Don Diego Neighborhood Association
Minutes of the Quarterly Meeting
Community Room, Whole Foods, Cerrillos Road
October 8, 2000

The meeting was called to order at 2:35 pm by Laura Wilson. Everyone introduced themselves. Approximately 18 people attended the meeting, including Santa Fe City Councilor for District 2 Karen Heldmeyer, candidate for Santa Fe County Commissioner District 2 Melissa McDonald, and TC Grift, representative from Whole Foods, and Stephen Furr, the new minister of the Unitarian Congregation on Galisteo.
  1. The agenda was approved as submitted, as were the minutes from te last meeting.

  2. Karl Kregor, the DDNA treasurer, reported that we have $628 in the bank. $100 was contributed to the Don Canuto Neighborhood Association

  3. Karl read a note from Maggie O'Dell, who is in charge of distributions. Maggie reported that the neighborhood consists of about 600 households. We try to flyer at least once a year. On other occasions, we use email, snail mail, or use a phone tree, for which we have 80-90 names. We would like to expand the use of the email list, and limit flyering.

  4. Railyard - Laura Wilson. There is a proposal for a ~150-car parking area by the Teen Center. This is meant for City employees, who will be shuttled in to City Hall. The area thus freed up in the City parking lot would become commercial parking. A poll of City employees has been taken to find out how they travel to City Hall, but results are not yet known. This proposal is billed as 'park-and-ride'. Objections include the fact that the railyard is already in town, and therefore the scheme would not lower the traffic volume into the core. Also, the fact that the freed-up space remains parking does not help downtown traffic problems at all. This scheme is not part of the Cities long-range plan. Three meetings on the proposal remain: Finance, Public Works and City Council. ??? DATES???

    The Friends of the Park continue their work in the Railyard, cleaning up and restoring the acequia. This is ongoing work, and there will be more weekend activities.

  5. Lofts Project - Maria Baca of the Don Canuto N.A. The appeal before City Council was successful, and the project is on hold for now. Concerns cited were the lack of guarantees that the units would remain live/work, and not be converted to 100% commercial.
    Currently the plan is to find a million dollars to buy the property (2.6 acres), and make it into a 'Santa Fe Children's Memorial Park'. There are many options for fundraising, including small sponsored gardens, and approaching the ~40 foundations in town that could be interested. Thousands have already been received. There will be a benifit garage sale on Oct 14. The timescale for thisphase is 12-18 months.
    If the property is sold to someone else, we will hear about it via the Early Notification rules (if not sooner). However, if the property is subdivided, the units become too small for the Early Notification, and we would hear about it via the building permit process, but this can be a leaky process. The underlying problem remains that the property is zoned commercial, which sets the price so high that density is forced up.

  6. Cordova sidewalks. Hope and Steve were not present. Apparently there are some problems at the street level - things don't always come out the way they were planned - some slopes turned out too steep and are hazardous. Hope has sent a letter, but no response has been received yet. Karen Heldmeyer put in a 'pink slip' at City Hall, also no response yet.

  7. Traffic Calming - Hubert van Hecke: The program is finished, and is on its way past various committees, last one is City Council on 11 October. Money is availablle, and the Program could be staffed soon, and undertake projects before the end of the year. We have 2 old proposals we should submit (Camino de Los Marquez from 1997 and Don Diego from 1995), plus a new one for the Galisteo-Coronado intersection. Laura Wilson wants to review the Don Diego proposal.

  8. Entrada Park: The project seems to have vanished in the limbo between Traffic Division and Public Works. A meeting for a final review of the park's perimeter was supposed to be held in June at Traffic, but was never called.

  9. Unitarian Congregation. Stephen Furr is the new minister, and used this opportunity to introduce himself to the neighborhood. The current issue affecting the neighborhood is/was the USWest transmitters that were proposed for the church's tower. City Council turned down USWest's application. The other issue that the congregation is aware of is the parking problem around the church. This seems to be mostly a problem for special events, and the church would continue to pay attention to this.

  10. Leadership o fthe Association - Job description for President. Many people had left at this point, and this item was bumped to the next meeting.

  11. Next meeting is Januari 14th, 2001 at Whole Foods Community Room. 2:30 pm.

    The meeting was adjourned shortly after 4:30 pm.

    Respectfully Submitted,
    Hubert van Hecke

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