January 20, 2015 Minutes

UPDATES

SouthEast Uplift (SEUL) Board update: 1) SEUL will pay up to $2720 in fees for street fee records if necessary  and a letter is being sent out to NAs requesting donations. 2) SEUL cosigned a letter from mt tabor NA to city  council to once again request oregon congressional delegation pursue an EPA waiver on covering reservoirs. 3)  A SEUL communications policy was adopted clarifying when it is permissible for officers, board members or  staff to speak on behalf of SEUL. Contact Cathy Riddell for questions or more details.

AGENDA ITEM

TIME (PERSON)

1. Introductions, review agenda, approve December meeting minutes

Neighborhood resident Gabriel Frayne shared a petition to designate a large cherry tree on  his property as a legally protected Portland Heritage Tree. Many attendees signed.

Ofc. Chris Gilbert of the Police Bureau came by for a neighborhood crime check-in. A man  has been in the area, armed, breaking into early-model Subarus. If you notice anyone  breaking into your older Subaru, don't confront him; call the cops. He invites residents to  contact him by email for non-emergency questions or concerns:  

christopher.gilbert@portlandoregon.gov.

Beth and Michael reviewed the agreement with Cathy to forward all substantive (as

6:30-6:35pm

(Beth)

opposed to purely logistical) correspondence to her personal address, as well as to the  board's listserv.

Terry moved to approve, Dana seconded. No objections.

2. Treasurer Report

John will meet with Devlyn to work out money issues surrounding the newsletter. NTNA's recent $1,000 donation was processed for fiscal sponsorship by SEUL and NTNA can submit  paperwork with SEUL to use the money. Jay indicated that the planned thank you gift (a glass mug)  has not been ordered or delivered to this donor but that he will follow up to ensure that this happens.  John suggests that this particular donor should receive some sort of message about how their money  was used.

6:35-6:40pm

(John)

3. Communications Committee

Update on status of creating a newsletter and discuss 2015 SEUL communications funds.

The committee has raised more than $500 in donations to support the newsletter. Anyone is welcome to come to Biddy McGraw's at 10 a.m. on Saturday, Jan. 31 to deliver the rebooted neighborhood newsletter, the North Tabor Note. There will be some longer and  some shorter routes. Please come!

Cathy requests that she not be listed as a communications committee member in the  newsletter. Dana will remove her name.

6:40-6:55pm  

(Devlyn)

4. Arts Committee  

∙ Background: NTNA submitted a SEUL grant proposal to create a street mural and is in  the process of completing an application to be part of City Repair’s Placemaking program to support this effort.

∙ Objectives: Status update and next steps; request $50 for Placemaking application.  

Grant decision for a street mural at 53rd/Everett has been submitted to SEUL. Folktime and  Community of Christ Church offered letters of support. Announcement is Feb. 2.  Accompanying application to City Repair's art-project support program is due next week and announced Feb. 25. Max will submit, floating $75 out of his pocket.

Terry moved to reimburse Max $75 for City Repair application. Dana seconds. Unanimous. Outreach to schools is on hiatus as we wait to hear if we're getting money. Max anticipates arts committee meetings every two weeks. He'll be looking for recruits. Val said Montessori school staff are excited to help.

Jeff Holiman noted that the Village Building Convergence provides a lot of volunteers and  expertise. However, Max likes making it local. Beth noted that it's probably best if there's a  month or two between the late-April neighborhood cleanup and the mural painting.

6:55-7:10pm

(Max)

5. Annual Clean Up

∙ Background: Paul of Mt. Tabor NA will come present an update related to preparing for  the 4/25 annual clean up event at Mt. Tabor Middle School

∙ Objectives: Review workplan/tasklist; identify lead NTNA lead coordinator.  

Annual neighborhood cleanup is Saturday, April 25, 9-1 at Mount Tabor Middle School. The suggested donation to drop off household refuse and garbage is $10-$15 for the  average carload, more for bigger loads.

It's the biggest fundraiser of the year for NTNA.

