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PHELPS GROVE HOME TOUR
The Phelps Neighborhood Association
Presents
"Springtime in the Neighborhood"
The first annual home tour
Sunday, April 25th, 1:00 - 5:00 pm
Breathe in the beauty of springtime, as you visit eight
of the classic homes in your neighborhood.
Then stroll over to the Art Museum Amphitheater for a
Phelps Helps Concert featuring
Don Shipps and the Titantic Blues Band
benefitting the Family Violence Center.
Homes participating in the tour:
1025 S Roanoke 1033 S Roanoke 1040 S Roanoke 542 E
Delmar
606 E Delmar 537 E Loren 601 E Catalpa 1334 S Virginia
of the participating homes on the day of the tour for $7.00. Advance tickets will be sold at Maschino’s Home Express (1715 S Campbell), Head Rage (1119 S Kings), The Thicket (1856 E Cinderella), Tall Tales Barber Shop (inside Bass Pro), and Mud House (323 South Ave).
The PNA thanks members Joyce & Phil Schickedanz for this event. The idea was theirs. They researched and organized the entire event! Their home is on the tour and was featured in the Newsleader on March 7th. Other homes on the tour will be featured in the paper as well, so be sure to look at the Home section in the Sunday paper over the next few weeks! This event is a great opportunity to show off just a few of the wonderful homes in our neighborhood and we hope will it encourage others to buy homes here to live in.
Annual Membership Dues
It is time to collect dues for 2004. We have enclosed an envelope and form with this Newsletter. If you do not receive the form and envelope, it means you are already paid for 2004. The PNA formed in 1989 and has never increased the $10 annual dues. We are not increasing the dues, but because of the increased costs of copies, supplies, and postage, we ask that those who can, make an additional donation. Our funds are at an all-time low and your additional support would really help us continue to inform the neighborhood on issues and fund neighborhood improvement projects. We also need your help securing new members. If you know of new neighbors - please tell them about the PNA!
UPDATES
In our last Newsletter we informed you of several items of interest. Here is an update on those items:
Rental Registration & Inspection Ordinance Changes
If you recall, the city was looking into adding Rental Registration to Midtown neighborhood The addition of Midtown caused city staff to propose changes that would affect Phelps & Rountree. The most controversial change was adding a fee to the process. City Council had several luncheons on the proposal and then tabled it to allow City Councilman Denny Whayne to hold a public meeting to get more public input. Tyson attended the meeting. Most of the speakers were landlords in the Midtown area and were against the proposal. The biggest concern was the inspections (makes you wonder why...). The outcry was enough to get the item "lost". City Council has the authority to table items like this forever. This proposal is effectively "dead".
Bennett Street Stormwater Project:
There was also an article regarding a city proposal to make storm water improvements on Bennett between Holland & Campbell. The City hired an outside consultant to review the proposal and make a recommendation. The draft proposal detailed the consideration of all public comments and suggestions (no matter how lame). One example of "lame" was the suggestion that the Art Museum amphitheater be removed and the area east of it be used as a detention basin. That would not only cause massive public outcry, park board & museum board opposition, but be totally ineffective.
The draft recommended a plan that will involve removal of some houses south of Bennett street in the area to widen the channel to relieve street and yard flooding. PNA member Ann Fuhrman lives on Bennett and has kept the PNA board "up to speed" on the project.
PNA MEETS with SMSU
Those of you who have been with us for a while remember General Fred Marty (SMSU Administration). He moved on to other jobs but is back at SMSU and is responsible for communications with the PNA. He set up a meeting with our board to cover topics such as football parking impacts, student related neighborhood issues, and the new parking garage project.
Marty knows our history (especially with the boundary issue), so it will be good to work with him again.
Off-street Parking Changes
The ordinance which prohibits parking in the front yard has been on the books since 1979 but was apparently largely unknown or ignored. Recently City Council asked that the front yard parking ordinance be pro-actively enforced which caused people (primarily in the northwest part of the city) to complain. City Council asked the Planning & Development department to draft an amendment to the original ordinance to relieve hardship cases where people had no choice but to park in their yards. The first draft was...well...stupid. It basically said you could make up to 40% of the yard parking. The Planning & Zoning Commission (P&Z) tabled it to allow staff to look at it again. Staff came back with an amendment that would allow driveways to be widened up to 22 feet in width. Since most of our lots are 50 feet wide, this would make it more than 40% of our yards. The PNA went to the public hearing and spoke against the changes. 22 foot or 44 foot (shared driveways) would look terrible with our 50 foot lots. Our neighborhood design emphasizes porches and people...not driveways and garages like some newer neighborhoods. We did not want the character of our neighborhood changed that dramatically! P & Z tabled the issue again.
