SECIA Minutes
Van Cleve Park
March 4, 2008
( ) indicates
minutes allowed
* denotes Action Item
Board Meeting: 6:30
Present: Wendy
M., Jeanne M., Jake J., Lee H., Stewart S., Jeremiah P., Connie S., Marilyn B.,
Jeff H., Joan M.,
Staff: James
Guests: Lynn A.,
Jan A., Gary B., Bill H., Rasheen, Tom D., Jim D., Cam
Excused: Tedd J.
Quorum present.
Began:
1) Introductions
(5) 6:30
2) GAPSA
and MSA Updates(Jeremiah) (5) 6:35
o Lend
a hand – Hear the Band for 10 hours of community service – Concert day – April
10
o Handed
out Renters guide from MSA
o Safety
Walkers now have vests – red
3)
*Review and Approve February Minutes (5) 6:40
o Connie moved to accept as amended. Joan seconded. Passed
4)
Jim Drake the Bridge (10) 6:45
o He
and wife are members of the board of the bridge.
o Looking
for ideas and input
o Have
active website that includes paper + additional items
o Contact
editor through the website.
o Looking
for ideas for help – current media is under great stress
o Funding
is always an issue – barely breaking even
o Board
meetings are always open to guests
o Board
discusses: How important is it to keep
the paper in print form?
o Question: What are you doing to raise funds – unbake
sale, local, asking readers to contribute
o Comment: The range of information needs to keep it
even between each neighborhood. They try
to stay current on local neighborhoods and tend to avoid downtown
Minneapolis.
o Comment:
Would like to see shared items from many different neighborhood papers so that
the best from the other papers could be published.
o Comment: Jeremy is easy to reach and will go for any
suggested article.
5) Connie
Sullivan and Jeff H. – Grand Rounds (10)
6:55
o Jeff
got an email. There is a discussion
happening, March 13 CAC to decide which route will be taken.
o Choice
29th to Weeks, turns west and goes straight to the stadium. The other route
has two variations but not to the stadium so it won’t be an access to the
stadium.
o Question: They want a route to the stadium. If the eastern routes are not chosen will
they go back to 18th? Response: That’s always an option. The Park Board has asked for $12M from the
legislature so CAC needs consensus. 29th
Avenue will be crowded but at least it’s not through the middle of the
neighborhood.
o Major
issue is the traffic concerns for the area – Park Board, LRT, city, no one is talking to anyone else. These can not be
separate conversations. What do we do
about the Grand Rounds?
o Do
we send the letter from November again?
We prefer the furthest east route.
Connie moved to send letter, Lee seconded. Passed.
o Connie
strongly asked us to attend the meeting.
Community in the audience is significant because it says we are still
interested and care about what decisions are made.
6) Goals,
Plans and dreams for 2008(10) 7:05 –
by passed
7) Zoning
Update ( Joan M.) (10) 7:15
– see attached
o 1058-60
25th Ave, SE, started to finish alterations begun by former owner
then learned that it is a non-conforming duplex and by adding bedrooms he was
out of what was allowed code and can’t be done to a non-conforming use. We have turned these down in the past. Grandfathered in to the non-conforming use
but can’t be expanded. He did
non-permitted work but because of the work he did the city stopped it. Meeting with owner – March 11.
o 1716
Rollins SE - first house on the corner.
Owner Roland Gadancing – we know the builder. Applied for change. R4 means no neighborhood review. Plans have been submitted – 4 plex, of 5
bedrooms ea, only required to put in four parking places – one for each unit.
We will be writing about this and council members will need to take a stand on
this type of building.
o 1019
18th Ave. SE – unknown
o Madina
Auto Service application was approved but they will have to use Garfield as
second entrance.
o Obento-Ya
1510 Como. No further information on
application from Pat Hilden. It was
noted that it was approved.
8) Executive
Committee (Wendy) (10) 7:25
Personnel Committee, U of M
Alliance Update (retreat), LRT letter supporting the Washington Ave. tunnel
o We
got a response from Met Council about our concerns for traffic on Washington
and asked for a meeting to address our concerns.
o Washington
Ave. bridge can not take trains in its present condition
o Does
the board feel comfortable with the idea of getting someone to take a long look
at this with a holistic approach – LRT, Grand Rounds, stadium - asking the (city, county, university) Met
Council to take ownership of this and do a traffic study. We should join the request from all the
neighborhoods.
o Ask
for traffic counters now that the bridge is down – to see what it’s done to the
area traffic.
o Wendy: What is the Alliance? They are looking to find a way to actually
become what we want to be – by our definition.
