June 2014

Dunbar Spring Neighborhood Minutes - June 2014

Treasurer’s Report: Same as of last month $765.73

Announcements

Question about our rep at the Ward 1 office (they have contacted Sky and will come to a future neighborhood meeting). We can ask about their representation for Downtown Links and other projects at that time.

The Library received a donation and will be getting two additional Bookbikes. Volunteer orientation for the Bookbike will be Sat. Jun 21 at 8:30 a.m.

Upcoming classes at the Main Library – Qigong – Thursday June 26 noon-1 p.m. and Gardening for Birds, Butterflies and Bees, Sat. June 28 1-3 p.m.

Harrison is now on the Citizen Advisory board for the TCE contamination project. Erik reported back that they are going to do air sparging with soil vapor extraction at the parking lot on the SE corner of 7th St/5th Ave. There is contamination in the diesel fuel, they will shoot air into it which will put the contaminants into the soil and then filter out the contaminated particles from the soil. Harrison indicated they appear to be following standard procedures. There is funding for this project. They are remediating for a commercial level, not a residential level.

Parkwise is hanging around the neighborhood and ticketing – be aware of how/where you park

There are only 3 roosters left instead of the 12-13 earlier

The owner of the property on 11th Ave had no idea the dogs were an issue. He had a new fence installed and the dogs chewed through it.

Discussion

1. For the Downtown Links project there are 3 ADOT (AZ Dept. of Transportation) warehouses that will be demolished – the Orange Juice factory at 6th St/9th Ave; Mat Bevel on Stone and 15 E. 6th St (just south of Mat Bevel). There is part of the building from the 1920s and a bump-out built in 1950 (on the north side of the building). The bump out part is what needs to be demolished for the roadway, and there is a question of whether the 1920s portion (main portion of the building) would be able to stand on its own. An escrow account was created since the 1980s using rent money on the ADOT warehouse to be used to help renovate other warehouses. TDOT (Tucson Dept. of Transportation) is in control of this account and has used the money in various ways, but there is $200,000 left in the account. WAMO (Warehouse Arts Management Organization) wants to use the money to stabilize the building and has written a letter expressing this request. There are partial acquisitions of buildings that TDOT is doing for the roadway, but they haven’t given out a list of those buildings. There is a concern that the more buildings we take down, the less we have of this history. Motion to write a letter in support of WAMO’s letter in addition to our own concerns. Passed 8-0.
2. TDOT has said there is a cost to salvage materials from the buildings being demolished. Our neighborhood, and many on the CAC (Citizens Advisory Committee) want these materials to be salvaged and used in the deck park. There are bow-string trusses, old bricks, etc. When the contract for the buildings to be demolished is written, we can ask for time to demolish the buildings in a way that materials can be salvaged. Currently there is only documentation happening for the buildings being demolished. Motion to write a letter requesting that pieces of demolished buildings are salvaged to be reused for public projects along the roadway, i.e. deck park. Passed 8-0.
3. LSA (Living Streets Alliance) conducted a walkability study within the neighborhood where they provided a list of questions on a survey, and neighbors observed and answered those questions and indicated whether an area was safe, very safe or unsafe. Lisa was looking for additional people to work on areas of the neighborhood and fill out the surveys. If you would like to be involved in this and get more information included in the report you can contact Evren at LSA. If you are at the meeting and took surveys home, please return them at the July neighborhood meeting.

Committee Reports

DNARC – report submitted separately – highlights are: pop-up park happening by Martin Luther King apartments starting weekend of streetcar opening (last weekend in July). Gadsden developers will be breaking ground for 4-story, 220 apartment workforce housing project (near Convento/Congress St.). Greyhound station will be moved by fall 2015. Jared Walker, transit planner, will give a talk on July 11 at the Unisource Building downtown

Downtown Links – Corky Poster discussed the Downtown Links district will be a sub-district of the Infill Incentive District, but it will be expanded to the north to include Iron Horse neighborhood and expanded to the south to pick up a lot across from El Charro, include Stone until Speedway, include 4th Ave until University (originally stopped at 6th St) and adding a piece in Armory Park. This will go to Mayor and Council Task Force in June, July, August with one large meeting for the public in August and then go to the zoning commission. Discussion of crosswalk at Old Main (will not stripe it as currently there is not enough usage). Discussion of refuge area to cross Old Main and that it is not a straight line and thus makes it difficult to cross. In the next few weeks there will be meetings for the deck park as well as bike/ped subcommittee and a visit to the ADOT warehouses to be demolished to determine what parts should be salvaged. LSA indicated they have received over 30 positive comments about the protected bike lane on St. Mary’s.

Garden – people are sleeping there again. If anyone knows how to turn up the water for the fruit trees, please contact Sky. They look like they need more water.

Dunbar Coalition – someone who lives in the neighborhood has requested to use the kitchen for his mobile food truck. The request for $1.5 million on the Pima County bond is still up for discussion

Motion to approve May minutes passed 9-0.