January 13, 2007 Meeting Summary

January 13, 2007 Meeting

Preparation

E-mail note was sent to each member who has provided a contact e-mail address.
Half sheet flyers were hand-delivered to all the streets in the neighborhood..

Attendees

12 members, 3 guest attendees, 2 council candidates

Meeting

Agenda Items:

ice rink update
park pedestrian path temporary closure
holes in park
member outreach and office election
Council Candidates visits
anything else attendees wish to discuss

The meeting began at 12:15 am

ice rink update

City Council meeting on 12/18/06

council approved everything staff asked
opening projected now for June 2009
Council member Streator advocated using "adjacent public streets" (ie. Avocado/Alameda) in the event an agreement with PCC was not readily reached

Community meeting on 1/3/07 at Victory Park

In addition to the notice mailing by public works, we distributed flyers for this meeting to all the interior streets of our neighborhood

learned revised seating is closer to the ice surface and between locker rooms
heard about moving upper east wall in, creating an outside walkway/viewing through the windows area
visual green screening. Growing vines on west side of building and on vertical elements on east side

Design Commission on 1/8/07

three commissioners and three of us neighbors, but no staff people, showed up for the "site visit"
Received packet of drawings at the design commission meeting. Passed them around at our meeting to be looked at.

learned indoor seating is fold down seats
statements made that could add extra temp seats for special events in walkway around rinks (but max total allowed by code would still be about 500)
statements made about having parties on the newly created walkway.
city staff presentation seemed poorly prepared both in exhibits and knowledge, and not very responsive to questions raised
commission focused a lot of attention in areas it is not normally supposed to deal with - site location, transportation, access agreements. Was not provided sufficient detail for areas it is supposed to deal with such as landscaping and building exterior.
exasperated commissioners voted to recommend city council reject design

park pedestrian path temporary closure

Path was closed for several weeks ending January 8.
It was the city's project on Edison land putting grounded chain link fences around the 4 legged towers and a fence to the south of the pathway across the PCC lot.
Chain link fencing around the towers is probably a temporary measure to prevent climbing the towers. Preference would be the "discouragers" used on the towers in the park, but they are reportedly very expensive and have a very long lead time to get.
Why chain link instead of the plastic fencing used on south east of park? Reportedly not necessary around towers, just under the wires for the "safety zone".

holes in park

On Thursday they drilled holes in the park. They should be filled in by now. It is part of an effort to eliminate water puddles.

membership outreach & our officers election

Our yearly election of officers will be at our March 10 meeting
Will try to put together a newsletter by Feb 10 meeting.
Will take nominations/volunteers for officers at Feb 10 meeting, and until Feb 28?

Council Candidates visit

Eugene Masuda from 11:30 to about 12:05, at which time he left.
Steve Haderlein starting about 12:05
Will not attempt to summarize here.

anything else attendees wish to discuss

There was a mayor, council, and school board candidates forum on January 10th at the Senior Center. Replays of the "ACT Candidate Forum" are running each day on Charter cable's channel 55 KPAS (channel 1 if you don't use a cable box). Those replays can also be watched via streaming video on the internet at:
http://pasadena.granicus.com/MediaPlayer.php?publish_id=9
The replay schedule can also be found there.

Next meeting is February 10, same time, same place.

Adjourned about 12:50 pm