Achievements
HERE ARE SOME THINGS YOUR ASSOCIATION HAS DONE TO HELP MAKE/KEEP THIS NEIGHBORHOOD A WONDERFUL PLACE TO LIVE:
1. Petitioned city to use TIPS funding to install lighted cross walks, two on James St. and one on Alabama St.
2. Planted scores of street trees.
3. Yearly barbecue picnics and other events.
4. Advocated for speed bumps on Grant as requested by neighbors there.
5. Advocated for residents along King St. to reduce cut-through traffic, which was verified as a major problem by public works traffic study even before Trader Joes opened.
6. Helped win a highly-competitive State grant to acquire and develop the old train right-of-way now known as “Sunnyland Park”, a children’s playground park along Humboldt St. south of Texas St.
7. SNA supports Sunnyland businesses with advocacy and buying from them for association business such as copying, sign making, and other needs.
8. Signage to discourage motorized vehicles on pedestrian bridges over the freeway.
9. Improvements to neighborhood parks.
10. Leading the advocacy for controlling noxious emissions from Brooks manufacturing, which affected several neighborhoods.
11. Better signage for school zones.
12. Neighborhood outreach and education on matters such as the upcoming sewer line project.
13. Partnership with Hope In Christ church for creation of community garden plots, available to all Sunnyland residents.
14. Surveyed neighborhood, hosted meetings, presentations, and developed proposal for single family medium density zoning at the DOT site, as requested by the majority of Sunnyland residents.
15. Worked with Assumption Parish, Bellingham School District to address neighborhood needs regarding their expansion and renewal.
16. Got the COB to invest $750,000 to create a bike trail that connected Sunnyland and Cornwall Park Neighborhood with the Downtown core and bypassed Cornwall Ave.
17. Accommodated the Hospital & City need to use the DOT site for about 2 years as an employee Park & Ride while the Hospital worked on its 500,000 sq. ft. expansion.
18. Accommodated the Hospital when St. Joe’s had gone to contract to engineer and build 500,000 sq. ft. additions w/o requesting necessarily neighborhood hearings, etc. to alter the Institutional Master Plan. St. Joe’s was allowed to proceed and a 2 year process to update the Master Plan commenced and avoided a major lawsuit.
19. Helped stabilize Sunnyland School.
20. Provided important leadership in MNAC, Comprehensive Plan, Planning Academy.
21. Helped start two city-wide organizations of neighborhood associations.
22. Helped the campaign against the high-pressure gas lines in our neighborhoods. In October, 2000 Sunnyland and six other neighborhoods formed the “Neighborhood Utilities Committee.”
23. Helped define planned neighborhood commercial designation which saved the character of lower Sunnyland while accomodating business needs.
24. What’s next? What would you like to see listed here? Come to the next meeting and voice your concerns, hear what others have to say, and learn how you can participate in our neighborhood “town meeting”!