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HomeMy WebLinkAboutParks And Recreation Board - Minutes - 01/25/2006PARKS AND RECREATION BOARD Minutes of Regular Meeting January 25, 2006 215 North Mason Community Room 5:30 p.m. Council Liaison: Kelly Ohlson I Staff Liaison: Marty Heffernan, 224-6064 1 President: Jessica MacMillen Phone: 495-1270 (Work) 407-8896 (Home) Call Meeting to Order: Jessica MacMillen called the meeting to order at 5:44 p.m. Agenda Review: Addition: Introduce New Board Member, Michael Chalona Items of Note: None Citizen Participation: None Approval of Minutes: On a motion by Cathy Kipp, seconded by Ann Hunt, the Board voted unanimously to approve the minutes of the November 30, 2005 meeting. Introduce New Board Member The Board welcomed their new member, Michael Chalons. Michael has lived in Colorado for over 8 years, and his background is in landscape architecture. He has owned his own landscape architect firm, Land Images, for the past six years. He has had experience in designing parks and playgrounds, working with zoning regulations, and has worked with both local governments and private firms. He is interested in giving back to the community through volunteering. He is hoping he can bring some of his knowledge to the Board's discussion, and he is also looking forward to learning new things from the Board. Parks and Recreation Policy Plan Update Craig reviewed the 2006-2007 Parks and Recreation Policy Plan update with the Board. He explained that it will be 2007 before the Plan is really completed. The original plan was written in 1988 and updated in 1996. It is normally updated every ten years and has served the City very well. This particular update is important because Fort Collins is maturing and the Plan will need to include how parks, trails and recreation facilities will develop over the next ten years. This plan is also included in City Plan as an appendix, so it is important that it is up to date and deals with relevant information. Because it is part of City Plan, the City attorneys reference the plan as a requirement for the expenditure of park impact fee and for other purposes, like regulating Oak Street Plaza as a park. The new Policy Plan will include park planning and development, recreation, park maintenance, forestry, and park funding on both the capital and O&M side. Forestry and Horticulture are mentioned very little in the existing plan so both of those areas will be included in more detail in the new plan. The Policy Plan will probably be outlined in the following categories, and will be segmented with data so it will walk readers through the process of developing parks: The state of our system and challenges. 0 How is our system doing today? Parks and Recreation Board Minutes January 25, 2006 Page 2 • Outstanding facilities • Cooperation and coordination (community climate, partnerships, etc.) • What are our challenges now and in the future? What does the future look like? • Population change • Build -out of the community • Demand for recreation The need for our services. • We support a healthy community • We are an essential part of the community • Concerns to the system (This is where the quality of life comes in to the plan. The last plan was more nuts and bolts, but this one will include a focus on the vitality and health of the community and its people, and how we provide wellness. It also needs to include our concern to maintain the things that have already been buih, as well as sustainability.) The vision. • The vision process • Making the vision a reality • The immediate next steps (over the next 5 years) The funding picture. • Capital • Operation and maintenance (Currently we have good funding for parks, forestry and trails, but zero funding for pools and indoor recreation facilities. This plan needs to look in to solving those problems.) Community input. • Use many methods • Web page and new articles • Open houses • Surveys • Focus groups • Board participation Craig then explained that every month he will be giving the Board several questions for them to think about and discuss. The questions for this month are: ** What are the key issues that should be addressed by the policy plan update? ** What is working well with parks, trails, the recreation facilities, and programs? Where can we improve? What are we missing? ** Envision the Fort Collins community 5, 10, and 20 years from now. How will we be different? Will our recreational needs have changed? Will the parks, trails and recreation facilities we build meet our future needs? Are we missing anything? Marty added, that in addition to discussing these questions, he would also like to discuss what kind of community are we going to be in the fixture, and what kind of community we need to be in the future. Jessica felt that a key issue is to know about future annexations to determine the need for future parks that may not be currently planned. She noted that in the 1996 Plan it states that there is supposed to be a Community Park for every 20,000 people, but wonders how necessary a Community Park is to some Parks and Recreation Board Minutes January 25, 2006 Page 3 areas. Jessica asked if we have enough Community Parks designated in the plan to accommodate the growth pattern. Craig stated that the current plan should cover the growth plan. There is one 50-acre Community Park planned on the east end of Horsetooth Road, three more Community Parks, and eight Neighborhood Parks. Marty stated that we do have a specific plan for the future build -out of