Thursday, September 7, 2017

WECAN September 2017 Board Meeting Minutes • Draft


WECAN Board Meeting Minutes September 7, 2017  
Board Members present: Danny Aull, Byron Ballard, Lynn Hall, Rachel Larson, Caroline Mullis, Luke Perry and Pattiy Torno. 
Members not present: Jared Fischer, Tom Gibson, Mike Kenton, Rebecca Lance, JoAnn Skinner and Suzanne Willis.
At Large Members not present: Floree Lowery and Rafael Rettig.
Also Present: Janet Webber, Carolyn Addison, Chris, Susan Haynes, Travis Smith, Amanda Paffrath, Jessie Coleman, Joe Fioccola and APD Officer Justin Wilson.

INTROS: Rachel called the meeting to order at 6:33 pm after a round of introductions.
MINUTES/ TREASURER”S REPORT: Lynn moved and Byron seconded a motion to approve the draft WECAN minutes from August 3 as emailed. The motion passed. There was no treasurer’s report.
APD/CRO Update: Justin reported that city-wide there have been 85 car break ins in the last 30 days most of which were unlocked vehicles. He strongly advised people to LOCK YOUR VEHICLES and DON’T KEEP VALUABLES IN VEHICLES. He also advised to report suspicious activity and talk to your neighbors about who should be on your property and encourage them to report suspicious activity. His proposal for more officer discretion regarding homeless camps is in prepared and in queue. Another camping brought up was next to All Souls Pizza. Justin also reported three businesses in WECAN were broken into, White Duck Taco had a lock cut, a house on West Haywood was broken into from an unsecured window and firearms stolen, a motorcycle was taken off a porch and a lawnmower taken. All of these have no suspect information nor any leads. Justin attended the last CPAC (Citizens Police Advisory Committee) meeting yesterday and recommended reporting police and safety issues at their monthly meetings.  Rachel reported a video camera going up at a house on Park Square. The city does not monitor any surveillance cameras but private cameras have been used to identify suspicious activity. Lynn asked about traffic enforcement for speeding vehicles. There is a traffic enforcement unit that works on reducing crashes in high accident areas. Pattiy suggested contacting Jeff Moore for study tubes and ‘your speed is’ signs.
 BLOCK JESSIES: Duke has repoured the cement sidewalks on West Haywood where the new power poles will go. Pattiy explained that Duke may need to remove more trees and needs to do more community outreach before the poles go in March. Byron and Joe suggested remembering the late beloved Jessie Mae Jones by renaming the ‘Sunny Cultural Garden’ at Owens Bell Park after her and replanting it perhaps with things from her garden or a marker with her picture, or an engraved stone.
RADTIP Update: Pattiy reported that a fence is up around the old12Bones and that demo is set for Monday. The old Days Warehouse has been removed and part of the Rail side Studios. Construction is set to begin next Wednesday with rolling lane closures but not sure where they are beginning. Last week City Council did approve funding for the entire roadway.
DUKE-ENERGY SUBSTATION Update:  Pattiy noted that Duke is still in conversation with Jessie. She explained that Duke had control of the Meeker site and the Mathews Ford site on Biltmore and has signed a Memorandum of Understanding to sell the Mathews site to the city for the Lee Walker Heights/ South Slope redevelopment. In order for the Housing Authority (owners of Lee Walker) to complete that there needs to be a Utility Substation Buffering Ordinance acceptable to Duke but since the Meeker working group is close to agreement and may have different buffering needs . The draft ordinance was pulled from the Planning and Zoning meeting yesterday because there was pushback that an ordinance was being put forth without community input. The city attorney suggested that a new draft could be written which would not encumber either site. So a new draft will be taken to P&Z’s next meeting on October 4. Susan suggested that emailing members of Council has more affect than waiting for public comment on the day of the meeting. WECAN can also write a letter of support for inclusion in the council’s packets when the issue comes before them. That must be submitted at least 7 days prior to their meeting. Pattiy suggested waiting for the new draft to be posted rather than discussing previous draft ordinances. Luke described the working group’s process so far. Pattiy recalled the four basic principles of the working group: activate Patton and Clingman corner, protect adjacent neighbors, allow for community benefit and be invisible. We have to work together for a win-win-win-win. (The community benefit would be an easement to allow another lane on Clingman between Patton and Hilliard and Council will include it in the Capital Improvement Plan with more community outreach.) Luke continued explaining the issue of zoning (most of the block is Central Business District but some is Residential) and there may be restrictions for building heights and step back requirements for upper stories that need a closer look to see how zoning can protect the neighborhood facing corner at Clingman and Hilliard. Travis thanked the volunteers serving on the working groups. Pattiy gave big credit to Mike Wasmer, Helen Hyatt and Lou Popovich from the South French Broad Neighborhood who have done a lot of work over the last two years. They helped us in the huge challenge for WECAN and for Jessie. Jessie originally wanted to fight and Pattiy still hopes that something good will come out of it. The issue of noise was brought up and Luke explained that the transformers make noise is and in the case of a Gas insulated substation it will be behind a 20 foot wall with a 50 foot buffer and on a high elevation which should reduce the impact on the neighborhood. Pattiy shared some research on decibel levels and affirmed that she was proud of the WECAN organization in trying to make room for everyone. The next Duke Working group meeting is next Wednesday September 13 and a public meeting will be scheduled in the first week in October at the Boy Scouts Building.
CLINGMAN STREETSCAPE TREES: Pattiy explained that last year Duke cut down the mature sycamore trees between All Souls Pizza and the traffic circle and they have agreed to replant with native Hawthorns which should go in this winter. They have also hired a landscape crew to clear 18 feet back from the sidewalk before they plant. WECAN will maintain the 18 feet and RADBA will help pay for the planting maybe by the end of the year. Some shrubs may be saved for use in other parts of the neighborhood such as Owens Bell Park or short Hilliard.
MSD- has not done the line work near the traffic circle yet but will be working on a sewer line on Bartlett Street down to Depot Street that may have been leaking into a stream.
RAD FORM BASED CODE: The draft plan was sent back to P&Z from City Council asking to remove build-by-right for lodging and removing the area between the railroad and the river. Any lodging over 20 rooms will come before council as conditional zoning but anything smaller is by right.  Council has said there should be ‘no lodging-by-right’ at all and said this without consulting the community. P&Z went through an extensive community process and had decided to send the draft back to council as originally presented. Susan suggested writing to city council to keep the FBC as originally presented.
Rachel explained the issue on Lyman Hollow. She worked to keep the Neighborhood Transition area to 3 stories but the residents of Vernell Street also wanted three stories at 65 ft rather than 85 ft. Since the situations are so markedly different they decided not to change. COMMUNITY GARDEN Update: Byron reported the garden was resting for the season but would be planted this weekend with over-winter crops. She had fun working with kids and checking carrots each week. Janet would like to join in.
TWENTIETH ANNIVERSARY CELEBRATION: Tuesday October 31 was set for a Halloween Party/ pot luck.
MISC:
 Lynn noticed foam on the French Broad River. It was recommended to notify the French Broad Riverkeeper Hartwell Carson  hartwellcarson@wnca.org or Eric Bradford at GreenWorks.

