South Capitol Neighborhood Association Board Meeting Minutes
Weds, Aug 13, 2026 6:30 – 8 pm
Lincoln Elementary School library
Note: On August 18, 2026, Gerry Apple made a motion to approve the August 13, 2026 board minutes via email vote. Theresa Freeman seconded. Seven board members voted in favor, and the motion passed.
Introductions and Call Meeting to Order
Members of the South Capitol Neighborhood Association (SCNA) Board in attendance:
John Saunders, President
Gerry Apple, Vice President
Sue Hedrick, Secretary
Morgan Montes, Treasurer
Charley Haley, Blake Melancon, Lorie Hewitt, Valerie Hammett, Ariel Kay-Barto, Eric Seder, Theresa Freeman, Scott Freeman, Tyler Graber, At Large members
John called the meeting to order.
Approval of Today’s Draft Agenda
John asked if there were any changes or additions to the agenda. There were none. Scott moved to approve the draft agenda, Gerry seconded, and the motion passed unanimously.
Treasurer’s Report – Morgan Montes
Morgan previously sent the draft July Treasurer’s Report to the board members, which is under Written Reports at the end of the minutes. Theresa asked how the volunteer hours for the neighborhood matching grant are collected. Morgan said volunteers document their hours as they go, but the total hours are not due until the end of the grant cycle.
Scott moved to approve the Treasurer’s Report, Blake seconded, and the motion passed unanimously.
Annual Neighborhood Picnic – Gerry Apple, Morgan Montes
Morgan said documents for the Sept 13th picnic are saved in the board’s Google Docs. She asked that volunteers arrive at Lincoln School at noon to help set up for the event.
Tyler will be in charge of greeting exhibitors who will arrive between 1 and 1:30 pm. The janitor will make sure the restrooms and gate are unlocked before the event begins at 2 pm. Rachel Nesse will be in charge of kids’ activities and Blake will handle music and logistics. Joanne will greet neighbors bringing food items and will manage the potluck tables.
Tables and chairs will be picked up from the Scott Lake Active Men’s Service Club at 11 am. Gerry asked for volunteers to help with that and said the more, the better. Gerry said that so far there are four or five exhibitors for sure and three or four maybes. He said he will call those he hasn’t heard from yet.
He passed around a sign-up sheet and asked folks to add the items they can bring and the tasks they can do. Morgan said there will be two membership tables that will need to be staffed, and they need more coolers and BBQ grills. She will send out a follow-up email to the board with a link to the schedule and task list.
Fall Community Forums Planning – John Saunders, Lorie Hewitt, Theresa Freeman
Lorie said the housing forum will focus on two issues city staff are working on – home-based businesses and small-scale commercial – rather than middle housing. David Ginther, Olympia city planner, will do a presentation followed by questions and answers and discussion.
Theresa volunteered to create the invitation mailer for the forum. It will be held on Weds, Oct 21st, 6:30 – 8:30 pm at the Lincoln Elementary cafeteria. Lorie said she will need volunteers to bring refreshments and help out at the event.
John said that, ideally, we will be informing David on what the neighborhood wants the outcome to be.
Theresa said the urban gardening forum will be held on Weds, Nov 18th, 6:30 – 8:30 pm at the Lincoln Elementary cafeteria. She will also create the invitation mailer for this event. Theresa said she has found a gardening specialist to speak. Valerie said she is also reaching out to the Master Gardeners to participate.
Registering the Neighborhood as a Local Historic District – Morgan Montes
Brittany Gillia, city planner who staffs the Olympia Heritage Commission, reached out to John Saunders in April, asking if she and members of the commission could meet with the SCNA board to learn about possible advantages or disadvantages of becoming a locally designated historic district.
The South Capitol Neighborhood and the Downtown Neighborhood are on the National Register of Historic Places, but this is only an honorary designation, so being listed on it doesn’t grant protections. In other words, it does not result in any restrictions or design review on private property owners in historic districts.
The reason for considering registering as a local historic district now is that the state is asking the City of Olympia to move forward with updating its municipal regulations to comply with state law. Registering locally would allow Brittany to continue to do the design review work she’s been doing.
Not all local governments in the state have design review and historic preservation written in their code. Olympia has had this for some time. If the city doesn’t adopt and follow a separate and distinct local designation and regulation process by becoming a certified local government (CLG), it could lose these regulatory protections.
Brittany and Commissioners Bill Cotter, Derek Foster and Kyle Kimball attended the May 2026 board meeting. The board did not have a quorum, so no minutes were taken of the meeting; however, notes were taken of the discussion.
