The Lawrenceville Stakeholders Voting Policy aims to establish a clear procedure for initiating, conducting and recording votes that is equitable, democratic and respects the non-hierarchical structure of the organization.

Procedures

1. Initiating a vote

Any member can request a vote on any topic that is consistent with the organization’s mission, e.g., a member can request a vote on a housing matter and request that the organization send a representative to testify in housing court.  This may apply to hearings before the zoning board, housing court, planning commission, and city council.  This may also apply to writing letters of support, letters to the editor, etc.

Requests for a vote should state clearly what the issue is, and what the proper responses are.  For example, in request for representation at a zoning hearing:

1. I vote in favor of the Stakeholders supporting John Smith’s request for a zoning variance.
2. I vote in favor the Stakeholders objecting to John Smith’s request for a zoning variance.
3. I vote the Stakeholders take no position on John Smith’s request for a zoning variance.
4. I abstain.

Requests for votes must be sent to the designated Vote Recorder (a stakeholder member elected at the annual meeting), who is empowered to request that calls for votes be reworded if they are determined to be unclear or demonstrate unreasonable bias.  If, in the Vote Recorder’s opinion, a requested vote appears inconsistent with or irrelevant to the organization’s mission, the Vote Recorder may delay a vote to consult the Facilitators on the relevance of the vote. Once the Vote Recorder is satisfied with the relevance and wording of a voting request, he or she should post it to the list as soon as possible.

All votes require a minimum of three full business days before votes can be counted. The Vote Recorder is responsible to set a reasonable deadline for responses.

2. Voting

All members are entitled to vote one time on any given issue.  Votes must be sent to the designated Vote Recorder.  Stakeholders are always free to engage in discussion on any issue up for a vote on the list; actual votes must be sent to the Vote Recorder to be counted.

3. Recording Votes

Votes will not be shared with other members under any circumstances.  Votes will be counted by the Vote Recorder.  Results are determined by a plurality of all votes cast (i.e., whichever option receives the most votes, wins).

Once the votes are counted, no record of individual votes will be kept.  Results of the vote will be sent to the listserv and posted on the organization’s website.

4. Action

The organization’s facilitators will make every reasonable effort to take any requested actions, e.g., testifying at a zoning hearing, or sending a letter.  As Stakeholders is an all-volunteer organization, requested actions cannot be guaranteed.

The Urban Redevelopment Authority is hosting a third public meeting for the Allegheny Riverfront Vision.  Working with Perkins Eastman , the URA will be reviewing the progress over the past few months and examining infrastructure suggestions and design scenarios for key areas of the Allegheny Riverfront.  They will be discussing topics including the riverfront; physical fabric; connections; and recreation.  This will be the last community meeting before the final plan is presented in April.

In the meantime, you can find pictures and information from the project on this website.

>>David L. Lawrence Convention Center is located at 1000 Ft. Duquesne Boulevard. Room 330 is on the third floor, on the Allegheny River side.

Lawrenceville Stakeholders
February 18, 2010
Maureen Ford, Executive Director
Lawrenceville Corporation
Ice House Studios
100 43rd Street Studio 114
Pittsburgh, PA 15201

Dear Maureen:

The Lawrenceville Stakeholders, Inc. would like to thank you for organizing the community meeting on February 3, 2010 regarding the development of Doughboy Square.

On February 17, 2010, the Stakeholders held an open meeting for members to discuss the Doughboy presentation and to gather opinions to share with the Lawrenceville Corporation. Following the standards of the Stakeholders, we then held an open vote on
these opinions online. This letter reflects the collective vote.

There is unanimous excitement about the potential of Doughboy Square – an area that we see as our most visible gateway to the community. The un‐built gaps in this part of the neighborhood are seen as fortunate circumstances at this time. As economic vitality and social connectivity within Lawrenceville gain strength, critical locations like Doughboy Square acquire a broader range of development potential. As with all urban development, we believe this area must be studied thoroughly as we look at the possibilities of future development.

We appreciate the preliminary efforts that have taken place thus far, including finding a potential developer and presenting some initial concepts for the development of Doughboy. At this time we would like to ensure that any process that proceeds follows the

standard public procedure, including a transparent RFP process by which other potential developers are brought to the table. We also want to emphasize the need for this project to work in concert with other planning efforts in the immediate and adjacent area. These include: the Lawrenceville Community Plan, the Allegheny Riverfront Visioning Plan, the development of the Iron City Brewery, the Lola Plan, and PennDOT improvements.

