web view24/01/2012 · city of decatur, deputy police chief, jk lee -...
TRANSCRIPT
DHNA Meeting Notes24-JAN-2012Taken by Joshua [email protected]
Participants
DHNA Lead, Deanne Thomas – [email protected] City of Decatur, Deputy Police Chief, JK Lee - [email protected] City of Decatur, District 1 City Commissioner - Fred Boykin - [email protected] City of Decatur, City Manager – Peggy Merriss - [email protected] 32 residents counted in attendance
Meeting Agenda
OpeningDeanne Thomas7:04 PM
DHNA thanks The Church at Decatur Heights for their support and use of facilities DHNA welcomes all neighborhood participants in attendance. DHNA announces Decatur Heights, Sycamore Ridge, and Sycamore Station are all
now participating in Neighborhood Watch. DHNA updates to cover recent crimes, petitions, City’s speed zones mapping plan,
Selig’s commitments to Sycamore Drive. DHNA will begin discussion on our decision making process and structural
organization based on lessons learned during the Selig/Wal-Mart issue.
Crime UpdateDeputy Chief JK Lee 7:06 PM
Attachment
Crime Comparison, City of Decatur, Last 16 years
Links
Uniform Crime Reports 2010: http://www.fbi.gov/about-us/cjis/ucr/crime-in-the-u.s/2010/crime-in-the-u.s.-2010
Crime Clearances: http://www.fbi.gov/about-us/cjis/ucr/crime-in-the-u.s/2010/crime-in-the-u.s.-2010/clearances
o Definition of “Clearance Rate”: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clearance_rate
o Nation Of Neighbors: http://www.nationofneighbors.com
Crime Reports: https://www.crimereports.com
Notes
City of Decatur Police Department has to report certain crimes (Part I Crime) to FBI via Uniform Crime Reports (UCR). [NOTE: Crime categories are with attachment].
In Decatur there has been a significant reduction in crime over this period.o The City of Decatur Police Department overall “clearance rate”
(solved crime or closure due to no prosecution) average is 31%. In our neighborhood:
Reports of 7 burglaries; 2 thefts .o 3 -2 burglaries, 1 theft- same location(most likely acquaintance).o 2 residential burglaries were of storage sheds.o 1 burglary- latent prints (with elimination prints of residents).o 1 burglary-juvenile w/ history seen in area (steals from friends).o 1/19 600 Sycamore block stop a result of alert neighbor reporting
suspicious person behind neighbor’s house; 2 people arrested: 1 for outstanding warrants; 1 for marijuana possession.
Questions
Q: Which address were suspicious persons seen going behind?o Deputy Chief Lee: 6XX Sycamore.
Q: Time of crimes?o DCL: Daytime, most residential burglaries in day. Car break ins and
theft of outdoor items typically at night to use cover of darkness. Q: Who are doing the break-ins?
o DCL: No solid data. Q: Trending for crimes in the neighborhood?
o DCL: Data is quartered by zone. Overall in our zone (northeast) includes expanded commercial district (center city) for commercial crimes. No pattern for residential.
Q: Why are we grouped with downtown? Shouldn’t it be separate from residential?
o DCL: Talked about it, but it is personnel allocation. So downtown patrol expanded from 1 to 3 officers to address this concern.
Q: Outside of crimerreports.com, how do get more info about when a crime when it happens?
o DCL: After crimereports.com, have Watch get in touch with me and I’ll email back any open record.
Q: What is an “open record”?o DCL: Public information. Initial police report is an open record.
Some items redacted due to law based on privacy or juveniles. Investigators notes, etc. not open record.
Q: How do find out when a crime is resolved?o DCL: Periodic check-ups with me, nothing at large to do that. Only
in extreme circumstances or high concentration in area we’ll we do a “news blast”.
Q: How do we get this “news blast”?o DCL: I’ll contact Deanne and she would distribute
Neighborhood Watch IntroductionsDeanne Thomas7:27 PM
Attachment
Links
Nation Of Neighbors: http://www.nationofneighbors.com Crime Reports: https://www.crimereports.com
Notes
Decatur Heights has 17 block captains (1 needed- Springdale St Apts/ Condos) and all Decatur Heights map territory covered: Sycamore Station has 2; Sycamore Ridge info not supplied.
Use “Nation of Neighbors” to share alerts. Don’t need to be a block captain.
Traffic Calming & EnforcementPeggy MerrissFred Boykin7:33 PM
Attachment
Traffic Violations on Sycamore
Traffic Calming Petitions
Traffic Calming Initiatives
Grove Street proposal
Speed Enforcement
Notes
Peggy Merriss
3 outstanding petitions received.o “No right turn” was cancelled (not submitted).o 11 items on previous requests have been delivered.o Were completed 6 weeks ago.
