HomeMy WebLinkAbout2015-10-13 Joint Parks and Recreation City CouncilMeridian City Council - Parks & Recreation Joint Speical Meeting October 13, 2015
A joint meeting of the Meridian City Council and Parks and Recreation Commission was
called to order at 5:23 p.m., Tuesday, October 13, 2015, by Mayor Tammy de Weerd.
Members Present: Mayor Tammy de Weerd, Charlie Rountree Keith Bird, David
Zaremba, Genesis Milam, Joe Borton and Luke Cavener.
Item 1: Roll-call Attendance:
Roll call.
X _ David Zaremba X _ Joe Borton
X___ Charlie Rountree X_ Keith Bird
__X__ Genesis Milam __X__ Lucas Cavener
_X Mayor Tammy de Weerd
Parks and Recreation Commission
_____ Matt Stoll ______ Jo Greer
_____ Creg Steele ______ Phillip Liddell
_____ Treg Bernt ______ John Nesmith
_____ Sharon Borton ______ Hannah Sturtevant
_____ Kent Goldthorpe
De Weerd: Okay. Well, thank you all for being here. It seems that usually most of the
people are out there, now they are up here, so it's kind of weird. But welcome to our
Parks Commission and to those that are here in attendance as well. For the record is it
Tuesday, October 13th. It's 5:23. Madam Clerk, will yo u, please, start us all off with roll
call attendance.
Item 2: Adoption of the Agenda
De Weerd: Okay. Item No. 2 is -- thank you for that. Good job. Item No. 2 is adoption of
the agenda.
Rountree: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Mr. Rountree.
Rountree: I move that we approve the city's portion of this joint meeting agenda for Items
1 through 7.
Bird: Second.
De Weerd: I have a motion and a second to approve the agenda for City Council and we
will take a vote on that and, then, we will have th e Parks Commission vote on theirs.
Council, all those in favor say aye. All ayes.
MOTION CARRIED: ALL AYES.
De Weerd: Thank you for that unison show of support. Okay. I will turn this over to Mr.
Stoll.
Stoll: Commissioners, I would entertain a motion to amend our agenda to add onto this
joint meeting Items 8 through 13 for the Parks and Rec Commission.
S.Borton: Commissioner Stoll.
Stoll: Commissioner Borton.
S.Borton: I make a motion to --
Stoll: Amend the agenda.
De Weerd: Amend.
S.Borton: Thank you. Amend the agenda for numbers eight through 13.
Stoll: Do I have a second?
Steele: Creg Steele second.
Stoll: Okay. Any discussion? Seeing none, all in favor signify by saying aye. Opposed?
Hearing none, the agenda is amended.
MOTION CARRIED: ALL AYES.
Item 3: Recognition of Parks and Recreation Commissioner William Fitzgerald
De Weerd: Okay. Thank you. And I'm going to ask our parks director to join me at the
podium. Okay. The next item is really to recognize our youth parks commissioner. He's
not only a youth, but he has been a great member of our team on the parks and recreation
commission team and has given a lot of his time and certainly his thoughts. We have
appreciated your service, William, on this and I'm going to have our director say a few
more words, because he certainly knows you a lot more intimately, but I will say on behalf
of City Council and myself we appreciate the service that you have given our city, serving
on the parks commission and being a voice for the youth in our community. We greatly
appreciate that, William.
Siddoway: Thank you, Mayor. Well, I think I can speak for the entire commission when I
say two years ago we were very impressed when William came before us with a
presentation for his Eagle Scout project and as part of that project he had researched --
did some survey work for youth in south Meridian and some things that they wanted to
see. We were so impressed with what he had done and his passion for parks and
recreation issues that he was invited to serve not just one, but two consecutive terms and
you have been a great asset to our Commission. One of the things I have been
particularly impressed with was your ability -- not just ability, but your willingness to speak
up when there is an issue that you have an opinion on. As a youth member it's great to
see someone that's willing to engage with everyone else. So, William, I think we would
like to invite you up.
De Weerd: Come up. Yes. And -- and we will have you introduce your family in a
moment. I did want to read your certificate of appreciation and I can tell you that this is
just a token of the appreciation we hold for you. In recognition of your service, dedication,
and participation on the Parks and Recreation Commission for the City of Meridian, on
behalf of your fellow citizens we thank you for your years of service and commitment to
improving the quality of life in our community and it's presented here at our joint meeting
with gratitude and congratulations.
