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HomeMy WebLinkAboutParks and Recreation - 06/06/2005 APPROVED MINUTES PARKS, RECREATION AND NATURAL RESOURCES COMMISSION MONDAY,JUNE 6, 2005 7:00 P.M., CITY CENTER Council Chambers 8080 Mitchell Road COMMISSION MEMBERS PRESENT: Rob Barrett (arrived at 7:06 p.m.), Tom Bierman, John Brill, Jeffrey Gerst, Randy Jacobus, Ian Mackay, Michael Moriarity and Geri Napuck (arrived at 7:06 p.m.) COMMISSION STAFF PRESENT: Bob Lambert, Director of Parks and Recreation Services; Stu Fox, Manager of Natural Resources; and Carol Pelzel, Recording Secretary I. CALL TO ORDER AND ROLL CALL The meeting was called to order by Vice Chair Gerst at 7:05 p.m. Commission member Tom Crain was absent. II. APPROVAL OF AGENDA Motion: Gerst moved, seconded by Moriarity, to approve the agenda as presented. The motion carried, 9-0. III. APPROVAL OF MINUTES —May 2, 2005 Bierman asked that the first sentence of the third paragraph on Page 3 be amended to include a date specific as to when the play structure was to be removed from use. By stating a specific date, it showed that staff and this Commission is safety conscious. The sentence was amended to read "........ immediate steps be taken to either remove the structure or block it off from use by Friday, May 6." Fox reported that the structure was removed on Thursday, May 5. Motion: Motion was made by Bierman, seconded by Mackay, to approve the minutes as corrected. The motion carried, 6-0-3 with Gerst, Brill and Crain abstaining because of absence from that meeting. IV. REPORT OF CITY COUNCIL ACTION—May 3 and May 17, 2005 Lambert reported that the City Council concurred with the Parks Commission regarding the construction of outdoor ice rinks. They selected a preferred design but put the project on hold at this time for lack of funding. Lambert explained that Councilmember Aho recommended that a water quality study be done on Round Lake. After discussion with the Council, Aho recommended that they do further study of PARKS, RECREATION AND NATURAL RESOURCES COMMISSION June 6, 2005 Page 2 Round Lake. The Council did agree to have a limnologist that is not involved any lake improvement products or designing other lake improvement systems, look at the lake one more time. The City does have money invested in the lake with studies, infrastructure and surrounding land and since the lake is such an important part of the park system, spending an additional $10,000 to be sure they have done everything possible is a good recommendation. Crain asked what the status of Round Lake is at this time. Lambert explained that it is closed for swimming but is open for fishing and boating. The lake does meet State guidelines for water clarity and quality for swimming at the beginning of the summer but during the later part of the summer it generally does not meet those guidelines. V. PETITIONS, REQUESTS AND COMMUNICATION A. MCA STUDY—JANET JEREMIAH Janet Jeremiah, Community Development Director, presented an overview of the Eden Prairie Major Center Area Study to the Commission. An important piece of this Study was citizen and policy maker participation including a Task Force. The intent of the Study is to develop a long-term vision for this area and to provide the City with an opportunity for future in-fill and redevelopment. Jeremiah explained that the Task Force did some early prioritization including the indicated importance of additional civic and community land uses. Jeremiah reviewed with the Commission the various possible land use types for this area. Jeremiah explained that the next step for this Study is a presentation to the City Council and Planning Commission after which the Planning Principles will be refined. An open house will be held to review the preferred alternative and this Commission will be invited to that open house. Ultimately a final report will be produced including recommendations from this Commission, the Planning Commission and City Council. Jeremiah said they expect to complete the process in September or October of this year. Lambert pointed out that Concept B does turn Prairie Center Drive into a ring road. This concept would include landscaping around the exterior ring road. Lambert said there has been some debate on which comes first; land uses that forces road systems or road systems that drive land uses. This Study assumes that the City will be acquiring the park owned by Rosemount Companies. This acquisition is a focal point for the downtown park and will drive land use types around that park. Lambert said this Study would also suggest the City enter into partnerships with property owners to develop a more walkable downtown area. They need to have a vision for this area. Lambert encouraged the Commission to express their opinions about walkable communities, acquiring properties and making trail connections. Barrett said it is difficult for them to express their opinions without having seen the various concepts in more detail. Jeremiah explained that the Commission should have received copies of the entire report including the