Drake Neighborhood Association
Board meeting minutes
October 8, 2003
Board Members Present: Trish Davis, Jim Dietz-Kilen, Andrew Pinneke,
David Courard-Hauri, Jennifer Lawler, Dustin Smith, Larry James, Jr.,
Michelle Saveraid, Bill Cappuccio, Ed Leedom, Eldon McAfee, Stephanie
Pettit, Carl McPherson, Dolph Pulliam, Jennifer Sayers, Tony Schmitt,
Eddie Robinson
Motion to approve minutes carries.
Treasurer’s report: Current balance $10,601.
NBSD: Ed: Jeff says nothing new. Ed’s working north, northeast of neighborhood because not much in the way of neighborhood calls in other areas. He’s spending most of his time in the northeast because it needs it. After the block party, people are starting to work with NBSD now that they have a face to associate and know someone cares.
Ed’s cell # is 208-0299, if we need to contact him.
Jeff is trying to put the hurt on illegal dwellings. There are more rental properties than they knew about. They’re trying to educate folks about the new trash cans. It’s up to landlords to explain to renters what to do about that. Ed wrote up some stuff for Hispanic papers in town regarding housing/dumpster regulations to get the word out. Mac asked about some of the signs coming off the freeway and whether there’s something the city can do. Ed says no signage is supposed to be on public right of way.
Dolph on Drake: Great grandson of founder of Drake University came to Drake after dedicating a library in Centerville, IA. Presented two gifts: swords owned by general. Previously Drake had no mementos from General Drake. Also dedicated brand new student union. Input for design of student union came from students and it is now a glitzy, modern building. Many of the offices on the main floor are now located in the basement. All of the different landscaping projects were also dedicated on Saturday as well. There is over $40 million in construction going on on campus right now, and maybe our next meeting should be in Olmsted Center. Digging on campus is quite complicated, but it’s necessary to put in the new heating and cooling lines. Plant is located on 28th and Forest, and it is an expensive project, but it is going smoothly. Once it’s done, heating and cooling will be almost free.
Dave on Beautification: Committee met for the first time, looks like it will be a good group of folks. Anyone is welcome to join, we’ll be meeting every month or so. We came up with a list of to-dos that we will be prioritizing over the next couple of months. The work day was a great success, and we bricked both sides of 31st and 35th, although we were not able to finish them off because we didn’t have a brick cutter. We would like to get one.
Tree watering volunteer? Water tank? Drake may have something available. Dolph will check into it. Teva says tank would be a couple hundred dollars, pump another couple hundred. Nice would be to have a trailer to put it on. Beautification committee should give a recommendation on that. Does DOT still do clean-ups? Tony says he heard that some people are doing it. Why did that stop? Larry says they just stopped calling us. We should call Marty Sanke, or maintenance for DOT. At next meeting of Beautification Committee, see if someone will join Keep Des Moines Beautiful. They meet at 4:30, second Thursday of the month.
Motion to rent a brick cutter or purchase a blade for the person from whom we borrow it. Motion passes.
Teva mentioned Neighborhood Grants for Growth. Up to $1000 to do anything that gets people together. Eddie says folks are working on an application for the grant, and we should discuss that at the next meeting.
Forest Ave Committee: No recent meeting, but NDC recently had a meeting w/ Angela Connoly and John Mauro to make some Polk County properties on Forest available for redevelopment. Old Habitat building is ready to go and they hope to have that occupied soon. Old Starch Pet Hospital building may be donated to NDC to have it redeveloped. Mary Starch has been looking into that, based upon provision of long-term, low-rent option for her. Dedication of old boxing club at 6th and Forest. It was an old, dilapidated brick building, but has recently been renovated by NDC. They had an open house there and the inside is just unbelievable. There will be some non-profits, businesses, and boxing club. Upstairs are outstanding condos/apartments that are beautiful. It will be nice for this to be anchor for further efforts. The CDGB has approved money ($322,000 ?) that will be available for redevelopment of old Bodensteiner gas station and other sites on Forest.
Newsletter: Randy Lauer did September newsletter. He will do October/November newsletter, Jim will do the next one. We need volunteers to write pieces and take pictures. Send stuff to Jennifer James.
