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March 11, 2004
Board of Directors
Summit Hill Association
District 16 Planning Council
Members Present: Barrera, Brostrom, Breymeier, Clapp-Smith, Dobson, Flahaven, Hardy, Harrison, Konstan, Odman, Orman-Awe, O’Toole, Rathman, Reding-Galarneault,
Sanders, Siekmeier, Smith, Wichman, Zoltai
Members Absent: Linder, Preus,
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
November 2003, January and February Meeting minutes were approved.
3. GABA Report
John Wolf will no longer be the GABA representative. Nancy Breymeier is the new president of GABA and will be attending SHA Board of Directors meetings for the next two years.
4. Review of Bill of Rights Defense Resolution
A presentation was made on the privacy safeguards adopted by the City of Saint Paul. Short discussion followed. Motion made, seconded and passed to approve the resolution and send a letter to that effect.
5. SHA membership and vacancies
Vacant board positions will remain open until the election this fall. We have gone through the list of alternate positions. We presently have members on the board that consistently attend meetings and affectively represent the neighborhood.
6. New York Eagle at Overlook Park
Denise Begvudier attended the SHA board meeting to recruit volunteers to raise funds to complete the construction of the New York Eagle Overlook Park and to discuss two upcoming fund raising opportunities. They won the great Harvest Bread competition to sell the bread on Sunday. The organization will receive a percentage of the proceeds from the bread sold that day. Bids for the stone have been secured.
The second is a bratwurst and beer fund raising event to be held at Summit Hill 910 Montreal Circle from 6 pm to 9pm. Tickets are $20.00 and will be sold in advance or at the door.
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5. Committee Reports
A. Communications Committee
Flahaven reported that the committee has not met for a while; therefore not much has been done. Eric Hanson, Linder, and Roy meet to discuss the comments collected regarding the website design. Some one from Web-site Design Company will come out to train the new part-time staff, and Roy and someone from the committee regarding how to manage/update the web site.
B. District 16 Planning Committee
Clapp-Smith provided an update on the District 16 Planning Committee. The Planning Committee held it’s final public review on Saturday, February 28, 2004. The consultants did a good job presenting the information. The neighbor’s came with good comments. 50 people attended. We will be making minor modifications before our next board. It will be presented at the next board meeting for approval. Once approved, it will be sent onto the city by for their approval.
Stolpestad sent a certified letter with point-by-point commentary on the District 16 Plan. A copy of his letter will be distributed to any board member who requests a copy.
Roy and Clapp-Smith are going to meet with Stolpestad to discuss his points of contention. Odman stated that had Stolpestad taken care of his tenants issues, the current issue with Bon Fire and Café Latte could have been avoided.
C. House Tour Committee
Sanders reported that the committee is getting organized. Sanders spoke with the St. Thomas football team and other volunteer organizations for help with the May 8th clean up. The neighborhood garage sale will be the weekend before on May 1st .
D. House Tour – Development Committee
Brostrom reported that the final selections of the houses have been made. All 15 houses are lined up.
E. Pedestrian Safety and Traffic Calming Committee
Siekmeier provided an update for the Pedestrian and Traffic Calming committee. He discussed four current issues the committee is working on. The first was for the endorsement of the “20 is Plenty” prototype signs handed out at the meeting. An anonymous donor gave $1000 for additional “20 is Plenty” signs. This will cover the cost of 40 signs at approximately $20 a piece to be distributed throughout the neighborhood. Signs will be located along Victoria Ave. and other entrances into the community.
The second issue was in regards to the legislation that will be introduced, again this year, by Rep. Tim Wilkins to increase the speed to 55 mph on 35E. In 1984, the Federal District Court upheld the 35E decision due to the efforts of Matt Entenza and Senator Cohen. John Leich published Tim Wilkin's email and office phone number who was inundated with calls. The legislation hasn’t yet been introduced.
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The third issue is in regards to the boulevard signs requested for over a year by the neighbors. The committee is proposing that the design be created through a neighborhood children competition. A few of these ideas would be mocked up into a prototype to find out how much it would cost to produce and also help us determine the right dimensions.
The last issue was a proposal for a four way stop at the Osceola and Oxford intersection, which is a school crossing at Linwood School. A motion was made to provide additional stop signs to make Osceola and Oxford a four way stop. The Motion was seconded and unanimously approved.
E. Zoning and Land use
Harrison provided an update on the Zoning and Land Use meeting held March 9, 2004.
At the meeting, Fenelon Sanctuary, a new business on Grand Avenue, was giving notice that they were going to apply for a restaurant license, and to be rezoned to B2 Occupancy in order for her to offer coffee and tea to patrons. Licensing bureau would require the business to be rezoned to B2 occupancy. People were concerned that it set a bad precedent and would be hard to restrict others from wanting to do the same thing in the future and what about the next occupant/owner of the building.
Harrison also provided update on the Bonfire Woodfire Cooking application to add a Class ‘A’ entertainment license to be added to a pending liquor and restaurant license. A brief summary of the timeline of events that occurred was handed out. The original request to the city was to continue Ciatti’s liquor license. Only one resident attended that January ZLU hearing and there were no objections. The ZLU Committee & Board recommended approval of the continuance of the license, provided that the applicants post notification to their patrons that the parking is restricted along the neighborhood street. There was an objection to second hand smoking. The restaurant was supposed to restrict smoking to inside there establishment
After the January ZLU hearing, complaints were filed about the adult entertainment going on at Bonfire after 10 p.m. The city then said that this activity would require a special Class A license. Bonfire pled ignorance about needing an entertainment license and applied for the license. They used temporary Entertainment licenses (three 24-hour licenses per year only) to stage the “dueling pianos” entertainment. The March 9th ZLU meeting was held to hear the application.
