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HomeMy WebLinkAboutParks And Recreation Board - Minutes - 01/28/20041?Axt ArrA Ri �r1ON;BOARD n-ate$ df �� �igg�u) ar 1V�eetmanu sZ8o 2004 .. Council Liaison: Bill Bertschy Staff Liaison: Marty Heffernan224-6064 President: Jessica MacMillan Phone: 495-1270(work) 407-8896 (home) Call Meeting to Order: President Jessica MacMillan called the meeting to order at 5:35 p.m. Agenda Review: Marty Heffeman added the following items under Other Business: • Clean Up at Northside Center • Extension of Poudre Trail • Soft Gold Park • Citizen Survey Citizen Participation: None Approval of Minutes: On a motion by Dean Hoag, seconded by Ann Hunt, the Board voted unanimously (6-0) to approve the minutes of the October 22, 2003 meeting. Note: Greg Miller joined the Board after the minutes were approved. — Discuss recording of comments: Marty said that in light of recent problems encountered by the School Board, he suggests staff and the Board do an even better job of capturing minutes. The Board agreed. Inspiration Playground The Board viewed the video "Talk of the Town" Universally Accessible Playground. Greg Miller represents the Parks and Recreation Board on the Inspiration Park Committee. Marty said that when the Board met with representatives of the Inspiration Park Committee (Brownie McGraw, Bill Neal, and Bob Powell), they spoke about raising money in the community to build Inspiration Park in Rigden Farms. It was then discussed about constructing this in one of our parks, i.e., Southwest Community Park. The City Manager was supportive, as well as the Mayor. After receiving this support from the Mayor and City Manager, our staff met with Brownie and Bob and they were very receptive to the Southwest Community Park site. They took this idea to their full committee. Jerry Patterson, who is on the ACT (All Children Together) Board, said that at the last Board meeting a motion was passed to construct this Parks and Recreation Board Minutes January 28, 2004 Page #2 playground at Southwest Community Park. Greg said there's been a great interest and support from the community. Marty added that the Committee understands Southwest Community Park is a three-year process and they were hoping to have the playground built sooner. The soonest Southwest would be developed is 2007. The committee is comfortable partnering with us, understanding this schedule. The next step is a partnering agreement between ACT and the City. Mary Carlson said that she was in the company of the Mayor and he is excited about this park. Mary thinks Southwest is too small to add this feature. Jerry Patterson said that so far they have raised $25,000. We usually budget $300,000 to $350,000 for a community park playground and ACT will bring in the remainder for the Inspiration Playground. The more money they raise the better it will be. Ann Hunt said that the site Bill Neil had at Rigden Farms was five acres. The committee was surprised at the price of the infrastructure to build this park. Jessica asked if they raise the money needed, could we put this equipment in another park temporarily? Craig said that is an interesting question. However if we put it in one playground and then remove it, it may upset park users. Also, it may be cost prohibitive to retrofit it in an existing park temporarily. Mary asked if Southwest Community Park is the wisest choice to build an inspiration park with all the development going south. Marty said the best location is Southwest Community Park as it will be a 100-acre park. The playground is not land intensive. It will take up less than an acre of space. By building this in a new community park, we will end up with a better playground. Mary asked about moving sooner on a new community park in southeast part of the city (Webster). Craig said we need to build Southwest first because parkland fees have come from this part of town for much longer than the southeast area. Jessica asked if when we redesign City Park, could we look at the Inspiration Park going there. Craig said that we were not planning on redesigning the playground at City Park. Staff is looking at the Board's support to continue with ACT in a partnership to build this park. Greg said the ACT Board is very excited about building this playground in Southwest Community Park. Dean Hoag said he likes the idea of this going into a community park and it will be accessible to everyone. Del Price said timing is very important and since Southwest Community Park is our next community park, he supports this approach and thinks it is great. Jessica said that if there is an opportunity to allow the kids to use it sooner than later, take advantage of that in another park. Lance is in support, as well as Ann, for building this playground in Southwest. Lance said he thinks it will take three years for ACT to raise the money. He doesn't see it constructed anywhere else, but a community park. With no further discussion, the Board voted 7-0 in support of the Inspiration Playground being constructed in Southwest Community Park. Southwest Community Park Craig Foreman began the presentation by stating that the purpose for tonight's presentation is to request support of staffs request of Council to appropriate the funds to start design of Southwest Community Park in February. 'i Parks and Recreation Board Minutes January 28, 2004 Page #3 History —Parks and Recreation Policy Plan has a standard for community parks of 4.5 acres per 1,000 population. This means we try to provide one community park per 20,000 population. Funding from the Choices 95 Capital Program was used for the land acquisition for this park. The information sent to the voters referred to land for a Southwest Community Park/Youth Sports Complex. The land was purchased in 1993. It has good access for the trail system, and is 100 acres. 