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HomeMy WebLinkAboutPark and Recreation Advisory Commission Minutes 05-10-2007MINUTES OF THE PARK AND RECREATION ADVISORY COMMISSION MEETING May 10, 2007 PRESENT: Commissioners: Mohagen, Knight, Pederson, Singer, Anderson, Smith, Griwac Planning Commissioner: Weir Staff: Blank, Evans, Miller ABSENT: Krauhulec, Fiemann, Blisdoe PACKET INCLUSIONS: Agenda, 4/12/07 Minutes, Comprehensive Plan Update Memo, Consultant Scope of Services document 1. CALL TO ORDER Meeting was called to order at 701 pm in the council chambers by Co -Chairperson Commissioner Singer. 2. APPROVAL OF MINUTES Co -Chair Singer asked if there were any changes or amendments to the minutes. Commissioner Smith mentioned there were grammatical spelling issues in some areas where Blank's name was noted as Blanks. He also mentioned the sentence referencing the number of weddings at PCC was transposed. Corrections to the minutes will be made. Co -Chair Commissioner Singer asked for a motion to approve the minutes with noted changes. Commissioner Pederson moved to approve the minutes of April 12, 2007. The motion was second by Commissioner Smith. Vote was unanimous with all ayes. 3. VISITOR PRESENTATIONS presented by Evans: a. Athletic Associations: None were present at the meeting. b. Staff: None c. Updates: Pork Chop Dinner at Plymouth Creek Center. o Fund Raiser to support Senior Programming. o As of 6pm approximately 300 people had been served o Estimating an overall turn out of 400 by 7pm. Banner Competition o First year program. o Deadline has passed for submitting art for the banner competition. o Were hoping for 16 entries, received 9. o Program is a partnership with the Fine Arts Council. Objective: To increase the number of banners along Plymouth Blvd. o Commissioners will have the opportunity to view the art work. o Winners will have their banners displayed on Plymouth Blvd up thorough Plymouth on Parade. MINUTES OF THE PARK AND RECREATION ADVISORY COMMISSION MEETING May 10, 2007 Kid Garage Sale o This is a new program and it has sold the maximum of 35 tables. o It will be held on Sunday, May 20 from 12-3pm. o Due to popularity, expanded space may be needed in the future. o Commissioners are encouraged to attend. Summer Staff o In the process of hiring summer/seasonal staff and getting the summer program up and running. Program Registration o Reviewing how residents are signing up for programs. Wakeboarding Camp o This is another new program. o Cost runs between $360.00 and $390.00. o Only one slot remains available in first session. Weekend T ball o This too is another new program as it is being held on Friday's and Sunday's. Programs have generally stayed away from weekends in the past. o This concept was well received by residential families and the courses are full. o Will be analyzing the possibility of offering more weekend courses. Budget o Gearing up for budgets. o Starting a new bi-annually budget process including the field house, Ice Arena and Plymouth Creek Center. Volunteer Coordinator Position o Nancy Anderson's position has been posted and eight preliminary candidates have gone through an initial interview all of whom have at least 15 years of experience. o Four potential candidates will be called back. o Final selection will occur in order to have a new coordinator on board one week prior to Nancy's retirement date. Music in Plymouth o This is the 35th anniversary of Music in Plymouth. o The poster advertising the event was shown to the commission and will be posted around Plymouth. o The event will take place on Thursday July 5, 2007 starting at 5pm. o Further details will be provided at upcoming meetings. Page 2 of 8 MINUTES OF THE PARK AND RECREATION ADVISORY COMMISSION MEETING May 10, 2007 Evans concluded her presentation. Commission Singer asked if any members had questions. No questions were asked. 4. REPORT ON PAST COUNCIL ACTION a. Approved: Park Projects: Blank reported that even though CIP's have been adopted by Commissioners and by the City Council, it isn't necessarily a "go". Each individual project has to go back to City Council in order to get approval to move forward. There are currently 10-11 projects that need to be implemented. It has been determined that rather than trying to get them started all at once, they will be split based on priority. Parkers Lake Park Lights o Lamps in the park are about 25 yrs old and are becoming rusty. o The manufacturer does not supply parts for repair so metal plates have been installed to avoid issue with children having access to the fuse boxes. o On the south side of Parker's Lake all the lighting and wiring will be completely replaced. This was approved by the City Council. Timber Shores Playground o Insurance money of $40,000 will assist in the rebuilding of the Timber Shores playground that was burnt last year. 7 Greens N.B. Park o Will be addressing later in the meeting. Blank stated that at the next City Council meeting the goal is to get another five projects authorized. Commissioner Singer opened the floor to questions. None were asked. 