various concepts discussed. She indicated that she would see that the Commission did receive this information as soon as possible. PARKS, RECREATION AND NATURAL RESOURCES COMMISSION June 6, 2005 Page 3 Mackay said he likes Concept A and that it includes a downtown transit center. He feels that the transit center creates a downtown that allows people to walk in that area for shopping, etc. Bierman said he feels this Study is an excellent initiative on behalf of the City. The Study indicates that in order to make it work, it has to have high density. However, on the other hand, they talk about green space and that people are in favor of open space. Bierman pointed out that the housing development east of the existing Eden Prairie Mall is high density and there does not appear to be any open space. Bierman said he thinks they need to think through whether or not they are fostering neighborhoods in 2050 or 2075 that will be the slums of the future. High density may be incompatible with harmonious living. Jeremiah said this is a good point and the idea for parks and open space is an important component of this area and they do need to create amenities. Jeremiah said these are the types of comments they are looking for. Napuck said staff indicated that a survey had been conducted and she asked if one concept plan was more consistent with the survey information received. Jeremiah responded that aside from the questions asked, the respondents were also given the opportunity to comment on the different concept plans. Concept A appeared to be the concept the people most preferred. Barrett asked if cost for these concepts has been discussed. Jeremiah answered that the Study will eventually include the implementation and fiscal impact of the proposal. This is something that will be discussed in the Study at a later time. Jeremiah explained that she would see that the Commission gets the complete Study including the survey taken and that the Commission will have another opportunity for input to the Study. B. PETITION FROM EDEN VALLEY PARK NEIGHBORHOOD FOR PARK IMPROVEMENTS Fox reported that at a neighborhood meeting regarding the Eden Valley Neighborhood Park playground replacement scheduled for this summer, neighbors expressed an interest in having a sand volleyball court and/or horseshoe pit installed at this park facility. Staff recommended that they submit a petition signed by adjacent neighbors requesting these facilities. In May such a petition with 70 names in favor of a sand volleyball court and 20 plus names in favor of the horseshoe court was submitted. Fox explained that Eden Valley Park is a neighborhood park and services an area within a one-half mile radius and is nine acres in size. Fox presented two options for placement of the volleyball court. Option A puts the court 30 feet from the westerly line while Option B places it 30 feet from the northern line. Either option would require that some trees would be relocated. Fox stated that Option B would require less grading of the site. PARKS, RECREATION AND NATURAL RESOURCES COMMISSION June 6, 2005 Page 4 Mackay asked if the new play area would be in the same location as the old play area. Fox responded that it would since they would be utilizing the pad that was there for the existing play area. Wendy Campbell, 6725 Sunburst Drive, submitted a petition with ten signatures in opposition to the proposed volleyball court. The petition is from neighbors whose property abuts this park. Campbell explained that typically these parks are built for younger children. Teenagers and young adults typically use volleyball courts. She said she feels this type of use could involve bringing alcohol into the park. Campbell said she does not feel that this is a good mix by having older teenagers next to the playground area. Young adults and teenagers can provide their own transportation to Round Lake Park, which has sand volleyball courts. Campbell said she is opposed to the addition of a sand volleyball court at Eden Valley Park. Andi Svendsen, 16546 S. Manor Road, said she has young kids and appreciates the City updating the playground. She said they are looking for something for adults to do while their kids are playing. Svendsen said there are nice teenagers in the area and there should be no problems with them. Beth Kryzer, 6616 W. 1681h Avenue, said she would also like to see a sand volleyball court placed in this park. It would give the adults in the neighborhood something to do while their kids are at the park. It would also give them an opportunity to meet the neighbors. Moriarity asked if the homeowners had any preference as to which option they went with. Svendsen said she would like to see as few trees as possible removed. Kryzer said she would prefer Option B because there used to be something at this location. In response to a question from Moriarity, Fox explained that this type of park is typically designed for ages two to ten. Lambert said he would not recommend using the fact that teenagers might use the park as a reason for denying recreational facilities in a