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Topic

Presenter

1

Approved March minutes.

Treasurer's Report.   Approximately $5300 in account with no activity last month.

Bill Bailey

Carl Nyberg

2

Introductions - your name, neighborhood and quickly state any Issue / Success to share or to add to agenda.

Marianna & Bill Bailey (ViewPoint)

James Judd (Chunns Cove)

Donna Clark (Riceville Rd up Buffalo Mountain)  Bears are out.  Weather changes fast on the mountain.

Clarke & Allison Browne (South French Broad) see spotlight below

Carl Nyberg (Kenilworth)

Grace Curry (Grove Park - Sunset) Focused on getting landscaping in for traffic calming devices…need to raise $15k.  Working with city in changing letter of agreement related to traffic calming to another name due to concern with liability.

Barber Melton (Haw Creek) Have April 23^rd n'hood meeting.  Have been working on cutting underbrush in new park but there is liability issues with that as well.  Coming along well and seeing a large variety of wildlife including a coyote.

(Beverly Hills) – Welcoming spring with a community vegetable garden

Mike Lewis (Grace) tulips are blooming in traffic island.

Marian Sadler (North Asheville) Learned more about her neighborhood at the meeting.

Steve Hudzik (Kenilworth) More bear stories.  Learning about Beaucatcher Heights and whether they will need to re-apply.

Stephanie O'Connor (Oakley) got new traffic light on Fairview Rd which is welcome because it is reducing cut through traffic to WalMart.

Josh O'Connor (Oakley) Getting ready for Annual Community Association meeting on May 18 at 7 pm.

Robert Zeeber (Biltmore Park)

Ned Gutman (Redwood Forest)

Joel (Montford) Concerned that was not up to date on the cutting of trees at the new Health Center.

Greg Sills (West Asheville) Learned at the meeting that he is probably part of the Brucemont Circle Neighborhood.

Marsha Stickford (N’hood Coordinator) See bear presentation opportunity in Additional Agenda Items

Round the Table

3

Neighborhood Spotlight – South French Broad 

Spotlight on South French Broad Neighborhood

Based on a presentation by Allison and Clark Browne at the April 13 meeting of the Coalition of Asheville Neighborhoods (CAN)

As happens in many neighborhoods, the current efforts to establish a strong and diverse neighborhood organization for the South French Broad area is building on past work to bring neighbors together to improve the quality of life for all residents of that neighborhood.  This most recent and successful effort grew out of a community meeting focused on neighborhood concerns about crime and public safety in the spring of 2007.  A neighborhood barbeque organized as follow-up to the meeting led to the formation of the South French Broad Neighborhood Association.  The group meets each month on the second Thursday evening for solution-oriented meetings.  This approach has resulted in many accomplishments achieved in the year and a half by working together and building partnerships between neighborhood members, the City of Asheville, neighborhood businesses and other organizations. 

The accomplishments of the Association have included:

• Improved Communication in the form of a Yahoo group and a monthly newsletter.  Through a partnership with one neighborhood business, United Services Credit Union, a dedicated group of neighbors are able to hand deliver hard copies of the newsletter to the homes of neighborhood residents who do not receive it through the Yahoo group

•  Increased safety and decreased in crime in Aston Park and neighborhood streets.  Working with Asheville Police Department and the neighboring West End Clingman Area Neighborhood (WECAN), the neighborhood has identified priority issues and ways to address them.  Neighborhood residents have assisted the police in monitoring crimes like prostitution by reporting suspicious persons and activities to the non-emergency dispatch number. 

Other crime prevention related actions that have been accomplished by this partnership have been an increase in lighting on the street and in Aston Park.  The neighborhood worked with City Police and Traffic and Engineering address the dangerous intersection with poor sight lines at S French Broad and Bartlett Street by the installation of a 4-way stop.

