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HomeMy WebLinkAboutParks And Recreation Board - Minutes - 08/23/2000Call Meeting to Order: President Lance Freeman called the meeting to order at 5:30 p.m. Agenda Review: No changes to the printed agenda. Items of Note: Board Member Mary Ness called to say he would not be able to attend tonight's meeting. Ross Cunniff is on business in Europe. Citizen Participation: Citizen Eric Bamburg is interested in applying for a position on the Board. He said his main focus is recreation in Fort Collins. Approval of Minutes: On a motion by Jessica MacMillan, seconded by Del Price, the minutes of the July 19, 2000 meeting were unanimously ( 6-0) approved. Note: Paul Hudnut joined the Board after the minutes were approved. Trail System Overview Park Planning and Development Manager Craig Foreman gave the Board an overview of the trail projects and budget. Union Pacific Trail -- The first segment of the trail is nearly completed from EPIC to Drake Road. Stormwater Utility will complete installing improvements in the area this month and the trail will be extended to Drake Road in September. Some funding was provided by a GOCO grant. Craig explained that when constructing trails we estimate $250,000 per mile. The total cost of the construction to south of County Road 32 is $1,125,000. Lance asked if the extended date of completion to County Road 32 is because of the cost of the trail? Craig said yes. Marty added that the easement has been granted, the timing is financial. Mike Gavin asked if the cost includes the landscaping, mile markers and emergency phones? Craig said yes it is the completed cost including all of the above. Lance Freeman asked if this is an appropriate project for BCC funding? Marty said no, the BCC funds are for the Regional Trail System that will Parks and Recreation Board M 'es August 23, 2000 Page 2 connect the surrounding cities. Del Price asked if there is a way to get additional right of way to get the trail to County Road 32. Craig said we have the right of way to within about one -quarter mile of County Road 32 and we need to acquire the last one -quarter mile. Del further asked if we could include in this plan an overpass, which would allow us to apply for ISTEA funding? Craig said yes, however, there are numerous projects competing for the ISTEA money and this project would probably rank low. Spring Creek Trail At Centre Avenue —Trail location west of Centre Avenue will be integrated into the Horticulture Center design. The trail location east of Centre Avenue needs new easement from CSU/CSURF. Construction will begin in early 2001. The cost estimate is $150,000. Our plans are to trade out the easement from where the trail is now located for new trail right of way. Spring Creek Trail at Taft Hill/Drake — The trail design is being developed along with the road and Stormwater's project. We need to acquire right-of-way east of Taft Hill. Cost estimates are $450,000 for the entire project. Fossil Creek Trail — Staff will study the layout east and west of College Avenue (across the street from Fossil Creek Meadows). We need to determine railroad underpass location, begin design and permit process. We have the issue of the nesting hawk in this area and we are working with Natural Resources to determine where and when we can cut the trail. Cost estimates are approximately $1,000,000. Lance and Paul requested a meeting with Craig to get some background on this and determine options and costs. They will then share those ideas with the trail subcommittee. LaPorte Avenue and Overland Road Trail Connection — Craig explained that this is where the Poudre River and Overland Trail meets. We have some right of ways, but we are in negotiations with a private landowner and if we are able to secure this piece of property, we will construct the trail to Lions Park. If all goes well, we can complete the design in early 2001 and construction in the fall of 2001. Cost estimate is $600,000. The County will construct the trail from Lions Park to Watson Lake. Future Years of Trials — In 2003 to 2004, the Building Community Choices funding of $1.2 million will be available. We will then use that funding to construct the Poudre Trail to Timnath. Other options are trails north and east or trails to Loveland. Cost estimate is about $1,000,000. Paul Hudnut asked about a trail connecting Fort Collins and Windsor? Craig said that would be a project we would need to coordinate with Larimer County and Weld County. Budget — Trail Acquisition and Development. Craig explained that we have $600,000 in reserves and an additional $50,000 GOCO Grant. The Union Pacific Trail to Drake has been funded; Spring Creek Trail at Lemay = $60,000; Spring Creek Trail at Centre Avenue = $150,000. This leaves a balance at the end of 2000 of $425,000+/-. Asphalt to concrete trails will cost approximately $100,000 which we will fund through Natural Resources trail funds. Parks and Recreation Boa*inutes • August 23, 2000 Page 3 Future Trail Construction: Spring Creek Trail at Lemay — Stormwater has their project done and then we can complete our work. We will have to fund the rehab of the trial. Jessica asked about the east side