SNA minutes 3/14/2019
Board Present: Matt Lembo, Dave Boush, Maggie McGann, K.C, Hoffert, Pat Schwiebert, Reuben Deumling
Board Absent: Lorraine Enriques, Russell Rinaldi
Alice Myers, Sheryl McCoy, A Jameson, Molinaro, Dale Peppel, Brad Hudy, Marcia Conger, Heather Flint-Chatto, Judi Brandel, Kundalini
Introductions
Minutes Feb RD moved, DB second, all in favor
Moved budget item to next month
Announcements
Matt:
Safety livability and OCCL sponsoring community park watch organization training 4/2 6:30-8:30
Plant sale toward end of summer no date yet
Maggie suggesting Lorraine may be interested in helping with that.
3150 Belmont proposed 45-unit building
McGuirl Designs presentation 7:07pm
Matt – for us an opportunity to learn and provide feedback; they will take feedback and incorporate it into design (we hope). All questions are welcome, focus on feedback of that nature. Not about permitting or whether that building should be built…
Alisha –
Five story 44 micro-studio units on corner of Belmont and 32nd
Bike storage internally,biketown, zipcar, buslines
No provided vehicle parking
Building has two separate common areas, residential feel, in commercial zone,
Building only blocking morning West Sun
KC – printouts of presentation? Yes.
Elevator access, ADA.
Dale – micro studio?
Alisha: 220-250sq ft no group living all with own kitchens
Balconies project over sidewalk
Fifth floor outdoor common area.
Aesthetic comments welcome
Brick stucco and accents of metal exterior
Rental rates? not sure –
Molinaro – depict actual houses next door;
SE – BDS looks like required between 41-50, need .5 parking spots. Matt suggest this involves a transportation waiver
A – doesn’t know the answer
Dale – space on South of building large enough for off street parking.
SE and still provide the setback?
Actual height of the building?
A – doesn’t know.
Brad – why no retail at bottom?
Marsha – Or why five stories are allowed; thought four was the top
Matt – mixed use urban center which allows for 5th story.
Marsha – how would that feel?
A – morning West sun blocked only, aesthetics… well.
Dale: bonus program allows the extra storey, part of that is it must be 100% residential, where theoretically helping the neighborhood.
Molinaro – interesting site: not quite Belmont, and West toward the City more projects are likely to be developed like this. Ground floor has me troubled, neither old nor new
Entrance lobby and one apartment. An opportunity to pick up some of the older patterns, or pick up something new, right now very few windows, street expression needs to be enhanced, hire architects, a gateway building.
On 33rd you see storefronts… missed
New building on Belmont (33-34) tinted windows not good, should be more inviting.
Maggie: can you give up those front two units for a small commercial unit, if possible? it would be valuable to the neighborhood
Brad: storefront better.
SE: I like that, street interaction very helpful. I own a house on 35th and Belmont on the corner, trouble with things just happening to them. Hard to keep people in them. A lot of people who don’t have homes set up. Can become a safety issue at its worst. Couches caught on fire, happens right there.
Heather Flint-Chatto: division design guidelines now adopted by Hawthorne and Sellwood. Examples of pattern language in our neighborhoods; if you could, great number of sketches of building on Division. Very similar character. Storefronts on bottom, clerestory windows above. More vertical punched windows, important; add that quality element to it; a well cared for building. A new building picking up some of those old patterns can make that building a good neighbor. The other piece: helpful to see the context continuing down the street on both sides, rather than blanks on renderings now. Much further toward the street than adjacent residential, larger blank wall,
A – did notice that, where units are located we also have our kitchen and bathroom there.
Heather: may want window in your bathroom, detail on exterior can be helpful.
Step down important to make building feel smaller, keep density, consider a step down on façade on Belmont.
Dale – seen ones on 50th and Harrison?
SE – development process: planning to use approval process using community design standards or design review.
A community design standards
Community design process not sure.
Pause for Police Officer Fox
Focusing on parks that are creating problems. If issues are happening and we don’t know about it can’t encourage it to change. Anticipating call load increasing with weather warming up, try to anticipate. 911 for fights, camping report via PDXreporter.
Still seeing some car thefts, but down.
Up in city overall.
Car prowls still an issue. 10th and Division 7 or 8 cars broken into.
KC – feedback about SES student robbed at bank?
No updates
– Carjacked people on Division update? Arrest?
– Happened yesterday morning, haven’t seen reports. Similar incident out East, possibly related. The car stolen was located nearby.
– Gentleman with hatchet by Hosford, lot of work has been done incl arrest
Back to McGuirl
Maggie – subject to inclusionary zoning?
A don’t know;
Maggie – how are you going to meet that?
