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HomeMy WebLinkAboutPark and Recreation Advisory Commission Minutes 05-09-2013Adopted Minutes Park &t Recreation Advisory Commission Thursday, May 9, 2013 MEMBERS PRESENT: Chair Ned Carroll, Vice Chair Greg Anderson, Commissioners: Merrillee Riley, Aaron Vanderwall, John Vecere, Kipp Wyze, Tricia DeBleeckere MEMBERS ABSENT: None STAFF PRESENT: Park and Recreation Director Diane Evans, Deputy Director of Park and Recreation Barb Northway, Office Support Specialist Sarah Josephs COUNCIL REPRESENTATIVES: Councilmember Ginny Black, Planning Commissioner Dick Klobussen GUESTS PRESENT: Rose Ryan, Carlos Gutierrez 1. CALL TO ORDER Chair Carroll called the meeting to order at 7:04 p.m. 2. APPROVAL OF MINUTES Motion bV Commissioner Anderson, seconded bV Commissioner WVse, recommending approval of the February 14, 2013, Park and Recreation Advisory Commission meetin minutes as written. With all members voting in favor, the motion carried. 3. OPEN FORUM: Chair Carroll welcomed Carlos Guetierrez. Mr Guetierrez, of 1725 Garland Lane N, is a Squash player who is here to seek support over imminent closure of Lifetime Squash Courts. Carlos hopes to work with Lifetime to keep courts and move the location of children's programming elsewhere in the building. He issued several points: 1. The LifeTime Fitness Courts are not "dead" space. The courts are used for racquetball or squash for adults and children. 2. Offering the courts plays a part in creating the diversity of Plymouth. Taking the courts away removes unique options for being active, especially in winter months. 3. Squash is an international game that helps bring in international residents to play a shared sport together. 4. VISITOR PRESENTATIONS (NON -ACTION ITEMS): 4a. Staff presentations - Rose Ryan "Hennepin County Pedestrian Plan Et Hennepin County Bike Plan" A handout was provided by Rose Ryan. Rose's focus with Hennepin County is to work on expanding bike trails and sidewalks. There is a large focus and concern to construct paths, sidewalks and bike paths along County Roads. Hennepin County plans to achieve this by widening shoulders or paving a new bike lane. Hennepin County received a federal grant through the Department of Public Health to expand walking and biking paths to combat the current health concerns facing our country. The hope is to add the daily activity of walking or biking into our resident's daily lives. Nearly 50% of county roads currently have a sidewalk or trail on them. Hennepin Top concerns of residents wanting to use trails are; traffic safety, personal safety, sidewalk gaps, difficult crossings, and poor winter sidewalk maintenance. PMinutes May 9, 2013 Three goals were developed from the studies of Hennepin County; to improve pedestrian safety, increasing walking for transportation, and improve health of residents. Hennepin County is anticipating that their current bike plan will be completed in Summer 2014. The funding options for City improvements include the Sidewalk Participation Program, Bikeway Participation Program and Bike Gap Fund. Plymouth did receive a Bike Grant Fund for 2014 trail improvements for $100,000 to complete the Xenium/County Road 6 trail and then completing the Soo Line bridge trail over Xenium. Discussion was had with Rose and Commissioners regarding whose responsibility it is to mark the trails. The County is working on making trail crossings more consistent with the help of municipalities and the Three Rivers Park District. The County is looking into additional measures to increase the safety of all drivers and pedestrians. Such measures would include adding flashing lights and more permanent markings on the streets. Discussion was also held regarding more education needed for bikers and drivers regarding bicyclists trying to cross roads. Officially, bikers crossing on their bikes must abide by biker right-of-way and bikers walking their bikes across must abide by pedestrian right-of- way. The issue of improving paths near schools was addressed. The County is currently looking at school boundary lines and areas that need better paths and crosswalks to ensure the safety of students. 5. NEW BUSINESS (NON -ACTION ITEMS): 5a. Receive 2012 Annual Report Diane Evans handed out a hard copy of the 2012 Annual Report. 5b. 2012 Trail Project Status The Parks Department completed the sidewalk segment on CR 9/Vicksburg in 2012. There was a delay with the trail on Northwest Blvd from Heritage Park to Campus Drive as the City had been working through some easement agreements. The easements have now been secured. The trail project will be completed in 2013. 5c. 2014 Trail Project Update In 2014, Northwest Blvd will have full trail connection up to the Luce Line. This year the City will focus on the many easement issues with the companies along this trail in order to have it ready for completion in 2014. 5d. Trail Usage Data Barb Northway provided a presentation on trail usage within Plymouth Parks. In 2012 Plymouth purchased Trafx Trail Counter system. These are much smaller and easier to collect data with. Tracking trail usage helps the Parks department determine usage from year to year, safety issues along the trail and needed maintenance areas. Trafx comes highly recommended and is currently used by the DNR of Minnesota. Factors that need to be considered when compiling data are the location of the tracking device, weather issues, and the time of year tracking takes place. Data is gathered by individuals who walk or bike past Trafx. The Parks Department plans to change the location of their 3 trackers to different trails every two weeks. 5e. Trail Gap Presentation Et Prioritization Handout included in board packets. 2 Adopted Minutes May 9, 2013 Diane Evans presented to City Council last year to determine and prioritize trails to be worked on in the coming years. Staff would like to determine how the Commission wishes to proceed with future projects. The City currently has 90 trail gaps, 30 of which have been marked with higher priority. Commissioners went through each of the 9 areas of the City and identified gaps that are of priority and those which have obstacles outside of their control. Many of the trail gaps have been identified to be completed with future road construction projects. Such restrictions to completion include not having enough space on a bridge, roads or underpasses, and steep grading along the roads. All sidewalks within the city are mapped, but only public trails are identified on official trail maps. The City does not include neighborhood sidewalks as part of the trail systems. Going forward, the Commission will need to look at the next steps on the Capital Improvement Plan and determine priority projects. Priorities will be directed to Engineering to determine cost and feasibility. Diane directed commissioners to come to the next meeting prepared to discuss trail priorities for 2016-2020. Projects that were of interest to Commissioners as of this evening were Gaps 61, 104, 108 and 111. Commissioners were informed to keep in mind that the Begin property is up for sale and the City Council had a special meeting on Tuesday, May 7 to determine the bid options. If given the opportunity to purchase that land, it will affect how much money is available to use from Park Dedication fund. 6. COMMISSIONER/STAFF UPDATE Upcoming Community/Special Events o Plymouth's City Manager has announced her retirement. o This year marks the 20th Anniversary of Volunteers in Plymouth. A recognition event for the top 20 outstanding volunteers will be on June 22. Over 40 applications were submitted. o The retaining wall along West Medicine Lake is severely failing. The City Council has tentatively approved plans to move ahead with repairs. o First day of Summer registrations saw 2,829 registrations come in (79% online) with $188,578.00 in revenue. o The Yard Et Garden Expo on April 12-13 hosted 125 exhibitors and raised over $10,000 for the Millennium Garden. o The Dome on the Field House has been taken down for the summer. o Primavera was held April 11-15 with 63 youth exhibitors and 75 adult exhibitors. o Donna Sankey retired from the Park and Recreation Department after 28 1/2 years. Sarah Josephs will be her replacement. 7. ADJOURNMENT Motion bV Commissioner RileV, seconded bV Commissioner DeBleeckere, recommending adjournment of the Park and Recreation Advisory Commission meeting. With no objection, Chair Carroll adjourned the meeting at 9:09pm. Adopted Minutes May 9, 2013