of the trail at Welch? Craig said that portion is completed. This year we would like to use the $100,000 annual funding from Natural Areas to change asphalt to concrete. Del said that we have talked about constructing the trail on the north side of Lee Martinez Park. Craig said we looked at this and decided that it wouldn't work. The trail user experience would be better on the south side along the river. Del further asked about the trial east of the Farm? Would that include resurfacing that also? Craig said that would be part of the trails rehabilitation program. Paul Van Valkenburg said that there are some areas east on Spring Creek Trail that we need to rehab from the flood. Craig said that if it is a tripping hazard we will fix it. Otherwise, we will wait to rehab it with our schedule of trail rehabilitation. Fossil Creek Trail -- We are trying to coordinate the trail completion the same time as Fossil Creek Community Park is completed which is 2003. Marty said that because of the nesting hawk, we don't have a solution to get under College Avenue. Del asked about where the trail will go west of Taft Hill. Craig said it will eventually go to Southwest Community Park in 2005. Del said from a personal point of view trails are really important to the citizens of Fort Collins. It is obvious that we have a shortfall in trail construction. Something needs to be done to address this shortfall. We should be putting some emphasis on completing the trail system. We would have community support on this. The trail system is one of the attractions to Fort Collins. It is going to take some funding to complete. Paul Hudnut asked about the trails that run along the ditches and could we acquire easements? Craig explained that most are easements from the Ditch Company and they are not allowing public access along these ditches. Paul said that there is an assumption that the trails have to be concrete. Can we get the access and get some composite surface and move to have more trail paths? Lance said we could do non -arterial trails in the system that would be dirt trails. He says we can build more soft trails and then concrete them as money affords. Marty said that the main trails have to be paved for the users, but soft trails could be an option off the main trail system. 2001 Budget Trail Acquisition and Development -- Beginning balance 2001 $425,000 Revenue in 2001 Budget $300,000 $725,000 LaPorte Connection $500,000 $225,000 Legacy Grant $300,000 $525,000 Spring Creek Trail at Taft Hill $450,000 Budget Balance at end of 2001 $ 75,000 Parks and Recreation Board M `es August 23, 2000 Page 4 Trails Subcommittee Paul and Lance attended the Trails Subcommittee meeting with the Natural Resources Board subcommittee. The Natural Resources representatives are concerned with the more developed trails. We need to decide what trails are used for transportation and maybe a soft trail for some areas. The subcommittee is scheduled for next Wednesday and Paul will not be able to attend that meeting. There are approximately 10 people on the subcommittee. Lance thought the meeting went well. Both Lance and Paul felt there will be some good coming out of this subcommittee. The format is that Paul is going to take the lead on this subcommittee as our representative. Lance asked if there is any Board member who would be interested in this subcommittee, and if so, let Paul know. Paul feels we need to be more flexible on the surfaces we use and that all trails do not have to be 10 foot wide concrete. We need paved trails on the main trails and other trails we could have soft surface. Marry suggested that Paul and Lance meet with Craig and Marty to share ideas. Council Budget Discussion Update Marty said that Council has divided City services into primary and secondary funding for budget. Streets, Transportation, Fire, Police, and Parks Maintenance are in the primary services. Most of CLRS is in the secondary priority. What Council is concerned about is that there isn't enough money in the General Fund Budget for street maintenance. The City's street inventory has doubled in the past five to ten years. There is a deficit of $3,000,000 each year. Council's main concern is street maintenance and shortage of police officers. They have asked management to find $3,000,000 in secondary services to fund primary services. Mike said the CLRS budget is $26,000,000 and $12,000,000 comes from the General Fund. They are calling it an "exercise" to show where we could move some money. Council will need to go to the voters at some time to ask for additional funding. Streets and Police have no champions, but our programs have many champions. It will be difficult to cut anything of substance. We need to have our recommendations to the Budget Office by the end of the month. Then Council will prioritize. The Board needs to know what the ramifications could be to the Parks and Recreation budget. Mike said no final decisions will be made prior to the Board's next meeting. We will send our recommendations to all Board members prior to the September meeting. Lance said we will put that on our agenda for discussion next month. Del asked where are the cuts going to be made? Mike said we will go through a process with staff. Paul Van Valkenburg said his concern is that if the fees are directly impacted by the tax side and we cut the hours back at EPIC, then we are cutting the revenue resources. Mike said the two most vulnerable areas in CLRS are Recreation and the Lincoln Center. 