Minutes of Community Meeting, January 21, 2009
NSCC Green Room (College Center Building)

Directors Present: Liz Kearns, Tom Meyer, Jerry Owens, Kay Mesirow, and Debra Willendorf.

Board Representatives Present: Ken Thompson (North Precinct Representative), and Kathleen Braden (List Serve).

Visitors: JoAnn Jordan from SNAP, City of Seattle; Erin Fletcher and Elizabeth Faulkner from Washington DOT; Bruce Keiser from North Seattle Community College; Nancy Ross-Bauels; Pam and Bob Ebel; Dorothy Berg; Catie Unger; M.K. Raghuraman; Jean Wirch; Josh Freedman; and Greg and Kirsten Koester.

Board Member Jerry Owens called the meeting to order at 7:00 p.m. and asked people present to introduce themselves.

Minutes: The minutes for the November 19, 2008 meeting were approved as presented.

No Treasurer’s report is due until the February meeting.

Business

• • JoAnn Jordan, coordinator for public education for SNAP (Seattle Neighborhoods Actively Respond) , City of Seattle office of Emergency Management, made a presentation and distributed flyers. Saturday, January 24, at the Broadview Library at 10:30 a.m., there will be a class for people interested in emergency programs. Other venues for classes will also be available and people can contact SNAP at www.seattle.gov/emergency for a full calendar listing. People may register with SNAP for projects as small as several neighbors getting together for emergency planning work- there is no longer any requirements for minimal size groups. Groups registered with SNAP may also apply for funds from the city. Speakers are available to venues that will have at least twenty people attending and various classes are offered, including first aid during an emergency, simple search and rescue techniques. Joanna took questions and discussed the differences/similarities between SNAP and earlier city emergency preparedness programs, as well as programs aimed at people occupying high-rise units, apartments.
• • Erin Fletcher from the Washington State Dept of Transportation Noise Wall Project gave background and an update for the four noise walls being built along I-5 in our area. Erin is the project engineer. She noted the beginning of the project planning back in 2005 and the goal of the walls to mitigate noise, particularly within 500’ of the wall.

Wall 2 (see map) is now in place; wall 1 is in design phase; walls 3 & 4 completed last week. Much of the work has been done at night, staged on I-5 itself, to minimize impact on traffic. Landscaping work remains to be done on the freeway side of the walls, as well as further sealing work. Erin provided people present at the meeting with brochures about the project and contact information.

• New item added to the agenda: Jerry called for neighbors present to offer information (per their request) about the sale of Cyndy’s Pancake house at 10507 Aurora Ave N. to Mr. Robert Davis who has indicated his plans to turn the business into a strip club (http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2008547431_stripclub22m.html, Seattle Times, Dec 22, 2008 news item). People attending the meeting include Mark Hughes, a resident near Cyndy’s, who has contacted GAIN about the issue and consulted with a real estate agent and attorney. People in attendance from residences near Cyndy’s indicated their concern that there may be a day care at a church within the distance limits, a fact that that would then prohibit the building of a strip club per city regulations. Jerry and other Board members offered suggestions for following up, including contacting members of the City Council and finding out more specific about zoning requirements. Suggestions were also made about the regular meeting of the North precinct group with the neighborhood, first Weds evening of every month and contacting the Haller Lake community group.
• Liz noted that the Aurora Ave. Urban Design and Land Use group meeting will be Feb 9 6:30-8:30 PM at the Greenwood Senior Center. The residential parking zone (RPZ) survey results will be on the agenda.
• Jerry gave an update on the Northgate stakeholders group looking at the Thornton Place development- he joined a recent tour of the 5-acre site. 50,000 sq. ft. of space is available for lease and three types of housing units: assisted living for seniors (143 units), apts being offered at below-market cost (266 units), and condominiums. A cinema complex with fourteen screens is also planned for a Memorial Day opening. The group in attendance at the community council meeting expressed general skepticism about whether there would be adequate parking and the level of transportation disruption from the entire development.
• Liz emailed Kathy Johnson about the Wilson Pacific school site but had no news about disposition of the two parcels.
• • Jerry noted that the Northwest District Council meets next Weds, Jan 28 at 7 PM at the Greenwood Community Service center.
• Newsletter: Kay was asked to resume production of the eNewsletter and agreed to do so. Liz suggested themes in keeping with the new Obama administration’s call to community service. The group also discussed ways to distribute hard copy newsletters to multi-family units in the neighborhood.
• Liz will check with Ellen about the list of topics for future agenda items that was brainstormed at the Nov. meeting and Tom will look into inviting a representative from DPD to be a speaker at a future meeting. Liz will also look into a rep. from the Oak Tree Merchants association visiting a future meeting of the community council.
• Board members discussed whether they would to write a letter from the community council to various city officials, expressing concern over the Cyndy’s issue.

The meeting adjourned at 8:50 p.m.

Respectfully submitted,

Kathleen Braden, listserve manager & acting note-taker