College Terrace Residents’ Association                             APPROVED: April 2, 2006
Board of Directors’ Meeting Minutes
March 6, 2006

The meeting was called to order at 7:30 p.m. by President Kathy Durham. 
Directors present:  Kathy Durham, Alexandra McFarland, Betsy Friebel, John Mark Agosta, Erika Enos, Hollis Radin, Paula Sandas (arrived at 7:45) and Sheila Kothari (arrived at 8:15). 
Guest present: Greg Tanaka, candidate for Vice President
Absent:  Larry Kavinoky

Joint Board Meeting: Kathy proposed that the current board members have a casual celebration and meeting at her house with incoming board members on Sunday, April 2nd.  Outgoing board members should arrange to turn over their notebooks to incoming board members prior to that time.

Board Priorities
Traffic Calming:
Kathy and John Mark Agosta reported that two new members joined the Traffic Calming working group, Maggie Heath and Greg Tanaka, while Virginia will be stepping down.  The contract for installing the trial traffic calming measures will be sent out for bids in about three weeks.  Construction of the trial traffic calming measures is scheduled to begin on California Avenue and College Avenue in May, and on Stanford Avenue after school gets out in June.  John Mark is attempting to compare the traffic data collected over the past several years.  Traffic overall decreased 15-20 percent in most areas (possibly due to the economic downturn) between 2002 and 2005,  although volume seemed to increase locally on a few blocks. Data for some streets the numbers may not be directly comparable as some measurements were not taken in exactly the same locations. John Mark will have a table at the annual meeting explaining the upcoming traffic calming trial and a summary of the traffic study data.  Erika questioned the The traffic calming measures should not interfere with the planned street or gas line repairs.  The board  briefly discussed the problems of coordinating Public Works and Utilities projects with the activities of the Transportation Division. activities.

Newsletter:
Betsy reported that the newsletter barely made it out on time, but thanks to the help of our team of volunteers, was delivered to most blocks over the weekend.

Annual Meeting Plans:
Displays:  Traffic Calming, College Terrace Library Working Group, Red Cross Disaster Preparedness.
Speaker:  Mayor Judy Kleinberg
Election:  Paper ballots will be available in case of any write-in candidates. 
A sign up sheet for helping with the annual meeting was passed around.

Financials:
From April 2005 Last year to date we have spent slightly more than we brought in, primarily due to increased printing costs.  We hope to solicit additional contributions at the annual meeting, and possibly conduct a renewal drive.  The CTRA maintains a bank balance of over $4000 due to a gift of $5000 received several years ago.  The board reaffirmed the intention hopes to reserve this money for landscaping of the traffic circles.

Parking Permit Task Force:
The distribution of the FAQ and the survey is now taking place along Stanford Avenue, Wellesley, Yale, Cambridge, and the first block of Oberlin. The task force created a FAQ sheet for distribution with the survey. Both FAQ sheet and survey were shared with board members.

Stanford Observer:
The nominating committee did not submit a recommendation for a Stanford University Observer for the incoming board, after approaching several qualified candidates who each agreed to take a small chunk of the tasks currently handled by Alexandra McFarland and Kathy Durham. (The CTRA bylaws only define a single "Government/University Observer" position on the Board is only one official CTRA Board position, but three people have usually shared it: one monitoring the City of Palo Alto, one the Stanford industrial park and one Stanford University.) Karie Epstein declined nomination to the board, but has been regularly attending the Multi-jurisdictional group (mandated by Stanford's GUP to hold quarterly meetings on existing problems of traffic and noise on Junipero Serra Boulevard and Stanford Avenue.  This group includes representatives from Santa Clara County, Palo Alto, the Stanford campus homeowner's group, CTRA and Stanford University) .  Kathy suggested that we appoint Karie as CTRA’s official representative to this group. This recommendation was unanimously approved.

Palo Alto Observer:
Paula and Erika reported on the discussions of the Pedestrian Transit Overlay District (part of the Zoning Ordinance Update), which would allow increased densities (village residential) in multi-use projects near transit hubs.  It is an implementation of a mandate of the Comprehensive Plan.  The general consensus of the board was that this overlay zone would help improve the vitality of the California Avenue Business district and thereby improve the quality of life in our neighborhood.   It would be valuable to hold a “Civic Affairs Salon” to discuss this issue, and to provide information about upcoming hearing dates in the E-news. The proposed new "Village Residential" zoning is also moving through the Planning and Transportation Commission and would also be included in any Salon discussion.

Library:
Paula reported that there continues to be heated discussion of the future of the Palo Alto Branch Library system.  The City Council has made a commitment to come up with a plan this year.

Minutes:
The minutes of the February 6, 2006 meeting were approved as presented.

Next meeting:
The date of the next meeting will be set by the incoming board, after the election.

The meeting was adjourned at 9:15 p.m.

Respectfully submitted,


Hollis Radin, Secretary