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HomeMy WebLinkAboutParks And Recreation Board - Minutes - 09/26/2018Parks & Recreation Board Utilities Building – 222 Laporte Avenue TYPE OF MEETING – REGULAR September 26, 2018 07/25/2018 – MINUTES Page 1 1. CALL TO ORDER Catherine Carabetta called the meeting to order at 5:42pm 2. ROLL CALL • Board Members Present o Catherine Carabetta – Vice Chair o Kelly Smith – Secretary o Ragan Adams o Jessica MacMillan o Bruce Henderson • Board Members Absent o Rob Cagan – Chair (Excused) o Bob Kingsbury (Excused) o Sam Houghteling (Excused) o Mary Carlson (Excused) • Staff Members Present o Wendy Williams – Assistant City Manager o Mike Calhoon – Director of Parks o Bob Adams – Director of Recreation o Kurt Friesen – Director of Park Planning & Development o Colleen Bannon – Administrative Assistant/Board Support 3. AGENDA REVIEW • No changes announced at the meeting by the Vice Chair 4. CITIZEN PARTICIPATION • No citizen participation 5. APPROVAL OF MINUTES OF REGULAR MEETING OF JUNE 27, 2018 Ragan made a motion to approve the minutes Bruce second Motion passed 5-0 6. UNFINISHED BUSINESS None to report 7. NEW BUSINESS Overland Mountain Bike Club Kenny Bearden – Executive Director of OMBC (Overland Mountain Bike Club) Presentation Attached Parks & Recreation Board Utilities Building – 222 Laporte Avenue TYPE OF MEETING – REGULAR September 26, 2018 07/25/2018 – MINUTES Page 2 Overland Mountain Bike Club is a non-profit organization founded in 1995. It was formally known as Diamond Peaks Mountain Bike Patrol. In 2009, the name changed to OMBC. Currently, there are 450 members, and have given 7 thousand volunteer hours. Trail Vision Plan (attached) is what they would like to see in soft surface trails. This effort is focused in Larimer County. The goal is to disperse the trails to ease congestion, and to improve accessibility north and west of town. Board: Is the trail connecting Fort Collins to Estes Park along the canyon? Citizen: No. This trail corridor is on the Larimer County Open Space master plan Citizen: We would like to see a learning and development section to use as a training area. This space can also be used to teach trail etiquette, offer tips and teach safety Board: Do you advocate signing each trail for difficulty or for just etiquette? Citizen: Each feature could be identified. Some signs could be placed around some features that enforce safe riding. This type of signage would not be on advance level trails Board: Where would you want to put these mountain bike features? Citizen: They can be put in any park. Ultimately, they can offer an alternative trail kids can try Regarding presentation images Board: How large is this entire space? Citizen: Valmont in Boulder is around 42 acres. This is a bit smaller; around 25 – 30 acres Board: was this built by a municipality? Is there any idea on cost? Citizen: This was contracted out for design and build. The cost is probably pushing 1 million dollars Board: The Park and Recreation Policy Plan update will begin next year. That will be a good time for your group to be involved with the process and see how this idea can integrate into the larger plan Board: Are you asking the board to make a recommendation? Citizen: We don’t have that specific ask. If we can find that large scale area for a larger bike park, that is what we would like. Also, to put the soft surface trail idea into the mix Board: What does your group bring to the table, besides the plan; fundraising? Citizen: We have trained and experienced trail builders. We can help lay out the trail, lead volunteer efforts, be involved in maintenance and with programming with schools. Access for youth riders is lacking. There are only paved trails around town. SOPARC (System for Observing Play and Recreation in Communities) Jen Torrey – Landscape Architect with the City of Fort Collins Liz Young – Sustainability Associate with Larimer County Department of Health Presentation Attached Parks & Recreation Board Utilities Building – 222 Laporte Avenue TYPE OF MEETING – REGULAR September 26, 2018 07/25/2018 – MINUTES Page 3 SOPARC is an observational tool being used to collect data regarding gender, activity level, type of equipment being used, and age (approximated). This tool is funded through a competitive grant with the State Health Department. This is a common tool used in public health. The results will be presented at the October board meeting. Board: I don’t know if you’re getting the quality of data in 4 days. I think it needs to be more days. Citizens: The volunteers are students so there are time constraints. These students are from UNC, so most of them live in Greeley, and the course providing the volunteers is only a semester long. The data we collect will help give us an idea about play and recreation in our Community