Thanks to longtime board member Bob Grinchuk (at left) and community concern (HillQuest poll showed over 77% chose “something else”) the Uptown Partnership postponed action to re-allocate $1 million to the proposed Mission Hills-Hillcrest library and the remaining $378K to specified projects until the soon-to-be-formed Hillcrest committee has an opportunity to weigh in and their three new board members are installed. Partnership board member Ron Baranov added, “why don’t we make sure we know what’s going on with (the AT&T lot) instead of just guessing.” (This property is for sale.) Last night’s meeting began with public comments from three Hillcrest residents led by Tim Gahagan thanking the directors for their service, who then proceeded to express his disappointment in the Partnership’s outreach to the community. Nancy Moors followed siting inconsistencies with the list of accomplishments on a flyer distributed by the Partnership.
The hottest topics at Thursday meeting were the proposal to accept a report on a three phased $5.3M project in the Five Points area (where Washington Street meets I-5) and a discussion of budgeting $1M to public parking at the proposed Mission Hills-Hillcrest library. Jay Hill, library fundraiser, said “the priority is to provide free parking for those who want to use the library.”
The board accepted the suggestions of Council Districts 2 and 3 to expand the nine member board by three new members. Council members will each appoint a representative, and any Uptown Planner may submit his/her resume by August 15 for consideration as the final member who will be chosen by the Upown Partnership board. The board also voted to impose term limits, which means that two current board members will be termed out next March. Their board also agreed to adopt the Memorandum of Understanding between the Hillcrest Business Association, the Uptown Partnership and the Hillcrest Town Council.
