WECAN March 2013 Board Meeting Minutes • Draft

 WECAN Board Meeting March 7, 2013 at 64 Clingman Ave.

Board Members Present were:  Byron Ballard, Joe Fioccola, AnnaBeth Hardcastle, Rachel Larson, Luke Perry and Pattiy Torno . Board Members not present were Jeff Carnivale, Jessie Nell Coleman, Tom Gibson, Mike Kenton Yuri Koslen, JoAnn Skinner and Suzanne Willis.
Also present were: Stephanie Greiner, Hanni Muerdter, CRO Tyler Radford, Marsha Stickford and Dan Suber.
    Luke officially called the meeting to order at 6:42 p.m. with a round of introductions and a leap into some agenda items. Dan Suber from the Green Opportunities Board announced the Hillcrest Garden Party/Celebration with food and music on this Saturday March 9 from 4-6 pm following the Hillcrest Community Garden expansion/workday from 10-3 pm. to plant fruit trees and build raised beds with the Organic Grow School. Treasurer AnnaBeth reported a balance of $359.26 in the WECAN account. Joe called an Adopt A Highway Cleanup set for Tuesday March 26th at 9 a.m. and the Garden Club will work on the sign garden on Tuesday March 12th at 9 am.

APD CRO UPDATE Officer Radford announced that CRO Evan Coward has been reassigned to supervise the downtown bike squad night shift and his replacement should not be expected until the current round of promotions is complete in the next few months. In the meantime he can be reached at 251-4078: Office or 545-8374: Cell or email at TRADFORD@ASHEVILLENC.GOV. He also announced that the security contract for the Ice House expires next Wednesday. Most of the building is down and the contractors will continue the removal. Not sure if a fence will be erected to secure the chimney. Several homeless camps were identified: Riverside near Craven; behind Bartlett at the walking path; and Patton at South French Broad Ave.

CLUB STREET activity was reported by Club Street resident and ambassador Luke. The 'Club House' is gone and a sign is up about a 'compact cottage' going in. Tracey's mothers house (the red one) has been sold in the last two weeks and the new owner is eager to fix it up. Luke repaired a hole in the roof of Jimmy Smiths house which should slow down the building deterioration.

JEFFERSON BABIES: Yuri and Myra, Zac and Lyn and Steve and Britanny are all expecting additions to their families this spring.  


HISTORIC ASSETS: Old house above the Grey Eagle with access problems; 2 small houses on Yarrow Place with graffiti and unsecured windows and doors; small building under the old streetcar bridge. Marsha will contact DOT about activating some spaces such as the pedestrian bridge area, the kudzu area north of the circle, and getting a maintenance agreement for the Clingman Streetscape areas.   Luke reported that a Creative Sector Summit will be held over the next 6 months with intensive planning exercises for the area from 12 Bones to the railroad trestle (To begin March to June.) Luke suggested a Historic Assets Subcommittee to keep the conversation going and identify properties in potential or imminent danger of loss. He will call on Byron, Joe, Rachel, and Tom Gibson to meet.

WATER DEPARTMENT is working on fire hydrant lines on West Haywood Street. Messages have gone out about water interruption on March 14th.

100 PARK AVENUE: Marsha reported that plans are moving ahead with one design. Letters of availability have gone out for water and sewer. Next will be the conditional re-zoning process and she will ask Alan Glines to keep us informed on that process and about the affect of the steep slope ordinance on the Jefferson side. His input should also be included in Master Planning updates.  She announced that on Monday March 11th at the Coalition of Asheville Neighborhoods meeting at the Murphy-Oakley Community Center 749 Fairview Rd  7 pm. Shannon Tuck will talk about Conditional Zoning. Stephanie was concerned that increased traffic for a commercial clinic was not appropriate for a residential neighborhood.

MASTER PLANNING: The sub committee met and Rachel presented a short draft survey. There followed an extended discussion on survey fatigue, the reasons why we need another survey (to supplement or refine existing census data) what we hope it to show, how the best way to get a good response (in person, on line, door-to-door or at an event) (whether we want to get information or give it) and funding. Luke suggested going back to to the original Master Plan funders. Email Marsha for connections with prior funders.  Regarding funding Rachel met with Cindy MacMahan with Non Profit Pathways which trains non profits in how to be successful with board development and fund raising. WECAN was not a good fit for their current programs. Some names that came up to help us were Jane Mathews involved in the original Master Plan. Look at Cabbagetown in Atlanta for artists and affordable strategies. Chris Joyell with ADC and Tom Gallegher may suggest other places to look for land bank, land trust, co-ops, and other models for affordability. Pattiy noted that the Haywood Road Corridor group has been meeting for over ten years and has had very good survey results and she will ask for a copy of their questionnaires. Luke noted that subcommittee progress has been slow and Pattiy suggested that there needs to be more organization setting deadlines for funding, vision, consolidation and work plans for the process such as number of public meetings, number of surveys completed by a concrete date identifying hot topics and visions and ranking priorities. Unless there is a time-critical deadline, it could cover a number of years as long as it keeps it on the radar. Next meeting at Rachel's Thursday March 21.

SUMMER DESIGN BUILD: Pattiy reported that the ADC has narrowed their submissions to two: one of which is the WECAN bridges at Riverside. There are actually four bridges needed and with the potential for artistic expression and funding they are excited and say that even if not chosen this round it will get done. Pattiy recalled that in the RADTIP there was an art component possibly in Phase 2 for creative place-making devices.   

CLINGMAN AVENUE SPEED LIMIT:  Luke will draft a letter or delegate about speed limits and crosswalks impact on Clingman Avenue safety. Officer Radford said the Traffic Team had done an operation at the crosswalks at Patton at Coxe and Asheland and made 37 charges. He will check with John Derrick about an operation on Clingman.

EOTR SCENARIO PLANNING: Luke attended a four hour training session and there are two more coming up. They are asking us to lead the next sessions but not funding them.. He said it was a straightforward conversation about community dynamics  such as what are the things we have to think about if public housing doesn't exist? what does it mean for our community? what if public housing stayed the same or increased? and what if incomes stayed the same or decreased? Some observed that transparency might really be a technique to exhaust participation.

VERVE MAGAZINE: Byron wrote and interview with Pattiy in this month's issue.

NEIGHBORHOOD CLEANUPS: Need to schedule one for Club/Trade Street to the pedestrian bridge. Marsha will see about using Nuisance Court obligated time.

THE FEBRUARY MINUTES were approved as distributed.

UPCOMING EVENTS:
Sat Mar 9                                         10-3      Hillcrest Garden Workday
                                                        4-6        Garden Celebration at 2 p.m  
Mon Mar 14                                      7          CAN Meeting Murphy Oakley Community Center
Tue Mar 26                                        4          RADBA
Tue Mar 12                                        9          WECAN Garden Club       
Thu Mar 14                                        6:30     SFB/Aston Park   Cookout planning meeting
Thu Mar 21                                        6:30     Master Planning Meeting at Rachel's   
Tue Mar 26                                        9         WECAN Adopt A Highway       
Thu Apr 4                                      6:30 p.m.  WECAN Board Meeting
Sat Apr 20                                        11:30-3 SFB/Aston Park Cookout

Uncle Levi & Carmen Smith will be missed

Jessie Nell Coleman's Uncle Levi, who was just a few days shy of his 107th birthday, passed away at home with family in late February and Jessie's Brother Carmen Smith who lived next door passed in early March.  Please send you kindnesses and warm wishes to Jessie and all of her family.

New Belgium Open House- this Thursday