The meeting was called to order at 7:02 PM.

Attending: Mark Trumbauer, Heather Newman, Don Torrie, John Clark, Kate Lloyd, John Burge, Barb Ragee, Jim Romano, Mark Holden, Jeannie Hale, Pat Wright, Bonnie Zinn, Dermott Noonan, Stan Sorscher

Excused: Susan Torrance (leave of absence), Mimi Levin, Shahina Piyarali (leave of absence), Joe Herrin, Jennifer Biely, Maggie Weissman

Guests: Tracy De La Torre-Evans, Seattle Public Utilities; Brita Butler-Wall, Sarah Reynerveld

Brita Butler-Wall is running for a school board position #3, which is currently held by Nancy Waldman. Brita is a Ravenna resident, with a background in education and linguistics. Among her interests are commercialism in the schools, and nutrition. She discussed the School District’s $35 million shortfall, and what elements of oversight could be improved. One part of the budget is revenue from vending, roughly $330,000 this year. She would prefer healthier goods in the machines at a comparable markup. Themes in her campaign are funding, holding staff accountable for results and strong leadership.

Tracy De La Torre-Evans spoke about the Seattle Public Utilities’ program to address sewer overflow. Sewage and street runoff all go through the water treatment plant. Storms often exceed capacity, in which case, untreated water will go into Lake Washington, Lake Union or Puget Sound.

State permitting rules allow "one overflow" per year. The City of Seattle has about113 outflow locations, which experienced over 400 overflows at 40 of the locations. The overflows were not serious enough to cause damage. In any event, Seattle will undertake 2 projects in our area. One will be near the Beach Club, and another on the Shoreline at NE 43^rd St and 55^th Ave NE including an energy dissipater for water running down the hill. Future projects will involve storage devices to hold stream runoff for release later.

Minutes: Motion: by Holden, seconded by Ragee: Approve minutes from the August 14, 2003 meeting as submitted. Motion approved unanimously.

Fan Encroachment: Stefanie Ray y Velarde emailed on 9/6 to ask for assistance or advice as to how to deal with Husky football game tailgaters by her house. She lives in Anne Martin’s old house on the corner of NE 41st and 38th Avenue NE bordering the Battelle property. The hostile fans leave beer bottles and trash behind, publicly urinate and throw away no parking signs that she puts up on game days. Stefanie has written to Paul O’Brien of Aljoya, asking him to put up tow-away signs, and asked if there was someone at the UW to contact.

Ice Cream Truck Noise: Julie Coryell called and emailed on 9/4 and 9/6 regarding the high volume level of music on the local ice cream truck. She reported that on Wednesday, 9/3, the young man operator parked about 4:40 p.m. in front of the Beach Club with his speaker on full volume so that my husband, daughter, and myself could not hold a conversation with neighbor at the entryway of the Beach Club. Then on Thursday just around 5 p.m., he parked pointing west on NE 43rd Street at her intersection of NE 43rd St and 53rd Ave NE. He sold ice creams over a period of at least 10 minutes and she and neighbors could not hold a conversation on our deck 30 feet to the south. Hale referred Coryell to David George from DCLU who enforces the noise ordinance and to the Office of Citizen Complaints to find out if the ice cream truck business is properly licensed. Coryell also called the North Precinct to get an officer out for the next scheduled visit of the ice cream truck. Coryell would like the truck noise issue to be on the annual meeting agenda next year.

Zinn offered to speak to the operator, appealing to his sense of good business judgment.

Tax Assessment Info: Richard Ettinger emailed on 9/3 to tell the board that he had been talking to neighbor Karen Hardisty about her successful encounter with the property tax assessor’s board of appeals. He thought that neighbors with concerns about market-induced inflation and rapidly rising tax bills could benefit from Hardisty’s advice and that a newsletter on the topic might be helpful. Hale responded that space in the newsletter is limited, but one possibility would be to have this as a subject of the next annual meeting. Hale added that this would be discussed at the September trustee meeting. Several trustees expressed interest in this subject.

Un-neighborly Neighbor: On 8/26 Jeff DiJulio who lives in the vicinity of Surber and 41st called Ragee with complaints about a neighbor and to ask for advice. The neighbor in question was reported to frequently drive at excessive speeds in an area with many children who play wiffleball in the street. He owns several cars and reportedly parks them in front of neighbors’ homes. Animal control investigated a cruelty complaint about the neighbor’s rottweiler, which nobody knew he had. The neighbor who is the subject of complaints now continues to drive fast and honk his horn in passing homes of those who have complained. DiJulio indicated that neighbors would be meeting with community policing to address the issues associated with the neighbor. Hale encouraged DiJulio to do his best to resolve the issues in a positive manner.

Looking for a New Home: Shahina’s family is looking for a new home in the neighborhood—four bedrooms and about 4,000 square feet. If anyone has ideas, please contact her.

Stolen Bikes: Barbara Peterson called on 8/17/03 to report that there had been three stolen bikes in Laurelhurst on the day she called. She lives by the Beach Club and said that one bike was stolen and left in her back yard. She thinks that the bikes are stolen as an easy means to get to the Beach Club and then dumped on nearby neighbors’ property. She will call 911 to report.

Noise: Neighbor Bill Pomp who lives at 52nd NE and 45th called on 8/12 to ask for advice on construction noise/vibration related to a project near his home. Hale referred him to David George of DCLU who is responsible for enforcing the noise ordinance.

