Manayunk Neighborhood Council

November
2003

Inside This Issue:

• Permit Parking
• Leaf Collection
• Proposed Amendments to the Bylaws
• Minutes
• Development Guidelines
• Gardens & Parks
• Events
• Next Meeting
• Executive Board

PERMIT PARKING (One Block at a Time)

Rick Dickson, Director of Parking Management at the Philadelphia Parking Authority, will attend the November 5 meeting to discuss the Pilot Enforcement Program and Permit Parking. Some residents have shown an interest in setting up permit parking on their block. Mr. Dickson will explain how this can be done.

The Parking Authority's pilot enforcement project for Manayunk and Wissahickon has been in effect for a couple months. The Authority is canvassing the area from Levering Street below Terrace Street to Shurs Lane and from Shurs below Manayunk to Ridge Ave. for scofflaw vehicles. Those vehicles will be booted. Mr. Dickson will explain details of the project on November 5.

A permit parking plan was presented in January 2001 for the Manayunk area. Mr. Dickson and Councilman Nutter assisted with the presentation and they were lucky to make it out alive. Residents voted the plan down. However, Manayunk Neighborhood Council still believes permit parking is the only way to improve parking and the quality of life for the community.

Two groups that most negatively affect the residential neighborhood are transient renters (often college students) and visitors to Main Street.

Most student and transient renters will not bother registering their cars, or their parents cars, here so they would not be eligible for parking permits. With restricted parking, this will become a less desirable place to rent. Some renters add three or more cars to the already limited amount of parking.

Customers and employees of Main Street should be parking in the lots off Main Street. However, few people are willing to pay to park when they can find a free parking space in the neighborhood. The only way to force these visitors to park in the lots is to prevent them from parking on the street. Permit parking will provide this restraint.

Permit parking has been proven to work in many areas of Philadelphia. Center City, Queen Village, and East Falls have successful permit parking districts. A small area of Manayunk has had permit parking for years. These blocks, 4300 Cresson St., 100 Roxborough Ave, and 4400 St. Davids Street, choose to keep the program. Problems still exist but it has improved the situation.

LEAF COLLECTION PROGRAM WILL RUN THROUGH DECEMBER 26

Recycling leaves helps to reduce the amount of material that reaches the waste stream and saves landfill space. Additionally, piles of leaves may clog inlets and are slippery when wet.

Collected leaves will be composted and turned into mulch by the Fairmount Park Recycling Center. The mulch is free to Philadelphia residents and can be picked up at the Recycling Center on Ford Road. Residents can call Fairmount Park at (215) 686-0115 for more information about mulch, recycling, and directions to the center.

A special fleet will collect bagged leaves weekly along trash routes. Crews will only collect bagged leaves. Bagged leaves should be set out for collection the day before the scheduled rubbish collection day.

Never mix trash or other recyclable materials with bagged leaves. This contaminates leaves and makes them unfit for recycling purposes.

Set leaf bags out the day before your trash collection day. Crews make every effort to collect bags within 2 days of set out.

Put leaves in clear plastic bags. Other containers must be easy to identify by crews as leaves for recycling.

Residents can recycle their leaves through home composting by contacting the Streets Department's Recycling Office about composting leaves. Call 215-686-5444 to register for a Recycling through Composting Workshop. Residents may also visit the Streets Department web site at www.phila.gov/streets and click on Recycling.

Proposed Amendments to the Bylaws of Manayunk Neighborhood Council

ARTICLE VI - EXECUTIVE BOARD

Section 6.1 Executive Board

E. The Officers of the Council or Executive Board will be the following:

1. President

2. Vice President

3. Recording Secretary

4. Corresponding Secretary

5. Treasurer

6. One (1) Sergeant-at-Arms

7. One (1) Trustee Up to five (5) Trustees

Section 6.8 Trustee Trustees

A. The Trustee Trustees will help other Officers of the Council with their duties as deemed appropriate by the President.

