CTRA Board of Directors Meeting 10/01/04

Meeting called to order at 2:30 pm by President Kathy Durham. In attendance: Alexandra McFarland, Kathy Durham, Paula Sandas, Paul Garrett, Erika Enos, Betsy Friebel, Holly Welstein. Absent: Margaret Miller, Donna Matheson.

Minutes from the 9/03/04 meeting were accepted as revised.

BOARD PRIORITIES

Neighborhood Traffic Study: There was a very good turnout of CT residents at the September 8 Planning and Transportation Commission meeting, but the traffic calming trial was pushed back to the October 13 meeting. Kathy encouraged board members to spread the word to encourage people to come out again. Paula will contact those who came before.

Zoning Ordinance Update: The city council is slated to give final approval to changes to the ZOU on October 4. These include changes to rules for substandard lots in the R-1 district. Because College Terrace has so many substandard lots, it will be more affected by these changes than most of the rest of Palo Alto. The board discussed the changes and is concerned that CTRA and the neighborhood in general were not given appropriate notice of these changes which have been voted on and approved by the Planning and Transportation Commission already. In order to alert residents who may be interested, Erika will write a summary of proposed changes for Betsy to include in the next e-news along with pertinent URLs. Also, Kathy will send an e-mail to the council and staff at the PTC expressing our concerns.

OFFICERS' REPORTS

Vice-President: Paula reported on the Library Advisory Meeting which was held last month at the College Terrace Library. The board discussed how and whether to express their support for continuing to operate our library. Paula will draft a letter to Paula Simpson, Friends of the Library and the Palo Alto Library Foundation supporting the continued operation of branch libraries, including the College Terrace Branch.

Secretary: Holly has assumed the responsibility for replying to queries to Board@CTRA.org.

Communication Director: Betsy expects the next newsletter to go out in early November. She will remind contributors about their assignments and deadlines. Kathy noted that the Midtown neighborhood association uses their newsletter to promote local retail and Betsy will look into how they do this so we can consider whether we want to do something similar.

Government/Stanford Observers: Kathy provided an update on the Stanford trails EIR and noted that this issue will become contentious again in the near future. The board decided that we will not take an official position at this time.

Paul reported that more money was recently committed to extend the scope of the
Mayfield site EIR. This means any construction of fields will be further delayed.

Alexandra noted that non-resident parking along Stanford Ave. has increased since Stanford's academic year began. She will attempt to re-engage city and university partners on the parking issue, and will be in contact with Kathy and Paula as she does.

NEXT MEETING The next meeting will be Friday, November 5 at 2:45 pm at Holly's home.

Respectfully submitted by Holly Welstein, Secretary.