Neighborhood Planning Council 4 - Northeast

Minutes: Neighborhood Planning Council #4, Fremont/Verona/McKinley Meeting Date: Wednesday, September 18th 2013, 7:00 PM Location: Maple United Methodist Church, 342 Capital Ave. N.E. Call to Order at 7:03 pm Policies and Procedures announcement from Vice-Chair David Nielsen regarding public comment opportunities Members (8): Laura Adams, Marcia Austin, Mary Conklin, Kaytee Faris, John Hennink, Mark Jones, David Nielsen, Sherry Sofia Attendance and Introduction of Guests: Guests: (6) Dave Gauthier, John Kenefick, Chuck Yarger, Dean Newsome, Kim Yarger, Chaundra Youngblood City Officials: Lynn Ward-Gray, Todd Nowicki Changes to Agenda: None Approval of Minutes June minutes: Mark Jones moved to approved minutes as presented, Sherry Sofia supported the motion. Voted to approve 7-0. July minutes: David Nielsen moved to approved minutes as presented, Sherry Sofia supported the motion. Voted to approve 4-0 with 3 abstentions. August minutes: David Nielsen moved to approved minutes with corrections, Sherry Sofia supported the motion. Voted to approve 6-0 with 1 absention. Program: None Governmental Reports Police Report-No officer present Code Compliance- Marcia Austin reported that the derelict car at 42 Groveland has been towed away. Todd Nowicki reported that there are 200-250 vacant and abandoned houses on record in NPC 4, this does not include homes that are for sale and not occupied. Noted that they are getting close to the tolling period during which they cannot enforce people needing paint their houses. Problem properties reported by residents: 163 Harvard (yard issue) empty house was reported. Todd Nowicki reported that it is on the vacant and abandoned list and there is an order in and weeds need to be taken care of by 9/30 House on the corner of Capital Ave. NE and Woodward (grey stucco, possibly 657 Capital Ave. NE) is vacant and abandoned. 46 East Avenue North brush issue has been fixed School bus parked on the upper block of Latta Street during the day, all day, 5 days a week by a bus driver visiting her mother. Commercial parking nearby is available. David Nielsen asked about trash container rules were, they must be removed from curbside by 9am the day after pickup. East Avenue North (no house number on the building),across from Clifton Place, rotating used cars for sale in the vacant lot next to the property. 41 Orchard-resident brings out basket of dirty laundry and lets them sit in the yard and get rained on and then takes them in. Corner of Sherman and McKinley (former used car lot) can that be solved? Todd reported that in 30 days she will be escorted out in handcuffs for 30 days jail term if nothing is done. Calhoun between Chestnut and Fremont next to one of the NSP2 houses, a concrete barricade (Jersey barrier) had been put up along the driveway. Resident reported that property owner told him this was to prevent cars from neighboring property driving through his front yard. City Commissioner- Sherry Sofia reported on 9/17 commission meeting. New ordinances passed to deal with charity drop boxes and one to deal with pawnbrokers/secondhand goods and pawnbrokers. Drop boxes have to be registered and maintained by the organization owning it. Contact information needs to be provided on the outside of the box for the organizations owning it. Lynn Ward Gray reported that the ordinance more closely mirrors the Kalamazoo ordinance than the ordinance passed in Pennfield which outlawed charity drop boxes. Non-Registered boxes are to be reported to code compliance. Resident asked how to know if a box had been registered. Neither commissioner nor code officer had that information. An electronic system will be replacing a paper log for entering information about pawn/sold items to assist when searching for stolen goods. Resident inquired about the cost of the electronic system to the system and the businesses. $3000 for the city’s cost ( fee for the software) and registration costs $2-300 per business. Resident asked why the two commissioners present voted to give the city manager a raise. Lynn Ward Gray noted that there were multiple surveys, the overall economic health and growth of the city and the lack of strong goals in place to evaluate the city manager; she felt the 2% raise was justified. Sherry Sofia cited the great bond rating, the lack of measurable goals provided to him, as her reasoning for voting to approve the raise. Lynn Ward Gray noted that Keeping You informed is about utilities and it is broadcast Wednesdays at 6pm on Channel 17. County Commissioners-none present Correspondence: None Committee Reports: Membership: None Beautiful BC: None External Commission Reports: Zoning Board of Appeals: Meeting Cancelled Planning Commission: No Report Historic District Commission: Mark Jones gave the report. They have received and order from 10th district court regarding a property owner who appealed half a dozen times, thanks to code compliance for being diligent and obtained the order to the property owner to make the necessary repairs. Kudos to NIBC who stepped in and are helping the property owner to fix the problems with the house in a historically appropriate manner. Commission is looking for an architect or engineer who lives in the city to be on the Historic District Commission. Housing Board of Appeals: No properties in the NPC under discussion. Neighborhood Association Report: None Action Items: None Old Business: None New Business: Question about prostitution ordinance and how it works. As far as the state statute goes, the officer cannot arrest without witnessing misdemeanors (excepting retail theft and vehicle accidents). Suggestion of getting together with NPC1 regarding having a Ward 3 candidate forum. David Nielsen moved that we invite Ward 3 candidates to the October NPC to give us a brief introduction and short Q and A period in lieu of the formal candidate forum. Mary Conklin supported the motion 5-0 in favor. 3 abstentions. John Cash and Devon Gibson need to be invited. 3-4 intro and 5 minute Q and A. David Nielsen volunteered to be the timekeeper. Nielsen noted that the policy of the group has been to not allow public comments from candidates for public office during the months of September and October. Public Comments: Chaundra Youngblood (representing BCPS) announced they opened their first preschool at Fremont and it is full. Gwen Dangerfield (Verona Principal), Kathy Money (Fremont Principal) and Dr. Linda Hicks (superintendent) will be taking turns attending the meetings as representing BCPS. Dave Gauthier provided photographs and maps and stated that he’s watched his neighborhood deteriorate into a crime-ridden craphole, and that we have 60% of AFC homes and 50 registered sex offenders. Asked why the concentration of these so high in this area. Challenged the NPC to start doing something about the problem in this neighborhood. Wants code enforcement to enforce and strengthen rental ordinances. Stated that we are beyond twigs in the yard, empty trash cans. Requested a meeting with interested parties, the city attorney and no politics. Chuck Yarger reports this NPC worked on the AFC issue in the late 80’s and early 90’s and ran into the situation where multiple agencies regulating the different types of homes, and the big concentration is generated that if they are here in this neighborhood, they are not in other places in the city. If you put your undesirables, your poor here, they are not there. If they are not there, the problem is solved. He noted that you cannot have leadership without great communication and that the commission needs to communicate their goals to the city manager and the city manager needs to communicate the true state of the city government to the city commission so they can make their decisions. You can just as easily be in a good place to do accident as you can be due to action. Kim Yarger noted that she’s spent her whole life in this NPC and her father was a barber in the business district on Capital Ave. N.E. and wants to know where things are in relation to that area. Lynn Ward Gray stated that she would share that with Kim after the meeting. Member Comments: John Hennink reported that he has validated the data presented by Dave Gauthier regarding the amount of sex offenders and AFC’s in the neighborhood. David Nielsen reported that there have been a number of times that the AFC situation has gone before the Planning Commission in the past when special use permits have come up, and that the Planning Commission has 9 members who live south of Golden Avenue. This highlights the importance of having North side residents on the Planning and other Commissions Meeting adjourned at 8:47 pm