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Parks and Recreation - 08/19/1974 1974 AUGUST5 , 19 MINUTES CITY OF EDEN PRAIRIE I AGENDA EDEN PRAIRIE PARK & RECREATION COMMISSION Monday, August 5, 1974 Eden Prairie City Hall , 7:30p.m. COMMISSION MEMBERS: Marvin Erickson, Richard Anderson, Jan Berkland William Bye, Paul Choiniere, Paul Enblom, William Garens, Francis Helmer, Wolfgang Penzel Ex-offico; Steve Fifield COMMISSION STAFF: Marty Jessen, Director of Community Services ROLL CALL I. MINUTES OF JULY B, 1974 MEETING II. RECOMMENDATIONS AND REPORTS A. Neighborhood Facilities Study B. Cedar Hills Golf & Ski Feasibility Report C. Smetana Lake Sector Study D. Status Report Anderson Lakes Park Funding r MINUTES EDEN PRAIRIE PARK AND RECREATION COMMISSION MONDAY, AUGUST 5 , 1974 7:30 p.m. ,CITY HALL i MEMBERS PRESENT: Chairman Marvin Erickson, William Garens , Paul Choiniere, William Bye, Richard Anderson, Jan Berkland, Wolfgang Penzel, Francis Helmer MEMBERS ABSENT: Paul Enblom and Steve Fifield, Ex-Officio STAFF PRESENT: Marty Jessen, Director of Community Services, Chris Enger, Landscape Architect, Dick Putnam, City Planner OTHERS PRESENT: Mike Scherer, Norm Miller The meeting was called to order at 7:40 P.M. by Chairman Marvin Erickson. I. MINUTES OF JULY 8, 1974 MEETING . Action on this item was deferred until the next meeting. II. RECOMMENDATIONS AND REPORTS: C_ A. Neighborhood Facility Study. jessen reviewed the report on impact of neighborhood facility financing on Eden Prairie taxpayers. (dated August 2, 1974) indicating the cost to a variety of homeowners in Eden Prairie for acquisition and development of the facilities as proposed. Mike Scherer said he had discussed this item with the Eden Prairie Jaycees at their meeting last Thursday and with a number of citizens and he said that most people have indicated the desire for the total package plan. He said that the feedback he is receiving is that this will eliminate the need for another bond issue in two or three years and will meet the needs of the community through five or six years which may mean that there won't be need for another bond issue for Park and Recreation purposes meaning that the municipal liquor store will be operating by that time and will produce enough revenue for this kind of program. Further he said he felt that the larger bond issue would provide more flexibility and would provide the wherewithal to make applications for certain grants, etc., thus making for a better overall system for the community. Choiniere stated that he felt people have supported bond issues in the past because they have met community needs and have been for the general good and he felt that they would do the same again and that he tended to I L Minutes - Park & Recreation - 2 - August 5, 1974 Commission Meeting Y disagree with Scherer's statement about eliminating the need for another bond issue in two or three years and having a number of people who have already received service voting against it at that time. Garens said that he agreed theoretically with Choiniere but practically he wasn't so sure that that would be the case. He further expressed a fear that certain homeowners groups who had recreational facilities available to them might not be favorable toward City bonding for facilities of the s same nature in other parts of the community. Bye asked if the City Finance Director had been involved in preparing this data and if it was felt that the 7% bond rate was realistic. lessen replied that John Frane, City Finance Director, had supplied this information and that it was his feeling that it was a reasonable summary of the present bond situation. Further he stated that Mr. Frane suggested their might be no principle payment in the early years of the bond, while capitalizing some interest thus reducing the impact on today's taxpayer and spreading the payment over more of the future residents of the community. Helmer said that he felt that we shouldn't be putting City money into developing areas like Preserve and Edenvale at this point. Scherer said that we need to develop financial capability for these people now in- asmuch as we will just be putting problems way up today at Eden Farms and other areas into the Preserve and into the future if we don't look toward meeting their needs. r Choiniere asked what had been done concerning the Preserve Center and the communication from the Preserve 1-bmeowners Association about their interest in the City and the City's involvement there. lessen responded that he met with representatives d the Preserve Homeowners Association on a couple of occasions and stated that their discussions had been to determine the extent to which. the City should get involved and that it appeared the Preserve people were looking for short term assistance from the City without any real strong benefit to the general community for recreational facilities. Choiniere replied that he felt the extent of the sr benefit to the community should at least be equal to the extent of the " investment and stated further that he felt Eden Prairie had given the Preserve too much already and that we should not participate in management k: and financing of the Preserve Center operation. Bye stated that he understood the commission's position to be