March 2019 Meeting Minutes

Treasurer Report: $1139.67. Brad cashed $82 for the sign for the watershed that's on the bulletin board.

Announcements:

Sosa-Carrillo House is now a Mexican American cultural history and heritage museum. They have a mariachi women’s festival on may 4th.

Library Announcements:

Tour de Biblio is Friday April 5th

Humanities climate & moral responsibility in Arizona discussion April 13

High School Art invitational student art is currently hanging in the library

There are new library cards. Keychain cards. Turn your card in and get a new design.

The library is planning 2 downtown community focus groups for downtown neighborhoods: we want to hear what's happening in your neighborhood. What's missing. First one is Saturday April 13 afternoon at Main Library. Second one is on Tuesday April 16 at S Tucson library.

A Bikeoromoter will be set up that clocks pedestrians and bicyclists. It's going to be on the loop on the other side of the playground. County is putting this out.

Air Show is happening the 23rd and 24th https://www.dm.af.mil/airshow/

Agenda Items

Diana Alarcon (New Director of Transportation) presenting on Downtown Links:

Downtown Links has 3 phases. This is phase 3. Most difficult, impacts Dunbar the most. Broadway to Church. Project went out to bid and came back too high. Was originally put out as an RFQ. Came in higher than the dollars were available. This time it was sent out as the same RFQ with nothing cut hoping that construction companies gave recommendations to reduce cost. Don't want to cut anything but might have to reduce certain amenities. Looking at what they can do to build this project without having to cut anything that the community wants. Staff took an initial stab at it but are not construction professionals which is why they submitted the RFQ again. Staff did not take a hard look at it. But hoping it won't come to that. The RFQ has had three bids which were vetted by a committee of employees, professionals engineers and someone from the county. Now interview processes begin. Transportation will be evaluating and ranking the bids and then meeting with the companies.

Currently the project is at 100% but design but again, came in too high. 60 million higher than was possible. Looking to reduce deck bridge. And have designs and considerations for these revisions. Still providing the multi use path but moving the green space to another area of the deck. Also looking to find additional funding for the project. After they have all the recommendations a public meeting will be hosted to share what those outcomes are & to make the community aware. Looking to begin construction in fall of 2019.

This presentation is available at www.downtownlinks.info.

Questions:

What impact on the sound of traffic will there be if there is no sound baffling and that space is opened up?

Not sure. But will contact engineer to answer this question.

How do the interviews go?

If first ranked bid doesn't work they go to second. And so on. If none work, they start all over again.

Is the funding deficit at 42%?

Diana does not believe the deficit is that steep despite this being quoted in the paper.

The improvements of the railroad crossing are part of downtown links?

The actual bicycle lanes that will be implemented with the project are a second pot. Mayor and Council will make the final decision on the agreement that will allow the city and contractor to go into construction.

How will it be insured that these community meetings will be announced and put on the radar sufficiently as well as notify original stakeholders to ensure community participation?

Diana will work with neighborhood associations, nonprofits and do email blasts to ensure that the community and neighborhoods are aware of the community discussions. You can also sign up on the downtown links site to get notified about the upcoming discussions.

Contact Diana if you have any further questions. Diana.alarcon@tucsonarizona.gov, Director of Transportation

11th Ave Follow Up:

Keith from the Department of Housing says instead of RFP for the 11th Street parcel he wants to do the project as a sale but needs to work with the real estate department on that. In the meantime Karen, Matt and Natasha have met with Iris Patten who has a company called Geospatial Collaborative LLC. The company uses geospatial research to see what's happening in a community and what the needs, deficits are to help get things done in a neighborhood. The 11th street parcel is in an opportunity zone which designates the parcel as an incentive. Patten is looking to work with potential investors who would want to to invest in the parcel with a tax benefit due to the opportunity zone. Patten will work with the neighborhood to keep the development on the parcel to be low income in perpetuity. This is all in discussion and has not been decided on yet.

The neighborhood wants to work with the design build program, specifically Arthur C. Nelson from the UA College of Architecture to do cost benefit analysis. So if anyone has a connection to him, the neighborhood would like to reach out to him.

Follow Up on Block Pal:

Karen has gotten renderings/markups from the assessor's website of the blocks in the neighborhood. If you're the pal you’ll want to know the names of everyone on the block. And know if they have any potential hazards. For example: babies, generators, is someone in a wheelchair or has an oxygen tank that would need immediate attention if there’s a disaster. Also the pal would disperse important information to their fellow neighbors. If you want to be a block pal, reach out to Karen.

Elections Reminder:

Elections are in April

Historic 4th:

Historic 4th Avenue has offered a free coalition membership to the neighborhood. Christopher puts forth a motion that the neighborhood join the historic 4th avenue coalition. There was a second. A unanimous 12 votes to join the coalition.

Garden Update:

Debi Chess Mabie got a 100k grant for health and wellbeing programing for the Dunbar School and community garden. As part of that grant, there is a funding for someone to be hired as the community garden caretaker. The position has been offered to Anton Last name? And he has accepted.

Committee Reports:

DNARC: Koren Manning of the Long Range Planning team. The state requires the city to put out a general plan every ten years for voters to approve. Neighborhoods can make separate plans. The neighborhood plan doesn't have teeth but could be interesting to submit to potential developers to see if they are interested in building in the neighborhood. This plan could be a lot of work. Karen is not pushing for this but letting folks know that this would be a great way for folks to get involved with the neighborhood. Rincon Heights Neighborhood: Concerned with homes that have pools in the front yard. And students having pool parties in the front yard.

Dunbar Coalition: Attempted to pass new bylaws and got hung up with a conflict of interest. Passed everything but that. A new website will be launched for the coalition soon. March 23rd from 6-9 pm the Buffalo Soldiers will be having their annual dinner at the Dunbar School.

Neighborhood Foresters: Recap of a February pruning workshop. Sky will be hosting a neighborhood cleanup in April. Date TBD.