June 13th, 2019, 6:30 – 8:50
East Phillips Park Cultural & Community Center, 2307 17th Ave S.
EPIC
web address: eastphillips-epic.com
Office:
2536 18th Avenue S., Minneapolis, MN 55404
Phone: (612) -280-8418
Board Roster: Rosie Cruz, Laura Dale, Mary Gonsior, Cassandra Holmes, Shontal Lajeunesse, Abah
Mohamed, Carol Pass, Steve Sandberg, Sarah Santiago.
Board Members Present: Cassandra Holmes, Shontal Lajeunesse,
Steve Sandberg, Sarah Santiago, Mary Gonsior, Rosie Cruz
Board Members Not Present: Carol Pass (E), Laura Dale (E), Abah
Mohamed (U)
Members: Schuyler Sellars, Lex Horan, Devika Ghai, George Kennedy, Carol Hill-Kennedy, Luce Guillen-Givins, Autumn Garrington, Michael Green, Linda Leonard
Guests: Shirley Heyer, Callie Pliego, Stephany Lopez, Dean Dovolis, Graham Faulkner, Jenny Dutra, Tony Brown, Clay Dutra, Enzo Rizzatti, Alex Downer
6:45 Greetings: Announcements
Q QUORUM achieved at 6:45pm
7:00 Agenda: Approved the agenda for tonight MG,
SL, Approved
Minutes: Approved
the minutes from May 9th MG, CH, Approved
7:15 Housing Development (at 1626 E Lake Street)
Conversation with Owner and City
Developers present: Clay and Jenny
Dutra; Graham Faulkner and Stephany Lopez from Alondra Cano’s office; CPED NOT
present.
At the May General
membership meeting residents raised the following questions and concerns:
·
17th
and Lake Street building
·
Can
the city figure out a plan for parking around the building?
·
Can
EPIC learn how to have a say in the process of issues of affordable housing
with this building
·
Is
the developer targeting particular commercial tenants? Who?
·
What
kind of commercial tenants is he looking for?
·
What
business hours will be allowed?
·
June
17th – going in front of the planning commission
·
Alondra’s
office has said the developer is interested in learning more about seeking
public funding – Devika will forward her correspondence from Alondra’s office
to EPIC Board for further action
•
One
of the main purposes of this conversation is to discuss this further
•
Since
it is publicly funded, it must have 3-4 affordable units
§ There are two funding scenarios and this is one of them.
Due to new inclusionary zoning ordinance language passed in December of 2018,
all new developments above 10 units must fall into one of the two categories: 10%
at 60% AMI or 20% at 50% AMI, the latter allowing the developer to
access financing from the city. If they seek no funding, the former base
requirement for all development is in effect.**
DISCUSSION
·
EPIC
intro by Devika and Steve
o
Developers
presented at previous community meeting
o
More
questions: affordable housing options, parking options, what variances are
being sought, sanitation hours
o
Devika
appreciates developers answering questions
o
Most
people that were heard from while door knocking had not heard of this proposed
development
§
Most
questions from door knocking surrounded affordability
§
Some
written questions were submitted from door knocking
·
Presenters:
o Proposed development takes two
parcels – currently divided by alley
o
Proposing
mixed use – 5 retail units and 39 apartments
o
Community
room can be used by tenants and general community
o
Bike
shop in the planned development
o
11
apartments per floor on 2nd, 3rd and 4th
floors – each unit has own balcony
o
Penthouse
on top of building
o
2
decks for tenants on top of building
·
Questions
and answers:
o
Developer’s
company is working to improve this community (Phillips and Powderhorn and
entire South Minneapolis) as much as possible – starting with housing
o
Want
diversity and local businesses
o
Not
sure what the business hours will be yet
o
Changed
mind about seeking public funding because of last community meeting
o
Not
asking for money – wants to do what the community is asking – if it’s
affordability, city offers money for offering affordable housing, but if city
offers, developer will use this money
o
What
changes from the earlier proposal is affordability – nothing else from earlier
proposal
o
Concerns
about 16th and 17th avenue narrowness and high levels of
traffic flow
o
Developer
proposes to limit retail space to office and other businesses that will not
need loading and unloading
o
Community
member appreciates thought that developer has put in about affordability since
last presentation
o
Developer
has contacts in building industry and investors over the years
o
Investors:
developer himself and a group of other investors
o
Approximates
$1,200 – $1,400 per unit – based on surrounding area rent
§
Affordable
units will likely be 60% of above rent
o
Another
comment about a concern of the alley being cutoff
o
Developer
sees cutting off alley as a positive because neighbors who reside on the block
will be the only ones using the alley
o
Concern
about lighting in the alley
o
Lighting
and cameras all around the building
§
Will
help to clean up the area – cameras will not just serve the building
o
Question
about underground parking
·
Very
expensive to put in underground parking
o
$1
million for 10 parking spots
·
The
lot is too narrow as well
o
Have
not had analysis for the study of the finances
o
If
developer uses city funding – likely 8 units need to be affordable and they
will be 60% AMI (area median income)
o
City
now requires new housing apartments to have 10% of their housing be affordable
- in this case - 4 units have to be affordable
o
Concern
that AMI is not relevant for East Phillips
o
How
are people looking for affordable housing going to find this building?
