11.15.23 Park Minutes - Laserfiche WebLink

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Minutes Parks, Recreation, and Open Space Commission Meeting of November 15, 2023 Present: Meredith St. Pierre,Valerie Boyd, Ranell Tennyson Absent: Emily McGinnity, Cathy Moore-Arcand, Mat Rauschendorfer,Jim Compton, Sr., Staff Present: Shayla Denaway, Parks Planner Max Gort, Associate Planner Chair St. Pierre called the meeting to order at 7:00 pm. 1. Approval of Minutes from the September 20, 2023 Meeting This action has been tabled due to the Parks Commission not having a quorum. No motion. 2. Glacial Hills Regional Trail Open House Parks Planner Denaway spoke about the open house held earlier in the evening on November 16, 2023. The Glacial Hills Regional Trail (GHRT) is a planned regional trail under the jurisdiction of Washington County to connect several destinations including Hugo, Big Marine Park Reserve, William O'Brien State Park, and Marine on St. Croix. Denaway stated that the timeline for the GHRT's construction is at least a decade out, since it is one of the few regional trails that does not have a master plan.The purpose of the open house was to engage public interest in identifying the potential alignment of the trail. Originally, CSAH 4 had been identified as the most viable alignment to connect the destinations in the trail vision, but there has been some desire to connect the trail to more scenery. The largest group that attended the open house was from the equestrian community, requesting that horse facilities be prioritized in the trail planning. Denaway said she'd encourage the trail planning team to focus on having a mix of uses on the trail corridor, similar to the multimodal characteristics of the Gateway State Trail. 3. Keystone Woods WMA Denaway presented background on the Minnesota DNR's process of acquiring land to create the Keystone Woods Wildlife Management Area (WMA).The 1,820 acres of land, some of which is in Hugo, was part of the Kelley Land and Cattle Company until its ownership by the Trust for Public Land, which will donate the land to the DNR. Denaway stated that the new WMA will be a "pilot project" which is intended to maintain the same uses as other WMAs, but also attract new user groups by enhancing the visitor experience with amenities.The draft improvement plan includes maintaining some current farm roads as trails and accessible paths, creating four entrances with two featuring enhanced parking lots, a Page 1 of 3 Parks Commission Minutes November 15,2023