Council of Neighborhood Associations (CNA)
MEETING MINUTES
November 10, 2025. 6:30PM
ATTENDING:
Neighborhood Representatives: Larry Dzieza (CNA Chair/Nottingham HOA); Karen Sweeney (CNA Vice-Chair/Eastside NA); Sue Hedrick (South Capital NA); Bob Jacobs (Gov. Stevens NA); Daniel Garcia (Downtown NA); Melissa Allen (Bigelow Highlands NA); Marty Worcester (Redwood Estates HOA); Peter Guttchen (Northeast NA); Dana McAvoy (East Bay Drive NA); Grace Fletcher, Rebecca Delman (Southwest NA); Judy Bardin (Northwest NA)
City & County Representatives: Tim Smith (Community Planning and Economic Development Dept)
Guests: Rhonda Larson Kramer (“Stop Oly Airport Growth”)
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NEIGHBORHOOD UPDATES:
South Capital – Neighborhood Engagement survey is in progress. Results and template will be shared at an upcoming CNA meeting. The City will hold a December 4th public meeting about proposed improvements to regulation of home based businesses. Sue asked everyone to complete the Adopt-A-Drain survey that Larry sent out.
Northeast – Successful celebration of the new pocket park across from
Roosevelt Elementary. New Project Connect Civic Life and Belonging Grant to support school partnerships. They have secured a “fiscal sponsor” to open up new funding opportunities. Improvements on the Joy Food Forest–irrigation and water storage.
Downtown – New website is up and planning has begun to build next year’s board.
East Bay Drive –Traffic enforcement (radar gun checks and letters for speeders) continues while also collaborating with the city on a planned road reconfiguration scheduled for 2027-2030. EBDNA is working with NENA to refine the boundary between them and North eEst NA
Redwood Estates – Marty wants to know more about the City’s Urban Forestry management plan to address tree canopy depletion and how to integrate it with land use planning.
Bigelow Highlands – Annual meeting is Oct 14. Guest speaker will be Danny Stusser, publisher of the JOLT (Journal of Olympia, Lacey and Tumwater). New board members will be elected.
Eastside – Successful Apple Fest cider pressing using the press purchased with last year’s Neighborhood Matching Grant. New partnership with Madison Elementary for fundraising and community engagement.
Governor Stevens – Bob Jacobs raised concern about the Olympia Airport expansion, which will drastically impact local communities. See below for discussion.
Southwest – Successful cider pressing event at Decatur Woods Park that raised money for Doctors without Borders. Neighborhood is planning to relocate a garden infrastructure from a church to to create a new community garden.
CITY UPDATES & CNA DISCUSSION:
CPED staff Tim Smith
CNA discussion continued from October meeting about the closure of City recycle sites with no plan for re-location. The yard waste drop site will close permanently on 11/22/25 City plans to permanently end 10th Ave cardboard recycling 12/31/25 (despite public concerns) but will extend glass recycling at that location until late 2026 while searching for another location. City Council discussed the need for a benefit-cost analysis of recycling programs. CNA members commented that even though the City sold the land that included the 10th Ave recycle bins to the Squaxin Tribe for $8.2 million and is now spending $2 million for two lots adjacent to City Hall for employee parking, paying to relocate recycling service was not considered.
Multifamily Tax Exemptions (MFTE): City Council recently approved 3 market-rate housing projects for an 8-year property tax exemption. In exchange for over $3 million in exemptions the developers will pay 5% of the value of their exempted taxes into the Home Fund. The cost of the exempted taxes is not lost City revenue since rates are increased so that all other property taxpayers make up the loss. This is called a “tax-shift”.
Discussion continued on the 8-year MFTE impact on affordable housing. The 12-year tax exemption for construction of affordable housing has seldom been used and never used since the city made changes to the program in 2023. Judy Bardin highlighted economic displacement as a major cause of housing issues in Olympia.
Attendees commented on the recent Neighborhood Matching Grant (NMG) debrief to which 2025 recipients were invited. Peter Guttchen described a draft proposal for re-imagining the NMG focus and allocation. He asked for CNA members to work with him to improve the program’s effectiveness: Grace Fletcher, Karen Sweeney and Jim Sweeney volunteered.
Guest: Rhonda Larson Kramer (“Stop Oly Airport Growth”)
As follow up to the CNA October discussion, Rhonda presented a detailed critique of the latest update of the Olympia Airport Master Plan. She highlighted concerns about the County Port’s history of controversial land use decisions, environmental impacts and potential expansion. She encouraged attendees who oppose airport expansion to get involved in political action.
NEXT STEPS:
- Peter and group will report on progress toward a reimagined Neighborhood Matching Grant process that emphasizes improving the process, cross neighborhood collaboration, accessing other funding, etc.
- Tim will report on the time line for the 505 Union affordable housing conversion; also find details of affordability requirement for the 12-year MFTE exemption.
- Rhonda Larson-Kramer will send PDF of Olympia Airport Master Plan to Larry for distribution.
- Tim will report recycling updates
OCTOBER CNA MINUTES UNANMOUSLY APPROVED
MEETING ADJOURNED AT 8:30PM
RESPECTFULLY SUBMITTED BY MELISSA ALLEN, CNA SECRETARY
Council of Neighborhood Associations 