April 9th, 2015, 6:30 p.m. – 8:45 p.m.
East
Phillips Park Cultural & Community Center, 2307 17th Ave S.
EPIC web address: eastphillips-epic.com
Office: 2536 18th Avenue S., Minneapolis, MN 55404
1. Right
to be involved – Public
participation is based on the belief that those who are affected by a decision
have a right to be involved in the decision-making process. (Mpls.
Principles of Community Engagement, 2007)
Board
Roster: Jenny
Bjorgo, Rosie Cruz, Mary Gonsior, Jean Howard, Linda Leonard, Ali
Micalin, Carol Pass, Earl Simms
Board Members
Present:
Jenny Bjorgo, Rosie Cruz, Mary Gonsior, Jean Howard, Linda Leonard, Carol
Pass,
Board Members Not
Present:
Ali Micalin, Earl Simms
EPIC Members: Carrie Ann Johnson, Michael Green, Margarita Ortega, Brad Pass, Dave Moore, Margaret Kirkpatrick, Andrew Fahlstrom, Dana DeWilde, Harry DeWilde, Kyla Sisson, Patty Zanski, Ben Fisher, Prem Poudel, Balmaia Rai
Guests: Dean Dovolis, Mark Stenglein, Kurt Schreck, Shirley
Heyer, Jason Spiller, Aisha Gomez, Christine McDonald
6:35 Introductions:
· Greetings and
Introductions – share your name and the year of your “penny”; Jean Howard “won”
with 1969 (the oldest) and received supplies to make a tuna-noodle casserole.
· Approval of Agenda:
Approved by consensus with addition of 5 minute presentation of neighborhood
plan.
·
Approval
of Minutes from March 12th EGM: Minutes approved by consensus.
6:45 Public Safety Issues: – Handouts (not available.)
6:50 Announcements:
- Annual Meeting April 25th, 2015 Board Elections
- Next Financial Literacy Class in SPANISH, On-Going, Tuesday, April 14th; 6:30-8:00 pm.
- Next EPIC Board Meeting, May 2nd, Saturday, 10:00 am, EP Park Building
- Next EPIC General Membership Meeting, Thursday, May 9th, 6:30 pm, EP Park Building
- 1st EPIC Garden Meeting, April 11th, 9:00 am Plots will be handed out
- This Saturday, at the Youth Center/Little Earth, folks will be gathering to organize canvassing of the neighborhood with petition related to tonight’s topic. Canvassing of the neighborhood will begin at noon.
- Public works has proposals for accommodating bike lanes on 26th and 28th. City is organizing a public meeting, probably on April 20th or 21st. Contact Aisha Gomez, CM Cano’s office, to sign up for updates.
7:00 EPIC UpDates: - Progress on the
Roof Depot Site and effort to De-Industrialize the Heavy Industry site.
Short
presentation by Carrie Ann: Worked on a plan for an indoor playground in East
Phillips, has been looking for a location for 3 years. There is no single
indoor playground in Minneapolis. Her idea consists of a center with a central
circle where pre-school children can play. The outer circle can include meeting
spots for parents, employment networking; a business area with printing and
other services available. Two wings could
contain a multi-cultural library, story-telling station, continuous
multi-language story telling time, halls decorated with local artwork; ending
with a café. 2nd story could contain rental space for non-profits;
options could be tied to parenting, seeking employment. A large space could
provide even more opportunities. Another wing could provide community space for
use by the public. Building exterior could be done with limestone on the
outside, and partnering with a vendor could be a “mountain-climbing” surface.
Carol
Pass presented the history of EPIC’s work and research regarding the news that
the Water Works purchase was under review, working with Bicicletas & Tamales, and EPIC’s
consensus with BYT for six basic negotiation points as our focus in negotiating
a Community Benefits Agreement with the City of Minneapolis.
- EPIC has been meetings since late fall, where we just started to consider De-industializing the area between Cedar Ave and Hwy 55 on 28th St.
- We did not know of the City proposal to bring in the Water Yard at the time..
- When we heard about it…we began a response
- We found that JoseLuis villasenor and his organization, Tamales y Bicicletas had come to the same conclusions.
- Enter Rep. Karen Clark; a bill in the legislature for the removal of the “grandfather clause in this one case. We agreed we needed a visual aid to foster our plans.
- We contacted Dean Dovolis to do a series of community engagement meetings to develop some precision and concreteness around the community’s ideas. EPIC moved at our March community meeting to offer Dean $10,000 for helping us to accomplish this.
- Last Saturday after our EPIC Board meeting- the groups met and agreed on a series of basic commitments.
- This is the second of three EPIC Meetings with Dean Dovolis, the final will be our Annual Meeting on April 25th, Saturday morning.
7:10 Presentation – Elements of a Master Plan.
-Dean Dovolis: the rendering of the Plan.
- Mr. Shreck: Possibilities regarding Urban
Agriculture
- Mark Stenglein: Feasibility
8:00 Questions and Answers
8:30
Do we need any motions? We need our
second vote for the $10,000 to pay Dean as a consultant. The motion from the
previous meeting, which needs a final vote, is as follows:
MOTION:
EPIC will support KC proposal for state law changes to deal with the
“grandfather clause” regarding the heavy industry along with forming a master
plan that we will produce, according to the presentation and discussion tonight
with Dean Dovolis. This plan embraces the following:
- use of the part of the Roof Depot building un-needed by the Water Yard for Urban Agriculture and Green Jobs,
- a place for a bike and coffee shop on the southeast corner of the building,
- a solar array on the Roof,
- managing negotiations re: the truck traffic with the neighborhood, moving to the cleanest truck exhaust,
- City support for our environmental bill in the legislature and
- eventually the City help clean up and make room for additional multi-family housing on the Greenway.
We also agree to an initial process, which would be
consistent with a minimum of at least three meeting with Dean: Sketch/Plan, Refine,
and approve a resolution. This schedule of meetings could try to occur over two
week increments, We affirm the Board’s plan to use $10,000 for a contract with
DJR Architects for this purpose. BP, MK
Motion
passed with one abstention.
8:50
Adjournment
