District D Neighborhood Alliance (DDNA) Meeting from April 19, 2008
Attendee’s
- Jason Hibbets, Lineberry / SWCAC
- Lana Dial, Lake Johnson Harbour
- Connie Crumpler, Caraleigh / SWCAC
- Mary Belle Pate, Fairway Acres / SWCAC (Chair)
- Philip Poe, Glenwood-Brooklyn / 5-Points CAC
- Les Seitz, Cameron Village / Hillsborough CAC
- Ana Pardo St Mary’s-Morgan St / Hillsborough CAC
- Joe Boisvert, University Park / UPHA
- Bruce Dunn, Cameron Village / Hillsborough CAC
- Laurent de Comarmond, Cameron Village / Hillsborough CAC
- Pete Huckins, Pullen Park Terrace
- Jeannine Grisson, Glenwood-Brooklyn / 5-Points CAC
- John Reaves, Jr., Caraliegh, SWCAC
Meeting Notes
Around the room, introductions
Boards & Commission positions from District D:
- Les Seitz – Transportation Board
- Laurent de Comarmond - Appearance Commission
- Jason Hibbets - Housing Appeals Board
CAC’s
- We discussed the Mayor’s proposal to change the CAC structure.
- Key things to note outside of the proposal as we move forward: original purpose of CAC’s was to keep CAC’s autonomous, the cities role should be providing financial support
Neighborhood Empowerment Program
Thomas to present the program at the Council Retreat in May
Three parts: 1) Education 2) Economic Development 3) Environment (meaning quality of life issues)Education
- purposes: create future leaders, create neighborhood leaders
- use existing neighborhood college and leader development programs, but bring them to the people
- teach neighborhoods how to become organized
- empowerment = knowledge
- learnings: what are the cities services? How to leverage those services?
- Communication structure:
- City < – > CAC’s < – > Neighborhood Leaders < – > Blocks Captains
- Jason suggested exploring learning credits to the program.
Economic Development
- New opportunity area’s (at-risk) in identified area’s in SW District Plan
- City would do land acquisition / pre-zoning for pilot area’s
- Explore partnerships with public schools
- Develop a Brand for South West Raleigh to expand on the glory days
Environment (Quality of Life)
- Focus on Police and Inspections
- Adding criminal elements to the PROP, Police Chief will make a recommendation for landlord registration (note, this is not the same as a licensor program)
- Two pilot area’s: SE and SW w/ specific teams that focus on criminal activities
- Look at adding a police auxiliary force (made up of retired officers, that can focus on QoL issues)
City Mission Statement
Thomas talked about the need to have a mission statement for the city, one that all departments and the entire staff can strive to accomplish.
Other City News
Parks & Rec, Jack Duncan retiring
Around the Horn
Lineberry (Hibbets), talked about the neighborhood effort to collect phonebooks with neighbors providing drop-off points. Brought up the neighborhood discussion about naming the entire area of colelcted neighborhoods East of Trailwood, North of Tryon, West of Fairway Acres/Carolina Pines area (inclusive) and south of I-40. Leading candidates are Centennial Hills or Centennial South.
Lake Johnson Harbour (Dial), talked about being able to enforce the number of people living in single family homes. The current limit is 4, but what to do and how to determine when more than 4 people are living in a single family dwelling. Also mentioned was the garbage disposal bad / removal of the ban. Informed DDNA attendee’s about the Friends of Lake Johnson event occurring on Monday, April 28, 2008.
Caraleigh (Crumpler/Reaves), talked about the lack of follow-up from the city for a recent clean-up project that the neighborhood lead. Lack of updates from the planning department on certain projects in their area.
Glenwood-Brooklyn (Grisson), talked about the need for a better way to determine the number of people living in a single family dwelling. The conversation moved to talking about Senate Bill 15 which would prohibit municipalities from conducting periodic inspections.
(Poe) Also talked about the modified NCOD (Neighborhood Conservation Overlay District) is in committee (Planning Commission). Impact Fee’s are currently at the Committee of the Whole.
Fairway Acres (Pate), brought up several topics. Caraleigh landlords currently collecting in cash. Inspections claims that Caraleigh is a bigger mess than Peach Road. The lack of a code enforcement officer is hurting this neighborhood. About the clean-up mentioned earlier, negative article to editor was recently in the paper.
(Seitz), Simply said, from the news about Raleigh and the general discussion at this meeting, Raleigh is not ready to be a big city.
University Park (Boisvert), Hillsborough Street, looking to go one-half a block back for street scape proposal. Cameron Park is in final planning stages. New restaurant, Loco Pops.
Cameron Village (Comarmond), talked about a few teardowns in the area, but mostly seeing contemporary infill. Fletcher Park water garden is now on the agenda. Appearance Commission is reviewing the new proposal for McDonald’s on Western Boulevard, the facade should be facing Western Blvd, not the proposed East facing facade.