05-04-2021 – HOWELL STATION BOARD MEETING MEETING MINUTES
Neighborhood Development -1189 Rice Street - Malika Smith and Mary Brantley bought home and want to sub-divide the parcel and build two houses. Not able to renovate because home has too much damage, rot and foundational issues. Two trees to be removed. There will be a sidewalk in front of them. It was brought up that she could donate the sidewalk to Howell Station or the city. She wants to be sure they are compliant with the city requirements. This will go on to the NPU meeting o the 18th. The lot will be about 50 x 120.
2038 Niles. Owner Jimmy Nusbaum wants to enclose part of the front porch to create a bathroom. Variance is needed because front porch sits within the 30-foot setback. Roughly a third of the porch.
HSNA Board approves both requests.
QTS - Plans primarily for data center; also retail, office, 400 residential units. Church and Herndon seems to have a church and community center. QTS wants to extend Church to the east and add a Beltline spur - trails to lead to the southern Beltline. No project completion date.
Howell Station’s Priorities to discuss with QTS:
Preserve HS character
Limit destruction to neighborhood
Create value for HS residents
QTS proposes townhomes on Herndon – we want single-family homes, fewer housing units. Restrict building heights, add greenspace and parks. Include a tree buffer.
No parking lots in our neighborhood. Include sufficient on-site parking in new development. Traffic study to measure impact. Prioritize W. Marietta entrance. Do sound study and mitigation.
Build public park and green space fund - want to see public artwork & high-quality retail tenants. H.S. Zoning Committee meets with QTS Thursday. Have talked to 4 city council members. We want to get input on issues like housing on Herndon. Are discussing additional public amenities that would be funded by QTS or another developer. We are wanting decent sized $$ to fund the pavilion and it’s a good opportunity to ask for it.
We should include city council candidates in our conversation since this is an election year.
Antonio met with QTS, we met with Antonio and Matt Westmoreland. Antonio wants a list of concerns from HS. Which we gave to him and hopefully he discussed with QTS, which is expected to go to the NPU meeting in June. QTS wants to move fast. They haven’t taken time to take our input.
School Zoning. We may have a subcommittee for education. Jennifer Upton is setting up a subcommittee and met with the district 2 school board member. HS is the only neighborhood in Atlanta that is zoned for a charter school. We need neighborhood support and then go before the board.
Park Update: pavilion permits soon (early May) We’d like to do some fundraising. Sculpture – waiting to get drawings done so they can be submitted.
Taste of Howell Station in a couple of weeks. We only have 3 hosts right now. Want at least 2 more. Do we want a VIP list and invite certain guests? $25 per person to attend.
Events – will probably do auction this year along the lines of what we did last year (online)
Listserv update – Ross developed some guidelines which are on the neighborhood website.
Beltline -- underway on Marietta. It should be done by November.
Rice St sidewalks – Calvin is donating to the neighborhood.
Zoom for Howell Station. We have a dedicated account. We also have a Howell Station email for certain sensitive conversations to prevent using personal email. We also have Nextdoor which can be used to announce Howell Station events. Improve Howell Station branding/social media.
Neighborhood website - We have a free Wix site for our website. Do we want to pay for a website?
HSNA Board. There is room for additions to the board. Recommend creating different chairs – events, zoning, safety, social media, welcome committee, transportation, security, education. This might make it easier for certain items to get done since it is part of the “job description.”
Treasurer’s report:
· $53, 951 – Friends of Howell Station Checking acct
· 594.87 - Friends of Howell Station savings account
· Neighborhood Assn - $8,799 checking
· Neighborhood Assn Savings $492.06
· New deposits: John Burke $500
· $5,000 from Antonio for the artwork
54 households that have paid dues so far this year.
Fulton County is Natalie Hall will be at the HSNA meeting next week.
Meeting adjourned