• Partnerships with neighborhood businesses and other organizations.  This neighborhood has successfully partnered with other organizations.  In order to address crime issues at the Hot Spot convenience store on the corner of Hilliard and McDowell, it partnered with the West End Clingman Area Neighborhood (WECAN), the owners' of the Hot Spot, nearby business, Families Together, and CRO Jackie Stepp to clean up the area and remove shrubs that provided a place for unacceptable loitering and crime activity. WECAN has been a partner in several other efforts - from working with the Parks, Recreation, and Cultural Arts Department to make Aston Park more attractive and safe for children and families to use to holding anti-crime events during National Night Out. 

South French Broad and WECAN are currently planning a community garden together, with the help of another active neighborhood business partner, the United Services Credit Union.  The garden will be sited on the grounds of the Credit Union, located towards the south end of South French Broad.  The Neighborhood Association has built a strong relationship with this neighborhood business, which makes copies of their newsletter for distribution and has provided space for neighborhood meetings.

The neighborhood has also partnered with Asheville Greenworks to conduct neighborhood cleanups as well as some beautification projects - such as planting the traffic island on S French Broad at the corner of Hilliard.  They are currently working to provide a community business with opportunities to do service projects in the area with elderly residents.

• Completed a Neighborhood Visioning Projects in partnership with the City.  South French Broad was the site of a pilot project for a Neighborhood Visioning project. Over 60 neighborhood residents participated in a series of 4 meetings to develop an action plan for the future.  "Know our Past/Grow our Future" was the slogan for the process that identified 5 areas of focus.  The process helped create a shared vision and provided information on ways to create a stronger organization and strengthen the identity of the neighborhood.  The implementation of the action steps created in the Visioning process will help involve more neighbors and keep everyone focused on the future of this great neighborhood.

Allison and Clark Browne

4

Pack Square Park Update

Donna Clark discussed the schedule and design of the Park as well as answereng questions.  Pack Square park is divided into three sections which will open in stages.

The first section to open will be Pack Square park located on the Vance memorial end.  Have lost a little time due to rain but shooting to complete Pack Square by end of April.  The city will decide the exact opening day following a city inspection and official turning over of the park to the city. 

The next piece of the park to be completed is the green in front of the City Hall and County Courthouse.   This will be the first significant green space in the heart of downtown and will include performance stage, water features, art, views of mountains and public restrooms.  Expecting late July to open.

Preliminary work has begun in the middle of the Park (Reuter Terrace) but major work is yet to begin.  The pavilion is in that area and due to the economy it is being delayed.  Mid park is one of the more expensive parks due to steeper slope and installation of terraces.

Answers to Questions:

• Putting in trees in Pack Square area and provided list of trees. 
• New park director is encouraging participation from groups and neighborhoods and is expecting fun programming. 
• It has been decided to not temporarily use the Hayes Hopson building prior to the new Mid Park building being constructed.  The board's reasoning involved the desire to not spending the money necessary to refurbish the Hayes Hopson building but to save it for construction of the new building.
• Concerned about orientation of stage due to sun in the eyes of performer.  The board is aware of concern but have no solution yet.

Donna Clark

5

UNCA Lead Poisoning  is a non profit on UNCA campus which offers FREE lead testing for home, water, and soil as well as FREE home inspections.  They will test almost anything you want for lead including dishes, water, soil, paints, community gardens.  In addition they are available for presentations and offer classes on lead safe work practices for people doing renovation in older houses.  For people looking for qualified help, you can obtain of list of practitioners who have been through the lead safety class. 

The UNCA group is trying to work more with community and neighborhoods.  Through a project with Duke University using GIS maps etc. they were able to identify neighborhoods most likely in need based upon large numbers of older houses, children and churches.  Interestingly enough the South French Broad neighborhood (see N'hood Spotlight) was on the top of the list. 

Answers to Questions: 1978 was the year that lead paint was outlawed for residential uses but they have found that some people continued to use lead paint they had in stock.  

