Meeting Minutes

Date: September 18, 2018

Called to Order: 6:33PM

Presided by: Joel Federer (President)

Note taker: Tyler Mulcahey, Secretary

In attendance: Joel Federer, Tyler Mulcahey, Ryan Antkowiak, Nikki Lindberg, Jim Hoch, Tara Brown, Kelly Falsani, Judy Vecere, Stephanie Vigen, Adriana Dobrzycka, Michael Kootsikas
Other attendees: Rachel Ireland-Henry, John Reude, Madeline Hudek

Absent: Laurel Luxenberg (Excused)

Guests:

 

• SWBA – Matt: Gave out “Help Us Spread the Word, Vote Yes on 1 MPLS” handout. The City Charter Commission voted unanimously that it’s the right of Minneapolis to decide to clean up this outdated 7 acre rule and the City of Minneapolis’ Business Licensing Department supports the measure. A group founded by independent Minneapolis neighborhood restaurant owners and other local residents called Citizens for a Modern Minneapolis formed to educate voters to support the ballot measure. Yes on 1 Mpls is a ballot initiative in the City of Minneapolis. A “yes” vote means modernizing cumbersome and outdated regulations controlling availability of liquor licenses. Many neighborhood restaurants outside of downtown cannot service cocktails because of the city charter regulation that requires them to be within 7 contiguous commercial acres, the “7 acre rule.” Citizens for Modern Minneapolis want laws that make sense for a modern Minneapolis, offer more choices to diners, and make it easier for residents to support their favorite neighborhood spots.
  
  Peter & Jackie Campbell (owners of Red Wagon Pizza) gave their insight on this issue. If they wanted to serve liquor at their restaurant, they’d have to go through a very lengthy approval process through the state before being able to do so – when a business across the street can. They don’t believe the bill passing will turn smaller, mom and pop restaurants into cocktail lounges – simply will be giving more choices to their diners.
  
  Matt asked the ANA board if they’ll pass a resolution to show support for the bill. Joel Federer asked if there is a local Armatage neighborhood restaurant desire/need for this bill to pass. Matt of SWBA believes restaurants want a choice and will not be forced to serve liquor/cocktails. Tara Brown mentioned she thinks we should throw this out to the neighborhood to get resident feedback before motioning/approving a resolution. With the limited amount of time before early voting starts, Matt & Judy believe we as a board can make a motion to approve the resolution and then put the word out to residents about the bill so they make an informed decision when they go to vote. Motion for the board to approve the Yes on 1 MPLS resolution presented by Matt. Motion approved by the board.

 

 

 

• City Council Update – John Reude: Second draft of 2040 Comprehensive Plan should come out at the end of this month. Will be a several hundred page document. There will be a red line version that will show what changed from draft one to draft two. Council hasn’t seen a copy of this draft yet. StarTribune supposedly got their hands on a long-range planning document discussing that zoning will be reduced from allowing 4-plexes to only allowing tri-plexes, but this has not been confirmed, since the draft hasn’t been released. Other dates to keep in mind:
  – Planning Commission Meeting – October 29th (evening time)
  – Public Hearing – November 13th (evening time)
  – Final Vote to adopt/not adopt plan – December 7th (likely in the morning, 9am)
  Early voting starts this Friday, September 21st at the early voting center downtown Minneapolis. Additional early voting centers will open up on October 29th – locations TBD.
  Other 2 referendums on the ballot- (1) Raise the current levy for the school board for operating expenses (2) New levy to fund technology for the school.
  Upcoming meeting called “Palmisano Presents: City Budget” will take place on Monday, September 24th

• Minnehaha Parkway Regional Trail Master Plan & SW Service Area Master Plan project updates – Medeline Hudek: Madeline works for the Minneapolis Park Board.

• Minnehaha Parkway Regional Trail Master Plan – It will set a 30 year vision for improvements to the Minnehaha Parkway Regional Trail. It will guide how construction funds are spent on new facilities, reconstructing facilities, and rehabilitation. There’s a general online survey (https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/minnehaha_parkway_community_input) for residents to engage and give feedback on what to include along the parkway. You can see comments people have made so far. Next community advisory meeting will take place on October 4th. During this meeting, there will be a big general discussion and then breakout into four smaller groups to allow people to discuss certain segments of the parkway. Plan to have master plan wrapped up by Q2 of 2019. Gave out postcards and flyers with more information.

 

• • SW Service Area Master Plan project update – They’ve done a bunch of community engagement this summer. Wrapping up phase 1 of engagement and will have a “data jam” at next Community Advisory Committee (CAC) meeting on October 16th at Kenwood Community Center from 6-8pm. Will have a design week from November 13-16, 2018. During the earlier part of this week, there will be another community meeting. Later in the week, there will be open house where folks can see the designs that were created.

President’s Report – No major updates. Still getting acclimated to the role. Has some ideas to enhance bylaws, but will discuss at a later time.

 

Secretary Report – Tyler motioned to approve July minutes via e-mail on 7/17. Seconded by Judy Vecere. Approved by the board.

Treasurer Report – Latest financials emailed to the board. Let Judy know if you have questions.