B. The Trustee Trustees may be assigned duties by the President as deemed helpful to the Council.

ARTICLE VII - ELECTIONS

Section 7.1 A Nominating Committee, will be appointed by the Executive Board prior to the March general meeting, will nominate Officers at the April general meeting.

Section 7.2 Nominations may be made from the floor at the April general meeting. The Nominating Committee will nominate Officers at the general meeting following the March meeting. Nominations may be made from the floor at this time.

Section 7.3 The Chairperson of the Membership Committee will certify the membership status of all nominees.

Section 7.4 Only Individual Members paid in full by the March general meeting will be permitted to accept nominations for office.

Section 7.5 The election of Officers will be held annually at the May general meeting general meeting the month after the nominating meeting.

Section 7.6 The newly-elected officers shall be installed at the June meeting general meeting following elections.

Section 7.7 An Election Panel, appointed by the Executive Board, will conduct the elections. The Election Panel will consist of at least three (3) individuals, not one of whom will be an Officer.

Section 7.8 Voting will be the first item on the agenda after the call to order.

Section 7.9 The sequence of nomination and election of Officers will be in the following order:

A President

B. Vice President

C. Recording Secretary

D. Corresponding Secretary

E. Treasurer

F. Sergeant-at-Arms

G. Trustee Trustees

ARTICLE VIII - TERMS OF OFFICE

Section 8. The terms of office will be for one (1) calendar year, commencing upon the adjournment of the May general membership meeting twelve months or until their successors are duly installed.

Section 8.2 No term limits will be set.

ARTICLE XI - MEETINGS

Section 11.6 The agenda at general meetings will be the following:

A. Call to order.

B. Review and approval of the minutes of the previous general meeting.

C. Financial report.

D. Committee reports.

E. Reports by visiting civics and organizations.

F. Old business.

G. New business.

H. Adjournment.

Note: Strikeout "example" words are deleted, Underline "example" words are inserted

JUST A FEW MINUTES...

October 1, 2003 General Meeting

The meeting began with president Kevin Smith announcing an additional Board change with Peggy Ingram to assume the position of Recording Secretary. Nancy Hudecki is the Sergeant-at-Arms. The minutes of the previous month's meeting were noted in the Newsletter and a Motion was made to accept the minutes.

Zoning items were discussed, specifically 358-74 Shurs Lane where there is opposition to the developer's plan for nine condominiums because of inadequate parking spaces. Roy Hiser then addressed the group about his proposal for a single family house near the Old Manayunk Club. There were no objections for his request for zoning relief to accommodate his side-yard setback. A decision is still pending regarding the Connelly Container site although we lost our appeal regarding the Venice Island development. We have the option of further appeal to the PA Supreme Court but this is still being evaluated. Kevin asked for volunteers to participate in a committee to consider restricting development of new restaurants from Shurs Lane to Leverington Ave. We would be working with WNCA to draft a new plan as the previous guidelines have partially expired.

Fran Burns, the Assistant to the Managing Director, and Councilman Nutter joined the group to talk about the CLIP program and how this might be adapted to meet some of our needs regarding trash and problems when homeowners neglect their properties. Councilman Nutter talked about how CLIP got started in Councilwoman Krajewski's Northeast District. There is support to have a citywide expansion of the program but nothing is planned at this time. Ms. Burns described how CLIP is funded with NTI dollars and concentrates on exterior problems such as weeds and trash. The focus is on abatement with fines to homeowners for noncompliance and ultimately problems being corrected by the City but at the owner's expense. NTI works on a larger scale and addresses economic development issues such as unsafe and abandoned houses. Councilman Nutter said that thus far he's had no response to his requests to City Administration to have CLIP (or a modification) implemented in the 4th District. There was also discussion about noise problems particularly from certain bars on and around Main Street. Castle Roxx, a fairly new bar at Shurs and Cresson was recently raided and closed because of code violations. Councilman Nutter encouraged us to develop a list of our own needs around these issues and send information to him as well as to the Managing Director.

The last item of business was an announcement by Kevin Smith noting that there is a proposal to expand the MNC Board by adding four more Trustees. This would involve a change to the bylaws which could be addressed by a vote at the December meeting.