Neighbors spoke to Zinn about teenagers making noise. This may be related to gang activity. Police were called more than once to investigate.

Lloyd reported that a Suburban had been broken into, recently. Other car prowls in the area have occurred, but were not reported to police.

Absent: Herrin and Levin could not attend tonight’s meeting due to conflicts. Both Torrance and Piyarali are on leave of absence. Piyarali’s leave of absence is for six, rather than two months.

Magnuson Park Public Meeting: There will be a public meeting on 9/17 from 7-8 p.m. in Building 406 to discuss the NE 65th Street improvements, demolition of the brick building on the corner of 65th and removal of the fence along Sand Point Way.

Victory Celebration: The Provail Burke Gilman Tenant’s Organizing Committee is pleased to announce that LIHI renewed the Section 8 contract and LIHI and Provail signed a Purchase and Sale Agreement! The tenants wish to show their thanks and appreciation for community support of their efforts to preserve their homes. They are throwing a celebration and would like to have you in attendance. Thursday, September 18, 3-5 p.m. at the Provail Burke Gilman Apartments, 5020 40th Avenue NE In the courtyard, rain or shine. Please RSVP to 206-722-6848 x102 or email emily@tenantsunion.org.

New Webmaster Prospect: Neighbor Susan Rucker has expressed interested in taking over webmaster responsibilities. She will meet with Sorscher.

Market Vote: The Pike Market vote failed due to lack of constituency turnout. That means the previous election will stand and funding for the development project will move forward. After the vote, it was announced that there was a $630,000 shortfall as the PDA projected parking revenues incorrectly by looking at the wrong column in a financial report.

South Lake Union: The City Council is moving quickly to consider Paul Allen's requested "upzones" for South Lake Union despite the fact that community organizations are appealing the determination of non-significance (DNS) issued for these rezones by DCLU. At a recent public hearing, it was suggested that the upzone rules for the biotech industry apply citywide—rather than just in South Lake Union.

Save the Date: LCC, Ravenna-Bryant Community Association, the Northeast District Council and other community groups are planning a candidates night on Thursday, October 2nd at Eckstein Middle School.

Talaris update: The EIS time limit has expired. An extension was allowed but no action was taken to extend the deadline. It is not clear what consequence follows from missing the deadline. Other areas of the city are looking at upzoning for biotech development. In principle, this could also be considered for the Talaris property.

Sorscher reported that one or two cottonwoods at the edge of the Talaris property are in bad shape and will be cut down in the next few weeks.

Crime Prevention: Pat Wright reported Diane Horswell’s crime statistics: one residential burglary, and an attempted break-in in a garage. No incidents were reported regarding the playfield. Pat brought a map showing which areas are patrolled by UW police. Generally, police jurisdictions have worked well together – UW, Seattle and King County. The 2004 budget is expected to be tight.

Laurelhurst Cell Tower Issue: Newman briefed the board on the results of the research she has undertaken on the cell tower issue. Fairley Robertson in West Seattle had suggested that Heather look into research on cell phone radiation by Henry Lai at UW. An article from the Post Intelligencer (1/2/2001) about by the UW professor on the health impacts of cell tower radiation is included in the packets. Testing with rats showed loss of short- and long-term memory, DNA damage and some reproductive problems.

Motion by Ragee, seconded by Newman: The LCC opposes new permits for cell towers in the Laurelhurst neighborhood until safety and health concerned are addressed satisfactorily. Motion passed unanimously.

Spiger Building graffiti: The Spiger building has suffered from graffiti, recently. A City program helps property owners get paint removed.

Varlamos’ Dumpster: Ragee will speak to the owners about moving the dumpster from the sidewalk along 37^th Ave NE.

CUCAC Update: Participants in recent meetings thought behavior had been rude or arrogant. Zinn and Holden met with Theresa Doherty to attempt to agree that dealings between the UW and neighbors should be more professional and engaging. Zinn reported that progress in this area is difficult to measure.

Sand Point Housing Update: Clark reported that scheduling issues lately limited meetings to once in the last 5 months. The project may have serious funding problems. Other NEDC groups share our concern that 24 hour resident managers be part of the project design.

Proposed Changes to Council Rules and Procedures: The city council is considering changes to its rules and procedures. There are many opportunities in the rules and procedures to suggest ways to provide notice to citizens of council actions and meetings. Also, currently a proposed ordinance cannot be introduced and voted on the same day. This rule does not apply to resolutions. For example, last year’s proposed charter amendments were introduced and voted on the same day with no opportunity for citizen comment. The proposed changes also allow emergency council meetings to take place by conference call or electronic means. This is contrary to the state Open Meetings Act, which allows meeting locations to be changed in the event of a natural disaster or other emergency.

The sense of the LCC Board was to lobby in favor of open agendas and public comment in Council rules and procedures.

Proposed Fence Removal at Magnuson Park: The Parks Department announced a new policy goal of unfencing all parks. The NEDC unanimously opposes removing the fence at Magnuson Park. Removing the fence would pose security questions, and would increase parking along Sand Point Way, with people walking through into the park.

Park Advisory Committee: Torrie reported that the advisory committee has not met, yet. Work should start soon on volleyball courts. Zinn said she would consider volunteering for this committee.

The meeting adjourned at 9:02 PM

Minutes by Stan Sorscher