one of wishing to participate provided it is on fair and equal terms without any discrimination to city residents or favorable treatment to Preserve residents. Choiniere said that he felt that if the Preserve was willing to turn the deed over to the City, the Preserve Center then would be clear for City participation rather than just having residents participate on a less than equal basis. Minutes - Park & Recreation - 3 - August 5, 1974 Commission Meeting t I Helmer stated that he wanted to go on record as being in favor of developing recreational facilities in the Edenview and Lochanburn areas regardless of whether or not a park bond issue were to pass and stated further that some other financial mechanism had to be developed should the bond issue fail. Choiniere said that several people had asked him questions as to how the City does finance capital improvement and that he felt that he needed to know this so that alternatives to the bond issue could be discussed and further so that he could answer questions brought to him by citizens. Specific questions which he raised were as follows: (1) How does the City finance land acquisitions, through grants, bonds, general funds, etc. (2) How does the City finance development. (3) What is the process of getting the funding approved. lessen distributed copies of a memo he prepared concerning further communication with Shelter Corp. about the City's desire to buy land for park purposes in the Edenview area. Bill Walter from Shelter Corp. has indicated that they will sell 18 plus or minus acres lying north of Purgatory Creek and just west of the Edenview area to the City for approximately $80,000 or $4,500 per acre. C_ It was moved by Bye , seconded by Choiniere, that the staff develop a detailed summary of all of the Park and Recreation land acquisitions to date including parcels, acreage and how financed for the information of the commission and to send to the Council along with the neighborhood facilities study and a communication advising the Council that the commission is presently giving serious consideration to the acquisition of 18 plus or minus acres from Shelter Corp. in the Edenview area based on communication which have taken place between the staff and representatives of Shelter Corp. Motion carried unanimously. Berkland abstained. Anderson requested further that the staff develop a phasing of implementation schedule for the commission to look at the next meeting. In further discussion it was explained that this was an attempt to know { when certain facilities would be available in certain parts of the community including all of the facilities identified in the Neighborhood Facilities Study. B. Cedar Hills Golf and Ski Feasibility Report lessen distributed copies of a report dated 8/5/74 concerning this matter. He explained that he had talked to Eddie Frank from Cedar Hills earlier in the day and had suggested that in light of this preliminary analysis a price of approximately $250,000 could be "afforded" to acquire Cedar Hills. Mr. Frank had indicated that this price was way low and that he would look at the matter further and advise us of their asking price. Minutes - Park & Recreation - 4 - August 5, 1974 Commission Meeting lessen explained the report distributed dealt only with the financial aspects of the possible purchase of Cedar Hills and did not deal at all with land suitability or expansion potential. He suggested that these factors be studied prior to any action on this matter. Further report will be made at the next Commission meeting. C. Smetana Lake Sector Study City Planner Dick Putnam reviewed the Smetana Lake Sector Study including the Guide Plan which called for industrial development with just a small preservation corridor along Mne Mile Creek and Smetana Lake and anticipated the graveling of much of the area to make industrial development possible. He further reviewed the Maculan's Consultant Report done approximately one year ago and also reviewed the Composite Report prepared in response to all the factors surrounding this issue. Presently 400 feet along the eastern border of Eden Prairie is zoned industrial and is developing. Much of the rest of the area is being graveled and the gravel resources tend to be very rich. Putnam suggested that if all of the area were developed for industrial uses there would be little need for some community services including { parks, recreation, schools, etc. However if the Composite, or Consultant Study were accepted for this sector provision of these services would have to be addressed. Further the major issue in the Smetana Lake Sector is what kind of preservation techniques need to be used along the Nine Mile Creek Valley. The land owners in the area wish to gravel it and industrialize it, whereas other people in the community tend to favor preserving much of the beauty of the valley and maintain it as a permanent open space asset of the community. The Composite Study suggests 23% of the land be in open space proposed to 9% in the Guide Plan. Berkland said that inasmuch as a good share of this land was designated ? as flood plain, what would the chances of protecting it through the flood plain ordinance and offering an tax break to these land owners to not propose any development there. lessen said