August 16, 2022
Hampton Park Terrace Neighborhood Association
Meeting Notes
The August 2022 meeting of the HPTNA was called to order at 7:04 p.m. by Anne Kelley Russell at the Church of Christ Scientist on Moultrie Street.
Our guest speaker was Sgt. Yungman of the City Police because Tim Dasher of the police had a conflict. Sgt. Yungman noted that there are homeless people camping in Hampton Park. The police are aware of the situation and attempt to cite people for trespassing.
Kim Ralph mentioned to Sgt. Yungman that speeding on the streets remains an issue, especially when cadets from the Citadel are racing back to campus to avoid a late arrival. Sgt. Yungman explained that there are few officers who are trained on using speed check devices but that the police would like to focus their resources on peak times and places with known problems. Kim took the contact info for the police department.
There was a discussion of the interplay between the Citadel officers and the City officers. The Citadel officers are also state employees but they mainly focus on campus.
Car break-ins were mentioned as a problem. Bottom line: If your car has been broken into, call the police to report the crime. The police can take fingerprints as long as you have not already entered the car and messed up the prints. Prosecuting such crimes is very hard, but report the incident regardless. Also, the key way to prevent such crimes is to lock your car! This seems obvious, but people are not locking their cars AND are leaving valuables in their cars (including guns!). Thieves are targeting cars that likely include tools and guns.
Kim Ralph gave a presentation about the social activity of the association. We are trying to have an event each third Saturday of the month to reinforce that as the standing date for events. If you have any willingness to host the events, please let Kim known by emailing HPT29403@gmail.com. The next event was announced at 567 Huger St. at 9:30-10:30 (Richard Geiger’s house). Then, the September 17 event will be at Ashley and Glen Jennings’ house at 487 Huger St. with details to come.
We had a discussion about the funding for a big event. (If you host a small event, we can automatically reimburse up to $100 for donuts, drinks, etc.) Kim said that the likely budget for a big event would be about $4500 for tents, lighting, musicians, etc. We ended up tabling the approval for such an event until October’s meeting.
Gervais Del Porto (447 Huger St.) next gave a report about traffic issues. She has been worked for several years on ways to improve the safety on Ashley Ave. It is a State road, so getting things done is much harder. She would like to have the neighborhood vote in October to support the conversion of Ashley Ave. above the Crosstown to a one-land street with a dedicated two-way bike lane. She will have more details at the October meeting. Money for some alterations had been approved, but the run up in prices for the work has led to rebidding the improvements. If the neighborhoods (Westside and HPT) approve, she would still need to circulate a petition to the residents on Ashley and would need 70% to sign off. Contact her if you would like to help at GervaisSH@gmail.com.
Ben D’Allesandro (Treasurer) gave an update on our finances. We have $8243.63 with about 70 payments since kicking off the dues drive in April totaling about $4500. We are going to be raising some money from house tours in March and will look for sponsors for special events. Right now, the executive committee can approve up to $100, but more than that requires neighborhood approval. We will consider whether that amount needs to be increased.
The owners (Tony and Fiza Petro) and their architect (Patrick Orefice) gave a presentation about a proposed project at 448 Huger St. Notice was given as best we could, but the request to speak came in after the agenda for the meeting had been set and the newsletter printed. The Petros’ house is about 31’ high now and is a two-story duplex. They would like to convert it to a single-family house. One thing they would like is to have a small backyard, but that space is for parking now. They would like to elevate the house 5’ onto a stuccoed cinderblock foundation to have enough space to install a garage under the house. Doing so requires a zoning variance to exceed the maximum number of floors (2.5) in the neighborhood, exceed the maximum height (35’), intrude on the setbacks, and exceed the maximum lot coverage (50%). Also, the State would have to approve two new curb cuts for the new garage spaces, the City would have to remove a mature crepe myrtle in front of the garage entrances, and the BAR would have to approve the demolition of the foundation and front stairs.
Several neighbors expressed disapproval of the work, especially since there are no other houses in the neighborhood that have underneath garage space. When a similar request was made for the new houses on Sutherland Ct., the neighborhood specifically opposed underneath parking. In the end, a motion was made to oppose all of the special permissions needed, and the motion passed with no NO votes in opposition.
Traci Davis mentioned that a neighborhood yard sale was coming up on October 1 from 8-noon. The sale will be a bunch of individual sales at the homes of participants, with the neighborhood providing maps to show the different homes. Contact Traci at tracid67@comcast.net for information or to take part.
The next meeting of the neighborhood association will be on October 18th at 7:00.
We adjourned.