18 February 2020 / 6:45 PM / Missouri Foundation for Health

MEETING MINUTES

6:45 Meeting Called to order (Vincent Chewning)

FPSE Neighborhood Business

6:45 – 6:55 pm Crime and Safety Report (Ed Slade, SLMPD Liaison)

• Shooting on Chouteau

• Arrest made, personal dispute between victim and suspect not from neighborhood

• Robberies

• Attempted robbery of lot attendant, white male with surgical mask

• Suspicious activities around parking lots

• Car break ins around entertainment areas

• 4300 Arco car break in

• Assaults

• Evenings around the entertainment areas

• Q&A

• Patrol car that isn’t the City’s Finest sighted?

• City’s Finest for FPSE & new company doing the Grove [Campbell Security(?)]

• Neighbor would like representation at future meeting

• Why so many car break-ins?

• A few were left running in cold weather, 2 officer vehicle assigned for 2 of 3 shifts in FPSE area

6:55 – 7:00 pm Treasurer’s Report (Adelina Mart)

• Dues are now $1 or more, in order to be inclusive of more individuals

7:00 – 7:05 pm Call for Nominations – Treasurer (FPSE NA)

• Nominations and voting will happen next month
• Must be dues paying member

7:05 – 7:15 pm Neighborhood Improvement Specialist Update (Ron Coleman)

• Ron Coleman is out sick
• Infrastructure updates: waiting to install playground and basketball court for warmer weather and drainage plans at Chouteau Park
• Do you love to throw parties? We are recruiting for hospitality committee to help plan National Night Out and other quarterly events
• Ronald McDonald House
  • Chouteau, between Newstead and Tower Grove – support facility for families, with shuttle service, playground, architectural features added
• MFH Tower Grove and Vista
  • corner building being demolished on Thursday
• Development Committee 
  • 1417 Tower Grove – Between Hunt & Tower Grove, remodeling of building, requesting letter of support and variances (not clear what variances)
  • 4440 Manchester – across from UCBC, same as 4400 with rainbow color (may have been not approved due to parking)
  • Feb 25th at 5:30pm @ Park Central Development
• Reforms to Development Committee
  • Increase communication to residents; inc. transparency to neighbors at NA meetings
  • Discussed opening votes and deliberations to the public – development committee decided to keep session closed
  • Alderman Roddy suggested a voting seat for NA at Development Committee
  • Requested an announcement period from PCDC to have better ability to respond.
  • Q&A
    • Would it be a board member or a separately elected position? It’s important that that person be elected as a board member, since none of Dev Comm are elected by neighbors. 
    • May need to look at adding an additional person because of time commitment. 
    • What’s hesitation with NA being on development committee? What is the difference between sitting on development or infrastructure?
      • Looking to keep a sense of neutrality, to keep the NA an open forum
      • Keep NA meetings from becoming overwhelmed by development?
    • Concern that residents on Dev. committee don’t search out opinions of other neighbors. 
    • Neighbors and PCDC has not come to NA to update residents (PCDC is onboarding a staff and will be here in March for update)
    • Should the NA representative be bound by votes of those at the NA meeting? We should be flexible to changing along the way.
      • Neighbor spoke to ensuring member votes based on form based code, not personal opinion
      • Neighbor spoke to voting based on vote of NA members
    • All residents that spoke supported the NA being on the committee
    • Will need amendment to the bylaws, will be a long process and neighbor feedback is requested
• Q&A
  • Parking lot structure at Chouteau and Manchester?
    • New developer is taking over project from current developer
    • New sidewalks built
    • Will need to go to development committee for new plans
  • Could restaurants be part of planning events?
    • Business are eager to support events, but need more people for the planning time commitment for board
    • Kick ball game happened years ago between businesses and neighborhood

7:15 – 7:30 pm Community Announcements and Follow-Up (Community, FPSENA Board)

• Comment: bylaws revisions are too influenced by PCDC; concern about home repair funds not being available; NA isn’t doing enough to get repair funds
  • • PCDC was not awarded development dollars recently, FPSE is out of the priority area, PCDC supposed to bring updates on home repair
• Are there any Drury updates?
  • NA sent potential process to Alderman Roddy, Board has meeting with Tom next week to discuss what their next step is for a potential separate meeting on Drury
  • Alderman Roddy: NA was suggesting sequence of meetings to discuss Drury development
  • Question: will Roddy not support Drury if neighborhood is not supportive? A: Yes. if neighborhood doesn’t want it. 
  • Comment: we won’t be a neutral forum if we make the decision on Drury or not, not bad, but something to consider
  • Comment: this is an opportunity to tell Drury what we want, maybe we should take it
  • Comment: what are the alternatives to a hotel from WUMCRC? Why wasn’t WASHU at the last meeting when neighbors were discussing? Need more active role? Jess (WUMCRC): has been committed to getting community engagement, RFQ was pulled, not sure on next steps, could be sold or not sold to anyone
  • J. Roddy: provided history on acquisition of WashU property and how we’ve arrived at this Drury discussion
  • Goal for NA is to get a process that allows residents to voice their opinion, not to be the decision makers
  • Question: do we know what WashU is looking for in their RFQ? To put together a list of criteria and requirements from neighbors for when they make an assessment? To use it in their decision making?
  • Question: does WashU have plans for the property? 
    • There’s nothing to share at this time.

7:30 PM Adjournment (Vincent Chewning)

Special Presentations and Discussion

7:30 – 8:30+ pm Social Hour at Gezellig

You can listen to the recording of this month’s meeting on Anchor and wherever you listen to your podcasts.

You can download this month’s meeting minutes below.