that this might be a possibility after the flood plain ordinance is adopted but in the interim it would be difficult to do. - CAnderson asked if it was feasible to halt graveling at the present limits to prevent any intrusion to the creek sides of the hills along Nine Mile. Putnam responded that it may require some compensation to the land owner inasmuch as Bill Pearson estimates the aggregate resources on his land - r Minutes - Park & Recreation - 5 - August 5, 1974 Commission Meeting alone as 4.5 Million dollars. Anderson said that he felt that hills, trees, water resources, etc. , is what Eden Prairie is all about and that the 1967 Eden Prairie Council talked about restricting graveling and here we are still tearing down one of our best assets from a natural resource point of view. He suggested that no further graveling permits be permitted and that the activity be halted at the present limit. Mike Scherer asked if the land owners pay taxes based on the aggregate resources or based on agricultural land, and/or industrial zoning or what. Putnam said that Pearson's land is presently assessed ' at $1,500.00 per acre which was reduced from the City Assessor's figures of $7,000. 00 per acre two years ago. This value is based upon raw land rather than the aggregate or industrial uses to which it is being put. Bye stated that he felt anyone in the gravel business knew that ultimately their plans in graveling activity would come in conflict with the rest of the City's development goals. He suggested that restoration work was extremely important and that the projection of what something will look like after it is built also needs to be given careful consideration. Further, he said that once development occurs there is no gci ng back to recreate an open space area and thus he felt there was a need to retain as much open space as possible within the economic capabilities of the City. Choiniere suggested that perhaps some type of special tax could be put on the mining operations and this money could be spent in another part of the community to protect some other natural area. Putnam suggested that we might protect some of the creek valley and have Mr. Pearson dig lakes in order to get the aggregate resources rather than tear down hills. Garens said that he felt these people realized more profit than most land owners in the community and therefore should give more to the City. He suggested that a reasonable amount of the land value used each year by way of graveling operations might be dedicated to the City annually for open space purposes, per the ordinance on land dedication dealing with other land used in the community. Anderson agreed that the City should get compensation for losing this natural beauty and that we should permit no further graveling until all of these legal aspects are explored completely. j It was moved by Garen, seconded by Bye, that this item be tabled for the staff to study some of the legal aspects with the City Attorney relative to the possibility of a special tax on the mining operations, or requiring land dedication from the gravel mining operators, etc. The motion further commended the planner for the report submitted. The motion carried unanimously. Minutes - Park & Recreation - 6 - August 5, 1974 Commission Meeting D. Staff Report on the Anderson Lakes Park Funding. Jessen reported that the Metropolitan Council had approved the immediate action expenditure program including funding for all of the vacant land parcels at Anderson Lakes Park. He further reported that the Council would be opening bids for bonding in the amount of 35 million dollars on August 13, 1974. No action required. E. Flood Plain Ordinance Anderson asked the status of the Flood Plain Ordinance. Jessen replied that the Planning Commission was holding the first hearing on it Tuesday, August 6, and that comments had been listed and received from the Department of Natural Resources and the Watershed District. Anderson suggested that this item be brought back to the Park and Recreation Commission for a final review also. F. Removal of trees from Art Hyde Property in the Major Center Area. Garens asked if Art Hyde had been required to remove all of the elm trees which he'd cut down and stored in the flood plain area along Purgatory Creek, Jessen replied that both the county and the watershed district had written to him about this matter and that he did not know what the result of the communication was. III. ADJOURNMENT. Choiniere moved , seconded by Anderson, that the meeting be adjourned. Motion carried unanimously. AGENDA EDEN PRAIRIE PARK & RECREATION COMMISSION MONDAY, August 19, 1974 7:30 City Hall COMMISSION MEMBERS: Marvin Erickson, Richard Anderson, William Bye, Paul Choiniere, Paul Enblom, William Garens, Francis Helmer, Wolfgang Penzel COMMISSION STAFF: Marty lessen, Director of Community Services ROLL CALL I. MINUTES OF JULY 8, 1974 MEETING MINUTES OF AUGUST 5 , 1974 MEETING(attached). II. PETITIONS, REQUESTS & COMMUNICATIONS j ' A. Communication with Miller Brothers (from 8/13/74 Council Agenda). C (See attached memo and Mitchell Lakes Estates brochure) B. Communication from Preserve giving 50 Circus tickets to be used by Community groups. (letter attached) C. Letter of Resignation from Jan Berkland and Resolution