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HomeMy WebLinkAboutPark and Recreation Advisory Commission Minutes 09-08-2005MINUTES OF THE PARK AND RECREATION ADVISORY COMMISSION MEETING September 8, 2005 Page 1 PRESENT: Commissioners Fiemann, Aamoth, Davis, Griwac, Krahulec, Mohagen, Pederson, Rezabek, Singer; staff Blank, Michaud, Pederson; Planning Commissioner Weir ABSENT: Commissioners CALL TO ORDER Chair Fiemann called the meeting to order at 7:05 p.m. in the Plymouth Creek Center Conference Room. 2. APPROVAL OF MINUTES Commissioner Rezabek made a motion to approve the minutes of the July meeting. Commissioner Pederson seconded. Motion carried, all ayes. 3. VISITOR PRESENTATIONS a. Athletic Associations. None were present. b. Staff. Regina Michaud, recreation supervisor, has been with Plymouth for the last four years. She deals with preschool education, recreation, fitness, summer playgrounds, concessions, skate park programs, all teen programs, adult health and fitness, martial arts, self-defense, and family oriented special events. A new program for preschoolers is Little Tigers martial arts. The summer playground program has been using the Black Box Theater for their Friday Adventures, and this has been well received. For teen programming, the newest most successful program was the Battle of the Bands. Six bands performed at Parkers Lake on Saturday, August 20. Attendance was estimated at 250. Michaud said she plans to have this event again next summer. We have also held band nights at the Black Box Theater with mixed success. Under adult education, a new gardening series was introduced this year. All of these classes have seen good attendance. We're offering belly dancing this year on Sunday afternoons. This is a new program, with two sessions of six classes being offered, both of which filled almost immediately. Coordinating with the police department, we offered self- defense for women and teens. Ages attending have been anywhere from 13 up to senior citizens. A special event taking place at the Plymouth Creek Center is Halloween at the Creek, sponsored by area churches and parks and recreation. This is a family oriented program geared for ages 2-12. The Plymouth on Parade is being combined with the Autumn Art Fair this year on September 24. Past Council members have been asked to be the grand marshals. Mascots from the Twins, Timberwolves, and Vikings will also be in the parade. About 90-95 units have registered so far, along with four school bands. A new program for winter - spring will be LAN parties (gaming parties). 4. REPORT ON PAST COUNCIL ACTION PRAC Minutes/September 2005 Page 2 a. There was no report on this item. 5. UNFINISHED BUSINESS a. Update of comprehensive plan. Blank discussed comprehensive plan meetings coming up on Sept 15 and 20 and the meetings in October on the 24th and 26th along with the overall timing schedule. The park plan was done back in 2000, so PRAC should only have to do some fine-tuning. The one area PRAC will need to focus on is youth athletics. We are near the peak population for youth in Plymouth. Rezabek said he has been hearing that for years. He said he lives near a townhome that is full of children. He's not confident that the demographers have the most recent figures. b. CIP update. Blank distributed an updated version of the CIP. What has changed since the last meeting is that we now know we will have less money, Blank said. Housing projections for the next 24 months are down. This means less money will be available in the park dedication fund. New trail construction was scaled back in 2006, along with other projects. Blank reviewed the CIP line by line for each year from 2006-2010 and answered questions raised. Pederson asked about the new walls at Zachary and the plaza. Our design consultant has been placed on hold Blank said until after the discussion on the New Hope Little League Baseball request. The last payment on the acquisition of the 10th playfield would occur in 2008. We would take title to the property in October of 2008 according to our proposal. The CIP is scheduled for a public hearing in September or October. Singer asked about the dip in the park dedication fund in 2008. Blank explained it's due to the stall in housing starts. Housing starts should pick up again when northwest Plymouth begins developing following installation of sewer lines after 2008. Depending on how the comprehensive plan comes out, we may need a bond referendum in November of 2006 to help fund the acquisition of the Northwest Greenway, the 10th playfield, trails, etc., Blank said. The Wayzata School District is going out for a referendum this fall. If Robbinsdale chooses to go out for one in 2006, it would not be wise for the City to attempt one the same year. We are quite far behind in road reconstruction, so the general fund and taxes will go to that. We used to pay for all road reconstruction from the general fund, Blank explained. 6. NEW BUSINESS a. Plymouth New Hope Little League Baseball Request. Brian Johnson, Tim Tanner, and Jerry Sandler were present to discuss this issue. Blank said that three weeks before he was hired, a referendum had just passed which funded the building of six new playfields. These fields were constructed in 1980 and consisted of a system of ball fields and soccer fields. The soccer fields were 120 x 75, which is the international size. We did it this way, so that we could cut them in half to accommodate the younger age groups. We came up with a design that was called the oversized infield. Base pegs were installed at 60', 65', and 70' feet. We also put 300 -foot fences on these fields. Some weeks we would change the bases every night. These fields accommodate both youth and adults. Ball fields were numbered 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, and if there was a 90' field, it was numbered 6. Soccer fields were identified with the letters A or B. At Greenwood, we now PRAC Minutes/September 2005 Page 3 have all grass infields, and all were designed for Little League baseball. This was the first time we went age specific in the design. Blank explained that as we started to look at Zachary Playfield changes, we asked our consultants to do a prototype design. In considering the Little League's request, there are three areas to review — financing, parking and the ripple effect. Blank discussed the phases of the project and said that $172,000 is an estimate for the cost of the project, based on Scenario A as submitted by our consultant. The irrigation system is already budgeted. The lighting system was put in for adult softball, so the lighting would have to be changed at some point, but not now. It would cost roughly $200,000 to renovate the lighting. Parking is another issue. On Monday through Thursday evenings during the months of May, June and July, anywhere from 164-328 cars are using a lot designed for 175. When we need overflow parking, it is diverted to the elementary school and the church. Blank discussed the Arrowood