May 2014 ENA General Membership Meeting Minutes

Attendance

• Board Members Present: Sandia Slaby, Nathan Allan, Whitney Bowerman, Pat Bayle, Jim Longley, Kara Randall, Brian Brannies, Sheena Pietzold, and Mitch Dennis, Sherry Chilcutt
• Board Members Absent: Pat Bayle
• Other Attendees: 30-40 community members attended

Comprehensive Plan

City staff and a representative from the Planning Commission will talk about the revised Comprehensive Plan, set to be finalized in summer 2014. Learn about why the Comprehensive Plan is important and how the updates will affect our neighborhood directly and indirectly.

Presentation by Amy Buckler, Assistant Planner at the City of Olympia. Also present: Roger Horn (Olympia Planning Commission) and Michelle Sadlier (City of Olympia).

• Required by Growth Management Act
• Updated every 8 years, 20 year plan
• There have been four phases: visioning and Scoping, community Focus Meetings, Planning Commission, council Review
• Urban Corridor: red on map. Main arterial a in olympia, not very pedestrian friendly the way they have developed. It is in the plans to make these more of a mixed use area. Policy discussion on how wide these corridors should be. Make our community more walkable, less auto dependent. Concept of nodes: three areas where there should be focus of most growth, especially in downtown.
• 1/4 mile from center line, along fourth and state and Harrison is gone. Will stay commercial zone.
• Imagineolympia.com Outlines of all the changes from 1994 (reference ‘change box’ in document to see how it has changed within the document)

Amy’s presentation can be found here. The City also has a video that summarizes some of the big topics in the plan.

Dog waste stations

The City will provide dog waste bag stations and/or signs indicating to people to stop and collect their pet’s waste. The ENA needs to submit an application specifying locations.

• We need neighbors willing to host a location. Would you like to host a location? Ideally on private property. ENA would provide and put up a post, and the City would provide bags.
• Locations with willing stewards: Legion & Fir or Legion & Fairview (Sandia); 10th & Central (Whitney); 11th & Central (Nathan).
• Contact Whitney Bowerman if you are interested

Medela Update

Update on the Medela rezone application

• Theresa presented on the updates
• Wrote letter to washington state department of archaeology and historic preservation
• Response from DAHP states the the area has the potential for archaeological resources

Thurston Food Bank Project

This will be on the agenda for June. We will have a guest speaker at that meeting.

Thurston Food Bank Project is based on a program that originated in Ashland, OR, that was brought to Olympia by a resident in the Cain Road Area Neighborhood. Neighborhoods have captains who collect food from the people in their group. Food is picked up every two months. Provides regular stream of food to Food Bank (vs. large donations during the holidays which then taper off during other times of the year). Jeanne offered to pay for bags (two re-usable bags needed for each program participant). Whitney will contact CRANA about presenting about the program at the June Board meeting. We need someone in the ENA to head this program up.

Disaster Preparedness

Contact Sandia Slaby if you are interested in becoming proactive in disaster preparedness.

Community Garden

• There had not been enough interest
• Notes have been archived,
• We needed individuals to help build and maintain plots.
• New Bridge Community Church had been wiling to host.
• If you do have interest, please let ENA board member know.

Membership

• Please sign up online, or by mail
• Membership is on a sliding scale

 

Notes submitted by Katy Beattie, ENA Secretary