Call to Order: The meeting was called to order at 7 p.m.

ATTENDING: John Burge, Todd Cahill, Jeannie Hale, Mark Holden, Mimi Levin, Kate Lloyd, Shahina Piyarali, Jim Romano, Susan Torrance, Don Torrie, Mark Trumbauer, Maggie, Weissman, Karl Weyrauch, Shawn Whitcomb, Pat Wright

Excused: Jennifer Biely, Jean Colley, John Clark, Heather Newman, Barb Ragee, Stan Sorscher, Bonnie Zinn

ADMINISTRATION:
Changes to the Agenda: Add sidewalk blockage of the Varlamos dumpster.

Minutes: Minutes for October were approved as amended.

Holiday Card Signing: LCC holiday cards were distributed for trustees and committee members to sign.

Treasurer's Report: This will be discussed at the next meeting.

CALLS AND CONCERNS FROM NEIGHBORS:

1. Signage by Laurelhurst School: Rommie Callaghan emailed on 10/17/02 expressing concern about lack of school zone signs on the south side of Laurelhurst Elementary School. She has contacted several department heads at the Seattle Department of Transportation with no success. There are no school zone signs on NE 45th Street. There are signs on the other streets surrounding the school but not on the busy south end. She has been concerned about this for many years but didn't take the time to question it until a woman passed her car on NE 45th Street as she was traveling westbound after dropping off her kids at school. She noted that even though there are no crosswalks on NE 45th Street because children are supposed to use the overpass, there are still many people on the sidewalks and students entering and exiting cars. She is concerned about speed on NE 45th and is willing to work with Liz Ogden to get signs installed.

2. Drag racing on 41st: Susan Schmidt emailed on 10/21/02 to thank LCC for the article in the newsletter encouraging people to drive slowly and to report a drag racing incident that occurred on Saturday, 10/19/02 about 8:30 p.m. right in front of her house and across from Battelle. She and her husband heard car engines going full blast and a sudden screech then a huge crash. A car and a pick-up truck were drag racing up 41st at about 75 mph, one in the wrong lane. A couple in small Audi were heading into the neighborhood and decided to make a U-turn and the pick-up truck hit them head on after it skidded about 100 yards. The folks in the Audi are okay, but their car was undrivable and had to be towed. The pick-up truck was barely damaged. The boy in the other car took off, but Susan's husband got his license plate. He later came back to give his name to the people in the Audi, but left before the police came. Susan said it was the second accident in October. The earlier accident involved two cars and damage to both. Susan is interested in exploring ways to slow speeds on 41st.

3. Laurelhurst boundaries and parking: Fritz Hanson emailed on 10/21/02 to suggest that LCC let realtors know about the boundaries of the neighborhood and the Beach Club. He said the old white van parked on Mary Gates with an out-of-date license and flat tire is still there and remains a concern. It's been there for over two months now.

4. Workers for hire: Kate Lloyd reported that two men with a pit bull came over to her house asking whether there was work available for them. Lloyd: if these men stop by at any neighbor's house they should not hire them. She recommends against it. Mark Holden mentioned that they stopped by his house too.

5. Barking Dogs: John Burge received a complaint from a neighbor about this. The neighbor informed the dog owner that the constant barking was bothering her and the owner has done nothing to control the dogs. The neighbor believes that the dog owner is an LCC trusteeÉThe neighbor asked that John Burge write an article about the dog ordinance in the LCC newsletter. Weissman: the ordinance in ambiguous on the issue of when action is warranted against the dog/dog owner. Hale: we have to ask people to be good neighbors. This is a volatile issue because people love their pets.

ANNOUNCEMENTS

1. Absent: Zinn, Ragee, Newman and Sorscher called or emailed to say they could not attend tonight's meeting.

2. Thank You! Thanks to Lloyd and Newman for distributing packets and Torrie for coordinating distribution and also helping with the packets. Zinn, Levin and Weissman offered to help with packet distribution next month.

3. Holiday Cards: Trustees and Committee members who have public officials, city or county department staff or others they would like added to the holiday card list should notify Hale. Card signing will take place at today's meeting. Hale recommends sending cards to officials and staff even if they do not agree with LCC positions because they work hard and deserve recognition. The Mayor, members of the parks department, Peter Eglick, University Village staff and Polly Skinner are among those listed to receive LCC holiday cards.

4. Belvoir Pump Station Fencing: The contractor will be installing the security fencing at Belvoir Pump station on Tuesday, November 12.

