Olympus Properties

GANA Speaker Series
Brett Smith
Leasing Agent, Olympus Properties

February 28, 2007, 8-9 p.m.

TOPIC: How to enhance sustainability by increasing interconnections between stakeholders and residents in Green Acres neighborhood.

That’s a mouthful, and we may not even realize that this is what we were doing during the brainstorming discussion we held with Brett Smith, but as stated in the Foreward to the Green Acres Neighborhood Plan, one of the best ways to heal an ecosystem is to "connect it with more parts of itself." Stakeholders such as landlords and rental agencies and absentee owners are included in and have a great impact on the Green Acres ecosystem.

Family-owned Olympus Properties is a management company chosen by property owners that currently oversees around two hundred rental properties in the Bloomington area. Six of these properties are in Green Acres. They include 208 and 218 Hillsdale, and 2401, 217, 213, and 218 Clark Street, with a seventh property on Hillsdale rumored soon to be theirs to lease as well.

Brett began by saying that GANA and Olympus Properties have "common goals;" that they want to help us "choose our neighbors" by enlisting our input into this effort. He handed out his cards, asking us to give them to possible renters whom we would like to have as neighbors. However, he stressed, he has to follow the law in being very careful to not discriminate, for example, on the basis of age, and so can't directly ask a possible renter how old they are. Since many of the issues faced in Green Acres (as well as the rest of college town Bloomington) have directly to do with the preponderance of temporary undergraduate student renters and their tendency in some cases to litter, over-occupy houses, park cars on lawns, and hold loud, long parties, this legal stricture not to discriminate on the basis of age is a tricky one.

Not only is it in our neighborhood's interest, but Brett says it is also in the interest of the property management company to have long-term responsible renters who follow the laws on parking and occupancy, are considerate of their neighbor’s needs, clean up after themselves, and, of course, pay their rents on time.

According to Brett, their client-owners set rental parameters for the management company to work within, and that one way they screen potential renters is to list a rent higher than market value. For example, one of the properties on Hillsdale is offered for $2000 per month, which automatically discourages undergraduates from applying, since the management company also checks credit ratings. When they find a renter that they think will be responsible, they can negotiate a lower rent with them. After all, he says, if we offer it at $1200, we’ll easily be able to rent it, but we may not end up with the renters we want. So that is the reason, he says, why posted rents are often higher than the market rate. They're used as a filter to skirt the non-discrimination issue.

Olympus actively goes after the kinds of renters they want, posting notices in graduate school departments, for example. He said that one of their properties on Clark St. has long been occupied by music graduate students who keep each other informed of when it is available. Olympus courts responsible renters—taking them out to dinner, and/or offering bonuses for referrals.

We had many questions for him, some of which he answered to our satisfaction, and others left us wondering. For example, we asked about the "For Rent" signs that seem to be up all year long and, he agreed, lend a trashy, temporary feel to the neighborhood. "Olympus takes them down as soon as a property is newly occupied" in August, he said—and then added, "we have to put them up again, so that prospective renters will know they’re available."

"When do you put them up again?"

He hesitated, before answering, "October."

"So the signs are down for only two months of the year?"

At this deduction he looked embarrassed, but added again, "we have to let people know they're for rent!" But one wonders if this is really necessary, since, at least for the Clark Street houses, as he said, several times, "they rent themselves" (presumably through internal music department referrals).

After the meeting, Georgia and Ann decided investigate the laws around signage, and see if something can be done about signs that are up just about all year long. If you wish to help with this project, please let them know and otherwise, stay tuned!

At times, during this discussion, we segued to our ever-pressing concerns, especially over-occupancy. John Gaus wondered if we could get a list of properties that have been grandfathered for over-occupancy, so that we will know which ones we can’t call HAND about. And yet, we want to be cautious about calling HAND, because we realize that some renters are wonderful neighbors even when they’re over-occupied, and others, who stay within the legal limits, are inconsiderate. As Nathan Harman succinctly put it, "It's better to have more good neighbors than fewer bad ones."

According to Brett, there are hefty fines for such things as garbage left out and cars on lawns, and that they are levied against both the renters and the owners. However, he said, don't call owners to complain about their renters, or you could be open to a charge of harassment! Better to call the property management agency, he said. Olympus, for one, wants responsible renters, and, when warnings are not heeded, will not hesitate to evict.

It may take us awhile to digest what went on in this meeting and what we learned from it. We did agree that it would be good for us to post rental and for sale notices in places like SPEA that would be likely to catch the eye of people interested in sustainability.

Ann Kreilkamp GANA scribe

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GANA Meeting Minutes

GANA (Green Acres Neighborhood Association) Meeting
2/28/07, 7-8 p.m. First United Church on 3rd St.

