Neighborhood Planning Council 4 - Northeast

Fremont/Verona/McKinley Neighborhood Planning Council #4 Meeting Minutes Date: November 28, 2012 Call to Order at 7:00 pm Attendance and Introduction of Guests: Members in Attendance (10): Marcia Austin, Mark Jones, Szenoria Smith, Sherry Sofia, Laura Adams, David Nielsen, Glenn Holmwall, Marcia Holmwall, Rick Harrison, John Walton Members Absent (11): Mary Conklin, Helen Van Valkenburg, Teresa Poole , Katy Faris, Dave Salerno, John Hennink, John Anderson, Jonna Siano, John Whittaker Guests in Attendance: Matt Williams, Mike Murray Elected and City Officials: Battle Creek Police Department • No officer present City of Battle Creek: • No city staff present City Commissioners: • Lynn Ward Gray (Ward 2)-absent • Sherry Sofia (Ward 3)- present • Andy Helmboldt (At-Large)-absent County Commissioners: • Jim Haadsma (District 3)-absent Changes to Agenda: Approval of minutes: Glenn Holmwall moved to approve as amended, Szenoria Smith seconded. Motion passed 10-0. Program: Development of the 700 Block of Capital Ave. NE by Matt Williams , Anchor Property Requesting rezoning of 426 Hunter Street as part of construction of a new Walgreens at the corner of Capital Ave. N.E. and Emmett Street, across the street from the existing store, which will be closed. Noted that the master plan calls for rezoning the property on Hunter Street and continuing to the west, as commercial. Current location is twenty years old and does not have a drive-thru window. New location will allow for drive-thru, and accommodate things inside that cannot be accommodated by a remodeled store. Existing building is rented to Walgreens, will be rented to a new tenant and have already received inquiries about it. Construction on building to house Little Caesars and “cell phone store” to be done during summer and Walgreen’s to move in to new building in first quarter of 2014. Traffic concerns raised by members, especially regarding customers turning into and onto Capital Avenue N.E. It was suggested that the entrance/exit on Capital Avenue N.E. be restricted to right turns only. It was noted that this is a historic neighborhood and asked that the new construction fit the character of the neighborhood. All three existing houses are owner occupied and contracts to purchase the properties have been signed. Noted that Walgreens has a building permit to add a drive-thru and has requested that they obtain a Capital Avenue access in the new location and they will move across the street, otherwise they will build the drive through and live with the existing building limitations. The access point is critical to their project. Will be at the planning commission meeting to present in December. Will then make two appearances at city commission. Noted that “people want to feel that they have input”. David Neilsen moved that we recommend zoning of 426 Hunter to C-3 for the purpose of redeveloping the 700 block of Capital Avenue N.E.. Glenn Holmwall seconded. Sherry Sofia abstained. Motion passed 9-0 with one abstention. Correspondence: None Special Guests: None Governmental Reports: Police Department Report: No officer present Code Compliance Report: No code officer present City Commissioner (Ward 2) Report: Not present City Commissioner (Ward 3) Report: Had organizational meeting during November, Susan Baldwin re-elected mayor, Liz Fulton re-elected vice mayor. Adopted altered animal ordinance. Renamed pocket park downtown “Wave Square”. Chair brought up the issue of unlicensed street vendors who had no permits to sell goods and food during the holiday vendors who showed up from out of town and began to sell glow items and cotton candy, etc. City Commissioner (At Large) Report: Not present County Commissioner (District 3) Report: Not present NPC Reports: Chairman’s Report: • Zoning Board of Appeals: no report • Planning Commission: continuing to work on the zoning ordinance review • Historic District Commission: Met and approved two actions. A sign for Guardian Finance (upstairs from Brownstone and no sign on the street level). Corner of Emmett and Grove (?) Street (Family Health Center owned property) that they wish to turn into an apartment-submitted hand-drawn sketch with no labels. Granted use of that. Mark Jones was dissenting vote due to sketch, asked to make decision without proper submission. • Housing Board of Appeals: Property on Yale Street that burned and had not been fixed. Property owner states that he plans to rebuild. Unsure of what the ruling was. • Discussion of NPC chair’s representing the NPC at the meetings he attends without the NPC having voted for him to do so. Vice-Chairman’s Report: • Rental Property Hearings Board-requested this be removed from the agenda as it no longer exists • Dangerous Buildings Committee-will be taking action regarding a reported building at 255 Cherry Street. Committee Reports: • Membership Committee: Glenn Holmwall distributed “business cards” to members who requested. David Neilsen moved that John Anderson and Katy Faris be removed from the membership list. Marcia Austin seconded. After  discussion regarding policy, David Neilsen withdrew the motion and will reintroduce it next month. • Beautiful Battle Creek Award: sufficient addresses until March 2013 • Zoning ordinance ad hoc committee: Reviewing the text of the ordinances, also met with Planning Supervisor. There are definitions that are not used in the ordinances and terms used that are not defined. One property under discussion is the former bookstore on Calhoun Street that is to be converted to a liquor store. This is allowed under current zoning, however as Calhoun Street has changed, the zoning classification should be changed to match it. Main issues to review: -Text-What is written -Zoning areas-What is a property classified as -Special Use permit-ease of access -Uniform and consistent enforcement of codes and statutes Neighborhood Associations: • Neighborhood Crime Watch: Crime Watch diary was distributed in the Shopper again in November. David Neilsen is in the process having the flyers distributed to the Early Childhood coaches to take to families in disadvantaged neighborhoods. Old Business: • Rental property list is still outstanding • Community Forum in January discussion. Discussion of purpose of the forum: to inform people as to how the city works and to inform them about the NPC. Dave suggested building the forum around a neighborhood issue. Willing to push back date to spring. Member and Guest Comments: • Mark Jones brought up the International Festival of Lights laser show 6:00 pm to 8:00 pm, every Saturday through the end of December. There will be a candle- light walk featuring 2,000 milk jugs. Festival Follies (resurrecting Battle Creek Follies) either the 15th or the 18th of December • There will be a Nursing Clinic on December 19th at First Congregational Church. Action Items: Property Concerns: The parties previously reported at 94 Harvard are moving out. A non-running car is parked in the shared driveway at 42 Groveland, and has been sitting for two years. It has a current license plate, but has not been moved for 2 years and vehicles. Question: Is it legal to park in the middle of a shared driveway. County owned a yellow house on Merritt and sold it, to be fixed up and rented. No address available. Front yard parking complaints at: 481 Emmett Street (space carved out with chips or gravel on the easement), 496 Emmett Street (space with bark chips or gravel) 408 and 410 Emmett Street (multiple cars in front yard of both). 19 East Avenue, yellow sports car parking in the front yard. Corner of East Avenue and Capital Avenue (vacant lot) now being used for parking lot. Emmett Street between Garrison and Guest street. Residents raking leaves out in to street, Piles 3 feet deep in the street. May have contracted with someone to clean up the leaves for them. 255 Cherry Street has numerous code violations. Election of Officers: David Neilsen requested that Sherry Sofia chair the election portion of the meeting. Sherry suggested that we have the election during a regularly scheduled meeting, as the November meeting was originally canceled, but rescheduled due to the request that we meet to discuss the Anchor Properties issue. December meeting scheduled 12/19/12. The election will take place during that meeting. Police Issues: None reported Meeting Adjourned at 9:33 pm