Birchwood Neighborhood Association Meeting

Birchwood Elementary School May 26, 2009 6:30-8:30pm

Board Members in attendance:

Adrienne Battis, President Linda Long, Treas.

Barbara Campbell, Secretary Sue DenAdel

John Coleman Rebecca Schlotterback

Stephanie Twiford Cameron Gracia

Laurie Saling

Welcome: Adrienne Battis

Announcements: Tasha Dodge announced that there is a need for families to host French exchange students. There are 5 boys, ages 14-18 who need placement from June 16 – July 7. If you are interested, contact Tasha at 360-223-9582.

Allsop Permit Revision: Becky Schlotterback gave an update on the Allsop development next to Squalicum Creek Park. Presently, one building is completed and the 2^nd one is almost done. Allsop is applying for an amendment to a planned contract. The main change that would affect the neighborhood is hours of operation. The change would increase operation from six days a week to seven and from 7am-7pm to 7am-10pm. If neighbors would like to request a public hearing or meeting about this, they need to contact the city’s Planning and Community Development Dept. by June 5^th.

Neighborhood Plan Update Moshe Quinn, the COB planner assigned to Birchwood’s Plan Update process, explained that our Plan will have many outdated “Public Works” sections taken out and the current Comprehensive Plan information added. This includes traffic/circulation sections, outdated bicycle section, and water/sewer section. New language addressing the Library section will also be inserted. There will be a public hearing for our Plan Update on June 25^th, 7 pm, at the City Council Chambers. The updated Plan will be available for viewing online 10 days before the hearing.

City of Bellingham Performance Measures Project: Louise Bjornson, City Council member, presented the draft project being designed by the city to guide decisions and budget commitments. The nine legacies (20-50year goals) with the strategic commitments (6-20 year goals) that support them were shown and discussed. Louise reviewed each area in relation to the Birchwood Neighborhood. Neighbors are to contact Louise (733-7756) with thoughts about the Draft Legacies in regards to Birchwood. General discussion followed about Birchwood residents’ concerns. Adrienne Battis noted one tool for gathering information and identifying concerns is the Birchwood Survey.

Birchwood Victory Gardens Committee Report: Pamela Wilde, committee chair, reviewed the history of the committee, WWI and WWII victory gardens as they relate to the history of gardening in the neighborhood, and truck farms. The first project for the committee is working with Birchwood Elementary School to create a school garden. They are currently working on getting a deer fence. There is a need for seeds, materials, tools, etc. Master Gardeners have talked with all of the Birchwood Elementary students. Kelly Morgan, Birchwood teacher, shared about the kids planning and ideas and their enthusiasm for the project.

Birchwood Neighborhood Survey: The Birchwood Neighborhood Survey is continuing. Fifty-three percent of the mailed random-sampled surveys have been returned which is a very high return rate. Birchwood residents who were not in the random sample group can pick up a survey for themselves or neighbors at the Neighborhood meetings in May and picnic in August. An on-line version of the survey is available for Birchwood residents to fill out if they did not get to do a paper copy of the survey. To do an online version of the survey, go to the neighborhood website: www.birchwoodneighborhood.org and click on the survey link. We are planning to share the survey results at our September meeting. The results will be used to guide the writing of our Neighborhood Plan Update.

Birchwood Greeters: Cameron Garcia presented the plan for welcoming new residents to our neighborhood. It will be styled after the “Welcome Wagon” idea where “Birchwood Greeters” will make contact with families when they move into the neighborhood and give them neighborhood information. People can sign up as a greeter by contacting Cameron: Cameron@mybirchwood.org

New Board Member: Adrienne introduced our new Board member, John Coleman, who gave a quick overview of his background and interest in Birchwood neighborhood.

Board Member Bios: A neighbor asked that the Board Members have information about themselves on the website so the residents would know more about who represents them and how to contact them. We will gather that information and have it on the website soon.

2^nd Annual Birchwood Picnic: The picnic will be Sunday, August 2^nd, 4-6pm in the Birchwood Park. Dinner will be provided.

Little Squalicum Park Contamination: Portions of Little Squalicum Park are contaminated at levels exceeding standards under the state’s toxic cleanup law. A presentation of the draft remedial investigation and an open house will be held at Bellingham Tech. College, Bldg G, on June 10th at 7pm. to address this issue.

Ideas for future meetings: Due to discussions during the meeting, it was decided that next fall we would invite speakers to our meetings to address specific concerns. We would like Bellingham Police Department to address crime and tagging and Public Works to address traffic and road condition issues.

Attendance approx. 35