parks, but the question is, has that plan been working and will it continue to work in the future. He added that staff feels that we are fortunate to have the park system we have. Jessica stated that it would be nice if there was a way we could tack on a parkland usage fee every time a house is sold to help with O&M costs, because successive owners get to enjoy the park system without paying for it. She also feels that the trail conversation from asphalt is going well, but is at a moderate pace. She wonders if we can speed that pace up. She also wonders what opportunities we might be missing because the population is aging, so she would like to see more programming applicable to adults aged 50 and over. Jon stated that he thought what Marty said about recreation providing more wellness opportunities was very interesting. He feels that this is a subtle shift in trying to see what people need and what we can provide, instead of what people may want. He feels this is a change in philosophy that is more proactive. Walt also supported the idea of wellness. Jessica added that another opportunity is public and private partnerships, because if we are looking at wellness issues, a relationship with Poudre Valley Hospital might be applicable. Ann mentioned that the discussion was sounding like the Center for Disease Control program, Healthy People Are a Healthy World. She added that what was really being discussed was public health, and that engaging yourself and keeping your mind working costs the public less in the long run. Jon said that everyone could see that there are benefits to a philosophy like this, but when you start making those kinds of changes that spend the citizen's tax dollar they may not be as interested. He is not sure the City should be involved with that. Marty added that one thing we know is that the trail system is heavily used and has low maintenance costs. He thinks we might look at more spur trails and connections for citizens to utilize. He added that the National Park and Recreation movement is Hearts and Parks - getting people out walking in the parks and trail system, and the results are profound. Greg stated that you would then be talking about spending $15 million to get people walking instead of building a $15 million Recreation facility. Marty stated that the financing of trails has been discussed and that Contrust can be used for recreation, but that the policy has been to update the trail system. So the question would be; should the trail system wait and a recreation center be built instead? Jessica felt that a good place to start is to focus on local needs with an emphasis on all aspects of wellness. She feels baby boomers have a thirst for knowledge and might like some education pieces. Ann mentioned that Marty has said in the past that Fort Collins is lacking in the recreation center aspect. Marty responded that the 1996 Plan showed us that we weren't doing as well as our regional neighbors in providing indoor recreation facilities. Marty feels the new Northside Center will help us in that area. He reminded the Board that we have left spaces at Fossil Creek Community Park and the new Spring Canyon Community Park for recreation centers, and asked if the Board felt that was the right thing to do. Jessica responded that we have to look at funding because we don't have the money to fill the need. She feels we need some kind of ongoing fee because at some point new construction is going to stop. Ann asked how you would fund maintenance. Marty responded that the Board has discussed perks maintenance fees and that everyone in the community would benefit from it. Cathy did not like the idea of making someone pay the fee every time they buy a house. Jessica feels there is nothing wrong with paying to enjoy an area, and suggested putting it on the Utility bill. Cathy felt that would be acceptable. Cathy asked about our relationship with the school system since we have so many parks built next to schools. Marty stated that the Parks Division has spent a lot of time building a relationship with the Poudre School District and that we currently have a very good working relationship and we are not lacking in that area at all. Cathy feels it should be incorporated into the plan. Jessica said that one constant in everything is the trail system. She feels it should connect to every new neighborhood, and should be a huge priority for build out, expansion, and beautification. Jon said it is important to look at Parks and Recreation Board Minutes January 25, 2006 Page 4 whether the trail system can handle the build out of the population. Mary added that the overall theme we need to consider is balance. We have aging baby boomers, the possibility of running out of land unless we annex, we are losing our open corridor between Loveland and Fort Collins, and we have a population of obese children that need attention as well. Greg commented that Fort Collins is blessed with a nationally recognized park system and we need to make sure we do not get bogged down criticizing the details. He thinks the group should focus on the positive when the new Plan is written. Marty agreed, and stated that they must use the plan to justify things in the future. Walt added that the university will always keep the community young, and Marty added that a demographics study in the 1996 plan showed that the percentage of population of college age students has been decreasing as the community grows. It is now approximately 15%-20 %. Mary noted that the demographics depend on what is