45 acres adjacent to this property was purchased for Pineridge natural area. Craig referred to the minutes of the joint meeting in September 1993 between the Parks and Recreation Board and the Natural Resources Board. Both Boards approved the purchase of the land for the park and for the natural area. Craig referred to the Pick Ballot proposal in 1995/6, where a citizen initiated ballot was formed to construct this park and new ice facility. It failed. Overland Trail Road --Council action in 1996 removed Overland Trail Road through the park site from the Master Street Plan. This is from the end of Cottonwood Glen to Horsetooth. We can connect a road through for emergency or maintenance vehicles only. Del asked if Craig is not recommending a road through the park. Craig said it would be too dangerous for park users and it would be heavily used as a cut through. Greg asked how binding is Council's action in 1996? Craig said it is binding unless Council changes it. Community Parkland Fee-1996 the Community Parkland Fee was implemented on new construction. This set up a funding source for all future community parks, land, water, design, and construction. Southwest Community Park will be designed and developed with these fee revenues. Cottonwood Glen Neighborhood Park —The City developed an 11-acre neighborhood park on a portion of the Southwest park site in 1999. The irrigation pond is large enough to serve Southwest Community Park as well. Water —We have enough water in Dixon Reservoir to irrigate this entire site. Design Process —We will hire a consulting team, do preliminary design and work through the public process and development review process. The process will be very similar to what we used for Fossil Creek Community Park. Design and Construction process will be as follows: • Parks and Recreation Board January 2004 • City Council for design funds: February 2004 • Hire consulting Team: February -April • Preliminary design/public process: May 2004 through May 2005 (approval) • Final Design: October 2005 • Construction November 2005—Spring 2007 • Open spring 2007 Mary asked where in this park would the Inspiration Playground be constructed? Craig said probably in the south side of the park. Parks and Recreation Board Minutes January 28, 2004 Page #4 Kathleen Benedict, Senior Park Planner, spoke to the Board on the site analysis. Kathleen spoke about the public input process. She explained that the entrance to the park will likely be on Horsetooth. She showed a location where we could re-establish Spring Creek, which is now buried. She explained that we have an opportunity to connect Spring Creek Trail and Fossil Creek Trail system in this park. The highly active area will likely be adjacent to the school site. There is a planned stormwater detention pond near the northeast comer of the park. Cottonwood Glen Park will add amenities to the park with their existing ballfield and soccer field. She explained that the topography will allow for an interaction with a water feature through the park utilizing Spring Creek. Kathleen said this site is very interesting and has many natural amenities. Jessica asked how many soccer fields and softball fields will be in this park? Kathleen said that the public input and the consultant team will determine that. Lance asked if the surfacing of Spring Creek could define the buffer to the natural area? Kathleen said we will have a transition along the natural area. Marty said we don't have to buffer ourselves from a creek we developed, which would be the case here, but we would be sensitive to plants and animals that may utilize the creek. Jessica said that the lighting was an issue with the neighborhood. She likes the idea of creating the Spring Creek and the natural aspects of it. Mary said that she has some issues to discuss. She spoke of this as a dangerous area where she rides her horse in the natural area going to Pineridge and is concerned with the many dogs off leash. She has a concern about the hay field where the farmer has grown the hay and left it there. It needs to be moved. Marty said he will check with Virgil Taylor and get back to her on this. Secretary Note: Marty checked and the hay has been sold and should be removed in March. On a motion by Greg Miller, seconded by Lance Freeman, the Board unanimously (7-0) recommended to City Council to appropriate Community Parkland funding for the design of Southwest Community Park. Capital Improvement Proeram Marty referred to a memo addressed to the Boards and Commissions from City Manager John Fischbach. John explained in his memo that two Building Community Choices sales taxes will expire in December 2005. The current sales tax includes a one -quarter cent tax dedicated to the street maintenance program and a one -quarter cent tax for community enhancement projects. Council is tentatively planning to seek voter approval to renew the one -quarter cent sales tax for the pavement management program. Therefore, we have only one -quarter cent sales tax for all other City capital projects. The process that Council authorized to set the ballot language will be similar to what we did in Building Community Choices. He explained that the Board will make recommendations regarding the Parks and Recreation capital projects. He distributed a copy of partially funded and unfunded capital projects for Parks and Recreation. He explained that there is a rating criteria that we can use regarding the importance of the projects. Marty asked the Parks and Recreation Board Minutes January 28, 2004 Page #5 Board to look over this material in the next month and we will discuss this at the Board's February meeting. At that time the Board will make recommendations to the City Manager. A complete project list will then be presented to City Council. Ann asked if partially funded projects would have a higher priority than unfunded projects. Marty said the