park, whether teenagers or adults are using the volleyball court, it is a noisy game. This court would be 30 feet from someone's backyard. Lambert said he questions whether a sand volleyball court is a good idea. This is a small park and a lot of the area is not useable for active space because of the surrounding woods. Lambert said a sand volleyball court might cause some problems for the neighbors and there isn't enough parking for the existing facilities. Campbell pointed out that this park has a very small parking lot and people live very close to the proposed Option B. Noise would be an issue. Brill asked how many sand volleyball courts exist in the City. Fox said there are approximately ten courts. Napuck asked where the $8,000 to construct a volleyball court would come from. Lambert explained that funding would come from park dedication fees. Napuck asked what has been the precedent in the past when dealing with extra amenities requested by a neighborhood for a neighborhood park. Lambert said if they can accommodate them and it is not too costly, they usually add the extra amenities when requested if the majority of the neighborhood supports it. PARKS, RECREATION AND NATURAL RESOURCES COMMISSION June 6, 2005 Page 5 Bierman said he feels both sides have presented some interesting points. He suggested that the residents agree to police the park and that they require reservations to use the volleyball court. He also suggested that someone from the neighborhood be in charge of the reservations and that there be signage indicating that in order to use the court one person in attendance must be over 18 years of age. Lambert said it would not be legal to restrict someone from using the park based on age, and it would be impossible for the neighbors to control the use of the volleyball court. Lambert said he did not feel this was a feasible recommendation. Lambert suggested that when they put in the new playground they also put in a horseshoe court where Option B is located. They could see how that works and the kind of use it would get. In a year or so if the neighbors still want the City to consider a sand volleyball court they could come back to this Commission to request the court. The court could then be placed where Option A is located. Jacobus suggested that they consider sliding the playground 20 feet to the north and place the volleyball court to the south of it. Fox said they need to align with the trail leading out of the woods. Jacobus suggested that the playground be placed to the north of the path. Barrett said he does not believe that noise would be an issue and he has not seen sufficient evidence that a volleyball court at this location would be a problem. Moriarity said if they went with Option A they could place the trees to the left for screening. Fox said they would probably relocate the trees on the westerly boundary. Napuck asked what happens if problems do develop because of the volleyball court. Fox said the neighbors could come back to this Commission with problems that may arise. Motion: Motion was made by Barrett, seconded by Mackay, to authorize staff to redesign the play area of Eden Valley Park to be north of the current proposed location and to place a volleyball court south of that play area and a horseshoe court west of the play area and if that is not workable to leave the play area where it is currently proposed and to place a sand volleyball court where Option A is located and a horseshoe court where Option B is located. The motion carried, 9-0. VI. OLD BUSINESS A. SPORTS FACILITIES COMMITTEE PROPOSED REVISIONS TO THE PRIORITY USE POLICY Lambert reported that staff is bringing forward a draft policy of the Guidelines for Priority Use of Public Facilities. Staff does support the recommended changes;however, there are a couple items they had an issue with. They are concerned with reducing the number of resident requirements from 95 percent to 90 percent. Staff does understand the rationale the Committee used to reach those numbers. Another item staff has concerns with is Item 5 under Priority III, which is the percentage of the total number of Eden Prairie resident participants. The Committee is recommending 49 percent of the total number of Eden Prairie residents for swim teams and figure skating teams while the other organizations have a 30 PARKS, RECREATION AND NATURAL RESOURCES COMMISSION June 6, 2005 Page 6 percent requirement. Lambert said staff have some concerns with the requirement being different. Staff feels that it should be consistent for all organizations. It is more difficult to justify a higher percentage requirement(49%) for the organizations that have a lower residency requirement(70% rather than 90%). Mark Davis, President of the Foxjets Swim Team, said they presented a lot of information to the Sports Facilities Committee regarding their membership including their financials. He said there is no room for a second swim club. If their percentage requirement were 30 percent, their program could be destroyed. They cannot afford to lose any pool time. He asked that this