NFB Board Meeting – November 20, 2018
Held at Tyler’s studio.
Present: Steve Jacobs, Michael Owens, Anthony Eschmann, Susan Korec, Tyler Harwood, Nancy Thacker, Brian Luckett, Julie Jones, Rhonda Findley, Stephen Haedicke.
Called to order at 7:11 PM by Julie Jones, President.
A meeting is scheduled for Monday, December 3rd regarding the large HANO development at Mazant and Royal Streets and 8 NFB members have been asked to attend: Julie, Brian, Steve, Nancy, John, Mark, and Rhonda. Joe Brown is also attending. The points to be reinforced are reduction in density and our opposition to the zoning change.
There is an ARC Review December 27th at 2PM for the development, and it’s not clear what the commission’s role is. The City Council can only make them go for advisement, they don’t have to follow it. The general consensus is “It’s HANO – it’s going to get built.” It was wondered if the folks planning the hotel/hostel may reconsider with ‘affordable’ housing across the street. Julie spoke with someone at the Gambit and shared that we are in favor of affordable housing, but not of the project as presented and we are opposed to the zoning change. City council has some power over the zoning change. An adjustment to the current design is to lower the height of the building(s) on France where there are residences. These homes will be essentially in the dark with the development the way it is currently depicted. It’s important to go to these meetings as it is a good opportunity to participate and point out issues. Habits at these meetings can be that the ‘presentations’ can run over in time if attendees are not assertive in speaking up.
Tyler noted a backlog on posting minutes to the web site, partially due to difficulty getting them approved prior to posting. People are not responding to emails. A “five day no objection rule” was proposed. If he does get approval or requests for corrections within five days after notes are sent to the board, he will post minutes as uncontested. Motion made and unanimously carried.
We then discussed the upcoming Tricentennial Celebration / Bywater Goes Bananas.
Letters inviting restaurants to participate were dropped off and we didn’t get many responses. Bywater Bakery said no. Lloyd from Junction was enthusiastic, and they want to set up a grill for hamburgers, and a Banana Daiquiri machine. Apparently we might need to pay a fireman to stay near the grill with a fire extinguisher. Bratz Ya’ll seemed interested but they haven’t followed up. All vendors will be outside, and will need to provide their own tent and appropriate permits.
Tyler, Rhonda, and Nancy agreed to meet at Tigermen Den to start on a site plan. Tyler agreed to contact them to schedule a time.
We were still undecided on if we will be asking to close the street. Rhonda said she would follow up with Kristen Palmer to see if the city can assist. Our budget is not clear. Mark submitted notes since he could not attend the meeting but they were difficult to read.
Tyler has secured Papa Mali for music. He has requested $225.
Susan is making arrangements with the police, and has been speaking to Serena Mohan from the PRC. She would like to speak about the architecture of Bywater.
A rough schedule was proposed:
11:00 – “banana bake-off” submissions drop off – these will be inside the Tigermen Den.
12:00 – “banana bake-off” judging
1:00 – PRC presentation
2:00 – Neighborhood history speakers
3:00 – music
What to provide for a kid’s area was discussed, as well as what kinds of maps we would like to display. We decided not to do banana carving or a costume contest.
We agreed that we need to schedule a special festival planning meeting soon to work out more details.
Submitted by Nancy Thacker, co secretary