4`s of July Update Marty referred to the Parks staff s synopsis on the 4' of July celebration in City Park. He explained that we increased the activities for the kids this year and decreased the commercial elements of the event. We wanted to focus more on a family day in the park. We received Parks and Recreation Boarflinutes • August 23, 2000 Page 5 positive feedback from the community and we felt it was a great success. The direction we took was very well accepted by the community. Jessica said that the fireworks people think they can accommodate larger shells. Mike Gavin said the very large shells are not safe and we have had people get burned in previous years so that is why we got rid of the larger shells. There was some fire concern with the larger shells also. Jessica said we don't need to shorten the program. The 24 minutes is just long enough. Board members agreed. Horticulture Center Update Tim Buchanan and Jim Clark met with the neighborhood and they are concerned with the possible noise from late night music from weddings in the center's great lawn. There is a lot of concern with the parking lot design. After we reviewed our plans, we met with traffic engineers and got their input on moving the parking lot. Jim said that the neighborhood is very supportive of the horticulture center, but has some concerns with some of the specifics of the project, such as visual concerns of the parking lot, noise, exhaust from the vehicles in the parking lot, and traffic in their neighborhood. They felt that if the parking lot was closer to their houses that overflow parking would occur in their neighborhood. We took those issues back to staff and reviewed this on a conceptual level. We did an analysis of both sites for the parking lot. We recognized their concerns and felt their points could be mitigated with plantings and a wall separating their neighborhood from the horticulture center. We took that information back to the neighborhood and they had very strong opinions that parking should be along Centre Avenue. We met again with the traffic engineer who restudied the streets and traffic flow and he concluded that we could move the parking lot entrance much closer to Rolland Moore Drive than he previously allowed. This change allowed us to move the parking lot to Centre Avenue. Lance asked what is the number of houses that this affects. Jim explained that there will be visual impact to the six houses in the cul-de-sac. There were several people in the neighborhood that are concerned about the parking lot. This parking lot is the main concern of the neighborhood. Tim said there will be a lot of interest in the great lawn area from the neighborhood. The neighbors are concerned about the hours and type of activities in the great lawn area. Jessica asked if the parking lot will be lighted after hours? Jim replied that there is no need to light the parking lot when the center closes. He added there will be more parking (20 spaces more) on the Centre Avenue parking lot. However, we lose the parking convenience to the park with the Centre Avenue parking lot. Lance said that if we go with the option of the parking lot on Centre Avenue then we hope we don't have to redesign for another element that they (neighborhood) have. Lance said the neighborhood needs to balance that they are getting a beautiful park and horticulture center in their backyard. They are getting a great value to their neighborhood as CSU could have sold this to a huge high-rise facility. Mike said that our operation and maintenance has been cut on this project and if we can't rent this out for weddings and receptions that we will have a deficit. Jessica said that summer months are the only time that this great lawn is going to be used. Mike Gavin said that the events that Parks and Recreation Board N tes August 23, 2000 Page 6 will take place here would be working within in the parameters of the City's noise ordinance and other laws. Paul Van Valkenburg asked on the north end of the open area is there a sound shell? Jim said yes and it will direct the noise across the street and away from the neighborhood. Jessica asked if the facility and gardens will be closed with gates at night. Jim said ,yes, it is fenced. Jessica thinks the entire property should be fenced, including the parking lot. Mike Gavin said none of the parks have fenced parking lots. Del said he had two major concerns. First is that there is no parking for the park if the parking lot is moved to Centre Avenue. We are making that a private domain for the people in the neighborhood. If we are going to go with this plan we either eliminate the pocket park or move it. Craig said many people are going to walk to the park through the bike path. We have talked with those neighbors and determined it is easy access through the path. Del said his other concern is putting the parking by the Centre Avenue. He thinks that if it was a business