Fitzgerald: So, my family came to support me tonight and so on the seat -- on your guys'
left is my five year old sister Sarah and, then, going to your right is then my 15 year old --
no. Almost 15 year old brother Preston and, then, my mom and my dad and, then, my 12
year old brother Brian.
De Weerd: Thank you for being here. So, William, you have earned your City of Meridian
pin, so thank you so much for being here.
Item 4: Recognition of Parks and Recreation Commissioner Kent Goldthorpe
De Weerd: Okay. At this point in our agenda -- I know this is the time we get to roast
Kent Goldthorpe.
Goldthorpe: Come up there?
De Weerd: Yes, please. Certainly when you want to get a citizen involved and nobody
thinks -- I think the appropriate person to involve is Kent Goldthorpe, because even when
you don't ask him his opinion he will share it. So, we do -- it's called candor. Kent, we
appreciate your service and I really do mean that it's -- it's nice to have citizens that are
willing to speak up, say what's on their mind and offer a diverse opinion, because I will tell
you that sometimes the decisions we make are as good as the dialogue and a diverse
opinion and you have offered that in many different arenas and we greatly appreciate that.
It's made us a stronger department and it's made you a very big target among your fellow
commissioners, but we, too, appreciate your dedication and certainly this relationship
between the City of Meridian and you will continue in your role with Ada County Highway
District and we have high expectations of connecting pathways and getting a funding
source for our pathway system. Was that a great plug or what? Okay. And, then, I will
ask Steve to give some -- some remarks, but this is a certificate of appreciation, again, in
recognition of your service, dedication, and participation on the Parks and Recreation
Commission for the City of Meridian. On behalf of your fellow citizens we thank you for
your years of service and commitment to improving the quality of life in our community and
I can't think of a more appropriate place to have an impact on our families and children
and the quality of life than on this commission. So, thank you for your service.
Goldthorpe: You're welcome.
De Weerd: Okay. Quick picture and, then, remarks.
Siddoway: I don't have much to add. I would just say that part of Kent's outspokenness is
a blessing, because he has been a champion and really appreciate that you have
championed our causes over the time that you have been on the -- on the commission. I
thank you for your service, for your dedication, and for really helping us get things done
right. So, thank you, Kent.
Goldthorpe: Just so you know, if I didn't care about somebody or something I would shut
up and I care for all these people very much, as well as what we do. Thank you.
De Weerd: I waited until Matt took a bite to ask the chair of the parks commission if he
would like to add anything. Sorry about that. Thank you, William. No, you don't? Geez.
Stoll: I -- thank you, Madam Mayor. I just want to say I really do appreciate the service of
William. Hopefully he can hear this as he's heading out the door. But also Commissioner
Goldthorpe. It's been a joy having both of them on the commission and they have
provided a lot of good input that is very in line with the majority of the commission on their
-- on the issues. So, again, thank you for the service. Sorry to lose you, Kent, but I'm
sure we will see you in other areas.
De Weerd: And just a quick note before Steve tells you, because this is really exciting, but
we just heard that we received the best new park or facility for the Storey Bark Park from
the Idaho Recreation and Parks Association. So, congratulations to our team. Certainly
to Shelley -- I think she probably went and intimidated them to give us this award because
of her fondness for this park. Okay. It's -- yeah. Oh, Mike intimidated them. But Steve
will be receiving this recognition at the annual region al conference in Bozeman, Montana,
later this month. So, this is great accolades to a community effort. This started a long
time ago with the subcommittee under one of our subcommittees of the Parks and
Recreation Commission and the spirit and the determination of our four legged friends
continue to keep this as a priority. Our City Council made it a priority and it was finally
executed by a great team of Steve and his staff, Mike, and -- we appreciate you and what
Roger had done to make this just a Class A facility. So, congratulations to all of you.
Item 5: Welcome New Parks and Recreation Commissioner Hannah Sturtevant
Item 6: Parks and Recreation Master Plan Update Presentation
De Weerd: So, with that said, Steve, I will ask you to come forward and introduce this
next portion of our agenda.
Siddoway: Thank you, Madam Mayor, Members of the Council and the Commission.