Sycamore/Ridgeland/Springdale Stop Signs & Crosswalk.o Decision: Not a good idea, offset intersection – makes it difficult for stop
signs and cross walks to be added. John Madajewski (Senior Engineer, City of Decatur) will send
official response shortly Deanne noted: Cross walk would go from corner to midblock,
making stop sign way off. (Revisit as Complete Street design) After engineering analysis, neighbors can decide to push
forward, then city commissioner ultimately decides the arbitration.
Sycamore at Grove Street Study Request.o Medians Sketch by John Madajewski shown as one option.
25MPH Residential Speed Zone Designation.o Traffic Study Based on 85th Percentile Rule (GDOT) shows that current
speed limit is accurate. Will require a different approach to change.
Questions
Q) Is it necessary for the medians on Grove Street?o A) Peggy Merriss (PM): By adding the medians, it will impact
driveways, so those residents will have to approve. A simple fix might be stop signs on Grove & Sycamore. A similar project took two years to get to that design.
Q) What about reducing the speed zone designation from 35 to 25 mph?o A) PM: Need to catalog all city of Decatur current speed limits; we
do not have comprehensive data set. We need to classify to community plan. City commission adopt a city speed limit map. Need to send to Georgia Department of Transportation
(GDOT).
Problems in the past getting it done – so comprehensive review necessary to make more cohesive argument to get speed zones changed.
Q) What is the time from for this speed limit classification?o A) PM: Time Frame – Begin in February with goal to bring to public
comment, then to adopt in April. Then will be sent to GDOT.
Q) What about the planned Wal-Mart traffic? o A) PM: Impact from north of North Dekalb based on other Wal-
Mart locations.
Q) Public events in front of church, legal to park on street?o A) DPL: As long as there no signage to prohibit.o A) PM: Most inexpensive and effective way to calm traffic is with
on street parking.o A) PM: Of 63 citations on Sycamore Drive, 45 were stop sign
violations. The cost is ~$223 dollars a ticket.
Fred Boykin
In the the past only thing available to City was signs and speed bumps. Interstate codes were brought down to local streets. Not conducive to local streets based on wide traffic lanes. Pushback from local communities to effect these things.
Across Café Lily mixed use development, community concern. The local neighbors wanted traffic calming measures as condition for development.
Let the community use new tools to design the calming efforts. Issue 1 – transition from commercial to residential. Issue 2 – running traffic lights.
o Designation to walking. Implements three ideas. Circles, Bulb outs, Medians to
entrance of neighborhood.
Questions
Q) When does all the traffic calming become a traffic impediment? o A) Fred Boykin (FB): Based on Strategic Plan, overall sentiment
seems to be more ability to walk and bicycle. Calming the traffic- there is trade off, but it’s what residents have said we want to do.
Q) Sycamore Drive – part is in County, part is in City. Can we only have calming efforts only our part of the road?
o A) FB: Yes, Have to work with county for part going into countyo A) DT: We went over solutions with Selig. They are committed to
helping us to get speed limit reduced, and to keeping commercial trucks off Sycamore Dr. (Trucks to use main thoroughfares, not neighborhood streets. Add signage as necessary.) If financially feasible and right of way not an issue, Selig intends to add a median on Church St to improve safety when entering/exiting Sycamore Dr.; also to add a small median island on Sycamore Dr. signaling residential ahead.
Q) What about the Forkner/Medlock/Church roundabout?
o A) FB: Would be gateway into City. New one in Emory area very successful. Some complications involved in placing it (will need to acquire some land).
Q) Can we increase the time at light Sycamore/Ponce?o A) PM: Yes, will call consultants to see about adding a few seconds.
Q) What about light at North Decatur going west for same issue?o A) FB: That one is not in city limits.
Q) Countdown timer for intersections, how do we get themo A) FB: County controls. Need to update box fiber optic to have
signals countdown on all poles. Will be over 2 to 3 years to do in budget.
Open DiscussionAll Members7:33 PM
Deanne Thomas
How to manage decision making based on upcoming challenges in neighborhood. Selig/Walmart issue prompted because DHNA isn’t an established neighborhood association, so it had no legal standing. We also ran into committee difficulties. With commercial growth and MARTA expansion ahead, we’ll want standing to weigh in and guidelines.
Dave Kell
His proposal to begin discussion
Two groups in Decatur with similar by-laws as above and incorporated.o Oakhurst – very structured.o Winona – very informal.o Cultural geography of neighborhood will effect those things.
We want to make sure make sure we continue to keep that informal roundtable collaborative process within our community group - this is something important to keep within our organization.
People need to step-up to participate if/when we incorporate.s
Meeting CloseAll Members8:47 PM