5. Expansion at Center for Spiritual Living: The Center for Spiritual Living, located at 5801 Sand Point Way NE, has applied for a Master Use Permit to construct 42,250 square feet of additions and remodeling. The project includes additional parking for 70 vehicles for a total of 195 spaces and future demolition of three accessory structures. A SEPA environmental determination is required and an administrative conditional use to expand the institution in a multifamily zone. Comments may be submitted through November 20. Weissman: Neighbors believe that the new building will be a two story structure.

6. Large Development Disclosure Proposal: Councilmember Licata's large development disclosure proposal is included in the packets along with comments from LCC, the Seattle Planning Commission, The Seattle Times and others. The Northeast District Council has designated a task force to develop additional comments. LCC hopes for some progress on this.

7. Tax Increment Financing (TIF): The City Council passed a walk-on resolution on November 4th that would support the use of tax increment financing to stimulate economic development. In a nutshell, TIF lets state and local governments borrow money and build the public infrastructure that employers need, such as roads and utilities. Governments then pay off the debt by taxing the higher values that development brings. Voters have rejected proposed state constitutional amendments authorizing TIF on three occasions over the years. Should the city actually implement TIF, constitutional issues will likely be raised. One problem, according to the King County Assessor is that voters passed Initiative 747, which limits increases in property-tax collections to 1 percent a year. This means the city might not be able to collect enough property taxes to pay off TIF-related bonds. Concerns have been raised about the wisdom endorsement of tax increment financing relating to consistency with neighborhood plans, with the UW Master Plan and with the welfare of "underutilized" areas around Lake Union.

REPORTS/ACTION
Crime Prevention: Wright delivered her report: The North Precinct Quarterly meeting is being held on November 14. They will focus on the issue of racial profiling. Six burglaries were reported in Laurelhurst in the July 1 - Sept 30 quarter. We need to remind people to keep their doors and windows locked. All is well at the playfield. David from the playfield gives Pat information to Pat regarding special event programs and she passes it on to the precinct. The Budget meeting is coming up. The LCC wrote a letter urging the city not to cut the public safety budget. The big annual awards banquet was held recently. Officer T.J. Havenor received an award. At the last precinct meeting Melinda Wilson discussed the "amber alert" program for missing children. This program allows police to get information out to the media when a child is missing. Lastly, all those who have seen a white van parked on N.E. 41st St. with an expired license should report it directly.

UW Master Plan: Councilmember Nicastro's Land Use Committee will consider the UW Master Plan and responses and rebuttals to its preliminary decision on December 3rd. It is unclear whether there will be an opportunity to submit additional information or to testify again. Seven members of the City Council attended a Chamber of Commerce Leadership conference last month and there were reports that there had been improper ex parte contact with councilmembers. Bob Morgan, the Council central staff person working on the UW Master Plan, is trying to get the facts relating to this issue. If there were improper contacts, then the petitioners will have an opportunity to respond. Hale and Matt Fox, President of the University District Community Council, met with representatives to the Seattle Post-Intelligencer editorial board.

The board expressed appreciation to Torrance and Colley for their hard work on the UW master plan. The issues are complex. The Board of Regents does not agree with the City Council's preliminary decision to deny the rezone on the golf driving range. The housing issue is considered to be significant. Tree cutting is a serious issue but was not discussed at the meeting. CUCAC members are supposed to be informed before any trees are cut but this does not happen for the most part. The excuse given is that there was no time to inform everyone. Some tree activists are getting upset. Rich Ellison from "Save Seattle's Trees" is very involved. It was noted that another issue is one of setbacks rather than trees. There is no space between the sidewalk and the buildings. Torrance pointed out that more buildings are coming up that have no setback.

The UW has so much leeway in development of the campus and they are supposed to not expand into the neighborhoods in exchange or to negatively impact surrounding communities. They can do whatever they want within the framework of the Master Plan. On the issue of transportation, the UW has changed the formula for parking to make it appear that they have less traffic even as the number of professors and students at the UW will increase by over 9,000. It was pointed out that cars can no longer enter for basketball from Montlake. The UW is changing some entrances. Cars have to enter on 25th where the street angles off. The City Council Land Use Committee will finalize its decision on the Master Plan on December 3rd. There is demand for a "good neighbor" policy but it will be a long time before one is formulated. Theresa Doherty from the UW came up with an outline but students have said that it will be ineffective.

