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HomeMy WebLinkAboutREDcowardph2hard cony: email: ~IOUNCIL i~<CITY MOR O'-ASST 04 u 2 CLBRKIORIO efPIB p RIBUNE TIMES 4Lo CITY NEWS BUD DIR FIT D1R o'FwP DIR oucECHIEF RKS&RECDIR VIM r UNCILcnyR From :Susan Coward[SMTP :SUSAN@MRCOWARD .COM ] Sent :Wednesday, November 03, 2010 2 :09 :16 P M To : Ashbaugh, Joh n Cc : Mark@mrcoward .com ; Council, SloCit y Subject :Re: FW : Historic resources ordinanc e Auto forwarded by a Rule RED FIL E MEETING AGEND A Hi, John DATE ~!lflit'ITEM # F "e3N I'm sorry it's taken so long to get back to you . I do appreciate your outreach, I've just bee n terribly busy the last week or so . I've copied the City Council on this response because I'd like to share these thoughts with them, also . Thank you for the offer to meet with us . I would love to meet ... after every owner o f property deemed historic or in a historic district is notified of the meeting and invited to join us . Because, as you know, that's really my big gripe, that the public wasn't adequately informed, and therefore, involved . If the City has any intention of having historic preservation be a partnership between th e City and property owners, this whole thing has been terribly mishandled . If historic preservation is of such importance to the City, why hasn't the City been in regular contac t with owners of historic properties over the years? Some of the people who should b e involved here don't even know their properties have historic designations! It's heartbreaking . We've owned this home for 12 years and never once did the City contact us or our neighbors and say, "Hey, we think your house is cool and your historic neighborhood is a great asset to our city . We want to help you and your neighbors keep it that way . Let's sit down, set some goals, review our challenges and see what we can do!" Instead, we're suddenly getting new ordinances . And, had some of us not been alert, we'd also be living under the threat of huge new fines and criminal charges . I'm sure with you r background in educational leadership and organizations, you know a lot about the role s communication, motivation and participation play in effective partnerships . Imagine the results if people were invited into a true and mutually beneficial partnershi p to encourage and increase historic preservation efforts . It would start with improving th e communication between the City and property owners in order to improve relationship s and promote goodwill . There are so many great things that could be done . And sadly , there are so many potential benefits that will go unrealized if we push this thing through simply for the sake of expediency or because we feel we owe it those who have already put time into it. It reminds me of the poster on the wall at my old job . "If you can't find time to do it righ t the first time, how will you find time to do it again?" Wouldn't you love to do this right the first time? Let's gather our thoughts and come u p RECEIVE D NOV 0 3 201 0 SLO CITY CLERK with some ideas about how to do so . In the meantime, I will hope that you and other Council Members will acknowledge th e value of doing things the right way and ask for a continuance . Thank you again for staying in touch . Susan On 10/23/2010 5 :37 PM, Ashbaugh, John wrote : I had sent this e-mail to you Mark earlier this week - not sure whether Mark checks hi s district e-mail, and obviously I had the wrong e-mail for you . And all this time, Ki m Murry is way ahead of me (as usual) in doing outreach . As stated in the original e-mail , I'm quite willing to meet with you and Mark and others from the neighborhood at a mutually convenient time . Thanks ! John B . Ashbaugh San Luis Obispo City Counci l 990 Palm St . San Luis Obispo, CA 9340 1 805/550-771 3 From :Ashbaugh, Joh n Sent :Tue 10/19/2010 10 :46 A M To:'mcoward©slcusd .orq';'scoward0slonet .orq' Cc : Murry, Kim ; Richardson, Apri l Subject:Historic resources ordinanc e Mark and Susan, I'm guessing on your email addresses here — please forward this to each othe r if needed, please . The City just published a notice in the paper that the ordinance draft would b e available on our web site at 5 pm today . If you would like a "hard copy," I'm sure that can b e arranged . Meanwhile, my offer stands as to meeting with you and your neighbors at Mitchell Par k and/or in the Senior Center, or another convenient place (Parks & Rec has a conference roo m too), at a mutually convenient time . Often it's best to ask April Richardson, our Administrativ e Assistant, to arrange some time since she has access to my Outlook calendar . Just wanted to give you a heads-up . I'm sure that staff would be available for questions, too . Please keep me in the loop, if you can, about any queries and answers from the staff, so that I don't inadvertently contradict something that they might be saying . Thanks ! John B . Ashbaugh San Luis Obispo City Council