Thank you for being willing to meet together in a joint session. This is a big deal for us
and I know for you as well, but this is work on the master plan that guides our vision for
the next decade and we take this very seriously. We have been working hard on it
throughout the year. We are nearing the completion of the work and getting ready to put
out draft plans. Last month we met at the parks tour and gave a specific presentation
focused on future parks and the concept plans. We will not be rehashing all of that for you
tonight. Tonight's agenda is really focused on the recommendations portion of the plan
where we want to check in with you as we are finalizing the draft plan to go out for
comment to make sure that we are in alignment, that we are going in the right direction in
terms of recommendations and so we have with us tonight Art Thatcher and Pat O'Toole
from Green Play, as well as Kim Warren from Breckon Land Design and several of our
parks and rec staff that have been key in helping to pull together elements of the plan.
Our plan -- our process moving forward is that tonight we present to you these
recommendations, take initial feedback. We will, then, use that to prepare the draft plans,
which will be out in early November. It will be out for a couple of weeks for public
comment, as well as your own. We will, then, collect that -- those comments, prepare the
final draft plan, be back before the Council on December 8th, the Commission on
December 9th and, then, back to the Council the following week for adoption after we
have got your comments on the final plan. So, that's where we are at in the process.
Without further adieu, because I know we only have about 30 more minutes together, I'm
going to turn this over to Art Thatcher for the presentation. Thank you.
De Weerd: Thank you, Steve.
Thatcher: Thank you, Steve. Mayor, Members of Council, Members of the Parks and
Recreation Commission, thank you for allowing me to come and present this. For those of
you that --
De Weerd: You might state your name.
Thatcher: Oh, I'm sorry. I'm Art Thatcher. I'm the project manager with Green Play.
De Weerd: Thank you.
Thatcher: And for those of you that attended the -- the update meeting last month, the
beginning of this will be kind of a recap, but I wanted to make sure that those folks in the
audience and anybody that didn't attend kind of got a recap of the process of where we
are and I will spend the majority of the time kind of on the recommendation. So, tonight
talk a little bit about the process, very briefly touch on some of the demographics, some of
the survey results. Our level of service results, some key issues, some recurring themes
and, then, we will spend the majority of the time on these preliminary recommendations.
And so the process for those of you who remember, we started back in December of last
year and went into get our public engagement piece of that, the community engagement
with focus groups, stakeholder meetings, we did the online community engagement with
mind mixer and did the survey. At that same time design concepts was here and we -- we
did our inventory, looked at the level of service analysis. I came back and did a findings
presentation, did some visioning with -- with the staff and the project team. We looked at
operational and maintenance analysis, along with programming, other service providers,
some organizational development and now we are here doing the draft recommendation.
As Steve mentioned we will be kind of -- we will be presenting the final plan of this in
December and so the focus groups, if you remember we held eight focus groups. We did
eight interviews with -- with the elected officials and we had 125 people participate and,
then, we culminated that with -- with a town meeting to present those findings. As we
looked at population and have taken that into effect, the -- kind of the life of this plan is ten
years, so we began in 2014, but looking at, you know, a population of 91,000 in 2015 and
in the next ten years growing out to 118 as projected through -- through the COMPASS
projections and, then, even looking further forward up to about 2040 with some of our --
some of our projections. So, one of the things that kind of popped out here, looking at the
age distribution, is that the majority of your population -- I think the average age is 34.8 or
something. So, looking at the majority of your population being kind of in this 35 to 44 age
bracket and, really, you know, falling in that 25 to 54 age bracket. One of the other things
that I want to point out is that the youth side of this is kind of deceiving. The youth side of
this is broken into five year increments, as opposed to ten years for the adults. So, if you
-- if you take the -- if you take the -- the teens -- the tweens and the teens and you kind of
put those two together as you look, you're really -- this is your teen to tween population, if
you combine these two and if you do that same with your preschool age you're really up in
this. So, if you put them together in ten years you will see that the majority of your
population really are the youth side of the -- of the house and we break them into the five
year increments mainly because of developmental issues and developmental kind of
stages in their life. It's easier to do them in five year increments than in ten. If you group
that zero to nine year olds it's really a great developmental differ ence and so programming
wise as we look at the --
De Weerd: They are still normal from ten to 14. Someone takes them over. I don't know
who. Aliens.