Parks. Board: If training is easy to go through, you could construct another set of observations to collect more data in a larger area Citizens: That is a great idea. This is something that could happen semester to semester and scale up to different parks. The training is not something an average citizen could learn in 30 minutes though Board: So, for an average student, how long does it take to become proficient? Citizen: There are 3 separate classes. It would take 15-20 people who were committed for it to be useful. It couldn’t do well with 100 random people Board: What is the desired outcome, and when will the results be available? Citizens: This is just an observational tool to measure activity level and use of the parks equipment. The results will be ready by the end of this semester Impact Fees Jennifer Poznanovich – Revenue Project Manager for the City of Fort Collins Presentation Attached Fee coordination began with the City in 2016. This fee only impacts new construction. Board: This should include Recreation in the funding source conversation. Citizen: Is there support for this process moving forward? This “process” refers to the recommendations from our white paper on the increase and timing of development fees as described. Board: New parks are the low hanging fruit when fees are increased. The general public does not realize fees are the only funding mechanism for parks. The parks fee is a much higher percentage than other fees. This is because it is the only stream of funding for new parks. One has to understand other areas have multiple streams of funding. 8. BOARD MEMBER REPORTS The Land Use and Water sub team will be meeting in September to talk about different scenarios. We are Parks & Recreation Board Utilities Building – 222 Laporte Avenue TYPE OF MEETING – REGULAR September 26, 2018 07/25/2018 – MINUTES Page 4 already getting feedback on what they would spend money on. We will then review with the teams and sub-teams and send our recommendation to Council in the spring 9. OTHER BUSINESS Staff Updates Parks Staff Update Kendra Boot is the new Interim Senior Forestry Manager. She has been with the City for 3 years. She was the person who first discovered the Emerald Ash Borer in Boulder. Bud Bredehoft is retiring. He has been with the Parks Department for 7 years Our position on the budget is that there are things we would like to see, but we are satisfied with what we got. Next cycle we will be discussing funding for refresh and lifecycle. They are 2 different things, and we will need to push them next BFO cycle. This could be a conversation with KFCG, making lifecycle and refresh included in KFCG funding The playground at Westfield Park is being installed Holliday lights are currently being installed Board: Why are the lights being installed now, and why aren’t they left up all year? Staff: The lights are being installed now because it takes around 3.5 weeks to hang them. The lights get turned on First Friday in November, which falls on November 2. The lights aren’t kept up all year because it would be hard on the trees, and opens the canopy’s to disease Recreation Staff Updates Brief descriptions of current Recreation projects attached There will be a reduction of 1.5 full-time employees in Recreation come 2019. These positions became vacant and have not yet been filled. Due to budget adjustments, these positions will not be filled and will need to be resubmitted during the next budget cycle. We will then be able to ask for these positions back if needed. In 2016, Pickleball players met with the Parks & Recreation Advisory Board to talk about the growth of the sport. Since then, we made it a point to add pickleball courts. Currently, Fort Collins has 29 outdoor courts available. What we are now hearing, is they would like 12 courts all in one spot to host tournaments, as this is not possible with the current configuration. They have been asked to provide Recreation with the number of pickleball players in Fort Collins to better understand their need. Loveland and Windsor have this information pertaining to their cities. We told Council we are not recommending courts at this time, until the participants are organized. Council eluded to pickleball players raising private funds on their own. Board: Without data and not understanding where, locally, this is going and how many courts are really needed, the success rate is low. Their tactic isn’t to bring a plan, but to bring a voice. Parks & Recreation Board Utilities Building – 222 Laporte Avenue TYPE OF MEETING – REGULAR September 26, 2018 07/25/2018 – MINUTES Page 5 Staff: There should be a policy pan review with a section regarding specialty groups, and how they are handled. Include a process on how we evaluate whether or not we do something. Board: We have x amount of money to put towards ideas. Presenters