Tower District Summit
We,
the people of the Tower District,
hereby announce the first:
Photo by Point Anderson ©2002
Here's a little summary of what took place at the Constitutional Convention. We had approximately 60+ people in attendance.
Just under 40 of those were new. Paul Pierce started us off in his usual jovial fashion by outlining the day's agenda and leading us in table introductions.
Then, Bill Kuebler gave a brief overview of the process that lies ahead.
Basically, we have three main areas that need to be addressed: 1) the structure of our new organization, 2) the funding for our new organization, and 3) the project priorities for our new organization.
As for organization, the steering committee is looking to a hybrid of the Main Street model. The Main Street model, created by the National Trust for Historic Preservation, focuses on the four points of organization, promotion, economic restructuring, and design. For funding, the committee is working with the City of Fresno Public Works Department to create a neighborhood-wide assessment district. This assessment district will be all-inclusive, assessing residents, business owners, property owners, and all constituents in a manner that will be fair, balanced and not overly burdensome to any individual. Project priorities will be determined through the development of survey methods, which will ensure maximum participation from all Tower District constituents in deciding exactly how the funds raised from the assessment district will be spent.
Paul then lead the group in a brainstorming exercise to identify the constituent groups in the neighborhood. Those constituent groups were pared down to a list of eight groups:
1) Alternative Transportation Advocates,
2)Property Owners,
3) Residents,
4) Public Servants,
5) Youth,
6) Seniors,
7)Retailers, and
8) Other Business Owners.
Attendees were allotted time to attend roundtable sessions at two of these constituent groups to come up with a list of project priorities or each group. Two sessions allowed participants to think with more than one group. Basically, each group leader asked the question, "If we had a budget, what would we like to see the money spent on in the Tower District?" Each group leader then made a presentation to all the attendees. Below are the lists of each constituent group's project priorities.
To conclude, Paul informed the attendees that we would be conducting monthly steering committee meetings and quarterly update meetings for the whole neighborhood. He then put out the call for volunteers to help the steering committee with the hands-on work. 30 wonderful people signed up to help! If you were unable to attend the Constitutional Convention and would like to be involved with the work of the steering committee, just give Bill a call at the TDMC office (497-8362) and he'll get you signed up. The first steering committee meeting is scheduled for October 4 and we'll let everyone know when the first quarterly update meeting will be held.
Thanks to all who attended and who helped out! We'd like to offer special thank you to Denise at Roger Rocka's for continuing to host our meetings.
It's the perfect location and they are consummate hosts.
Stay tuned into www.tdpa.org for updates and feel free to contact us with any questions or additional input.
Your Steering Committee
Tower District Constitutional Convention
Hear about:
Our Nieghborhood Specific Plan
Past Successes
Frustrating Roadblocks
Ideas on where to go from here.
Help us to guide the future of our nieghborhood!
Brought to you by:
Tower District
Specific Plan Implementation Committee
Tower District
Marketing Committee
Tower District
Preservation Association
Tower District
Design Review Committee
Call 497-8362 for more information