ECCO Meeting Minutes, Jan 6 2011.

ECCO Meeting Minutes for January 6, 2011

ECCO Meeting Minutes for January 6, 2011

Meetings are held at St. Mary’s Greek Orthodox Church at 7:00

Minutes submitted by Katherine St. Martin

Attendance

Board members: Nancy Ward (President), Sarah Sponheim (Vice President), Katherine St. Martin (Secretary), Heather Wulfsberg, Blake Harper, Jim Smith, Brad Durham/Kaitryne Durham, Judy Shields, Linda Todd

 Monica Smith (NRP), Meg Tuthill (City Council Representative)

Anja Curiskis, Nick Kakos (NRP Policy Board), Caroline Vaaler, Ryan Horazdovsky

Minutes from Dec 2nd Meeting approved

Announcements

·  Nancy opened the community forum discussion regarding street parking issues in ECCO and the greater Uptown neighborhood. The discussion was prompted by an e-mail from a concerned resident asking why the ECCO neighborhood didn’t have one way streets to aid with parking issues during the winter and if it was possible to prohibit parking on Hennepin.  Currently on some streets, (Holmes) it is almost impossible for opposing traffic to pass each other.   The current street parking on Hennepin has caused significant side view mirror damage because the cars are actually parked in the traffic lane, which causes traffic to significantly slow.  In response to these issues, Meg Tuthill discussed parking as her first issue.

Meg Tuthill (City Council)

1. The city will not consider changing the neighborhood streets into one ways like Duluth because the neighborhood actively changed the one-way streets in the last 30 years.  Unlike Duluth, there is no topography that naturally slows traffic and the one-way streets caused speeding throughout ECCO.  The two-way streets were initiated in order to slow traffic.  This does slow everyone down in the winter, but she pointed out that the additional neighborhood strain of dealing with the visiting Uptown patrons is a separate issue.  The restaurants in Uptown are not currently counting their rooftop bar areas in their off-street parking allotment and are also not allowing the parking ramp to validate tickets.  This creates an undo burden on the neighborhood street parking and she is raising the issue.  The city will not consider preventing parking on Hennepin because of the problems that would cause for all the small businesses along that corridor.  She also confirmed that the city can plow the streets and parking lots all night.
2. The Greenway will be widening the section of path over the Lake of the Isles channel from its current 10 feet to 15 feet.  
3. The Kite Festival will be held on Jan 8^th at the Lake Harriet bandshell from noon to 4:00 pm.
4. Meg explained that the Uptown Small Area Plan (USAP) is not within the City’s comprehensive plan.  When the City’s Zoning and Planning Committee December meeting approved the CB2 project despite the fact that the building specifications did not meet the USAP, she was alerted to the fact that the USAP was never incorporated into the comprehensive plan.  She will address this issue with the Council members to put the USAP and the floor area ratio requirement into the plan. 
5. If you are interested in attending the next lunch with Meg on Jan 11^th between 12:00 and 1:00pm at the 5^th Precinct, as always, contact her office at 612-673-2210 or meg.tuthill@ci.minneapolis.mn.us.
6. Meg addressed two questions:
   1. a. Brad asked a question regarding the property tax increase to our ward.  He wanted to know whether there was a plan to implement an equivalent decrease as future budgeting allows; is there an economist looking at the long term effects on each neighborhood?  Meg stated that there is an auditor who is responsible for identifying areas that can be cut, such as the current IT budget, but that there is no economic analyst looking at long-term effects. 
   2. b. Nancy asked Meg why she voted “No” on NRP at the City Council Meeting.  Meg’s position was that while she isn’t against the NRP policy she thinks that NRP sunsetted according to its 20-year plan just as the economy tanked.  She thought by turning control of the funds over to the City, they could decrease the ever-increasing tax burden.  She also stated that she didn’t feel the NRP funds were allocated fairly between neighborhoods. Nick Kakos felt that he had the obligation to give the neighborhood the full scope of the issue and told Meg that the NRP funds did not and do not affect taxes.  He indicated that the NRP policy board had intended to create a smooth transition of the funds over to the City’s Neighborhood Community Relations (NCR) department in a partnered transition over the course of the year, but when the City voted to seize control of the funds, that created an antagonistic environment where the two entities will not facilitate a successful transition.  He also mentioned that the unfair allocation is because the NRP process requires a great amount of work within the community to create the plans. The process can be more difficult in lower income areas that may not have neighborhood staff support. This meant that the active neighborhoods had access to the funding earlier – which sometimes coincided with the more financially affluent neighborhoods.  Nancy closed this discussion by commenting that the interrelated complexity and overlapping organizational structure of the NRP and NCR is basically not penetrable.  In follow-on discussion this month, she will attempt to unravel them but it is complex.  

Committee Reports:

Social/SECSE Committee:

· Nancy kicked off the discussion by bringing up several ideas for a February Social event such as a dance in the Sons of Norway parking lot, or an ice skating party.  Meg mentioned the highly successful Lyndale Farmstead Rink and announced the Ice Skating Party on Lake of the Isles on Sunday January 23^rd from 1:00 to 3:00pm and the Luminary Loppet and Tent Party on February 5^th.  Judy brought up the idea of switching around the social event day from a weeknight to the weekend and several people liked the idea of doing a movie and popcorn night at the Suburban World Theater.  The final ideas were to do a x-country ski night on Friday, February 18^th during the full moon in the Loppet’s old tracks and to do a movie and popcorn event in March.  Nancy told the Social committee to meet separately to work on the details. 

