West Roxbury Neighborhood Council Meeting

24 March 1997

Judy Settana gave the report for Traffic and Basic Services which met on March 18th. Judy reported that the neighbors had withdrawn their opposition to the gas station being build at 1465 VFW Parkway. Neighbors in the abutting apartment complex and the trailer park had voiced concerns about the traffic, potential noise and fumes from the station.

A&N Pizza withdrew their request to extend operating hours. Apparently an administrative error may have been the cause for the request in the first place.

The upholstery store across the street from Star Market had a fire and would now like to relocate across the street from the Elks property. A neighborhood meeting will be held Monday April 7th at 7:30 at Catholic Memorial to discuss the relocation. In a related development, Taylor Rental will be leasing 80 Spring St. the remaining tenants have been given seven weeks to vacate.

The Elks groundbreaking ceremony was successful. Steve Smith reported that there were lots of politicians there on a cool March morning.

It was also reported that a resident has started the process of attempting to get a stop sign at the intersection of Ledgehill Rd. and Laurie Ave. Maura Hennigan's office is involved.

A proposal has been put forth to build and operate Cafe Fresh Bagels at 5 Eastwood Circuit. This was the site of a proposed Used Car dealership at one time. The site has one boundary on the parkway but abuts a neighborhood in the back. The proposal would be to tear down the existing structure and build the Bagel bakery with access from the Parkway and no access from the neighborhood.

The intent is to sell take-out bagels from the site but also to bake bagels to supply two other locations. They would be open to the public 6AM-7PM but would start baking bagels there at 3AM.

Sgt. Roy Chambers delivered the monthly police report. Last month 6 houses and 5 cars were broken into. 20 arrests were made, which included 2 juveniles. 1 Robbery and 1 Drug Arrest also occurred during the Feb24-Mar24 reporting period. Sgt. Chambers distributed to all in attendance, the six pages of details of these statistics, indicating where the incidents occurred and at what time of day/night.

Chambers informed the audience that his fellow officer Jim Haggerty had recently completed specialized training and that he would perform home security evaluations upon request. Residents can request a security evaluation by calling Sgt. Chambers at 343-4564.

The Police received some positive feedback on their traffic enforcement efforts. Compliments on Washington St. in particular were noted.

Richard Simonson asked if something could be done about the abuse of handicapped parking at the Stop and Shop parking lot.

The Zoning Advisory Committee report was given by Bill McDonough. The Committee recommended that the Council vote in favor of a proposal for an additional parking spot at 135 Westmoor. They also recommended voting in favor of the request to build a deck and shed at 75 Potomac. Neighbors had endorsed both requests. The WRNC voted unanimously in favor of recommending both proposals..

AT&T decided not to attend the 3/19 Zoning committee meeting but will reportedly attend the next one in mid-April. The issue here is their desire to mount a 100 ft. antenna on the fire station on Centre St. The antenna would be used for cellular phones. Zoning regulations would not allow anything that high but city property is exempt from Zoning regulations. Some have expressed surprise that the city would allow it's property to be used for that purpose. Others have concerns about safety, have not been informed about emissions from the antenna and other data.

James Haley from the Bellevue Hill Improvement Association reported that the six members of their board of directors were against the city selling a piece of land to a resident who wants to open a diner at the bottom of Corey St. The piece of land is next to the parking lot, near the train station. Haley feels that the city took that land by eminent domain "for the public good." and is opposed to selling it back for business purposes.

Parkway Towing was discussed. Apparently they have not shown much good faith in backing up promises made to their neighbors. No new fence, more than the 90 cars agreed to, and a barking dog in the early morning hours all have neighbors upset. ISD will be informed about the cars. It was suggested that residents call the police about the dog. Bill Smith suggested that the Council contact the attorney for the company before "going formal", as the company had shown good faith in the past and perhaps a reminder could get some results.

New Business

Alicia's Pick-A-Pasta & More would like to extend their business hours from midnight to 3AM on Friday and Saturday. Several Council members expressed disappointment that a hearing could be already scheduled with no time for community review. Virginia Tisei asked "Why doesn't Basic Services know about it, with enough lead time." Supposedly there has been no change in the process at City Hall. Ed Coburn will bring up the issue.

There will quite likely be opposition from residents on the issue and the Council requested that the April 9th hearing be postponed until the community could be heard.

West Roxbury Crushed Stone had two big blasts recently. One apparently blew away state regulations as well. The Fire Department has pulled their permit (again) and now WRCS will have to seek an application for each blast.

A motion to adjourn was passed unanimously.

Attendance:

Joe Conran, Larry Costello, Paul Keough, Richard Simonson, Kaye Ryan,

Don Torok, Dorothy Gibson, Ed McCormack, Bill McDonough, Jim McDonough, Judy Settana, Steve Smith, Bill Smith, Virginia Tisei

Minutes submitted by L. Costello

These minutes and prior minutes are available over the internet at:

http://members.aol.com/lcostello/wrnc