6:00 Introductions
6:05 Review of Agenda - anything to add?
6:10 Review of Minutes from August 16, 2001
6:15 Steve Shapiro, Pyramid Architects & Washington University
6:20 Review & Discuss REVISED RFP
7:05 Announcements
7:15 Adjourn
Meeting opened by Emily Andrews SLACO
Self-introductions around room, in attendance were:
Patrick Moore, Tower Grove East *
Minutes from 8-16-01 and agenda were reviewed and approved.
Steve Shapiro of Pyramid Architects teaches an 8-week class at Washington University in ArcView, a computer program that maps statistical data. They are in the second week of an 8-week course and would like to participate in a "real world" community project. Students can help map some of the existing data we have, such as business locations, current land use, etc. ArcView can also be use to map ideas and future scenarios. The class can work with the steering committee to decide the best ways to show information. For now the class will use existing data from the City and from Nolan Rogers' (Harris Stowe Intern) data collection. Steve will also teach the same class in the spring semester, so there is an opportunity to work with him on an on-going basis.
Dave Drebes, Patrick Moore and Brian Marston volunteered to attend Steve's class next Wednesday, September 12 to tell the students about the project and answer questions.
Mark Abbott - ArcView can map where people are, where people are coming to South Grand from, where cars are coming from.
Dave Drebes - Can we get data on parking meter revenue from the City?
Don Roe - Will look into it.
Patrick - How will student volunteers will fit into the consultants' work?
Don Roe - This is a hazard. Consultants may have specific conditions as to how data is collected, so we'll need to keep this in mind. However, having student/university participation is a huge advantage for the parking study. We can offer something to the consultants, and we can defray some of the costs of the study.
Ray Lai passed out the revised RFP. After this meeting, he'll take it back to his co-workers for their comments and approval, then bring back to the committee for their final stamp of approval.
RFP Comments:
Dave McCreery - Consultants need to be aware of the quality of the people involved in the study.
Michelle - Under background, say that "many" (instead of "most of") the businesses are neighborhood-oriented and -scaled. Many of the businesses keep track of the zip codes of their patrons and people are coming from all over.
Don - Should add Missouri Botanical Garden and Tower Grove Park as resource /major institutions in the area.
Michelle - Under background, say that "Some portions" (instead of "The portion") east of Grand is eligible for nomination as a national historic district.
Don - Rewrote the 5th paragraph under background to begin with: "Building demolition is a sensitive issue in the neighborhood . . ." Also language needs to be added to the RFP to further describe the business survey (under Scope of Services)
Joe Ogier - Should we include a template of what the volunteers will be doing?
Patrick - If I were a consultant putting in a proposal, I would want to spell out the workload myself rather than have it fed to me. We need to be careful of that in our scope of services.
Brian - Is the parking inventory that's being given to the consultants coming from PDA?
Don - Which will be the data Nolan is collecting - he'll give it to PDA, PDA will give it to the consultant.
Michelle - Scratch the word "maximum" under budget
Brian - Can we get rid of the word "inner-city" (under Scope of Services & Selection Process) to describe the neighborhoods?
Jennifer Florida - Replace it with historic: "historic urban neighborhood"
Brian - Can we say somewhere in the RFP that we're looking for a firm with an "new urbanism" approach to their work?
Discussion on this topic: it was agreed that most new urbanites are working in O'Fallon(!). And that we've set up the RFP so that a firm will be sensitive to the issues related to our neighborhood.
Dave Drebes - Under Selection Process, can we specify that the consultant has experience and sensitivity working with historical preservation issues?
Jennifer - Agrees
Discussion on this topic: most agreed that by changing "inner-city" to "historic urban neighborhood" would accomplish the same thing.
Dave Drebes - Under Scope of Services, #3, would like to change "supply" to "solutions".
Ray - Is using the phrase "supply and demand" here to make sure the consultants provide us with an overview of the parking situation in the business district.
Mark - What happens if no one responds to the RFP?
Dave McCreery - Isn't worried about this.
Fran Fanara - Once we send out the RFP, how long is the window for responses?
