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Erica Pines called the meeting to order at 6:33PM.

The Jan 08 General Business Meeting minutes were adopted and accepted.

MEET & GREET

OFFICERS REPORTS

President –

Atlanta Home Show – Mary Norwood wants neighborhoods to showcase their neighborhood at the Atlanta Home Show on March 13-16. Castleberry Hill will have a booth and its located at the GWCC. We need people to staff the booth in 2 hour increments. In addition, if your business would like to be featured please speak with Erica. This is a great way to promote the neighborhood.

COMMITTEE REPORTS

PR/Communications –

David Gacsko encourages everyone to check out the ad space on rates on the website. Business membership packets are posted on the website and benefits are listed. Also. Please renew your individual memberships!

Neighborhood Relations –

GO Kickball team has formed! We are called Snake Nation. If you are interested in playing please contact either Stacia or Tamara.

Happy Hour at the Hill will be at Slice after the meeting. Please pick up your free drink coupon and thank you so much to Karen Smiley for letting us have this at her establishment!

Cinco de Mayo – We are in the process of forming a committee. We would like to expand the Cinco de Mayo celebration into an Arts festival. This could possibly be joined with Fiesta Atlanta which is held Downtown. Tamera, Felicia, and Walt will be heading this committee. If you are interested, please speak with them. The festival will be held Saturday and Sunday. The neighborhood would get the proceeds and the publicity would be great! We are thinking about cleaning up the railroad spur. Start the festival at No Mas Cantina and have it lead to the railroad where the art booths will be set up. We want to start something new and hope to grow the event and give back to the neighborhood! Another great money generator besides Loft Tour! We will also need volunteers to work the event. May 3rd and 4th are the tentative dates.

Land Use & Zoning –

Artist Market – No show

Concern of Bar Districts from Residents – Residents are complaining about the crime, litter and burglaries. Board has come up with text amendments as well as moratorium on liquor licenses to govern the bars. (180 days)

Illegal Flyers – Court date for illegal flyers is Feb 20, 2008 at 8:00AM at the municipal courtroom on Courtland Street. This is the first court date and we are the first neighborhood to do this. Only the bar owners are being cited since they have the licenses. Any pictures of cards and flyers should be sent to Calvin Lockwood. Jim Schneider says to be sure to have dates and pictures of your car to make your case validated.

Issue – continued use of parking lot to be run by Café Noir
Café Noir uses lot behind Swift Lofts and developers would like to hear if we should chain the lot. The lot is temporary, since development is going to be built starting this summer.

Jason (owner of Noir) stated “I live in the neighborhood and bring Castleberry Hill a product that is well received. Café Noir has received national recognition! I brought the valet into the neighborhood since there is no parking for the establishment. I do not make any money off of it.”
Developers – “We would have never signed on to do the valet if we knew the crisis it has caused.

Q&A –
David: Lot was short term solution. What do you plan to do?
Noir: Establishments need parking. Not sure what to do.
Steve: Take the art galleries out of the equation. If you live here in the neighborhood don’t you see the issues and problems we are having?
Noir: I never authorized any flyers. I have hired 3 cops out of my own pocket. I feel that I am very proactive on trying to stop and better the situation.
Scott: Is there a bar in the art gallery?
Noir: You need to go to the art stroll on Friday.
Scott: Jason you have been very hesitant to come to meetings. Now you are here to ask for help and support?
Jason: I have not asked for support.
Steve: When Noir first came to CHNA, it was proposed as a restaurant. Now it’s a bar instead of a restaurant.
Noir: I opened for a year and saw no support from the neighborhood. I do interior design, did Star Bar, etc. I provided the neighborhood with an excellent product. (Neighbors are saying they show up to Noir.) General manager, Tamar, replies that they have numerous reservations to have dinner and even have a waiting list.
Calvin & Steve: We were charged a cover the last time of $10
Tamar: We don’t start charging a cover until 11:30.
Bill: How many parking spaces do you have available. Is your business benefiting from the parking lot?
Noir: We do not benefit from the valet.
Mike: Parking lot is grass. Cannot have parking lot unless it is paved and marked. What you have now is illegal.
Noir: I talked with the city and they said its approved.
Bob: Can we work with Jason to work with the neighborhood?
Erica Pines: We have worked with Jason since September. We have been trying but he is not in compliance. Valet is illegal. The guy he hired was sent to court and he did not show up. There is a warrant out for his arrest. In September, Jason agreed that they will run cars to the back and their will be a ramp for patrons to utilize. The congestion should have lightened but it did not happen.
Noir: APD said that it would not work so that is the reason I did not do it.
Tracey: Do you remember that we offered suggestions on officers to use? None of them want to work with you anymore. We have real issues here. What is your solution?
Jerry Miller: We opened up the lot as a favor to the neighborhood. We thought this would help. The short term solution is an already difficult situation. I do not want people to park back there if its going to be out of control. If we allow, it needs to be secured and professionally parked. The current situation is unacceptable.
Maria (from Kingan Lofts): The litter is insane! Broken bottles, litter, etc. It’s a hazard and safety issue. Patrons are rude, inconsiderate, don’t realize it’s a neighborhood. There are even people peeing on our patio and building!
Michael: I have even seen people sleeping in cars.
Erica Pines: Business plan should have had parking.


