NEARTOWN ASSOCIATION (NTA) MEETING Cherryhurst Community Center, Tuesday May 27, 2003 Minutes

NTA President Raju Adwaney called the meeting to order at 7:05 p.m. Ed Gonzales moved to approve the April minutes and Robert Graham seconded the motion.

Management District: Raju announced that the scheduled speaker/topic for the evening had been cancelled due to late changing events in the Texas legislature. There had been a bill in the legislature to create a management district that would include Montrose, but this had died. NTA and many local business owners had not been well informed of the proposed district. Rep. Garnet Coleman was still pushing a bill for a reduced/revised management district east of Montrose Blvd., including the Fourth Ward. Raju briefly discussed the topic of a management district. He explained that a management district can be established through the State legislature and that commercial property owners within the designated area are assessed an additional tax to be spent only in the district. The management district is initially administered by a board of business owners (or a designee of an owner) in the area. Gayle Ramsey noted that Neartown is surrounded by management districts - Upper Kirby, Midtown, Downtown - and that the State legislative district boundary now divides Neartown east/west along Montrose Blvd. (Garnet Coleman (D) represents the east & Martha Wong (R) represents the west). Gayle expressed her concern that Neartown is losing its identity and could possibly be annexed into one of the neighboring districts.

Announcements Treasurer Ed Gonzales reported that NTA has $1246 in the bank. $124 was given to the HPD Neartown Storefront out of a $500 donation from 1^st Vermont Commons. 1^st Vermont Commons also contributed a check for $100 to the Spur project. It was noted that checks for the Spur project should be made to the "Spur Change Fund" (a separate bank account from NTA). HPD Officer James Sobota announced that National Night Out is scheduled for Tuesday, August

₅th

. He requested that any civic groups that would like for HPD officers to visit neighborhood gatherings that evening to call him or Sgt. Marion Craig at the Storefront as soon as possible (713-284-8604). Donna Roth introduced Flora Yeh, a Mandell Place resident and landscape architect, who has designed the planting for the proposed esplanade project in the 1200 block of Lovett (between Graustark and Mt. Vernon). Ms. Yeh gave a presentation of her plans. Raju announced two requests for building permit variances in the area - one for the Texas Art Supply expansion and another at Hawthorne & Whitney.

The meeting was adjourned at 8 p.m. NTA Secretary, Dana Padgett