11-17-2020 – HOWELL STATION GENERAL BODY MEETING –4th QUARTER MEETING MINUTES
Chad Murray, HSNA President – opens Zoom meeting at 6:30 pm
Adeline Collot - Upper Westside CID.
Master plan for Upper Westside is wrapping up; draft doc will be available for public comment in December. You can see what neighborhoods envision for the area.
Howell Junction pocket park at Brady Ave. will be complete next week with addition of a new bench. A new, 200-foot mural will be painted in the area as well.
Outdoor movie fundraiser at Westside paper, 950 W Marietta Street. There will be 4 movie showings. We can set up table to sell Howell Station merch. Location is a gutted building still under development. You can come in with your car or walk in. It’s open air. $45 per ticket – for four adults or two adults and 3 kids. A 6 x 6 square area. Bring your own chairs and a blanket. Socially distanced.
Bus stop cubes. They are trying to provide small improvements to enhance transit experience in the CID. They put them at high-ridership stops for now to see how they go over.
Curtis Hearn - owns lot at 1008 Herndon.
Narrow lot 34 x 140 or 4760 square feet, which is smaller than the current city minimum lot size. Lot is approximately 40% smaller than what R4A would be zoned for. R4A lot coverage is 55%, which includes the garage in addition to the home, and this design fits within the lot coverage ratio without a need for variance. Hearn wants to build a slightly higher house with a deck on top; modern design. Proposes reducing northside set back from 7 feet to 4 feet, the rear setback from 15 to 10 feet (abandoned alley adds a bit more space behind the garage), 20' height limit on garage (accessory structure) increased to 25', and 28" of cable railing allowed to be added to perimeter of roof over parapet (or allow parapet to be raised 28"). Will have a shared driveway with the neighboring property which will eventually be another modern home.
Stephanie Sanders - Neighbor
Would like the home to sit nicely on the lot and not be “odd.” She would be more confident in supporting a less generous variance. If we approve the variance, will it become a precedent? Fears that we going to have a house that is generous for the lot size. Doesn’t want for a house to be 4 feet from her fence line. She would be more comfortable with a 1-foot variance.
Brian -
We appreciate that he’s not trying to change zoning and is working within existing zoning.
Curtis -
The request has been submitted to the city and they don’t want to change it now because it will mean starting the process all over again. He doesn’t think they will use the entire variance- home will probably be smaller than requested.
Dec. 8 will come up at NPU meeting.
Thad Flowers from Antonio Brown’s office.
Focusing on licenses and permits because of the city’s shutdown from pandemic has caused a huge backlog. The next big thing - tree ordinance re-write. Any thoughts will be welcomed. Will introduce at Dec 7 meeting. On the NW side of Howell Station, Beltline is finalizing their push to finish the project. We will see a lot of movement on that next year. Anyone with commercial property on beltline are talking about a millage rate to help with funding. It will be introduced at end of year with action taking place in January.
Chad- short term rentals.
City is working on ordinances around this issue to target party houses – houses rented just to throw a wild party. A proposal to prohibit them completely – the vote was to deny that at the NPU meeting. Another ordinance is being developed around taxation and regulation of these. STROAGA (https://stroaga.org/about-us/) is a group that can act as an intermediary for troublesome issues with Airbnb homes.
Thad – This is a 2021 legislative priority for city council.
Chris Alasa - Knight Park Updates.
Tennis court, will be re-striping for tennis, pickle ball and basketball. Putting up a new fence in a couple of weeks. Bridge- Work is underway. Pavilion - Prioritized getting it done first, but permitting slowed us down. Our legacy grant is expiring; trying to get an extension on it and maybe more matching funds. Checking to see if city parks dept can give us more $$. Waiting to see what we can get. Loose handholds on kid playground will be fixed hopefully on Wednesday 11-18. Grant. Art installation in the park will be a tile mosaic of 1893. Artist has been picked out and Grant is putting info together to get it approved by city parks and rec department.
Remaining events for 2020 cancelled –
Taste of Howell Station is off, Naomi replaced pics with Santa by Porch Portraits at end of November. $$ will go to our 510C3. Next board meeting in January will work on 2021 events. Will likely be a lot like 2020 given pandemic/vaccine situation.
Gas station. 1222 W Marietta (Chevron).
Opposite corner at 1250 W Marietta is applying for alcohol license, as did the Chevron gas station. Neighborhood supports the 1250 vs no support for Chevron’s application. The license was denied at the last NPU meeting on Oct 20. Oct 10 Brian attended as chair of NPUK – he presented pictures of violations, etc. LRB website recorded it as adverse – which is not approved. Need to check with Antonio to be sure it is signed by the mayor. 1250 was approved Oct 6 by LRB.
Thad (Antonio’s office) – typically the way the LRB goes, the mayor goes along with. Now that LRB has turned it down, has a better chance of going to mayor and keeping it moving.
Brian – worries that the attorney for 1222 may try to get the city to change that – worried about unethical things happening there.
Thad – Knowing how the city works and the people who are involved, in terms of all the politics, LRB ruling is a very clear signal to owner of gas station and his attorneys. (LRB = license review board).
Chad- Treasurer’s report
• HSNA checking – $7,437.47
• Savings account – $492.04
• Friends of HS – (non-profit) – $61,947.61
Meeting adjourned