§
City
has interest in connecting people who are eligible – but the tenant application
process is not managed by the city
§
Owner
will need to advertise rates as well
o
Concern
about gentrification of area
o
There
are a lot of ways to ensure gentrification does not occur
o
Concern
that plans occur in East Phillips without community input
·
Concern
that developer is coming to the community late
·
Developer
says he came to first community without architectural plans, just hand written
plans
o
Developer
says it is not too late to make changes to the plan
o
Community
member says she has heard the developer listening and changing plans based on
community input and developer wants to pay attention to us
o
Developer
is concerned about affordability – there are a lot of questions and issues – he
wants to hear solutions from the community – we need to discuss as a community
– “help me put a building that everyone likes”
·
Concern
that neighbors have not heard about proposal
o
Suggestion
that the AMI for the whole greater metro is irrelevant and proposes that the
developer uses East Phillips AMI
o
Feasibility
study that the developer uses looks at neighborhood AMI
o
If
everything goes well – planning to start building in 3 months
o
Area
is overparked – developer says if you don’t want cars around don’t make space
for them
o
Community
member suggests that the developer flyers the direct area around the building
to advertise for open units before advertising to the rest of the city
o
Developer
responds that he plans to have a sign out front of building as it is under
construction with a website on it for people to apply
§
Community
member proposes that the immediate area around the development should be
flyered first, with application and a phone number so it is more accessible to
people without easy access to computers
·
Should
be a bilingual flyer
o
Contact
developer with more solutions at (612) 930-1616 and info@ingaugeusa.com
8:00 SCOUT
team
o
EPIC
has helped to fund a survey of Little Earth – survey had a response rate of 84%
of households of Little Earth – 304 people
o
A
large reason for high response rate was the incentives they offered = 3 $10
gift cards for each household that completed survey were provided and EPIC was mentioned
as a funder of this incentive
o
Seeking
money for another survey – exit type survey – implementation of grant – more
community engagement - $2,000 for incentives for a survey
o
Board
member suggests that if EPIC is able to find a contract with available funds EPIC
ought to fund this survey
o
Going
forward with items that EPIC funds, EPIC needs to have access to the data
·
Little
Earth owns it and nobody can share without their permission
o
Put
requests in writing to Little Earth
MOTION: EPIC will fund up to $2,000
toward SCOUT Little Earth Survey provided appropriate funding is available and
EPIC will be listed as a funder of these surveys and will be provided a report
summarizing the data and the research team will be invited to give a
presentation to the EPIC community, SS, GK, 2 abstained because of conflict of
interest, Approved
Will
need to repeat this vote next month – 21-day
review period
8:10 Report
on Mother’s Day Pow Wow at Cedar Field Park from May 11th
o
Thank
you note presented to EPIC from LERA for helping to fund the Pow Wow
o
Itemized
budget, receipts and photos shared with the board
o
Great
attendance
o
First
time women empowerment march before Pow Wow and two spirits participated, as
well as Aztec dancers
8:15 Update
on funding from City of Minneapolis Office of Violence Prevention
o
Devika
put together an incredible proposal
o
Grant
was approved contingent on insurance documents from EPIC
o
A
few edits were made and will be submitted to the city
o
Have
6-7 months to conduct survey of greater East Phillips community and employing
youth and community members
o
This
project encompasses a greater idea of safety and wellbeing as well as engaging
the community in a deeper conversation
o
The
community is needed to suggest youth and adults that will be involved in conducting
the surveys – these will be paid positions
o
EPIC
will further discuss supplemental funding particularly for incentives for those
who complete the survey
o
SCOUT
had similar survey – questions were written by us and for us
8:25 Brief
update on Roof Depot Site/East Phillips Indoor Urban Farm/Hiawatha Advisory
Committee
o
Hiawatha
Advisory Committee Meeting scheduled for June 17th is cancelled!
o
HAC
has been disassembled
o
City
is tearing down building on the site – we are not sure when
o
East
Phillips Neighborhood Institute (EPNI) is now asking community for help – need
to use different tactics
o
Contacting
the media and using civil disobedience is likely only way to implement green
infrastructure and avoid more pollution in the neighborhood
o
We
need to get aggressive with the city
o
Petition
for environmental assessment worksheet was passed around the room
o
The
petition may not change much but will slow down the city’s plan
o
Dean
Dovolis from DJR Architecture says this has been one of the more covert tactics
he has seen by the city to get what the city wants
o
EPNI
is not asking for money from the city
o
Had
$9 million pledged to project prior
o
There
are investors interested and on standby if city allows our plan to go forward
8:30 Community
Meeting about Roof Depot site is Monday, June 17th at 6:00pm at
East Phillips Park
o
We’ll
share some food, plan next steps in our fight to keep more pollution out of
East Phillips and break into work groups
§
Write
letters, make calls etc.
Join us in door knocking for the community meeting:
·
Friday
June 14th at 5:30pm-Little Earth Youth Development Center (2495 18th
Ave S)
·
Brief
door knocking training and then set out with a partner to meet some neighbors
and get them to come to the community meeting and sign our petition
8:50 Other Items
o
Summer Events:
·
Summerfest is June 23rd
at East Phillips Park at 1:30pm
o
Come
for the Talent Show, Music and Food!
If you would like to volunteer for
the event or if you have questions contact Brad Pass at 1abjpass@gmail.com
or Steve Sandburg at steve@stevesandberg.com
·
Community Garden – All summer
o
A
few open spots left
o
$30
per year
·
National Night Out – Tuesday, August 6th
o
EPIC
has funding for official National Night Out paper plates (no money for food or
entertainment)
§
Contact
EPIC if you are interested or would like to learn more
§
Ideas?
o
Fall Events:
§
Phillips Community Clean Sweep – October 12th
§
Garden Fall Harvest Party Saturday, October 19th
·
Expand
our October Harvest party (block off the street)
§
Ideas?
9:00 Adjourn
