Loading...
HomeMy WebLinkAboutPark and Recreation Advisory Commission Minutes 11-13-2008MINUTES OF THE PARKS AND RECREATION ADVISORY COMMISSION MEETING November 13, 2008 PRESENT: Commissioners: E. Singer, M. Smith, G. Anderson, D. Anderson, P. Knight, N. Carroll, A. Vanderwall, Staff: E. Blank, D. Evans, D. Sankey, R Michaud, E. Anderson Planning Commission Liaison: J. Davis City Council Liaison: B. Stein ABSENT: 1. CALL TO ORDER Chair Singer called the meeting to order at 7:00 p.m. in the Council Chamber. 2. APPROVAL OF MINUTES Motion was made by Commissioner Carroll and seconded by Commissioner G. Anderson to approve the October minutes with revision noted. Vote: 6 Ayes. Motion carried. Commissioner Vanderwall arrived after approval of minutes. 3. VISITOR PRESENTATIONS a. Athletic Associations. None b. Staff Regina Michaud provided information on her area of responsibility and current programs. She works with preschool through adults, including martial arts, youth recreation, and special events such as Plymouth on Parade, Yard & Garden Expo, Summer Carnival and Halloween at the Creek. She also works with health and wellness. Regina Announced a new Program - Health Fair. Hennepin County is coordinating a Step it Up Challenge, a fitness challenge among cities, and Plymouth will participate. Chair Singer asked if the Health Fair would be using the Plymouth Creek Center and dome. Regina said it will be held in the Plymouth Creek Center, but not the dome. Commissioner Smith asked if the City hosts race events like a 5K. Michaud said Park & Recreation does not, but the Fire Department has a 5K, and there is also a 5K with Music in Plymouth. Director Blank said Lifetime Fitness hosts a kids' triathlon. Erica Anderson provided information on her area of responsibility and current programs. She works with preschool, youth and adult education such as dog obedience classes, science explorers and foreign languages, including Spanish and German. She also works on special events like Plymouth on Parade. Anderson also works with the Yard & Garden Expo with Regina Michaud and Fall Soccer with Dan Lauer. Erica is also responsible for the adaptive/inclusion program which helps accommodate special needs participants. We helped 253 kids in 456 programs so far this year, helping to serve people who might not otherwise be able to take part in our programs. Commissioner Carroll asked about accommodating allergies. PRAC Minutes/November 13, 2008 Page 2 Anderson said the main one is peanut allergies. Some people are so sensitive that even air born is dangerous. When we have a participant with a peanut allergy, we notify parents of children in the program to avoid using peanut products during or before the class. Chair Singer said soccer coaches are given information on allergic reactions and the use of epi pens. Commissioner Carroll pointed out that there are other food allergies of concern, such as eggs. Chair Singer mentioned that the Yard & Garden Expo is a fundraiser, and all proceeds go towards the Millennium Garden. She also asked about lawn bowling. Anderson said Dan Lauer is looking into it. This could be a good activity for adaptive services. Diane Evans provided an overview of past and upcoming activities. Evans informed the Commission that the dome is up, although it took a couple of days because of windy conditions. Evans gave a brief history of the catering contract at the Plymouth Creek Center. We were working with Suzanne's until November 2007, when they went out of business. By the end of November, food testing and tasting had settled on Medina Ballroom, Mintahoe, and Town and Country. The relationships have gone wonderfully. Rentals have gone up, revenue has gone up, and complaints have gone down. We have recommended to the City Council to roll over the contracts for another three years. We will look at it again at that time. Commissioner Carroll asked what zumba fitness is. Chair Singer said it is exercise to Latin music. c. Other: 4. REPORT ON PAST COUNCIL ACTION a. Approved name of Legacy Greenway Park. Director Blank reported that the Council approved the name, and signage is being developed. b. Accepted Outdoor Rink report. Blank said that our current number of nine outdoor hockey rinks eventually will go to six. The first phase is to close one at Zachary and one at Plymouth Middle School. These rinks will be flooded as pleasure rinks. We will evaluate each year and keep track of attendance. Planning Commissioner Davis asked about the difference between pleasure and hockey rinks. Blank said hockey rinks have boards, and pleasure rinks use an earth berm. Davis asked if there is any less maintenance. Blank said no, they are both broom cleaned, shoveled and flooded. 