Vote was taken on either to close the lot or to allow the continued use of the lot:.
- 25 voted to close the lot
- 2 voted to not close the lot
- 3 has no opinion

Jerry Miller is going to look at options on how to close the lot. Erica pointed out that Henri is doing his business right and has worked with U-Haul in order to provide parking. Thank you Henri!

License Review Board for 255 Peters Street Courtland Jackson – The board received notification that his hearing would not happen, but it did happen and he was granted his license since no one was there to deny him. Tomorrow at 5:00 PM we are going as a group that we demand that we be heard about this situation. We need to get a handle on the bar issues. We apologize that this has happened. Please come to City Hall to speak your voice.

Public Safety –

APD attended the public safety meeting. The meetings are held the 2nd Wed of every month at Tilt. The Public Safety meeting starts at 7:00PM while Code Enforcement starts at 6:30PM.

HJ Russell is leading the security camera project. 3 cameras will be used to start the beta testing.

NEW BUSINESS

ING Marathon (March 28-30, 2008) – Peggy Rogers (Director of Community Relations) spoke with us about supporting the event as well as become part of a cheering zone.
Events are all weekend:
Fri/Sat – Free Health and Fitness Expo
Fri Night – Concert at Tabernacle featuring Sister Hazel. All proceeds benefit Run for Something Better.
Sat AM – Kids Trot at Atlantic Station
Sun – Marathon and Half Marathon begins and ends at Centennial Olympic Park.

Please check out website for traffic impact as well as registering your email for the community update calendar www.inggeorgiamarathon.com

Neighborhood Challenge – We are NPU-M and our cheering zone is located at Randolph and Edgewood. We took 2nd place last year! Prizes are 1st – 10K, 2nd – 5K, 3rd - $2500. All proceeds will go to neighborhoods to enhance and create Health and Fitness initiatives.

We are allowing 5 additional neighborhoods to cheer. Marietta Street Artery and Downtown have their own cheer stations.

There are many opportunities to volunteer, please check out the website.

OLD BUSINESS

NEIGHBORHOOD ANNOUNCEMENTS

Any New Businesses Opening in Neighborhood

Any Other Announcements

Elliot St. Lunar Eclipse Party – Wed 8:00-12:00

Castleberry Point – Move in date is August 08. Apres Diem will move in April to begin improvements. Other tenants include a dry cleaner, nail salon, etc.

Michael Gibson has available gallery space! Please contact him if you are interested. 2400 sq ft with 13 ft. ceilings.

Loft @ Castleberry Hill – Sales manager, Joy, says they are now open! If you need an event space they have 4400 sq ft space for private parties and functions. They are looking to have an artist lounge.

Keely Butler from Atlanta Magazine stated that they maintain Calendar of Events for the magazine, please let him know at least 1 month in advance if you would like anything from Castleberry Hill to be included. Email address is kbutler@modernluxury.com

Connie inquired about obtaining more trash bins for the neighborhood? Rob stated that the process is tedious, the bins are very expensive and we would have to ensure the trash is collected by the City.

Becca inquired about the no cruising zone? Erica stated that we need to get signs posted and will have to encourage APD to enforce the ordinance. We are waiting for the State to sign off on the Public Safety grant which will allow us the funding to hire cops to enforce this.

We are still collecting money/donations for additional safety for the neighborhood.

SPECIAL GUESTS: CITY, COUNTY, STATE, & FEDERAL OFFICIALS

City Council

Jay Tribby/Chief of Staff for Kwanza Hall. Jay mentioned that he recently read a blog that accused Kwanza and Mayor Franklin were against Castleberry Hill. He stated that the accusations are untrue! He pointed out the following on Kwanza’s stance in the community:
- Kwanza represents the residential portion of the neighborhood.
- Recently introduced valet parking regulations. Who gets usage, how much it cost, etc.
- Sponsor of moratorium liquor licenses and is the primary sponsor of the proposed text amendments.
- Primary sponsor of no cruising zone for the neighborhood.
- Pro business as well as pro community
- Castleberry has more galleries now than it has ever had.
- Hope legislation helps neighborhood thrive and continue to be great!

Kwanza Hall contact info is 404-330-6038 and khall@atlantaga.gov

Meeting adjourned at 7:43 PM