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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2008-07-16 Parks Minutes CITYOF MAPLEWOOD PARK COMMISSION MEETING MINUTES Wednesday, July 16, 2008 6:30p.m. Council Chambers - Maplewood City Hall 1830 County Road BEast 1. CALL TO ORDER 2. ROLL CALL: Present: Commissioner Christianson Commissioner Sonnek Commissioner Fischer Commissioner Roman Commissioner Peterson Commissioner Schmidt Commissioner Brannon Staff - Duwayne Konewko, Chuck Ahl Other - Jennifer Haskamp Absent: Commissioner Yang Commissioner Binko 3. APPROVAL OF AGENDA Commissioner Brannon made a motion to accept the agenda. Commissioner Roman seconded the motion. All - ayes 4. APPROVAL OF MINUTES June 18 - Commissioner Schmidt has a list of grammatical issues. Motion made to approve minutes with grammatical changes being forwarded by Commissioner Schmidt and seconded by Commissioner Sonnek. All ayes 5. CIP DISCUSSION CONTINUATION Chuck Ahl gave a brief report on the Capital Improvement Plan. The intent was to provide the commission with more of a financial perspective of where the City is and what the limitations are. On August 4 there will be a joint meeting with the City Council and the Park Commission. Mr. Ahl encouraged this commission to come up with three or four key items to focus on with the CIP being one of those items. Chuck Ahl went on to discuss the memo provided. So far it has been a very good year with PAC money coming in. He went through a financial summary of 2008 projects and where funds have been allocated. He discussed city budget issues. He mentioned that a lot of financial planning needs to go into the city's budget. He stated that we need to get into a program of replacing existing equipment, trails, ball fields, turf... etc. and that is the staff recommendation to the commission. We need to find new funds and new ways to finance projects. He mentioned that there is a source of funds outside the PAC fund. Questions and Discussion: Commissioner Fischer asked when the state put on the levy limit were they also supposed to be increasing local aid at that time as one of the benefits and are we going to see anything on that? Chuck Ahl responded that Maplewood does not get any government aid and so at this time we are not looking to receive any state funding. Commissioner Sonnek asked if the city is looking into using more recycled products such as benches and trail paving materials. Chuck Ahl replied that staff is currently exploring the use of recycled items. Commissioner Fisher had questions regarding the bonds for open space referendum a couple of years ago. How many years are left on those bonds before they are paid off? Chuck Ahl will look into this as it could be a source of ready funds. Commissioner Fischer commented that staff had some tough decisions to make as they prepared the document in front of him. A lot of sacrifices had to be made. He stated that we need to look at what we are giving up and talk with City Council about how we can bring things back in. We need to look at different ways we can be creative; taking advantage of what is happening in street areas; where referendums are lapsing; and looking at other funding ideas. Maybe we should look at making some of the cuts more evenly. If we are going to have these limited dollars and things are going to be tight then we need to be financially responsible with the current projections that we are seeing; maybe reallocation is one of the things we can do for the time being and once things improve we can always come back and reexamine and reallocate again. There was discussion regarding funding for the Joy Park Plan. DuWayne Konewko stated that the bottom line is that staff understands that the Parks Commission has some concerns with the CIP. There is a meeting coming up with City Council on August 4 to discuss that directly. The commission will get some direction from staff and City Council on how to proceed with the CIP. Mr. Ahl was here to update the commission and to discuss where we are in regard to our finances that affect the CIP program. There are likely to be changes and staff wants the Parks Commission to be involved. We need to also look at the bigger picture, finding other funding streams and looking at the general levy. We need to reach some kind of agreement as to where the funding will be allocated. Commissioner Fisher stated that from what he understands the way things are now, proposed neighborhood parks would be added back if the funding came about unless we recommended changing the allocations to other projects. He asked the commission if they feel comfortable leaving it that way? He feels uncomfortable having all of the deferment happening on neighborhood parks and not having some money to allow neighborhood parks to be addressed in the next five years. Commissioner Sonnek would like to keep the money in the Joy Park plan because it has been discussed for a long time and nothing has happened yet. Commissioner Peterson feels City Council needs to hear that money being put in the Gethsemane Park project is money that could be put into other projects. Commissioner Fisher listed some ideas for discussion with the City Council that were brought up tonight: o Gethsemane park money. o Making sure we have general levy funds available in the future. o Look at other funding sources besides the PAC fees. o Look at what is happening with the open space bonds being paid off. o Is there a possibility of going off on a referendum or borrowing money? o Fees that buyers would pay each time a house was sold. 6. CONTINUATION OF THE COMPREHENSIVE PLAN DISCUSSION Commissioner Fischer introduced Jennifer Haskamp who has put together a draft from the last meeting that staff will comment on. Jennifer Haskamp stated that the Planning Commission will review this document on July 29. She would like to go over some big issues once they have finished going over the draft. Jennifer Haskamp called attention to some changes that reflect the discussion from the last meeting: o There were no changes to the first nine pages. o Page 10 in the park and open space classification table; a sentence was added in clarifying that a special use park need not be the entire park area - it could be a facility within the park as a special use. o There was a change on Table 6.4, making it consistent with figure 6.3 where all of the acreages were matched with our GIS data which was compiled from Ramsey County. She will add total numbers as requested by the commission. o An area was added in on page 25 due to discussion from staff in terms of how we protect neighborhood preserves. This will address how to call special attention to these areas. She wants to make sure commissioners are okay with