This month’s neighborhood meeting is scheduled for November 4, 2009 6:30 pm. at Dixon Middle School room #104. Please enter at glass doors across from the tennis courts facing north.

Neighborhood Issues

Introduction to Neighborhood Visioning
We would be pleased if our entire neighborhood would be part of this process.

The visioning process aims to directly involve residents and other stakeholders in defining a desired neighborhood future. A vision is an ideal statement and/or image of what residents and other stakeholders want a neighborhood to be.

Hopefully our C.O.P. Officer Mark Jackson will attend and visit with us.
The mission of the Neighborhood Program is to facilitate effective, informed and representative participation of citizen in government and self-help initiatives and to provide a channel for communication among citizens, elected officials and city department staff.

Neighborhood Gov't

• Judy Kelsch, chair - 801- 377-7317
• JJ & Tami Bush, vice chairs - 801 225-9610
• Ass. Chair David Harding - 801-805-6941
• Ass. Chair Kameron Rollins - 801-592-6703

I'm going to do my best to keep this unbiased but I do have some strong opinions about this race. Feel free to comment and correct me if you have a problem or if you found an omission. 

Who are the Candidates

• Sterling Beck - www.SterlingBeck.com
• Dean Cofer - DeanCofer.net
• Robert Oscanyan - www.ProvoRob.com
• Cindy Richards - www.VoteCindy.com
• Ryan Shaw - No website(and I can't find any info on him)

What They Spoke On

Sterling Beck

Sterling focused mostly on fixing mismanagement in Provo. He comes from an IT background so he had very strong criticisms for how iProvo has been handled. While he related a lot of things back to this he did touch on revitalizing downtown by encouraging business development there and protecting property rights.

He was well spoken and easy to follow.

Dean Cofer

Dean, as a landlord, focused heavily on defending property rights and not demonizing renters and landlords. He mentioned holding landlords to a higher standard to ensure that their properties were taken care of. He was strongly opposed to a large government presence in the community. He felt that city tax dollars shouldn't be spend on neighborhood renovation programs when the private citizens could probably do a better job.

Dean takes his time speaking but when gets done speaking you know where he stands.

Robert Oscanyan

Robert covered a gamut of issues. Like Sterling and Dean he is a strong advocate of property rights. He was the only candidate to come down firmly against amortization. He also spoke about community development to attract more businesses and jobs to Provo. In that vein, he spoke about his frustrations over the mismanagement of Provo downtown.

He was strong spoken and clear about all of his positions.

Cindy Richards

Cindy answered most questions by speaking about community development and referenced previous changes that she helped with in the Franklin and Tree Street neighborhood. On the question of property rights she went back to those neighborhoods as being examples of what the people wanted. She did mention her struggles as a home owner to renovate her home and get through the citiy's red tape.

Cindy was well spoken but quiet. 

The Annual "Paint your heart out" event is tomorrow (June 6). We're meeting at Dixon Middle School (750 W 200 N) at 8:00am. There will be Breakfast before we start painting. The project is expected to go until 1pm.

Provo City just changed their definitions on Accessory Apartments and you can read about it in the Desert News. It appears to give the city more power in enforcing zoning and also changes the definition slightly. 

There will be a neighborhood meeting this April 2nd 2009 at 7pm. The meeting is at Dixon Middle School Room 104 (north side of the building)

The topic hasn't been announced but I think we'll be talking about the city's 20 year plan. Please come and if you have any questions about the agenda or anything else contact the neighborhood government. Contact Info after the jump.

As seen in the neighborhood newsletter sent out today. In case you didn't get it:

Our March Dixon Neighborhood meeting is scheduled for February 25^th at 5:00 pm at the Planning Commission Meeting held in the Provo City Council Chambers.

I got a call last night from Ace Stryker and he interviewed me for a piece he was working on. We talked for about 45 minutes and he was very polite and I thought very honest. You can read the article on the Daily Herald Website.

At the meeting tonight they voted to have a public hearing in two weeks on the issue in which they could continue the application or remove it.

A couple of us did have a chance to speak with some of our Council Members and I have to say that they left me very frustrated. Every time I talk to someone from the city they want to tell me about how I misunderstand the proposal and when I explain my understandings they don't have any corrections!

UPDATED Feb, 11 2009 9:08pm

I just got off the phone with the Municipal Council Executive Director of Provo and she is of the opinion that once a neighborhood chair has been elected the only way for an election to happen is if the neighborhood chair wishes to quit or we forcibly remove them through the petition and election.

Provo is trying to downzone our neighborhood and after the planning commission meeting it became apparent they weren't too interested in our ideas. 22 citizens of the neighborhood spoke and told the planning commission they didn't want our neighborhood changed. 7 Spoke for the change but only 2-3 of them were from our neighborhood. After more than 200 signatures (the same number required to up zone) and lots of emails the planning commission said "It looks like we're evenly split". I'd hate to be in his math class.

What's next?

When it became apparent that our petition would be ignored more drastic measures were needed. In order to make the city listen we have to replace our current neighborhood chair (who is past due for reelection) and show our representatives that we mean business.