CTRA Board of Directors Meeting - 9/10/02

Meeting called to order at 7:20 pm. A quorum was present.

In attendance: Paul Lomio, Paul Garrett, Kathy Durham, Maritza Frankfurt, Holly Welstein, Alexandra McFarland, Paula Sandas. Absent: John Ciccarelli, Jonathan Rabinovitz.

Minutes from the 7/9/02 meeting were accepted as amended.

The agenda was presented and approved. Alexandra led the first part of the meeting with the goal of helping the board to set realistic priorities for the remaining 6 months of their elected terms.

PRIORITIZATION EXERCISE:

A. Review of CTRA Purpose:
We noted that the bylaws charge us to "enable residents to work together to maintain and enhance quality of life in College Terrace." We then reviewed the three supporting methods and assessed our success at achieving them.

1. We noted that our current communication vehicles (the E-terrace News and the printed newsletter) serve to "provid(e) information on and opportunities for discussion of issues affecting the neighborhood." Also, gatherings, such as the recent Labor Day picnic encourage neighborhood discussion.
2. In order to assist the president in "representing the interests of College Terrace before appropriate governing bodies, institutions and agencies" we have 3 observer positions on the board: Stanford University, Stanford Research Park and City of Palo Alto. By keeping on top of coming actions that might affect our neighborhood we can then respond. After brief discussion the board agreed that, at the present time, the sheer size of the City of P.A. oversight task makes it impossible for any one person to adequately keep track of all the commissions, committees, task forces, etc. that are currently considering issues that directly affect College Terrace.
3. The third activity mandated by the bylaws is to "provide opportunities for social interaction and community building within the neighborhood for the benefit of the residents." We agreed that we have this one covered.

B. CTRA History:
We heard, and jointly contributed to, a brief history of the neighborhood groups that predated the current CTRA and bylaws. There has been a several decades long tradition of social gatherings in the park that included Mother's Day piano recitals among other things. Also, there is a history of residents coming together in response to "crises" that affect the neighborhood. In the early '70's residents focused on preserving Peter Coutts hill as open space when Stanford was considering development there. Traffic issues sparked some residents to be involved with the city in a plan that ultimately led to the hardened traffic barriers on our cross streets. A neighborhood watch type effort arose in the late '70's in response to a rapist who targeted women in College Terrace. Development on Stanford campus on the '80's was a concern to some residents. Most recently, the building/remodeling boom of the '90's led to a fairly rapid change in housing stock. The replacement of several Victorians, in particular Big Blue on the corner of Princeton and College, energized a group of residents to work with the city in an attempt to have some neighborhood review in the future. Then in 1999, another group of people came together over traffic issues, submitting a petition signed by 225 residents to the City Council in September, 1999. This last group provided much of the energy that led to the adoption of formal bylaws in May, 2001 and the emergence of the CTRA we have today.

C. The basics (our essential activities and responsibilities)

1. Social events
2. Monitoring of Stanford U., Stanford Research Park and City of Palo Alto
3. Communications, including www.CTRA.org and periodic surveys
4. Treasury
5. Neighborhood meetings, annual and special informational

D. Larger projects currently underway

1. College Terrace traffic study
2. CT-ROCS, our emergency preparedness project
3. El Camino Real redesign project

E. Where do we stand right now?

1. We agreed that there is an urgent need to find one or more assistants for the new City of Palo Alto observers, especially in light of the upcoming comprehensive zoning plan update now underway. Kathy and Alexandra will write up a brief description of what this job would entail and we will include it in our next newsletter. In addition, before our next meeting we will all try to identify CT residents who might have some interest in this type of involvement.
2. As our plate is full, we agreed to add good new ideas that emerge to a list of projects for consideration when current projects are completed or time and energy permit. Paul L. suggested noting the name of the person suggesting each idea. All projects remaining on this list will be reviewed when the board sets priorities for next year.

F. Projects for consideration later:

1. Community garden
2. Neighborhood beautification
3. Active recruitment of participation (outreach to seniors, renters)
4. Zoning ordinance update (until we have a new recruit to be in charge of this)
5. Pursue more formal dedication of Peter Coutts open space from Stanford (Paul G.)
6. Tool lending "library" (Paul G.)
7. Compile an oral history of College Terrace from long-time residents (Kathy D. and others)

NEWSLETTER:

The board agreed to prepare articles on the topics suggested by Jonathan in his email of 9/9/02. In addition, Alexandra will write a "help wanted" piece for the City of P.A. observer position.

EL CAMINO REDESIGN MEETING:

The board will sponsor an informational meeting on Sunday, 9/22/02 at 7:00p.m. Kathy and Paula will put together a flyer for distribution this weekend. We want to encourage CT residents to have accurate information and be engaged in this process that has a great potential impact on our quality of life. Holly and Kathy will set-up for the meeting at the Escondido multipurpose room.

NEXT MEETING:

The next board meeting will be Tuesday, 10/1/02 from 7:15-9:00 p.m. at Kathy's home.

Respectfully submitted by Holly Welstein, Secretary, CTRA

 This site comes to you courtesy of Roble Systems