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HomeMy WebLinkAboutPark and Recreation Advisory Commission Minutes 04-11-2002Minutes of the Park and Recreation Advisory Commission Meeting April 11, 2002 Page 13 Present: Chair Anderson, Commissioners Rezabek, Singer, Musliner, Krahulec, and Fiemann; staff Blank and Pederson; Planning Commissioner Neset Commissioners tools a moment to introduce themselves to the new member Richard Krahulec. Krahulec stated that he has lived in Plymouth near Bass Lake Playfield for three years and has a 16 year old daughter. He served on the Golden Valley Park Board for 12 years prior to moving to Plymouth. Absent: Commissioner Meyer 1. CALL TO ORDER Chair Anderson called the April meeting to order at 7:05 p.m. 2. APPROVAL OF MINUTES Singer moved and Rezabelc seconded a motion to approve the March minutes. The motion carried with all ayes. 3. VISITOR PRESENTATIONS a. Athletic Associations. None were present. b. Staff Director Blank discussed a number of handouts that had been distributed to commissioners. In the teen newsletter, he pointed out the special music event scheduled at Parkers Lake on July 11 and the Youth Town Form on May 13 at the Plymouth Creels Center. Our Volunteer Coordinator is looking for people to help out during the History Fest. We need tour guides that take school children from station to station during the Education Days portion. Beginning Friday evening is the Primavera Fine Art Show. There are 122 pieces of art work this year compared to 78 last year. Blank discussed some statistics for summer recreation registration, which began on Tuesday, April 9, beginning at 12:01 a.m. Within the first 24 hours of registration, we took in $104,000. Sixty—six percent of the registrations were being done electronically, either using TTR or registering on—line. Last weekend was the Yard and Garden Expo, which also saw an increase this year in exhibitors. c. Others. See item 6a. 4. PAST COUNCIL ACTION The City Council awarded the bid for the Heritage park playground; we will start landscaping some of the Plymouth Boulevard medians. Eight medians need to be done, we'll get two done this year. We are purchasing new artificial turf for the Fieldhouse. It was guaranteed for five years, but blemishes started to appear after two years. The turf is useable, but there are still some cosmetic flaws. We've reached a compromise with the company. We'll get a new PRAC Minutes/April 2002 Page 14 field for $90,000, guaranteed for eight years, and they will remove the old turf and give it to us to use at an outdoor location to be determined by us. This will be scheduled for the first week of September. The Mud Lake neighborhood park plan was presented at the Council meeting. The Council approved the master plan and a budget increase to $400,000. The biggest unknown is the cost of the floating boardwalk. The main picnic shelter will be larger, and a basketball court has been added. We have over $800,000 in the neighborhood park account. We'll take in money over the next five years in park dedication, so all future neighborhood park projects will be able to go forward. We expect to be under constriction by July, with most of the project completed by September. By mid-June we may begin draining the lake. Singer asked if the lake had been renamed. Blank stated that a public hearing was held last Tuesday and that there was no opposition. It is likely the name will be changed to Lake Camelot. By the May or June meeting PRAC may be able to name the park. Blank said the Council is having a joint meeting with the Hennepin County Board. They will discuss County Road 47 at that meeting. 5. UNFINISHED BUSINESS a. Northwest Greenway update. All commissioners have the final documents now. We have maps available in the office. Blank will send a letter to everyone around the Greenway informing them that the master plan has been adopted. b. Millennium Garden update. The contractors will be back in there soon. We are looking at an August grand opening. c. Hilde Performance center update. Everything is on schedule at this time. d. Greenwood youth sports update. We expect to be playing baseball there on June 1. e. Skate park update. We have a meeting scheduled for next week with all the kids involved with this project. We will be talking with them about the option of allowing bikes on the course as well as grand opening and ribbon cutting plans. Sports Hut wants to donate prizes, etc. We have money to buy one more skate ramp. We may build another skate park in the fiiture. Blank says he has seen children as young as five or six years old using the facility. 