policy be approved as presented and forwarded to the City Council or if they wish to change the Policy they return it to the Sports Facility Commission so that they may have input on the changes. Gerst asked how the 49 percent requirement was arrived at. Davis said it was pretty much an arbitrary number. If any other swimming program in this community equals the Foxjets in Eden Prairie members, then they should get half of the pool time. Jacobus said he feels Eden Prairie residents should have a choice and be able to join another swim team in Eden Prairie. Davis said they have choices and the fundamentals of swimming direct those choices. There are 20 programs within 10 miles of the City. Jacobus asked what happens to those kids that are Eden Prairie residents that can't use City facilities while non- residents are using them. Lambert said he wants a policy that he can defend to any Eden Prairie resident. Staff is concerned about reducing the residency requirements and the 49 percent requirement for the swim and skating teams. Moriarity said he thinks Davis has made some good points. There are two soccer associations that make the use of the fields less efficient and there are a lot of similarities with the swim teams. Moriarity said he feels they can offer competitive, recreational plus or recreational swimming under one organization. Lambert said efficiency of use is one problem. However, the biggest part of this is that they have a limited number of facilities and in order to accommodate residents; it requires efficient use of those facilities. This would be accomplished by having one organization scheduling. If they had unlimited facilities they would not be having this discussion. Lambert said they can't make the most efficient use of those facilities by accommodating several organizations vying for the same use at the same time. Napuck asked what the criteria is for requiring one sport to have 30 percent while skating and swimming are required to have 49 percent of Eden Prairie residents. Mackay said the reason for separating swimming and skating is that there are facilities that are tight and there are some that are restricted. They do need to make a distinction between those facilities and he suggested that they look at making two tiers based on the amount of space available and on the number of participants. Bierman said they need to consider what is right and fair for the participants. He tried to challenge the two swim organizations to work the pool time out but that was not successful. PARKS, RECREATION AND NATURAL RESOURCES COMMISSION June 6, 2005 Page 7 He also struggled with the concept of trying to let another program come in and destroy an existing program that has been around for a long time. Bierman said if rules are established the organizations will have to work within those rules. The swimming group and skating group did agree to an increase in the Eden Prairie residency requirement from 60 percent to 70 percent. They also felt that if they could not generate an organization with 49 percent of the total number of residents then the facilities should be shared with another group. Bierman explained that there is nothing magic about these numbers. The Committee agreed that these numbers would be fair. He indicated that the problem is that they are trying to fit nine different organizations into one policy. Following lengthy discussion, Brill suggested that they consider changing the wording of the policy indicating that the organization with most Eden Prairie residents would receive all of the prime time hours. If you are at 49 percent, there is not much room for two groups to be together Motion: Motion was made by Brill to revise the wording of the last sentence of Priority V, No. 5 of the Policy to read: "The exception to this is swim teams and figure skating teams with the most Eden Prairie residents receiving all of the prime time hours." The motion failed for lack of a second. Napuck said she feels the 49 percent number seems high to her. She suggested that they use 35 percent across the board. Gerst said he feels they have to make sure they are drawing a certain percentage of Eden Prairie residents whether it is 30 percent or 40 percent. He also feels they should be able to offer the residents choices. Napuck said she understands the overall participants in the swim team or skating is a smaller number compared to other organizations. She said she would feel more comfortable approving this if the language in the Policy talked about organizations that have a certain number of participants or fewer than a certain percentage would apply and an organization with a certain number of participants or greater would require a different percentage of participants. There would be different percentages recognizing the number of participants. Motion: Motion was made by Moriarity, seconded by Napuck, to amend the Priority Use of Public Facilities Policy on Page 4, Priority V, No. 5, the last sentence, to read: "The exception to this is in those sports where the number of Eden Prairie resident participants