Welcome at 7:04pm

Approval of minutes from November

733 W. Pratt and 207 S. Fremont Development (Representatives from the developer – Al Barry)

• First approvals were from the historic commission. Another meeting with CHAP next Tuesday at 1pm

• 1:30 zoning variance request (Pratt street is commercial Freemont is residential)

  • Properties will be combined

  • Try a unique economic model

    • Micro unit for short term rental

    • Ground floor retail

    • Gateway building to neighborhood and downtown

  • Would like approval from RD and zoning boards

• Questions

  • What is the zoning variance that needs approval?

    • Increase density to get to 40 units

    • Small parking variance for Fremont units

  • If you have a contract for parking, why do you need a variance

    • City requires a 20-year lease for parking spaces

  • How do you know the client will be short-term? Is it solid and contractual?

    • We don’t have a guarantee about who rents. We can’t control abuse of permits.

    • There is a resolution from the city that makes [the stay] a minimum of 30 days

  • Can you provide price per rentals for each size of units

    • Between $1,200 to $1,400 (all included) – will need clarification

  • What kind of retail are you targeting

    • No idea, [but] small spaces so don’t lend to things like restaurants

  • Number of days lease clarification

    • 30 days as a minimum

    • Eric Costello: minimum is 90 days (transient rentals). Any less is prohibited by law and will be pursued aggressively

Introduction from 40th District Delegate Designee Marlon Amprey

• 3rd generation resistant of the 40th district

• Cares about creating opportunities for hope

• Two things that are important

  • Education

  • More inclusive/equitable economy and streamlining things for business

• Pre-session meeting tomorrow to discuss employment benefit and small business loans

• Priorities

  • More COVID relief

  • Items that we want to detail.

• Contact info: marlonamprey@gmail.com

Committee reports

SWGP – Bill

• LDC talking about City Stat cameras in the neighborhood

  • One has been installed at Washington and MLK

  • Other locations will be: (all but one will be installed this quarter)

    • Portland and Fremont (on hold: a historical pole is needed and is on order)

    • Portland and Penn

    • Washington and Russell

    • Melvin and Penn

    • Washington and Warner

• Casino at 25% capacity. Grants starting in Feb, smaller grants (under $2k) which allows more people to get them

• Middle Brach project has a new website

Beautification – Megan

• Reallocated and reorganized shed and inventory was taken

• Nothing planned for next few months

• Community clean up got rid of a bunch of things

• Wheelbarrow was donated to us

• Email Megan for anything that you need

ARC – Paul

• Last meeting was productive and details and really have gotten to the nitty gritty of the architecture

• Other project: Paul and Jeff house in for renovation

By laws – Paul

• Need to have a discussion about how to get through the rest of the pandemic

• May want to formalize how we handle this 

• Avoid anything contentious as they are not as inclusive as an in-person meeting

• Al: Maybe revisit this when the weather gets warmer (an outdoor meeting?)

• Eric Costello: could connect with other communities that do things like on-line elections

Parking – Ab

• VPP is on hold and we are still keeping our decals

• Riverside will go VPP shortly

• Once governor has lifted emergency order, we should be able to roll out VPP after that (may be some months before it happens

New Business

Fremont Development Variances (discussion)

• Ab: bad idea

• Megan:  At ARC meeting he said something different about parking that he said to us. May open floodgates for other developers. We should say, “no” to variance on parking

• Deb: 

  • A lot of unreliable reporting from them. More concerns than parking (e.g. storm drain issues)

  • We have negative parking at night. We should not increase the demand

  • What he has will not be acceptable to the zoning board, which is why he is coming to us

• Al: I am concerned that they want to use the Fremont side for RPP (Paul clarified that they are not asking to qualify for RPP)

• Farzana: Our Letter of support was very specific for any zoning variance. Destroys any semblance of trust

• Maia: Does anyone have a vision for what else could happen with the dilapidated buildings that many not require parking

  • Sharon: we are all zoned R8 (residential) we should double check…including that building. That building may qualify for RPP. We need to double check our facts

  • Eric Costello: 733 W Pratt is currently not RPP

  • Deb: We may lose some parking that is not RPP

  • Paul: Not much change anything will prevent the project from moving forward, but we run the risk of losing the renovation of the dilapidated buildings

• Farzana: How many additional units will be allowed if they get the zoning variances?

  • Deb: 3 additional in 207 S Fremont/ 4 additional units at 733 W Pratt. But it could be more based on their plans.

• Eric Costello: While not expressing [my] personal opinion…

  • I recognize that parking is an issue at RD

  • I recognize that there are issues with the developer

  • This is a property that needed redevelopment which should be good for the community

  • There is a way to get this done in a way that is respectful to the neighborhood and RD have tools that it could use

• Paul: I don’t think that anyone wants this project not to happen, just with fewer units, but this is a poker game. They are all in which puts us in a good position. The choice is how much we want to get and how much we want to risk the project not being done

• Eric Costello: All developers have a pro forma, and you do have leverage to negotiate, but understand the greater the variance from their plans, the greater portion of risk that the project might die – found out that it is 40 units that they are looking for

• Deb: Can we just be neutral until we know more?

• Ab: Hold them to what they are allowed (hard “no” on the variance)

• Motion

  • Paul: made a motion remain neutral on density (Jason seconded)

  • Nay: 7 Aye: 10 – [motion passes]

• Motion:

  • Farzana motion to vote against the variance for parking (Ab seconded)

  • Nay: 5 Aye: 9 – [motion passes]

Adjournment @ 9:14pm