Ted Noble – opens Zoom meeting at 6:30 pm
Beltline update Westside Trail. They are wrapping Phase A which goes from the Beltline connector trial from Law St. to just south of W Marietta and Marietta Blvd. Will go live with cameras and get city sign off by the end of May. You will see benches and trashcans being installed along the trail. Norfolk Southern permit signed off by mayor Dickens last week, so now waiting on final signoffs to get to Huff Rd to go over the bridge will be extending the west side of the sidewalk on the bridge to be 10 feet on the bridge with guardrail and lighting, there will be bridge work coming up. Traffic pattern won’t change too much while they are working. That will hopefully be completed this summer. As of now, no lanes of traffic will be sacrificed on the bridge.
NPU- announcement. Course this week – city of Atlanta dept of city planning. Understanding workforce housing and affordability is the name of the session this week. It’s critical that community members understand what it is and how it works. The course is on Thursday 6-8 on Zoom. Register at www.npuatlanta.org
Microsoft community engagement representative – 12-18 months master planning process. Cooper Carrey is heading the master planning process for the site. They will seek input on how MS can be a good neighbor and synergize with community and take that info to the master planning team. There will be a community-wide meeting June 11 – it is the initial listening session. They will have discussions on housing, accessibility, Proctor Creek, etc. they are seeking input on this. They have done an analysis of the site to see what the on the ground conditions are in the NPU-J and NPU-K communities, which includes Howell Station.
Upper Westside CID presentation – Brady cycle track is complete. Kicking off design for a cycle track on the North side of W. Marietta. Seeking Howell Station input on how that should look. Seek support from Howell Station for Art on the signal boxes on W. Marietta. Artist has been chosen; seeking permits now.
Zoning Moratorium – is part of a process of an overlay. It will have more protections against things like gas stations, design standards, etc. Public meetings in June and July.
Beltline spur is on the Tsplost (from Westside Paper to QTS). It is coming up for a vote later this month It will improve walking and biking in this area. May 14 a grand opening at the new waterworks park. (DOUBLE CHECK THIS ?)
Treasurer – we have made first payment for Pavilion from out FOHS account. We are filing for matching funds to help with additional funding.
· Friends of Howell Station - Checking $359,226 Savings $594.93
· Howell Station Neighborhood Association - Checking $10,429.94 Savings $492.11
Please pay dues if you haven’t done so yet.
QTS-we got a 5-week lookahead. Includes some blasting and drilling starting this week. We got info from them to seek a noise ordinance appeal. QTS joined Upper Westside CID- positive development. We will continue to seek other developers to do the same.
1101 Church – wants to re-zone and subdivide the lot to build two homes, which is what we wanted.
Corner of W. Marietta and Longley 1130 W. Marietta. We have submitted a letter to SAP outlining the problems we see with their development. The initial plan would not have enough room in parking spaces, façade don’t meet Beltline overlay requirements. Setback – we want to make sure they have 10-foot sidewalks on W. Marietta.
New City Development – Seeking an update – this development is not happening soon.
Knight Park updates. pavilion will go through different phases of construction, 8-10 weeks. We are saving bricks from the building and selling personalized bricks, like the ones in Centennial Olympic Park. Grant Knox is in charge of brick sales. $100 each. Deadline is June 12. Will have a neighborhood get together to remove mortar from bricks so they can be re—purposed. Sculpture is complete, waiting for a contractor to install it. If anyone wants to be a volunteer for beautification of neighborhood, we have lots of projects available. Reach out to Chris Alasa for more info.
General updates. We are talking with Councilman Amos and others in the city to remove “Knight Park” and just call the neighborhood Howell Station. Meeting with city reps in a couple of weeks.
School re-zoning – We may be moved to a different cluster in APS. We are seeking to be re-zoned for N Atlanta cluster or to delay this plan. Last week, Board of Ed. School officials voted to delay decision for a year. This will give us a year to work on this proposal. We want to follow up with APS executive leaders and board members we met with to ask follow-up questions; they want more info on attendance, etc. We are creating summer action items for the neighborhoods to make sure our kids go to quality schools.
Board committees – New this year and have started to really make them work in different areas of focus. Board members are committee leaders, but anyone can join. Zoning- Rose Toal, Safety and Security -Tyler Shiowitz, Chris Alasa - neighborhood beautification. Traffic and transportation -Jason Carr. Historical - Alice Pickett. Communications – does anyone want to do a neighborhood blog?
Taste of Howell Station May 21– We have 2 hosts homes- need more hosts! We usually do about 6-7 houses. Each house does a small plate and drinks. RSVP or sign up to be a host. Post Meridian may sponsor for beverages. $25 – proceeds go to the park and other neighborhood events.
July 4 neighborhood celebration - hopefully we will be in the new Pavilion 😊
Historic District designation – There are benefits to having this and we are looking at that as an option. Look for surveys to come in your email seeking your opinion.
Coming up:
· July 12 HSNA board meeting
· August 9 next HSNA general body meeting.
If you want to be on the board for 2023, we will work on that the second half of the year.
ATlzoning.com – take a look at what the city is doing in terms of zoning. Take a look – it has everything from tree canopy to land development. The meetings will kick off later this summer, so please take a look at what info is out there already. A consulting firm actually studied Howell Station and other areas. It can show what could happen in the future. This is going to be a 3-5-year process, but it is worth your time to check out what is happening.
Jason Criss – if you see traffic or transportation issues, reach out to him.
Meeting adjourned.