HNA News: Mtg. Sat. 2/11 on Transit Village; More on Transit Village

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Halcyon Neighborhood Association E-Newsletter*

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In This Newsletter

1. Community Meeting on Ashby BART Future Sat. Feb. 11, 10 a.m.-Noon

2. Reply from Robert Lauriston to Fred Dodsworth's Letter on  Ashby BART Transit Village

3. More Ashby BART Transit Village Links

4. Free Emergency Preparedness Classes in February

The Ashby Transit Village proposal is clearly a hot issue in our neighborhood and surrounding neighborhoods. I will continue to pass on relevant information such as links to articles and notification re meeting dates related to it so neighbors can engage in the process as they choose, although our focus as Halcyon Neighborhood Association will remain on working together to improve our neighborhood through crime watch, disaster preparedness, and community-building potlucks and other activities, including children's play dates and greening efforts such as maintaining Halcyon Commons Park. The HNA Steering Committee has reaffirmed our desire to focus on nonpartisan issues so all neighbors feel welcome to participate.

As the HNA E-Newsletter editor, I also wish to point out that the E-Newsletter is not the product of professional journalists, but simply the work of concerned neighborhood volunteers trying to pass on information of interest on an occasional basis. It is not a discussion listserve or blog. Since the controversy over the Transit Village proposal is starting to generate "letters to the editor" (a.k.a. me!), I want to remind everyone that HNA has both a listserve and a blog (see the tag lines at the end of the newsletter for information on how to participate). Our community newspaper, the Berkeley Daily Planet, also provides generous space for letters to the editor and commentary from a variety of points of view. I encourage those of you who feel a need to comment on issues raised in this newsletter to make ample use of these resources.

-Nancy Carleton, HNA Co-Chair and E-Newsletter Editor

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1. Community Meeting on Ashby BART Future Sat. Feb. 11, 10 a.m.-Noon

Title: Working Together for Housing, Shops & Jobs at Ashby BART
Community Information & Discussion Meeting

Saturday, February 11, 2006, 10:00 a.m. -12:00 noon

St. Paul AME Church, 2024 Ashby Avenue (near Adeline)

Berkeley City Councilmember Max Anderson and Mayor Tom Bates invite the public to meet with them and [Ashby BART Transit Village] Project Director Ed Church to discuss our community planning process for potential development at the Ashby BART station which will  include:
 

* The grant proposal to fund a planning process

* City Council actions  to date

* Preserving the Flea Market

* The roles of a Task Force in the initial phase of the process

* The time line for the process

* Questions  and comments from the public

Mayor Bates, Councilmember Anderson, and Ed Church [of the South Berkeley Neighborhood Development Corporation] will make brief presentations and answer questions/listen to comments and concerns from the public.  The majority of the time will be dedicated to questions and comments from the  public.

 
The meeting will be facilitated by Taj Johns, City of Berkeley Neighborhood Services Liaison.  For more information, call 981-7130.

Note: As there will be many in attendance, you're welcome to submit your question(s) a head of time via email to Ed Church <ed.church@sbcglobal.net>.

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2. Reply from Robert Lauriston to Fred Dodsworth's Letter on Ashby BART Transit Village

The following response was received regarding Fred Dodsworth's letter on the Transit Village posted in the last HNA E-Newsletter (see http://halcyoncourt.blogspot.com/  Weds. Feb. 4, item 2,  for full letter ) :

[To: HNA E-Newsletter Editor Nancy Carleton:]

Fred's claim that "the planning process doesn't include anything beyond the outer perimeter of the parking lot" is incorrect. Objective IIB (page 20 of the PDF) discusses acquiring parcels and development rights elsewhere in the project area.

I don't know that anyone else's misstatement of the facts is any more deliberate than Fred's. The grant application is badly written and confusing. It's easy for even a knowledgeable reader to jump to conclusions from the map on page 27 of the PDF. I discussed that in my Jan. 20 open letter to Max Anderson.

From my initial reading of the grant application, I thought the map was of a proposed Transit Village Development District. I believe that Steve Wollmer, who's as astute a reader of such documents as we have in Berkeley, came to the same conclusion.

On January 9 I asked Ed Church whether his plan would suffer if the city did not declare a transit village development district, and to my surprise he answered there was no plan to do so. On January 12 I emailed him and asked, "if you don't intend to pursue designation of a transit village development district, what's the import of the grant application's 'project area' extending about a quarter-mile from Ashby station?" He still hasn't responded to that question.

From reading Caltrans's "tips and pointers" sheet for grant applicants, I figured out that the project area could simply be the area where invitations to community meetings would be distributed, traffic and parking studies done, and so on.

If the planning process had been open and transparent from the beginning, there would have been no need to guess what Ed Church and Max Anderson were up to.

[From: Robert Lauriston]

[Editor's Note: See http://nabart.com/ for background information Lauriston cites.]

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3. More Ashby BART Transit Village Links

There's a variety of coverage of the Ashby BART Transit Village in the weekday edition (Feb. 7-9) of the Berkeley Daily Planet (out today), starting with an article on tonight's Council meeting ("Ashby Transit Village, Landmark Ordinance Top Council Agenda") http://www.berkeleydailyplanet.com/article.cfm?issue=02-07-06&storyID=23367 and including two commentaries, one by former Mayor Shirley Dean ("Pull Grant Application, Start Over with Public Participation") http://www.berkeleydailyplanet.com/article.cfm?issue=02-07-06&storyID=23384,   and one by neighbor Kenoli Oleari (" Ashby Transit Village? No Thanks.") http://www.berkeleydailyplanet.com/article.cfm?issue=02-07-06&storyID=23386.

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4. Free Emergency Preparedness Classes in February

Berkeley's Office of Emergency Services (OES) offers free classes in Community Emergency Response Training (CERT) to anyone who lives or works in Berkeley.  

 

*           Saturday, February 11, 9-12 - Disaster First Aid (997 Cedar Street)
*           Saturday, February 25, 10-12 - Neighborhood Organizing (997 Cedar Street)
 

Call 510-981-5605 or 510-981-5506 to register, or for information. You may also register on-line at  <http://www.ci.berkeley.ca.us/fire/oes.html> www.ci.berkeley.ca.us/fire/oes.html.

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The Halcyon Neighborhood Association E-Newsletter:  The HNA E-Newsletter forwards occasional crime watch notices as well as announcements about events of interest to neighbors in the Ashby/Telegraph/Woolsey/Adeline area of south Berkeley, including community-building potlucks, greening projects, disaster preparedness meetings, and work parties in Halcyon Commons Park. If you're receiving this email, either you signed up at a neighborhood event or a neighbor may have forwarded it to you. Please note that to prevent spam, HNA always uses bcc and does not share your email address with third parties. If you wish to be removed from this list, please reply to HNA Co-Chair Nancy Carleton/Halcyon Neighborhood Association <ngc2@mindspring.com>. Please feel free to pass the HNA E-Newsletter on to other neighbors you think might be interested.

HNA Listserve:  If you would like to receive messages (and participate in discussions) on the HNA Listserve, please reply to Halcyon Neighborhood Association <ngc2@mindspring.com> indicating your interest, and you will receive an invitation to join.

HNA Blog:  If you would like to view previous newsletters online (and comment via a blog format), please visit http://halcyoncourt.blogspot.com/

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