bringing people to Fort Collins, and she feels Fort Collins is becoming less and less affordable. Marty agreed that this was a significant issue. Other issues brought up in this area were the downtown area being reinvented, the traditional family changing, the retirement community, staying affordable for the quality of life we offer, and creating a sustainable community. Walt mentioned that we need to make sure we have funding sources for O&M. Ann agreed and asked about upgrading. Marty said that with our funding of the parks departments there is also a component called Lifecycle, which is for replacement of infrastructure. It is basically repair and some replacement but not renovation money. Renovation comes from funding packages such a Building on Basics, etc. He added that we rely on capital programs to do anything major, revitalization, or beautification. It cannot be used to repair something, and it is limited to new items. Marty stated that this would be an area that has a funding deficit. Because of this, he feels open lands trail money will be a huge issue. Greg closed the discussion with the statement that the Board's discussion tonight was good because it looked at other options that we didn't think of 20 years ago. He added that we are now willing to push the envelope to make improvements, and he feels that needs to come through in the Plan. Ngw Nor*side Aztbw Commwdty Center Proiect Update Marty told the Board that he went to Council a month ago to talk about the project and that they were generally very happy with the plan. They had a few comments and questions about the old dumpsite and whether there would be a river buffer zone. Karen was concerned that we planned for non -gender specific restroom on the second floor, she felt we needed separate rooms for males and females, and it should be wheel chair accessible. We are going to go back and look at that. The City Manager asked us to take a look at going from Silver LEED Environmental standard to Gold. We had our consultants look at it and they said it would take another $500,000. Without new money we would have to cut about 20% on the size of the building, which would be difficult. Darin is interested in this because we're working on a project to synthesize business clusters in Fort Collins around the green industry. If we can distinguish ourselves in this field we can set ourselves apart and attract new green companies to town. The new high school was built with Silver LEED Certification, and it is only the third high school in the nation to do so. Other update information included, the house at the front of the site was taken down, the design is moving forward, the group likes the design build team, construction will begin in late spring and it will be about a year until it is open. Proiect Updates Craig provided the project updates: PSD Tennis Court Craig visited the school district about opening one more court at Rocky Mountain High School for citizen use, and they said that would be great. We will now have two courts accessible to us there. Parks and Recreation Board Minutes January 25, 2006 Page 5 Fossil Creek Trail The underpass project just south of Harmony Road at College Avenue should start next week and should be done in May or June. We will be using some Natural Resources funding to offset some of our costs. Oak Street Plaza The bids were opened and we received two bids at about $1 million each, so we will be awarding that contract soon. Construction should start March I' and may go on through to May or June. The pavers for the "river" in the design are back to blue. Spring Canyon Community Park The project will go out to bid on February I' and there are currently four general contractors looking at the project. Rossborough Park Money to maintain the restroom at this park did not get funded for 2006/2007, and we did receive an e- mail from a neighbor saying they were glad the project would not be going forward. Adopt 2005 Annual Report Marty asked if the Board wanted to adopt the 2005 Annual Report. Greg motioned to adopt the report and Walt seconded the motion. All other Board members agreed. Election of Officers Marty stated that no one came forward to nominate any officers. Jessica did state that she was still interested. Marty asked Greg if he was still interested and Greg stated he was. Jon motioned to elect the officers as they were the year before, Mary seconded it, and all other Board members agreed. Other Business Cathy inquired about the possibility of getting a port -a -let at Golden Meadows. Jessica brought up a discussion about some non -City tennis courts in town. She was wondering if the City could look into acquiring them. Marty did not feel it was possible because of the current budget issues. Jessica asked what activities from the YAC will be transferred to Boltz. Marty stated that there was no update yet, but would check with Jean Helburg and try to have an answer neat month. He added that it is fairly complicated, but that they are starting to think about it even though the YAC won't close until mid 2007. Board Member and Staff Comments None Correspondence None Adjournment: The Board unanimously agreed to adjourn at'7:47 p.m. Respectfully submitted, KQQ � tvt oovoi Kelly Moore Administrative Support Supervisor Parks and Recreation Board Minutes January 25, 2006 Page 6 Board Attendance Board Members: Mary Carlson, Michael Chalon, Ann Hunt, Cathy Kipp, Jessica MacMillan, Greg Miller, Walt Peeples, Jon Sinclair Staff: Craig Foreman, Marty Heffernan, Kelly Moore Guests: None