partially funded projects may compete better because fewer tax dollars are needed to get them done. He read them their recommendations made in April. Jessica asked if the new owners at the mall would have any jurisdiction over the YAC. Marty said they cannot kick us out unless they give us a new space. Marty expressed this concern to Bob Everitt. Bob assured Marty that the company that purchased the mall has a great reputation for enhancing malls to serve the community, as well as incorporating recreational amenities in the mall. Greg asked how Northside fits into this? Marty responded on the status of the project —Natural Resources has taken the lead on the site contamination problems. There is a lot riding on getting this site cleaned up. Marty has discussed our concerns regarding the new NACC project with the EPA representative and how we need to get this site cleaned up and move forth. The status is that Xcel's hope is that they will clean up the site with not much problem. There may be two or more plumes moving under ground. Depending on what they find and where they find it, will determine the extent of the clean up. We will know more in a month or two. Lance asked how long will this go on before this makes the new NACC project unfeasible. Marty said there isn't anything at this point that prevents us from building on this site, but we may be delayed. Marty said he fully understands the Board's concerns about constructing on this site. Lance's concern is that at some point we need to make a decision to build it there or find alternate property. Lance feels that we need an alternative since we are so tight on funding for this project as it is and it doesn't make sense to spend construction money on cleaning up this site or adding extra costs to ensure a stable building on the property. Ann asked what is the time line? Marty said we just received the design money and will design this year, and open in 2006 unless delayed by the clean up. Ann asked if there is a deadline on waiting for the results of the testing on this site. Marty said that he will make that decision along with the Board if it goes more than a year to seek Council's recommendation since it was Council and this Board that recommended rebuilding on the current site. Jessica said that if they find underground seepages there's two strikes against this project. City Plan Marty took the parts of the plan that effect Parks and Recreation. He explained the format of the document stating the first column is the October 2003 draft; second column is the suggested changes; third column comments by staff. The term "Open Spaces" has been replaced by "Open Lands." Changed passive recreation to "appropriate recreational activities." Appropriate is consistent throughout the document. The Board further reviewed the document and Lance said that we have a problem with "environmentally appropriate" throughout the document. The second issue the Board has was with the "Water Corridor system" and would recommend it reads "Water Corridor system shall be designed to include a trail/path using environmentally Parks and Recreation Board Minutes January 28, 2004 Page #6 sensitive trail design and excluding motorized vehicles, except emergency and maintenance vehicles. Marty will speak to Ken Waido about these requests from the Board. Annual 2003 Report Each year, the Board is asked to submit their annual report to the City Council. On a motion by Lance Freeman, seconded by Mary Carlson, the Board unanimously approved the 2003 annual report as prepared by staff. Other Business • Cultural District in the Downtown —Marty explained that there is a group in town that would be interested in developing a cultural district in the downtown that would include a new performing arts center. Jill Stilwell, Director of Cultural Services, and Marty are involved with the committee. The DDA is behind the effort. It is their hope to develop the downtown as a venue for the arts. • Poudre Trail —Craig explained that the contractor is in the process of pouring footings for the trail bridges out to Lyons Park. It is going very well. Bridges will be put in place in March. Craig will bring photos next month. The trail will be open in late spring. • Soft Gold Park —Craig explained that it is under construction. The site is graded and the foundation of the buildings is under construction. The park will open in the late summer. • Election of Board Officers —Marty asked the Board when they want to elect officers. Lance said last year, we gave a month to think about it and let Jackie know if we would like to recommend someone or yourself and then vote in February. Del doesn't see any reason for waiting. Jessica volunteered to remain as president. Greg said he agrees with Lance. The Board agreed that elections will be held in February and that they would get their recommendations to Jackie Rael prior to the February meeting. • Natural Resources Advisory Board —Marty explained that Linda Knolton stepped down from chair of the Trails Subcommittee and wondered if someone on this Board would want to chair this subcommittee. Lance said he will think about it. Secretary Note: Lance Freeman agreed to chair this subcommittee • Citizen Survey —Staff distributed copies of the summary of the survey. Marty said according to the survey the community rated our programs as important and of high quality. This survey was distributed for information purposes only. Parks and Recreation Board Minutes January 28, 2004 Page #7 Adjourned: The meeting was adjourned at 8:35 p.m. spectf illy s mit ackie Rael Executive Administrative Assistant Meeting Attendance: Board Members: Mary Carlson, Lance Freeman, Dean Hoag, Ann Hunt, Jessica MacMillan, Greg Miller, and Del Price Staff: Kathleen Benedict, Craig Foreman, Marty Heffernan, Jean Helburg, Renee Lee, and Jackie Rael Guests: Jerry Patterson, ACT Board Member