5. UNFINISHED BUSINESS a. Update — Zachary Park Building: Blank reported that Armstrong Little League is continuing to work on this project. They hope to have it enclosed by Thanksgiving. A lot of volunteer work has gone into it, and so far, they are a little under budget. They have gotten good bids and many things donated. By the time baseball gets started, the concession stand should be up and running. b. Update — West Medicine Lake Park Building: Blank said that the Council looked at all of the capital improvement items for the next 5 years. Because of the economy, PRAC Minutes/November 13, 2008 Page 3 they thought it would be appropriate to delay the project until 2012. They will examine this further at their study session on December 9. c. Update — Hilde Plans Blank said that he anticipates that this project will also be put on hold, possibly until 2010. Chair Singer asked if Council study sessions are open to the public and whether people can make comments. Blank said people are allowed to attend the sessions, and it is up to the mayor whether they will take comments. Singer asked the commissioners for comments. Smith asked about the sunscreen project for Parkers Lake. Blank said that would cost about $40,000. D. Anderson asked if Park & Recreation projects were the only ones put on hold. Blank answered that no, others were also delayed. G. Anderson suggested that it may be a more advantageous to build now. Blank said the market has actually gotten worse in the last 90 days. Council will have to decide on an appropriate course of action. Councilmember Stein said that Councilmember Bildsoe thought the projects should be postponed. He felt there were $5.5 million worth of projects that could be postponed. 6. NEW BUSINESS a. Receive comments on Zachary Park tennis courts relocation proposal. Director Blank said the Commission does an annual tour in August to see first hand what is going on in the park system and to discuss potential projects to recommend to Council. The Zachary tennis courts were built in 1981. Tennis courts usually last about 25 years, so it is time for refurbishment, which is scheduled for 2009. We will probably start in August 2009, in order to work around the Armstrong tennis program and our tennis lesson program. The courts can be replaced in their current location. We could also slide the courts 100 feet north to a grassy area, which would leave room for a future parking lot expansion. We get many complaints on parking issues. We need to make the decision by March of 2009. David Bateman, 4525 Arrowood Lane, pointed out his house on the map. He explained that he had researched the issue. There are seven lit tennis courts in Plymouth, but only one is close to a home. The rest are far away from homes. Bass Lake is somewhat close, but the courts are near the garage end of the home. His property is surrounded on two sides by park. The proposal means moving the tennis courts from 110 feet away from the back wall of his house to 45 feet away. They can hear noise from it now, but this will increase by a factor of four - like having people in his living room. The plan also provides a secluded parking area, which officers will have to drive into in order to patrol, adding more lights. The courts will block access to Frisbee golf. His yard already gets a lot of traffic from the Frisbee golfers. During soccer season, people do congregate in this grassy area. His yard receives a lot of light from the current tennis courts. Even with the new light technology, because of the closeness, it will still be a lot of light. It looks like his pine trees will be right near the tennis court fence. The fence will be rather unsightly from their deck. People play tennis as early as 7:30 am until at least 10:30 p.m. He also feels that the configuration of the parking lot will cause a lot of confusion. The park has been a good neighbor through the years, but he did not expect to have a tennis court this close. Mr. Bateman presented two proposals: PRAC Minutes/November 13, 2008 Page 4 Proposal 1. Leave tennis courts where they are. Extend the parking lot to the west. Move the pavilion. This solution would not impact traffic flow, and there would be little loss of trees. Proposal 2. Leave tennis courts where they are. Extend the parking lot to the north. This would not impact traffic flow. There would be some loss of trees. The lot would be very visible for police patrol. Commissioner Smith asked about the feasibility of the first proposal. Mr. Bateman said changes to grade would be needed, although it would be no worse than the original proposal. Director Blank said the lot would superimpose over the current lot and could preserve some trees. Smith expressed concern about removing trees and thanked Mr. Bateman for bringing in proposals. Blank said they had considered adding parking into the trees when they added the little league fields. They wanted to wait until they saw the impact of running the park at full capacity. Commissioner Knight thanked Mr. Bateman for offering solutions. Maybe a combination