September 2020 Meeting Minutes

1. Call to Order 7:04 pm

2. Sign-In & Introductions: Anna Cirell, Clay Morgan, Karen Greene, Christy Voelkel, Nathasha Winnik, Natalie Dailey, Cedar Dale Warman, Nicholas Huppe, Gail, Richard Foster, Lisa Scoblink, Austin Atteberry, Diana Alarcon, Andrew Rogers, David Burbank, Tom Warren, Kyle DeWitte

3. Treasurer's Report: $1045.33

4. Announcements

● Donation for Morgan Maxwell memorial to be voted on next month

● GPLET was removed as an agenda item last month from the Mayor and Council’s meeting, and is not on this month’s agenda item

● Discuss next month if Neighborhood Foresters should be removed as a committee report

● Mayor and Council Meeting tomorrow: discussion to rename Christopher Columbus Park and (expansion of /getting rid of) Central Business District

● Committee Reports

o DNARC—Postponed for next month

o Downtown Links—See below Discussion

o Dunbar Coalition—Auditorium renovations are assessed at $175K and currently out to bid. Debi Chess will be leaving Tucson in January and is working to write and review grants-- particularly grants focused on COVID-19. Board is looking for new, younger members. IDEA school is operating remotely.

o Neighborhood Foresters—Postponed for next month.

o Eleventh Ave—Reviewed RFI, and they attached our requests to addendum, mostly focusing on affordable housing; three developers are interested in working with three neighborhoods.

● Discussion 7:19 p.m.

o Update on Downtown Links from Diana Alarcon (30 min)—Construction engineers are also present to share. First month and a half of construction is done, mostly on the south side of the neighborhood. The next piece will be to reconstruct Church and Sixth Street, but there will still be two-way traffic on Sixth. Stone will be fully reconstructed between Fifth and Sixth, but two-way traffic will be maintained. A big interruption will be the crossover of Stone, which will require a closure at the end of this year for about a month and a half. A request was made to minimize traffic and move it down Speedway and Euclid instead of through the neighborhood, especially with people wanting to avoid the train crossing on Main. Sixth will be closed after March when the railroad is relocated. They will not be closed simultaneously. Church will be the detour, and Downtown Links planners will continue to create detour plans that will best accommodate everyone, and give ample notice. Night work will be communicated through email in advance, typically for critical concrete cores or water lines. It is encouraged to have residents be “eyes and ears” as to how construction is affecting their day-to-day lives, with sharing the implications to pedestrian and bike access to downtown. Planners discuss how they want to alleviate problems that are sometimes not understood, because this is a long-term project, with at least 24 months of disruption. Feel free to reach out with any questions: Austin.atteberry@gcinc.com 520-609-3698 More contact information is on the website if you have any concerns: http://www.downtownlinks.info/

For the latest maps, see: http://www.downtownlinks.info/wp-content/uploads/dtlinks-phase-3-map-2020-03-12.pdf

In response to a request for more access to downtown with bicycles, they will look into short-term options. The safest route downtown will probably be down Main. There is supposed to be a road diet, and there is quite a bit of pushback from the railroad, so the plan needs to be reworked, as we seek to maintain our quiet zone. Planners will get back to us about whether there will be a pedestrian crossing at University to help people move across town to Barrio Anita and Main.

o Update on Franklin Docks Development from Tom Warne (20 min)—Would like to return in October or November for more of an in-depth update. Works very closely with El Presidio Neighborhood, but it took a lot of time to get a contract for the purchase of the docks. The contract officially went into escrow at the beginning of August, and the City has six months to investigate the archaeological/contamination details of the site (end of January). There is a limit to the amount spent on the research. Then the Planned Industrial Development (PID) is developed, which must be approved by the City and Council. Also talking about purchasing the property around Steinfeld Warehouse, which has old zoning, which allows for higher buildings. There is a depression that starts at Franklin and goes down about 10 feet. The project is very low density along Franklin (two-story). There will be an art walk along Stone. There will be density (about five to nine stories, higher when moving closer to Stone) along the railroad track with parking in the building. Ninth Street would have radius and curves to slow down traffic and would have landscaping, with wide bike paths and sidewalks. The property in front of Warehouse would be ideal with a grocery store, or it would be townhouses. There will also be an open area west of the townhouses. Construction would not begin for quite a while, and should not conflict with Links’ traffic. The hope is for strong communication between the two groups.

o Update Lighting at Sahara (5 min)—Not much response. Sahara feels like their lights are within legal limits, and don’t respond. They are adding more lights, especially along Ninth. The next move would be to request an inspector to check their compliance with the dark sky regulations. The main concern is that the light violates code in the degrees of Kelvin (in other words, that they are too cool/white). The DSNA vote has already taken place in favor of filing a code violation. Some neighbors on Ninth have filed compliance complaints on the website.

● Approve August minutes (postponed; minutes were not sent out to listserv)

● Adjourn 8:14 p.m.