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HomeMy WebLinkAboutPark and Recreation Advisory Commission Minutes 12-13-2001MINUTES OF THE PARK AND RECREATION ADVISORY COMMISSION MEETING December 13, 2001 Page 55 Present: Chair Anderson, Commissioners Fiemann, Meyer, Musliner, Singer; Planning Commissioner Neset; Councilmember Hewitt; Planning Director Hurlburt; staff Blank and Pederson 1. CALL TO ORDER Chair Anderson called the December meeting to order at 7:05 p.m. in the Council Chambers. 2. APPROVAL OF MINUTES A motion was made by Commissioner Singer and seconded by Commissioner Meyer to approve the minutes of the October meeting as presented. The motion carried with all ayes. 3. VISITOR PRESENTATIONS a. Athletic Associations. None. b. Staff There were no staff presentations. c. Others. None. 4. PAST COUNCIL ACTION There was nothing to report. 5. UNFINISHED BUSINESS a. Millennium garden update. No work is taking place at this time. Constriction will begin first thing in the spring, and all contractors who have made a commitment to this project say that this will be their first priority. b. Hilde Performance Center. This project was behind schedule, but is now ahead of schedule. When materials arrive, they will begin constriction again, which is anticipated on or about January 15. As constriction continues, pictures will be taken and put on the city's web page, so that residents can follow the progress. c. Greenwood youth sports update. Director Blank said that this was one of the worst contractors the city has ever dealt with. The entire site has now been sodded. We will be able to play baseball beginning June I st. By mid June, soccer fields may be ready. d. West Medicine Lake bathrooms. This will be the contractor's major project over the winter. The bathrooms should be ready by next Memorial Weekend. 6. NEW BUSINESS a. Review park dedication ordinance. Director Blank explained that we've had a park dedication policy in place for many years. Planning Director Hurlburt talked about the PRAC Minutes/December 2001 Page 56 mechanics of park dedication. She said that subdivision regulations are part of the city code that govern the city's approval of subdivision of land. In Minnesota, all cities have approval of subdivision. This is a big part of enforcing the city's comprehensive plan and works hand in hand with zoning laws. Cities are allowed to require dedication of a portion of land to be subdivided for parks/trails, or cities can require cash instead. Plymouth's subdivision regulations haven't been reviewed for at least 20 years. We are now working on that. Key concepts in the draft regulations include establishing the standard for an adequate park and trail system at the level of service that existed when the Comprehensive Plan was adopted in 2000. The ordinance would set a per capita standard for park land based on the city's 2000 population and the acres of park land documented by the 2000 inventory. Park dedication has seen recent changes in state law. Hurlburt said there has been a big push in the legislature led by realtors and home builders to clamp down on what they perceive as abuse by cities for fees charged for new constriction, such as building permits, sewer and water fees, etc. Beginning in 2002 cities will have to account for and justify the basis for all fees charged for new development. They must show what they are collecting and what they are spending it on. Plymouth has, over the years, set aside park dedication funds in a special account. Another component of the new ordinance establishes a policy statement on which portion of dedication needs should be borne by residential developers and which portion should be borne by commercial developers. Staff is recommending that Plymouth use the standard selected by Bloomington: 90% from residential and 10% from commercial/industrial. Hurlburt stated that there are no really good hard numbers, but staff feels this is reasonable. The amount of land that would be dedicated would be based on the number of residences in the development instead of just the number of dwelling units. A large single family house will have more occupants than a one bedroom townhome. The proportionate share to be paid by new commercial/industrial development will be based on the number of employees in the new development. The new draft ordinance will also require park dedication for new schools, based on the number of students in the school who don't live in Plymouth. Our current park dedication policy is not tied to the comprehensive plan, but now it will be. We will still have a very similar system when it comes down to the bottom line. We're going to go through this very complicated calculation, Hurlburt explained. The new ordinance will also allow for the city to set a maximum cash in lieu of land fee based on the value of the specific piece of land being subdivided. If cash is required instead of land, the amount would be capped at a maximum per—unit fee for residential or per—acre fee for commercial/industrial, which is similar to the rate now adopted annually by City Council resolution. Not all of the parks system needs to be acquired with park dedication. Grants, voter referendums, and other government agencies have provided land and money for portions of the park and open space system. If cash in lieu fee is set too low, everyone will want to give us cash instead of land. We need to make sure that when we need the land, we take the land. Hurlburt stated that when we look at the various formulas used to calculate the amount of park dedication we will require, we're trying to be sensitive to everyone's needs.. No action was required on this item. The Commission thanked Planning Director Hurlburt for her presentation. b. Review Northwest Greenway master plan. Blank reviewed the progress of the greenway master plan. The second open house was December 6th. We've been gathering data from PRAC Minutes/December 2001 Page 57 both open houses. In January a final document will be presented and hopefully approved at that time. The plan would then go to the Council in February. Barry Warner of SRF said he doesn't remember any project that presents the opportunity that this one does. Walking the land reaffirmed for him just how incredible this resource is. The City is planning for its future with this project. Warner reviewed the objectives of the Northwest Greenway — to preserve and interpret ecological resources of the area; to preserve and enhance wildlife corridors and connections; to provide a framework plan for acquisition and preservation of high quality open space; to establish linkage between city owned parks, trails, open spaces, schools and other city amenities; to provide long distance recreational opportunities within the city; and to provide diverse, unique recreational opportunities within the city. People attended the open houses with many different assumptions for what the Northwest Greenway is. Warner explained that the basic pretense is to provide looping trails within the eastern end and the western end of the Greenway, and to provide connections back and forth. The