Zip car available, are you going to pay memberships,
Not paying for rideshare or memberships?
A- No.
Could be perceived differently by prospective renters if you were to put that in there.
Mostly stay away from design side of things. But now building on 44th and Hawthorne with concrete block is a little lame;
A – we’re still taking this kind of feedback
Brad – 20 years from now you’ll regret that style. across from Burgerville, 14th and Hawthone just got finished, really nice.
Heather – design for cost efficiency, really concerned about cantilevered portions of building. Lots of structural steel and extra cost, some cost savings to be achieved – white paper on design for cost efficiency, cut put more money toward design. 25% less cost, 10% more for design, 5% for joy, more beloved building. Shows building off Couch Park with details, psychological aspect. Makes us think the building is a storey smaller: cornice. Perceived as smaller, save on cost. Draw on other buildings on Hawthorne, one small thing lots of MF buildings would always go arched entry, welcome to that building, human scale.
Dave B – some way to follow up
Heather – refer to guidelines. Division Design Initiative.
Announcement: events; scaling up our work relaunching as PDX mainstreet on architectural heritage center on April 11, exhibits, awards, 5-8pm
April 8 another even: design for affordability, resiliency and sustainability, with panel. Workshopping sustainability scorecard. Tradeoffs btw public goods and dev’t pressure
Committee reports:
LUTC – Dave suggestions for how to improve streets, greenways, get a feel for interest in joining the LUTC committee (currently Ted, Jen and Dave)
Safety and Livability – Pat 10-25 people in attendance; people had a lot of input, didn’t get to what we thought we would;
Matt (feel very responsible)
Dave chairs arranged in circle made it egalitarian, people responded to each other directly
Matt: previous two or three mtgs talking about GNA btw CH and NA, pretty structured presenting work from drafting committee, but last mtg discussion broke down into values battle; took their time to express views on philosophical points. Mike Frohn hijacked discussion about a security guard. Keep it much more structured in future, But pressure released, Pat and Dave feel it was good, useful
Matt: did not talk about how our different values affected what we saw.
Dave: what happened in mtg true, but take it home could be valuable.
Pat: maybe an hour is not enough time, open up for comments and concerns
Dave; if a lot of the value hearing others’ perspectives we could miss things by not hearing them. Wasn’t ideal but valuable.
Matt: spend more time doing activities together rather than just talking. Parkwatch maybe serve in that role; reached out to Sandra Comstock at Compassionate Change District, try to bring someone like that in. Draft language is coming together, a shame if folks shrugged and moved on.
Pat: two different styles of people were present there who don’t know how to talk to each other, different language skills. Matt did great!
Business Associations – Dave HBBA and BABA extremely interested in GNA and willing to help if they can
Matt: part of GNA to generate small projects (project ideas) we can conduct and fund together; those could be candidates.
Dave: Venture Portland grant cycle in Fall
HBBA – announcement keen to have board member attend their 36th annual mtg and dinner
SES, PTSA KC no report
Communications – Dave kind of fizzling folks out of town, moved or sick; will keep pushing it forward.
SEUL report – Reuben
Break –
Bylaws mandate stipulates when meetings are allowed to occur. Could we amend bylaws to allow dates that work for folks second and third shift. Matt proposed Article 4 section 1.b change to “At least once per calendar month…”
Maggie: maybe not require 12 board meetings per year, but fewer
My concern is that we end up with a total shift, making it possible for first shifters not to attend.
Matt: put together a schedule matrix?
Maggie: at least six meetings, some in evening… etc.
A 2/3 board vote to change this.
Matt: need ready by next month
Maggie: leave it as general as possible, free it up, leave details for board to work out, make future changes
Maggie newsletter should reflect date and time of May meeting and elections.
Confirm that there are five seats are open.
Matt: how to motivate folks in the Neighborhood to participate, not necessarily as board members but in other respects, capacity building?
Pat: activities
Maggie: 9, 11, or 13
Dave: people don’t understand you don’t have to be on the board to participate.
House Bill 2001: … SF homes can’t be mandated by local municipalities; instead you are allowed to build middle housing (duplex to cottage cluster)
Maggie: current state of affairs, complicated but mostly SF homes, exceptions close to transit corridors and corner lots.
Portland’s infill project: statewide version
Dave: why would this be a statewide issue? Why not leave it to cities?
Maggie: It would be on all municipalities to allow for growth; increasingly recognized as exclusionary. Everyone should be able to take their fair share of the growth that is happening.
Dave: asking for support of this bill?
Matt: feedback invited.
Maggie: table till next month, or support it.
Maggie moves to endorse, Matt second, all those in favor 5 yeah, Dave no
Collect feedback
Submitted by Reuben Deumling