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HomeMy WebLinkAbout09.14.16 Parks and Rec MinutesFarmington Parks and Recreation Advisory Commission Minutes from the September 14, 2016 Regular Meeting Members Present: David McMillen, Dustin Johnson, John Moore, and Rob Carpentier Members Absent: Mike Haley Other’s Present: Council Member Douglas Bonar and Parks and Recreation Director, Randy Distad I. Call Meeting To Order Chair McMillen called the meeting to order at 7:00 p.m. Quorum was present. II. Approval of September 14, 2016 Meeting Agenda Moved by Commissioner Johnson and seconded by Commissioner Moore to approve amended meeting agenda to include adding an item under the discussion part of the agenda as Letter D. The Orchards at Fairhill Schematic Plan. All persons in favor (APIF). Motion carried. III. Approval of August 17, 2016 Regular Meeting Minutes Meeting minutes were approved with no corrections. IV. Presentations None V. Business Items A. Recreational Facilities Referendum Informational Brochure and Public Information Meetings Director Distad reviewed the final draft of brochure. He asked for feedback. Commission members liked the format and the color scheme. They felt it contained the appropriate information and it was ready to be mailed to the public. Director Distad shared the information boards that would be used for the public information meetings and asked for feedback from Commission members. Commission members felt that additional boards should be created for the outdoor covered rink. Director Distad stated he would create this board and include it in the presentation. Commission members also felt that the population census should be shown on the timeline every 10 years to show how the city has grown in relation to the recreational facilities either built or studied. Commission members also discussed attendance at the public information meetings and identified the following members attending the meetings: October 12 - John Moore and Rob Carpentier October 19 - David McMillen, Dustin Johnson and Rob Carpentier October 26 – Dustin Johnson and Rob Carpentier B. Trail Maintenance Program Plan Director Distad reviewed the 2017-2021 Trail Maintenance Plan. He shared the city trail system has been divided into five different sections allowing trails in each section to be fog sealed and crack sealed once every five years, which is similar to how the street seal coating is done. He also shared the long term financial plan for trail maintenance including where the annual funding comes from, the amount of annual funding, estimated annual maintenance costs, actual maintenance costs and the amount of the fund balance that remains after the 2016 trail maintenance work was completed. Commission member Carpentier asked how funding works for trails that are in bad condition and need to be reconstructed. Director Distad shared that reconstruction has been built into the long term financial plan in certain years and assumes that the fund balance is large enough to carry the reconstruction cost. Chair McMillen stated he was glad to see the city has implemented a long term funding plan for trail maintenance because trails are rated as the most used and the most liked facility in the city when resident surveys have been done over the years. C. Marigold Park and Prairie Pines Park Master Plans Director Distad shared the City Council was asked by staff to approve hiring Hoisington Koegler Group, Inc. (the consultant) to develop master plans for the new parks of Marigold Park and Prairie Pines Park along with developing a preliminary design and cost estimate for constructing the plaza adjacent to the Rambling River Center. He informed Commission members the master plans for each park and for the plaza design would include having a public open house to receive input from residents. There would also be a construction cost estimate prepared once the master plan was refined to desired preliminary draft. Then the Commission would review and make a recommendation concerning the approval of the park master plans to the City Council. Additionally, the Rambling River Center Advisory Board and the Commission would both have an opportunity to review and make a recommendation to the City Council concerning the plaza preliminary design. He informed Commission members the decision to approve a contract with the consultant to perform this work was postponed for 60-90 days by the City Council so more discussions could occur with adjacent business owners of the plaza to get input from them before the City Council made a decision on hiring the consultant. He thought the master plans for the two parks should be discussed with the City Council during the work session. Commission members agreed. D. Mystic Meadows Development Trail System Director Distad reviewed the trail system in the Mystic Meadows development and asked Commission members for a formal recommendation on removing one trail that was considered redundant to the trail system. By removing this redundant trail section the city would not have the cost associated with maintaining this trail section long-term, however there would be a cost to remove the trail. Moved by Commission member Moore and seconded by Commission member Carpentier to remove the trail in the Mystic Meadows development that is behind the homes located on Denali Way. APIF. Motion carried. VI. Discussion Items A. Agenda Items for October 10, 2016 City Council Work Session Joint Meeting Distad asked Commission members to finalize agenda topics for the work session with the City Council. The following items were identified