Downtown Advisory Board

CITY OF HENDERSONVILLE DOWNTOWN ADVISORY BOARD Downtown Program Office | 125 Fifth Avenue West, Suite 200 | Hendersonville NC 28792 Tuesday, August 08, 2023 – 4:00 PM MINUTES 1. CALL TO ORDER Caroline Gunther, Chair John Ryan Matthew Hickman Chris Cormier Mark Pavao Aaron Adams Samuel Simmons Nancy Neikirk Phil Wilmot Michele Woodhouse Arrived after approval of minutes: Joe Dinan Gerald Fitzerald Heang Uy Absent: Carole Sitzer, Debbie Roundtree, Anthony McMinn Staff present: Jamie Carpenter, Terrye Jacobs, Lew Holloway 2. PUBLIC COMMENT – There was no public comment. 3. APPROVAL OF AGENDA – Caroline Gunther made an amendment to the agenda add elect officers to New Business item 1. Matthew Hickman seconded the motion. All were in favor. 4. APPROVAL OF MINUTES 1. June 13 & 26 Downtown Advisory Board Minutes – Mark Pavao made a motion to approve. John Ryan seconded. All were in favor. 5. NEW BUSINESS 1. Election of Officers – Chris Cormier nominated Caroline Gunther as Chair, Matthew Hickman as vice chair. Aaron Adams seconded. All were in favor. It was noted for staff to note a reminder to review board succession in spring 2023 at board meeting. New board members Nancy Neikirk, Michele Woodhouse, Samuel Simmons and Aaron Adams were introduced. Jared Bellmund and Patsy DuPre are no longer serving on the board and were thanked for their time. 2. Invasive Species Request from Tree Board – Jamie Carpenter introduced the background of receiving the letter from the Tree Board. The request from the Tree Board was that vendors at Garden Jubilee does not allow vendors to sell invasive species. The Friends of Downtown took over operation of Garden Jubilee in 2023. The request came 2 weeks prior to the event and vendors DOWNTOWN ADVISORY BOARD – August 08, 2023 Page | 1  were not sent any information. Carpenter advised the Tree Board staff representative that the Downtown Advisory Board would review this letter and request to determine if they were in favor of placing restrictions on vendors at the event. The board discussed in depth, noting the following points: Discussion regarding some of the individual items on the list – noting some of the items are frequently used and many are sold in nurseries. Matthew Hickman commented that he would be interested in reviewing further rules regarding food vendors – compostable items, etc. This is not related to the current topic but would like to have for further discussion. Chris Cormier – opinion to let vendors continue to let them sell what they would like to do and is not in favor of the Tree Board enforcing vendors at events. Caroline Gunther suggested the city could have a policy regarding the city’s own invasive species. We can include a list of invasive species for vendors to be thoughtful about but not as a requirement or rule to be enforced. Jamie Carpenter and Terrye Jacobs, speaking as event organizers with Friends of Downtown – would not want to be responsible for enforcing vendors and would not be in favor of an independent board restricting items at vendors at the event. Mark Pavao noted if we suggest the enforcement of this for Garden Jubilee, we will have to do this for all events, including the farmers market. Recommends providing this list as a recommendation. Does not think we should require. Caroline Gunther– this is an opportunity for the tree board to educate more on invasive species and management. If there were non-regulatory worded materials to include in vendor packet, they can do that. Cannot appear to be mandatory. No votes were taken, however the consensus of the board was in favor of suggesting the Tree Board provides the information to vendors in their packet as a recommendation without enforcement. 3. Valet Parking Policy – J. Carpenter introduced that there has been a request for the City to allow for valet parking in Downtown. The use of valet parking has been discussed internally, and pro’s and cons as staff sees them were provided. Staff would like to understand from the Downtown Advisory Board if there is an interest in further pursuing at this time. Staff would then do further research and bring it back to the board and city council if there is a desire to investigate further. The board discussed the pros and cons. Several members of the board noted that it may work well in larger cities and on private property, however believes it would be disruptive to Main Street and create issues with congestion. DOWNTOWN ADVISORY BOARD – August 08, 2023 Page | 2  The general consensus being that the Downtown Advisory Board believes we need to have parking in place for a longer amount of time before recommending further ordinance changes. Mark Pavao made a motion that we do not recommend moving forward with pursuing an ordinance for valet at this time. Matthew Hickman seconded. All were in favor. 4. Comprehensive / Downtown Plan + Planning Dept Update Lew Holloway gave an update on the Comprehensive Plan. The Gen H Comprehensive Plan Survey will open on Monday August 14. The current comp plan was adopted in 2009, the Comp plan will touch on a variety of topics related to the community. Mostly how growth will be managed in the city. Downtown Master Plan component – There will be a large section dedicated to the downtown plan, thanks to a grant from the TDA for $50,000. First consultant let stakeholder outreach meeting is September 19 @ The Main Event - theme of downtown, the board is encouraged to attend. Pop up events for city outreach for plan – downtown events + other locations The goal is for the plan to be adopted in spring 2024/early summer – council adopt comp plan + downtown plan 6. OLD BUSINESS 1. Downtown Workplan Updates – Jamie Carpenter – reviewed documents that were included in the agenda packet. Caroline Gunther noted that she was going to help create a rack card that includes resources for underhoused people that businesses can hand out. Is working on that information. Lew Holloway provided some 7th Avenue streetscape updates 7. OTHER BUSINESS – There was no other business. 8. ADJOURNMENT DOWNTOWN ADVISORY BOARD – August 08, 2023 Page | 3