master plan started with two corridor alternatives. The northerly of the two corridors is the better alternative. The southerly alternative fell apart because there are wetland constraints, the land parcels are not as readily available, and as we extend to the east, we get too close to the golf course, Warner explained. There are also some problems getting through the residential area. Ken Grieshaber of SRF then discussed some other elements of the Greenway, such as the different options for trail surfaces, e.g., limestone, mowed turf, asphalt, etc., along with identifying various locations where boardwalk crossings, at—grade crossings, etc., will be. Fiemann asked if the trail around the wetlands would be paved. Warner said it would be crushed limestone, much like the Luce Line. As far as the trail being close to some of the homes, this has been addressed by placing the trail at a much lower grade than the houses. There will be a buffer between homes and the trail. Warner said the 200' trail corridor width provides an opportunity to preserve the wooded resource. The trail itself will be 12 feet wide. Warner said most trails are constricted with a two foot wide shoulder on either side of the trail. In most cases, trail will be aligned so a minimum of trees will have to be removed. Meyer was concerned about tree removal. Blank said we have been using a 30' wide corridor for trails with an eight foot wide trail going in. With a two foot wide shoulder, that means there's a 42 foot wide protected area. We buy wider widths to protect woods as much as possible. Meyer said run off is a big issue, so she is not too keen about paving trails. Wider trails are recommended in the east/west segment because, over time, six or eight foot wide trails have problems. The edges break down with vehicles driving on them. There's a safety problem with inline skaters as well. If you survey most of the trails these days, there's a significant amount of inline users. Anderson asked about the sports complex. Blank said we plan to set aside about 20 acres of this 60— acre site for fi ture use. Soccer would be a major use at this site. There are two new sports growing in popularity in Plymouth — rugby and lacrosse. Lacrosse might be a high school varsity sport next year in the Wayzata district, for both male and female athletes. It may become a big sport, much like soccer. Blank said our figure skating club is trying to get figure skating recognized as a high school sport. Our kids are wonderfi l athletes and they don't get the recognition that other sports get. Warner then talked about preservation of corridors as part of the greenway. There's a number of techniques for doing this — easements, partial rights, donations, including living trust, fee simple purchases and also land regulations. A substantial portion of this land has not seen fill development. The PRAC Minutes/December 2001 Page 58 plan does include an opportunity for a living farm Warner explained. There are three different alternatives for what a living farm could be — a trailhead facility with parking and restrooms, which could include seasonal hayrides and opportunities for interpreting wildlife. It could become an educational cultural facility with more support facilities and agricultural crops, etc. Or it could be more involved, including a barn building for barn dances, craft festivals, etc. Blank said the living farm is not actually part of the Northwest Greenway program at this time. It will be handled as a separate project. Fiemann wants to make sure that bike paths tie the elementary school to the Northwest Greenway. Warner said the light blue area is the trail plan and consideration has been given to where the trail plan will connect to the Greenway. You will be able to bike up Dunkirk to the Greenway and then to the elementary school. Singer was wondering about the property owner who is concerned about the trail going through his property. Grieshaber said the issue has been acknowledged, and that the trail is 75-100 feet away from their property line. Blank explained that as we go through the process of acquiring land for the Greenway we will deal with individuals on a case by case basis. If a landowner blocks us, we will find an alternative. Resident Paul Henschler was in attendance at the PRAC meeting and stated he has property on Dunkirk Lane. He is a member of the Silver Buckie Horse Club. The club has been in existence about 40 years. Hundreds of families have participated. The club asked him to represent them and encourage as much as possible that the trails have equestrian access. Kids are now riding horses along County Road 47. He is fearfi l of a young person riding a horse, not being seen, and getting hit on 47 or Vicksburg. He wants to see more formal development of an equestrian trail along the north edge of Plymouth that might tie to the fiiture school site. Blank said the request would be taken into consideration. Blank then told PRAC that if they had questions as they go over the document during the next month, they are to get back to him, or to Warner or Grieshaber. Blank then said that the Mud Lake park project will begin in February with neighborhood meetings. 7. COMMISSION PRESENTATION Singer asked if there have been any problems with people parking over night in the newly created parking stalls along Plymouth Boulevard. Blank said the police have not informed him of any problems. 8. STAFF COMMUNICATION We are doing our first Teen New Year's Eve event this year. The Family event will go from 5:30-7:30 and then at 8 p.m., the Teen New Year's event begins. Regina Michaud is our teen program coordinator. Fire and Ice is February 2nd. Blank explained that we're following a patriotic theme — a flag will be painted on one end of the ice and USA will be painted on the other end. There will be flags all around the ice rink. Fireworks will start off with red, white and blue. Blank said we have a huge spread in the center foldout of a national catalog from Landscape Strictures of the new playground at Parkers Lake Park. We will get the negative from that photo to use as we wish. The city budgets go to the Council next Tuesday. The capital improvement budget went back to a study session. All the fiunding for the arts program was removed to be used for open space acquisition, etc. Anderson asked about the teen center. Blank said it's still in the budget at $250,000. The youth council is doing a survey on a teen center. Blank said he is hearing that the kids do not want to be in a city or PRAC Minutes/December 2001 Page 59 school facility. The plan is that once the CIP is approved, we'll start meeting with all the groups affected. We have a two—year lease with Acceleration Minnesota, the group leasing space in the lower level of Plymouth Creek Center, through April. They train athletes in speed and agility. Councilmember Hewitt said there were about 60 applications for board and commission openings. Blank said we should have two new commissioners at the January meeting. He thanked PRAC for another year of great accomplishments. 9. ADJOURNMENT The meeting adjourned at 8:55 p.m.