Welcome by Barry Glassman, President
Committee Reports & Introductions
Garden Tour – Tickets on sale $8 in advance; $10 day of the tour at the White House.
Green Committee – Still have grocery tote bags for sale - $1.50 each.
New Neighbor Introductions
Voting – Only paid-in-full members in good standing can vote
Flea Market – The spring flea market was a success; took place on the rain date and every volunteer that had signed up showed up on the following week. It was a fabulous day for everyone – there were over 150 vendors. At least 21 have signed up already for the fall flea market.
Mural Project – The final drawing is in. They are now starting the fund-raising phase. BHA supports the mural, but has not made any financial commitments. It is going to be on the wall facing Castle St. Park. Their fund-raising target is $35,000.
Karli Swift – The Mayor’s Office of Neighborhoods – There will be a meeting on June 12th from 6pm to 8pm at Commodore John Rogers Elementary School to announce details of the plan to relocate a homeless shelter in the rec center there. It will be overnight only –with the people being bussed in and out. There will be police presence, and there will be discussion around increasing the social services in the area. There will be about 100 beds.
Dave Holmes – He wanted to update everyone on the status of the property that used to be Chapel NPD, but was unable to attend this meeting. Instead he gave a presentation to the Executive Committee. The notes from that meeting are available on the yahoo chat room.
- The purpose of the meeting is to share information about Residential Parking Permits (RPP) and angle parking.
- There will not be a vote for or against either one. Tonight we will be voting on what we will be voting on. The actual voting will take place by petition.
- There will be a petition passed among the proposed affected blocks. If more than 60% of the residents of each block agree, it will be eligible to have angle parking.
- There will be a separate petition passed to the entire neighborhood. If more than 60% of all residents of the neighborhood approve it, the city will come do a study to determine if we are eligible for RPP.
Angle Parking
- The affected streets will be one-way, with angle parking on one side and parallel parking on the other side.
- It is proposed (based on the city plats) that BH will pick up an additional 131 spaces by implementing angle parking on the proposed streets. (There was discussion later at the meeting that led to the agreement that it would probably be less than 131 additional spaces.)
- Upper Fells Point and Fells Prospect are both participating in the angle parking study.
- The affected streets: Fairmount (will be westbound), Chester (will be southbound), and Collington (will be northbound). Outside of BH, they are considering Ann St., Gough and Bank.
- Some aspects of reverse angle parking:
- Hampden loves it – anecdotal
- Safer to pull out forward than back out
- Headlights don’t shine directly on houses
- If you back in you can unload the back of the car easier.
- It is more disruptive to traffic while you are backing into the space.
- The Neighborhood Design Center will work with us on the landscaping aspects of angle parking
Questions:
- What about lines for parallel parking? They would have to be 22’ apart to accommodate large cars and would probably result in an actual lose of spaces.
- Would there be lines for angle? Yes.
- The parking committee plans to discuss the possibility of a city law to limit the parallel spaces to compact cars, having the larger cars parking in the angle spaces.
- Suggestion to do the survey again (it has been done several times in the past). Can we get the city engineers to come to assess the neighborhood? Yes, they will come out when we decide if we are going to proceed with angle parking.
- If the city has an exemption to parking closer to the corners than in other areas of the state, why do we have No Parking signs closer than required to the corners? The committee can do a survey of the signs that are “illegal” and notify the city. However you still can’t park past the face of a building.
- Why is there still a bus stop on Baltimore St. when the bus no longer stops there? Maybe for Hopkins’ shuttle? No, it doesn’t stop there either. Barry will look into it.
- How can we alert the parking committee to the potentially dangerous parking spaces? E-mail Barry or William White.
- What is the time frame for implementation? It depends on the number of volunteers to pass the petitions. If it passes it will be two months for the city to implement. What about line painting during winter? They can paint until November or December depending on the weather.
Residential Permit Parking
- We are the only neighborhood currently considering it.
- We must petition the Parking Authority to do a study.
- We tell them exactly what we want (that’s the voting tonight). Then if 60% of the residents of the whole neighborhood agree by signing the petition, the city will survey the neighborhood.
