EACA Meeting Minutes – October 10, 2017

EACA Meeting Minutes
October 10, 2017
Agenda
Welcome – Lewis Cartee, President
Atlanta Police Department
Committee Updates
Focus on Education – Atlanta Board of Education
Cynthia Briscoe-Brown, At-Large Seat 8
Courtney English, At-Large Seat 7 & Chair
Jason Esteves, At-Large Seat 9
Matt Westmoreland, District 3
Land Use & Zoning – Andy Schneggenburger, Chair
SD-17-23, parcel subdivision at 1241 Bouldercrest
Z-17-73, BeltLine Inclusionary Housing
Proposed Annexation and rezoning of Value Village
EAV mTAP
Closing Remarks and Adjournment
Meeting start at 7:04 pm.
Welcome and Announcements
Update from Atlanta Police Department (7:04pm) East Atlanta Update – J. Hines Zone 6. City Update.  Down 6% in crime; should be able to hold coming out of summer. No big trends happening in EAV; not even car break-ins. Ensure friends & family do not leave anything valuable in their vehicles.
Community Updates
New Resident Welcome
Committee Updates (7:06pm)
NiN (Neighbor in Need) – October 21 – The Greatest Show in EAV (vintage circus) 749 Flat Shoals Tumblers, aerialists, jugglers, food catered by Palookaville, Midway, Argosy, The Glenwood, and Elder Tree, signature cocktails, beer donation EA Craft Beer Festival, big sideshow venue – pinball that spits fire (Airstriker).  VIP $100 – unlimited drinks, General $50 – 3 drink tickets. Goal is to raise $35K – to date NiN has done over $28K in repairs.
Arts & Culture – EAV-O-Ween – October 28th (prepare for Trick or Treaters on Oct 31st) Costume contest at 5:00pm. Trick or treating in the village – $4K in candy last year and ran out. Movie night – 20th anniversary of Harry Potter (book) will show Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone. Accepting costume donations; Park Pet & Joe’s are drop-off locations. EACA will distribute to kids and teens.
Parks & Greenspace
Welcome Alex Levy & Jay Kirkland back to the Parks and Greenspace Committee. October 28 – Trees Atlanta will be planting trees. Contact Michael at Trees Atlanta if interested. Volunteer to plant; go to www.TreesAtlanta.org or email Parks@eaca.net. Early to mid-November – Community volunteer event at Brownwood Park.
Clean-up at community garden; carpentry skills are needed.
Ad Hoc committee for 770 Shadowridge – Chaired by Andy (LUZ Chair).
B ATL- Close out of shirts – donations will go towards Monument restoration.
Focus on Education – Atlanta Board of Education (7:12pm).
Cynthia Briscoe-Brown, At-Large Seat 8 (running for current seat) Signature Programming – Asked each cluster to select a signature program. Jackson – IB (global focus, social/emotional learning, rigorous academics) Aligned teaching and curriculum to align with IB standards. In HS; IB Diploma Program which entitles them the right of citizens globally. Pay no more than local citizens (i.e., France). Active in an exchange program with Toulouse, France. 10 schools in candidacy phase / BPA in 2nd year of candidacy. SEL training for students and staff in 65 schools. No place for hate locations/peer support for anti-bullying. Every single school and district office. Wrap-around services – Vision to learn – free glasses for every student who needs them. Brand new medical clinic at King MS. Working with Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta on getting Asthma buses and access to students.  Instituted an Affordable Housing Task Force Brought in bright minds throughout the city to help us to determine how we can use our surplus property to secure safe, healthy housing for students and employees.
Jason Esteves, At-Large Seat 9 (running for current seat) Lives on upper west side. Academic Gains – testing. Chairs Budget Commission -$770M budget passed; raised pay for teachers. GO Teams – Governance Council/School Board at each school. Giving more autonomy to GO Teams on how they spend their $$; still somewhat prescriptive but do allow some flexibility. Enabling principals and GO teams to do more; down the road APS will begin to provide more fundin allowing for greater flexibility. Partnerships – $2M grant to increase literacy in EC. $8M grant to train teachers in APS. Voters in March recently approved $5B squash dollars. Disparity study done.  Found that less than 5% going to minority female businesses engaging in APS.  Working to improve upon that number.
Matt Westmoreland, District 3 (running for at-large seat previously held by Mary Norwood) Last four years represented District 3. Thanks to Lewis for his partnership over the last four years. Last March, part of the 2015 turnaround strategy/school operations was complete for the. Jackson Cluster 7 EC 1 MC 1 HS. Whitefoord Edgewood/Kirkwood (Toomer). Reynoldstown (BPA) opened an Early Childhood Development Center. In the 2nd phase of the turnaround strategy. 15 of 16 schools saw improvement on state assessment. Two Thirds of our schools saw progress. Last Wednesday, we found out that the graduation rate is 77%, or approximately 581 more students, up from 56%. A cluster-wide Fall Festival will be held on October 28.
