BOARD OF DIRECTORS MINUTES – Meeting of October 1, 2012

  PRESENT:   Matt Ruben, President; Don Phillips, Vice-President; Steve Richman, Treasurer; Janet Finegar, Secretary; Rick Angeli; Fernando Benavides; Larry Freedman; Erika Goldberg; Lystra Harris; Irene Lambrou; Katrina Mansfield; Chris Somers; Anne WagingerABSENT:     Michael Coyne, Josh UpinThe meeting was called to order by the President at 7:04 p.m.Motion: By Steve Richman, seconded by Fernando Benavides:“To approve the minutes of the September Board meeting as presented.”Passed 10-0-1President’s Report: Matt Ruben: written report attached and reviewed.Matt also reported on a developer's request for support of his request to rent PennDot space on 2nd Street for condo parking.Motion: By Janet Finegar, seconded by Fernando Benavides: "To reiterate to the developer that, as per our existing Spring Garden plan, we cannot support parking on that space."Passed 11-0-0Treasurer's Report: Steve Richman: written report and proposed budget distributed and reviewed.Motion: By Janet Finegar, seconded by Rick Angeli. “To accept the Treasurer's report as presented.”Passed 11-0-0Motion: By Anne Waginger, seconded by Rick Angeli. "To eliminate the separate bank account for Board donations and move those funds to the General Fund account, but to continue tracking Board donations so as to be able to demonstrate Board buy-in to funders."Passed 11-0-0Motion: By Kat Mansfield, seconded by Rick Angeli. "To accept the proposed FY2013 budget as presented."Passed 11-0-0Business Association Liaison, Casino, Education, Election, Environment, Neighborhood Plan, Operations, Townwatch, Recycling, and Urban Design Committees: No reports.Clean and Green Committee Report: Erika Goldberg.Erika reported that there are street tree plantings coming up on November 10-11. Street tree orders for the spring need to be in soon; yard trees are also being offered through a separate program. The request for trees for Madison Memorial park was declined by the street tree program, but we are pursuing trees through the yard tree program.Motion: By Don Phillips, seconded by Steve Richman. "To approve the payment of $20 a week to the private contractor Larry already employs to clean his block of 2nd Street to remove trash from Madison Memorial Park each week on Friday. Funds for this shall be taken from the money budgeted for maintenance of Madison Memorial."Passed 11-0-0Rick reported that E-waste raised $550 in donations in addition to removing a large quantity of electronic waste from the neighborhood and from the CC basement as well.Community Center Committee Report: Larry Freedman.Larry reported that the garage renovation is finished and that NLMailbox Store has moved in as of today. The project came in slightly under budget and on time. Matt reported to the board on the progress of working with Council President Clarke on the Community Center project as a whole.Fundraising Committee Report: Rick Angeli.There was some discussion of the annual appeal. Kat volunteered to head the effort to update the annual appeal brochure and a goal of sending the brochure out by the 1st of November.Rick reminded the Board as a whole that all events should have a mailing list for NLNA so that we build our e-mail list at all times, especially as we rely more and more on electronic means for promotion of the NLNA.Liberty Lands Committee Report: Janet Finegar: written report attached and reviewed.Membership Committee Report: Anne Waginger.Anne reminded the Board that there is a Meet-and-Greet on Wednesday evening and encouraged all Board members to attend.Don reported that the October general meeting will recognize Bill Barton from PBC for his donations to the music festivals.Zoning Committee Report: Larry Freedman; written report attached and reviewed.Motion: By Don Phillips, seconded by Anne Waginger:“To approve the recommendation of the Zoning Committee on the matter of 806 & 808-20 N. Front St., i.e.: 'We support a 5 year temporary variance for a parking lot at this location with the following provisos: 1) remove barbed wire on all fencing; 2) parking should be private parking only for Cescaphe and Tendenza. This should be for valet parking only.'”Passed 11-0-0Motion: By Katrina Mansfield, seconded by Don Phillips:“To approve the recommendation of the Zoning Committee on the matter of 227-31 Green St., i.e.: 'Please return with plans that include a maximum of 6 homes for the Bodine St. section of the property. These houses should have a minimum width of 16’. We suggest that the extra space that is created by the elimination of one house be used as green space. The three homes on American St. should not protrude on to sidewalk.'”Passed 11-0-0Motion: By Katrina Mansfield, seconded by Janet Finegar:“To approve the recommendation of the Zoning Committee on the matter of 826-34 N. 3rd St., i.e.: 'Come back with plans that reduce the height of the two houses on 3rd St. and the two houses on Orianna St. to 38'. Please include a plan for snow removal, trash/recycling, and street lighting. Please meet with the UDC before returning to consider the design aspect of the houses that front 3rd St and Orianna St. Please report to the ZC any environmental issues.'”Passed 11-0-0Motion: By Janet Finegar, seconded by Fernando Benavides: “To approve the recommendation of the Zoning Committee on the matter of 129-31 W. Laurel St., i.e.: 'We approve the expansion of the bar with the following conditions: 1) The outdoor use proposed for Laurel St. will be removed from the application and discussed at a later time. 2) There will be no live/music or entertainment inside or out. 3) There will be no outside seating on New Market St. or Laurel St. 4) Sound shall not escape the premises. 5) A conditional liquor agreement will be required for first and second floor service area. 6) Trash pickup will be limited to the hours between 8:00 a.m.& 5:00 p.m. 7) Outdoor smoking area and waiting for table area will be limited to New Market St. 8) There will be no loitering outside and at closing time.'”Passed 10-0-0Motion: By Janet Finegar, seconded by Katrina Mansfield:“To approve the recommendation of the Zoning Committee on the matter of 1133 N. Howard St., i.e.: 'Please return to the ZC with plans for a project where residents have access to their apartments without walking through a garage. Create 25% open space between the apartments above the first floor. This space will provide necessary light and air to apartment residents and neighbors to the north.'”Passed 10-0-0Motion: By Rick Angeli, seconded by Fernando Benavides:“To approve the recommendation of the Zoning Committee on the matter of 1109 N. American St., i.e.: 'Please return with plans that create 25% open space on the lot.'”Passed 10-0-0Old BusinessNone raised.New BusinessMotion: By Don Phillips, seconded by Fernando Benavides. "To have a policy of not allowing live music events at the Community Center during evening hours."Passed 10-0-0The meeting was adjourned by acclaim at 9:05 p.m.Addenda:

