Neighborhood Planning Council 10 - Lakeview west

WESTALKE/PRAIRIEVIEW NEIGHBORHOOD PLANNING COUNCIL #10 Meeting Minutes February 27, 2017 The meeting was held at Lakeview Senior Living Facility, 14661 S Helmer, Battle Creek, Michigan Call to Order & Welcome Chair, Jeff Koteles called the meeting to order at 7:03 pm Invocation: A moment of silence was observed Attendance: Members: Chairman: Jeff Koteles, Vice Chair: David Weaver, Secretary: Linda Patenaude, Donna Jaeger, Diana Cole, Gary Dodd, Karol Henegar, Tom Rose, Zac Ganton, Donna Kowalski, and Joyce Garrett Guests: Loretta Gold, Amy Rose Robinson, Carol Quinn, Julie Davis, Marty Brenner, Scott Ganton, Gordon Vogt City staff: Officers Hopkins and Denney, Jason Francisco Chair Notes/Correspondence/Announcements: The historic Business District is looking to demolish a bldg. on W Manchester. There is no planning commission meeting on Feb 22. Additions/Deletions to the Agenda: None Minutes: Dave Weaver motioned to approve the minutes with support from Gary Dodd. Minutes were approved unanimously. Police Report: Officers handed out crime reports. Officer Denney is a new BC officer and has been on the job for 3 months. He will be covering the south side of the city. He was reminded about speeding traffic on 24th Street and also 21st Street. Traffic is so congested around Westlake school and there are concerns about safety. There was a question about prosecution of the bomb threat culprit. No has been caught yet. Public Service Announcements from Commissioners: No commissioners present again. It was noted that we have not had any commissioners present for quite some time. Committee Reports: a. Membership: 200 postcards were mailed out and we received one new guest. Six members were renewed for the upcoming year and have been sent to the commission. They include: Karol Hennegar, Linda Patenaude, Nancy Slocum, Jeff Koteles, Mary Lou Ramon, and Donna Kowalski b. Beautiful Battle Creek Award- Business are needed.  c. Lakeview School District- no report d. Woodland Park- Joyce Garrett shared the new park brochures. City will be doing some spring clean-up work on the trails. May 20 at approximately 8am. Volunteers are needed. Plans are continuing on the wetlands boardwalk and observation deck, a very large project. City Staff Report: Jason Francisco passed out code enforcement reports. He reminded us all that the yard waste does not start pick-up until April 1st. Jason followed up on questions from last month about a burned out house on 21st St. It is in arbitration now. Battle Creek will be able to demolish 120-130 homes in the coming year thanks to a grant of 3.8 million dollars teaming with Calhoun County. Old Business: Election of officers was by acclamation after a motion by Gary Dodd: Jeff Koteles- president, Dave Weaver-vice-president, Linda Patenaude-secretary. Special presentation: Scott Ganton of the Heritage senior living communities presented a project to the group. He is planning on going before the planning commission next month (March) for a special use permit and is looking for NPC approval. He has a ten acre site located off from Helmer behind the Reflections and the Heritage campus’. He proposed building up to 14 townhomes (duplex homes) or 28 units. The units will be single story with single car garages, 2 bedrooms and 2 baths. . They are targeted to the 55+ age group who may have spouses in the other campuses for a continuum of care. He is planning on starting with 2 buildings this spring and keep adding on. Members of our NPC expressed a strong interest in having sidewalks installed. There was concern over drainage near the back (east side) of the property. Positive comments were made about Mr. Ganton’s history of working with neighbors. It was noticed that there was a lack of residents from Windamere and Westchester Way. The NPC was concerned that those people would be very impacted by this development and were not represented. Mr. Ganton said that he would knock on some doors of the people who would be close to the proposed development. Dave Weaver made a motion to send a letter of support of the proposed townhome development. The motion passed. Amy Rose shared the Calhoun County’s Landbank’s new program called Neighborhood Mow and Maintenance. It is a way to maintain vacant lots by engaging groups and organizations in taking care of properties the county landbank owns. For maintaining 20 properties (the minimum groups can take) the group receives $3,000.00. The group maintains the properties from April through October. Groups need to have insurance and a bank account. Applications are due by March 16th. For more information call 269-781-0777. Comments for the good of the order: Our NPC story needs to be told by members. Please think about accomplishments value of belonging. Meeting ended at 8:32pm Next Meeting: March 27th Submitted by Linda Patenaude Members who will not able to attend our meeting for an excused absence, please call Linda @ 269-962-8514