Attending
Georgia Schaich, Diane Dormant, Kathy Ruesink, John Gaus, Jessica Gaus, Ginny Kleindorfer, Nathan Harman, Stanley Routon, Kevin Polk, Ann Kreilkamp

Agenda

• Report on Herald-Times article on Green Acres
• Update on the Green Acres Neighborhood Plan
• Report on latest Small and Simple Grant
• New Idea: Flower Power!

Summary
We discussed the H-T article and passed copies around. We passed around copies of the final draft of the Plan and decided on a venue and date for its formal release. We heard what the latest Small and Simple Grant will be used for. We discussed Flower Power as a new idea for helping to establish neighborhood identity and continuity through beauty.

The Process
Herald-Times article: Georgia opened the meeting by passing around copies of the H-T article that John and Jessica Gaus had thoughtfully brought with them. The article, by Carrol Krause, which ran on the front page of the Home section on Saturday, February 17, was titled “Sustainability is sprouting in Green Acres,” and can be found on Page Two of Carrol’s website, www.carrolkrause.com. Quoting Georgia, Ann and Tim Mayer, Carrol did a wonderful job of describing our vision and initial efforts towards sustainability. The article also featured a number of photos of the neighborhood with informative descriptions under them.

The article attracted two responses from outside Green Acres. First, Tyler Ferguson of Olympus Properties contacted Georgia with an offer to meet with GANA about our concerns for attracting renters and new home owners who would appreciate our neighborhood vision and goals. A leasing agent from her company, Brett Smith, agreed to come and and discuss these issues with us as part of our Speaker Series. (See next email, Speaker Series). And Floyd Richards, a resident of Owen County who lives on a golf course with twelve other houses, called Ann to seeking advice on how to start to green his own neighborhood. She asked, “Is there one other person you can talk to about this?” “Yes—the man who lives across the street.” “Good. Then start there!” They exchanged emails and agreed to keep in touch.

The Plan: We received twelve copies of the final draft of the Green Acres Neighborhood Plan with the request that we look it over for glaring errors. The city has already approved the document as is, so hopefully, we won’t find much. If you wish to look over this document for errors, please contact Georgia to receive a copy—and send all edits to Ann, ann.k1942@sbcglobal.net, by Tuesday morning, so she can compile them and send in to the city by the Wednesday, March 7th, deadline.

We discussed the type of venue we wanted for our “formal release” of the plan to the city and to the press, and agreed that most in keeping with our vision for the neighborhood would be the Raintree House and its grounds on Bryan, since that house, built in 1849, was identified in the Foreward to the Plan as the “cornerstone” and “lodestone” of our Green Acres neighborhood. Diane Dormant will contact IU to see if this venue is a possibility. We decided to hold this event some time in May.

Georgia also asked us all to think about the three objectives as stated in the plan and to decide which one each of us as individuals would most like to help manifest from vision to reality.

Ann recommended that everybody read the Plan, especially for its very interesting and even surprising Appendix A, a Green Acres Demographic Profile. We thank the Planning and HAND departments for their patience with our process and the very thoughtful and detailed treatment that they gave to the creation of our neighborhood plan.

Small and Simple Grant: Georgia wrote up another Small and Simple Grant, this time asking for and receiving $1000 (the limit) for the following: 1) A Green Acres Neighborhood Welcome Packet to help block captains meet and green new residents. 2) Two new printed brochures. The first “community-minded brochure” will outline recommendations for stakeholders and partners, including residents, students, property owners and the university. The second brochure will update the one we developed in 2006. 3) A new outreach special activity that will feature the outdoor showing of a movie, with food and music for students and all other residents with the goal to integrate students and other new residents into the neighborhood. 4) A discussion course prepared by Northwest Earth Institute: a series of innovative study guides focused on sustainability topics for a nine-week neighborhood discussion group. Kevin Polk said he has participated in one of their discussion courses and found it “very worthwhile.”

Flower Power: this idea, one very much in line with the objectives and goals of the new Green Acres plan, was the brain child of Diane Dormant. In her own words:

“Flower Power: one way to encourage our residents and potential residents to enjoy and maintain our area is to make Green Acres a place of beauty. There is no better or even faster way to do this than to fill the front yards with seasonal flowers. Owners, landlords, and renters could be encouraged to plant such durables as spring daffodils and late summer coneflowers (supplied at cost and, if necessary, planted by GANA volunteers). Techniques for achieving this might include online nursery sales programs (much like Girl Scout cookie sales) as well as wholesale purchases. The goal is to makes Green Acres a visible Bloomington treasure.” Diane seeks two other residents to join her in creating this program to beautify Green Acres. You can email her at dormant@indiana.edu.

The meeting was adjourned around 8 p.m., for refreshments and a break before our Speaker for this month, Brett Smith.

Looking towards spring on this snowy March day, I remain
Ann Kreilkamp
Your ever-faithful GANA scribe

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