Q&A
Split from city in 1973. Stopped receiving deeds from the city in 2014  Currently in court. Vacant schools – Are there any plans for East Atlanta HS? Approved short-term lease to film companies. APS owns the properties.  The ity and APS can work together; need to ensure properties are utilized. What can we do as residents? Every one of these schools has an authorization committee.  Join! They want to talk to community members. All schools in cluster IB by 2020/2021. Newsletters from school board available.
Variance Applications (7:44pm) Larger NPU 4th Wednesday – on the website.  No voting this evening. SD-17-23, parcel subdivision at 1241 Bouldercrest – Frontage on Bouldercrest & Sargent. Looking to subdivide into 3 sub-parcels – appropriate single-family. Plans to build 3 houses on the subdivided lots. Did neighbors approve? Unclear. Is the entire parcel in the CoA? Do not know.  Half of one parcel; will move line so that 2 CoA and 1 Unincorporated DeKalb. Comments: All three lots should be in CoA. Z-17-73, BeltLine Inclusionary Housing – Affordable Housing. Andre Dickens has drafted legislation for the BeltLine overlay covering a half mile on each side. Will require developers (new construction/10 units or larger) building rental housing to reserve 10 – 15% of the units they produce for workforce income families. $45K median 15% or 10% for quid pro quo – tax abatements, parking, expediting permitting process. One of the most important things the city can do; not perfect. Voted on next month at the NPU formally – please come 4th Wednesday of the month. Happy to request support; turning point for the city.  Additional policies such as this are important.  Halfway through, only meeting 14% of the 5,600 goal for beltline. City for All – Survey in advance of forum; if curious the response of candidates.  Responses are located at cityforall.org. Proposed Annexation and rezoning of Value Village. Coming up for vote in December.  Presentation for informational purpose. Simon of Stream Realty (800 employees in ATL) & Carl Westmoreland (attorney). Primarily to bring the area into the city to bring better city services. Doesn’t carry CoA zoning; by law the re-zoning cannot be up zoned. In Carl Smith’s district; will be in NPU. Zoned C1 in DeKalb. Sensitivity in the city due to Emory. Will ask for C1 in Atlanta that will mimic LCI.
Primary – for sale residential. Involved in BeltLine projects. Purchase 2 years ago – desire to put in CoA is police services. Quad riders – limited Unincorporated DeKalb police services; Complaints from tenants. DD’s & Dollar Tree have long-term leases; will need to negotiate. Shared painting of what could be – residential (423 in various configurations) and commercial. Q&A – website to review? not at this time; conceptual. Plans for Senior Living? Units have not been designated/income capped. Affordable Housing? Not in the plan right now.  Retail? Glenwood Park Lite. Timeline? Not at this time as there is still a lot to do. What are your plans to engage the surrounding area? Trying to get in front of SANDS and attempting to hit all bases.
EAV mTAP – EACA has been awarded a mini-technical assistance team. Design experts that take on project will assess commercial area and assess business mix and identify gaps. Vacant and under-utilized properties.
Parking situation – Will look at how parking situation would potentially work out if the village was developed to its full potential.  When they complete we will have a better understanding of what we need since we are becoming a regional destination. Finished in April.
SAP-17-105 Appeal – 1321 Glenwood Ave SE/503 Flat Shoals Ave – Developer (Thrive Homes) SAP-17-105 approved administratively on September 9th; EACA has appealed – review on December 14. $250 approved by EACA Board for this appeal. Henry Bryant would like to make a motion that we (EACA) approve the expenditure. Motion to agree to appeal and pay for the appeal. In favor 28 opposed 0. Ed Gilgor is representing attorney; Andy & Ed will present. If we need to go to hearing to present; presence of the community is encouraged. Signed petition would not hurt and can be signed by community. CoA took away our voice in how the center of our community will be affected. Issue is not with the Developer. Did not go through LUZ. Have been in contact with developer’s attorney – by appealing we have the opportunity to provide comments and work this out without going to court. Developer would like to build 24 townhomes. Asked for 2 variances; one was approved. Allows them to reduce the width of the sidewalk to 10ft from 15ft.  Setting precedence for other developers to request a reduced sidewalk environment. Alley – Six units are to have 2-way access. Heavily trafficked on Glenwood; few crosswalks. Creates a hostile environment for walkers.
Candidate Introductions
Felicia Moore – District 9 – running for citywide rep (City Council Pres) votefeliciamoore.com. Strong on ethics; mandatory ethics training. Accountability – legislative to executive and vice versa. Queen of Transparency – all expenditures online; currently graded F.
Oz Hill – District 1 (City Council Rep) 20 years worked as US Army Officer. Director at CoA.
Sachin Varghese (State House – District 89) Former public school teacher. Working as attorney. Early voting on Monday.
Lewis Cartee (District 3 ABoE) EACA President.  Why I am running? Frustrates him that people need to work extremely hard to get the same things he is given as a middle-class white guy.
Motion to approve August month’s minutes and spend for August and September – approved.
Meeting ended at 8:37 pm.