Magnuson Park Issues: Lloyd asked LCC to contribute an additional $400 to Friends of Magnuson Park as both Hawthorne Hills and View Ridge Community Councils each contributed $2,000 to help pay for the fees associated with appeal of the EIS. Laurelhurst has earlier voted to contribute $100. Laurelhurst is not as impacted as Hawthorne Hills and View Ridge, but we have commented extensively on the impact of the lighting on the housing and adjacent wetlands and urged that mitigation measures be implemented. Lloyd asked Levin if the LCC is able to contribute an additional $400 to Friends of Magnuson Park. Levin said yes. MOTION: Lloyd moved that LCC donate an additional $400. The motion passed unanimously. Friends of Magnuson Park and the Sandpoint Housing Association are appealing the EIS. The housing people are under pressure to drop out of the appeal. Friends of Sandpoint may be the only people left in the appeal process. The UW wants to put housing in at Sandpoint but it is too expensive. The property is meant to be for arts and cultural uses but the pottery company was not allowed to rent the space. John Clark is our new representative to the Sandpoint Housing Association.

Laurelhurst Community Center Issues: Don Torrie will provide an update next month.

Update on Traffic Light on Sand Point at the Texaco: Liz Ogden followed up on neighbor concerns about delay in the installation of the traffic light at 50th Avenue NE and Sand Point Way NE. Ogden spoke with the City's designer and found that the project has been stalled due to a refusal on the part of Mr. Baldwin, who owns the gas station on the corner there, to allow the City to install the "C-curb" blocking access to Ivanhoe. The C-curb is required by the City's design standards. Without his cooperation, the stop light project cannot go through. Ogden understands that Mr. Baldwin is seeking to sell the gas station so maybe the new owners will be more cooperative on this point. It is hopeful that the new owner of the gas station will be more receptive to pedestrian safety issues.

Talaris Update: Eychaner has reported that the draft Environmental Impact Statement for the Talaris project is scheduled for release on November 14. She will prepare a piece for the next newsletter. The public hearing on the draft EIS will take place in the second week of December.

University Village Gas Station: LCC has learned that QFC plans to put in a gas station in its old storage building location at the back entrance to the Village. So far, there is no information as to the size and scope of the project. Representatives from QFC have been invited to the December LCC meeting. When Hale telephoned them about the gas station they said that they had no knowledge of it.

Varlamos Dumpster: LCC has received complaints off and on about Varlamos dumpster which is situated on the public sidewalk beside its location. Several months ago when Varlamos was remodeling, LCC contacted the owner to ask that space be made for the dumpster in the rear area so that the sidewalk would not be obstructed. This never happened. Most of the time, the dumpster is not a problem, but as garbage day gets closer each week, the bin gets full. When the sidewalk is hosed down each day, leftover lettuce and food is often hosed onto the roadway. Neighbors have complained about this. Ragee has suggested that LCC write a letter asking that the merchants in the area combine space for dumpsters off the sidewalk. There is a gated area across the street from Varlamos where there is another dumpster. All of the property in that area is owned by the same person. It was suggested that Varlamos could get cited for having the dumpsters on the sidewalk. By general agreement, it was decided that LCC would write to Varlamos and "cc" DCLU asking them to move their dumpster.

University Map Project: Tom Bertulis from Feet First is working on a map project to encourage people to walk. The map will be modeled after the format Feet First used for a similar project in Ballard. The "Ballard Pedestrian Friend" map can be found at: http://www.scn.org/feetfirst/ballard/. Tom would like comments from neighborhoods. Trustees reviewed a copy of a map completed for the Ballard area. The basic question is what could be put on the map to get more people to walk more often, whether to the store, to school, or to their friends house across town? Weyrauch suggested the following: The map does not indicate where the hills and slopes are. The map should also mention how long it would take to get from point A to point B in mile increments. It should also mention how long it usually takes to find parking and how much it costs. The map should have notes or useful comments. These could be tidbits, ideas and suggestions that would motivate people to walk. It was also suggested that the map mention bird species present in the area, the ship parade that is visible from the yacht club and from other areas, the Burke-Gilman Trail amenities and the fact that the July 4th fireworks are visible from Laurelhurst. They should also add bicycles to the map.

The map will include the area around the U District, Laurelhurst, Roosevelt, Ravenna, U Village, Montlake, Eastlake, and Wallingford. Basically, the map will include areas within 1.5 to 2 miles of the center of the UW campus. This map is going to be produced with a grant from the University of Washington.

The goal of the project is to "change culture" about walking by: