Fall 2002 Newsletter

Success! - The Moore Project:

Since our last newsletter that reported on our neighborhood's victory at the June 27th Planning Commission meeting a lot has happened. The developer appealed the vote at that meeting that resulted in not rezoning the parcels that were in our historic district to the City Council. Our neighborhood appealed the Negative Declaration on the project since it stated there would be no negative impacts to our neighborhood. We felt that the increased traffic the project would generate and the lack of parking provided would impact the neighborhood adversely. For almost 8 weeks a core group of your neighbors met with City council members and other stake holders, wrote letters, and garnered support from key people. We also tried to meet with the developer to work out some type of compromise. With only 2 weeks to go till the Sept. 3 Council hearing, the developer finally contacted our group asking for a meeting to review redrawn plans for the building. Less than a week prior to the council hearing we met at the architect's office to view the plans. The garage exit/entrance slated for B Street had been replaced with apartment units which had been redrawn in a style more fitting with the neighborhood. We had been heard! However, we still needed the City to help create a parking district so that parking on the streets by nonresidents of the neighborhood could be controlled and mitigate the project's residential and commercial traffic that could end up on Tenth Street. In addition, their was still a concern that rezoning the historic district parcels would set a precedent that may cause the eroding away of other historic district borders in the future. With only 5 days to go till the council hearing and Labor Day Weekend as part of those 5 days, the neighborhood was under a lot of pressure to pull together a cohesive presentation based on the redrawn plans. Everyone came through and did an admirable job. And, again, we were heard! As a result, the lots in our district will not be rezoned, a permit parking district was put in place, and a traffic diverter will help direct traffic that would normally use Tenth Street as a shortcut through our neighborhood. Thank you to everyone who helped us achieve our goals, to all those who met with us, and to all our supporters who showed up at the various meetings. The depth of talent and dedication residents of our neighborhood have is truly impressive!

Homeless Service Center

In August the conditional use permit for the Homeless Service Center (600 Morgan Street) was finalized. The new permit is good for one year. The new permit and the corresponding list of rules and consequences eliminates much of the gray areas that were open to interpretation previously. In addition to agreeing on the CUP, the following was also put into place:

    The City will provide a security person to walk the neighborhood twice a day.. This person will report back to the Homeless Service Center with areas of concern.

   The City has confirmed that many of the businesses selling liquor around the neighborhood have expired Conditional Use Permits. This allows neighborhood input during the renewal process. They will be sending us notices when these hearings are set to take place.

   The City planted trees at the south entrance of Morgan Street which should slow traffic by giving the appearance that the street is narrower.

   The City will continue to monitor the speed of traffic on Morgan Street.

    City garbage cans will be placed on B Street by the Travel Lodge, in front of the St. Rose Church, and at the corner of Eighth Street.

The following numbers are for neighbors to contact Catholic Charities or law enforcement with problems, concerns, or questions regarding the homeless in our neighborhood:

Catholic Charities Homeless Service Center - Nick Baker or staff: 525-0226 (24 hours/7 days a week)

The HSC encourages people to call about homeless congregating near your home, HSC clients parking in front of your home, etc.

For illegal activities you should contact the SR Police Dept. at: 528-5222. To leave a message for specific police you can call:

Officer Cudes: 543-7273 Officer Anderson: 543-7245

The officers will respond as quickly as they can depending on the priority of other calls they have received.

The Homeless Service Center will be holding regular meetings that the neighborhood can attend and neighbors are encouraged to suggest agenda items for these meetings.

Street Trees

This fall our neighborhood is going to be taking advantage of the City's Street Tree Program. These trees are for the sidewalk in front of your home. The City supplies trees (from an approved list) at no charge to the homeowner. The homeowner is responsible for planting the tree(s) and watering for 2-3 years. If part of the sidewalk has to be removed to make a space for the tree, the homeowner is responsible for this also. There are some instances where, due to the proximity of drive ways or underground utilities, a tree may not be possible. However, the City will try their best to find a way to make it work. Our neighborhood has already started the process of marking the sidewalks for possible tree locations. We will probably be planting the trees on a Saturday in late October or early November. If you would like street trees in front of your house and are not already on our list, please contact Denise or Joe at 544-5713 or faire@sonic. net as soon as possible.

Our Own Website!

Thanks to our neighbor, Leisha Davenport, the St. Rose Historic District now has a website. To visit it go to: www.StRoseDistrict.org. If anyone has old photos of the neighborhood we can put on the website, we'd love to see them!

Are you on our E-Mail List?

We hope to send out a newsletter every 3-4 months. But, to get notification between these mailings of events, developers' projects, and issues involving our neighborhood, you need to be on our e-mail list. To get added to the St. Rose notification group e-mail us at: faire@sonic.net.

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