Meeting notes from October 11, 2011

Home Park Community Meeting Notes
Date: Tuesday, October 11th, 2011

Special Guests:
- Major Leighty, Atlanta Police Department
- Lieutenant Snowden, Atlanta Police Department
- Lieutenant Wilson, Atlanta Police Department
- Jay Tribby, Chief of Staff – Atlanta City Council District 2
- Nathan Black, Village Defense


Atlanta Police Department Zone 5 (Major Leighty):
- GT Crime Incidents:
o Three ‘accostings’ on Georgia Tech campus (not Home Park) in recent weeks
o APD and GTPD have both had undercover teams in action
o Suspect is believe to be a “brown” skinned male with a significant limp
- General Crime Report:
o 1000 block of Marietta & Northside Dr is the area in the neighborhood with the highest incidence of crime
o Parking deck at Ten Side has become a hotbed for smash & grab vehicle larcenies
o Lots of GPS and laptops have been stolen from that garage
- APD has noticed that lighting in Home Park is not good and has raised the issue to the attention of the City

Village Defense (Nathan Black):
- Provide neighborhood crime notification service
- Anonymous donor has made a donation that will allow for 25 individuals in Home Park to receive the service free for a year  sign-up is on a first-come-first-serve basis
- Cost per person per month is $3 for one phone, $5 for 2 phones, and $6 for three phones
- Neighborhood-wide rates are available at a cost of $1 per phone per month (as long as > 25 people participate)
- Aluminum warning signs, wallet cards, and fridge magnets are provided free if a neighborhood signs up
- Yard signs come with the service when individuals sign up
- HPCIA encourages people to use the sponsored service and then will evaluate whether a neighborhood-wide plan makes sense
- The link to sign up for free, while free spaces are available, is: www.villagedefense.com/freehomepark
- If you have any questions please contact Nathan Black (nathan@villagedefense.com)

Atlanta City Council District 2 (Jay Tribby):
- Kwanza has introduced 3 pieces of legislation in recent months:
o Food Trucks  legislation makes it easier for food trucks to congregate on private property
o Sidewalk Trust Fund  legislation that captures money paid by individuals to the city for sidewalk repair (since owners are responsible) and allocates toward a fund to be used for future sidewalk repair (vs. City’s General Fund)
o Pill Mill (Pain Center)  legislation that would regulate and deter the start-up of pill mills / illegal pain centers
- As a result of the high rate of growth of the City’s core (identified in the 2010 Census), Kwanza’s district will be shrinking  not yet clear what exactly this will mean for Home Park

Crime:
- Two robberies since last meeting (two months):
o Atlantic & Hunerkopf
 October 8, 2011, at approximately 11:45 p.m.
 Two males jumped male GT student talking on phone in driveway
 No weapons used
 Did not steal phone
o Calhoun & Center
 August 31, 2011 at approximately 11:30 a.m.
 Single male robbed GT student at gunpoint
 Stole backpack
- Call 911 if you see anything suspicious
- Recap:
o APD Patrols:
 Officer Stevens during the day
 Officer Babb at during the night
o Midtown Blue, APD, GTPD, & Atlantic Station purchasing Dodge Charger interceptor to patrol Home Park between 8:00pm and 4:00am
o Home Park Policing/Security “Umbrella”:
 Atlantic Station security patrols from 16th to 14th
 GTPD polices from 14th to 10th
 APD polices whole neighborhood
 Midtown Blue / APD / GTPD / AS Joint Patrol polices whole neighborhood

Parking:
- Park Atlanta has not been ticketing because can’t justify cost of having to patrol twice
- Two-hour grace period rule has been struck via amendment
- Now neighborhoods need to opt-in to get two-hour grace period back
- At the moment can only opt-in on a neighborhood basis and not a street basis
- Two options:
o ‘Opt-in’ as a neighborhood (would require majority support from the whole neighborhood) to get the two-hour grace period added back. However, doing so will effectively remove Park Atlanta enforcement from the neighborhood as it will again not be cost effective for them to patrol.
o Specific streets within the neighborhood can (with majority support from owners on the street) remove themselves from the HP-permit zone. However, doing so will remove ALL parking restrictions and enforcement.
- Any changes to the parking restrictions CANNOT be handled on an individual level, but rather need to have the support of the majority.
- HP Board will look into possibility of changing hours from 7am-7pm to 9am-5pm

Code Enforcement:
- Task force will be targeting HP in coming weeks

Home Park / Georgia Power Substation:
- Started construction on Mon, 10/03
- Single contractor for all civil engineering work – tree removal, grading, etc.
- Key things to note:
o Trees:
 Trees along 14th St and interior property have been taken down
 Trees along Atlantic Dr and neighboring building will remain
 Believe that this point that all trees that will be taken down have been
o Grading:
 Plan to drop the grade of the entire site by 2 feet
 Will close the alley at some point (as briefly as possible) to drop the grade as well
o Poles:
 Will be removing the transmission pole from the SW corner of Atlantic & 14th (Jay Hammer’s area)
 Will be adding a transmission pole to the SE corner of Atlantic & 14th (NW corner of site)
 Will be replacing the transmission pole near the drive (NE corner of site)
 Transmission poles will carry the voltage down through the pole and underground, so won’t get large football goals
- Have contact with Project Manager (Tony Rogers)
- Working on finalizing CBA
- Go-live date is expected to be spring 2013.

Home Park Survey:
- Working on compiling survey results
- Goal is to send to various news outlets to encourage positive publicity of benefits of living in Home Park

Crosswalks:
- 16th St & Market St
o City
o Installing ADA ramps  expected to complete in 30 days provided sidewalks on both sides are city right-of-way, if not (AS property) then city will work with owners to install ADA ramps (may take longer)
o Crosswalk will be striped and signed after ADA ramps are in place
- 14th St & Atlantic Dr
o State
o Have protested several times
o Progress seems to be slow

Events:
- Looking into possibility of HP Festival and Farmers Market

Home Park Banners:
- Paul Fortsen, Kathy Boehmer, & Stephanie Soltau working on banners
- Look for a survey in the near future

Upcoming Events:
- GT Football Games
o Oct. 29, 2011 Clemson TBA
o Nov. 10, 2011 Virginia Tech 8:00 pm ET
o Nov. 26, 2011 Georgia TBA
- Taste of Atlanta (GT Square / Oct 21-23)

Board Elections:
- New cycle starts in 2012
- Openings: Secretary, Events, and Marketing & Communications
- Nominations Committee: Have one person – need two more
- Elections will take place in December
- If you are interested in being on the Home Park Board or on the Nominations Committee, please email Dan Noyd (dan.noyd@gmail.com).