Alta Vista Neighborhood Association

The Alta Vista/Beacon Hill/Midtown combined Master Plan Application has been submitted to the City. It was received well and we are hoping to be accepted to be accepted as the next organization to begin the process. It is our plan to have Alta Vista separated into four 4 quadrants for the purposes of gathering information. Small focus groups will be meeting in home to gather information regarding topics such as Infrastructure, Traffic, Greenspace, Public Safety, Business Revitalization, Streets, Curbs, Sidewalks, Human Services, Library, San Pedro Park, Conservation District, etc. Input on what neighbors would like Alta Vista to look like in the future is the preliminary goal of these focus groups. The info gathered will then be compiled and presented at the more public hearings. If you are interested in hosting a small focus group call the Hotline 736-HELP and leave your name and number. If you care to make your comments. Please leave comments on this website if you wish. Thankyou AVNA

By Alta Vista Neighborhood Assoc.

The City's Plan

I learned from talking to one of the Planners a while back that the planning process does not provide for the Neighborhood Association(s) to review its final version and then vote as a representative body to endorse or reject it. If you choose to view the meetings held by the city as ''committee'' meetings of the Neighborhood Association(s), then the next step for the committee to do would be to submit their draft to the general membership in a regularly scheduled meeting to be voted upon. Since that is not going to happen, the version presented to the Planning Commission will be the ''committee'''s version because it will not have been reviewed and accepted (or rejected) by the representative body. Since the representative body of the neighborhood is the Neighborhood Association, if the Association doesn't approve it, the neighborhood doesn't either. If the Plan is not approved by the neighborhood, then it is the City's Plan, with the word neighborhood attached to make it sound ''grass-rootsy''.
I am an activist in Beacon Hill and an active of our Association. I am considering opposing the adoption of the ''MidTown Neighborhoods' Plan'' for this reason. Since Alta Vista will be affected by that possible opposition, I thought it would be courteous to inform you. I am (so far unsuccessfully) trying to persuade my neighbors and fellow members and the staff at the Planning Department to resolve this problem before it becomes a problem. Any help from anyone in Alta Vista in this regard would be appreciatied.
In addition to all of this, the Solid Waste Division is creating some problems for us over here as well. If you are interested in what this has to do with Alta Vista and the MidTown Neighborhoods' Plan, please read my post in the ''Discussion Forum'' on the Beacon Hill web-site.
I have included my e-mail address in the hopes that someone cares enough to respond.

Regards,

Wm. Bender
Neighborhood HyperActivist,
Beacon Hill

Re: Midtown Neighborhods Plan

Bill,

While I understand and appreciate your concern about the plan, I must disagree with your conclusions. Let me say that we (Alta Vista) would have no difficulty in passing the plan before our membership and the reason for that is twofold. From the beginning of the planning process, we have been diligent during our general meetings to encourage our people to be a part of the ''kitchen table'' meetings and the focused workgroups. In addition, we have kept our membership updated on the progress of the plan both through our newsletter and our general meetings. Secondly, the people most involved in this planning process have been those who are most active in our association. So I can state with confidence that this is a ''grass roots'' plan, a community plan and not a City plan. Alta Vista would oppose any notion to negate or slow down the current Midtown Neighborhoods Plan.

Respectfully,

Fred R. Chavez, President
Alta Vista Neighborhood Association

Thank - You

Thank-you so much for your response. I apologize for not ''monitoring'' the Alta Vista web-site more often. If I had, I might have posted this sooner.
Do I understand from that your post that Alta Vista has the ability & intends to have the plan, in it's final version, presented to the membership of the Alta Vista Neighborhood Association during a regularly scheduled meeting ? If so, does Alta Vista intend & have the ability to approve or reject (in it's representative capacity) the Plan in it's final version prior to it's submittal to the Planning Commission ?
Again let me thank you for your time & attention, I look forward to your response and until that time I remain Respectfully

Yours,

William Bender