The commission was considering applying for a grant to hire a professional to conduct an architectural survey of the South Capitol Neighborhood – an inventory of all homes in a historic neighborhood. The last survey of historic property in the South Capitol Neighborhood was completed in 1991 and led to it being listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
To become a locally listed historic district, signatures also would have to be obtained from a majority of property owners within the proposed district.
After considerable discussion, board members at the May meeting indicated they were supportive of the commission pursuing the grant.
Update on grant application
Prior to the board’s August meeting, Morgan reached out to Brittany for an update on the commission’s progress in pursuing the grant.
Brittany said one of the commissioners did considerable research into what would be needed to do an updated reconnaissance level survey for structures that may have become eligible in the past 25 years. These are homes that are at least 50 years old. They identified 136 properties that would need to be surveyed.
One consultant estimated $204,000, or using volunteer and student work, said it could possibly be done for around $100,000-$120,000. A second consultant quoted $40,000 using volunteers for getting photos, but said that to survey all properties from scratch would cost $100,000. A third consultant quoted $30,000 working off the previously surveyed properties and updating only the alterations portion of the physical description of the previous survey.
Based on the commissioner’s findings and the available grant funds,they determined the updated survey project is beyond the current capacity that the commission and staff have to commit to completing the work if a grant was obtained. During the discussion, Brittany explained that the commission members decided not to pursue the CLG grant. She said they are still interested in working toward an updated survey, but there are more steps that need to be taken for this to be successful.
She said the grant application they are preparing is focused on education and outreach priorities, and it would be a good idea to use the SCNA as a network to reach out to folks in the neighborhood to see if any would be interested in leading outreach efforts for listing the South Capitol Historic District locally.
Given that the commission’s direction seems to have changed from pursuing a grant to do an architectural survey to asking whether the neighborhood association could take it on, the board members had a significant number of questions and concerns.
After considerable discussion, it became clear that more information was needed as to what the commission plans to do and what the neighborhood association’s part might be in this. Four members volunteered to form a committee to focus on this.
Morgan then made a motion to ask Brittany Gillia to connect with Lorie, Eric, Scott and John to learn more about next steps to working with the Olympia Heritage Commission on this issue.
Gerry seconded, and the motion passed unanimously.
Additional Items
Eric gave an update on the Deschutes Estuary Restoration Project. He is now serving on the Community Sounding Board, which has been dormant since 2024, but has now started up again. He said that 28 organizations are on it, representing a broad spectrum of the community. At a meeting about two weeks ago, the project was at 60% and is expected to be at 90% by the end of the year.
The Department of Ecology is in charge of the project and is under pressure from the Governor and the Legislature to complete it. Eric said it will cost about half a billion dollars, there is no funding at this point, and it is not expected that construction will begin until 2031 at the soonest.
The 5th Avenue bridge redesign has been changed from an earlier design and now would include a roundabout at the base of the hill where 5th Avenue meets Deschutes Parkway.
At the April 2026 SCNA board meeting, Gordon suggested the board invite Kidder Matthews – the realtors managing the sale of St. John’s Episcopal Church – and the Thurston Housing Land Trust to a future board meeting to talk about potential uses for the property. This was raised again at the August meeting and the board members agreed it should happen.
Motion to adjourn
Theresa moved to adjourn the meeting, Lorie seconded, and the motion was approved unanimously. The meeting ended at 7:57 pm.
Next SCNA board meeting – Weds, Sept 9, 2026 6:30 pm, Lincoln Elementary School library
Written Reports
July 2026 Treasurer’s Report
Period: 7/01/26 – 7/31/26
Business Priming Savings $25.00
Innovator Checking Ending Balance $1,919.35
Innovator Checking Beginning Balance $2,025.80
Difference $106.45
Recent Income:
Membership dues less fees $119.42
Total $119.42
Recent Expenses:
Google Suite $9.23
Flyer Postage $216.64
Total $225.87
Difference $106.45
Transactions in process:
A transfer of $29.10 in membership dues was initiated from Paypal account on Aug 5th. It will be received in 1-3 business days.
An invoice for the picnic flyer in the amount of $591.71 on 8/11.
Grant Update:
We have worked at least 21 of the 218 hours required (about 10%). A reimbursement was submitted for $119.42 to the City Match Grant on July 22nd. The reimbursement should be received in August. Further expenses will be submitted through a new system.
South Capitol Neighborhood Association 