April 26, 2007 – GENERAL ASSEMBLY MEETING

- WELCOME

o Don’t forget about our website, logon create a user name and participate in our chat rooms, there’s people talking about schools, hobby’s, offering their services, talking about neighborhood issues. www.woodlandhillsatlanta.org. If you signed in on our sign in sheets in the past but still are not receiving our email updates please give us your email address again. Write legibly, I may have misinterpreted numbers or letters and that’s why you are not receiving.

- NEW SIGN
o It’s installed. Thanks to all who participated in the voting both online and here back at our April general assembly meeting. It’s membership dues at work. Morningside/Lenox Park has multiple signs, Sagamore Hills has multiple signs, if that’s something we’re interested in we can take it to vote sometime and use more membership dues to erect more signs at key entry exit points to our neighborhood.

- CRIME REPORT
o We have someone present from the DeKalb Police here to hand out crime reports and answer any questions we may have.

- NEIGHBORHOOD WATCH
Janice Hightower from Dekalb County is the coordinator for the Neighborhood Watch program. She presented Jeremy our new Neighborhood Watch signs which should be installed as soon as folks can be recruited to help. We had enough residents sign the petition to qualify for Woodland Hills Neighborhood Assoc to participate.
The program will have the neighborhood sectioned into blocks and each block will have a block captain with the responsibility to notify his charge with any criminal activity.

- AUGUST 7th IS NATIONAL NIGHT OUT
So be outside in your lawn chairs or on your porch to be part of the visibility effort. This is happening nationwide, and it is a good way to be visible, talk with your neighbors, and deter crime. Let's let the bad folks know we aren't going to take it any more!

http://www.nationaltownwatch.org/nno/

Interactive Community Policing will be up and running by the first of the year.

- DOWNS LOCK AND SAFE
o Here to talk to us briefly is Curry Roberts a Woodland Hills resident, he lives on Woodland Hills Drive and is an employee of Downs Lock & Safe on Cheshire Bridge Road and has gotten a lot of requests for new locks from our residents lately and would like to speak to address you all about some security options

- SEMBLER/KITTREDGE SCHOOL DEVELOPMENT UPDATE
o Our good friend and neighbor Gene Schmidt, zoning coordinator from the LaVista Park Civic Association, is here to make a short presentation to help put into scale the development that is in the works on N. Druid Hills at the Kittredge Magnet School Property.
o The Park at Briarcliff apartment complex sounds like it's a done deal. Now they are trying to include in the development the three schools and stadium. Those properties are under the control of the Dekalb School Board and they do not have to have Dekalb Co.'s blessing to sell the property. That is where it stands.....the school board is in the process of making that decision.

The plan includes
2.25 million sq ft of retail
4500 new housing units
700 room hotel
900,000 sq ft of office space
65 loading docks
112 transfer truck spaces

- SUBSTATION SIDEWALKS ON LENOX ROAD
o It is looking like we will lose the sidewalk battle with G.P. Dianne did
indicate, however, that due to police and COA concerns about security the
originally proposed wall along the front of the property may not be
permitted. Dianne feels that if this is the case the monies allotted to the
wall should be used to fund sidewalks and has made this clear to those on
the design committee.

- SIDEWALKS ON EAST SIDE OF LENOX ROAD
o As we talked about last meeting sidewalks were coming on the east side of Lenox road and not but a few days after our last meeting did construction start and as you can see it’s just about finished. Unfortunately it’s stopping at Hampton road. The grade of the land is too challenging to put in sidewalks the rest of the way unless they narrow the road which may be looked in to down the line to complete the run to the railroad tracks

- NPU-F REQUESTING A TRAFFIC STUDY OF LAVISTA/CHESHIRE INTERSECTION
o No updates at this time, a study has been formally requested by NPU F, hopefully in time we will see a study, results, and then improvements made to that intersection. As we all know the intersection of Lindbergh/Lavista/and Cheshire Bridge is a nightmare so NPU-F has requested a traffic study of that intersection to see if turning lanes can be extended or added and lights retimed to make things flow smoother. My guess is that it’s a no brainer the way things back up something will have to be done. I’ll keep you posted as I find out more.