to be included on the agenda: • Long term financial plan for park improvements • Master plans for Marigold Park and Prairie Pines Park • Recreational Facilities Referendum public informational meeting involvement discussion It was also suggested that a discussion occur on The Orchard schematic design in the Fairhill development, but it was felt this discussion was premature because this plan is likely to change before it is submitted to the city in the future. Distad shared he would provide the identified agenda topics to the City Administrator for the meeting. B. November 9, 2016 Draft Meeting Agenda with Empire Township Park and Recreation Commission Distad reviewed the draft meeting agenda and asked if there were any other items to include on the agenda. Commission members felt the items on the agenda were sufficient to generate discussion and information sharing during the meeting. Distad informed the Commission he would share the draft agenda with the contact person from the Empire Township Commission and ask them to review and make any revision they would like to the draft agenda and then inform him if there were any changes. He stated the Commission would be made aware at the October meeting if there were any revisions to the meeting agenda. C. 2016 Annual Work Plan Review Chair McMillen reviewed with Commission members the work plan. He identified several items being either in progress of being completed or completed since the August meeting including: • Commission will be meeting with the City Council during the October 10, 2016 work session • A meeting date with Empire Township’s Park and Recreation Commission has been confirmed for November 9, 2016 in Farmington • Draft agenda has been created for the meeting with the Empire Township Park and Recreation Commission and will be sent to them for review D. The Orchards at Fairhill Schematic Plan Director Distad reviewed the schematic design that was presented to the City Council and Planning Commission during the September 12th City Council work session. He shared the design showed a park and many trails and sidewalk connections. He also shared the plan was built on an agricultural theme by having open space designated as crop areas and community gardens. Commission members seemed to be receptive to this type of concept. There seemed to be a number of comments supporting the park area, large amounts of open space and a connected trail and sidewalk system for pedestrians. There seemed to be a consensus that the Commission was looking forward to receiving and seeing the plan after it has further been refined. VII. Commission Roundtable Johnson: Didn’t have anything to share. Carpentier: Shared he was concerned with how much property values are being increased by Dakota County and how this might impact the referendum vote. Moore: Didn’t have anything to share. McMillen: Reminded Commission members about the October 22, 2016 Waffle Breakfast/Silent Auction/Bake Sale fundraiser for the Rambling River Center. Breakfast is from 8:30 a.m. to Noon. Cost is $7.00 for advance ticket purchase and $9.00 at the door. Children ages 5 and under are free. Asked if there was any interest in moving the October 12th meeting to having it after the October 10th work session meeting with the City Council. Feedback was that other Commission members would prefer to have the meeting stay on October 12th. VIII. Staff Report Director Distad provided an update on the following: 1. Farmington Youth Hockey Association agreement was approved by City Council that identifies current and future donations to be received by the city from FYHA until 2028 and requires annually during the winter ice season that FYHA rents at least 700 hours of ice and any hours rented beyond this are discounted at 20% off of the prime time rate 2. Farmington High School game ice rental agreement was approved by the city council and school staff for the upcoming winter ice season and some adjustments were made to the amount the school district will pay per game based on the ice rental rate increase that occurred on July 1, 2016 and adjustments to personnel costs on game nights. 3. North Creek Park old hockey rink boards have been removed and staff has installed the new boards on the sides of the rink and partially on the ends of the rink. The corner boards will take a while longer to finish because of how they have to be constructed to accommodate the corner radius. 4. Meadowview Park buckthorn has started to be removed. It was removed by residents who live adjacent to the park. Dakota County Sentence to Service crews then fed the removed buckthorn into the city’s chipper, so the site where the removed buckthorn was left by the residents has been cleaned up. 5. Downtown bike racks have been installed except for two that have not been shipped yet. When the city receives the final two bike racks staff will install them. IX. October 12, 2016 Meeting Agenda Items The following item was identified by Commission members for its next meeting agenda: 1. Finalize meeting details with Empire Township’s Park and Recreation Commission 2. Recreational Facilities Referendum October 12 public information meeting review 3. October 10, 2016 City Council work session review 4. Summer ice presentation by staff 5. Summer recreation program presentation by staff 6. Outdoor pool presentation by staff X. Adjournment Moved by Commissioner Moore and seconded by Commissioner Carpentier to adjourn the meeting. APIF. Motion carried. The meeting was adjourned at 8:35 p.m. Respectfully Submitted, Randy Distad Parks and Recreation Director and Recording Secretary