the
minutes

Minutes of the Regular Meeting
of the Echo Park Chamber of Commerce
a California Nonprofit 501c3 Public Benefit Corporation

A regular Monthly Meeting of the Membership was held on July 19th, 2007, at 7:00pm at Taix Restaurant, California for the purpose of transacting all proper business.

Written notice of this meeting was sent to all Members of record.
There were present, representing a quorum of the Membership:

Members Present:
Bennett Kayser, Kayser Apartments
Peggy Kayser, Kayser Apartments
Rosie Betanzos, Positive Energy / Primerica
Dave Wood, Foursquare Church / HMS Services Ins.
Kelly Martin, Martin & Associates LLC
Grace Ponce, Young Ladies of the Lake
Susan Borden, JC Borden Construction
Mitchell Frank, Echo
Cynthia Merino, Echo
Stephen Stickler, RecCenter Studio LLC
LamontPaul, The SideCartel
Ken Shapiro, Silverwood Properties
Beth Zeigler, Neato Organizing Services
Rhonda Reynolds, Masa of Echo Park

Guests:
Allison  Plesset, Hardy Muller, Richard Huschett (15 Restaurant)

Speaker:
Kevin Kuzma, Echo Park Historical Society

Mitchell Frank called meeting to order at 7:05 pm and led the Pledge of Allegiance. In lieu of roll call, all present introduced themselves and stated their business.


President’s Report:
Mitchell gave the following updates:

The Recent 2007 Annual Lotus Festival, staged at Echo Park Lake was a tremendous success, attracting approximately 90,000 visitors. Bennett Kayser had suggested a fund-raising challenge to help provide funds for the event, and rapidly a total of $2950 was raised from Chamber Members, with the Chamber providing an additional $500 for a total of $3450.

Mitchell mentioned that the Chamber might require as much as $4500 to provide holiday lights for the business corridor. The Chamber would welcome suggestions for future fundraising events. Current ideas included a Halloween Dinner featuring magicians, a Haunted House, a return of the movie nights Julio had previously staged. But new ideas are most welcome.

The precise date for the Echo Park Chamber of Commerce Dodger night has yet to be confirmed, although most likely it will be in September. The Chamber sold 300 tickets in 2006, which aided overall revenue picture. It is hoped that, considering the expanded member roll, 500 tickets can be sold for the 2007 game.

Mitchell asked everyone to read the Minutes of the June 21st meeting.  Susan made the motion to approve the Minutes, Cynthia seconded the motion and by unanimous decision the Minutes were approved.

Vice President’s Report:
Stephen had spent most of the previous month in Hawaii, but upon his return was gearing up for a fall membership drive. He has assembled a folder of marketing materials and stated his belief that the pro-rated membership fee could interest potential new members.

Treasurer’s Report:
In Treasurer Juan’s absence, Mitchell submitted the monthly treasurer’s report. Mitchell submitted the Statement of Receipts and Disbursements and Balance Sheets for the month of June 2007.  Additionally he submitted the Proposed Working Budget for 2007.  The numbers added up this month and Susan offered a motion to accept the budget, Cynthia seconded that motion and it was adopted unanimously.

Other Items of Interest:

A general discussion ensued regarding forthcoming Chamber meetings and mixers and it was agreed a Chamber Mixer would occur in September. Alison said, “Go for it!” And there was a general nodding agreement that this would be good.

Further discussion ensued about the forthcoming Holiday Parade Program advertising deadline. The deadline is in October and it is likely the closer to the time, the Chamber will create an attractive advert to be placed in the program.

Guest Speaker:
Kevin Kuzma of the Echo Park Historical Society was introduced.
Happily, Kevin had brought many of the visual materials he’d previously prepared for the recent Lotus Festival. Quite a display.

Did you know?
The Echo Park Historical Society (EPHS), founded 1995, boasts 225 current members.
Their website is at http://www.historicechopark.org
EPHS publishes 1000 copies of its quarterly newsletter. It can also be downloaded in the Adobe PDF format from the EPHS website and is often available at the Edendale Library.
The EPHS has a quarterly members’ meeting.
EPHS provides community outreach by means of regular neighborhood walking tours, featuring the Lake, some of our dizzying staircases, homes and the Park.
The main fundraiser is the annual Tour of notable Echo Park homes.
The Historical Society offers workshops to householders, teaching methods for repairing and maintaining historical homes. They also publish a resource list for contractors.

Kevin broadly outlined some of the past achievements and ongoing goals of the Historical Society.

The efforts of the Historical Society played a key role in the designation of the Jensen Recreation Center as a Landmark.

As the first (of now 18) Historical Preservation Overlay Zones (HPOZ) designated by the city – primarily covering the Victorian homes in the Angelino Heights area, the Historical Society is supporting a plan to expand the HPOZ purview to incorporate an area including Echo Park Avenue to the West and Sunset Blvd to the North.

Kevin also defined the area of the newly proposed Echo Park HPOZ, which is supported by the Historical Society, (south to the 101, west of Echo Park to Bonnie Brae in the east, and north to the 5 freeway) and mentioned that the Cultural Heritage Commission had walked through the community as part of the evaluation process that very day.

Prior to the establishment of an HPOZ, an Interim Control Ordinance (ICO) is put in place, preventing demolition or other drastic changes from taking place. The only way to defy an ICO and demolish a building, or even materially alter its exterior – perhaps with new signage - within the confines of an ICO would be to file a hardship grievance with the city planning department. The ICO was initiated in Echo Park in March 2006.