5. UNFINISHED BUSINESS a. Update on Comp Plan reported by Blanks: Blank provided a presentation with neighbor maps which outlined each park project area and addressed the renovations that will occur at each location based on the Comprehensive Plan being working on by SRF and staff. Blank also asked Commissioners to follow the Scope of Services document that was provided in their Commission packet. Highlights of this presentation include: Refine the Location and Sizing of Eight Neighborhood Parks Work on the highest priority focusing on area development. Details and appendix work will be completed by our staff. Current plan shows to fill in neighbor parks'/ mile from each house. Consulting firm, SRF, are asked to look at ground, trees and water ways and select as close as possible, the best pieces of property for these last eight Page 3 of 8 MINUTES OF THE PARK AND RECREATION ADVISORY COMMISSION MEETING May 10, 2007 parks. This will give developers the opportunity to know where we are headed. SRF will need to document where roads will be in reference to the parks in order to match up the parks with the roads. A presentation of the report regarding this will be given at June's meeting. Blank opened the floor. No one posed a question or statement. Egan Dog Park The consulting firm has been asked to look at the following options and come up with a recommendation. o Joint development of a dog park with Three Rivers Park District. o Relocate the dog park and turn this property into a neighborhood park. o Keep the dog park and incorporate a neighborhood park. Commissioner Anderson asked about the dog park at Threes Rivers. Blank replied that there may be two dogs parks but will work with Three Rivers to determine what they are going to do. Northwest Greenway The consults objective will be to have this area get more site specific by defining the parcels, trees, wild life, foliage etc. A commitment has been made to connect Maple Grove to our border. o Refine the plan to accommodate Elm Creek corridor trail connections with the City of Maple Grove, including the potential of equestrian facilities. Analyzing the possibility of building a tunnel under 47 to make a nice trail as 47 will become four lanes in the future. Commissioner Pederson asked if this will make a permanent loop in the park system. Blank replied that they will be looking at that. Commissioner Pederson then questioned if 47 was considered a County Road. Blank replied that in its current state it is deemed a county road. The county would like it to become a city road but that is in negotiation as it is in need of major upgrades, which comes with a high price tag. One key parcel area has become available and we have about 90 days to secure it. A 12 ft. high pedestrian tunnel will be built under future Cheshire Lane. Trail System Refinements NW areas need to be refined. Medina held their meeting on Tuesday night to start lining up trails. A conversation between Plymouth and Medina needs to occur. Provisions need to be made to have one of our trails connect to the tunnel trail under 101. The Regional Trail and the Greenway trail will be connecting to Maple Grove. A map showing all city trails will be developed that will also identify trail gaps. Once all the trail gaps have been identified it will be reviewed in order to prioritize which ones to fill. Page 4 of 8 MINUTES OF THE PARK AND RECREATION ADVISORY COMMISSION MEETING May 10, 2007 Trail maps will be created after gaps have been identified and filled. These will be placed on the City Web page. Commissioner Smith remarked that neighbors/neighborhoods are providing gap information to them. He asked if they should be submitting that information to staff. Blank responded yes. Nature Canyon There is a portion of this area that is underdeveloped. A big stand of woods in the southern 2/3 used to be Tamarac areas which they would like to bring back. Comprehensive plan has called it out as a "special use" park possibly using the park as nature facility for educational purposes. Top of the property is being looked at as a collection of interstate and activity area. Consults are being asked to provide three different plans for the future use of this area. This may or may not be decided on, but will be identified in the plan. This assists developers and citizens in knowing what is on the agenda for that property in the future. Northern Railroad Track Currently there is a trail that lets people cross the track to the Three Ponds Park. Improvements have been made to reduce the train stop whistle occurrences. Build full medians at Vickburg to avoid cars driving around barricades when the arms come down. Consultants meeting with the railroad to design an acceptable pedestrian crossing that would eliminate or reduce even further, the train whistle. Beach Analysis Beaches are one of the most popular activities and Plymouth beaches have experienced some very good years and some very poor years. SRF will be doing an analysis of three beaches on how to be safe and attract more people. SRF will submit the analysis with recommendations on how to improve the property. Public Art The Public Art draft policy was presented to the Commissioners last month. This year Public Art will be included in the Comprehensive Plan. The main focus will be mainly on the downtown for private art, but there will be some effort to target commercial buildings being built and engage them in the creative arts. Plymouth Blvd. and 36th are main target areas. Plymouth Creek Park There is a 10 acre site in the park that has never been managed. Page 5 of 8 MINUTES OF THE PARK AND RECREATION ADVISORY COMMISSION MEETING May 10, 2007 o Analyze this area and formulate a long term plan on how this property should be maintained. o This will be the last key component of this 165 acre complex. School District and Three Rivers Park District Park staff