Thatcher: Yes. And so -- so we looked at our community engagement piece and we
talked about the focus groups and, then, we did the survey and we mailed out 3,500
surveys and we got a response to the mailed surveys of 731, which is a 21 percent return,
which is phenomenal. You know, when we do most of our plans I'm ecstatic to get ten
percent and I'm happy with eight percent. I'm just blown away by the fact that we got a 21
percent return from the mailed. Statistically valid survey. We also did an open link and
online, so anybody could participate. We got another 661 responses from that, so we had
a total response rate of -- or total response of 1,392 for a margin of error of plus or minus
3.6, which, again, is excellent. Normally you're looking in that kind of eight percent range.
So, a couple of take aways that we got, a couple of the slides. As we looked at
importance, we asked the question about what was important to -- to you as they already
exist with Meridian in our operations and so you will see pathways and trails in both were
ranked as number one. Picnic shelters and playgrounds. A co mmunity recreation center.
We are -- you know, we are all very important and, then, as you kind of look down you will
see the open link -- the open link the average age there was 36 and the mailed survey the
average age of the return was right around 60 a nd so you will see as you kind of go down
that you will see there is more active importance of youth athletics kind of jumped up to a
four -- you know, to a four on the open link for that younger age group. Adult sports at 3.6.
You will see kind of some of those jumped a little bit higher in the open link, kind of looking
at that -- that age difference and who had children . And, then, we asked about expansion,
the improvements or additions to existing facilities and, again, you will see that pathways
and trails is up there at number one. Shade structures really kind of jumps up to number
two. Improvements to park amenities. That community center again. And, then, as you
look further down, again, looking at that -- that open link and knowing the -- kind of the
younger demographic and the families, you will, you know, that the , you know, lighted
athletic facilities, new parks, your outdoor athletic courts all kind of moved up into that, you
know, over 3.5 and in that 3.7, 3.8. So, again, very important to your -- your younger
residents and your residents with families. And the last piece that we asked was we
asked about, you know, how -- if you were given a hundred dollars how would you spend
that and you will see that the majority of the respondents wo uld spend that on new
pathways, you know, so, you know, connectivity and pathways are very important to your
community. Making improvements and renovating existing facilities was also very
important, as well as expanding aquatics and the addition of new parks. You will see
again in that younger age group that -- that adding athletic fields and courts and also that
recreation center gym and related activities were very important to them, spending ten and
13 dollars on those respectively. So, that was kind of the survey input piece. Then we --
through the inventory we looked at 23 parks, looked at 217 different components within
those parks, looked at ten into our facilities, nine alternative providers. We looked at HOA
components, as well as those components within the schools, the playgrounds and those
things. Looked at the high schools and, then, we also looked at the 21 .8 miles of
pathways and another 13 miles of micropaths. And so as we take all that inventory and
look at all that, we mapped all of those onto a map and you will -- in the plan you will get
these maps in 11 by 17 and so they will be easier to read and determine and I know they
are kind of hard to see on the -- on the slide, but -- so we map all your minis, as well as
those of your alternative service providers, doing them in different colors, so that you can
see where the distribution is of all those other facilities. And if we look at those and, then,
we kind of look at those -- kind of the assessment of those and as you know and as we
came to find out, your amenities are a very high quality and your parks are very well
maintained, you have a very well distribution of parks, they are defined -- you know, a
distinction between a community park and a neighborhood park you really know the
difference when you're in one or the other. Some of the parks -- especially the
neighborhood parks kind of lack a little bit of a unique identity and character, they seem to
have the same components. Some of your newer ones do have some of those identit ies,
but, you know, as you begin to develop some of those it would -- you know, we will talk
about those it would -- you know, we will talk about those a little bit. You have great
restroom standards within your parks and there are a lot of communities across the
country that I work with that would love to have the restroom facilities that you have in
parks in theirs. However, your pathways -- even though they are the number one thing
that the community is looking for, they are disconnected and so kind of looking at
connecting those and getting people off of the -- out of cars and onto those pathways.
