11/4/2015 -- Board Meeting Minutes

Post date: Jan 9, 2016 3:45:30 AM

River Oaks Neighborhood Association

Wednesday, October 7, 2015

Premier Pizza at 7:00-8:00pm

1. In attendance: Jean, Mary Ann, Vlad, Rick, Paul, Fred

2. Jean said she was very impressed with Parks and Recreation for sending out postcards to residents about the Iris Chang Park community meetings, and said that Boston Properties should take note and try to follow the example.

3. Jean asked Cole to find out what will trigger Phase II of the Vision North San Jose Plan and see if someone from the City Planning department can come to a RONA meeting to discuss it. Jean also asked Cole to try to find a meeting location more suitable than Premier Pizza if a planner can make it out.

4. There was unanimous approval of the District 4 newsletter as designed by Trevor Raineri.

5. Mary Ann said that it’s important for the RONA community to get more restaurants and shopping options, rather than just apartments and office space. There was unanimous agreement.

6. Old Business

   1. Jean said that Marcelle is still working on the logo.

   2. Vlad and Jean spoke with Larry Adams, who said that they will keep RONA in mind for a community room at Agnews.

      1. Mary Ann said that she would have thought the park would have a community meeting space.

      2. Jean said that the school is moving forward, so it’s a good option for a meeting space. Larry said it’s completion would be about 2 ½ years out.

      3. Vlad said that it’s difficult to say if it will be done by then.

      4. Jean said the school will potentially serve 2,500 to 3,000 students, and may be a comprehensive elementary-middle-high school.

      5. Vlad said that there are problems with having all three schools combined. He said that he thinks they will need to expand Zanker to accommodate the school.

      6. Jean said that RONA wants a meeting environment like the one in Alviso. It’s difficult to feature speakers at Premier Pizza with the TV noise and the other patrons.

      7. Jean noted that the three schools combined into one might present problems, and Dick agreed.

   3. Jean said that about 5,000 employees are expected to work at the new facility that Boston Properties has recently sold (most likely to Broadcom), and that this will make increase the use of Research Place, creating a need for stop signs.

      1. Cole said that he spoke with Larry Peng from DoT, who informed him that DoT conducted a study earlier this year and found that the intersection at Research and Innovation did not warrant a four-way stop. Cole said that DoT may not be anticipating the increased use of the street.

7. New Business

   1. Jean said that she received an email from Mary Rubin with the Parks department, stating that the park will not be a memorial park, and that there are several community meetings coming up.

      1. Vlad asked if they already have architects.

      2. Jean said that they’ll have architects and all of the other relevant people at the meetings.

      3. Vlad asked where they’ll put the entrance.

      4. Mary Ann said that she’d like to see the entrance at Epic.

      5. Vlad asked if there will be a soccer field.

      6. Mary Ann said there would not be, as it’s supposed to be a “passive park”.

   2. Jean said that there was someone with a shotgun or someone shot a gun the other day.

      1. Rick and Vlad both heard the gunshot last Thursday, and there was a discussion about it on NextDoor.

      2. Jean said that RONA needs to be aware of the homeless, and start working with the city to get people into shelters.

      3. Rick said that with the rain a lot of people will be stuck in their encampments by the creeks. Rick said that by Ridder Park there has been a lot of gravel put down, large enough that it keeps homeless people from bringing their shopping carts into their encampments.

      4. Dick said the problem is that the city is chasing them from one area to another. When El Nino comes, they’ll drown.

      5. ary Ann said that she’s concerned that there are new tents up high between Coyote Creek and the levee area, so they’ll drown.

      6. Dick said that even storm drains in Willow Glen are clogged.

      7. Fred agreed and said that he saw flooding all over the city last year.

      8. Dick said that many of the homeless are inadvertently contributing to the clogging.

      9. Jean asked Dick about the sandbags he mentioned at the previous meeting.

      10. Dick said that there are a number of sites in Alviso with sandbags, but sandbags are a bandaid. He said that RONA is welcome to pick some up from Catherine and Gold, and to tell them that they spoke with Director Santos. The City Maintenance Yard at Maybury Rd contains some, as well.

   3. Jean said that one of Mary Ann’s neighbors emailed her about saving trees at Crescendo, and asked Mary Ann if they had spoken.

      1. Mary Ann said that as a Crescendo board member she wasn’t allowed to discuss that issue outside of a meeting, but that she could take the issue with her to a board meeting.

   4. Jean said that the Boston Properties sale was probably to Broadcom.

8. Mary Ann said that the City and Irvine has done some work with the medians. They put drought resistant plants on the pavers in a manner that was very meticulous and very beautiful. Mary Ann said that she thought it was very important to have it uniform, and that the City should do it all the way up and down the street.

Minutes taken by Cole Niblett