President’s Report, October 2012

1. PLANNING AND POLICY-RELATED ISSUES

• Mission – No update; Don will be heading up this initiative over the next several months.
• Casinos – No update.
• Central Delaware Master Plan – An initial meeting took place among CDAG, the Development Workshop, the DRWC, the Planning Commission, and Councilman Squilla. Another meeting is scheduled for Oct 18. Details at our meeting.
• In addition, there are multiple development proposals in the waterfront area, within Northern Liberties’ boundaries. We need to do everything we can to ensure that the NLNA has a presence at Planning Commission meetings where such proposals are presented and reviewed. Details at our meeting.
• Zoning Code – The preliminary recommendations for remapping in our area. We need to review them. Details at our meeting.

2. FUNDRAISING/FINANCES/ADMINISTRATION

• Administration – Updates in Treasurer’s and committee reports.
• Budget and Finances – It is anticipated that we will be voting on the final FY2013 budget at our meeting, which also marks the beginning of the new Fiscal Year.
• Events – I would like to briefly discuss the possibility of reviving the neighborhood flea market, perhaps as a 2nd St event in the spring or fall of 2013.
• Spring Garden Greenway – We are awaiting a final invoice from PIDC so we can make the final payment for the Madison Park project.

3. DEVELOPMENT ISSUES AND DEVELOPER RELATIONS

• Tower Investments – No update. Several outstanding issues, but we haven’t yet resolved any. In addition, Tower has put the American St. town homes up for sale, all as a single unit.
• Finnegan’s Wake – As everyone knows, the Mayor vetoed the Spring Garden bill on Sep 11, and Council overrode it on Sep 13. It appears we will soon be getting a revised proposal from Finnegan’s, and if so, it likely will be presented to the community at the October Zoning meeting.
• Club Aura – No update; we’ve received some noise complaints, and some allegations that live entertainment (e.g. dancing) is still happening there.
• Sound Garden – A new all-ages, BYOB nightclub is in the process of opening at Delaware and Spring Garden, in the old Egypt and Solo space. Their Special Assembly permit has been denied, and they are operating pending an appeal. We will likely hear from them formally at the October Zoning meeting.
• Parking – With Ira Upin’s help we’ve solved some parking issues on 2nd St. We’re still working on outdated no-parking signs on the 400 block of Brown St. Details at our meeting.

4. OUTREACH/EVENTS/GENERAL MEETINGS

• General Meetings – The September GM was sparsely attended. I am hoping to have someone from the Office of Property Assessment come to the October GM and do a session on property taxes, which should get people out.

