Castleberry Hill Neighborhood Association
General Business Meeting
March 15, 2010, 6:30pm
The Granite Room – 211 Peters St.
MINUTES
President, Laurel Emery, called the meeting to order at 6:36pm.
OFFICERS’ REPORTS
President
- Introduced Stephen Chester of Atlanta Cruisers, which is a street legal, battery operated car. Stephen would love to hear how we get around downtown.
- Loft tour proposals – if you know of anyone who would be interested in putting together a proposal please contact Laurel.
Vice-president
- Code enforcement – Working with Gail Dobson at public works, took her the flyers that blanket the neighborhood. We need to collect the flyers and Krista will come pick them up. The fine is imposed per flyer.
- Thanks to Mr. Proctor at code enforcement for the graffiti that has recently been covered.
- During the cleanup we spray painted over 50 graffiti tags around the neighborhood; we have more spray paint.
Treasurer
- Castleberry Hill is conducting a census to help us determine a better subset of data, we are a very small population in our census tract. We can use this in business development for our community. http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/VNJHCZD
SPECIAL GUESTS: CITY, COUNTY, STATE, & FEDERAL OFFICIALS
Cleta Winslow – district 4
- The park plan for Cleopas Johnson Park is moving forward. The park visioning is still in progress. The next is at John Hope Community Center, located on Larkin across Northside Dr.
- 2nd annual housing seminar and bus tour sponsored by the Atlanta Development Authority, HUD, Wachovia Bank, Wells Fargo. These are free programs. The bus tour will go through CH, probably will go as far as Fort McPherson. It will be the last Saturday in March; just call our office, email or fax it in.
Ivory Young – district 3
- Wanted to say hi, used to chair the zoning commission. Most of CH is not in his district.
- Top issues in district 3 are the future of the GA Dome and Atlanta Falcons. It will probably be the abandoned Herndon Homes location. Also, Flowering Branch potentially relocating their operations to Atlanta.
- ATL is dysfunctional, efficiency is poor, and we rely heavily on people to give us good information. There is a high degree of humility with this executive branch. We should have higher expectations of our departments.
- Publix – came here under duress, they had provisions in their contract to leave after 5 years, but stayed 7. However they showed no proof that they left due to poor sales; they never opened their books. They closed 3 other stores in the metro area and feels it is part of their cost reduction in numbers. HJ Russell is owner of the historic Westside village. Cleta and Ivory are engaged with HJ Russell to get a grocer and a pharmacy.
Jay Tribby, on behalf of Kwanza Hall – district 2
- May 22/23 safe streets – Close streets, open to bicyclists, pedestrians, families.
- Laurel: The Atlanta Bicycle Coalition is working with Old Fourth Ward, CH, and downtown to close streets to make it safe for bicycles. They want to do it on a monthly basis.
COMMITTEE REPORTS
Public Safety
- Please come Tuesday, April 16 at Adios Café 6:30p. Major Williams will be there.
- 3 home burglaries in the neighborhood this week, e-blast went out; on Walker, COP, and Peters, and another attempted on Peters. Please feel out the incident reports on the website.
Neighborhood cleanup
- Thanks to Sublime Doughnuts, thank you Cleta and Kwanza, and Elliot Street Pub for sandwiches.
PR/ Communications
- Maps are available.
Dog Park
- We are through the city’s final hurdles for approving our dog park.
- Sunbelt has donated a Bobcat for a week for spreading our mulch; fence people have been out to measure. Next is to go to UDC to get a fence permit once we know how much.
- GA Power will be installing a light pole
- Eco-friendly to capture water from 222 Peters for use. Someone is donating benches.
- You will be able to get a code to go through Magnum St. to get to the dog park.
NEW BUSINESS, ANNOUNCEMENTS
Eco-district
- Brian Dillman would like to establish CH as an eco-district.
- Provided Oregon’s definition, Brian will be available after the meeting for more discussion, or contact is bdillmanarchitect@gmail.com.
- Next steps – get feedback from neighborhood, put together a steering committee and present findings in a white paper.
Phoneix Flies
- Calvin- it goes through Mar. 22, walking tours. 2 tours on Sat/ and Sunday and led by Jim and Stefan. Atlanta Cruisers provided vehicles in front and behind tours to provide safety.
Capital Improvement Plan (CIP)
- Heather- task for all of the NPUs to submit projects to the city, CIP, for projects that are about 5 years out. We get to submit our 20 most important projects.
- At our next meeting we could take dots to vote.
- Beltline meeting on Mar. 22 for West End which is closest to use in CH.
Downtown Happy Hour
- April 16, combined happy hour with ADNA and Marietta Street Artery, at Rise restaurant 6:30 – 8p.
FLUX
- Anne Dennington has learned that transportation is really key; would like to close Walker St. that evening. We are talking to universities to run shuttles from their schools to here, and to MARTA to get a shuttle from Garnett Station.
- Atlanta Bicycle Coalition is coming back to get bicycles to come; they have transportable bike racks.
- If you have any opposition to closing Walker, please provide that opposition to Anne.
- FLUX is scheduled for Oct. 1.
- Laurel: if anyone wants to serve on the sub committee, if you want to be a building rep, or a business rep, please let her know.
Atlanta Beltline Call for Artists
- Amanda Brown is serving on that committee.
GA Power substation public art
- The power plant at Northside and Whitehall has 5 different panels and they will be for the connecting neighborhoods and we get a panel.
Yard sale
- 4/17 in spur- see Stacia.
ArtStroll
- The next Project PushPin exhibition will be during the April ArtStroll and will be hosted by Zucot Gallery.
Dodekapus.org
- Adrien spoke about the young art collective; they represent all mediums.
- 431 Walker St, bike race before hand, 7-10p family friend.
Meeting was adjourned at 7:35p.