We look forward to continuing an open dialogue among all of the community groups and the citizenry at large as this effort proceeds. In this interest, the Stakeholders Facilitators and Planning Team representatives would like to request a meeting with you to discuss these next steps. Please contact Diane Pittman, Facilitator for The Stakeholders ‐ diane.pittman@verizon.net, or Sarah Kroloff, Planning Team Representative for the Stakeholders ‐ sarah.kroloff@gmail.com

Thank you,

Lawrenceville Stakeholders, Inc.

c: Lauren Byrne (LU), Rob Stephany (URA), Councilman Patrick Dowd, Senator Jim Ferlo

Lawrenceville Stakeholders will hold a special meeting to discuss development proposed for the Doughboy area (junction of 34th Street, Penn Avenue, Butler Street) on Wednesday, February 17, at 6:30 pm. Location to be announced by sometime Tuesday. Please try to attend this important meeting.

The purpose of the meeting is to draft Lawrenceville Stakeholders’ position on the proposed Doughboy area development- a thoughtful, pragmatic and concise position that will be a guide for Stakeholders’ representatives at the next Lawrenceville planning team meeting on Monday, February 22, and afterward. The facilitator team will ask the full membership to vote by email on the position drafted in the February 17 meeting.

The meeting goal may be ambitious, as the Doughboy area is an important and highly visible part of our neighborhood and there are many opinions on the proposed project. To get a head start on discussion, we would like to ask you to reply to this email to share your thoughts about the proposed project with other Stakeholders members. Please try for brevity because there may be a lot of emails and people are more likely to read something that’s shorter. Or not. 

Link to drawings of part of the proposed development:
http://octoberdevelopment.com/Galleries/Doughboy%20Square/doughboy_square.html

Also, a big thank you to Susan Englert and Deb Knox for re-scheduling the Leslie Park pool planning meeting that was originally scheduled for the same evening.

Thanks,

Carol

Come meet your neighbors and learn about Lawrenceville Stakeholders.
We will picnic, party and play badmitton!
There will also be live music performed by talented neighborhood residents.

Please join us!

Date: Saturday, August 29, 2009
Time: 3:00 – 7:30
Place: The Yard at 5134 Carnegie Street
Suggested $2 donation

Contact: Mary Moses at marypgh456@gmail.com with questions

Stakeholders members and potential members (Lawrenceville residents and business or property owners) are welcome. Please bring a side dish or dessert, or something special to throw on the grill.

See You On August 29th!

Susan Englert presented the concepts at the June 29th quarterly membership meeting of Lawrenceville Stakeholders. Members present voted unanimously to support both concepts and Susan was asked to request a vote via e-mail from the full general membership—standard operating procedure for this group. Once criteria for reporting were clarified with Councilman Patrick Dowd’s office on July 2nd, Susan posted a summary of both proposed events on July 3rd, and requested a vote by noon on July 7th, allowing extra days for the long holiday weekend.

Voting members were unanimous in supporting both the performance event – Accordion Pool Party at the Leslie Park Pool – and a series of community design workshops to be held in the Fall to discuss the Pool’s future. No negative votes were registered. Thus, in accordance with the organization’s by-laws, Lawrenceville Stakeholders officially opts to endorse both efforts.

Lawrenceville Stakeholders hopes to see the performance event come to fruition in September, and anticipates that this community event will spur an engaged, creative, transparent discussion about the future of a major community asset.

Members of Lawrenceville Stakeholders are urged to attend a special June 18, 2009 meeting on the vacant and deteriorating McBride log house at 38th and Charlotte Streets.  The meeting will be held at 7 pm at Keith Cochran’s architectural office, which is on 39th Street below Butler Street in Building 3 of the Arsenal Terminal complex. Building 3 is a two-story red brick 19th century building on the east side of 39th Street, about 500 ft north of Butler Street. Stakeholders is inviting City Councilman Patrick Dowd, State Senator Jim Ferlo, and Lawrenceville Corp. executive director Maureen Ford to this meeting.

Heinz History Center
1212 Smallman Street | Pittsburgh, PA 15222
Thursday, June 25, 2009 | 6 p.m. – 8 p.m.

Hosted by:
Perkins Eastman, The Urban Redevelopment Authority, The Department of City Planning, and Riverlife