Old Orchard Business District Advisory Commission

Old Orchard Special Business District Advisory Commission MEETING MINUTES APPROVED MEETING DATE: Tuesday, December 13, 2016 LOCATION: City Hall CALLED TO ORDER: 8:01 AM MEETING ADJOURNED: 9:15 AM NEXT MEETING: Tuesday, January 10, 2017 NAME PRESENT ABSENT Joe Fichter, Chair X Angel Venegoni X Claire Winkler X Mary Jane Armstrong X Steve Scheipeter X Holland Saltsman X Robert Weber X John Barr X Vacancy Frank Janoski, Council Liaison X Mara Perry, City Liaison X Also in attendance: Fran Sudekum – Administrative Support APPROVAL OF MINUTES Motion to approve the November minutes as was made by Mary Jane Armstrong, seconded by Bob Webber, motion was unanimously approved. HOLIDAY FEEDBACK  Angela Foley provided feedback to Mara Perry to share with the Commission: o Webster Festival – There were lots of last minute changes made by “Santa” and his team, for example he did not bring the train and other items and was difficult to work with. Angela suggested we need to rethink the event for next year. o Holiday Tree Lighting – The musical contributions from the high school were great.  Holiday Cookie Walk – Holland Saltsman stated her store (The Novel Neighbor) had a few people come in with Tupperware containers, but most people coming to the store were unaware of the event. Mara shared that Old Webster had a lot more traffic than Old Orchard. Holland does think it’s a nice easy event to do during the holiday season.  District Holiday Decorations – Several members felt the holiday decorations in the District this year were less seasonal, had less holiday “pizazz;” they’d would have liked to see more items such as snowpeople, reindeers, etc. BIKE RACK LOCATIONS If the Sustainability Commission has funding to install bike racks in Old Orchard, where shall they be placed? If funding is available, they would work with the business districts on the final design of the bike racks. Mara passed out maps of the District and a discussion took place to identify the top three possible locations while keeping in mind geographic coverage for the whole District as well as potential users. The top three locations decided upon were:  1. The western edge of the District near the junction of Lockwood and Big Bend – Starbucks/Backflip area. 2. The mid-section of the District near the intersection of N. Old Orchard and Big Bend – Stratton’s/Commerce Bank area. 3. The eastern edge of the District near the intersection of Dale and Big Bend – The Novel Neighbor/Peacock Building area. PARKING DISCUSSION Further discussion of the parking issues in the District included the following items:  Commission members prioritized parking as: 1. Customers come first. 2. Employees come second. 3. Educational Facilities need to manage their students’ parking.  Parking enforcement plays a role in any parking discussion. How do you determine who is a customer vs. an employee vs. a student? How do you fund enforcement?  The ordinance change to add four Blue Permit spaces on Lockwood Avenue across from Cyrano’s has been passed.  Changes to the parking areas between the DeSoto building and the Quonset Hut is almost complete. One entrance has been closed; adjusting to the change in traffic flow will be a learning process. The parking area next to the DeSoto building will be repaved in the spring and possibly be restriped.  The triangle of green space next to the Emmanuel parking lot and owned by Emmanuel will be undergoing extensive landscaping by Emmanuel; no expansion of the parking lot is included in the new landscaping.  Emmanuel has not yet been approached to discuss possibly leasing out their existing parking spaces.  There doesn’t appear to be any private lots in the District that could be leased out. However, Bob Weber mentioned perhaps the “front” lot of Bethesda.  John Barr suggested landlords should include a clause in their leases that require tenants and their employees to park “in the back” of public lots and not on the street in front of the businesses. He has approached several landlords to ask them to include the “no street parking” clause in their leases.  There are several parking spots that run behind Stratton’s west to Weber’s which have no signage and appear to be in use all day by mostly Nerinx Hall students; as a result, customers aren’t able to use them. If controlled usage of some type would be added to these spots, the first step is to go thru the Traffic Advisory Commission.  The public parking lot on N. Old Orchard by Bethesda also appears to be used all day by mostly Nerinx Hall students.  If the use of parking tags was implemented in the District, it would require an ordinance with very specific parameters.  Active encouragement of carpooling and use of more time sensitive parking were put forth as two possible items to help address parking issues.  The Commission needs to put together a proposal of what they want to pursue in the parking arena. Mara will have a discussion with the Public Works Department and the Police Department to put together some rough information on permit areas and/or time constraints for further discussion.  Members all agreed Nerinx Hall needs to be engaged in the next parking discussion.  A second special meeting on parking will be added to the January meeting schedule, possibly the 17th or 19th and specifically invite Nerinx Hall to that meeting. ROOFTOP LIGHTING John Barr and Tim Brennan have been working on the rooftop lighting. They’d like to upgrade them with “warm” LED’s vs. “blueish” lights. They could then be much more inviting and uniform; it would look much nicer. Mara explained the 50/50 rooftop lighting program that Old Webster uses to address funding for rooftop lighting – 50% paid for by the District and 50% paid for by the building owners. Rooftop lighting funding could be put in next year’s budget. Mara can put together some potential figures for the budget discussion at the January meeting. Reimbursing the two businesses that are paying for the existing rooftop electrical usage on the Big Bend buildings from Weber’s to Stratton’s on the north side (Cravings) and the former location of the Webster Wok to the former location of the Natural Way on the south side (Cosmopolitan Events) need to be added to next year’s budget. FREEZE QUE EVENT Bill Kunz of Highway 61 Roadhouse is once again hosting their annual charity event, the Freeze Que Barbeque Competition in January. They are expanding from a one-day event to two days on January 28th and 29th. It is the second largest barbeque competition in the region and brings in many out-of- town barbeque teams. To accommodate a much larger event, Bill has requested to close S. Old Orchard at Garden from 5AM on the 28th thru 7PM on the 29th. This is a charity event; the intent of hosting the event is exposure for the District and the City. Bill would like to encourage any of the businesses in the District to become engaged in the event in some manner; such as actively welcoming the barbeque teams, offering coupons or specials, or any cross promotion they’d like to put forth. John Barr suggested an email blast to the businesses in the District about the event and its engagement opportunity to help get the word out. Bill has hosted this event for several years as an individual business and would like to make it a District event. Commission members discussed the pros and cons of making this a District event and then made the following motion – Bob Weber made a motion to make the Freeze Que Barbeque Competition a District event. Steve Scheipeter seconded the motion. The motion unanimously passed. CITY UPDATE  The Boulevard Salon is now open in the Quonset Hut building.  The second tenant for the Quonset Hut, Diversified Health and Wellness, has their permit in.  The dance studio going in near The Novel Neighbor is continuing with their permits.  Updating the City’s Comprehensive Plan is moving forward to the City Council in January.  The City Council is looking at the code related to “cottage” businesses. Different types of businesses in residential areas are not currently allowed under the existing code, but are occurring. New types of business such as Air B&B’s need to be addressed. Problems with food being sold out of a home business without Health Department guidelines being followed are an issue; lots of food-related businesses have popped up – meat, cheese, and more. Home-based businesses that bring in customer or employee traffic into residential neighborhoods are an issue. Many home-based businesses get a license from the state and don’t realize they also must get one from the City. FUTURE MEETINGS  January Regular Meeting (10th) – Budget  January Special Meeting (17th or 19th) – Parking/invite Nerinx Hall ADJOURNED Meeting adjourned at 9:15 AM. NEXT MEETING January 10th at 8:00 AM – City Hall.