Environment/Green Team Committee

Committee chair Sarah Sponheim reported that the Green Team received a Hennepin County grant for $5,000 for a waste reduction program called “East Calhoun Waste-Watchers”.  The program will utilize neighborhood and personal connections to educate about organics recycling and encourage mixed recycling. They will use the grant funding to promote the program, create lawn signs, give free workshops in June and September and offer free in-home recycling consultations.

· Planning has begun for our annual Earth Day clean up.  ECCO will man a table by the lake as usual but Sarah would also like to target clean-up of storm sewer drains throughout the neighborhood.  The Green Team plans a summer project to paint stencils beside these drains to call attention to storm water runoff.

· East Calhoun resident Anja Curiskis discussed the Nature Valley Bike Race occurring June 17th as an opportunity to promote waste reduction.  In years past, the Green Team has organized limited recycling at the event.  This year, Anja hopes to obtain financial and logistical support for comprehensive recycling at the public event, either from the Uptown Business Association or the bike race sponsors.

        Nancy reminded board member to RSVP for the Uptown Association meeting on January 25^th in order to foster and build that bigger conversation of fostering a partnership between neighborhood and business district.

· Zoning Committee

·  Heather discussed the upcoming CB2 (Crate and Barrel) store’s building plan approval and their request to begin demolition on the corner of Hennepin and 31^st Street.  Although a lot of board members felt strongly opposed to the building’s plan, she emphasized that the store itself will add vitality to the Calhoun Square district.

Treasurers Report and Goal and Vision Setting Agenda Item

· Nancy passed out Glen’s 2011 proposed budget and last year’s budget as a place to start the discussion. He reports that the $2,000 CPED Grant is ending and won’t be part of our 2011 budget.  Importantly, there is $18,000 allocated to ECCO based on the NCR neighborhood funds.  This caused some initial confusion and discussion among board members so Monica passed out her proposed budget that the $18,000 is available through.  She emphasized that the board needs to decide whether or not to apply for this specific program and receive approval before the funds will be allocated.  So although the board cannot count on the funds for its internal budgeting plans, the board must tag the funds to specific focus area spending plans as part of the application. 

The Board motioned, seconded, and unanimously moved to approve Glen’s proposed 2011 internal ECCO budget plan.

· Nancy opened the floor for discussion on whether or not to apply for the NCR funding and receive the proposed $18,000.  Judy brought up the discussion points that with the already allocated NRP Phase II funding for this year, perhaps we don’t need to apply for more funding.  Monica disagreed by pointing out that the Phase II funding is very specifically tagged for certain budget items such as the diseased tree replacement and the home owner security grant.  The NCR money could be used to alleviate the internal budget restraints and allow for new social events and programs that were not allowed through NRP. 

The Board motioned, seconded, and unanimously moved to apply for the NCR funding and have Monica work on the ECCO application.

 · Nancy initiated open discussion, this time focusing on the board’s visions and ideas for 2011 and tying those visions into focus areas for the $18,000 NCR funds application.  At this point, Monica Smith walked through her proposed ideas for the budget bringing up social event and communications possibility.  Sarah proposed a Public Art focus area involving pavement painting and power box wrapping.  The Public Art area is another topic to interface with the business district on.  Uptown Association does a large graffiti deterrent program every year. The board discussed   such as using a artist company to paint murals or inlay decorated tiles at historically defaced areas like the building near Lucia’s restaurant. Nancy brought up the decorative aspect of Public Art projects such as the public art gardening spaces or planters and Heather mentioned the idea of decorative street lights throughout the neighborhood.  Meg Tuthill stated that several of the more expensive ideas, like the power box wrapping, could be a consolidated funding project along a shared corridor like 31^st street with our neighboring communities.  Brad had the vision of setting aside some of the funds to promote a tree refurbishment in the neighborhood.  The discussion concluded by Nancy’s assignment of the NCR application budget proposal to Monica, Judy, and Glen to work out the details during this next month so that we can provide a timely submission.  

· Nancy took any last comments for the greater visioning discussion and heard Heather’s concerns about getting more sand at the Tot Lot.  Park Board Commissioner Anita was sited as a good contact for this issue.  Linda also brought up a vision that she would like to see the ECCO board promote service to seniors in our neighborhood through some kind of previously existing organization.  The NIP on Hennepin was sited as a potential start point for this service oriented goal.  

NRP Report

· Monica reminded the group that the initial deadline for the Phase II housing grant is Friday January 14, 2011 at 4:00 pm.  She is sending out an e-blast with the information again.  The CEE is managing the Phase II housing grant and loan programs. Eligible projects include improvements to home energy efficiency and/or exterior repairs or improvements. The Matching Grant Program features a matching grant of 25% NRP funds to 75% homeowner funds, with a maximum grant of $3,000. There are no income limits.  The Low Interest Loan program offers 4% fixed rate loans with flexible terms with a maximum loan of $7,500. Household income limits apply.  For more information, please go to the NRP section of our website: www.eastcalhoun.org. 

Meeting adjourned. 

Next ECCO Meeting will be held on February 3^rd 2011 at 7 pm inside St. Mary’s Greek Orthodox Church.