CTRA Board of Directors Meeting

6/5/03

Meeting called to order at 7:15 pm. A quorum was present.

In attendance: Grace Liu, Kathy Durham, Laura Forrest, Holly Welstein, Erika Enos, Alexandra McFarland, Paula Sandas. Absent: Jonathan Rabinovitz, Paul Garrett.

Minutes from the 5/6/03 meeting were accepted as revised.

BOARD PRIORITIES

A. Neighborhood traffic study:

Kathy reported that the group working on this issue (Stanford Planning Office, City of Palo Alto Traffic Engineers, and CT Traffic Committee) has requested proposals from consultants and will interview this month. The timeline is to hire a consultant in July and have a proposal to present to the CT neighborhood this fall.

B. Parking on College Terrace streets:

Alexandra participated in a neighborhood parking solution working session comprised of representatives from Stanford, the City of Palo Alto and CTRA. Data from a survey conducted by the PA Police Department showed that 44% of the 525 cars parked on specific CT streets were registered to College Terrace addresses, 15% to other Palo Alto or Stanford addresses, and 28% to California addresses less than 50 miles from Palo Alto. Residential permit parking programs are considered the most effective solutions for managing parking within college neighborhoods. However, city budget constraints limit this as an option at this time. Alternatives such as limiting parking to 2 hours, or prohibiting parking at certain hours on certain streets are being investigated and advantages and disadvantages to the neighborhood will be identified.

The board discussed ramifications of these plans, and felt that the neighborhood residents and commercial establishments should be polled to determine their views. Alexandra will structure focus groups to gauge public preferences and work with the city to do a neighborhood-wide postcard survey mailing. The CT Parking working group will continue to meet to refine potential solution alternatives prior to the focus groups.

C. El Camino Real redesign study:

The ECR redesign study is planning a public study session in September or October.

OFFICERS' REPORTS

A. President:

Kathy noted that we had failed to formally appoint Erika to the University Observer position. Paula moved that we appoint Erika Enos to serve as University Observer in place of Martha Platt, who resigned. Laura seconded the motion and it passed unanimously.

The board discussed holding an election forum in advance of city elections this fall. A group of neighborhood associations (Crescent Park, Community Center, Duveneck-St. Francis) has reserved the Art Center auditorium for this purpose on October 2. The Barron Park Association will not be holding an election forum this year. Paula, Kathy and Erika will approach representatives of Evergreen Park and Ventura neighborhoods to see if they would be interested in co-sponsoring an election forum on a weekend afternoon in Mayfield Park. They will report back to the board next month. Also at that time, we will discuss updating the CTRA Issues and Opportunities paper.

B. Vice-President:

Paula noted that plans for a memorial for Jim Culpepper are brewing for September.

C. Secretary:

Holly reviewed the results of the survey conducted in March. Kathy showed the board charts she had constructed for most of the questions. Holly and Kathy will meet next week to finish writing up survey results in a form suitable for the June newsletter.

Complete results will be posted on the website this summer.

D. Communication Director:

Kathy reported that Jonathan will be out of town and unable to coordinate the next newsletter. She will step in with help from the board. Topics will include: survey results (Holly and Kathy), photo of Easter egg hunt (Laura), update on non-residential parking (Alexandra), obituary for John Garcia (Alexandra), traffic committee update (Grace and Paul L.), heads-up about Labor Day picnic (Laura). The next e-news will focus on the successful effort to keep the CT library hours from being reduced.

E. Social Coordinator:

Laura will begin planning the Labor Day picnic and the board will brainstorm further in July. We will try to have live music, which was popular last year.

F. Government/University Observers:

Alexandra will try to arrange a date this summer for a neighborhood house meeting with Gordon Earle. Stanford and the City are discussing the possibility of using the Mayfield site for athletic fields. The final budget vote will be June 16.

NEXT MEETING

The next meeting will be July 22 or July 29, with the date selected after an e-mail poll of all board members. Location is yet to be determined.

Respectfully submitted by Holly Welstein, Secretary, CTRA.