Some members appeared to grumble that this was another hurdle for businesses.

Kevin remained positive though, viewing the proposed HPOZ as the best way to protect what is special around the area of Echo Park Lake. The ultimate goal is an orderly move from the ICO stasis, (which can last anywhere from 6 months to 2 years) to the formation of the HPOZ and the attendant board, empowered to quickly make decisions on building alterations and other matters. The role of the HPOZ board Kevin feels is to guide growth and change by means of a document drawn up at the inception of an HPOZ, called a Preservation Plan.

Small advantages for building owners whose property resides in an HPOZ were bestowed in the ‘Mills Act’ including a possible 25-60% property tax reduction if a home is of historic merit.

A broader discussion ensued about the feasibility of ‘moving’ houses from their existing location to preserve them. Kevin professed some excitement for moving house, but offered that the process could be fraught with red tape. He estimated the cost of moving a house to begin at around $25,000 and climb from there. He argued however, that in terms of green building, which is the current trend, reuse is best use of the materials available at this time.

Bennett mentioned that it could be possible to get some support to help move houses. Susan recalled seeing older houses mothballed outside the city limits. Kevin believed that in some instances it might be easier to relocate an old house outside the city, thus avoiding some of the more onerous requirements, including complete planning for a new site, before a house can be placed elsewhere within the city. He was aware of 1950s houses from the LAX area ending up in the Inland Empire!

Susan inquired as to whether the historical society might create a registry of suitable open lots within the city that existing homes could be moved to; And Ken wondered aloud whether they could work with the zoning/planning departments on this. Kevin acknowledged that the Historical Society could only advocate on such matters, but that CD1 and CD13 regarded the Historical Society as a valuable and balanced organization.

Kevin believed for those interested in pursuing this that house moving companies have approximately 20 houses available for moving at any given time.

Finally he touched upon the Historical Society in relation to brand new building within Echo Park. Recounting that his organization had supported brand new housing where this option brings use and vitality to areas of the community such as out notable stair spaces.

Chamber President, Mitchell Frank lead the applause.



Old Business / New Business / Announcements

Cynthia announced:
- The Lotus Festival committee awarded The Chamber of Commerce   a very attractive ‘Frog’ ceramic from for our sponsorship of the event. And that our sponsor booth was in a shady spot in the park.
- Next year a Chamber Dragon Boat Race Team should be assembled.
- Dodgers Night is still in the works, September looks likely.

Mitchell gave some further insights regarding the Business Improvement District (BID) (see previous minutes for this evolving story). The Echo Park BID will be ‘Clean & Green’ and will provide extra security and beautification efforts. Resources will be awarded from the City. Mitchell envisages that the Echo Park should aspire for a Larchmont Village type business corridor.

At night, private security would be on hand to tackle the blight of graffiti, as most of it seems to occur between 2.30 and 5.30am. Senior Lead Officer Ford and Officer Sonia supported this initiative to secure Echo Park. Kelly Martin of Martin Security Associates will be consulted on an ongoing basis to provide security expertise.

Initially, larger, anchor property owners would be approached for ‘seed’ money. A dialog with the Dodgers had been initiated and they had professed their interest in forging close community ties.

The consensus was that a committee should be formed to carry this project forward. Bennett proposed a motion “To form a committee to pursue the BID.” The motion was seconded by Susan and received the unanimous support of the Chamber.

Mitchell agreed to lead the committee, with Dave Wood (Foursquare Church) and the aforementioned Kelly Martin expressing their interest in participating.

National Night Out
Rosie, of the Positive Energy Group drew the Chamber’s attention to the National Night Out on August 7th. The Echo Park event is taking place in the Walgreen’s parking lot, from 6-9pm. The night is being billed as a Take Back The Streets – Farewell to Crime event. The event will also involve the participation of the NE Police Station. The Echo is providing food, staff and a grill.

Beautification Grant
Cynthia talked briefly about applying for a grant for the beautification of Echo Park. Funds are available for items such as street furniture, trees and flowers. Closing date for our application is October 17th. There is a workshop to help with the application process at the Edendale Library Branch on September 18th.

Holiday Parade
The holiday parade committee’s Cindy Ortiz has arranged a meet and greet for all on July 28th, representatives of both CD1 and CD13 will attend. All are welcome.

Young Ladies of the Lake
The Young Ladies of the Lake are a new group forming in Echo Park, lead by Grace, with the aim of attracting young women and girls from the neighborhood and offering support, in the hope of diverting them from some of the more pernicious allures of urban culture... Brought to you with the help of the Central City Action Committee and The Positive Energy Group. The inaugural meeting is on July 27th.

Home Tour
The Echo Park Tour of Historic Homes will take place on Sunday November 11th. The closing date for all interested in advertising in the accompanying tour booklet is August 31st.

Neato at the Edendale
Beth, from Neato is offering a class on organizing your home or office. Edendale Library, July 24th.

Film LA
Stephen mentions that there is a forthcoming meeting coming up.

And that’s all folks!


Mitchell reiterates that everyone is welcome to attend the Executive Board meetings held on Wednesday at 1:30 at Taix.

There being no more business to come before the meeting, it was adjourned at approximately 9pm.   


Submitted by:   
Paul Lamont
The SideCartel

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