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Topic

Presenter

1

Approve April minutes.  Approved unanimously

Treasurer's Report.   Two n’hood paid dues for +$100 for total of $5462

Bill Bailey

Carl Nyberg

2

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

Bill and Marianna Bailey (View Point)

Byron Ballard (West End Clingman) looking forward to sunshine so can mow yards.

Marsha Stickford (Claxton Community Area) Asheville N’hood coordinator

Dianne Macum (Beverly Hills)

Carl Nyberg (Kenilworth)

Joshua Byron (Oakley)

Stephanie (Oakley)

Stephen Hudzik (Kenilworth)

Grace Curry (Grove Park Sunset Mountain)  Meeting with new community planner at next meeting.

Jake Quinn (Grove Park Sunset Mountain) 

Alan Escovitz (Grove Park Sunset Mountain)

Joe Minicozzi (Brucemont Circle) ongoing conversation about n’hoods.  Sage Linden still working to get West Asheville newsletter started.

Marcus (West Asheville)

Robert Zieber (Biltmore Park) about 1% of houses in neighborhood in foreclosure while 30-40 are for sale.

Round the Table

3

 Neighborhood Spotlight – Burton Street  rescheduled

Tentative

4

Home Energy Conservation - Marcus from Conservation Pros provided an educational presentation on how the Stimulus Plan can help homeowners save energy and $.  One feature of the Stimulus Plan is the expansion of the tax credits for residential energy-efficiency improvements.  See attached list of tax credits for up to 30% of materials and possibly labor depending upon type of product or service.  Contact Conservation Pros if you would like to set up a presentation for your neighborhood or community group.  Often the fastest paybacks can be realized through house envelope improvements.  See attached for more information.

Marcus

281-7466

5

City’s Traffic Calming Policy  The Grove Park Sunset Neighborhood Organization brought a concern to CAN regarding traffic calming  and specifically the signing of a Letter of Agreement between the neighborhood and city.  The primary concern was the potential cost of ongoing maintenance and the secondary concern was legal liability. 

In 2000, Asheville adopted a neighborhood traffic calming policy which is a valuable tool to outline expectations.  Per the city guidelines, neighborhoods are to sign an agreement that they will provide plants etc.  Please see the attachment for an excerpt from the policy including a summary of the process.

The Grove Park Sunset neighborhood has successfully engaged the Grove Park Inn and the city to implement an extensive traffic calming project designed to reduce the impact of the Grove Park's 10 year expansion plan.  As part of the process, Ken Putnam the city traffic engineer wrote a letter of agreement and presented to neighborhood organization. 

The neighborhood has shown concern due to potential cost and / or liability issues.  For example who is responsible for the replanting costs if a bus plows through the traffic calming devices and wipes out the plants.  Is there an expected cost limit to the neighborhood for unexpected damage and ongoing maintenance?  On the more legal side, what if someone hits a plant that was the responsibility of the neighborhood and sues for damage or injury? 

The recommendations were as follows:

• Create informal committee to further review the issue.  The committee would consist of several neighborhoods with traffic calming experience or general interest and would be lead by the Grove Park Sunset neighborhood.
• Include a hold harmless agreement or have the city offer an indemnity so that if someone sues that the city will handle responsibility. 
• Questioned whether it could be handled as a landscape maintenance agreement.  It was noted that Asheville Greenworks has been a helpful participant. 
• Ask the city traffic engineer (Ken Putnam) for help with finding legal experts who deal with that legal area to provide a better perspective on the limits of the neighborhood's liability.  Concerned that once start talking about legal liability that people can get unduly concerned.
• Involve Marsha Stickford in any conversations between the neighborhood and the city. 

The Grove Park Sunset neighborhood furthermore plans to provide at a later date a lessons learned about the whole experience of traffic calming.

Jake Quinn

Grace Curry

6

Storm water Ordinance: Robert summarized the report and presentation provided to the P&Z committee.  The P&Z presentation was reportedly a basic educational presentation and there was no vote.  P&Z plans to come back in June to vote.  City Council will follow later in the summer or early fall.

The stakeholders did some great work of tightening many areas of the ordinance.  However, the main sticking point remains the effectiveness of the buffer size.  The science appears to say that even a 30-50’ buffer is not sufficient to reverse the decrease in water quality.  The stakeholders however don’t agree on size of buffer and what types of property will be covered for parcel size and exemptions. 

Robert would like P&Z to remand (i.e. send back) the buffer part of the ordinance for more study and keep the current buffer standard which provides more protection for water quality.

Robert believes that the currently proposed table of buffers is confusing.  He believes that the table should be replaced with a standard 50’ buffer with opportunities to reduce the buffer width through specific incentives and or through the many applicable exemptions.  River Link has taken on responsibility as the primary organization fighting for an expanded buffer that will have incentives. 

The concern of property "takings" appear to be overblown as exemplified the fact that over the last two years under the existing storm water ordinance the only two examples where there were exemptions requested they were granted. 

Robert stated that it would be helpful to have more neighborhoods and homeowners present at the next P&Z in July.

Robert Zieber

7

Benefits of CAN membership:  The group brainstormed this topic and results will be presented at a later date.

Marianna Bailey