WECAN BOARD MEETING. Thursday, July 5, 2012 at Merritt Park Meeting Room
Members present: Mike
Kenton, Joann Skinner, Luke W Perry, Annabeth Hardcastle. Members not present were: Jessie Coleman, Bret Frk, Pattiy Torno,
Jessie Coleman, Byron Ballard, Joe Fioccola, Jeff Carnivale, Tom Gibson and
Suzanne Willis. Also present were Patrick Willis, APD Officer Evan Coward, and City of Asheville
Employees Jeff Moore, Barb Mee, and Marsha Stickford.
Luke called the meeting to
order at 6:35 pm. Introductions were
made. Luke mentioned that fellow
board member Brett Frk had a baby boy about two weeks ago. Luke also mentioned
that Jimmy Smith, who lives on Club Street had a bad fall last week, and
probably won’t make it through the weekend. Please keep his family in your thoughts and prayers. Accommodations are being made for all
of the cats he took care of. Evan said he would check to see about some live
traps to help transfer the cats to a no-kill animal shelter.
APD CRO UPDATE. RiverMusic happened this past Friday
without any major incidents. Evan
said that people need to know that dogs are not allowed. Marsha mentioned that the city would
like feedback if there are any issues from the neighborhood. Joann asked about Gene Hampton’s house
and people stealing chairs and tables from his porch. Evan said that they weren’t able to find anything. Mike reported a homeless camp across
form the bus garage and said he did a ride along with Evan and encourages other
people to do so.
TREASURER’S REPORT. Annabeth has
now gained access to our funds. We
have approximately $151 in our account, before the $100 from the Clingman
Circle Celebration. Luella (past
treasurer) is still a signer on the checks in addition to Annabeth. Annabeth suggested getting Joe’s name
on there as well.
ROBERTS STREET UPDATE. Jeff
Moore, Traffic Engineer from the City of Asheville reported the results of the
traffic count they did on Roberts St. between July 19-22. Some of the results are:
· Approximately 1,600 vehicles per day
· Average speed is 26.9 mph (25 mph zone)
· Highest speeds were 47-49 mph
Jeff said there will be
another count soon to verify the data.
Annabeth requested the next count take place on a weekend. Jeff described some next steps that
could be used to help slow some of the traffic such as yellow reflectors in the
middle of the road. They generally
agreed that speed bumps would not work because of the hill on Roberts St.
(dangerous). Jeff said he will
look at other strategies to help with traffic calming. Patrick asked if there was anyway to
forecast or look at the trends in traffic to see what it might be look in a few
years. Jeff responded that they
typically plan for a 3% increase, but that has not happened recently. Jeff also acknowledged that growth is
happening faster in River Arts District, than other places.
Barb Mee, Pedestrian and
Bicycle Planner with the City of Asheville, described the process by which
sidewalks become a priority. There
are a number of factors, including Zoning jurisdiction, proximity to community
destinations, etc. This data is
plugged into GIS and helps rank priorities based on the 2005 pedestrian
plan. With the new traffic count
numbers and other data, Roberts St is not ranked as a priority. It was noted that Roberts St. is a
needed linkage, and any new projects will have to install sidewalks on their
property. Marsha noted that with
the uncertainty of a lot of the properties, it would be hard to commit to
anything at this point.
Luke raised the concern of
how people have to walk in Roberts St, and even though our traffic count isn’t that
high, that it only takes on car going 50 mph to have an accident. Annabeth also reinforced how different
our neighborhood is now than 3, 4, and 5 years ago, and all the energy and work
going on by the river is going to need infrastructure improvements, and in
order for the neighbors to feel safe, some changes are going to have to be
made. Marsha acknowledged the
rapid pace of change in that area and for WECAN to look at building some
partnerships with other local stakeholders to keep the issue present on the
city’s radar screen and to make sure that the City is clear on what our needs
are.
CITY OF ASHEVILLE + NC DOT. Marsha
reported that the City has been in conversation with the DOT about more flexible
usage of DOT land in our neighborhood, including areas under the bridges,
around the Hillcrest pedestrian bridge, and around Clingman Ave. They are
looking at setting up easements for the city to manage access and maintenance
of such spaces. The general sense
is that DOT is open to some new arrangements. Mike asked Jeff about the potential of revisiting the idea
of the Bike Park underneath the I-240 bridge. Jeff acknowledged that originally DOT had said that the area
with access road was off-limits, but that more recently they had said that they
would be open to it if the city took responsibility for that area. Jeff and Marsha acknowledged limited
resources and problems with liability, etc. They suggested we follow up with Stephanie Monson in Planning
department, to look more holistically at the different planning efforts, and how
WECAN can communicate what its hopes and goals in the midst of all the
projects, ideas, and developments.
Barb mentioned that there will be an East of the Riverway transportation
planning process that will be picking up steam soon and that we should get
involved and stay involved in it. She also said that publicly thanking DOT for
the work they are doing in our neighborhood goes a long way, and that the
Clingman Circle Celebration was a great way of doing that.
CLINGMAN IMPROVEMENTS. Joann
mentioned that there are still two street lights out on Clingman Ave. Evan said he would follow up on the
light situation. She also
requested again to get more visibility for the bump outs. Solutions include night reflectors and
stripping around the bump outs.
Jeff said he would follow up on the bump outs and that the City should
be able to take of it, instead of DOT.
CLINGMAN/HILLIARD PEDESTRIAN SIGNAL. Barb
Mee gave an update on the pedestrian signal that is supposed to be
installed. She was hoping to that
it was 120 days away, but couldn’t say for sure. At an earlier meeting, WECAN had requested a delay so
pedestrians could start crossing before the cars turned. She said that DOT has already designed the
system and to put in the delay, it would have to be redesigned and the City
would have to pay for it. Barb
acknowledged that it has been a steep learning curve. Joann expressed frustration that this was not better planned
during all the improvements to Clingman and that it still difficult to cross
Clingman at Owens Bell Park because of the speed of cars. Marsha acknowledged that the City
didn’t follow through on some efforts to slow traffic around the cross walk,
but will look back into it. It was
generally acknowledged that the Hilliard/Clingman intersection is dangerous and
some bigger changes will have to take place in the future.
UPCOMING EVENTS
§ Bike Rodeo @
Hillcrest. Sat. July 7, 11-3 (volunteers needed, set up at 10)
§ Stand Against
Racism Community Picnic. Monday, July 9, 6 - 8 pm at Aston Park
§ French Broad
Cycling Classic: Sunday, July
22 (Clingman, Roberts, and Haywood Rd will be closed, surrounding neighbors
should be getting letters, notification)
§ New Belgium
Community Meeting. Wedneday, July 25. Time tbd
§ WECAN
community potluck: Thursday,
August 2, 6pm, Owens Bell Park
§ National
Night Out. Tuesday, Aug 7 @ 5pm. Grant Southside Community Center
***Reminder that next month’s WECAN meeting will be a
potluck at Owens Bell Park, on August 2, at 6 pm. Please join us!
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