Minutes

BSCL vice president Joe Knarich called the meeting to order at 7:30 p.m. Joe opened with a motion to approve the minutes from the previous two meetings, which no one had yet seen or read, so it was tabled until the January meeting. Joe added that there is still a vacancy for a recording secretary and to contact him or Chris if anyone is interested.

The guest speaker was Cecilia Cassidy, executive director of the Columbia Pike Revitalization Organization (CPRO). She had been the temporary executive director until becoming the full time director in July. Among the items she covered:

• CPRO is looking for a communications director.
• The organization floundered a bit after the demise of the streetcar.
• CPRO contracted with a consultant to develop a strategic plan and held a retreat in August to work on it. CPRO intends to submit it to the county board at the beginning of December. The plan contains 5 primary strategies.
• CPRO will focus on making the Pike better and more attractive for development, with less focus on transportation issues than in the past.
• There was some brief discussion on various planned redevelopments:
  • The site across from Penrose Square; no real details except that it was done under the form based code;
  • The Bob & Edith's II/El Tutumaso redevelopment (Pike at Buchanan); and
  • The Food Star site; Joe stated inserted that it will be mixed use development, with 306 rental units, a Harris Teeter store, and a park.
• There was a longer discussion on the state of the Arlington Mill farmer's market. Cecilia said it is getting more difficult to find vendors with so many farmer’s markets coming up. The earliest the Arlington Mill market could re-appear is spring 2018, and it would likely be on a different day. The previous farmer's market occurred on Wednesdays.

The meeting ended with a mention of the holiday party to be held on December 1 and adjourned at approximately 8:15 p.m.

Respectfully submitted,
Eric Parker, BSCL Board Member