The quality of your HOA parks and your alternative provider parks are -- they vary greatly
around the community and, then, the other piece is that your schools are very important to
your level of service and to your amenities. However, you do have limited access to
those. Okay. So -- so, what we do from there is we look at your level of service and we
are a one mile level of service around your community parks and a half mile level of
service around your -- your neighborhood parks and so you will see the -- the darker
circles in these areas are your neighborhood parks and, then, the light -- the smaller
circles are your neighborhood parks and they indicate where you have a high level of
service, where you have accessibility to those. The -- kind of the border on those, the
yellow around indicates you have a level of service, but it's a lower level of service and,
then, the lighter on the outside is where you really don't have a lot of level of service. You
almost have no level of service there for component within the system. And so, then, we
look at walkability. Walkability -- we look at a third mile, about 15 minutes to -- you now, to
walk to a facility and one of the things that -- that really want to note is that you will see
that a lot of these have right angles on them or have straight lines where those circles are
and what this does, for instance, this allows us to look at and to identify those barr iers,
those major thoroughfares where that walkability is really -- is limited. So, you know,
where you may have a -- a third mile walkable level of service, if there is a major
thoroughfare, Eagle, you know, that you can't walk across to get to it, it ki nd of reduces
that level of service. Again, looking at, you know, the darker having a high level of service
and of the yellow being a lower level of service, but still having a level of service, you
really -- in that walkability you're really covering the community very well. And so, then,
we also went and looked at pathways and your connectivity and, again, we looked at 49
different segments in your pathways and, you know, that's about 22 miles. We looked at
13 miles of micropaths and you can see that the -- you know, the orange is your -- your
defined segments of trails. The pink is your -- is your more of those micro trails and, then,
you have got 133 miles of trails that are proposed to -- to be put in and so, you know, you
have got a great deal of pathways in there and so making sure that we are -- you know,
connecting and looking at those priorities through your pathways trails and so through all
of this we begin to look at those recurring themes, those connectivity pathways,
maintaining what we have, keeping up with your growth, land acquisition for future parks,
so as your population grows you maintain your -- your level of service, you're going to
need to look at -- at future acquisitions, indoor recreation facilities, communication
marketing and technology, organizational development and staffing. Again, as you grow --
as your park system grows as you add, you know, the three new parks that you have, as
you begin to develop those you're going to need to look at staffing those and, then,
funding sources. And so also we kind of separate out the programming side of that in
looking at those nonsports activities. We -- you know, we heard a lot of that balance
between passive recreation and athletics and active recreation. Community wide special
events are -- are very important and see that all across the country. Aquatic programs,
teen programs, outdoor adventure recreation, arts in the park, senior programming and,
then, those cultural and performing arts. So, what we did -- and know this is really hard
for you to see and each of you got a paper copy of this that you can look at in a little bit
more detail. So, what we do is we take all that information and we put it into -- into a key
issues matrix and this is a tool for us to use to pull together all the quantitative data and all
the qualitative data that we have -- that we have received and so you will kind of see that
center column is where we identify each one of those sources of information and we kind
of rate those as -- you know, as priorities, you know, secondary and, then, you know, third
priorities and we kind of rate those. We look at -- we divide them into four categories,
organizational, financial, programs and service delivery and, then, facilities and
operations. And so we begin to look at those issues that have been defined through the
reoccurring themes and we start beginning to build our preliminary recommendations,
which is kind of that 10,000 foot look at things to really begin to build our
recommendations table from and so this just helped us organize those. And so as we
look at the -- the recommendations -- we build the recommendations we kind of have
three primary focuses, maintaining, sustaining and improving and, then, we put them
together and we look at a time frame of short-term, mid-term, and long-term. The short-
term kind of being up to three years, mid-term being four to six and long-term being seven
to ten. We also have a category of ongoing. So, there are a lot of things that you want to
review annually, you want to continue to -- to look at and maintain and so they are -- they
are ongoing and they really don't fit into a -- you know, a time frame to start and finish, like
a project would. And so the -- the four goals that we developed and we came up with
were continuing to improve organizational efficiency, increasing financial opportunities,
continuing to improve programming and service delivery and, then, to maintain and
improve your facilities and your amenities. And so what we have given you is a
recommendations table, which is what we use and it -- it identifies that goal and, then, it
identifies the objectives that fall underneath those goals and, then, it gives you the action
steps that we have worked with staff and identified as to kind of what those action steps
are. There is a column for capital costing and there is a column for kind of operational
budget impacts and, then, there is the time -- that time table for -- for completion and so in
some cases where you have to be determined, may depend on a pro duct that you select
or when you take on that -- that activity and -- and, then, a lot of times your operational are
really kind of additional staff or staff time kind of built into some of those programs or
