Edgemoor
Neighborhood Association
Monthly Business Meeting
June 7, 2007
Minutes
The
Monthly Business Meeting of Edgemoor Neighborhood Association was called to
order at 7:05 on June 7th
at Fairhaven Pavilion. Brad Rose
facilitated the meeting and Lauri Grove recorded the minutes. A quorum was
present.
The
minutes of the May meeting were approved as recorded.
Report of Officers
President’s
Report – Brad highlighted happenings in Fairhaven concerning
neighborhood association(s) and the status of the Fairhaven Neighbors proposed
changes to the Design Review
Code. These revisions intended to close
up current loopholes in the design code addressing height limits. Apparently there are three associations
represented in Fairhaven;
Fairhaven Neighbors (the MNAC/City recognized association for Fairhaven), Fairhaven Village Association and
Fairhaven Association (merchants associations) and they are not in agreement
over height limitations. Tim Stewart,
the planning director, asked the three organizations to come to a consensus
regarding updates to the Design Review
Code and neighborhood plan. Until they
reach accord, any proposed changes to the code would be put on hold. Brad informed us that there are efforts being
made to put together a ‘stakeholders’ committee compromised of residents,
property owners, and merchants to review Fairhaven
codes. He added that the presidents of
the south side neighborhoods agreed to write a letter to the planning director
requesting that they be included in future ‘stakeholders’ meetings to represent
their neighborhood’s interest in decisions effecting Fairhaven. After all Fairhaven is considered the center of the Southside Urban Village. Brad asked for permission to write a letter
to Tim Stewart
Motion by Martin
Nickerson to allow Brad Rose to represent Edgemoor
Neighborhood Association in the Fairhaven
design review process.
Motion was seconded and passed
unanimously.
v At this time Michael Lilliquist and Sue Kahn
were offered the floor. Michael reported
that Fairhaven Neighbors met that morning to rewrite their bylaws, look at
membership issues and set up a mediated process for design review. Michael (who is running for City Councilor at
Large) stated that concerning Fairhaven
neighborhood issues, the intention is to simply find out what is right and
comply.
Brad
continued his report with a hand-out of the changes that Kathryn Hanowell
recommended to make the ENA bylaws compliant with the city regulations for
neighborhood associations. Bob Gibb
pointed out that the word “Operator” used in the recommendations (see copy) was
a bad choice. A business operator was
not well defined and could be a clerk.
Brad agreed to contact Kathryn Hanowell to resolve this vocabulary
problem and get the proposed bylaw amendments to Sandie to post on the website
for review.
MNAC Report
– Brad reported the following items addressed at the meeting:
v Chris Comeau denied the proposal ENA chose and
submitted as a priority for the TIP plan.
Sidewalks on Fieldston Road would cost far too much and were not
considered important at this time. That
denial was expected.
v The safety committee proposed 3 areas of
traffic safety concern that were also denied funding.
v A counter placed on the 12th Street
Bridge computed an average of 11,000 cars per day used the road.
v Kim Brown talked about the work the bike/ped
committee was doing around the city.
v Pam Keisner explained library planning and
offered to speak at neighborhood meetings.
v Malcolm Flemming reported on the waterfront EIS
study.
Treasurer’s
Report – We received dues from one new member and
wrote a check to cover hospitality expenses in May.
Income - $15.00
Disbursements - $6.48
Balance - $3325.80
Committee Reports
Communication – Kathy did not
have a report. Pam, however, attended a
meeting for the disaster preparedness program starting in Bellingham.
She explained the program plan to train people to hand out ‘help’
packets. The program suggested grouping
neighbors into small pods where they would get together to decide who and in
what way each would contribute help in the event of a disaster.
The next meeting is in July.
Motion
by Brad Rose to form an ad hoc committee for
Disaster Relief to be on the ENA
agenda.
Motion was seconded
and passed unanimously
v
Pam
Bakke, Lois Miles, and Martin Nickerson volunteered and were approved for the
committee.
Membership – We continue to receive membership dues and
have another new member.
Safety – no report.
Chuckanut Mountain Park District (CMPD) – Bob
Gibb noted that the CMPD was in limbo at the moment while handling slightly
problematic activity in Skagit
County. Blanchard
Mt. loggers, feeling
threatened, were developing some opposition to the park district. In the mean time the Boundary Review process is in progress.
Growth
and Land Use – no
report. Brad covered growth issues
earlier in the evening.
Neighborhood
Plan Update – Copies of the proposed survey were distributed
at the meeting. Martin
Nickerson thoroughly read through each item for approval or
comment and noted changes for the final print. Much work had been put into the
questionnaire – Thank you to all involved
in the process. In conclusion, the
necessary funding was proposed and approved.
Motion by Peter to
approve ENA funding to cover expenses associated with printing and mailing out
the survey. The major item would be postage estimated to be about $990.00 ($.58
for mail out postage and $.41 for return postage) and $400.00 for the
paperwork.
Motion amended and clarified
by Brad to approve ENA expenses for
the survey including paper, printing, and postage not to exceed $1500.00.
Motion was seconded and
approved unanimously.
v Brad offered that up to $700.00 of the approved
expenses would be returned to ENA through a grant from the City.
Representative Reports
CSN – Pam reported that the CSN
steering committee met and agreed to invite the planning director, Tim
Stewart, to a meeting planned for June 19th. That meeting would cover “what’s up” in Fairhaven especially
issues pertaining to the various neighborhood associations, as well as the EIS
process for Chuckanut Ridge. In addition, CSN planned a Candidate Forum
for July 19th, 7-9:00 PM. at the Fireside Performing
Art Center. Also the Chuckanut Ridge
EIS consultants should be chosen and announced soon. There would be opportunities for public
comment at various points throughout the process. Pam stated that CSN would offer a series of
workshops intended to help guide the public toward well thought out, informed
comments. She would keep us informed of
dates for the workshops.
ABN – No
representative.
Responsible Development /Chuckanut Ridge
– The process for the Environmental Review
Statement (EIS) on Chuckanut Ridge
was underway. First thing, the city
would be selecting the consultant for the project with the developer
responsible for payment. Then there
would be a scoping period when the consultants would accept public
comment. Statements were made that it
would be essential to cover every aspect of the environmental impact in that
review. We need to be prepared for that
challenge with qualified people looking into every area from flora to traffic,
from to wildlife to schools. Workshops
would be held to keep the public informed.
RD would be hiring
professionals and looking for well informed people to aid in the process.
New Business
Kathy
brought up a letter written to ENA by Susan Robinson
concerning views. Lauri agreed to
respond with e-mail stating that ENA does not have the legal capacity to take a
position. We can suggest contacting the Mediation Center to question the mediation
process.
Closing
Meeting was adjourned at 9:00 pm.
The next
meeting scheduled will be an ENA Business Meeting to
be held from 7-9 on July 5th at Fairhaven Park Pavilion. Meetings are open to all residents and we
welcome you to attend.
Respectfully Submitted,
Lauri Grove