Good evening, NECKO -
Here's a followup on what happened at our neighborhood meeting this past Tuesday:
1) City Projects Update: The planned beautification and sidewalk upgrade for West 8th & Perry has been briefly delayed. The proposed design needs to be altered to accommodate water lines. A meeting will be set up with the City and OSU in the next two weeks to discuss modifications to the plan. Also, there was no update on the planned median for King Avenue, although construction had been expected this past fall.
2) Neighborhood Plan Update: A meeting was held on February 9th to begin work on an update to the neighborhood plan. The City Planning Division will be working with our steering committee to produce an updated plan that builds upon existing recommendations from other area plans. This will be a 6-9 month public process that will be taken to the University Area Commission and City Council for adoption. The next step is for the City to produce a summary of all existing plans and recommendations for review. Future steering committee meetings will be announced as they're scheduled.
2) OSU Projects Update: There was no new information on the planned new parking garage east of the existing West 9th/Belmont Garage.
3) City Parking Update: The planned addition of new parking on the east side of Perry Street should happen by March. At the same time, the rush hour parking restrictions on King Avenue will be removed.
4) Volunteers & Officer Elections: There was a discussion about how to improve coordination in the group and whether there should be positions created such as "Events Director" and "Safety Chairperson", etc. Also, the group brainstormed on ways to increase participation in volunteering and leadership. Elections will be held at the April meeting.
5) Neighborhood Goals and Events for 2007 - There was a great discussion about items for the neighborhood to focus on for 2007. Items discussed included: creating and implementing a new neighborhood plan, building involvement and leadership in the neighborhood, better connections to students and owner-occupants, safety and security, parking enforcement, code enforcement/landlord accountability, creating new social events, building involvement in the group cleanups, and more. The group explored the best ways to communicate with folks with the focus on moving toward face-to-face and email interaction and away from paper fliers.
The next meeting will be to focus on events and goals for 2007 on Tuesday, March 13 at 7:30 p.m. at Creative Living. All are invited!
As always, don't forget to check out our website at www.necko.org and be sure to forward this email to any interested friends and neighbors.
Have a great weekend - William