- The survey will take place every two hours during the time period we specify. They will look at every car on every block. They will compare the drivers’ licenses to the registered addresses. If 80% of the available parking spaces are used for a good part of the day and 25% of the parked vehicles are non-BH residents, they will determine that we are eligible for RPP.
Questions:
-
- Who is parking here? Hopkins employees, teachers, construction workers. There is also cascading from other neighborhoods.
- Are any of the aspects not guaranteed if we vote on them? Perhaps only the number of hours for visitor passes.
- Do the hours of the survey mirror our request? Yes.
- Is there a cost for the permits? Yes, $20 per car per year.
- When the survey happens who gets to vote/sign? There is one vote per residence – whoever answers the door of each residence.
- What if no one is at home? The volunteers will return later. Barry’s goal is to get 70% approval from the neighborhood for this.
- Is there a benefit to doing one (angle or RPP) before the other? The committee doesn’t think so.
- There used to be a provision that if you did angle parking you could not also do RPP. Does that still exist? No.
- Each residence gets up to 4 decals – one for each BH registered car and requires a drivers’ license. Also eligible – those with proof that applicant is in the military service or a student.
- What about rental properties? Each unit is a legal residence (as long as it is zoned that way). Applicants in rental properties must have a lease.
- Why 4 – that seems high? We may be able to vote on a smaller number. (later determined to be not true)
- What is the actual number of households in Butchers Hill? 800
- If I don’t have a decal (or a visitor’s pass) and I park right in front of my house will I get a ticket? Yes.
- We will vote for effective hours.
- We will vote on 0,1 or 2 visitor passes per residence.
- Non-residents can only park for two hours. We can ask the city for a different number of hours – 2, 3 or 4.
- What about residences where no one owns a car? They won’t be able to get decals, but can get visitor’s passes.
- If we had RPP for Monday through Sunday it would be an intrusion on people’s personal lives.
- What about local restaurants? Salt is not in BH so some of their parking not affected. Reilly’s are not concerned.
- What about park events like the flea market? People would not be able to park all day in Butchers Hill without getting a ticket?
- Look at the judgment for the entire year and neighborhood, not special cases.
- What is enforcement? What is the “tightness”? We don’t know.
- Can we get all-day or one-day passes? The committee will look into it.
- What about churches on Sundays? We assume they can get placards.
- Doesn’t four hours defeat the purpose? Still limits the all-day parkers, the workers.
- Can people just move their car a few feet to “start the clock over”? Not sure – in Fell’s Point you can’t park in the same zone.
- Will Hopkins supply parking for their employees or their construction personnel? No.
- What do we know about the affects in other neighborhoods? Anecdotal seems to be that some like it and some don’t like it.
- Does the Hopkins shuttle run on the weekends? No.
- The eligibility for decals is lowered for each usable off-street space / garage. It is enforced by the city – each applicant signs an affidavit saying they don’t have usable off-street parking.
- Roger (The Blue Door) has a special circumstance in that the city requires him to provide parking for his guests – but will that mean that he can’t get any decals for himself? This will be addressed on an individual basis.
- If approved, you will be able to apply for your decal and visitor’s passes on-line. The Parking Authority will being them to the neighborhood to deliver.
- Can you apply on-line every year? Yes.
- If we get RPP and don’t like it, how can we get rid of it?
- Is there an incentive to having a smaller car? The committee will look at this later.
Voting
Hours of operation for RPP:
| 1) 7am to 7pm | 3 |
| 2) 7 am to midnight |
overwhelming majority |
Days in effect:
| 1) Monday - Friday |
30 |
| 2) Monday - Sunday | 23 |
Number of visitor passes:
| 1) 0 |
| 2) 1 |
| 3) 2 |
overwhelming majority |
Number of hours that a non-resident is allowed to park:
Upper limit of decals per household address:
| 1) 2 |
overwhelming majority |
| 2) 3 |
| 3) 4 |
We found out soon after this vote that we were not able to change this number at this time.
Volunteers are needed to pass these petitions around the neighborhood. Please contact Barry Glassman or William White if you are interested in helping in an unbiased manner.