is less than 400, then the organization must have 40 percent of the total number of Eden Prairie residents". Jacobus said he feels it should be less than 40 percent. He feels it should be more like 25 percent. This would give another organization an opportunity to execute something in the City and this would be the best situation for Eden Prairie kids. Bierman said they need to establish a policy that is high enough so that other organizations cannot arbitrarily start another organization in the City. Vote was called on the motion with all members present voting aye except Jacobus who voted nay. The motion carried, 7-1 (Gerst was out of the room). PARKS, RECREATION AND NATURAL RESOURCES COMMISSION June 6, 2005 Page 8 Moriarity said he has some concerns with only requiring 90 percent of Eden Prairie resident participants for teams and organizations. He said they are considering a referendum and it now appears that there will be more non-Eden Prairie residents using the City's facilities. Mackay explained the reason for the 90 percent requirement is because some organizations participate regionally and some on a community basis. For those that participate regionally, it occasionally becomes necessary to have participants from other locations in order to keep the organization competitive. Barrett questioned why they reduced the requirement for Priority III organizations that participating members must be comprised of 90 percent Eden Prairie residents rather than the original 95 percent. Lambert explained that the reason for going down to 90 percent was because there are certain organizations that are right at the requirement. If teams are being competitive, it is difficult to get to the 90 percent. Lambert said staff would prefer to stay at the 95 percent and deal with each situation as it comes up. They would rather grant an exception to an organization than lower the bar. Moriarity said he does not see this as a big deal whether they are at 90 percent or 95 percent. Jacobus said it was his understanding that the reason for lowering it to 90 percent was to make competitive teams more competitive. Under Priority III, No. 3, Barrett said it was his understanding that they would increase the 70 percent residency requirement 5 percent each year. Lambert said staff is recommending that they leave it at 70 percent at this point. He recommended that they leave the policy for participating members of the organization being comprised of 90 percent Eden Prairie residents and the residency requirement for swim teams and figure skating clubs a minimum of 70 percent. Eventually these should be the same and this issue will eventually be brought back to the Sports Facility Committee for discussion because there are concerns with these requirements. Moriarity pointed out that IV. 4, should read "Single use means one event for one facility" rather than one game for one facility. Motion: Motion was made by Brill, seconded by Mackay, to recommend to the City Council approval of the amended revisions to the Priority Use Policy as submitted by the Parks Recreation and Natural Resources Commission. All members voted aye except Jacobus who voted nay. The motion carried, 8-1. B. ANNUAL REPORT The Commission had no questions on the annual report included in the Commission's agenda material. VII. NEW BUSINESS A. MEMORANDUM OF UNDERSTANDING BETWEEN CITY OF EDEN PRAIRIE AND FRIENDSHIP VENTURES PARKS, RECREATION AND NATURAL RESOURCES COMMISSION June 6, 2005 Page 9 Lambert explained that the City leases the camp to Friendship Ventures for the purpose of providing recreation opportunities to people with developmental disabilities. The City and Friendship Ventures provide programs and services to the same constituencies and promote the maximum use of their respective facility by the community. Motion: Motion was made by Gerst, seconded by Napuck, to approve the proposal for a Memorandum of Understanding between the City of Eden Prairie and Friendship Ventures. The motion carried, 9-0. VIII. REPORTS OF STAFF A. DIRECTOR OF PARKS AND RECREATIONS SERVICES 1. Update on Trails Planning Team Efforts Lambert presented a brief update on the activities of the Trail Planning Team. 2. Update on Neighborhood Meetings Relating to Referendum Lambert encouraged the Commission members to attend some of the scheduled neighborhood meetings relating to the referendum. He asked that Commission members attend the June 22 town meeting to discuss the referendum. Lambert suggested that both this Commission and City Council be more proactive and that the presentations not be conducted by City staff but by Commission members. B. MANAGER OF RECREATION SERVICES 1. Senior Survey Lambert explained that a survey had been sent out to over 1,200 seniors and a meeting with the seniors has been scheduled for June 13 to review the results of that survey. C. MANAGER OF PARKS AND NATURAL RESOURCES VII. ADJOURNMENT Motion: Bierman moved, Mackay seconded, to adjourn the meeting. The motion carried 8-0 (Napuck left the meeting at 11:15 p.m.). The meeting was adjourned at 11:20 p.m.