Travis asked about the possibility of painting the bases of the new Duke power distribution lines.

Meeting adjourned at 8:27 pm
Minutes submitted by Joe Fioccola, Secretary Emeritus

Important Upcoming Dates:
Sep 11                              C.A.N. Meeting 7 p.m. Oakley Community Center                
Sep 13                   Duke Working Group Meetings           
Sep 15                   NH leaders Roundtable 8:30 @ Riverlink
Sep16                              Burton St Agricultural Fair
Sep 16                              Community Garden Network Fundraiser
Sep 20                              Greenworks Craven Street Bridge Cleanup 10-12
Sep 21                              Candidates Forum at the Wedge 6 pm                       
Oct 5                               Next WECAN Board Meeting Thursday 6:30 pm


Friday, September 1, 2017

Asheville Citizen Times Article and New Working Group Dates


Some dates for upcoming meetings have moved out as the substation design group works through details. The next meeting for the design group has moved from Wednesday Sept 6th to Wednesday Sept 13th. The larger stakeholder meeting moves out consequently and is generally targeted for the first week in October. Every effort is being made to set the stakeholder meeting two weeks in advance so residents can plan to attend. At the last meeting of the design group they worked on design details of a GIS substation. While progress continues, there isn't any new news to report that wasn't stated in the update published August 18th.

Joel Burgess from the Asheville Citizen Times spoke with Jason Walls from Duke Energy as well as Lynn Hall from our neighborhood and extracted some content from a prior blog post:

http://www.citizen-times.com/story/news/local/2017/08/28/substation-could-reactivate-piece-ashevilles-western-downtown-duke-spokesman-says/607930001/

WECAN Board Meeting Minutes 4January 2024