We need input as to what we would like to see for a brochure that will
represent us as an alliance of communities.
o We
have been given a list – emailed by James – of demo proposal projects.
o Retreat: Use the time to talk about the Alliance and
what it is or could become. Then to move
on to future thinking and where we as a neighborhood would like to go. – Comment:
we need to better understand what the Alliance is and what it could
become. How do we want this to look in
the future?
o Decision
was agreed to to have an additional board meeting just for the purpose of
discussion and explaining the Alliance.
9) January
Meeting Feedback and Discussion Items (15) 7:35
a) Tuttle
Update – Stewart reported (5)
o Meeting
on March 8. Park Board offices at
10AM.
b) NRP
Work Group Update – Wendy and James (5)
o Concern
for the future proposal. Public
commentary closes March 17. Framework is
concerning: authority structure under
mayor, City gets 1.5M from $3M and neighborhoods get the rest.
o Talk
to any legislative person about the new legislation going to the
legislature. Strongly urged to talk to
the state and they will trump the cities attempt to take over these funds.
c) Intern
Updates – James
o We
have an intern – Sarah is “Green Village” intern working with Justin on Green
initiatives. Aaroosh J. is the media
intern – RJCA intern. Michele W. is
intern – is absolutely phenomenal - with Katie’s committee, listed
properties for sale.
10) Councilmember
Updates (Cam Gordon) (10) 7:50 - see
attached
o Handout: University Alliance - March 17 meeting here
with Cam. #1
o NRP: SECIA can leverage more money – say things
like the 1979 financing districts continued – look at this because it states
residency controlled. Got some momentum
in extending the TIF districts. This may represent a loss of taxes to the city but it is
unclear as to how. 40% of the
taxes go to the county – so we will have to talk to Peter McLaughlin –he asks
for the city support part of the bill.
o Look
at maximum occupancy issue - #2 He was asked about the Rollins and 17th. This is not zoning related but square
footage. Concerns that this opens the
area to bulldozing and increased square footage will come in. This is anti-family. This is a rule change that means that
enforcement must follow. We can’t
enforce what we have now, how will the city enforce this further change?
o Minneapolis
Advantage has been raised by the city – home buyer incentive related to the
foreclosure. – focused in
central and north Minneapolis – But SECIA may get some leverage from this.
o Problem
housing issues have reverted to caring for the neighbor’s vacant property. This seems neither practical nor to be
expected by a homesteading owner.
11) New
Business (10) 8:00
a) Tom
Deyo – Wrapanini - Is staying open until 2AM but the city notified him that he
does not have license to stay open that long.
Zoned C-1 and must be closed by 11PM.
Wants our support as he applies for the license to stay open so that his
business can continue to increase as it has done with the longer hours.
b) Comments: Delivery – but wants the dining room open
until 12. The 2AM delivery is what he is
looking for. One delivery vehicle
possibly 2 on weekends only – Friday and Saturday nights.
c) Comments: No other businesses are open until that
hour. This would be precedent for the
area. This may being other businesses
back to request longer hours and we aren’t sure that is what we want.
d) Agreed
to close the store at 11 and asking for delivery to 2AM – we have some
consensus that he stay open to 2AM for delivery only and close the store at
11PM according to the C-1 zoning.
e) Jeff moves – we support to stay open to 11 as to C-1 zoning
and allow delivery only from 11 to 2AM on Friday and Saturday. Second – followed by discussion then Tabled
to April. Many comments pro and con.
Does the conditional use permit go with the building? Not sure.
Could go with the business…. Tom
was a former board member – conflict of interest issue. Cam – April 1st meeting of Boards
– Council meeting is slated for the 4th. Tom is asked to put in writing what exactly
he wants and plans to do. The letter
will be sent to James who will forward to board. Will go before the board in April.
f)
Put in a plug for RJ.
We aren’t changing the world but it is worth the time we spend. Many going through RJ are being picked up for
intoxication.
12) Adjourn 8:10