[RCAC] Please Join us for our 2009 Holiday Party Friday, Dec. 4

Folks, Sorry if you might get this twice but there are folks on the RCAC email list that I do not have on our Annual Holiday gathering list and I do want to extend an invitation to each and everyone. (Besides if you get this twice, reading it once is all that is required. ;-) ) Hope you will be able to join us! Bill PS Yes this time I did mean to send this email out to everyone! ================ We would love to have you join us, Bett & Bill @ our Annual Holiday Party (always first Friday in December & always you are invited) Friday, Dec. 4th, 2009 5:00 to 10:00 1213 Dixie Trial <mailto:Bett@BettPadgett.com> Bett(a)BettPadgett.com & <mailto:Bill@BillPadgett.com> Bill(a)BillPadgett.com 787-6378 (RSVP if possible) Friends, Please join us for our annual Holiday Gathering on Friday, December 4th, 5 PM - 10 PM. This may well be our LAST ‘LEGAL’ Holiday Gathering see end of this message as you will find this very interesting. Our Holiday Affair is one where many of our friends and colleagues (technology, music, environmental, political and neighbors) get together and enjoy good food, company and holiday singing and music. We invite you to romp around the house and grounds and have pizza and other things to nibble on, sodas, cider, beer and wine. If you would like to contribute dishes, desserts, appetizers, or your favorite beverage, etc. please feel free to do so. We welcome the variety! It is helpful that if you plan to bring something to share – Thank YOU! Also please try to RSVP if you are planning to come since it is very helpful for us to plan for the evening and the food, but please come whether you remember to RSVP or not. PLEASE EXTEND THIS INVITATION TO YOUR SPOUCE, FRIEND, PARTNER, KIDS, PARENTS AND CLOSE NEIGHBORS and PALS! The festivities begin at ~5 PM ...Anytime right after work, but we go on into the evening. *********** There is always a little something special under the tree for the little ones ********** *********** Hopefully Some Special Entertainment ~6:30 ********** *********** SINGING BEGINS AT ~ 7:30! ************* MOST IMPORTANT: We celebrate ten years of happiness at Little Lake Hill, the name of the house and grounds given by Nancy and John Ferguson in 1932. We are grateful for the success of a wonderful house concert series and that we have been able to share of our home with many organizations and events and friends who have helped in making all of these gatherings so special and have become part of continuing ‘spirit’ of Little Lake Hill. This gathering is SO MUCH FUN and hopefully will start you holiday season with the singing with kids joining in on an array of instruments and everyone running around the house, inside and out. 1213 Dixie Trail is the first house on the left north of Wade Avenue. Parking is available on both sides of Dixie Trail after 6 PM, but you will probably be safe if you park on the street a little before that time. If you need special access or are carrying in food, you may park along the horseshoe driveway on the grassy areas, but be careful not to block anyone in and keep the carport free for passage. Looking forward to seeing you on the 4th! Please let us hear from you! Bill and Bett Some of you are aware that the City of Raleigh’s Inspections and Zoning department has cited us for having gatherings – in this case house concerts - in our home, charging us with operating a ‘prima facia business’. We were more saddened to learn that our citation is due to an anonymous person who only stated they thought we were in violation of the city’s zoning code. This was not a nuisance complaint – it did not concern noise, parking, etc. in fact in our nearly 10 years of having about 9 house concerts each year, there have not been any complaints of parking or disturbance and our concerts end well before 11 PM I may add! As a matter of fact, many of our neighbors attend the concerts and are happy that they are close enough that they can WALK! Also we have talked with all of our contiguous neighbors and they are unanimous in support of our community and art gatherings and they will be writing letters of support that they will have to have notarized! We have never profited from any event in our home – of course we have raised money for charities, artists, and even politicians by asking for donations at many of our events – so if we are a ‘business’ we are not real good at it. ;-) Just for the record, we do carry a business license for Bett’s Music Studio located at 1213 Dixie Trail for 30 years where music is taught – guitar, rhythm, song writing, performance and bringing in artists that mentor and demonstrate the skills of that business. We feel that the interpretation of the zoning code of Raleigh is in conflict as to how we want to use our home. As long as it is not illegal nor a disturbance or detriment to the neighborhood (we have laws for that) how we use our homes and the nature of our gatherings in our homes should be determined by us. So we have hired an attorney and are making an appeal to the Board of Adjustments asking for an interpretation of the code which states that we are in violation of the law because we have more than three (3) events per calendar year. ‘Event’ has been defined for us on several occasions by Inspections as any gathering of people i.e. Bible Study, Garden Club, Book Club, Political Meet and Greet, Boy or Girl Scouts, 501 3C board meeting, Community meeting as well as House Concerts and even birthday parties – so we assume also our HOLIDAY CELEBRATION. In conversations with the inspections staff, they have used the terms, ‘Regular Basis’, which would imply a scheduled event, such as our first Friday in December or Bill’s monthly Dix306 board meetings. Whatever our code interprets as an ‘event’, households in Raleigh are allowed to have only three ‘events’ in any calendar year. Many of you may be in violation as well, and note that anyone for whatever reason can make your life interesting - anonymously ;-) by reporting you. We hope that the city will review their interpretation of ‘events’ and will allow that more than three (3) can take place as long as there is a consensus especially when the gatherings are a benefit to the community and have no negative impact on the neighborhood. If they do not agree to a text change, we may appeal to higher courts based on issues like ‘freedom of speech and freedom to gather’, depending upon the cost. (For the record, you may have three (3) events up to 24 hours each or one (1) ‘temporary event’ up to 20 days – we are guessing that ‘the 20 days’ is included so that all the homes & yards around the Fair Grounds can become a parking lot for the weeks of the fair.) For 9 ½ years many of you have joined us for good music, community building and fellowship. Some of you have come to nearly every house concert and appreciate that we open our home to you. If you have indeed enjoyed the musical experience & education at Little Lake Hill House concerts, or if you value that one’s home is not just a place where you eat and sleep but also can be enjoyed shared with friends and others more than three times a year, there IS a way you can help. Letters can be written to the City’s BOA (Board of Adjustment) affirming the benefit to the community of the house concerts. These letters must be notarized to have standing. We hope that if one of you is a Notary you will consider coming to the party and help us notarizing letters. If you are a notary (or know of one), please contact us at 919-787-6378 or email Bett at bett(a)bettpadgett.com. We will have a station in our house where letters can be notarized and we will take them to the Board of Adjustment hearing when we meet with them, probably on December 14th. We may have a petition for you to sign, or a list you can sign up to get more information as we go further with this process. We are sad to bring you this news at such a joyous time of year, but friends stick together, and we hope you will help us make it legal for all of us not to be limited by three (3) events in their homes each year! Thanks & we hope everyone has a wonderful and safe Holiday Season & we hope to see you on the 4th! Bill & Bett