Civic Association December Community Meeting Recap

Thanks to everyone who attended the Civic Association meeting during this busy holiday season! If you weren't able to attend, please view the meeting minutes, recording, and presentation slide deck. Thank you to everyone who donated to Star of Hope mission - we dropped off donations and they so appreciate it!

Here's a quick rundown of the biggest things we discussed:

We now have 161 total Civic Association members, and counting! Thank you to our 4 awesome business members who have contributed to our success as well.
Cottage Grove Civic Association is now a federally and state recognized nonprofit, so donations are tax deductible! Our bank account is almost set up.
Trees for Houston presented a fantastic plan for foresting the bridge median at Kansas and TC Jester. It's a gorgeous plan, and our community approved the option presented and recommended by Civic Association leadership. Next step is for Trees for Houston to get the plan approved by City of Houston. Stay tuned for next steps!
We went over security statistics for our neighborhood in 2021 (year to date) and discussed a contract deputy program. We will be sending out a survey to gauge interest and get a final cost estimate in January.

Infrastructure needs its own separate section because of Cottage Grove's infrastructure and how hard we have been working to improve it. There have been some very scary recent infrastructure incidents as well - see the slide deck for details.

Here are some key facts presented at the meeting based on data we collected:

81% of roads are less than 20 feet wide and don’t meet the minimum Houston Fire Dept code width
27% of drainage ditches are in poor condition (collapsed or completely filled in)
32% of power lines are drooping severely or have tree interference
20% of sidewalks are completely missing. This is scattered across the neighborhood, so not a single block is whole

Sharon Fletcher, Deputy Chief of Staff for Council Member Abbie Kamin, spoke at the meeting. She is extremely supportive of our neighborhood. We are working to schedule a meeting with Council Member Kamin and Civic Association leadership in January, followed by a community-wide meeting focused on infrastructure in February that she will also attend.

Other items you'll see in the minutes/recording/slide deck linked above: