Edgemoor Neighborhood Association
Monthly Business Meeting
December 4, 2008
The Monthly business Meeting
of the Edgemoor Neighborhood Association was called to order by Brad Rose, ENA
President, at approximately 7:00 p.m. Lauri Grove recorded the
minutes. A quorum was present.
The minutes from the November meeting were
approved as submitted.
Reports of
Officers
President’s Report: Congratulation
to new dad, Brad! – Brad went
over the agenda and began his report with a news release sent by Dan Hammill
from Bellingham/Whatcom Project Homeless Connect seeking volunteers for a
one-day event reaching out to homeless locally. On January 29th
about 650 people experiencing homelessness had access to free, confidential
healthcare services and housing assistance.
Brad concluded his report by extending an invitation sent from Fairhaven
Neighbors to attend their Holiday Party that was held on Dec. 12th,
from 6-9pm, in the Fairhaven Library Auditorium.
MNAC Report: In
Brad’s absence, John Erickson attended the Nov. MNAC meeting and found it
interesting that the Mayor wasn’t always in attendance. He reported points of interest from the
Director of Communities in School, who stated that 60% of the students not
reading at grade level by 3rd grade drop out of school. Bellingham schools have a 72.3% graduation
rate and spend about $8500 per student.
Volunteers are needed to mentor or tutor at-risk children; provide supplies,
eye glasses or even a safe home. Next, John reported that Tim Stewart stated
the initial adoption of the Infill toolkit would apply only to multi-family
areas and would not be forced into single-family neighborhoods. Urban Villages
would take in 25-30% of the growth and the rest would be in urban growth areas
as well as infill within existing neighborhoods. JoAnne Peterson (Sehome Neighborhood) brought
up an integral point that the city needed to get a better sense of how much
infill already existed in neighborhoods with ‘rooming’ houses and rentals. A bus tour was held on Dec 15th to
look at in-fill areas applicable for toolkit housing.
Treasurer’s Report: Diane
was unable to attend the meeting. There
was no change in finances this month.
v
Brad
noted that all ENA reimbursements must be turned into Neighbor Services by Jan.14th
so it was important to get outstanding invoices to Diane as soon as possible.
Communications: No report - Looking for a new contact
volunteer for Communications.
Disaster Preparedness: No report.
Think about getting a supply kit together for your home in preparation
for any disaster. In response a concern
was voiced for the lack of permanent monitoring of the Mt Baker volcano.
Growth and Land Use: Pam Went talked about plans for the
Caretaker’s House stating the Center for Local Self-Reliance was approved to
obtain a lease and to remodel. A
fundraiser was held to help cover expenses and save a piece of history. Pam
passed around a very nice flier and recommended checking the website for more
details. She offered a suggestion to get
the South, Fairhaven, and Edgemoor neighbor associations together to pool funds
to contribute to refurbishing the house. The Small and Simple Grant was brought
up as a possibility with mention of the mid-February application deadline.
Membership: No report.
Neighborhood Safety: No report
Neighborhood Plan Committee: The
committee had the draft of the updated Neighborhood Plan posted on the website
for review. Submitting a less wordy
draft to Jackie Lynch was recommended to get feed-back determining whether we
are on track. Martin noted that a letter was circulated with objections to
opening access to the Chuckanut Bay waterfront.
There were problems in the past that residents in the immediate area
worked to put to an end and they do not want to resort back to a situation that
took years to resolve – an important consideration. He also offered that Edgemoor does not have
'pure' single-family zoning. The
property around Lairmont Manor could be developed as multi family. Review the draft plan and continue to comment. At some point we are going to have to vote on
approving the plan.
Chuckanut Mountain Parks
District Committee: Dr. Gibb reported that committee planned to
meet with the new Land Use Commissioner about the park district. If there is another go-round the two
districts, Skagit and Whatcom, would remain separate. Much of the opposition was to the inclusion
of 'eminent domain' and steps would be taken to try to remove that wording from
the CMPD. Bob voiced concerns about
Puget Sound Energy and ownership of the Interurban Trail which could
potentially be a problem. It would be
wise for the city or park district to acquire that trail property for public
use.
Representative
Reports
AOBN: John Erickson stated there was a discussing
about student housing and the Campus Community Coalition. Although there were rules on the books, there
was no zoning director and no one to enforce those rules. The only thing one could do would be to
document problem situations and report nuisance violations. John went on to mention that Map Your
Neighborhood/Disaster Preparedness still had 40 kits left that included hard
hats. It would be nice for ENA to get at
least one kit to use as an example. He
also offered that Northridge Park was the first land to be purchased with
Greenway funds. The parks department
would like to put in a parking lot and basketball nets however the neighborhood
prefers it to remain natural. Opinions
were voiced concerning invasive development such as the Interurban Trail
switchback and apprehension with plans at Woodstock Farm. John concluded with report of break-ins at
Arroyo Park.
CSN: No report.
No meeting.
RD: The
DEIS for Fairhaven Highlands would be out for review the first week in
January. After it is released there
would be 22 days until the hearing for public comment. No confirmation was made for the request to
extend that period to 45 days. RD lined
up experts in all the key areas to study the DEIS findings and CSN plans a
forum to help the community develop effective comments about the DEIS.
Business
A motion to approve funds for a new
coffee pot was approved.
Guest
Keith Wilhauer, County Tax
Assessor, stressed the key points about the functioning of the assessor’s
office and the role and service it provides.
He stated the office provides a mechanism to equitably distribute the
burden of taxes throughout the county.
Washington State uses a budget based tax system. Which means the amount of needed tax dollars
is predetermined and the assessor's office must get that amount from the
taxpayers. The assessor’s office must
put a fair value on every piece of property in Whatcom County. If one has a concern it is important to file
an appeal by the deadline date (Dec. 19th). Filing an appeal reserves the right to talk
with the city. The process is user
friendly and it isn't necessary to have a lawyer. Of the 1000 or so appeals filed a year (the
majority are filed to continue a discussion) about a100 go to hearing and the
rest are settled. He offered that about
50% receive an adjustment. Keith
continued to talk and answer questions until the meeting adjourned at 9:30.
Closing
The next meeting scheduled
will be an Edgemoor Neighborhood Association Board
Meeting to be held from 7-9 p.m. on February 5th at Fairhaven Park Pavilion. All residents are
welcome and encouraged to attend.
Respectfully Submitted,
Lauri Grove
Minutes are subject to approval.