Marian Sadler

6

Home Energy Conservation - how the Stimulus Plan can help you save energy.

Had schedule conflict.  Will work to reschedule for next month.

Carl Donovan

7

CAN Board Elections - Please send your neighborhood representative to vote.  The nominating committee has corralled up the following folks and additional nominations are welcome:

§         Bill and Marianna Bailey (Co Presidents)

§         Joe Masters (PR + Newsletter)

§         Barb Verni-Lau and Barber Melton (Government Relations)

§         Carl Nyberg (Treasurer)

§         James Judd (Secretary)

§         Mike Lewis (Membership)

Mike Lewis made motion, Nate Guttman seconded,  carried unanimously.

Mike Lewis

Kendra Turner

Barb Verni-Lau

8

Storm-Water Ordinance

Since ordinance has been in place for 20 months have only had 2 instances where exemptions were requested.  Therefore hope that there is .  Hope to see that everyone applies even if they are pro forma exempted due to education component.  Have had many violations due to .

-water quality in the French Broad River Basin, covering all or part of eight counties in WNC, continues in decline and is getting worse, not better.

-The Watershed Policy Committee will be making a presentation before the COA Planning and Zoning Commission Thursday, April 23, 2009, between 4 and 6, City Hall first floor conference room.

- Over the past 20 months, the stormwater  ordinance in force today (passed in August 2007 to satisfy Stormwater Phase II rules promulgated by the US EPA, part of the National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES), has been administered by the COA Engineering Department.  A Stormwater Administrator (SWA) has been hired and about 5 inspectors to review plans, conduct inspections, and respond to complaints covering a range of water quality and stormwater issues.  The revised ordinance has dozens of positive changes that improve language, definitions, detail inspection requirements, and allow the City to impose fines and sanctions for violations.

-additional information available at the City of Asheville eGov website.

Barber added in that we have worked on this ordinance for 2 years again (for the 3rd time) and we feel that 30 foot setback required by the state is not enough that it should be 50 ft. Other places in NC have increased theirs to 50 from 30 after trying it out for some time and finding that 30ft from the streams just didn't filter the pollutants as much as it should before going into the waterways.  The State has already upped the requirements in the "flat county" of Coastal areas to 50 ft.since 30 didn't work there either.  So, please help your representatives and plan to be at at least one of these <P&Z 4/23 or Council TBD> to speak out. If you have questions please contact Barber, Robert, or Tom Rightmyer. 

Steep Slope Ordinance

Barber requested that everyone call, e-mail or write their legislators and in addition the legislators who cover all of WNC in support of the legislation proposed by Ray Rapp, Susan Fisher and others to put into effect a WNC wide steep slope ordinance to mandate the rules by which someone has to abide to build on these mountainsides. The municipalities & counties could make them  stronger, hopefully, but at least their would be some guide lines. The development community (of which out Rep. Bruce Goforth is one) and the real  estate folks are fighting this and putting a lot of money in Raleigh just like they did the last time.  We the taxpayers can not nor should we be expected to pay for the damages done when houses and lives are lost because someone wanted a view.  We have had a lot of damage done in Haywood, Buncombe, Peeks Creek, just to name a few and Insurance companies will not cover under any circumstances. So the taxpayers have to clean up the mess as usual. We need requirements that realtors have to disclose to buyers the dangers and also a geo-tech survey needs to be done along with enforcement of whatever rules we can get enacted. I will send the e-mails & address to anyone who needs them if they just e-mail me or you may get them off the NC Legislature website.  Or we can put them on the CAN website which we probably need to have there anyway. Do not delay. Please if you love your mountains, tell everyone you see to contact the senators and representatives for WNC.

Barber Melton

Tom Rightmyer

Robert Zieber

Additional Agenda Items

Bear Education: Marsha Stickford (N'hood Coordinator) is in the process of putting together bear material and how to live with them.  She can arrange for Brenda Sears to come and do presentation for any groups that are interested

Open to All