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City Council Regular Meeting Minutes January 24, 2006 Page 3 1 building. She stated that this land was previously an orchard, and suggested it may be nice to 2 address that in the renovation of the park and acknowledge the cultural history. 3 4 She explained they had a meeting with the Park Commission, and the first option in designing 5 the park includes parking to the west. The number of parking spots remains the same. The 6 building is oriented between the playground and the hockey rink. There would be an arbor with 7 a small picnic pavilion coming off it. It includes a meandering perimeter path. She explained 8 that preliminary option 2 starts to structure items in the park based on the orchard. More 9 plantings are around the center of the park. Instead of having parking on one side of the park, 10 they extended parking into the park and added a lane for backing up. Parallel parking would be 11 on both the east and west sides of the park. There would be continuous pedestrian circulation 12 around the park. She noted the Park Commission seemed to prefer this option. Based on this 13 plan with the split parking, some things needed to be moved over to accommodate the soccer 14 field. 15 16 Ms. Garbarini showed a preliminary idea for the equipment for the park. It ranges from toddler 17 equipment to the elementary aged structures. The focus is more on nets for safety. Water play is 18 based on the square footage that is allocated to this park, and what is most popular today. She 19 said this is what they used to develop a budget. She pointed out that schematic design would 20 need to continue with an architect. Schematic and design would continue into May. Bidding 21 would be from December to March, with a spring 2007 completion. 22 23 Ms. Garbarini provided a preliminary cost estimate. She highlighted the major categories of Site 24 Preparation/Demolition; Earthwork; Bituminous; Concrete; Site Electrical; Miscellaneous Site 25 Improvements; Miscellaneous Landscape Improvement. The total is $1.2 million. She said they 26 are prepared to meet whatever budget requirements the city has. She noted that if the decision is 27 to move ahead with the schedule with the architect as mentioned, and an aquatic director should 28 be brought on board. She said they would like to hold another open house to get feedback and 29 make sure they are fully endorsing this as well. 30 31 Councilmember Thuesen asked if during this process there were further studies on the potential 32 usage and if the need is there to upgrade the park. Ms. Garbarini said they did not receive 33 numbers from the recreation program specifically about winter sports. However, there was a 34 strong idea from the residents that they wanted to keep the park. 35 36 Jay Hartmann noted that Emerald Park clearly is one of the highest users for the hockey rink and 37 recreational skating. 38 39 Councilmember Thuesen asked if there could be surprised in the soils and in the performance of 40 moving it. Ms. Garbarini said the history that this was an orchard at one time is one indication 41 that there could be problems. She said they would look into that. 42 43 Councilmember Thuesen questioned if the main building would act as a warming house. Ms. 44 Garbarini said it would work as a multi -use structure. 45 46 Councilmember Thuesen inquired how open the area of trees and vegetation would be. Ms. 47 Garbarini responded there are trees there that would be limbed up. She said they would be very