Board Meeting Minutes – March 2013

University Park Community Council

Board Meeting
Tuesday, March 5th, 2013, 7pm

In attendance: Dana O’Connor, Jennifer Schmidt, John Rogala, Mary Meyers, Janet Bardwell, Jennifer Engleby, Diana Helper, Ryan Zorn, June Morgan, Pat Cashen, Rosemary Stoffel. Steve Hicks, James Bettinger, and Traci Samaras.

Review and Approve Meeting Minutes (Traci Samaras)

January Board Meeting & February General Meeting Minutes approved with changes. The February meeting was possible the most well attended meeting in the past 8 years.  Notes from meeting have been sent to Charlie Brown.

Updates from the President (Dana O’Connor)

There are still open Board Positions. Allison Silver will help with events and Phyliss Ward with UPWords delivery.

The Position Overview Documents are still needed from Bill, Paula and Pat.  Dana is still trying to find a good time to meet with Michael Saap.

  • Harvard Gulch Trail
    • Looked at COGO grant but the City has its own queue for these grants and we were not on it
    • Attended a grant writing course this morning for other possible moneys
    • Planning to send a letter to DPR, Public works, and Urban Drainage to get improvements to this trail in the queue.  Aiming for week of 11th.
    • Working with the following to gain support
      • YMCA
      • Charlie Brown
      • Greenway Foundation

Treasurer Update

The January Campaign was a great success and many new donors. Janet is working on the survey responses and Traci will do the thank you cards.

V.P. Update (Jennifer Schmidt)

The neighborhood Garage Sale will be June 7th & 8th and Pam Adams coordinating with Traci Samaras this year. Jen is out of town.

Communications/Purple Pages (Paula Smith/Janet Bardwell/Dana)

May UPWords needs your articles by March 15. What are topics?  Home tour, garage sale, May General meeting, Dana may be doing an article on Harvard Gulch

Logo Discussion

VOTE for neighborhood to vote on via an online survey.  The best tool we have to reach the most people in the quickest amount of time is via email, so that is why the online survey was chosen.

Open Space and Parks (Diana Helper/Jennifer Engleby)

  • Prairie Park sign.
    • Placed near the Historic Buchtel Blvd. at Prairie Park sign, S. St. Paul/Buchtel.  This also is the area where the proposed garden would be nearby.
    • 60″ wide x 27″ long standing on a concrete pad
    • Have neighbor/designer donating time
    • Face tilted like a lectern or music stand
    • Text about the history and importance of the prairie, Buchtel, etc. and info about the all-over plan
    • Possible pictures
    • DPR uses I-Zone panels
    • Lead time is 4-6 weeks
    • Design and placement would have to be approved by DPR.
  • Vote on UPCC paying if there are additional funds needed for the sign was approved.

 Legacy and Historic Preservation (Rosemary Stoffel)

Doors Open Denver scheduled for Apr. 13 – 14.  A FREE 2-day event celebrating architecture and design. The 2013 theme is “Denver the City Beautiful – Then & Now.

Zoning (Pat)

  • Fence at 2380 S Clayton, fence was already built, 8 foot where 6 foot permitted. All board members voted against the variance and so did the City.

 Safety (Steve Hick)

There were a number of car break in on Thurs/Friday Feb7/8th, please remember to keep your car clean of important items. The District 3 Meeting is coming up. There will be boundaries changing this spring – stay tuned.

Traffic & Transportation (James Bettinger)

A new crosswalk at Adams and Iliff will go in in warmer weather, to help those school children. The board discussed maybe designing a wish list for this area.

INC (Mary/Diana)

June Morgan was a recipient of the ‘Neighborhood Star Award” and the UPCC was the host for INC on Sat., Feb. 9, at the HERITAGE CLUB

Membership (John Rogala)

All the current welcome packages went out in January. It was about 22 packets.

DU Good Neighbors Meeting on February 27th

The following are the notes from Diana. These will be discussed on the April Meeting and Allan Wilson has been asked to speak at the May General Meeting.

  • Expansion of the ATHLETIC FIELDS west, taking over the lots along the east side of S. High where DU owns 8 houses (to be razed) The new field will be AstroTurf.  Perimeter will be landscaped.
  • NW corner High/Asbury, student project to Xeriscape the yards of first two houses there.
  • Redo to “acorn type” cranberry-paint color street lamps for DU Presence on S. High from Buchtel to I think Wesley.  Also improvement of some landscape.
  • SCHOOL OF ENGINEERING will be built in the 2400 blk S. York DU bought two apt. Bldgs. to raze.  Design phase is underway.  (Allan reiterates that DU is not expanding, no matter how it seems.)
  • ACADEMIC COMMONS (Library) opens March 25.  Take a look esp. at the much-enlarged south side with entrance off garden, patio, cafe, etc.  Oh yes, there are books, nooks & mountain looks.
  • MARGERY REED being totally modernized inside, historic elements preserved, bldg. for use by Daniels Biz. College.
  • PLAN FOR A BUSINESS IMPROVEMENT DISTRICT (BID).  DU is buying available properties along S. University, both sides, from Asbury-Wesley (maybe farther south?) and along Evans (both sides) from Josephine to Franklin.  Plan is to create DU Presence with those acorn lamps, landscape improvements, etc. AND give DU power to say what business may operate there.  This is in very beginning stages.

Diana also noted that INC would like to hear from all of us in regards to the March 13th city council meeting. In short the request is to swap 9.2 acres of open space in Hentzell Park for a downtown building, and constructing a school on the open space, which happens to be in a flood plain. There are also 12 people signed up for the Observatory Park Garden, but they still need more. There is a Harvard Gulch clean up scheduled for May 4th.