of the parking lot alternatives could be done by adding a smaller strip north and a smaller strip west. He asked if planting more trees would be of help for the original proposal. Mr. Bateman said the land strip is very narrow for putting in a buffer zone. He prefers it open, however. Commissioner Knight asked if it would help if the basketball court were at the other end. Mr. Bateman said basketball is even noisier than tennis. It is hard to remediate something that is that close. Chair Singer thanked him for his comments. Gina Bateman, 4525 Arrowood Lane, expressed that she did not like the idea of being on her deck and looking out and seeing tennis courts so close. She will hear the tennis players' conversations and they will hear hers. How will it affect her property value? She does not want a fence. Planting more trees is not a good option for preventing hearing everything and having no privacy. She would like to invite the commissioners all over to her deck to experience what this would be like. Eric Olson, 4555 Arrowood Lane, reiterated the point of the parking lot. If it were moved down, how close would it be to the playground? This almost gives people a chance to drive up and approach children. Other parks have parking that is further from the playground. There is a lot of activity at the basketball court, which would be more difficult for the police to monitor. The park is crowded in the summer time. There is a lot of light emission. Brendan Garrity, 4520 Arrowood Lane, stated that he has a great view of the park. He has two small children, and they go to the play area quite often. The more things are pulled into the park, the more traffic there will be. People drive into their cul-de- sac to drop off kids for soccer. Moving the tennis courts will bring more people into their cul-de-sac to drop off for tennis. Mr. Garrity said he likes the park and living close to it. He wants to continue to like living close to it. Chair Singer confessed that she had dropped her kids off on this cul-de-sac at times. Joe Stein, 4535 Arrowood Lane, said that he is greatly concerned about moving the courts closer to their homes. People now run across their yard instead of using the PRAC Minutes/November 13, 2008 Page 5 trail. He is concerned about his 10 year old daughter playing in the cul-de-sac because of the traffic. Having people run through their yard feels invasive. Chair Singer thanked them all for their comments and for coming to the meeting. Director Blank said that all of the comments would go into the minutes. The minutes go to the City Council who will have the final decision. Blank asked if there was anything the commissioners would like staff to work on. D. Anderson would like to see some other options at the meeting in January. b. Approve $10 per hour increase in ice rental rates. Director Blank explained that the Ice Center is an enterprise fund, and it must cover its expenses. They have looked at the budget to see what can be done to accomplish what is needed and have decided on a $10 per hour increase beginning April 1. We will not break a contract with the associations and schools. This increase would bring in $70,000 for a full year, and will be about $35,000 to $40,000 for 2009. Other budget moves include not replacing a full time employee who has left. We had budgeted for a cooling tower replacement, but it will probably work through 2009. We have budgeted to pay off $150,000 toward the loan on the third sheet. Blank said he has met with Wayzata Hockey regarding the increase, and they have a full year warning. Organizations who benefit from it pay a $5 per hour surcharge to help pay off the third sheet loan. Commissioner Carroll asked about the amount of the reserve. Director Blank said i is $450,000. Carroll asked it we could consider more than a $10 per hour increase. Blank said we could, but we would incur the wrath of our customers. Everyone seems comfortable with $180 per hour. Commissioner D. Anderson said we must be comfortable with this. Commissioner D. Anderson move to approve the $10 per hour increase in rates for the Ice Center. Commissioner Vanderwall seconded. 7 Ayes. Motion approved. 7. COMMISSION PRESENTATION: Commissioner Smith announced the Oakwood Elementary 50th Anniversary Open house on Sunday, November 16, from 1-4:00 p.m. 8. STAFF COMMUNICATION: Director Blank announced we will have a December meeting only if we find we have an important item to discuss, otherwise it will be cancelled. 9. ADJOURNMENT Chair Singer entertained the motion to adjourn. MOTION was made by Commissioner Vanderwall and seconded by Commissioner Smith. Vote: 7 Ayes. Motion approved. The meeting adjourned at 8:21 p.m. If needed, the next meeting will be held on December 11, 2008, in the Council Chambers. Otherwise, the next meeting will be on January 8, 2009. PRAC Minutes/November 13, 2008 Page 6 Donna Sankey — PRAC recorder