UNA Working Group Meeting Notes

UNA Working Group MeetingWe had a productive steering committee meeting in advance of the Land Use committee.. Some of the action steps included:

  • contacting Alicia Robinson regarding the FOIA requests regarding who has registered for the new rental ordinance. Lots of LLC’s and hidden interest investors.
  • Contact Al Zelinka to see if the Land Use plan is in existence and available for viewing
  • Begin lobbying Councilman about the moratorium. If we can get them to say they are opposed because the City Attorney says it’s illegal, we have amo for declarative relief from a judge
  • Consider a lawsuit for declarative relief regarding the moratorium
The working group meeting included three student reps  in attendance along with Jim Sandoval,  Susan Ellen Ortega and Jeff Kraus. Fair Housing representatives were also there with UNET officers Sgts. Dotson and Zamora, Bobby Garcia from Ward 4 RNP, Christina Duran from the Eastside along with Frances Posoisky, Kevin Dawson. Letitia Pepepr and Gurumantra Khalsa were on deck for the neighbors. Hilda Gonzalez, Erin Gettis and Emilio Ramirez,  Development Director from the City.
  • police reports from first weekend with students back in session:
    • 4 calls, two cites for social ordinance,.Last year 12 calls on one night.
    • 3 parties with over 100 in attendance when shut down or complaint addressed
    • student perception from UCR/City heads up is “shut up”, uncertainty about social host ordinance
    • some students were forced to move because of more than  four;
      • looks like that’s a violation of fair housing,
      • beef is with landlord and city, not renters
    • invitations made for more student participation in their neighborhood
      • Important Numbers List passed out and next three UNA meetings posted in footer, digital file coming from Tony Zamora
      • form a neighborhood group under the Riverside Neighborhood Partnership
        • invite them to be a RNP youth board representative under new RNP Youth Inclusion initiative
      • host their own Meet Your Neighbors Event
      • get connected to get informed
        • cultivate a love of place that enhances their college experience
      • they have a say and they can vote
    • Meet Your Neighbor report,
      • still collecting sign up sheets and adding emails.
      • Looks like hundreds participated. 3 lists with 30 names collected so far and not everyone signed in
      • collating comments, emails and numbers — a huge success in terms of meeting the intended goal.
        • Not as many students as we hoped is initial impression.
        • possible next event, potluck, gathering to consider,
        • this weekend will be end of first full week of school – wait and see, so far so good
  • Letitia Pepper attended: “the evil fairy godmother at the christening” (her words to us)
    • pulled cloak off the elephant in the room — moratorium and motivation,
    • excellent history for the students, now they know this is not about them, this situation is another way they are being taken advantage of
    • Frances Posisky asked about a “time out” period of 3 years with no permits to add bedrooms. tried not to use the word moratorium of interim zoning on purpose to get a response from Emilio.
    • the framework from last meeting – not fully discussed, was discussed with unanimous  neighbor consensus of no conditional permits to add a fourth bedroom, or any bedrooms for that matter.
      • that’s why we’re storming the castle, too many cut ups, non conforming zone boarding houses and mini dorms
      • no green light for the city to have a power they don’t currently have – conditional permit for more bedrooms, could be a genie for more than four bedrooms
      • leases with unrelated people for bedrooms are not family unit, or single family, they are boarding houses or crash pads,
      • families are not adding bedrooms, they move when the house is too small for the family, only investors are adding bedrooms
      • Fair Housing was there and seemed to understand our perspective,  not about constraining students rights, but protecting ours against illegal zoning to diminish our property values, our rights as well as the students’
      • Emilio anxious to end at six. Maybe got enough to know we are not going to be co-opted with collaboration and working groups that have no hope of going where we want them to or of generating beneficial results to the neighborhood.
      • Emilio saw a show of hands, neighbors, unanimous for no new bedroom additions, message to deliver to staff and land use committee.
  • Next meeting for Tuesday the 8th. Time to be determined.  Morning or early afternoon likely depending on Al and Emilio’s schedules.
  • Land Use on the 10th at 3 pm. Need lots of neighbors to pack the room (7th fl City Hall)
 
These are  recollections from the meeting.  I’m positive there are different impressions and points of view from these same notes by those in attendance. Please feel free to forward those and any additional thoughts to any and all.
We have a week to prepare for the Land Use Committee meeting. I will synthesize them and web post tomorrow and use the points in subsequent emails leading up to next weeks participation activities impacting the future of the neighborhood.

I invite others to weigh in with their thoughts to deepen and enrich the message.

 

Principles of Community that were established for the UCR campus. They articulate our responsibility to support and show consideration for one another.  Please take a moment to review them at: http://chancellor.ucr.edu/documents/community.pdf.

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