General Meeting     3/13/05

Meeting Held at:  Opus 39

In Attendance:         30

 

Meeting called to order by President Linda Forsyth at 7:15 p.m. 

Meeting will have three parts:  

                        By Law Modifications

                        Les Thomas Beautification Presentation

                        Speaker Bill Hamilton

Before starting meeting agenda Linda wanted to go over items of general interest / information for neighborhood:

            Aggregation Ordinance

This is about combing non-conforming lots in RS1 and RS2 zoned areas.    Currently nonconforming lots are the following:           

                        RS1       less the 75 ft WIDE OR 1,091 sf

                        RS2       less than 50ft WIDE OR 5,450 sf

Impact of ordinance change is that if one person owns  2 or more non-conforming adjacent lots, they would be combined and treated as one lot. Owner could not divide lots or build one house on each lot.

Complex issue.  so complex and emotional that a workshop on this issue is being held Wednesday April 20th at 4:00 pm in the Alcazar Room and “The Citizens for preservation of St. Augustine”  are having a forum on the subject March 16th at 7:30 pm - They will have two speakers presenting both sides of the subject.  Meeting  to be held at the Council on Aging on Marine Street.

Art Boccieri asked how many people in our neighborhood would be affected- we were not sure.  Harvey Simms replied that the problem of Non-Conforming  lots was throughout the city and that exceptions were a norm. 

Becky suggested having a speaker on this at our next meeting possibly to present both sides.

If you do not know your zoning of your property you can call zoning at 825-1060 to find out if this will affect you.

 

Demolition Ordinance

March 17th HARB meeting this will be discussed. Currently there is no restrictions on demolition of historic property other than a 1 year cooling off period before the demolition can take place. The agenda item is to empower HARB to stop the demolition of historic properties.

            In 2000 HARB  reviewed 5 demo permits in the year

            In 2004  HARB is reviewing 2 demo permits per month.

The number on request has increased. March 17th HARB is crafting an ordinance to prohibit or restrict the demolition of buildings 50 years or older.

Tom Kavanaugh brought up that this is regulation of personal property and something he does not want. Said that this is a complex issue and each case may need to be reviewed separately.

 Linda suggested that if members believe strongly about either of these ordinances that they need to get involved  and attend the meetings.

 

Other Business:

Harvey Simms- Speed Bumps

            Since there has be no success in the increasing enforcement for speeders in the neighborhood he has gone ahead and gotten information about putting 3 speed bumps on Saragossa St.  Will be circulating a petition in order to get these installed.   This is a problem that is not unique to Saragossa and other streets will eventually need to be done- as they are installed on one street speeders will go to another street.

Need to do a traffic study of the neighborhood to determine where the need is.

 

Ejo suggested that we email the police representative- she is forwarding the email address to everyone- felt if more than one person complained,  we might get better results.  also we should all slow down and pay better attention.

 St Benedict the Moor Building – Rehabilitation Fund

            Christine told everyone about a fund raiser for St Benedict’s rehab program:

                        There is a kayak and Accessories for sale

                        This is a sea worthy kayak valued at  $3,300

                        Will sell for $1,500 or the best offer

           

Treasurer Report

            Debra Madaras reported that at the last meeting

                                    Balance as of 1/05               $632.00
                                    Payout                                   ( 42.49)
                                    Balance                                 $590.51

 Passed basket for donation for the neighborhood association.

Wine Tasting will be this summer- will notify membership of dates etc.

 

By Laws

 

Cheryl presented by law changes and recommendations:

            These have been on web site and most had been discussed beforehand:

Asked to keep discussion to 3 minutes so that we could vote on them and get this done.

Reminded everyone that changes could be made next year during 3 month period of review and change.

            Proceeded with vote.

            Refer to amended by laws for changes

 

Les Thomas- Beautification

Les said that when he reviewed the October Survey from the membership that topics and concerns in the neighborhood- landscaping came up ten times.

            Wanted to talk about Landscaping and Street scaping.

Need volunteers- any and all that are interested to please contact him

To his knowledge there are no architectural standards for most of our neighborhood.  So we have a pretty free hand on what we can do.

We cannot infringe on private property Or public areas without city approval- but felt that if we could get a plan together we could approach the city for public areas.

 

How to go about this:  Need to first:

            Look at things already done

            What the Neighborhood expects

            City resources at our disposal

 

Currently:  St Augustine is a Tree City USA-  the city has a tree committee, we need to contact them and get them more involved.  David Birch of the city said they are very interested in our input and participation.

 

Secondly a Study was done for design standards for the entry corridors- so Les used this approach and ideas as a starting point and proceeded from there.

What you do is take a photographic survey of each neighborhood or street ( photos are taken very 50 feet- this will show where landscaping  is good or is lacking, etc.)

 

He did one street and passed photos around to attendees:

            Initially determined

Trees are planted haphazardly.  Suggest that we need to fill in the trees on the parkways or along the street, with possible species such as

                                    Oaks, Palm Trees, Magnolias or other native plants

 

Sidewalks-

amazed that there are not sidewalks everywhere- In some blocks no sidewalks or part sidewalks then they stop.  This is the city’s responsibility,  but perhaps need to bring to their attention and request sidewalks be put in.

 

Utilities

 Put them underground.  the cost is about $4,200 per household.  FPL will finance it a t $22.00 per month for 30 years.  90%             of the households on a block or in the area would have to agree on this.

 

Traffic calming devices:

Intersections, designate them with stamped asphalt as they have done on San Marco-  This could slow down traffic. Other option is to narrow the intersections. ( this could cause a problem with emergency vehicles.)

 

Street Lighting

Have interesting lighting fixtures- FPL could provide the fixtures.  There would be  a cost.  ( Could use grant money for this) Also bring in additional lighting for the streets ( some streets are very dark)

 

A Good example of Street Scaping is St. Andrew Ct

about 8 years ago residents put  palms on  St. Andrews Court.  Today it is a very pleasant street to look down.

 

Looking for volunteers to work with him and ideas- call Les to join the committee.

 

Speaker Presented

                        Becky introduced  Bill Hamilton of 

“ Southern Horticulture”

 

He generally covered Florida friendly plants, trees and continued Les’ discussion of what could be done.  He took general comments and questions from the audience

 

Linda called the meeting to close at 8:50 p.m.

Next meeting will be May 15th.