April 8, 2008, OCEAN Meeting Minutes - not yet approved

OCEAN STEERING COMMITTEE MEETING MINUTES

MEETING: Tuesday, April 8, 2008        6:00PM – 8:15PM
LOCATION: Carver Library / 1161 Angelina Street

PARTICIPANTS:                                                                                                                                                
Cindy Widner    Linda Johnston    Eric Standridge   
Rob Seidenberg    Nell Peterson    Darrell Meuth   
Earline Carter    Gina Fuentes    Rudy Williams
Ida Hunt    Valerie Thatcher    David Tomas
James Medina    Alison Gardner    Ann Magana
Linda Hutchins    Rosalie Chiles    Gene Chiles
Mary Helen Lopez    Tracy Witte        Bill Minor
Brooks Calavan    Eric Shropshire     Janice Friesen
Steve Friesen    Janice Lee        Cisco Gamez
Alta Y. Moten    Margaret Valenti    Wendy Harte
Steven Mann    Peter Staats    Ryan Davis
Tara Peterson-McGarity    Monika Bustamante    L.C. Simond
Julia F. Mitchell    Agnes Sekowski    Nailah I. Sankofa
D’Ann Johnson   

Material distributed at meetings will be included in the minutes if a file of the material is provided.

FOLLOWING ARE MINUTES TRANSCRIBED FROM NOTES BY MARY HELEN LOPEZ OF ITEMS DISCUSSED AT THE TUESDAY, APRIL 8, 2008 MEETING.  NOTE:  THE MAY MEETING WILL BE ON THE SECOND MONDAY, MAY 12TH. THE APRIL MEETING WAS THE LAST HELD ON THE SECOND TUESDAY.  

1. General Business:
A.  March Meeting Minutes - The March meeting minutes were reviewed and accepted   with no corrections.
B.  Brooks Calavan – Brooks Calavan, a homeowner and business owner in the community, advised OCEAN members that, although invited to become a member of the “Council of 5,” he has not officially been involved or attended any meetings with the group.  He has not been a part of recent statements of controversy coming from the group. Although he is considering the invite, his continued interest is participating in a neighborhood leadership team.                                       
2.  Council of Five, presented by Eric Shropshire – Eric presented a proposal for a “Council of 5” to replace OCEAN as the city recognized Neighborhood Planning Contact Team contact.  The makeup of the “Council of 5” was identified as Byron Marshall, Darwin McKee, Brooks Calavan, Thomas Henderson and one OCEAN representative.   The role of the “Council of 5” Contact Team will be to make recommendations to the City of Austin Neighborhood Planning and Zoning Department regarding neighborhood zoning, development and amendment changes to the existing Central East Austin Neighborhood Plan. Eric presented the purpose of the proposal to be to expand and strengthen representation of East Austin to insure recommendations made on the behalf of the neighborhood are reflective of the estimated 5,000 stakeholders within the Central East Austin Neighborhood.  Eric said that the “Council of 5” has no intentions of disbanding OCEAN and he hopes to make additional presentations to groups in East Austin and seeks feedback on his proposal. To provide feedback or ask questions of Eric, contact him at emshropshire@gmail.com. A discussion of the proposal followed the presentation. Nell Peterson suggested to Eric that perhaps the “Council of 5” group could be added to the existing OCEAN membership.  Many present questioned the need for a different contact team and expressed doubts that a council of five people would be more representative than OCEAN. When asked about details such as meeting dates and frequency, qualifications for membership and voting, and the like, Eric stated that the idea was still in its formative stage and details had not been worked out.  Members and neighborhood representatives from the Blackshear, Swede Hill, Kealing and Robertson Hill neighborhoods commented that OCEAN is a formed organization that has worked well in the past communicating, addressing and supporting neighborhood concerns and issues.  They expressed that the invitation to the “Council of 5” to join OCEAN is open and modifications to the bylaws will allow all business and property owners the opportunity to become members.   
3.  OCEAN website by Cindy Widner – Cindy discussed the continuing website development process. The agenda and meeting minutes will be posted on the site and we hope to soon have a C of A interactive map that identifies OCEAN, individual neighborhood associations within OCEAN and adjacent neighborhood association boundaries. Cindy will contact Margaret Valenti, our Neighborhood Planning and Zoning Department contact, about continued development of the website.  There was a discussion of obtaining from Neighborhood Planning a large-scale map of the Central East Austin neighborhood showing individual neighborhood boundaries and obtaining additional copies of the Central East Austin neighborhood plan placing them in the Carver Library for public access.  Margaret was supportive of the requests and will follow up on them. 
4.  Zoning change at former Safeway Site on IH-35 – Last month, Alice Glasco spoke to the committee asking for support of a zoning change to the NCCD for the site to include residential development in the zoning and remove the requirement that an archeologist be on site during excavation. There was a discussion of the impact of the inclusion of residential zoning to the NCCD. Those opposition to residential zoning felt that the site would become apartments like Robertson Hill and the opportunity for a grocery store at the site would be lost.  Keeping it commercial increased the opportunity for the grocery store.  Support for the residential zoning centered on the more residential the better.                                                                                  

    A motion was made by Linda Johnston and seconded to support the addition of residential zoning to the NCCD for the site.

6 for supporting residential, 15 opposed to supporting residential

        A motion was made by Brooks Calavan and seconded to support the existing NCCD zoning on the site that does not allow residential uses.

21 for supporting existing NCCD, 2 opposed to supporting existing NCCD

    Generally, OCEAN does not vote to support up-zoning unless there is a specific plan associated with the requested support.  A plan that includes residential along with the  types of commercial uses needed by the neighborhood may gain more support.  Joy Hardin, with the C of A Zoning Department, advised that motions tonight would not change the City support for residential uses and OCEAN will have the opportunity to speak when this comes up before the Planning Commission and City Council. 
4.  Development at East 16th and Waller Street – Eric Standridge presented development plans for lots on East 16th Street. Eric has two alternative developments for the site.  One is a mixed use with some type of commercial use and residential uses. The other is a multifamily development. Informational material describing the projects was distributed at the meeting. These have been presented in various scenarios at previous OCEAN meetings. Eric is in continued discussion with the Swede Hill residents regarding the project options and will seek OCEAN’s vote of support at the May meeting.          
5. OCEAN Bylaws – Rudy Williams led a discussion of OCEAN bylaws. The bylaws are in revision to bring them into alignment with the way OCEAN operates and address membership requirements.  A draft of the revised bylaws has been electronically distributed and some hard copies were distributed at OCEAN meetings.  Rudy strongly encouraged members to distribute the bylaws to their neighbors and obtain feedback identifying any needed changes or additions to the bylaws.  The bylaws will be placed on the May OCEAN Agenda as an item or discussion, hopefully with a voting at the June meeting.