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City Council Regular Meeting Minutes January 24, 2006 Page 2 To date, there have been several meetings with the Park Commission, an open house with the residents, and a cost estimate prepared by Close Landscape. Representatives from Close are in attendance to review the plan with the City Council. Ms. Garbarini, Close Landscape Architecture, explained she was retained to look at a Master Plan for Emerald Park. Listening to concerns of the citizens is a starting point to develop work in the future and meet the City's expectations. 9 She showed an aerial photo of Emerald Park. The northern part is athletic fields. The southern 10 park has mature vegetation and would be something worth preserving. Some initial thoughts 11 were that it is laid out well. It does flow off its edges and doesn't have a lot of structure other 12 than the residential boundaries on the north and south sides. An open house was held September 13 28 with 50 people in attendance. She said they wrote down comments people made at the 14 meeting, and there were forms for people to fill out with comments. She brought the comments 15 with her and offered the Councilmembers the opportunity to look at them. She noted the first 16 comment was to upgrade the children's play area. The park gets more use in the winter and is 17 not as functional in the summer. 18 19 Ms. Garbarini stated the building in the park functions as a multi -use space, and as an open space 20 in the summer. People were enthusiastic about the skating and made it clear that this feature 21 needs to stay. There aren't many sidewalks in the park and there were comments that it is hard 22 to access the building in the winter. Access from all sides in all seasons seemed important. 23 24 She mentioned that a water park for children hasn't functioned for years and people were 25 interested in having it function for water play; not necessarily a pool. She said she has worked 26 with staff and provided a budget number for improvement. 27 28 Ms. Garbarini explained there were concerns about the picnic area. Comments had been made 29 that it could be used for a National Night Out even, or for renting it for family events. The 30 southeast part of the park has mature trees, and is supposed to function as a picnic area. 31 32 People were interested in better lighting at the meeting, stating that there should be more lighting 33 on the paths and on the perimeter of the park. Another common statement is that there are not 34 enough opportunities for seating. 35 36 She noted that comments were made regarding the baseball diamond. It is used frequently 37 starting in May for many practices. It is consistently busy in the evening. Soccer starts in 38 August. The athletic area is well used. 39 40 Ms. Garbarini said there were programs held at the park in the past, which made use of the 41 facilities. The recreation program staff had said the programs would resume if participants were 42 interested. She stated that given the comments from the residents and the Community 43 Recreation program, they developed a program to base their design on. The following are the 44 points covered in their design: 1) Retain the athletic fields, playground and picnic facilities. 2) 45 Renovate the play area. 3) Add and renovate lighting. 4) Improve the walking path. 5) Create a 46 picnic pavilion. 6) Seating improvement. 7) Drainage area improvement. 8) Consider a new