PEACEFUL VALLEY NEIGHBORHOOD COUNCIL/STEERING COMMITTEE  
MINUTES, MARCH 12,2014

Meeting called to order   at 7:00 pm by Jan Loux, Chair

Attendance: members/neighborhood residents/property owners: Mary Alberts, Carole Bryan,Susan Burns, Raynell Cook, MaryJo Faulhaber, William Forman, Charlie Greenwood, Gary Harwood, John Lawson, Karna Lawson,John Lenhart, Jan Loux,  Shannon Meuller,Mary Moltke,Barbara Morrissey, Matthew Phillipy, Jon Snyder.  Visitors, guests:  Brandon Blankangel, City of Spokane; Dion Mason, SPD;Camilla Bryner, William Bryner,Andy Sierra, potential residents.

Reports:

Communty Policing: Officer Mason : Peaceful Valley continues to have a low reported crime rate.There was a breakin which was resolved, plus some complaints about "activity" in People's Park. Members again wondered why events they had knowledge of were not in the report. Officer Mason explained that the report was based on phoned in calls. " If it's not reported, it does not show up in the monthly report."

City Council: Councilman Jon Snyder:LFCC re bid is out next week. He presented the Fustel court idea to Parks and they expressed interest. It might cost more than a simple patch to the tennis court surface, as there is serious damage requiring a court replacement. Jon continues to look into funding. " we need positive activity to push out negative  activity," such as the needles he found on the court . City and the Spokane Tribe are still talking about Glover Field and the CSO project, no new news.

Community Assembly and Traffic Calming:  Susan Burns:City has a new web site you can use to access departments, plans and so on.There is a questionnaire regarding the 5 year Action Plan on the site. Citizens can report online about grafitti, There is also a site to give ideas about where to plant trees the city has. Susan will apply for two Mobile Speed signs to be used for a month each at two different areas on Clarke/Main. She  also submitted the application for a traffic calming grant. She is trying to contact Kathy Thamm of Community Minded Enterprises re the money for the community gardens.

CDBG allocation revisions(Neighborhood Task Force.) Susan said this had been presented at the Community Assembly. Barbara had volunteered to attend the meetings of this group at Jan's request, since Matt had a conflict with his work.Both ONS and CHHS are involved in this Task Force. Five or more meetings are scheduled before the final report is presented in late May to the city's CHHS ( Community Housing and Human Services )Board. In a nutshell HUD is tightening it's evaluation  of  how cities allocate HUD funds services for low to moderate income populations, mainly capital improvements such as home rehab, but also social services. All city non profits which receive funds for social services will be significantly impacted. The "CBDG" neighborhood concept is eliminated. No more Steering Committees .  Low to moderate areas within a city are identified from results from annual American Community Survey data, which is sent to the CHHS Department. GEORGE DAHL  maps the data. to identify eligible  areas in the city. These are not Census tracts. On a map George presented it seems several neighborhoods share eligible areas.PV is still in a low to moderate income area. ( more than 50% of residents meet the criteria) The CHHS board is to identify uses for the total allocation from HUD and present recommendations to the City Council. The Task Force goal is to develop a model which includes some neighborhood participation  to identify projects. Projects which presently have approval will most likely be able to be completed. Arlene Dahl, co chair of this task force, is most concerned with reducing the backlog of requests for Home Rehab, mostly from the Hillyard Area.   Neighborhoods might share an allocation for a single project that serves several of them. Still to be determined how that would look.

Cleanup dates assigned. Jan,  There are several on the flyer, and memos will be sent out.  

Minutes from Feb approved

Old Business

Combination traffic calming, city proposed multi use trail, rafting put ins and parking : Brian Blankangel, city engineering, met with Susan, Charlie and Jan to identify options to solve the problem of the S curve, excessive speed, the lack of a safe peds/bike trail along sections of West Clarke, and the desire of the city to combine the solution with the proposed multi use trail on the south side of the river from the Sandifler bridge to the Huntington Park area near downtown. Brian presented the map of the preliminary alignment of the trail, emphasizing this is tentative and subject to revisions. "Ideally it would be 8 feet wide to 12 feet wide for multi use ." The S curve area is a challenge. If there is widening of south side space a retaining wall has to be removed , a large amount of hillside removed and the property owner has to be willing. He has not been approached as of this time. It is possible to string a Boardwalk along the north side of the river but it could be only for pedestrians. It could also violate Shoreline regs.  Next is slowing down traffic. Part of a proposal from the map is to replace the view sidewalk on Clarke  with a put in parking area on city property on Clarke on a bluff overlooking  the Gorge  as well as properties on Main. City multi trail loop proposal was tentatively routed west along Water,  into Riverwalk, up Elm and west on Clarke. A put in area with outhouse was placed close to the present fireboat put in also used by rafting companies.

There was a lot of discussion about the first draft of the trail proposal. One suggestion  routed it in the present Riverwalk with removal of the riverside walking path, replacing that with a wider more solid surface suitable for cycling and running.( if this can be acceptable to Shoreline Management.) There was some objection to this, as it is not what was as designed in the Charette. Increased activity close to the river could disturb wildlife.  Objection was made to the proposed put in parking area on the north side of Clarke between Ash and Elm by residents who lived below the bluff. A solution to the S curve safety issue remains elusive. Questions remain about outhouse maintenance, lack of architectural concepts for evaluation. Jan suggested a subcommittee be formed on these proposals. Interested parties can contact her. Brian Blankangel can be reached by e mail or letter. Jan will send out contact information. There will be more on this in future meetings. The time frame for funding the trail is 2017 to 2o18.

Announcements:   The city and "Futurewise" are holding a workshop March 18th at Gonzaga , title "how to empower neighborhoods"

Steering Committee Matt presented the projects that are already funded ( trash cans, hydroseeding the meadow,  temporary irrigation,  Riverwalk.)He said the news about the multi use trail could "change things".

Meeting adjourned at 8:00pm

respectfully submitted
Barbara Morrissey
NC secretary  Steering Committee vice chair.