PNA members Renee Tyson, Nancy Danielsen, and Terry Rowland met with Christian Lentz (Planning & Development) and suggested that the driveway widening not be allowed if the property had on-street parking or alley access to their back yards. This is consistent with the City’s comprehensive plan to encourage parking in areas other than in the front for not only residential properties, but commercial properties as well.
The amendment proposal was revised to allows driveways to be widened to 18 feet in width (down from 22), if you do not have on-street parking within 100 ft of your front door, or alley access to the back of your property. P & Z passed the proposal. City Council held the public hearing and at the next meeting will vote on the proposal. The proposal requires that widened gravel driveways be brought up to code with asphalt or concrete. There is a substitute bill which is the same except allows non-conforming gravel driveways to be widened with gravel, provided there is a border (landscaping tiles, boards, railroad ties, etc) and the project is reviewed by Building Development Services.
ANNUAL CLEAN UP DAY
We are currently planning our next yard waste clean up day. We have the same volunteers year after year and would really like to have some new ones! Please consider volunteering to ride the trucks and/or pass out flyers for the event. Call Nancy Danielsen 869-3685.
Phelps Helps
Summer Concert Series
The PNA is thrilled to announce that our third annual Summer Concert series is about to begin!
We are starting our concerts earlier in the year to have the first one tie in with our first Home Tour. Our first concert is April 25th from 4 to 6 pm at the Art Museum amphitheater. We considered our first year a success and then the second year were "blown away" by the substantial increase in the amount of money this event is making for the charities. We hope that it is a trend and this year will be even better!
The concerts are free. They feature Bands playing for local charities. The money for the charities comes from donations and proceeds from raffling off donated items.
It is hard to believe that an event that is so relaxing and fun can also be so effective in helping charities. Please join us
Sunday April 25th 4 to 6 pm
Don Shipps and the Titantic Blues Band
IN BRIEF
Your neighborhood Association is more active than you may know. Along
with the activities already mentioned, we are keeping up with the
following items:
Substation representatives meet with our board monthly to work on neighborhood police issues
We have met with the Park Board and communicated with the Landmark Board and Victim’s Memorial Garden Committee regarding the construction around the reflecting pool at the Park
We work with SMSU, Police, and the Traffic Department on Football parking problems
Monitoring Zoning & Ordinance changes affecting our neighborhood
Monitoring SMSU/City agreement regarding South of Grand
Monthly meetings with presidents of other neighborhood organizations to share information
Representation on the City’s Focus Group to "Improve the City’s Rezoning Process"
Annual yard waste "Clean Up Day"
Keeping PNA members informed on issues and projects through this newsletter and other mailings
If you have concerns or questions regarding any of these items, please call any of the PNA members listed in the gray box on this page.
We also encourage you to monitor our web site created and maintained by VP Terry Rowland www.phelpsneighborhood.org
CITY CONTACTS
If you need to contact the City regarding a problem in the neighborhood, the following list may help. As always, the PNA officers and board are also willing to help you.
Zoning Violations: 864-1068
Tall Weeds
Trash, Appliances, etc 864-1666
Inoperable Vehicles 864-1666
Parking in Front yard 864-1810
Gang/Graffiti hotline 864-1300
Stray Animals 864-1666
Parking Permits 864-1617
Dangerous Buildings 864-1068
Utility problems 863-9000
Not sure? Public Info 864-1011
Noise Violations 911 or
North of Loren, east of Kimbrough
Call SMSU Security 836-5327
City Council Listing
The Current Springfield City Council is:
Mayor Thomas J. Carlson
Zone Council Members:
Denny Whayne, Zone 1
Sheila O. Wright, Zone 2
Ralph K. Manley, Zone 3 **
John D. Wylie, Zone 4 **
General Council Members:
Mary Collette (A)
Gary W. Gibson (B)
Conrad Griggs (C)
Bob Jones (D)
** Zones 3 & 4 are in our
neighborhood
Contact at 840 Boonville 65802
EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE
Renee Tyson, President 863-0246
Terry Rowland, Vice-President 864-5756
Joyce Schickendanz, Secretary 866-6036
Nancy Danielsen, * Treasurer 869-3685
Edward DeLong * 831-5904
John Gregory * 862-6145
* Board of Directors
Donna Alrutz
Bill Bultas
Jarrett Dawson
Ann Fuhrman
Brent Haselhorst
Judy Hirsch
Kenny Knauer
Bob Shaw
Vicky Trippe
Phelps Neighborhood Association
P.O. Box 1432
Springfield, MO 65807-1432