6. NEW BUSINESS a. Review proposal from Medicine Lake Sailing Club. Director Blank introduced the topic of the Medicine Lake Sailing Club wishing to use the southerly 400 feet of shoreline along East Medicine Lake Beach to install three docks for mooring their sailboats, plus 10 boat lifts. They would use the parking lot at Ryerson Steel on Saturdays and Sundays. They originally looked north of Harty's for property, but no parking was available there. Next they contacted Joe Harty about parking on his land, but he declined. Then they came back to the City to discuss the possibility of using property south of East Beach. They discussed parking and other issues. They also spoke to AMLAC, the Association of Medicine Lake Area Citizens. AMLAC will discuss this item at their next meeting and will make their thoughts available to PRAC prior to the May meeting. Blank discussed his many concerns — is this a type of business we want to get into — should we compete PRAC Minutes/April 2002 Page 15 with the private sector — do we want to enter into an exclusive use with Sailing Club, or open it to the general public — should we charge rent for use of public park land and if so, how much — how many boats should be allowed — how long should docks be — where would we store docks and lifts in winter — should we limit use to residents or allow non- residents use as well? Blank recommends taking no action this evening. We need to formally notify the City of Medicine Lake and Mr. Harty. The general public needs to be notified, too. We also need to consider AMLAC's thoughts on this. Larry Leistiko from the Medicine Lake Sailing Club spoke. He stated that what they really need is access to the lake. They've been in business since 1979. If they don't get affordable docking, they cannot afford to continue. The boats they sail are very small. The cost of mooring is significant and in some cases prohibitive for the type of boat they sail. These boats are well suited to Medicine Lake, because they are non -keel boats. They have a center board which comes up, allowing them to use shallow waters. There is no other sailing club on the lake that promotes sailboat racing. They don't want exclusive use of the lake, just three docks for access, which could be phased in over a few years. They think the City charging rent is reasonable, perhaps based on a per boat charge. The question of how many boats the lake can handle is an interesting one. Sailboats are completely different from fishing boats, skiing boats, etc. They think their use of the water's surface is complimentary to the other uses. Two hundred feet of dock would be desirable, because they think there are other docks at least that long on the lake. The Sailing Club agrees that off season storage is an issue. Their members are from Plymouth and other cities. Fiemann asked how the City of Minneapolis does their docks? Leistiko said the City provides the docks, the buoys, and motorized power craft and rowboats. Singer asked about buoys. Leistiko said their boats don't lend themselves well to buoys. Singer asked if they would consider a combination of buoys and docks. Walter Barniscus, from New Hope, has been on the lake since 1978. He stated that Medicine Lake is fidl of growth and this growth attaches to sailboats. Attaching boats to buoys makes them vulnerable to this growth. Fiemann asked what the Sailing Club members pay for slips at Harty's. Leistiko said a Flying Scott costs $800 or $850 a year. He said there would be about five sailboats moored for now. They envision 18 boats per pier, eventually, which comes to a total of 54, assuming three docks. Singer credited the Sailing Club with solving their parking problem by parking at Ryerson's. Singer asked what about bathrooms and trash disposal? A small portable facility would solve the bathroom issue, and a single trash barrel would be sufficient, Leistiko said. Singer asked if they envision hosting their own races? Leistiko said they start racing around Mother's Day through Labor Day. In the past, they hosted the Midwest Flying Scott Districts. They hope if they had a facility with docks that they could do this more often. Krahulec asked how many members they had? Leistiko said 25 is the estimate for this year. Fiemann asked where they keep their boats now. Leistiko said half of the members are Plymouth and Medicine Lake residents, and they keep sailboats on their own property. That equates to 12-15 members with their boats on the lake moored at Harty's. Rezabek sees Harty's as a monopoly, and he feels that $850 per year is a rather hefty fee for these boats. Rezabek asked about the public launch. Blank said it's located at French Park. Rezabek says there is a lot of work involved to launch these sailboats. On a Sunday afternoon it's almost impossible to launch