HomeMy WebLinkAboutMinutes for June 9City of Falcon Heights
Parks & Recreation Commission
Minutes
Monday, June 9th, 2014
6:30 p.m
In Attendance:
_X__ Christina Erickson __X__ Gordon Strom _X__ Mary Hannon Jacobson
_X__ Liz Asmus __x__ Dave Thomas __X_ Michael Breen
__X_ Cari Lee
_X___Staff Michelle Tesser ____ Staff Tim Pittman ___Council Liaison Chuck Long
1. Call to Order - 6:40 pm
2. Any corrections to May minutes? Approval of May meeting minutes.
3. Overview on Council’s Discussion on Park Improvements Study conducted by WSB and
Associates.
Email from Chuck on response of the Council stated that we have a “blank slate” and can move
forward without worrying about funding.
Step 1 is to work on a master plan.
Michelle will meet with Candace to determine a timeline.
Mary - that will include high level decision making; theme’s of parks but without specific
comments on amenities.
Michelle - Curtiss field is highest priority and we have submitted for a grant to generate funding
for the Curtiss Field playground. The grant requires a site plan. Therefore, we will begin with a
master plan for Curtiss so that we can get the site plan ready for the fallgrant requirement .
Candace will give us more information on how to move forward. We need a site plan for the
master plan as well. .
Liz – the pond area won’t be addressed?
Gordon – the pond area is being addressed. the pond fence is already taken care of with the
drainage plan that is through the Capital Region District. Construction begins Fall of 2014
Michelle – it is based on Candace’s schedule. It could be in addition to Monday night meetings,
we’ll see what Candace recommends.
Liz - she’ll walk us through the process?
Candace will develop a proposal/contract for the city to sign first. The Council will then need to
approve the contract before work on the planning will begin.
Gordon - Does she need a defined scope? Final deliverables?
Liz - if we have to have a plan by August, do we have enough time to pull this together?
Mary - We could discuss what we heard from the park study and give some general ideas to
Candace.
Gordon – can we assure she has at least one brainstorming session with P and R?
Michelle – I think so.
Michael - maybe she could send around some ideas via email that we can respond too.
Michelle – she can show us designs and give us some ideas to respond too.
Candace has the information from the park study from the neighbors around Curtiss Field. This
will be included in the plan designs.
Gordon - Candace’s company probably has a useful website we could peruse for ideas. It might
be useful to have some prioritized projects and a time line for completion.
Michelle - we have to have the parks and buildings audited as part of this process too.
Liz - is their consideration for how the area’s population may grow over time to respond to the
parks?
Michelle - Candace will have to respond to that.
Liz - one issue with the park is that there is a toddler park, but much of the activity here isn’t
with toddlers.
4. Grant Funding Opportunity for Curtiss Field Playground - see above. Grant proposal
due in the fall,
5. Update on Recreation Programming -
Tesser discussed recreation programming. She is canceling Pee Wee Sampler classes, but
everything else is going. There is still one more week for registrations. Michelle has all her
staff hired. She is off to a good start. There is good enrollment numbers.
6. Movie in the Park volunteers -
Michelle has zero volunteers at the moment. Gordon agreed to volunteer. Michelle has
gift cards from local businesses she will put into drawings for summer events.
7. Curtiss Field Park Hours -- Back in January, we discussed the park hours. A local
resident would like to change the park hours. There was a decision back in January of
2013, the decision was made based on the number of police calls to the area. The city
compared times of other cities park closing hours, and they were all 10:00pm. Cities
included St. Paul, Roseville and MinneapolisThe commission at that time decided not to
change the park hours.
Liz - After 9:00pm, there is very little activity in the park. General consensus is that changing
the park time will not change the activity in the park. Noisy park users are unlikely to read the
park signs of closure time.
Liz - the park was designed for a smal population, and that appears to be part of the problem.
Park attendance is not high later in the evening.
There are some concerns about park behaviors.There are a lot of kids in a very small park.
The lay-out and foot print of the park is up for grabs - conversation about what are the many
options to consider the neighbors issues and concerns the rights of residents of the community
to use the park facility. Ideas included moving the building, moving the basketball court , moving
the playground, adding greenwalls for sound reduction, adding sound reduction walls, and
considering the usefulness of the park building. There is a desire for more Curtis Field
programming, as requested by the SE residents at a city meeting in October 2013. A lot of
residents were not happy with the park.
It is a very small area for a park with a lot of residents.
Cari - Chuck’s email was clear that each park is to be distinctive - parks can’t meet all
needs.
Mary - There will be special features at each park, but each park should have basic
features.
