Edgemoor Neighborhood Association Newsletter

Next ENA Monthly Meeting              

Thursday, May 5, 2005, Fairhaven Park Pavilion,  7-9 PM

ENA President’s Update             Read the minutes from the April 14, 2005 ENA Meeting

April was full of new developments for Edgemoor Neighborhood. Several meetings regarding proposed developments were well attended by friends and neighbors.  Click here to read more about Fairhaven Highlands on the City of Bellingham's website.

The proposed ENA Bylaws will be voted on at the May meeting. Please take the time to review them.  It is important to come prepared. The Bylaws Committee will be meeting on Monday, May 2, so please email any suggestions to committee chair, Brien Thane.

I hope to see you at the next ENA meeting on May 5, 7 PM at Fairhaven Park Pavilion.

Respectfully,

Niall Hacket

Interim ENA President

ENA Committee Highlights

Bylaws Committee                                        

The Bylaws Committee completed the final draft of the ENA Bylaws. The draft is available on the website and copies were distributed at the April 14^th ENA meeting. Comments from members are invited through May 1st.

Key changes from previous drafts include a conventional board structure to manage ENA’s routine business, allowing membership meetings to focus on neighborhood issues. The Board will meet monthly and all members of ENA are welcome to attend. Membership meetings will be held quarterly. Special meetings of either the Board or membership can be called as necessary.

Questions were raised at the April meeting about membership. The draft Bylaws allow any resident or owner to be a voting member by paying dues. Some members wondered if there shouldn’t be a limit of one membership for each household. This question will be addressed at the next Bylaws Committee meeting.

At the April 14^th meeting members voted unanimously in support of the draft Bylaws. A final vote on the Bylaws will be held at the May 5^th meeting.

Please read the March 30, 2005 Draft of the Proposed ENA Bylaws. They will be discussed at the next ENA meeting.

Committee Chair, Brien Thane

Communications Committee

Our committee is trying our best to keep you up to date on the new developments in our neighborhood but we could really use your help to reach our neighbors who don’t know about our organization.  Please help by getting the word out to your neighbors and friends about ENA. Tell them our newsletter is full of informative news regarding our neighborhood and proposed development in our area. When you’re out walking, weeding or just in the yard, please remember to get the word out.

Committee Chair, Kathy Kaiser 

Growth and Land Use Committee    

Lauri Grove and I were the only ones at the ENA growth and Land Use committee meeting held on the 26th of April.  It was a lovely evening we chit-chatted for a while then called it a day and adjourned.

A couple of things occurred since the last ENA general meeting. 

The application was submitted and deemed complete in a record 3 days for the "Fairhaven Highlands" (Chuckanut Ridge) development.  The next step in the process is SEPA decision due within the next 2 weeks.  An optional Planning Commission Meeting can be required by the director - I imagine he will have one - I'll keep everyone in the loop once new information becomes available.

Also a deal has been struck with the developers of the Harris Square complex to keep the Cherry Trees that are currently growing on 10th street .  Keeping these trees will mean that there will be no street parking on 10th street between Harris and at least McKenzie perhaps to the curve.

There was a Hearing Examiners meeting regarding the Conditional Use Permit for the property located at 334 Bayside Rd.

Brad Rose

Committee Chair, Brad Rose

Hospitality Committee

Our committee has organized a Friday Morning Walk & Talk.  This will be a great opportunity to get a little exercise and get to know your neighbors at the same time.  For now, we will be meeting at the Bayside Pool at 11:00 on Friday morning and begin walking on a circular path around Edgemoor, ending back at the pool about noon.  This will be a casual walk, just come with a water bottle and a smile.

The plans for the first annual ENA summer picnic are moving ahead.  We have a time and a place: The Fairhaven Park Picnic Shelter, Sunday, July 17, from 4:30 - 7:30.  It should be a fun afternoon complete with a potluck, games for kids and adults (including softball), and a book exchange for all of us bibliophiles.  There will be a sign-up sheet at the next general meeting for anyone who wants to get involved to help with food and games.

Laurie Renne

Membership                                                 

Please encourage your friends and neighbors to join the ENA. If you are not already an ENA member and would like to join, visit the membership page on the website for more information. To join ENA, send a check for $15 (per member) along with your name, address, telephone number to Edgemoor Neighborhood Association, PO Box 4420, Bellingham, WA 98227. Include your email address if you wish to receive email notices from the ENA.