5. COMMUNICATION AND PUBLICITY

• Internet – The email list has topped 1900. A reminder to board members to join the NLNA’s Facebook group if they have not done so already, and to post to it.
• Web site – The new web site is working well, with few if any major problems. However, I believe there are still two remaining issues: (1) The absence of the Liberty Lands calendar; (2) the lack of login credentials for committee chairs wanting to maintain their pages, and for me and anyone else who we feel should have authority to modify the front page.
• Committee chairs should be connecting with Katrina ASAP to get login access to your committee pages.

6. OTHER ITEMS

• Board Polls – Ratification of any online or online board polls since last month’s board meeting.

Finance Committee Minutes

September 20th 2012.Present:  Steve Richman, Michael Coyne, Don Phillips, Fernando BenavidesThe meeting started at 7pm.Michael had set up an appointment with a prospective accountant (Joe Brunner), enabling us to interview him. He arrived soon thereafter. Mr. Brunner appears to be quite personable, competent and straight forward. Prior to this meeting Michael had made available to him copies of our financials, enabling us to raise some questions, and for him to make some observations.

• He mentioned he had never filed forms 990 in PA, but was familiar with them in NJ, thus this would present no problem for him.
• He believes we should have also filed forms 990 T (unrelated  business income) regarding rental income. Not an issue to the City, but to the IRS.
• Requested to see copies of depreciation schedule for apartments (feels it should be part of our filing)
• We asked about the need to file form BCO 10 with the State (which another accountant had already suggested we need to do so). He was not aware and told us would check and revert.
• He observed some $4,431 related to Liberty Lands and asked us to comment on it (he felt we may need to pay interest on this-per IRS-). We did not have the details on hand and told him we would review and revert.
• He estimated his fees in the area of $1,500/ $2,000 PA to file for 990 plus a compilation. If an audit would be needed he estimated his fees would be $2,000. If there would be a need to communicate / meet with the IRS on our behalf he estimated this at $ 150 per hour. He underlined that he and his partner were reasonable and did not charge hourly fees to their clients like lawyers do, I.E as soon as they pick up the phone.

We told him we would revert to him, with our Board’s decision, whether to hire him or not, within a few weeks.After he left we briefly discussed him . We feel he is knowledgeable on the accounting needs of a non-for profit entity such as ours. His fees are certainly more reasonable that those quoted to us by other firms, and more in line with our budget.In the time left we discussed our budget and a few adjustments that may still be necessary, mostly related to the Spring Garden Greenway Project and the $60,000 that remain to be paid, but for which we still do not have any invoices. Steve may need to re-book it as “unpaid” if this issue cannot be clarified in time.The meeting ended at 8pm.

Liberty Lands Board ReportOctober 2012

•  The music fest was rained out after a single band got to play. But the rib fest happened and we still made nearly $1,200 from it. Not even the very worst fall we've ever had.

• This has been a season of dealing with homeless people at the park. There are a few who are okay – pretty good about staying invisible and not leaving their things at the park during the day, which we absolutely require. And then there is a couple who are NOT good about taking their stuff away, who are kind of creepy, and who we've just discovered have also been leaving heroin works at the park. Seth has called the police on them once already and we'll put in a roll call complaint about them. The man of this couple may be the “aggressive panhandler” who has been mentioned on nl.org a few times. Suggestions for additional or better actions to take will be gratefully accepted.
• I'm also hearing more lately about off-leash dogs at the park. I cannot tell if there are actually MORE dogs, the dogs are being allowed to run more freely, the dogs are being allowed to run during hours that more people are there, or it's just that I'm hearing more about it. But the Liberty Lands militia apparently needs to do more confronting of dog owners for a while to bring the situation back down again.
• As often happens by this time of year, it's weedy at Liberty Lands (despite the weekly efforts of the small but stalwart Weeders Club: those efforts continue every Saturday from 9-11). Jen will urge the community gardeners to do cleanup before the weeds. . . especially morning glories. . . set seed.
• There are a lot of small unfinished projects around the park that we need to get done this fall. The October steering committee meeting will probably include making a list of them. We have not yet made a full plan for the November playground overhaul.
• But there is good news: Ken got the potty light working correctly!
• PHS is helping us out with funds to get the Laurel Street annex garden finished – wood for the garden beds and gardening soil. The work to get that done will happen in late October.
• A group of young mothers have taken over planning and management of the Fall Festival, to the delight of the old mothers who had been doing it and are tired of it.
• Schectman tree service, who does our winter large tree pruning, put in a bid for the FY13 work of $1,280, below the $1,650 we'd budgeted for that work. They will prune and clean up the 3rd Street trees, limbing them up and removing dead and dying branches, and chip the debris, including any extra limbs  we have around the park and want to get rid of.
• A change in the PHS parks support program – moving the program to the city parks department – means that Liberty Lands will not be eligible for grants through them from now on. We have, however, been grandfathered in for “Love Your Park” day support for another year, so we will continue to receive tools and trash pickup for the next two workdays.
• Upcoming events:- Oct. 20 & 21 — Topsoil moving for Laurel St. annex- Oct. 22 — PHS build of Laurel St. annex- Oct. 27, 1-5 pm — Fall Festival- Nov. 12 through 17 — PLAYGROUND CLOSED FOR OVERHAUL- Nov. 17 — Fall For Your Park – Mulch spreading workday

