Edgemoor Neighborhood Association

Monthly Business Meeting

December 7, 2006

Minutes

 

 

The Monthly Business Meeting of Edgemoor Neighborhood Association was called to order at 7:10 on December 7th at Fairhaven Pavilion.  Lauri Grove facilitated the meeting and recorded the minutes. A quorum was present.

 

The minutes of the November meeting were approved as recorded with the addition of Brad Johnson’s name as Co-Chair for Neighborhood Safety.

 

Report of Officers

Treasurer, Lois Miles reported that we had no disbursements or income this month.  She also mentioned she had contacted Copy Source to check cost for the Neighborhood Mail-out.

 

President’s Report – Lauri thanked everyone for their continued support and reminded the members that we are still looking for a President.  Election would be in February and until then the Board would rotate facilitation of meetings.

 

MNAC  ReportWelcome back Brad!  Brad copied me with the following MNAC report:

 

The MNAC met on November 8th at City Hall.

This month we were visited by our new mayor Tim Douglas. He outlined his priorities for his year in office. These are:

1.    Importance of updating neighborhood plans. Spoke to fact that current plans are very much out of date. Process Tim Stewart and staff have provided should be very helpful in assisting with plan updates.

2.    Waterfront Redevelopment –Central waterfront represents enormous opportunity for city. Lively discussion is needed. Counting on neighborhood representatives to push constructive discussion.

3.    Lake Whatcom Watershed – Lake is a treasure to the community. Really must maintain water quality. Important time to address issues.

4.    City/ County Partnership on Affordable Housing – Will be coming forward to city and county councils with recommendations on affordable housing programs

 

We then had a presentation form Marty Mulholland, Janice Keller and Nicole Oliver about the new look of the City of Bellingham’s web site. Included in the new look is a new Neighborhood web page section. In it, each neighborhood has its own space where links to relevant city planning documents/maps are available. Have a look at Edgemoor’s section and let Cheri Gleichman (CGleichman@cob.org) know if there is any incorrect information.

Link to neighborhood section:

http://www.cob.org/pcd/planning/neighborhoods/neighborhoods.htm

City staff notified us that they are at the beginning of the process of updating the Development codes; having issued an RFQ for a consultant to help with initial process of reformatting the code to make it easier for all to use - I'll keep you posted on their progress

Check out this month’s “Just So You Are Aware”…..so that you are Aware!

http://www.cob.org/documents/mayor/boards-commissions/neighborhood/2006-11-08-just-so-you-are-aware.pdf

Thanks

Brad Rose

 

At this time Brad continued into his Neighborhood Growth report.  He stated that Ted Mischaikov had resubmitted a design for the Fairhaven Harbor project.  That reopened the process for design review.  A lengthy general discussion followed that included a letter Fairhaven Neighbors drafted for CSN in a quest for dialog between developers, city planning dept. and the community.  Pam Went read the letter to the members for approval.  Martin Nickerson also presented a letter opposing the development that he drafted for possible ENA endorsement.   Brad reiterated that the project was up for design review and growth issues may not be relevant.  Sandie offered a reminder that ENA had made a decision to be an informative association and therefore should not take a stand, but letters could be posted on the ENA Blog for all to view.  Individuals were encouraged to submit comments concerning Fairhaven Harbors redesign.  In the end, it was agreed that the Board could consider endorsement of the CSN letter because it was simply a request  to open communication concerning development on the south side.  The CSN letter would be emailed to the board members for review and vote.

 

 Reports of Committees             

Communication – no report.  Working on Neighborhood Mail-out together with Membership.

 

Membership – Sandie stated that she put together a ‘Neighborhood Blog’ where residents could comment or view concerns and activities in the Edgemoor neighborhood.  She also combined a Dec./Jan. newsletter.

 

Safety – Lois reported in Don and Brad’s absence that Neighborhood Safety planned to continue to focus on the possibility of sidewalks along Fieldston to Willow, concern for the 3-way junction at Hawthorne, Fieldston, and Briar Road, the Block Watch program, and safety within the neighborhood.

 

Chuckanut Mountain Park District (CMPD) – Bob Gibb passed out copies of the new brochure for CMPD (printing these brochures would be costly).  The group continued to meet with and solicit endorsement throughout the designated districts.  He reiterated that the door-to-door petition would be critical to get the required signatures.  He informed us that the committee is working on a door-knob placard to be distributed ahead of the petition to get people informed and encourage signatures.  In conclusion, he expressed his concern about what is going on at Chuckanut Ridge – particularly the mishandling of the wetlands.      

 

Planning Academy  It was suggested that we use our time at monthly meetings to work on updating the neighborhood plan.  John Erickson and Martin Nickerson responded that meeting once a month might not be effective especially if other business took precedence.  It would be in our best interest to have a committed group meet once a week to concentrate on updating the plan.  It was also suggested that a good opportunity to reintroduce the Neighborhood Plan Update Committee would be in the mail-out planned in January.  Kathy offered that it would be best to come up with a specific date to advertise the first meeting in February.

 

Representative Reports

CSN – Pam Went read a letter from CSN earlier in the meeting.  Discussion took place at that time.  She also brought up a letter earlier in the evening from CSN concerning waterfront development that was motioned and approved at the October meeting.

 

ABN – Pam offered that Richard Maneval has resumed presidency of ABN.  She also mentioned that Larry Horowitz hearing was coming up concerning his challenge of incorrect growth statistics used in the Growth Management Act.

 

Responsible Development – RD has a 2007 fund-raising calendar for sale and a kick off planned for the New Year on January 9th at WECO on Holly Street. 

 

New Business

Guest – Steve Wilson, President of South Neighborhood Association, attended our meeting to suggest a join venture with ENA to restore the house that is located in the old Fairhaven Park Rose Garden.  It could require both neighborhoods apply for grant money offered by the city.  The idea needs work - it was suggested he send details to Sandie to post on the website for review.

 

Closing

Meeting was adjourned at 8:50 pm.

 

The next meeting scheduled will be an Edgemoor Neighborhood Association Business Meeting to be held from 7-9 on January 11th at Fairhaven Park Pavilion.  *Please note the change in meeting date from Jan 4th to Jan. 11th.  Business meetings are open to all residents and we encourage you to attend.

 

Respectfully Submitted,

Lauri Grove