North Linden Area Commission Notes, July 2019
- A public commitment
- Order of meeting
- Speakers
- Standing City Reports
- Code Enforcement
- Beautification
- City Council report
- Neighborhood Reports
- For the Good of the order
A public commitment
August is the "off" month for the North Linden Area Commission. So what I'm going to use August to do is figure out how to do better at covering the North Linden Area Commission meetings. I haven't been good at publishing them quickly, and the quality has rarely been better than paraphrased notes.
If you do this sort of citizen reporting: I have questions for you, hmu. How do you decide when to quote and when to paraphrase? Do you record government meetings that aren't recorded? Do you take photos? Do you transcribe PDFs, or just link to them?
The following are very paraphrased, somewhat cleaned-up notes on the North Linden Area Commission meeting held Thursday, July 18, 2019, at 6:30 p.m. at Gye Nyame Place, at 2830 Cleveland Avenue. If I made errors, I'm sorry; I'm not a transcriptionist and didn't make a recording of the meeting's audio. I arrived around 7:00 p.m.
TKTK download agenda
Order of meeting
The order of meeting doesn't always match the order in which things are presented on.
- ???
- Katarina "Kat" Karac's presentation about the Receivership Program
- Fire Department
- Department of Neighborhoods
- Reminder to turn in ballots for commissioner voting
- Code Enforcement
- Beautification
- City Council
- Neighborhood Reports
- For the good of the order
- Adjournment
- Voting closed at 8:30 p.m.
Speakers
Receivership program
Several speakers from the receivership program talked about what the program does. They work with the city attorneys and code enforcement and the environmental court. The Receivership program tries to get homes back up to code. They will work with owners who can't maintain their property if that's the case; they're not antagonistic towards owners.
But if the owners can't be found or are missing or aren't cooperative, the Receivership program is one way the city can get properties renovated.
Standing City Reports
Columbus Fire
The new Station 16, at Oakland and Medina, anticipates having a roof by this winter.
Department of Neighborhoods
Beth Fairman Kinney reviewed the list of upcoming events.
TKTK transcribe from memo.
National Night Out: first Tuesday of August.
Code Enforcement
1980 Oakland Park
Rayna Morgan: Had formerly been a semi parking lot; now a vehicle junkyard. The property owners have erected a new solid fence and gate to prevent people looking in, but code enforcement is aware of the situation and enforcement is proceeding.
2899 Suwanee Road
Jim Park, architect, spoke for the property owner came to request a variance on behalf of the property user. They need a parking variance; the lot is small and they would need a variance with regards to parking spaces at the proposed auto repair shop at this location.
The property was formerly a drive-through, which was converted against code to an auto repair shop. It is currently not zoned for use as a auto repair shop, but the owner is working through the permitting process to change the zoning. The owner is trying to get into compliance.
The property was apparently brought up by the city at some previous date for improper use. According to Commissioner Morgan that was in 2016 or 2017.
Park says that all other code items are in compliance now, but the parking variance is what's presently blocking further progress.
The commission was not able to vote this session.
Beautification
A member of the beautification committee reports that the Litter League's Lindennaires team has collected 19 bags of trash in the Weber-Hudson, Cleveland-MacGuffey region.
John Lathram reports that he called bulk trash pickup for several alleys in his area. He reports that someone he knows who hires "juvies"
City Council report
City councilwoman Sandra Lopez introduced herself to the Commission and to the audience. She's a council member, chair of Housing and transportation, TKTK look up bio.
She reports that many questions were raised at recent meetings about housing.
At this meeting, residents raised concerns about rising property taxes as property valuations increase. Lopez said that the Columbus auditor TKTK name has been discussing ways of preventing increases like this, but also said that cultivating mixed-income neighborhoods would help prevent property tax rises.
She previewed a program to be announced next week called the Land Trust, which would own the land under the house, with the resident owning the house. The first-phase rollout will cover approximately 50 properties around Columbus. This "land trust" model is in use in other cities in the country. They're starting with single-family homes but are looking at expanding to town homes and apartment complexes.
Commissioner Valita Fields asked whether this program would intersect with Habitat for Humanity's properties, which are experiencing rising property taxes. Councilwoman Lopez said that Habitat and the Land Trust don't intersect at this time, but they could work together in the future. Residents would buy the hands through the Land Trust.
Neighborhood Reports
Nothing from Maize Road or Kenmore park.
North Linden Community Watch is still discussing whether they'll continue to exist. They had "good" attendance of eight or nine people at the last meeting, and have resolved to continue to exist.
An audience member asked how residents are supposed to be notified of Watch notices. There's apparently a Nextdoor group, a Facebook page ("North Linden Community Watch"), and an email listserv.
The city did sustain the liquor permit objection, but the Oakland Park Bar and Grill will try to continue operating during the appeals process. The case is now administered by the Ohio AG.
For the Good of the order
Jazz in the park this saturday, the 20th and 27th.
The Linden Park renovations appear to be approaching completion.
Sunday there's a Cars and Coffee event benefiting the North Linden Toy Run at Dick's Body Shop on Westerville road.
There's a Christmas in July dinner at Lindy's, benefiting the same North Linden Toy Run.
The Linden Recreation Center groundbreaking happened recently, TKTK, and should open in 2020.
Columbus will host the Regional Neighborhood Network Conference in 2020. This year it's in Fory Wayne, TKTK date.
311 now has a callback option.
The Linden Farmer's Market TKTK is from 12-3 every Sunday until the first week in September, at the Gye Nyame Place location. Food trucks and pies and other stuff.
On Saturdays, the New Salem Litter League team is running on Saturdays, focusing on the 7 blocks around the church.
Commissioner Valita Fields reports that SNAP money is worth double at the Farmer's Market.
The Linden Community Festival was a success, and will be held again in 2020. TKTK check for stats.
TKTK link to the community centers that will be open later this weekend, because of the heat wave. Pools are open this weekend as well.