Lane parking issue that ties into this discussion. This street has been signed NO PARKING for a number of years due to previous problems with overflow parking issues at Zachary Park. Some of the neighbors now want parking to be allowed again, while other do not. The third issue is the ripple effect of where teams go now if Zachary is reconfigured for use by the Little League. Once these fields are changed, they will become more single -purpose, and limited to just certain users. The groups that are using them now would have to be shifted to other fields that are already scheduled by other teams. The logical place for them to go is Plymouth Middle School, but that also leads to displacement of any teams playing there. Tim Tanner said the Little League program is only about three years old. They came from the RAYBA (Robbinsdale Area Youth Baseball Association) program. They have seen 30% growth in the last three years. Sixty-five percent of the youth in the program are from Plymouth, with 31 % coming from New Hope. The remaining 4% are from other communities. The Zachary fields they are playing on are 20 years old and are sized for adult softball. They are proposing to shorten two of the 300 -foot fields into three 200 -foot fields, which would allow for the addition of a concession stand bringing in some much needed revenue for their program, plus expansion for permanent bathroom facilities. They also use two fields in New Hope. There are 20 other Little League programs in surrounding areas. They want to partner with the City, and they feel they can afford to fund the improvements themselves. The only thing that's holding them back is a plan. They are not asking for financial support. They just want an agreement to restructure these fields. Singer asked about their projected growth. They don't see it expanding much more. The gender breakdown is mostly boys. They have a few girls playing baseball, but most of them play softball. Singer asked about the cost of the lights and how that would be funded. They think they will be fine with the lights as they are now. Fiemann asked how many teams they have. They said 26 with 18 playing at Zachary. Singer asked if a concession stand were built, who would use it? Just the Little League, Blank said. Blank went on to say that if we redo the plaza, we will have to put the sewer pipe in now, so that if we construct a building there in the future, the sewer line will already be in. To alleviate the parking problem, the Little League proposes running shorter games and starting a little earlier. Most of their games end at or before 90 minutes. A team plays two or three games a week, typically. Occasionally they would play on Saturdays. They practice at a PRAC Minutes/September 2005 Page 4 lot of fields in New Hope, Golden Valley, etc. Their season begins in early April with practices; games begin in early May and run through mid to late July. They propose to start games at 5:30. Our city park curfew states that no new innings may begin after 10 pm. Rezabek asked about the adult softball program and where they now play. Blank said all adult softball has moved to Elm Creek, except for co-rec, which plays at Plymouth Middle School. A question was raised about the maintenance of these fields, if they were changed to accommodate the Little League. Blank said Plymouth would continue to maintain it, out of the general fund. If these fields are redesigned, district tournaments could be held here, Sandler said. Rezabek feels this would be a win/win situation for everyone. Boundaries for participation in the Plymouth/New Hope Little League are the entire city of New Hope and the portion of Plymouth located in Dist. 281. They are not asking for exclusive use of Zachary, just the hours they specified on Monday through Thursday. There is $130,000 in the CIP for irrigation Blank said. No money has been proposed in the CIP for lighting changes. When the CIP was done, we didn't know about the Little League request. Our budget is based on Concept A, Blank said. It's $40,000 more to do Concept B. The Little League representatives liked Concept B better than A, but they would be happy with either one. Blank prefers Concept B as well. Pederson is concerned about the teams we would be displacing. He wanted to know if there are other options or other playfields with more wiggle room for them to transfer to. Blank said no. Every field we have is full. Little League representatives said Field 1 would remain as is for girls' softball, and field 4 would continue to be used by RAYBA. Fiemann said Zachary is busy every night of the week. Parking can be difficult at this complex. Rezabek asked if more parking could go in where the BMX course was proposed. Blank said this might involve cutting trees down, which the church is against. We may be able to pick up some parking at the water tower site; however, parking is also expensive to install. Davis asked about the new walls and plaza. Blank was hoping we would be in the design phase for that right now. This could be accomplished in a mild winter. Otherwise it's better to do it after the baseball season is over. It would make the most sense to design and bid the project as one, combining the walls, plaza and the Little League's request. Discussion then turned to other locations in Plymouth that might be suitable for the Little League to play their games. Pederson asked about the Schmidt Lake ball field's timetable. Blank said in the short term it could be ready in five years, long term 10 years. The cost to reconfigure the Zachary fields the way that the Little League would prefer is approximately $210,000. This is most like Concept B from our design consultant, and was the preferred choice of staff and PRAC. The Little League said they would do their best to come up with that amount. Blank said that if the Council thinks this is a good idea, and if the Little League can come up with 90-95% of the cost, the City may be able to come up with the remainder. Blank also commented that if the Little League can fit an hour in between their games, helping to clear out the cars, it would go a long way in helping their cause. We still have to deal with the issue of other teams that will be displaced because of this. Blank said we can put the plaza and walls project on hold for a few months, which would also give the Little League six months of fund-raising time. Fiemann is very concerned about the ripple effects. By next PRAC Minutes/September 2005 Page 5 month we will have more facts and figures from the athletic directors of Armstrong, etc., and Dan Lauer will also be invited to attend the meeting. 7. COMMISSION PRESENTATION Singer commented about the retaining ponds at Medicine Lake and how beneficial they are. She also has observed that police are patrolling on bicycles around Medicine Lake. Rezabek was very impressed with the water ski show that he attended in August. 8. STAFF COMMUNICATION Next month's meeting will be on the 13th 9. ADJOURN The meeting adjourned at 9 p.m