- LENOX ROAD REZONING REQUESTS WENT BEFORE THE CITY IN JUNE
o Properties looking to rezone from single family to multifamily on the west side of Lenox Road at Woodland Ave go before the city in June looking for approval. Looking to put in high-priced town homes, not high density.
o Request temporarily reached no decision due to lack of resources. Applicant withdrew request.
o It cost a lot and takes a lot of time to have plans drawn up and make a proper proposal to present to the city and at this time it sounds like the major stake holder behind that move did not put forth the proper efforts to get the city to approve his requests.
o The City claims they need specific redevelopment plans to proceed with a “formal application for a specified project”.

- STILL HAVE 3 HOMES ON LAVISTA LOOKING TO SELL TO DEVELOPERS TO BUILD 9 HIGH PRICED HOMES
o From what I’ve heard, I’ve heard gated community of 9 homes and in a cul-de-sac. Lavista Park is opposing the plan. I know they don’t like the idea of a gated community shutting themselves off from Lavista Park. They have a lot of that on Sheffield Drive and a lot of those communities are their own little communities instead of being part of the larger picture in LaVista Park

- SHEPHERDS LANE SIDEWLAKS REPAIRED
o Not but a week or so after our last meeting was the county out there repairing our sidewalks. Not sure if that was on the county’s schedule anyways or if one or more of our residents filed complaints which resulted in the repairs. I know at our last meeting we talked about this and there were quite a few upset residents of Shepherds who wanted something done about the sidewalks.

- WOODLAND HILLS DRIVE SIDEWALKS DENIED FOR 2007
o That’s not to say we’ll never get them, we will get them, the question is just when. I have been told by my contact at the county who conducted the study and gave it a “high priority 2 “ on a scale of 1 to 3. 3 being the highest priority need to lean on our county commissioner now to get this in the budget for 2008. Jeff Rader is our district commissioner – he can make this happen. He has a good track record of meeting with us and LaVista Park and taking a real interest in making our communities better. Please email him at jrader@co.dekalb.ga.us. Be nice don’t scare him off, be professional, tell him our sidewalks have been requested as a “top Priority” by DeKalb County but have not been scheduled to be installed in 2007, can you help us accomplish this in 2008. There is a school and town centers in walking distance.

- WOODLAND HILLS NEW HOMES
o As you can see there is one new home almost completed at the corner of Woodland Hills drive/LaVista. There will be one more being built there right next door to it. Across the street there is now a home with a sign that says “build to suit” that will likely become 2 homes as well. That is the trend going on in DeKalb right now. Land value is so much that it’s tough to buy one house, tear it down, build a new one and turn a profit. But if you can buy one house that sits on what is historically 2 or 3 lots then you can turn a profit. This trend is so popular and some would say out of control, that DeKalb just a few days ago put a moratorium on subdividing lots citing concerns of overcrowding. Some say the moratorium will most likely be extended lasting longer than 30 days. But expect that that house on LaVista with the “build to suit” sign to become 2 houses with Woodland Hills Drive Addresses.

- OUR ONE YEAR ANNIVERSARY
o We did it, one year up and running. What did we accomplish. We have a place to meet regularly, we elected a board of volunteers to help get things done, a website to keep us informed, we part of the neighborhood watch again allowing the police to come here and interact with us letting them know we are watching and we care about them looking out for us, we have a new updated entrance sign. Not bad for one year.

o We’ll have voting at our October General Assembly Meeting for new board officers. Although last year our voting turned into more of whoever volunteered got the position and that’s fine. We’re just asking for participation. Do you want to be President, let us know, I’ll stay very active on the board. Do you want to be zoning coordinator and give us updates on developments in our area, how about VP, neighborhood watch coordinator. Secretary, etc. All positions are open. It’s not hard. We meet once a month very briefly. Go to our website and read our constitution of what is expected of each position to get a feel for it. I always hear people say I want to be like LaVista Park, I want to be like Virginia Highlands or Morningside, well step up! You want a quarterly newsletter, step up and make it see it through. Do you want to have more updates of crime in our area, well become the neighborhood watch coordinator so you can send out more emails about crime in our neighborhood. Do you want to have some sort of annual festival? Come on board and plan. We are certainly doing the best we can. Right now I’m doing a lot of this stuff. I do not want to control this thing or dominate it, I want people to get involved and have a say. Our current board members have served a year. They may not stay on for more if nobody else volunteers we’ll see how the turnout is. So think about it and come October if you want any position, they are all available even mine.

See you in 3 months!