CENTER CITY COMMITTEE
MEETING MINUTES
August 23, 2005

Present: Larry Field, Matt Fitzpatrick, Bob Flynn, Janet Leggat, Bill Lipchitz, and Jeanne Osborne.

The meeting opened at 8:35 AM.

A major issue at the recent Residents Association meeting was late night noise. The City is trying to work out a compromise on the issue between residents desire for quiet and business owners desire for economic activity. The general issue of noise at night was discussed in relation to new units being occupied and the expectations of the new residents. Most people recognize that living in the middle of a city is different from living in an outlying neighborhood or a suburb, and that some noise is to be expected.

Jeanne posed a question about the parking ordinance prohibiting overnight parking during the winter months, even if there is no snow in the forecast. Her question was: how might an issue like that be handled under the new Downtown organization? The answer seems to be that such an issue might well be brought up at the Residents Association meeting and be referred to the Downtown org. for discussion so that all sides could be heard. Then, the org. would attempt to find middle ground and work with the City to implement a solution. The advantage is that the issue would be filtered through all the stakeholders so that the solution would be more acceptable to all.

During the summer, the proposal for the new downtown entity was sent to the 18 organizations covering all the stakeholder groups, asking them to appoint someone to represent them at a September meeting. To date, 7 organizations (Lowell Festival Foundation, Chamber of Commerce, National Park, Middlesex CC, UMass Lowell, NMCOG, and DPD) have responded in writing with the names, and 3 others (ALL, DT Neighborhood Assoc. and CCC) have indicated verbally they would participate. The members in attendance divided up the list of remaining organizations to call (DLBA, UTEC, CVB, COOL, Lowell Plan, LHS, Lowell Police, and LRTA) and remind them to submit the names. Names should be sent to Bill at: blipchitz@comteam.org

The September meeting of the new organization was discussed. The meeting is tentatively scheduled for Tuesday, September 13th at 8:00 AM. The Mayor’s Reception Room was suggested as a meeting place. The existing Articles of Organization and by-laws of the current Center City Committee will be reviewed at the next CCC meeting on the 30th of August to see how much tweaking may be needed to fit the new structure.

The meeting adjourned at 9:40 AM.