Park Update, Nikki Friederich –  

• Free pumpkin giveaway by the Kelly O’Neill real estate team on October 13th @ 10am at Sunnyside Gardens.
• Halloween Party – Friday, October 26th, 6-8:30pm – DJ booked; bouncy house; mini donuts and coffee. Asking the board to cover the expense for the horse & wagon ride of $900. Motion approved by the board.
• Sports update — Have 15 flag football teams this year and range from 2nd-7th graders. Teamed up with USA Football – kids are wearing Vikings jerseys. Will be out on the field this Saturday wearing their purple. Have 19 soccer teams. Kindergarten to 8th grade. There are 50 volunteer coaches this year – amazing! Basketball will begin November 7th.
• Teamed up with Community Education – offering adult gentle yoga class – Tuesday mornings starting October 2nd from 10-11am.

 

Plan Modification Vote to approve the following:

ANA proposes reallocating a total of $20,247.83 of Program from Phase I home improvement program strategy (Housing 1.A.2). Funds would be reallocated as follows:

$20,000 to our Phase II Community Safety strategy (Safety 1.2.1.) for the purpose of establishing a safety rebate program for home and business owners, and

$247.83 to our Improve Park Facilities Neighborhood Priority (Neighborhood Priorities 2.1.8.) to support the renovation of the Washburn Tot Lot.
Additionally, ANA is requesting access to $16,752.17 of Neighborhood Priority Reserve funds for use in the previously approved Improve Park Facilities Neighborhood Priority for the Washburn Tot Lot.

Motion to approve the plan modification above. Motion approved by the board.

 

Homeowner Variance Requests:
Discussion of most recent fence variance request we received as a board via e-mail. It was thought that the resident requesting this recent fence variance is being proactive and trying to get ANA’s support – compared to the previous variance request where the resident was asking for the fence variance after the fence was constructed, which the board didn’t take a stance on. However, Ariana made mention that this fence has already been built, as well – similar to the last case. Joel mentioned that the variance request is asking for the current fence to be extended (the yard is not fully enclosed / fence not all the way up to the house). The board agrees that we shouldn’t take a stance or get involved in this. Nikki will draft up a letter to give residences stating that we don’t take a stance on variance matters, while also giving them direction or advice (i.e. letters of support from neighbors, etc.).

 

Committee Updates —

• Community Engagement —
  • Washburn Park Update – Construction starting soon
  • Happy Hour at Red Wagon – Last happy hour on 9/11 went well. Attendance has been great. Cleaned up rental agreement – just now a straight $200. We can perhaps do a better job of tipping the waiters/waitresses. Having name tags would be good for the next happy hour.
    Motion to move next happy hour from November 6th to November 13th (7-9PM) due to Voting Day occurring on November 6th this year. Approved by the board.
  • Welcome Bags – All is good. Stuff came in. New residents are liking them.  
• Green Team —
  • A dozen rain gardens were installed this year.
  • Late August installation timing seems to have affected people’s interest of installing a rain garden on their property
  • Send Tara Brown any recommendations or feedback on rain gardens and she will bring it to the Green Team to discuss and come up with a proposal/game plan for this for next year.
• Summer Festival —
  • Went well, but was super hot!
  • Cost us the ANA $500-1000 to host the event this year
  • No carnival games this year — no complaints on that. Discussion of not having them next year.
  • May have had too many volunteers this year.
  • Complaints on lack of shade.
  • Need to tighten up square footage of the festival – too spread out. Discussion on moving food trucks onto the field and the car show up the parking lot to where the food trucks were this year.
  • Discussion on the location of the stage. Consideration of moving the stage next year so people can hear and the acts can engage with festival go-ers and the kids.
  • Discussion on the cost-effectiveness and interest of the musicians. May be cheaper to bring in a DJ next year.
  • Some neighbors think it’s just a kids festival. Doing some more adult-related activities, such as a softball tournament, would engage those without kids. Ryan brought up maybe doing a “theme” each year, such as a 80’s theme, 90’s theme, etc.
  • One of the residents had a situation/conversation with a vendor who felt the vendor racially discriminated against them. Went on social media to discuss the situation.
• Safety —
  • Rebate program update – Program is getting good traction. Will put a blurb about the program in the next newsletter. A few safety updates residents did and got reimbursed for: security locks, smoke detectors, steel doors, security systems, cameras, motion sensor lights, etc. Discussion of including Settergrens when sharing the program with the community.
• Micro-Grant Program —
  • Adriana and Stephanie will be getting together to summarize the ideas that were presented by residents earlier this spring. Will put the ideas into five different categories.

 

Coordinator Update

• New ANA number is 612-466-0296; forwards to Nikki’s cell phone
  Will put the new number in the next newsletter
• October 2040 Meeting – Discussion to see if want to have a neighborhood discussion of the 2040 Plan after our October ANA meeting. Would be joint with the Kenny Neighborhood Association.
• Bylaws – Received bylaws from the city, but some changes need to be made. Nikki will send out a doodle to the ANA so we can put together a time to go through the bylaws and discuss what changes need to be made.
• November charity event and tree lighting — Discussion if we should do a tree lighting again this year. If we’re doing it, Nikki would like to promote it in the October newsletter. Seems to be a successful event each year, so the board agreed to replicate what we did last year.
  Motion to approve the amount needed (same amount approved last year) for the tree lighting this year. Motion approved by the board.
• October newsletter – Featured ANA board member this time will be Adriana Dobrzycka.
• Nice Ride parking zone request — Discussion on where the Nice Ride zone should be in the neighborhood, if we even want one. Armatage Park would be a good spot.
• 2020 Work Groups update

New Business – None

Meeting Adjourned: 8:35PM

Next Meeting: October 16th  • 6:30pm