Summit West Neighborhood Association
Board Meeting
Meeting Summary

Date: January 13, 2021
Time: 4:00pm – 6:00pm
Location: held via video conference

Board Attendees:
Erik Moberly
Bill Bernardy
Jenn Lynch
Shawn McFadden
Nicole Moore Perullo
Glenn Voelz

Guests:
Ashleigh Finley
Robin
Hans Jorgensen (Awbrey Butte NA; NLA chair)
John Rodriguez

Motions Passed:
  • M/S/A notes from BOD Meeting 12/9/20 
  • M/S/A notes from Membership  Meeting 12/9/20

Public Comment
Hans Jorgensen discussed that the members of a neighborhood association should have the opportunity to accept or reject the boundary modification process.

Items Discussed:
Update on City Council Listening Session (01/11/2021)
  • Bill, Glenn and Nicole attended on behalf of SWNA
  • Bill was the only speaker (of 50 or more) who brought up evacuation routes as a priority
  • The diversity of issue areas addressed was remarkable
  • The city will reach its goal of 3,000 new permitted dwellings, but the mix in Bend remains weighted to expensive single-family homes, especially in expansion areas – though our expansion area, Discovery West, has a mandated quota for middle/multi-family housing

Liaison from NA to City Council (Attend Meetings, Review Minutes, Report Back)
  • There is concern that the purview of the NLA is too narrow to accomplish all of the back-and-forth communication we feel would be best 
  • CC meets twice a month – we could also review past meetings rather than attend synchronously
  • Nicole will initially take this on, and will send a report-out after each meeting that she watches or attends
  • Erik recommends that the NA communicate directly with the council once per year, at minimum, either during a meeting in the comment period or in writing (letter format)
  • We may have been assigned a liaison from the City Council – Erik has requested this info from Makayla Oliver at the city

Neighborhood Leadership Alliance (NLA): Last Meeting (01/12/2021)
  • NLA meeting notes were distributed to the SWNA board in advance of today’s meeting
  • Shawn McFadden, our SWNA representative to the NLA, has not yet been confirmed by the mayor, but is expected to be processed on Jan. 20
  • Shawn attended the meeting – boundaries, street safety, homelessness and parking issues appear to be the top items on the agenda
  • Shawn agrees that having a more direct line to City Council is also important for our neighborhood’s issues

Neighborhood Association Round Table (NART): Last Meeting (12/21/2020)
  • Erik attended this meeting on behalf of SWNA
  • Biggest topics of discussion are neighborhood association boundaries, illegal fireworks
  • NART is considering creating a survey, distributed via the neighborhood associations – Erik will assess whether the timing of that is such that we could combine this with ours.
  • Some members of NART are concerned about growing their neighborhood association size. Others are concerned that each neighborhood association gets the same number of seats on the NLA, regardless of the size of the neighborhood association (for example, Old Bend is 1,000 tax lots and Mountain View is more than 5,000).

Neighborhood Boundaries
  • Reply to Request from the City
  • No response from the city about next steps in the process
  • It is not clear by which process neighborhood association boundary changes will take place
  • There is general agreement amongst the board that expansion to include new Discovery West development is favorable to SWNA
  • There is general agreement amongst the board that we can and should cooperate with neighboring NAs on relevant projects, for example, fire evacuation route planning

Outreach / Communication
  • Obtain an “All Doors” Mailing List so actual residents and businesses receive mailings
  • We could purchase one of these for $500-$1,000
  • We could ask to rent or share the mailing list from one of the publications (e.g. Northwest Crossing mag or the Summit West mag)
  • Goal for 2021 is to increase membership. Jenn will take this project on, and Bill will support.

Develop Relationships with HOAs (Goals & Objectives) – Obtain Meeting Minutes at Least
  • We have 35-40 active homeowners associations in our neighborhood
  • We could communicate with our neighbors via those HOAs
  • Bill and Jenn will research whether we could build a list of HOAs and communicate to those groups directly

Member Survey 
  • The NLA template provided for discussion includes demographics; city policies, transportation, parking are other topics
  • SWNA has wanted to do a separate survey to get a better idea of who is living in our neighborhood and identify residents' top priorities; this would give us more weight as a leadership body to express our concerns
  • Annual surveys used to be routine, and each neighborhood association would present those results directly to city council
  • The Council will set its goals for the biennium by March; we may time our survey to respond to those goals
  • ​There was support for the idea of having several questions that all NAs use, followed by some that would be unique to SWNA

Social media
  • SWNA needs a plan to moderate and publish on platforms, including Facebook and Nextdoor, and communicate with our members via our own platforms (Hootsuite/Mailchimp)
  • Erik elected to defer the communications strategic planning to a future meeting for the sake of time

Land Use
  • On-Line Permit Center using the new CityView platform (replaced ePlans for all but projects closed before Dec. 2020)
  • Byron & Bill attended training in early December
  • Bill plans to add instructions about how to search for permits to the SWNA website
  • We also have a preview of the interactive map tool the city plans to launch soon

Tree Preservation Code
  • A volunteer has drafted an updated tree code for the city, with a goal of being in compliance with the state’s requirement that the code is “clear and objective,” and that it is enforced by the city
  • The board supports including a revised plan in the council goals for 2021-2023

Discovery West Plans (Phases 4-9)
  • Zoom Meeting (Jan.20th @ 5:30) — Byron, Nicole, Jenn and Bill plan to attend and will report back

Wildfire Evacuation Plan
  • Glenn discussed the role of the Community Wildfire Protection Plan in kicking off this process. Bend’s Plan was last updated in 2016, and therefore is due for an update this year. We could expect to see the first draft of this plan in summer/fall, and spend about six months reviewing before final approval.
  • The planning update process will identify evacuation routes and develop a communication plan for communities
  • A sub-task of the update will be communication with visitors to the community about the safest routes
  • Bill suggested applying for a grant with other neighborhood associations to improve communication of the evacuation plans with westside neighbors (ideas included publishing maps and installing signage)

Neighborhood Street Safety Program 
  • Makayla from the City requested our feedback on the current set of priorities
  • Erik recommends that we retain our top two priorities on the list for the new biennium

President’s Report
  • Erik reminds us that his primary goal is to keep our work on track and our board membership solid
  • Erik will solicit input from the board members about SWNA goals for the biennium
  • We have $7,173 remaining in the budget, which lasts through June 30, 2021.

Meeting notes submitted by Jenn Lynch.