New Business:
Carl and Larry went to CCI meeting and met with a developer from Minnesota who is planning a project there (1918 Forest). Developer discussed project that they’d like to build. What they’d like to build is an “Affordable assisted living facility”. Assisted living is in great demand, but most are “market rate facilities”. Typical fees are upwards of $2500 per month. In order to provide the services that you need, it costs that kind of money. Iowa Finance Authority wants to separate housing component from housing component. What they will do is separate housing from services. They will apply for housing funds, which will allow them to get rents for around $500 per month, utilities included. 714 sq foot apartment units, storage units, full kitchen, bedroom w/ walk-in closet and bathroom, handicap accessible. They will provide a full apartment, which is what the funding source requires (because any senior can move in and be fully independent). He’d like to try to get by with 2 meals per day in order to encourage them to do breakfast on their own. He says that the building will be every bit as nice if not nicer than any of the facilities that you will find elsewhere in Des Moines. 60% brick, 40% vinyl low-maintenance. King-Irving Neighborhood helped to design the building to fit into the neighborhood. Site has been zoned NPC, but guidelines are 1 living unit per 2000 sq feet of lot. But Planning and Zoning has some latitude, they want 1150 sq feet per living unit. Arguments in favor: basic need. Polk County needs many of this kind of units, but it is hard to find possible sites. If they have to shrink the building, they’ll have to lose some of the amenities that they could offer on a 50-unit building. He says out of 50 units he does not expect many cars, and most will be single person units, so he thinks the project really fits with other definitions that allow for more units. Tax-credit system is very competitive, so he thinks it makes sense to meet the requirements as well as possible. He believes that a 3-storey building look will be nice. How affordable? He says he expects the many subsidies available to make it possible for certain individuals to live there for $500, including meals and services, activities, etc. Plan to employ half-time activity director who will plan activities. He would like a letter of support, and perhaps one of our members at the meeting.
Ken Baird At-Large City Council member spoke to the Board. His website: www.votekenbaird.com
Marty Petrak: Brought pictures of trash she picks up on Kingman and Cottage Grove. Lots of trash. Jerry Schnepp with Keep Iowa Beautiful has trash tongs. Discuss what can be done at Beautification Committee meeting.
Traffic Signals: remove traffic signals at 28th and Cottage Grove, put in 4-way stop at 28th & Kingman. Why? Saves cost. Light is broken. Problem is that it is difficult to get out of driveways on 28th St. Jen S says that people ignore the stop signs. Eddie says he thinks it would be an increased hazard. Dave says he doesn’t see much need for lights there. Lights at 31st & Kingman. Tony says if we’re going to do lights, maybe put them in at Kingman. Trish says traffic calming is a good idea. She sees more stop signs as a good idea. Karl disagrees, because people try to make up the time they’re missing while they wait.
Motion: Write a letter of support for 4-way stops at both intersections and move parking back and do not change traffic at 24th and Cottage Grove. Carries.
Board Secretary Election: Larry will draft someone until we have someone volunteer. Justin has been drafted.
Quarterly meeting Saturday 18th of October 2822 Rutland. Trish will label the postcards.
Annual Meeting: Larry proposes November 15th. Maybe have it at the new Student Union? 6:00 pot-luck.
Old Business: Block party went really well. About 80 burgers from Metro Market.
NCCJ Walk as One: Trish, Jen, Jen, Larry, Dolph, Carl, all made it. Pouring rain, about 480 showed up total.
Senior Housing: Mac says Board adopted a position (April 99) supporting Senior Center, but feels that senior housing would increase density and so was opposed. What was concern about density? Wanted to avoid increasing density. Jen S says sounds like low-maintenance high density. Mac says he’s not ready yet to make a decision. Dolph says it’s not in our neighborhood; if other neighborhoods are comfortable, he’s comfortable. He would also hate to worry that DNA might argue against student housing. Jim suggests that our only plan right now only covers a small portion of our neighborhood and maybe we should explore with city what our options are for updating our plan. We have a neighborhood plan that we may or may not currently agree with, but we don’t have a good process for updating and revisiting that plan. Bill says he’s also not so comfortable with the sales job. Carl, maybe as a show of cooperation with others (CCI and neighborhoods), we should give language demonstrating that we don’t oppose the plan.
Motion: We do understand that other associations that have been involved with the project are in favor of it. However, the DNA has not had sufficient time to fully explore the proposed project, and therefore can not take a definitive position for or against at this time.
Motion fails.
New Motion: The DNA supports the King-Irving Neighborhood Association in their decision relative to the Rose Project.
Motion fails.
New Motion: Because we have only had a short presentation on this project at our last meeting, we do not believe we have adequate information to specifically support or oppose it. However, we appreciate the significant time the King-Irving Neighborhood Association has put into the review of this project, and we want to support the integrity of their efforts.
Motion Carries.
Motion: Give 200 free bricks to people who work on community garden work days.
Motion Carries.
Make a Difference Day: October 25th. 8-noon.
Halloween Party on Campus: Bell Center 7-9 pm, October 29th Great time for all families.
The meeting notes are copied and pasted from a variety of sources, and so the font sizes may be inconsistent. If you have trouble reading any of the notes, please let us know.