thanking her for Service to the Community. (letter and resolution attached) III. RECOMMENDATIONS AND REPORTS A. Status of Blocklock Nature Center Funding. B. Flood Plain Ordinance (attached). C. Removal of Trees from Art Hyde property, (memo attached) D. Neighborhood Facilities Study (attached). E. Smetana Lake Sector Study. ADJOURNMENT. l MINUTES EDEN PRAIRIE PARK AND RECREATION COMMISSION MONDAY, AUGUST 19, 1974 7:30 PM, CITY HALL MEMBERS PRESENT: Chairman Marvin Erickson, William Garens, Richard Anderson, Francis Helmer, Wolfgang Penzel, Paul Choiniere, and Steve Fifield, Ex-Officio MEMBERS ABSENT: Paul Enblom and William Bye STAFF PRESENT: Marty Jessen , Director of Community Services OTHERS PRESENT: Mike Scherer and Tim Pierce from the Eden Prairie ' Jaycees The meeting was called to order at 7:45 PM by Chairman Marvin Erickson. I. MINUTES OF JULY 8, 1974 MEETING; It was moved by Penzel, seconded by Garens that the minutes of the July 8, 1974 meeting be approved as presented but changing (� "miles of golf" to "rounds of golf" on the first page of the minutes. Motion carried unanimously with Choiniere abstaining. MINUTES OF AUGUST 5 1974 MEETING: It was moved by Anderson, seconded by Garens that the minutes of the August 5 , 1974 meeting be approved with the following amendment: 3rd paragraph, page 2 , to read as follows - "Helmer said that he felt that we shouldn't be putting City money into developing areas such as The Preserve and Edenvale at this point in time. Scherer responded by saying he felt that the bond issue ought to include enough money to develop facilities for the next two or three years and thus provide service for these areas. He explained further that he felt this would best meet the long range needs of the City and that by planning now we could eliminate future problems in developing areas of the City such as the one that exists today in the Edenview area " Motion carried unanimously, Penzel abstained. II: PETITIONS, REQUESTS & COMMUNICATIONS: A. Communication from Miller Brothers- Jessen reported that the Miller brothers had contacted him about their desire to sell the land that they own south of Mitchell Lake to the City. This area has been shown as a community park site } since 1968 in the Comprehensive Guide Plan for the City. The i r Minutes - Park & Recreation - 2 - August 19, 1974 Commission Meeting t A. Communication from Miller Brothers (Continued): Council directed the matter to the Park and Recreation Commission for staff study and a review by the Commission including a recommendation as to a course of action. Choiniere asked if the Guide Plan was still the basis for park decisions. Jessen responded that generally the Guide Plan was one of the major basis for any review and decision making. Penzel suggested that the recently adopted Riley Lake ; Park Plan be included in the Mitchell Lake analysis. Some discussion took place concerning the Mitchell Lake EstatesMobile Home Park proposal and Anderson asked how soon development might occur in the southwestern area of Eden Prairie and more specifically if there was any plan to `+ extend utilities into this portion of the community. Penzel said that there were no plans before the Council to put utilities into the southwest sector of Eden Prairie but that the proposal requested that the City install certain utilities and roads to serve it. Penzel suggested that these requests were contrary to the City policy for controlled growth. No action required. B. Communication from The Preserve giving 50 circus tickets to be used by community groups: Jessen reported that he had received a letter and tickets from Mr. Carter of The Preserve and that the tickets had been given to a Boy Scout and Girl Scout group in the community. Each group getting 25 tickets. It was moved by Garens, seconded by Anderson, that Jessen send a letter to The Preserve thanking them for this gift on behalf of the Park and Recreation Commission and the community. Motion carried unanimously. C. Letter of resignation from Jan Berkland and Resolution thanking her for service to the community: Jessen reported on his receiving a copy of this letter and explained that Mrs. Berkland would be moving out of the community this Fall. The Resolution as attached was adopted by the City Council at a recent meeting. Anderson asked how soon an appointment to the Commission would be made. Penzel said that he had talked to the Mayor and that the Mayor plans to appoint someone on August 27, 1974. Anderson __ Minutes - Park & Recreation - 3 - August 19, 1974 Commission Meeting C. Letter of resignation from Jan Berkland and Resolution thanking her for service to the community: (Continued) suggested that some of the people who had appeared at Park and Recreation Commission meetings recently had expressed an interest in serving on the Commission and perhaps the appointment might come from this group. No action required. III. RECOMMENDATIONS AND REPORTS: A. Status of Blacklock Nature. Center funding: lessen reported that the Metropolitan Council's bonding bid did come in within the legal limitations and that the decision to sell the bids had been made. Thus, all of the financing necessary to complete the Blacklock Nature Center Park acquisition was completed. No action required. B. Flood