• Board Action: Suggestions for dealing with the homeless couple.

NLNA October Zoning Committee Meeting(postponed to Nov. 5, 2012)

 Present: Larry, Charlie Abdo, Joe Mikuliak, Renee Ermilio, Chris Ricchetti, Tim McDonald, Sharon RichmanAbsent: Jonathan Sher, Mike Simons

1. 227-31 Green St. – CMX2 – David Perlman. Return visit with a proposal for 10 single-family dwellings. Proposed:10 single family residences – 7 fronting Bodine – 3 fronting American St. Average footprint – 35 x 15 first floor – 38 x 15 upper floors. Height - 38’ to 41 ‘ Driveway from Green St to North end of property includes sidewalk. No yards. Small planting strip on Bodine. Property that borders to the north to remain as is (infringes on proposed property line) and will be deeded as such.Motion by Renee. Seconded by Joe:  Please return with plans that included a maximum of 6 homes for the Bodine St. section of the property. These houses should have a minimum width of 16’. We suggest that the extra space that is created by the elimination of one house be used as green space. The three homes on American St. should not protrude on to side walk.Passed 5 - 0
2. 826-34 N. 3rd St. – I2 – Shimi Zaken. Proposal for 20 Single family dwellings with parking. Presentation: Adjacent to a 601 building. Goals in the design were to provide as many parking spaces as possible. 38 spaces for 20 units. Lot size is 21,850 sq ft. 30% open space. Drivable grass driveway - Concrete pavers with grass. Paid attention to light issues by raising the rear outdoor space to the 2nd fl. Units A,B,C are 41' in height. Units D are 32' in height.  Issues: Height of the house along Orianna and 3rd St. Design on 3rd St not user friendly.  Direction of traffic onto Orianna. Quality of light between the buildings (5').Motion: Come back with plans that reduce the height of the two (2) houses on 3rd st and the two (2) house on Orianna St to 38'. Please include a plan for: snow, trash / recycling, street lighting.  Please meet with the UDC before returning to consider the design aspect of the houses that front 3rd St and Orianna St. Please report to the ZC any environmental issues.
3. 129-31 W. Laurel St. – CMX1, RSA-5 – Orest Poslusznyj. Proposal to expand the bar to second floor and create outside seating on first floor. 129 W. Laurel St.1. The outdoor use proposed for Laurel St. will be removed from the application and discussed at a later time.2. There will be no live/music or entertainment inside or out.3. There will be no outside seating on New Market St.4. Sound shall not escape the premises.5. A conditional liquor agreement will be required for first and second floor service area.6. Trash pickup will be limited to the hours between 8:00AM & 5:00pm.7. Outdoor smoking area and waiting for table area will be limited to New Market St.8. There will be no loitering outside and at closing time.
4. 1133 N. Howard St. – CMX2 – Eric Quick – Proposal for a three-story structure on top of existing first floor garage to be used as two residential units and first floor studio. Copies of architectural drawings for this project were given to committee members and sent to the NLNA office.Motion by Joe, 2nd by Tim  Please return to the ZC with plans for a project where residents have access to their apartments without walking through a garage. And create 25% open space between the apartments above the first floor. This space will provide necessary light and air to apartment residents and neighbors to the north.  Passed 5-0
5. 1109 N. American St. Jeremy Lecomppe – Proposal to erect three stories on top of existing garage to be used as first and second floor bi-level commercial and third and fourth floor bi-level residential unit with on off street parking space. Copies of architectural drawings for this project were given to committee members and sent to the NLNA office.Motion by Tim 2nd by Joe   Please return with plans that create 25% open space on the lot.   Passed 5-0

Minutes/Updates/Old/New business