1/21/2008
Post date: Mar 23, 2013 9:09:12 PM
River Oaks Neighborhood Association Board Meeting
Monday January 32, 2008
6:30 PM @ Premier Pizza, River Oaks
Present: Jean, Erik, Jim, Mike, Abhay, Laura, Roger Gliebe (Crescendo), Dick Santos (Alviso), others...
We welcome Roger, a resident of Crescendo, who is willing to attend RONA meetings and keep Crescendo engaged.
Guest Speaker Dick Santos of Alviso invited RONA to join forces with Alviso to promote our causes. After he left, the Board discussed his proposal. The decision was to keep RONA independant, but we are willing to provide support Alviso's interests when they do not conflict with RONA's interests.
The Wyse property (at River Oaks, North 1st, and Guadalupe River) is going to the Planning Commission on January 30th. The big issue we see here is the Riparian Corridor offset -- if we can make obeying the Riparian Corridor Guideline a precedent, we have a stronger argument for reducing the density at Essex/Cadence and 405 ROP. Other notes:
The city staff's response to the last proposal, in a letter.
The Riparian Corridor Guideline demands a 100-foot setback from the "banks" of the waterway, or from the edge of riparian vegetation. In the case of the Guadalupe, the "banks" is the side of the levee-top trail closest to the river. Within this 100' setback there can be no buildings, no active recreational use (aka sports fields) and no impervious surfaces (pavement or concrete). There is an additional requirement of 300-foot setback to any fixed lighting system, such as sports-field lighting. There are other citizen groups that actively support Riparian Corridor Guidelines, if there is an issue with the proposal we should have plenty of help.
Jean has heard there are new plans from the developer, she hopes to pick them up tomorrow for us to review. There is some thought that since the plans are new, they really should have another community meeting before going to the Planning Commission; this might be good grounds to ask for a postponement.
We noticed on the previous plans that the soccer field (which is inside the Riparian boundary) is not regulation-sized. There is speculation that the idea of a soccer field was placed by staff to appease some residents; we do not think a developer would propose a soccer field next to their property. Jim also noted that youth soccer fields tend to work better in groups.
Retail proposed is not substantial -- another Starbucks/Quiznos grouping. We had hoped for something bigger. Also on the original plans, the retail is placed on River Oaks, we think it would be better to have some of it on North 1st Street for visibility.
Our main wish-list for the Wyse development are: (1) riparian corridor, (2) recycled water use, (3) substantial differentiated retail, (4) nice design (gateway to ROP), and (5) high-density (along North 1st Street).
Voting Meeting Planning: Mike still needs to talk to Irvine to try to get a free room in the ex-Sony building. Laura needs to send out an email asking for Officer Nominations, especially for the Secretary position. The Board voted that to encourage participation this year, all voting member dues would be paid out of the general fund, thus effectively negating the dues for this year. Hopefully this will encourage attendance. The plan for the night is (0) Sign-in/Sign-up, (1) Introduction, (2) 2-minute speeches by candidates, (3) Paper Balloting, and (4) Counting. There was also a suggestion that we get refreshments -- not homemade ones though.