the language. Commissioner Brannon is not completely comfortable with mentioning a specific number of acres. Commissioner Peterson believes it is really important to have that ability and not sure if the number is as important as the quality. We want them to be of environmental and ecological value so how do we word that? A commissioner suggested; maybe you could word it "if you sell a parcel; that money cannot be re-allocated for anything other than purchase of property for preserves." A commissioner mentioned that he would rather have the 308 acres in there than have an outside group come in and take over that land. A commissioner said that he wants to get away from the conservation easement talk. We really don't want to sell park land. If it takes the 308 acres to alleviate those fears, I am not afraid to do it. Commissioner Schmidt agreed to maintain the no net loss. Commissioner Fischer asked for comments regarding flexibility in putting redevelopment into, for example, a restored wetland. Jennifer Haskamp asked what is the number of acreage you want to see in the neighborhood preserve system? DuWayne Konewko asked if we are looking at the 308 acres as a point of concern? Does the commission want to take this to the City Council? Commissioner Fisher commented that so far there are two issues; one is the discussion on the 308 acres and the second issue is do we want to have this as a discussion issue with the city council? . How many people are concerned with leaving the 308 acres in this document? Everyone is fine with the first three lines. . Are there any comments regarding any of the bullets? One comment is that the selling of the parcels is an issue, if we sell parcels how are we going to replace them? Jennifer Haskamp recommended one way to address it is instead of tying it specifically to an acreage it would be a comparable contiguous area so that you can make a collection of a few sites so you are getting at that patch size, which is what you are after. A commissioner suggested wordage "without minimizing fragmentation of the system." This suggestion was agreed to by all. Jennifer Haskamp responded to a question regarding the reason for the bullets. These are the key discussion points and these are what we need to keep in mind as we go forward. o On page 27 a section was added regarding Gethsemane Park. o Trail plan section, page 30 table 6.5 added the length in miles of all the trails; they are rounded to the 10'h o On page 31, added in a summary of the trail lengths so existing trails can be identified, what is proposed and what your totals are. Called attention to the fact that the trials are trails, road trails or sidewalks. a Page 32 - there were two bullets added in with respect to making better connections and signage to the overall system. In the South Maplewood nature trail section - removed soft surface and the hiking trail classification and added sustainably designed. a Page 36 - in the implementation section added a section about the prioritization. a Page 37 - the first bullet under community partnerships - improved language. a Trail corridors and right of way acquisition - a bullet was added for the simple projects. a Page 38 - there was a stewardship bullet added. a Nothing was added to funding but it was reorganized. DuWayne Konewko asked if there are any other items that the commission would like to discuss with the City Council. Commissioner Fischer feels the issues to be discussed are the entire CIP process with regard to conservation easements and the no net loss issue; the future of a parks director in Maplewood; and funding. The majority of the commissioners agreed not to bring the conservation easement piece in front of the City Council at this time. Commissioner Fischer referred to the 2001 column regarding the Parks Department. In 2007/2008 the Maplewood Parks department ceased to exist, staffing and programming declined. He is advocating restoration of a parks director and taking a look at reestablishing the whole department. Is this an area the commission wants to discuss with the City Council? The Commission agreed. Regarding funding - we are not talking about developing new parks, we are continuing to keep the parks we have in good shape. A comment was made that PAC funds weren't there to develop open space. 7. LAKE LINKS REGIONAL TRAIL ALIGNMENT TO JOY PARK Duwayne Konewko, on behalf of city staff, is requesting that the Park Commission make a recommendation to council that a feasibility study be conducted on the continuation of the Lake Links Trail. The area being addressed is from the point where it exits McKnight to Joy Park. Staff has identified three possible alignments; a) Extend south on McKnight where there is no sidewalk and then to head east on Lydia to connect to Joy park; b) take it to the existing power line easement on to Woodlyn and then over and south on Lake Street; c) north on McKnight onto County Road D, then wrap around to Woodlyn, head east on Woodlyn and down to Lake Street. Questions and Comments Commissioner Brannon made a motion to recommend to City Council that up to $15,000 be spent on this study; Seconded by Commissioner Fisher; All Ayes. 8. COMMISSIONER COMMENTS Commissioner Christianson recommended that when Gethsemane Park is discussed we should look at changing the name to something other than Gethsemane Park. Commissioner Fischer received a letter from Tim Mahoney regarding a meeting on July 30 at Phalen Golf Course to discuss and address some specific areas that feed into Phalen. He encourages the commission to attend. They are missing an important lake that feeds into Phalen and that is Wakefield. Maybe there is a way we can advocate that this lake be included to address the water quality issue. Commissioner Peterson commented that Trout Brook feeds into the Phalen area. 9. STAFF COMMENTS DuWayne Konewko reminded the commission of the August 4 meeting at 5:00 p.m. and following that meeting the Comprehensive Plan will be discussed. He encourages the commission to stay for that discussion with the council. DuWayne Konewko also would like to schedule a tour on August 20, which is the next scheduled meeting. The tour would start at 4:00 p.m. There would be five locations including Legacy Park, Joy Park and Lions Park. He invited the commissioners to forward other ideas to him. Commissioners suggested Gethsemane and the Community Center. The Commissioners agreed to that schedule. The regular meeting will follow. Commissioner Sonnek mentioned that some day she would like a tour of at least three dog parks in one trip. It was decided to do this tour on August 13 at 6:00 p.m. A staff person will be there as an escort. 10. ADJOURNMENT Moved by Commissioner Brannon and seconded. All Ayes.