Virginia Highland Civic Association Gets Down to Business

Just over a dozen residents showed up Monday night at the for the Virginia Highland Civic Association February board meeting.

After a brief report on crime activity in January (which was down), Major Dalton took questions from audience members ranging from whether stretches of North Highland Avenue should be designated as “No Cruise” zones to how best to handle complaints about noise levels from neighborhood bars. Two officers from the city’s Community Oriented Policing Section (COPS) unit were on hand as well, and Dalton discussed the ways they’re set up to work as bridges with municipal agencies, to address the issues that contribute to crime (vacant houses; worrisome loitering) before they happen.

Vice President Pamela Papner, who is director of Summerfest, the neighborhood’s popular fundraiser, said all contracts were done (with sponsors Dave-FM signed on for another two years) and planning for this year’s event was ready to start in earnest at the first meeting on Feb. 22.

She also threw out the possibility of gradually migrating the neighborhood’s newsletter – the Voice – from a paper publication to one distributed online, since it costs more money to print than ads bring in. The group’s website – www.vahi.org – is in need of an overhaul, she said, and there was a proposal out there to do the job for $6,500 to $7,500. Since that was more than the association had budgeted for the work, she said, it might be possible to shift money that had been budgeted for the newsletter over to the cost of overhauling the website.

If mailing the newsletter to residents is what makes it so expensive, asked one resident, might the association just print out the web version, and make it available in area businesses? That way, visitors could keep up with the news, and ads, as well.

All agreed there were lots of good ideas to discuss further, and Papner said she felt like this was a good start.

Two zoning variances were granted, both of which had the full support of their neighbors.

Board President Alyson Higgins discussed the status of the new yogurt shop Yogli Mogli– it’s characterized as retail, not restaurant, which governs the number of parking spots required – and said the board was in the middle of a thorough survey of which parking spaces belong to which businesses, and will report back.

Public Safety Chair John Wolfinger reported that the proposed sale of historic Briarcliff Summit, at the corner of North Highland and Ponce, was still possible. A previous deal for the terra cotta tower – which was built as luxury apartments in 1925 before being converted to a hotel and then devolving into subsidized federal housing – had fallen through, he said, but it appeared that a new one was on its way back to the city.