Neighborhood Safety Committee                 

Here’s the more detailed version of what we’re working on as a committee:
We as a committee have decided to focus our energies in three areas:

-Pedestrian Safety

-Neighborhood Safety

-Driving Safety

Under this categorization, we have developed specific tasks to work on.  This is a description of them.

1.      Pedestrian Safety

A.     Sidewalk on Chuckanut from Willow Road to Old Fairhaven Parkway - We are working with the city to find out about planned sidewalks and temporary precautions involving the improvements on Chuckanut Dr.  We want to ensure pedestrian safety even while they are constructing the newly planned crosswalk on the south side of Willow and sidewalks on the east side of Chuckanut.

B.     Sidewalks on Bayside and Fieldston - We are working with the City’s Safe School Route department to look at a crosswalk across Hawthorne to Bayside Rd and continuing the sidewalk from that intersection for 2/10 mile to the existing sidewalk.  On Fieldston Road we want to put in a sidewalk from Lairmont Manor to the corner at Willow.  We have received an estimate from Cape Powers, the city’s sidewalk specialist, for $12-15/foot for a 5 ft. wide sidewalk.  We are currently awaiting the exact measurement of the area by a surveyor from our organization.  NOTE:  The updated draft of the city Comprehensive Plan has just included unspecified sidewalks on Bayside and Fieldston.  We have a question in to Chris Comeau of the planning department for more specifics.

2.      Neighborhood Safety

A.     Block Watch--We arranged a Block Watch meeting in January which was not well attended due to bad weather.  We have re-scheduled Mark Young, our crime prevention officer, to return to both our next Safety Committee meeting on Wednesday, April 27^th at 7:00pm at the Fairhaven Library in the Northwest room and our June ENA meeting.  We have had a couple of known break-ins in the last 2 months and really want to do all we can to prevent any more.  We currently only have 5 known block watch captains for our entire neighborhood.  We need people to consider taking on this responsibility.  Mark Young will present the requirements of a captain, which begin with holding just 2 meetings a year with at least 5 people from your designated area.

3.      Driving Safety

A.     Speed limit enforcements with the city—we contacted Sergeant Richards of the traffic unit (676-6677) to register our speed complaints on Fieldston Road.  Any citizen may call him to do the same.  We arranged to have the Speed Watch Wagon placed on Fieldston beginning April 21 to help slow down traffic.

B.     We are looking at an established program to use signage to remind people of the speed limit and the presence of kids/pedestrians.  The program is Keep Kids Alive/Drive 25.  Their website is www.keepkidsalivedrive25.org.  Please visit the site to see their products.  We are looking at yard signs instead of street signs.  We look forward to any feedback you might have regarding prices and other options you know about.  We would like to have quite a few signs throughout the neighborhood so people remember the speed limit is 25 mph in Edgemoor.  Please consider either purchasing and/or only placing one in your yard.

If people have other areas of concern, we are interested in any feedback you might have.  We are also looking for anyone interested to help with some of these issues.  We will keep you informed of break-in information as it becomes available to us-from you, from the police, from word of mouth, etc. 

Thank you for your interest,

Safety Committee Contacts: Donna Grasdock and Veronica Douglas

LOCAL NEWS 

Fairhaven Highlands Development Frequently asked Questions and Answers (information from the City of Bellingham Website)

"Fairhaven Highlands" is a development proposed by local builder/developer David Edelstein and Horizon Bank on property he purchased in 2004/2005. The property is located within Bellingham City Limits between Fairhaven Park and Chuckanut Drive, on what is known as Chuckanut Ridge, and includes an area known to locals as the One-Hundred Acre Wood. The development plan submitted by Mr. Edelstein for review by the City proposes to build about 739 homes on approximately 85 acres of land. The public may review this plan by clicking the links below. Click here to read the FAQ about Fairhaven Highlands.

or by visiting the Bellingham Planning Department at City Hall.

About www.edgemoorneighborhood.com

The Edgemoor Neighborhood website provides news and information to Edgemoor residents, which has several active  homeowners' associations and organizations. If you know of activites happening in Edgemoor, let me know and I will be happy to post information on the website.

Visit www.EdgemoorNeighborhood.com and check out the photos taken today along our first ENA Walk & Talk.

Your stories, photos and feedback are always welcome.

Webmaster, Sandie Koplowitz

Your Input is Welcome!

Please send information to be included on the website or the ENA newsletter.

If you would like your email address changed,  removed or a new one added to this mailing list, send a request to email at EdgemoorNeighborhood dot com.

Quick Links:

April 2005 ENA meeting minutes 

Final Draft of ENA Bylaws

Photos from the first ENA Walk and Talk