Final comments -
We hope to reduce problems and issues with the redesign of the park.
No changes in park hours at this time. We agree with the decision made in January of
2013.
Mary - Should there be communication to the neighbors around Curtiss field to explain the
process of the park design?
Gordon will write a communication to the residents to include in the next newsletter. Emails
to specific areas can be sent out too. The more communication the better.
8. Public Works Report -
Tim sent an email to Gordon and Michelle. Tim is unable to attend. He is mowing about
every 3 days and pouring sidewalk panels between Albert and Pascal. He is skim coating
Snelling service drive. Mulching around trees on Cleveland Avenue, weeding, street
sweeping almost done. Larpenteur planting is in the works in the medians, a lot of the
plants didn’t make it.
9. New Business -
If we add more meetings, we need some advance notice for child care. Kids can also come to
meetings if they are at the park.
Gordon: Can Michelle copy us on emails for scope and schedule of the work with Candace?
Michelle: Sure.
Meeting Conclusions:
a. Summary of Decisions Made
b. Summary of Action Items
1. Michelle to update us on Candace’s timeline
2. Gordon to write a communication or article for the newsletter, due by end of July.
3. Park hours not to change at this time,
4. Review examples of parks master plans -
c. Documents to Attach/PDF with these Meeting Minutes
i. Chuck’s email regarding the Council discussion.
d. Incomplete Decisions which should be included on the next Agenda
i. None at this time
Adjourned: 7:40 pm
Next meeting date: Monday, July 15th at Grove (mistake in meeting agenda – listed as
the 7th this is incorrect it is the 15th.)
Submitted by: Christina Erickson
Email from Chuck Long, Liaison to the Parks and Rec Commission – regarding Park
Improvement Plan Study and response from the City Council.
Hello commissioners,
As you know, last night the council workshopped the parks study. We agree
with the study's recommendation that we adopt a park system approach in which
our parks offer different amenities that complement each other rather than
viewing each park in isolation. What this means is that we envision each park
having certain very basic common features (i.e., a swing set / play area,
picnic bench) but otherwise that each park be put to its highest and best
used based upon each park's unique features and assets as identified in the
study. By creating a specific, unique emphasis for each park we use our
resources more efficiently and effectively, increase use of underutilized
parks, and increase movement and interaction across the city.
We also agreed with the study's recommendation that we establish a theme or
themes to unify the parks system. Candace offered some suggestions. We did
not adopt any specific one, however, and would look to the commission for
thoughts on that.
We discussed costs and are willing to make the financial commitment it will
take to do the job right. So, going forward, the commission should not
overly concern itself with cost issues. The council will handle those at a
later point.
A big part of this will be changing how residents perceive the parks.
Although people in the survey overwhelmingly said they prefer a park system
over three identical parks, the comments make it clear that people feel that
way provided “their” park has everything they want. There is a certain
degree of provincialism and very much an "our park" and "your park" mentality
in the city. This will need to change. Under our approach, people will not
have every amenity two or three blocks away. They may have to cross Snelling
or Larpenteur for what they want. And that’s okay. This is by design and
intent. But changing attitudes takes time and we have to be prepared that
some people are not going to be immediately receptive.
So, the charge to the commission is to develop a master park system plan that
includes a specific plan for each park which puts each park to its highest
and best use, and keeping in mind what other activities/opportunities are
already available nearby in other cities. For the most part, you have a
blank slate. You should be as creative as you want - within reason, of
course (I.e., we are not going to be building a year round skating facility
like the Roseville Oval or a community golf course). We also need to keep in
mind accessibility issues. As you all know, we are embarrassingly out of
compliance.
Needless to say, this is going to be a lengthy process. The council has
agreed to retain Candace to help and guide us with this project. It will be
nice to have her expertise in crafting these plans.
While you need to keep an overall park system scheme in mind, the first
emphasis needs to be on Curtiss. It will be torn up at the end of the summer
to address the flooding issues during which time the open space where the
hockey rinks go will be regraded. Thus, we’ll be looking at starting the
renovations there next spring. However, we have some very real and
significant grant opportunities available but we need to have a design
proposal submitted this fall. Michelle has already spoken with Candance and
will be meeting with her to go over the timelines. So, we will be very busy
this summer! (and, frankly, the next few years)
Finally, we discussed revisiting the trolley path project that is referenced
in the study and I had discussed at a prior meeting. This is something the
Mayor, Bart, Michelle and I will work on with the University. We’ll keep you
posted.
I think this pretty much sums it up. Michelle can fill in anything I've
missed at Monday’s meeting. Thanks!
Chuck
Charles E. Long