need to research to find out how much it would cost to build what they want to have built. We have resources for partnerships. Board: We would encourage them to work with us, and staff, and be involved in the policy plan update. Bring some information, and data analysis of the sport. I encourage them to become a more organized entity before they make a presentation Staff: It would be nice to have something from the advisory board saying we advise Council to work closely with the staff to get a gap analysis and find out the wants needed before we build it. There should be a deeper study. Staff: We support the recommended budget at this time, which addressed established need. Quantify the growth trend of the sport locally, and the actual number of courts needed. They came to us 2 yeas ago and asked for 1 court. They now have 29 of them. Staff: We only have 8 permanent courts. Others, you need to bring your own net. First, they asked for 4 courts at Twin Silo, then 4 courts at Spring Canyon, now they want 12. Board: I don’t think they know what we have financially Staff: We just saw a presentation on fees. Fees can only be used for new park construction. We cannot just go and add pickleball courts to an existing park. That is not a legitimate use of fees Board: Some people don’t understand how a city is financed. People think they can just bring their request and it will happen. It is premature to say they need x amount of courts if they are not organized and don’t know how many people will be in a tournament, leagues, clinics and etc. Park Planning & Development Staff Updates Brief descriptions of current Park Planning & Development projects attached Today, the City of Fort Collins hosted 30+ visitors from Macon, Georgia. This group was comprised of a variety of leaders who wanted to learn more about our City, as Macon is a city of similar size. We presented Twin Silo Park and the Poudre River Whitewater Park. They had a lot of great questions. Board: What is the status of the Fossil Creek Trail? Staff: The trail is under construction. Crews are working on the west side of the tunnel along Fossil Creek Drive. The City worked with each landowner along the street to accommodate the trail, requiring purchase of land and fence replacement from several affected landowners. The Montava project was reviewed by Council last night and a metro district for the project was tentatively approved. The developer has proposed an alternative strategy for Northeast Community Park, which staff will be discussing further with Council on October 30. Parks & Recreation Board Utilities Building – 222 Laporte Avenue TYPE OF MEETING – REGULAR September 26, 2018 07/25/2018 – MINUTES Page 6 Board: Where is the exact location of Northeast Community Park? Staff: On the southeast corner of Country Club and Turnberry Board: How many acres will the park be? Staff: Right now, the developer’s proposed plan calls for 80 acres, however, the Parks & Recreation master plan called for 100. At the October 30 work session, Council will discuss park refresh as well as the sequencing of East Community Park versus Northeast Community Park. If northeast gets built first, it will likely be another 20 years before east can be built Bicycle Advisory Board Update 2 types of scooters are being introduced to Larimer County - Toy model - Moped style The City is working to make a more holistic shared mobility plan by introducing different forms of transportation Mulberry pilot program will reorganize the Mulberry corridor by using different bike lane configurations. This is a pilot program. Another pilot project is the use of e-bikes on our multi-use trails Other Business We have an article due on December 8th for the Spring Recreator. This past year Rob, Jess, Mary and Kelly have written articles 6-month Council Calendar • Council will be discussing a topic or issue relating to Parks, Recreation and Park Planning and Development between now and the end of the year. It has been suggested board members either attend or watch the Council meetings o October 30: Park Refresh o November 6: 2019-20 Budget and Annual Appropriation Ordinance (1st reading) o November 20: 2019-20 Budget and Annual Appropriation Ordinance (2nd reading) Appropriate Board Member Actions (Process and Procedure) Board members to look at current workplan. If a topic or item is of interest, report back and give a brief presentation. Some topics to keep in mind: Parks & Recreation Board Utilities Building – 222 Laporte Avenue TYPE OF MEETING – REGULAR September 26, 2018 07/25/2018 – MINUTES Page 7 - Trails - Financing – how we finance parks Encourage Board members to attend Council hearings regarding BFO process. The board typically walks up to the microphone together as a group. This has a huge impact on Council. 10. ADJOURNMENT Meeting Adjourned at 8:19pm