- Peg Ingram

Topics for Consideration for Development Proposals

A local zoning coalition made up of five civic associations, Central Roxborough Civic Association, Manayunk Neighborhood Council, Ridge Park Civic Association, Wissahickon Interested Citizens Association, and Wissahickon Neighbors Civic Association, devised guidelines for the review of development proposals. The guidelines or "Topics for Consideration for Development Proposals" provide us with a consistent and comprehensive review process.

These guidelines will ease our work and that of potential developers. A standard list of information to be supplied by the developer will be requested. The information includes plans for the site, floor, parking, and landscaping along with ownership, zoning, and property violations and other pertinent questions.

The guideline includes four phases. The initial phase is the review of the proposal by the civic association and providing the guidelines to the developer. Information will be passed to residents through the civic meetings and notices. Concerns will be addressed and special meetings will be scheduled if required.

If the project is complex the second phase may be necessary. Modifications may be suggested or made to the plans as the parties work to come to an agreement. This may require additional communication or several meetings.

A final review phase is entered when negotiations are complete. The civic association decides its position to support, tolerate, or oppose the project.

The fourth phase is the zoning hearing. The losing party (developer or the association) may decide to appeal the Board's decision.

This is a brief synopsis of the guidelines. A limited number of copies of the "Topics for Consideration for Development Proposals" will be available at the November 5 meeting. The guidelines will be discussed and it is planned that in some form they will be adopted to be used to improve the zoning process.

GARDENS & PARKS

PA HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY 2003 GARDEN WINNERS

Mary Turtle won second place in the Individual Flower Gardens category for her garden on Manayunk Avenue. Mary is MNC Treasurer and a talented and energetic community activist.

Jill Schneider and neighbors won second place in the Community Vegetable Gardens category. Jill and Ed Hotham manage the garden, Garden R.U.N, at 242 Monastery Ave. They are active volunteers for Central Roxborough Civic Association. They also maintain Edling Park, Shurs Lane and Terrace St., and lead the monthly recycling program at the Leverington St. parking lot.

Congratulations to these worthy winners!

COMMUNITY FLOWER GARDEN

A wooden fence is being installed around the new garden at Mitchell and Pensdale Sts. The garden, across from Kendrick Rec. Center, is the first project under the combined efforts of the Neighborhood Transformation Initiative and PA Horticultural Society's (PHS) Philly Green. They supplied the fence and will provide a design team, plants, mulch, and material for raised beds.

This garden is sure to be a show place as it is being led by Mary Turtle, the PHS winner. She has been joined by Jill Schneider, Ed Hoth-am, other Garden R.U.N. members, and friends and neighbors.

Volunteers are needed. Please call Mary at 215-482-2785 to volunteer.

PRETZEL PARK

Again, vandals have been at work. The cement ball on the wall next to the park house was taken. The ball was recently repaired by the City after it was knocked to the side. We would appreciate information from anyone who may have seen these vigorous vandals.

Besides the ball being busted, a corner of the kiosk was ripped off. MNC President Kevin Smith repaired this at the Friends of Pretzel Park work day, October 25. Kevin was joined by David Nagel who scraped, primed and painted the supports of one of long benches. Additional paint will be added in the spring to finish the job. Kevin and David, joined by Jane Glenn, cut and positioned a tree trunk in the dog run to curb runoff and erosion.

Special thanks to the mystery volunteer that planted a beautiful shrub next to the compost bins. The Friends of Pretzel Park appreciate this generous donation.

EVENTS

Next Meeting:

Rick Dickson,
Director of Parking Management
Philadelphia Parking Authority

Wednesday,
November 5, 2003
7:30 PM

Venice Island Rec Center

The Council Crier - October 2003
Executive Board
Kevin Smith, President
Charlie Hewins, Vice President
Mary Turtle, Treasurer
Peg Ingram, Recording Secretary
Jane Glenn, Corresponding Sec.
Joyce Finnen, Trustee