Don - Three to four weeks. If we give people a four-week window to respond, we can hold an informational session at the two-week mark to give consultants an opportunity to visit South Grand, ask questions, etc.
Emily Andrews - So, Ray will add our comments & changes from tonight to the RFP, then run it by his co-workers, and get it back to the steering committee for a final approval. We will do this before the next meeting. And once we have the steering committee's approval, the RFP will be published and advertised.
Ray - How often and at what points does the steering committee want to meet with the consultant?
Patrick - How much will it cost to meet with them?
Joe - We definitely want to meet with them to give input on the survey.
Brian - We should meet with them 1st as an introduction, question/answer session, 2nd when we begin the data collection process and 3rd when they have recommendations.
Discussion on this topic: everyone agreed with Brain's suggestion, and that the 2nd two meetings will likely involve some sort of presentation by the consultant and be open and advertised to the public.
Mark - What's the time frame for completing the study?
Ray - 4 to 5 months. At the last meeting we discussed allowing the consultant to propose the time frame.
Don - It should be no longer than 6 months.
Ray - Consultants may also want to do one-on-one interviews with people from the neighborhood, such as residents, business owners, the NSOs, etc.
Patrick - The next question on the agenda is "How will communication work with the consultant?"
Ray - I will be the main contact person. If you have comments or questions, get them to me and I'll pass them on.
Don - As for the selection process of the consultant. We will probably interview all that respond (unless there's an overwhelming number of responses). The steering committee will be present at those interviews.
Joe - Can the proposals be made available to a wider group?
Don - We should be able to work something out. Perhaps will ask those who respond to submit x number of proposals in binders and one that can be easily photocopied.
Emily - The last point on the agenda is "Informing residents & hearing their concerns about the RFP." This is in response to Sarah Winter's e-mail, which I've distributed to the steering committee. There are extra copies here for those who need them. Sarah - do you have anything to add?
Sarah - I think as long as there's en effort to engage residents and business owners in the process of the study we're on the right track.
Paul Stefanski - The steering committee members should also try to get on the agenda at their neighborhood meetings to make sure residents are informed and can share concerns.
Joe - Is there anyway we can post updates on a website, so people can check in every once in a while to find out what's going on.
Emily - The minutes are now being distributed to the Tower Grove list serve, but I can also create a page for the Parking Study on the SLACO webiste: http://stlouis.missouri.org/slaco.
Ray - There is an American Planning Association audio conference hosted by East-West Gateway on October 3rd at 3 PM. They have these conferences quarterly and this time it's on "Effective Community Parking Strategies." Perfect topic for our steering committee! The conference is free, but registration is required. It will be held at East-West Gateway's conference room. We'll get out more information, as it is available.
NEXT MEETING:
Minutes
September 6, 2001
Can anyone from the Steering Committee who can attend Steve's class next Wednesday, September 12, 7:00 - 8:00 PM?
Questions that need to be answered:
6:50 Informing residents & hearing their concerns about the RFP
7:10 Next Meeting
September 6, 2001
Submitted Emily Andrews
Members of the Steering Committee are noted by an asterisk (*) after their names
Fran Fanara, Commerce Bank *
Dave Drebes, Tower Grove East *
Michelle Taylor, Commercial District Manager
Nolan Rogers, Harris Stowe Intern
Mark Abbott, Tower Grove South *
Sarah Winter, Tower Grove East
Brian Marston, Tower Grove South *
Paul Stefanski, Tower Grove South *
Joe Ogier, Tower Grove Heights & SLACO Board Member
Steve Shapiro, Pyramid Architects & Washington University
Dave McCreery, S. Grand Business District *
Don Roe, St. Louis Planning & Urban Design Agency
Ray Lai, St. Louis Planning & Urban Design Agency
Alderman Ken Ortmann, 9th Ward *
Alderwoman Jennifer Florida, 15th Ward *
Emily Andrews, SLACO
Michelle Taylor - Be sure to add that we have university participation and what they are doing.
Thursday, September 20th
6:00 pm
Commerce Bank