Edgemoor Neighborhood Association
Monthly Business Meeting
May 7, 2009
Minutes
The Monthly Business Meeting
of the Edgemoor Neighborhood Association was called to order by Brad Rose, ENA
President, at approximately 7:05 p.m. Lauri Grove recorded the
minutes.
The minutes from the April meeting were
approved as submitted.
Reports of
Officers
President’s Report: The Center for Local Self Reliance (CLSR)
began hosting design charettes or brainstorming sessions to get community input
into the development of the former caretaker’s house and gardens at Fairhaven
Park. The end goal is to come up with a site plan to present to the city. Brad, as well as others Edgemoor residents,
were in attendance and offered that there seem to be a slightly splintered
group. One favoring total self reliance and another more realistic group that
allowed for the fact that some may have to rely on cars and such. Many good ideas surfaced throughout the
charette. The discussions included what to do about deer in the garden, a
possible commercial kitchen, canning, classes, selling products, food
preservation and other skills… There would be many opportunities for people to
get involved. For more informative details about the charettes and CLSR go to
their website at www.caretakershouse.org. Brad reminded us of our commitment to the
project and as co-sponsors we would be called upon to volunteer man-hours. A suggestion was made to get the word out and
get a volunteer list started. Brad would continue to keep us informed with
meeting dates and details.
MNAC Report: Larry
Horowitz attended the April meeting. In
summation, there was a Water Watchers
presentation given by Bill Evans (Chief Operator of the Bellingham water
treatment plant) and Sgt. Colin Emmett (Bellingham Police Dept.). They handed out a brochure and discussed
security for our city water resources that could potentially be targeted by
terrorists and would-be criminals. Since
water facilities are often in areas difficult to secure there was a call for
residents to be observant and report any suspicious activity around water
utilities. More information should be on the city’s website in the near future,
The Sunnyland MNAC representative, Patrick
McKee, introduced an amendment to the Infill Housing Ordinance that would
eliminate the possibility of building Infill
Toolkit housing forms (currently allowed as part of the Type VI process) in
established single family zones. MNAC
voted in favor of recommending McKee’s draft ordinance. McKee agreed to put together a letter and
present MNAC’s recommendation to the Bellingham Planning Commission at its
public hearing on the Infill Toolkit.
Mary Mullen presented information about the
Center for Local Self Reliance and offered upcoming dates for public meetings
and design charettes.
Treasurer’s Report: Diane reported she renewed the P.O. Box for
$58.00 and filed the 990-N for 2008 with the IRS. The closing balance was
$3847.43
Diane brought up an e-mail she received requesting
the opportunity to advertize on the ENA website which sparked a discussion
about advertizing. For the most part it
was agreed that there was no profit to ENA, but the possibility was left open
to anyone interested in researching and determining the best way to handle
ads. No one volunteered. However, John Erickson passed around an
Alabama Hill newsletter with an interesting real estate section listing the
current housing market for that neighborhood.
John offered that might be something ENA could consider adding to our
website. Lylene suggested doing it
through a link that could be continuously updated.
Committee Reports
No new
news.
Representative
Reports
AOBN: John Erickson offered the meeting was
‘fun’. In summary, student painters attended
to talked about their services, there was a brief discussion about the Infill
Toolkit, and neighborhood updates. Next
week a representative from Banner Bank will talk about what is going on with
the banking industry.
John introduced a discussion about growth
management in the city and county. He
talked about the City of
Bellingham Employment Lands Report that can be found on the city’s website.
This report provides a 3 dimensional graph and current overview of Bellingham’s
industry and employment areas. It also talks about future growth. Questions were brought up about how much
retail we can really accommodate. Would
the push to develop the waterfront take business away from downtown? It was mentioned that after Bellis Fair Mall
opened it took about 20 years for downtown to recover. Would all of the planned urban villages
actually be successful? The Barkley area
was not developing as a true urban village.
Was the county and city working together to accommodate growth? Were there mixed signals – people say they
want to save farmland, but they don’t want to live in dense areas. Good points and questions.
CSN: Brad
reported that nothing new was happening.
The draft ordinance prepared by Larry Horowitz proposing a modification
to the city’s existing vesting ordinance did not meet with unanimous approval
by the five CSN neighborhoods. He also
offered that CSN would most likely have another candidate forum in the
fall.
RDNOW: Joe Yaver updated the group on the latest
wetlands category determination and the status of the EIS for the Fairhaven
Highlands development. He also added
that the FDIC issued a
Cease and Desist order against Horizon Bank that ordered the bank to reduce its
bad assets and bring in more capital. There was a discussion about what effect
that order could have on the development.
Responsible
Development has a very good website at www.rdnow.org
that illustrates the impact of the proposed Fairhaven Highlands Project,
contains updated news reports, and a calendar of events.
Business:
Chuckanut Village Marsh: There have been a couple successful meeting
to discuss how to reclaim part of the eroding beach, stop the intrusion of cars,
and supply parking for kayak use. Brad reported there was some internal chatter
between staff concerning the unavailability of funds to purchase parking areas
since the south side Greenways funds are on hold. If the Fairhaven Highlands project gets approved
it could add considerable impact to the traffic in the area as well as damage
to the marsh the city claims it is trying to save.
Closing
Meeting was adjourned at 8:53
The next meeting scheduled
will be the Edgemoor Board Meeting to be held from
7-9 p.m. on June 4th at Fairhaven
Pavilion. All residents are encouraged to attend.
Respectfully Submitted,
Lauri Grove
Minutes are subject to approval.