a boat at French Park, if you're not there by 9 a.m. Fiemann said he PRAC Minutes/April 2002 Page 16 is worried about competition with the private sector. He wondered should the city own the dock and lease it out, or should the Sailing Club own it and lease it out? The City of Madison has an agreement similar to what the Sailing Club wants. They have a park with a pier in it, the city owns it, allowing lessee to use it. They give Sailing Club access to the lake. Lessee has to keep leased premises clean and in working order. Leistiko says they cannot limit access to the pier. It's not realistic. Singer believes we need to hold a public forum on this issue. Karl Shafer, a Medicine Lake resident and an ex—board member of AMLAC, said there is a sailing school that operates on Medicine Lake called Blue Waters Sailing School. Sailing activities are very non—invasive. He feels it would be a good venue. Sabin Peterson, from Robbinsdale, is a member of the Sailing Club. He came from the Madison, Wisconsin sailing club. They owned and maintained the docks there, leasing them from the City of Madison. They paid $150 per year in rent. Land that was leased to them was 12.5 feet square. Anderson questioned the size of the beach at Madison. It's much larger than our East Beach. Blank said AMLAC is scheduled to meet next week. Fiemann asked how long it would take to notify people. Blank said we'll put a notice in the newspaper and on Cable TV. We will also notify AMLAC. It will be an agenda item for our May meeting. The City Council meets May 28. Singer explained to the Sailing Club that she's a volunteer on the Commission as is everyone else on PRAC. Blank said there is no public hearing required and that we do not need a motion. Blank said the closest property owners would be notified. This will spread word of mouth. Ron Malone lives right along the south shoreline. He said there are 12 homes along there. He is a member of AMLAC. He's very interested in the shoreline restoration that's going to go on there. He thinks the use of that part of the lake for sailboats is ideal. He does not have a problem with this proposal. He feels that the majority of the homeowners will agree. They would prefer sailboats over powerboats and jet skis. He was asked how deep the water is in the middle of the area where he moors his boat. He said about a foot. Practically, you need about 2.5 feet of depth. This will be on the agenda for the next PRAC meeting. The Sailing Club asked what they should do in preparation for the next meeting. Anderson said they should plan to make a similar presentation at the May meeting. Blank said he assured the President of AMLAC that the City would not take any action until after AMLAC has their meeting. Blank will notify every member of AMLAC if the President feels this is necessary. Anderson asked what PRAC should prepare for at next month's meeting. Blank feels next month's meeting may be more negative. He thinks AMLAC may be opposed. Joe Harty will likely be at the meeting and could also be opposed. Singer's concern is the length of the docks. In between Harty's docks and the proposed sailboat docks is the beach. Rezabek says the stays make a clanging noise if the boats are not stored properly. Singer says it does get crowded at the East Beach on weekends. Rezabek says you need a permit to run big regattas. These would likely happen only on Lake Minnetonka. Musliner thinks the issue of the public wanting to have their slip on the lake will definitely come up. Harty's rates are similar to Wayzata Yacht Club rates. The wait to get a slip on Lake Minnetonka is two years. Blank will get a good diagram of the shoreline for next month's meeting. PRAC has the right to come up with a proposal different from the one presented by the Sailing Club, Blank said. The winter ice fishing access to Medicine Lake is through Harty's launch. We paved a five foot area there. Other than the ice fishing access PRAC Minutes/April 2002 Page 17 at Harty's, there is no other relationship between Harty's and the City. Blank explained that Harty's cannot grow or expand, because he is a non -conforming use. He can have only so many slips and moorings. He is running a retail business in a residential zone. We are a regulatory agency that monitors what he does. 7. COMMISSION PRESENTATION There was no presentation. 8. STAFF COMMUNICATION Prior to leaving on her vacation, Diane did some quick research on other cities tobacco use policies in their parks. More information will be provided as it is gathered. One step is to post signs prohibiting smoking within 50 feet of the playground, etc. Blank said this is a good research project for us. 9. ADJOURNMENT The meeting adjourned at 8:45 p.m.