Please join us for our regular monthly meeting at the SF Public Library – Ingleside Branch, Plymouth @ Ocean Ave, 7 – 8:30 pm.
Agenda:
1.) Community Challenge Grant – signing, update, discussion
2.) Water meters for parcels 1,3, 4
3.) Parcel 4 kiosk update
4.) Discuss encroachments and status of notification process
5.) Review contractor’s (CatMex) estimate for moving fence
6.) Parcel 4 construction, define next steps
7.) Update on meeting with District 11 Supervisor Asha Safai
8.) Discuss Widening at Caine/Ridge, define next steps
***Notes added 2.10.17***
In attendance: Neighbors: Robert Muehlbauer; Patricia Ris; Mary Beth D’Alonzo; Lynn Yuen; Warren Longmire; Scott Kauffman; Kristin Casey Callaghan; Danielle Casey Callaghan; Barbara VanderBorght
SFPA: Marissa Alexander: SF Public Works: Julia Brashares
ENCROACHMENTS UPDATE
Julia reported that she had spoken with Larry Stringer, Deputy Director of Operations at Department of Public Works, who indicated there are potential problems for the City laying out the boundaries of the survey the City did since the neighbor might contest it and that we might need another private company survey. Julia then contacted the private surveyor who had contacted her last month on behalf of Richard Guerrera, property owner of 55 Ridge, but he reported no follow up from Mr. Guerrera. He also said he thought there were not enough specifics on the survey to set property corners.
Questions: Since the owner has had more than the stated time to respond to the notice sent last year with the survey findings, and he has not responded, haven’t we followed proper procedure? If he contests, why would we or the City have any liability…wouldn’t he be the one to pay for a private survey?
Do we have enough info in our survey to proceed with boundary lines? How can we get someone to come out from the City to mark the boundaries? What is the reluctance to do so about?
Will the City pay to move or demolish his fence, or will that come out of our budget?
Actions: Julia will set up a meeting with Mohammed to sort this out. Scott will call Richard Guerrera and Larry Stringer.
We need to have these issues resolved before we can start work on Segment 4.
CCG UPDATES
Our $100,000 Community Challenge Grant and the $90,000 add back from Sup. Avalos have been joined together into one fund which will be active for 18 months from the date the contract is signed. The contract was due to be signed on March 1, but since we may need more time to resolve the encroachment issues, and the rains have delayed contractor readiness, we will ask to sign the contact on April 1 instead. The $190,000 should cover the costs of Segment 4 and the infrastructure of Segment 3.
We have been encouraged to apply for the Spring cycle CCG. Any money we get from that will be combined with our current money and give us a longer build out time for the whole project. CCG will fund up to 3 phases of any one project – the $100,000 grant we just received is Phase I. Adjustments to the application we last submitted will be handled by Scott and Robert in conjunction with Marissa. It is due in final form on March 24. There is a mandatory meeting about the grant process on February 16. Scott, Robert M. and Moneka plan to attend. Others are welcome. Date: Thursday, February 16 Time: 5:30 p.m. – 6:30 p.m.Location: 1663 Mission Street, 7th Floor
Registration and more details For questions, please contact Director of Community Engagement & Partnerships, Sandy Rechtschaffen, at sandy@sfparksalliance.org
Matching Funds and Volunteer Hours
Once we sign our contract, we will need to file quarterly reports about our matching funds, which will primarily be our volunteer hours. It was suggested that it would be great if we could have a way to log volunteer hours on our website, and that perhaps Eric M. could do this? This might be very complicated, however. Our other matching fund, the $5000 CAGrant, will need to be spent between the contract date and mid-June.
Fortunately, we do not need to match a percentage of the $90,000 originally from Sup. Avalos.
Marissa advised that fundraising efforts will be necessary for future grant matching funds, and suggested that we coordinate with someone from SFPA to help us with this.
MEETING WITH SUPERVISOR SAFAI
Scott and Nahal met with him last week. He is very supportive of the project, but said we could not expect any add back funding in FY 2017/18, although we might be able to get something the following FY. He arranged for Scott to contact Bevan Dufty, who is now with BART to get them interested in our project. Scott has done this and it looks promising. Additional money might be spent on adding art (mural, mosaics, etc) to our project.
OTHER UPDATES
Parcel 1 Irrigation System: on hold due to weather
Parcel 4 Kiosk: on hold due to weather and resultant work back log
CatMex Estimate for Fence Removal: this has been written into the grant consolidation (or the City might pay for it?)
Widening at Caine/Ridge: Julia found that the person she thought could help us with this only works on MTA projects which involve street closures. Action: Julia will see if there might be someone in Public Works who could help instead.
There was discussion about how involved RLN should be in this and whether the main push should come from organizing residents of Caine. There seemed to be concern that it could hold up progress on Ridge Lane development, and that the City should pay for it. While it should definitely not hold up Ridge Lane, it is intrinsically connected, as the development of Ridge Lane will cause the loss of parking spots on Caine, the only section where this is the case. The question is how many. Mohammed said the median needs to be reduced when he did a site visit, and that the City should pay for this…as for widening (eg not needing the sidewalk, plus the pedestrian path at the top), this is something we need to get more information on.
(Editorial Comment: We have been very considerate of the impact on neighbors of the Lane, and rightly so, to the extent of paying for improvements like fencing and house painting. The impact and good or ill will generation of the community is just as important here as in those cases. There is the very real possibility that at least part of the City’s solution to the tight turn around at the top of Caine will be to make it a red zone – this was attempted in the past – which will result in even less parking availability. Yes, the neighbors on Caine need to be involved,at the forefront even, but isn’t RLN the most organized and best known (besides being the only) group in this immediate neighborhood, and while the main concern of the group is the improvement of Ridge Lane, is our focus that narrow, especially when this is clearly a directly related issue?)
OTHER BUSINESS
Marissa informed us that Naomi Kelly, the head of the City Administrator’s Office (from whence the CCGs come) needs a letter of support on the how the CCG program has helped us. Scott said he would write this.
Scott proposed that we have a social event(s) to increase our profile, rally community support, and have some fun. A party at the Alehouse was suggested and/or an opening event for the start of the work on Parcel 4. Sometime in April seems good. A tentative Party Committee was formed with Warren, Patricia and Lynn. Others are welcome to join, or help out in other ways. Action: Patricia will look into getting support and/or in kind donations from Whole Foods.
It was also proposed that we make some products (t shirts, caps, sweatshirts, reusable bags, eg) with a Ridge Lane design – perhaps featuring our native butterfly. These can be both a “marketing” and fundraising tools. Robert will look into this.
Next Meeting: Tuesday, March 7 at 7:00pm, to be held at the Ingleside Library, unless otherwise announced.
Respectfully submitted,
Barbara VanderBorght
Meeting Agenda
1.) CCG: grant signing and update / CCG workshops / recording our volunteer time for CCG (how/where)
2.) Water meters for parcels 1,3, 4
3.) Parcel 4 kiosk update
4.) Neighbors and encroachments update (request to BSM to mark the lines)
5.) CatMex estimate for fence move
6.) Parcel 4 next steps
7.) Asha Safai meeting update
8.) Widening at Caine/Ridge (next steps MTA come and look?)
Ridge Lane Neighbors 