Organizers are looking for day-of volunteers; usually there are two shifts (8-11 and 11-2).  Anybody with a pickup truck is especially useful for hauling styrofoam to Far West Fibers. We've usually contacted Laurelhurst Cafe to ask for food and snack donations Beth suggested a joint Facebook event to promote the cleanup. Paul will email  communications@northtabor.org to coordinate that, presumably with Devlyn. Dana will be North Tabor's contact for neighborhood cleanup.

7:10-7:25pm

(Paul)

two options to get city money to promote cleanup:

city will essentially buy ads in neighborhood newsletter at market rate

SEUL also has a communications budget to help neighborhoods on things like this Dana will delegate as needed to help find the yard signs and complete other necessary  promotional tasks.

6. Community of Christ Church

Presentation on current activities happening in the church that engage the community;  identify potential ways for NTNA to be supportive/conduct outreach.  

Val Walker discussed activities at the local church, which is focused on many categories of  social justice and community-building work. Its space is available for $30 per morning, for  example. (Recurring events at church must be managed by nonprofits.)

Folktime is a charitable organization that operates temporary food banks out of the church  and is working on a permanent food bank there.

Quilters meet Tuesday mornings and send bedding kits to seniors in need. Wellness Works is a nonprofit operating out of the church, working on a neighborhood  consignment store that splits revenues with other nonprofits while providing job training. Friday nights: American Indian Ministries group meets in basement for evening festivities. Usually every eight weeks, the church is host to the rotating Human Solutions daybreak  shelter, which offers overnights and breakfasts for families in homelessness (usually 15  people). The church is always looking for volunteers to help with this.

Gym is open Monday and Tuesday evenings but open for neighborhood events at all other  times.

Church is interested in creating a local award for an individual or group working to promote  peace and justice locally. An event is planned for Sept. 21.

Sunday services are at 10:50.

7:25-7:40pm

(Val)

7. Comprehensive Plan Letter  

∙ Background: Last year NTNA sent a letter outlining recommendations for the citywide  comprehensive plan to improve the neighborhood.

∙ Objectives: Refine the previous letter’s recommendations related to land use, affordable housing, parks, and transportation to draft a new letter.  

Terry has been carrying the city's draft comprehensive land use plan around in his backpack  for months.

The city listened to us in our round 1 "letter" and mostly took our advice. Now we're  submitting a more detailed version of our comments. Terry led the board and guests in an  overview of the letter he's drafted. We got through the housing/zoning section and agreed  to break that into an immediate letter dedicated purely to that subject. Key housing  concepts we suggest include:

– A continuous mixed-use designation along Glisan between 60th and 67th. – Allowing 7-10 story mixed-use development between Glisan, I-84, 53rd and 57th on the  condition that it include inclusionary zoning for workforce and low-income residents. There  would also be a provision for a bike/walk overpass to connect the area to the MAX stop  across the freeway onramp.

– Encouraging connected townhomes rather than disconnected skinny houses. – Allowing multiple units on the same single-family zoned by making it easier to share  ownership of a building, thereby increasing density, shrinking average home size and  presumably lowering barriers to homeownership while minimizing demolitions. – Loosening setback requirements on ADUs.

– Allowing a second ADU on a property: one internal and one external.

7:40-8:25pm

(Terry)

Next month, Terry will lead discussion of the probably less complicated non-housing  sections of his comp plan letter.

Only one change was made from Terry's pre-meeting draft of the housing section: we  removed a suggestion that Airbnb be restricted on the second ADU on a property. However,  we left in a suggestion that the second ADU is intended for "long term" residence.

Michael moved for Terry to send the city our housing section in a letter of its own; Dana  seconded. Unanimous.

8. Wrap up  

Identify future meeting agenda items:

∙ Presentation from Portland NET on emergency preparedness (Feb-30 min) ∙ Annual Clean Up (Feb-20 min)

∙ Dine-in fundraiser (10 min)

∙ Check-in with Montavilla Neighborhood Association (15 min)

∙ Business Sponsorship of Food at Monthly Meetings (10 min)

8:25-8:30pm

(Beth)