Plain Ordinance: lessen explained that the copy of the ordinance the Commission had received was the most recent draft prepared by the City Attorney and that some modifications had been proposed by the Planning Commission, by the Department of Natural Resources, ;. and by the Riley-Purgatory Creek Watershed District. Many of these changes will be incorporated into the final draft. Mike Scherer asked the basis upon which the flood plain ordinance was developed. lessen reponded that the state law required municipalities to adopt flood plain regulations acceptable to the Commissioner of Natural Resources and if the City fails to act in this respect either the watershed district or the Department of Natural Resources must act to insure proper flood water management. Scherer suggested that perhaps the City ought to let these other agencies act rather than adopting an ordinance itself. Penzel responded that he felt this would mean that the City would lose some control on land use decision making and he felt this was not a good alternative. It was moved by Anderson, seconded by Garens, that the staff include the flood plain ordinance on the next agenda and submit a copy to the Commission including all of the changes which are being proposed. Motion carried unanimously. C. Removal of trees from Art Hyde property: lessen distributed copies of the report dated August 15 , 1974 and said that he would report back to the Commission as to the disposition of this matter. No action required. Minutes - Park & Recreation - 4 - August 19 , 1974 Commission Meeting D. Neighborhood Facilities Study: lessen reviewed the revised cost estimates in the report dated August 16, 1974 and also pointed out that there were additional community park acquisition and development costs estimated at one million dollars. Choiniere said that several of the people in his neighborhood suggested that Birch Island Park be developed for use by older people rather than the young children of the neighborhood. Access to the area for older people would be easy to accomplish whereas for the young children it is too dangerous. Therefore, he suggested that this might be a site for tennis courts and other development of that nature. Scherer observed that two-thirds of the money to be spent on the first stage was for land acquisition and stated that this might cause some negative reaction in the community. He further suggested that the Commission might set a maximum as to the percentage of money to be spent for land acquisition annually, perhaps 40 to 45% . Penzel suggested that this would cause problems administratively because we might find that it was �. either too high or too low and that if this question were included in the bond question it would restrict us legally as to what we could do with the money. Tim Pierce asked the Commission how this matter was going to be presented to the City Council, particularly he manted to know if the Council is generally in favor of this kind of expenditure program or whether a petition of the community might be appropriate to exhibit the community's support for this program. Pierce offered the Jaycees assistance in distributing a petition of this nature around the community and in an attempt to gain support for this program. Choiniere said that he felt people in the community want neighborhood facilities and not all of their money tied up in long range plans and programs for the City. He suggested that there might be other sources of funds available for this purpose and perhaps-if not it could be included in a bond issue. Scherer said that he understood that there was no money available for the Council to spend on matters of this type without increasing taxes and taxes could not be increased without people voting for the increases. Penzel said that either a bond issue or a general tax referendum would be required in order to generate money for this program. With the 6%.maximum annual increase Imposed by the State Legislature on tax levies, this is the only method in which to generate money for increased expenditures. Minutes - Park & Recreation - 5 - August 19, 1974 Commission Meeting Erickson suggested that we should get representatives from each neighborhood to hear the plan and gain their input . Anderson suggested that this be done on September 9 at Prairie View School and on September 16 at Forest Hills School, devoting all of the meeting to public presentation and discussion of this plan. i It was moved by Garens, seconded by Anderson, that the staff notify all residents of meetings scheduled for September 9 and September 16 at Prairie View School and Forest Hills School respectively for the purpose of discussing the Neighborhood Facilities Study and implementa- tion program. Motion carried unanimously. E. Smetana Lake Sector Study.: Jessen reported that he discussed the possibility of special taxes with the City Attorney and that the Attorney advised that this was not possible . However, in discussing the possibility of land dedication at the time of gravel permit requests may be possible and the Attorney will review this matter and make the recommendation in the near future. No action required. IV. ADJOURNMENT: It was moved by Choiniere, seconded by Garens, that the meeting be adjourned. Motion carried unanimously.