Twenty-six neighbors, eight employees/owners attended the Zoning and Land Use meeting for the Class A License. Café Latte stated objections to granting the Class A license and stated that the destructive behavior of their patrons is affecting Café Latte’s business. Bryce Quinn spoke of great concern to this long-standing business, which shares space in the Exeter building with Bonfire. This building is in a mixed use building in a residential neighborhood.
A meeting at the city will be held Monday March 15, 2004 at 10 am. This meeting was moved up by 15 days because a 30-day notice was required not the 45 notice originally thought.
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Bonfire has exhausted their current liquor license. A hearing was held in February and is closed from verbal testimony on the liquor license. However comments by letter or phone can still be heard by the city. The liquor license application will be combined with the Class A license but both will stand on their own merits.
The Legislative Hearing Officer, Marcia Moermond, will take testimony from all interested people on the entertainment license only until the end of the day Friday. At the end of this hearing, she will make a recommendation as to whether one; both or neither licenses should be approved, approved with conditions, or referred to an Administrative Law Judge. The City Council will have the final authority to grant or deny these licenses.
A motion was made to ratify the decision made by the Zoning and Land Use Committee to deny the Class A Entertainment License. The two motions made adding restrictions to the length of liquor service, both did not pass. The final motion was held to just the issue at hand.
Bryce Quinn spoke on behalf of his parents in their absence. It is not a business against business issue. Café Latte is only concerned about the after 10:00 PM crowd. The lunch and supper crowd is a family oriented. Café Latte has also provided coupons to the employees of Bonfire to patronize Café Latte. This friendly gesture has not been reciprocated. The business is money oriented and too interested in selling as much liquor as possible at a typically slow time. Granting them a license will set a bad precedent for other bars on Grand Ave. They say they will clean up their entertainment if granted; however it seems insincere in light of the current disagreements.
Linda Winsor, 708 Goodrich stated that neighbors welcome Bonfire as a restaurant, but are concerned about the activities after 10 pm. Neighbors strongly urge SHA and the city to deny the application for the entertainment license.
Bakery Manager at Café Latte- Prior to December the restaurant was very civil and easy going. Since the change in late night entertainment, there has been vomit on entryway, harassed patrons and employees and destruction to toilet facilities. This is unacceptable.
Lola Moni – between 10p.m. and 2 a.m. lots of their customers are drinking coffee and eating cake and just trying to talk. This has effected their customers negatively.
Phil Danford– Peter and I have known each other for over 20 years. In no way does Bonfire want to create an adversarial relationship. Danfer wanted to address a misconception of their establishment. There is a very diverse, family crowd until 10 pm. At 11 pm they change to another menu. They would really like to have the entertainment, however it has really turned into an adversarial situation.
Barrera visited the restaurant on two occasions. The first time was early evening and the experience was pleasant. The second experience was after 10 pm. They could hardly walk to the table. The restaurant was so crowded that it is difficult to believe that they did not exceed the occupancy limit allowed by fire code. Once the entertainment started it was too difficult to converse and have a good time with all the noise.
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Brostrom talked about the similar experience that she had when visiting Bonfire.
The motion was seconded for the denial of the entertainment license. It was passed unanimously. The hearing will be held at 3:30 at the city hall March 15th .
Dobson shared his concern about the loud music that will continue regardless of granting the class A Entertainment license. As long as the music is not live there are no restrictions. It would be up to the police to enforce the current noise ordinance. Conditions can be placed on the liquor license per section 409. In order to rescind the original recommendation, the board needs a 2/3rd’s vote. A new motion can then be made to put conditions on the original recommendation to the city.
Dobson made a motion to rescind the original letter to the city supporting Bonfire’s liquor license and that the recommendation be conditional so that liquor can not be served beyond 12 midnight. The motion was seconded and unanimously approved.
In the case that the first motion is not accepted, a second motion be presented that a condition be added such that no live or mplified music be played after 11 pm.
The motion was seconded and passed with a 2/3 vote.
A motion was made to approve Brostrom’s comments regarding zoning ordinance changes regarding carriage houses. The motion was seconded and approved.
8. Executive committee Report
Policy discussion on the City council to coordinate the special information that councils want to send to the committee. Clapp- Smith will collect comments by the board and will present them at the next
9.Executive Director’s Report:
Wants to redesign the Summit Hill News letter. As new person to the district – it needs it. There also may be holes in distribution list. Needs to be updated.
10. Treasurer’s Report:
Brostrom made a quick treasurers report. Any outstanding issues have been reconciled by Ellen Bialles. The discrepancy was due to the lag in receiving the funds from the city.
An audit will start in April. There is a form that SHA needs to fill out prior to meeting with the auditors.
9. Old Business/New Business/Announcements:
No time was left for any new comments
10. Adjournment:
A motion was made to adjourn the meeting at 8:55 P.M. The motion received a second and passed unanimously.
Next meeting will be held Thursday, April 8, 2004 at 7:00 P.M. at the Linwood Community Center Meeting room.
Minutes recorded by Deborah Rathman, Secretary
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