve letter with corrections. Passed

4. Volunteer Recruitment of Renters

Jeff and Merritt shared the need for increasing our efforts to once again reach out to and recruit renters for open SHA Board seats so that the Board better reflects the neighborhood

(over 50% residents are renters) and for volunteer projects in general. Methods will include working with block leaders, door knocking multi-unit housing, “fun” recruitment gatherings, check off list in The Summit and in Avenues, etc. When we do door knocking, Merritt and Jeff asked Board members to help with the recruitment efforts once we have dates. Block leader Ross Goldberg and property owner Bill Skally will help in the effort.

5. Committee Reports

Communication

Four people have volunteered to be trained as committee liaisons to the website for updating each committee page. Those people are Steve - Environment Committee, Dan - Pedestrian Safety/Traffic Calming, Stephanie – Communications and Maureen – ZLU.

Environment

July 15^th is Clean Up Day at Linwood. This will go out on email.

House Tour

1) As Board members, we all volunteer to help on the House Tour – sign up sheet was sent around again.

2) Need Board members to place promotional lawns signs on busy streets – Jeff has signs in the office.

3) We are setting up an Internet Merchant Account on the SHA website so people can purchase tickets on line as well as at business locations. Board must approve Elan – Nova Network contract (handout) and assign three people as signatories.

Motion: Approve contract and assign Jeff, Merritt and Todd as signatories. Unlike the contract language, SHA will require that 2 signatories must sign for any changes to the account. Passed.

Pedestrian Safety and Traffic Calming

“Welcome to Summit Hill – Please Drive Safely” lawn signs are available at the SHA office for $10.00, this includes mounting brackets.

Zoning and Land Use

They have not met in a couple months. There is a possible issue brewing about the Bibilot Corporate office and delivery trucks noise and “warehousing”. Jeff is waiting for a written complaint.

Jim says that banners on the Grand Ave. businesses are not compliant with code, try to talk to owners to get them down.

6. GABA report

GABA membership is at an all time high of 175. New events include a “Boo Bash”, and a “Progressive Dinner”. Blooming Day is July 31^st. GABA is looking into Holiday Decorations. Decorating Seminar, Wine tasting, Shop and Dine and Grand Meander will be all separate to keep people coming to the avenue…just not all at once!

7. Treasurer

Audited is completed and auditor will be making a short presentation to the Board in August.

Motion was passed to approve June Financials Reports.

Adjourn 8:47