Good morning OHNA members,
I look forward to seeing everyone Tuesday at 7pm for our monthly OHNA meeting.
We will be meeting in St. Andrew’s Church — they have kindly allowed us to meet in their sanctuary. This will be our first indoor meeting since the beginning of COVID. Just in the nick of time — it is getting cooler, and, more importantly, we were running out of light.
St. Andrew’s has asked that all participants remain masked during the meeting and remain socially distanced.
We are also providing a Zoom link provided for those who wish to join remotely. This should allow for remote participation, including the ability to ask questions remotely — those in person won’t be able to see remote participants, but we should be able to hear them. Please be patient — I am not yet sure how we will have to set everything up in the church, and between masking and spreading out, it might be a little more of a challenge to hear clearly. We will do our best to make sure that those who join us remotely can hear and be heard.
Thank you very much to everyone who joined us at our first annual Oregon Hill Fall Festival, held this past Saturday. It was a wonderful time — lots of neighbors, and lots of folks from the community joined us for the event. It really was a great time. A special thank you to our OHNA Secretary Harrison Moenich for organizing this terrific event. I don’t know about you, but I am already looking forward to next year.
We will share more thanks shortly to our many volunteers and sponsors, along with photographs of the prize-winners from the house decorating contest.
I have attached to this email
1. the agenda for the 26 October meeting (also pasted in below),
2. the minutes for the September meeting,
We look forward to seeing everyone tomorrow evening.
Thanks,
Bryan
Monthly Meeting Agenda
Tuesday 26 October 2021
7:00PM
Location: St. Andrew’s Church
Topic: OHNA monthly meeting for October
Time: Oct 26, 2021 07:00 PM Eastern Time (US and Canada)
St. Andrew’s Church has kindly allowed us to use the church for this meeting. It will be our first time indoors in almost two years!
They ask that all participants remain masked and socially distanced during the meeting.
We ask that invited guests limit their presentations to no more than 5 minutes.
We ask that questions, comments, and suggestions be kept to no more than 3 minutes.
This meeting will be recorded.
(Editor’s note: Contact OHNA over email at ohnarva@gmail.com for Zoom meeting information)
Welcome
· Treasurer’s Report
Community Updates:
1. Lt. Brian Robinson, City of Richmond Police Section Lt, 4th Precinct
2. Officer Luke Schrader, Police Liaison, VCU
3. Mr. Tito Luna, VCU Liaison
4. Ms. Stephanie Lynch, 5th District Councilperson
5. Ms. Colette McEachin, Richmond Commonwealth’s Attorney
Updates
1. Proposed all-way stops on South Pine Street at its intersection with China Street (at Open High School) and South Pine Street at its intersection with Albemarle Street
· It appears that the paper has finally been submitted.
2. Proposed Amendments to the Richmond 300 Land Use Plan / Neighborhood Coalition Update
· Move Oregon Hill from Neighborhood Mixed Use to Residential land use category (Randolph is in this category).
· If Planning will not move Oregon Hill to Residential, then change the maximum height in the Neighborhood Mixed Use category from four stories to two stories.
· Remove the clause that allows taller buildings along major streets.
o Idlewood and South Laurel between VCU and Idlewood are designated major streets
o The amendments were continued by Land Use Committee. City Planning staff have recommended that no amendments be adopted.
o It was continued, yet again, to Tuesday 16 November 2021. 3pm Tuesday 19 October. Perhaps we should schedule a one-year anniversary for the submission of our amendments.
3. Holly Street Playground Cleanup
· Thank you to everyone who came to our Saturday 16 October cleanup of Pleasants Park.
4. Neighborhood fall festival, Saturday 23 October 2021
· Thank you to everyone who participated in this event, and a special thank you to Harrison for organizing such a great afternoon and evening
· It was great to see the neighborhood turn out for this event
· We were able to raise quite a bit of money for our parks from this event. I am still tallying up the receipts, but hope to have a report at the meeting on the results.
5. Updates on 105 and 116 South Laurel SUP Applications
· Both applications were heard at the Planning Commission on Monday 4 October
· We supported the SUP for 105 South Laurel Street, as per OHNA vote. This project is on Council’s 9 November agenda.
· After agreeing at the OHNA meeting to place a preservation easement on 103 South Laurel Street, the applicant later reversed course and refused to place the easement. It was agreed to as a condition of the neighborhood supporting the SUP. I asked the Planning Commission to delay the SUP to allow us to work with the applicant to meet the conditions that they agreed to, or to make such an agreement a condition of their motion. We lost, unanimously, despite letters from adjacent landowners objecting to applicant’s refusal to do what they agreed to do. I do not see this paper on Council’s 9 November agenda.
Continued Business
1. Potential sculpture for Pleasant’s Park, by local artist Mickael Broth (image at the end of the agenda)
· The sculpture would be installed in Pleasant’s Park
· The artist has offered it to us for $600; OHHIC has offered to donate $300, perhaps OHNA could contribute $200, and we could seek the additional $100 in donations.
· The artist has offered to help with installation
· If approved, we will begin the process of location approval with Parks & Recreation and the Urban Design Committee.
2. Folk Festival update
· Any issues to report?
3. VCU student party issues
· There have been several large, loud parties in the last few weeks. There are problematic, repeat issues in the 200 block of South Laurel, and the intersection of South Laurel and China streets.
· Report issues to both RPD and VCU. Keep track of: date, time, location, fraternity / sorority affiliation, names of individuals involved, names of landlords, etc.
· OHNA is setting up an online form to track problem party locations, so that we may follow up with RPD and VCU. We will keep a spreadsheet of problematic locations and fraternity / sorority locations, and regularly report this information to VCU.
New Business
1. Potential dog park in the linear park
2. Bulletin board for Pleasant’s Park
3. Holly Street Playground cleanup to be scheduled for December.
4. OHNA elections will take place at our 16 November meeting.
The Next OHNA meeting is scheduled for 7:00pm Tuesday 16 November 2021. Please note that the meeting is a week early to avoid conflict with Thanksgiving-related travel. That meeting will be held in person with Zoom option; the location will be announced later, and a link will be sent separately.
Bryan Clark Green, President
David Cary, Co-Vice-President
Jennifer Hancock, Co-Vice-President
Chris Hughes, Co-Vice-President
Harrison Moenich, Secretary
John Bolecek, Treasurer
