Meeting Minutes, Dec 5, 2018

Minutes—Minutes of the November meeting were read and approved.

Officer Report —Laura, the Valley Crime Prevention specialist, reported that there was one commercial burglary, one residential burglary, eight vehicle burglaries, two auto thefts. She gave the addresses. These were mostly reported on Tuesdays, mostly around 9 am. She said that all thefts should be reported regardless of value. She suggested looking at crimemapping.com where one can search for crimes in a particular neighborhood and can sign up for sign up for email or text alerts. Another resource that she suggested is the app, OneABQ, which can be used for reporting on issues.

Dickens—Bonnie expressed appreciation for the tremendous effort Ann makes to organize this annual event. It was a big success and a great opportunity for neighbors to get to know each other.

Project for vacant Pop ’n’ Taco Lot—David Day, on behalf of himself and Rob Dixon, presented a proposed project for the Pop ’n’ Taco lot: an apartment complex with two buildings and a courtyard, creating a total of 56 small 350 sq. ft. apartments with rents starting at under $700. This project would require 3 variances:

1. Extending Metropolitan Redevelopment Area 
2. Street Parking Exemption: The developers are anticipating that people who would be attracted to these apartments would be those that do not have cars or who would be willing to walk a few blocks for on street parking.  Others could rent a spot in the city ramp around the corner on Arno.
3. Height/Solar Exemption: Because of the courtyard between the two apartment buildings, the house to the north should get sun exposure for most, but not all, of the day.

Banners —Bonnie reported that Isaac Benton has money for banners along commercial streets - not residential streets - so, if we want banners along Lead/Coal, we would not be getting assistance from the city. An estimate on the cost for banners along Lead/Coal is around $6000. There is interest in having banners on Central as a collaborative effort with EDo, and EDo is interested but has not yet received grant money for banners. David Tanner has offered to help design banners.

Historic B&B Appeal  —The appeal will be going before the city council on Dec. 17.

Miscellaneous 

• Broadway/Central Hotel: The project for a hotel on SW corner of Broadway and Central will have a public hearing on Dec. 12. The architectural design is rather mundane, but the developers are required to have street trees so that will be soften the appearance.
• 123 Central NW: A business at 123 Central NW is requesting a variance for 6 foot fence around their parking lot. This business is not in our neighborhood but since we are a neighboring neighborhood, the business is giving us this notice.  The fence request is due to a bus stop in front of their property which has increased foot traffic through their parking lot.
• Plans for the HH meeting building (the “station”): Ann is writing a grant to fix up the building.
• Concern on 214 Edith SE: Gordon came to the meeting to express his concerns and the actions he has taken regarding the cats at 214 Edith. 

Meeting adjourned 7:26 pm

Next meeting will take place 6:30pm Wednesday, January 2, 2019.