will meet with both agencies to explore what potential initiatives they could share that need implementation. Diane and her staff operate swimming lessons at both Wayzata East and West schools. Time Schedule The time schedule has been set forth by the City Council. o The goal is to provide the analysis and recommendations by September or October of 2007. The Planning Commission will need to hold public hearings potentially in November or December of 2007. Blank stated that in terms of the June 14, 2007 PRAC meeting, the SRF consulting will be making some presentations. They may or may not attend the July meeting. Blank recommended moving the PRAC meeting back in August by a week. This would place the meeting date at August 16, 2007. He also suggested that PRAC again be moved back one week in September due to the Jewish Holiday. The meeting for September will be held on the 20tH Blank asked if the Commissioners had any questions. Commission Anderson asked if bike lanes were going to be addressed. Blank stated that this has been turned over to the traffic engineering. To insure that this issue is not lost, Barry Warren, the lead for our projects, will say on top of the situation. b. Update on Greenwood Buildina/Zachary Baseball reported by Blanks: Greenway Building: Contractor indicated by they should be up and running by May 27, 2007. The painting is done only some landscaping needs to be complete. Zachary baseball: On Monday, May 21, 2007 a ribbon cutting ceremony and softball game will take place starting at 6:OOpm. The Mayor will be throwing out the first pitch. Blank informed the commission that Miller will be sending out an official email notification. Commissioner Pederson asked how the fund raising was going. Blank replied that they until the end of the year to raise $50,000.00 and the concession trucks are already out there. 6. NEW BUSINESS a. N.B. Park Development Project Update Page 6 of 8 MINUTES OF THE PARK AND RECREATION ADVISORY COMMISSION MEETING May 10, 2007 Blank informed the Commission that the new park neighborhood meeting occurred on Wednesday, May 9 with an attendance of nine people. The turn out was not expected to be large as this is a small neighborhood. The meeting is intended to hear what the community wants built in there neighborhood. There is currently a small park that resides approximately one block away for the new site that currently has a small playground. Blank asked the neighborhood representatives if they wanted another playground in the new park. The majority of attendees opposed having a new playground built and felt the smaller park could expand on theirs by implementing some swing sets. The meeting lasted approximately one hour with the next meeting being held on Wednesday May 23, 2007 at City Hall at 6:30 pm. This meeting is intended to present two plans to the neighborhood with the hopes of resolution. If successful, the master plan will come back to the Commission with a request for their approval. The next step would be to submit to the City Council in June with construction of the park taking place over the months of July, August and September. By October construction should be substantially completed with the park. Commissioner Anderson asked if this was one of the areas where there may be a train crossing. Blank stated that he has heard people saying they are hearing more train noise since the buck thorn has been removed. Commissioner Pederson asked if they were against building a park lot at the site. Blank replied that we don't build parking lots. Commissioner Singer opened the floor to questions. There were none. Blank reminder the commissioners to note future meeting dates that are moving back one week. He also asked them to try to attend the last neighborhood meeting. Blank stated that Miller will include that date in the ribbon ceremony email. 7. Commission Presentation Commission Singer asked Blank if he was planning on having a park tour for the new commissioners. Commissioner Singer asked the new commissions if they would like a tour. Commissioner Knight stated that he would. Commissioner Anderson suggested a bike tour. Commissioner Singer asked which parks or trails they would like to see. Commissioner Smith stated that he has seen many of the properties and he could take Commissioner Anderson on a bike tour so he can view the parks and trails. Blank stated that in the past, as a precursor, the commission would go to the parks where projects were taking place. That way everyone has a visual when it comes to decision making. Blank stated he would be happy to take the group some evening to view these properties. July would be the best time as the draft CIP timeline needs to be in by June. This is in conjunction with two year budget that council wants. Commissioner Singer asked Blank to set up a small van tour, especially if they need to make recommendations to the City Council. Blank and Evans will look at schedules and ask about potential dates. Commission Singer thanked the engineering department for answering her questions. Page 7 of 8 MINUTES OF THE PARK AND RECREATION ADVISORY COMMISSION MEETING May 10, 2007 8. ADJOURNMENT Co -Chairperson Commissioner Singer asked for a motion to adjourn the meeting. Commissioner Smith motioned to adjourn the meeting. Commissioner Anderson seconded motion. All ayes and the meeting adjourned at 7:48p.m. The next meeting will be held on Thursday, June 14, 2007. Respectfully Submitted, Mary Miller PRAC recorder Page 8 of 8