going in here, they wouldn't allow parking on Centre Avenue. Marty said that staff checked with the Planning Department and there are exceptions and with the neighborhood concerns it should pass under the guidelines for City Plan. Marty recapped. He said Jim Clark and Tim Buchanan deserve a lot of credit as they worked hard with the neighborhood. He said that we got a plan nearly as good as the original plan and pacified the neighborhood. From a staff point of view, this plan works well. After tonight's meeting, we will meet with the neighborhood. Jessica suggested that people who live in the Rolland Moore Park and Edora Park neighborhoods should let the neighbors in the Horticulture Center neighborhood know that it isn't that much of an impact on the neighborhood. Mike said we will show the design to Planning and Zoning Board next. Del still has a concern about the park issues he raised earlier. Jessica said that is such a small park that automobile access is not a problem especially with Rolland Moore Community Park so close. On a motion by Jessica MacMillan, seconded by Dean Hoag, the Board voted 6-1 (Del Price was opposed) in support of the new conceptual drawing placing the parking lot on Centre Avenue proposed by staff. SWAN (South West Area Neighbors) Marty explained that this group has been formed to focus on maintaining Southwest Community Park as a more passive park with natural features. Councilman Kurt Kastein attended one of their meetings. Marty wants to give background on the acquisition of the park site so the Board is up to speed when the SWAN people make a presentation to our Board next month. One of the main points is that this park won't be designed until 2003. Part of our concern is that the whole community has input. Craig showed a conceptual drawing of the park that the City did in 1992, when the PIC proposal was on the ballot. Park Planning hired BHA to do the plan so that we could show the public what we wanted in the park according to our policy plan. Craig added that it will be a 100-acre, multi -use community park similar to Fossil Creek Community Park with a youth sports complex theme. This land was purchased with Choices 95 funding and was Parks and Recreation Boarminutes August 23, 2000 Page 7 purchased for a Southwest Community Park/Youth Sports Complex. We have to have some a youth sports complex in this park. The SWAN people apparently don't want lighted fields and want a less active park. Mike Gavin said that Quail Hollow had their annual neighborhood picnic and SWAN people came to their picnic and they want no organized sports in this park. He said they are neighbors of Cottonwood Glen Park. He added that the SWAN group thinks that the Youth Sports Complex was not in the ballot language. Marry said that is not correct. Mike Gavin said the focus in the Quail Hollow neighborhood is that they would like the City's design of the park and would like a recreation center in this park. He said the majority of the neighborhood is in support of a programmed youth sports park. Paul Hudnut said that we don't really need them (SWAN) to come to our meeting next month because this park isn't going to be designed until 2003. The Board agreed that we should give them the opportunity to make a short presentation. Youth Resolution Marty said he wrote a resolution at the City Manager's request in support of Youth in the community. He explained that the Resolution says that the City supports the efforts of America's Promise to strengthen the character and competence of youth through the provision of the five promises of America's Promise: caring adults; safe places; healthy start; marketable skills and opportunities to serve. It basically says that we support youth in our community and will work with the School District and Latimer County to support youth. Jessica said that it should also state that the Youth should give back. She thinks we should teach them to be mindful of what is given to them in the line of youth facilities and they need to take ownership of the facilities the community builds for them. Other Business • Paul Van Valkenburg said on Saturday there will be the public outreach for the Mason Street corridor at the mall. • Items for the September Agenda are as follows: ❑ Recommendation for the Canal Importation Plan by Susan Hayes. Paul Hudnut said make sure the presentation is geared for parks and recreation only. Marty said he will speak to Susan about the Board's interest in the parks and recreation aspect only. Also we will send out reading material approximately two weeks prior to our September meeting. ❑ Budget Discussion -- Possible Cuts for 2001 Parks and Recreation Board N tes August 23, 2000 Page 8 ❑ SWAN Presentation ❑ Martinez Master Plan -- A walking tour will be discusses ❑ Election of Officers Adjournment: On a motion by Mike Gavin, seconded by Paul Hudnut the Board adjourned at 8:30 p.m. Respectfully submitted, ackie Rael Executive Administrative Assistant Meeting Attendance Board Members: Lance Freeman, Mike Gavin, Dean Hoag, Paul Hudnut, Jessica MacMillan, Del Price, and Paul Van Valkenburg Staff: Craig Foreman, Marty Heffernan, Mike Powers, and Jackie Rael Guests: Eric Bamburg and Sally Craig