some of those activities. And so as we looked at kind of -- what I'm going to do now is go
through each one of the goal areas and as you -- if you want to look at your -- the table
that you have been given, kind of -- I'm going to touch on the objectives and really not go
very heavily into the -- into the action steps with each one of those, just in the essence of
time to go through those. I think we have got 45 objectives in there and so I won't read
each one of them to you. And so we -- you know, we can have time to -- we will talk about
those a little bit. So, one of the organizational efficiencies -- you know, really looking at
maintaining your existing level of service, your existing level of service as it's defined now
is three acres of developed land per 1,000 persons and so one of the things t hat -- that
staff is looking at is moving that from three to four acres and currently your -- you're right
at that three acres. As you begin to develop the three undeveloped pieces of property that
you have your acreage will increase and you will reach th at -- that four and so as we look
at that kind of development build out, as we get towards the 2020 and the 2025, as your
population continues to grow that -- that threshold will begin to decrease again, which is
why one of the recommendations that we have is kind of in that late term as you begin to
look at, you know, acquiring new -- new park property to maintain that level of service, so
that as your population grows you will still be able to maintain that four acres after you
develop those other pieces of property. Enhancing and improving your internal and
external communication, you know, continue with your marketing plan, making sure that
you're reviewing that annually. Providing improved signage agencywide, looking at your --
your way finding signage and coming up with some -- you know, with some standards for
your signage and as you begin to update some of your facilities in your parks making sure
that your signage is being updated at the same time. Maintain your existing quality
standards for facilities. You have got a great standard for maintenance and so making
sure that you continue to stay within that -- that quality standard. I know one of the things
that as I met with many of you individually one of the things that kind of came out of that
was that you indicated that as you brought on new facilities that you wanted to maintain
them to the level that they were new as they got older and so, you know, that's one of the
things that really impressed me about your approach to facilities. I have worked in a lot of
communities where kind of once they build them they kind of leave them to be maintained
by themselves and they don't put that emphasis on it, which you all do and I applaud you
for that. Increase your social media use and navigation applications. You do a great job
with social media and I know one of the things the department is looking at and the parks
and rec commission is looking at some navigation applications and some -- and some way
finding. They are very popular and I know they are used a lot, so you know, kind of
looking at those pieces, to increase use of your parks and your pathways. So, also kind of
looking at increasing your appropriate partnerships within the community. You all do a
wonderful job of partnering with people and, you know, and working with the community
and community organizations and just continuing that, making sure that -- you know, that
you're continuing to engage the community, continuing to work with your partners and
increase partnerships as they become available. Increasing the utilization of technology,
you know, along with your -- you know, the department's website and your -- and your
registration software. I know one of the things that we are looking at -- the department is
looking at is kind of improving the department's website and so, you know, keeping up
with the technology piece of that to improve your customer service and your efficiency.
Staffing appropriately to kind of meet the demand and maintenance quality standards.
Again, as we -- as I talked earlier as you begin to kind of bring on these -- these new parks
you're going to need to -- to not only look at maintenance staff, but also kind of your
programming staff as you bring on, you know, five field softball complex, it's going to mean
the ability to take on new teams and new programs and those things and so being aware
of those sides of the demand. Keeping up and maintaining your current department
standards of operations and your policies. It's -- one of the -- one of the things that you
need to -- a lot of people -- you know, write SOPs and, then, they don't, you know, review
them on a regular basis and update them, so making sure that you're reviewing and
updating those as a department and, then, also expanding on your volunteer p rogram.
So, looking at the financial opportunity side of things, you know, again, looking at, you
know, your sponsorships, increasing your special events and your activity sponsorships,
evaluating your developer impact fee ordinance and one of the things talking with the --
the finance director last time I was here and we were looking at your, you know, move of
the -- your level of service from three acres per thousand to four acres per thousand, as
you begin to -- as the review of your -- of that ordinance moves, as you -- kind of keeping
that in mind as you're moving forward with that ordinance review. Pursuing grants and
philanthropic opportunities and making sure that you're taking advantage of all of those.
And, then, the department currently has a cross-recovery practice and -- and pseudo
policy. We would, you know, recommend that you make that a true policy and look at a
system so that as you're developing new programs and bringing on facilities that there is a
standard for that and we are kind of working with the department reviewing what they
currently have and trying to put that into a more concrete policy. So, then, the
programming and service side, there really is -- and the one main objective is to kind of
increase year around recreational programs and activities for the community and I listed
out some of the actions in here, just because they -- you know, they kind of define
themselves, you know, looking to expand indoor recreation, monitoring trends, making
sure that, you know, you're standing on top of the -- kind of the current trends, you know,
you had a picture down here, you know, we have, you know, the outdoor fitness stations
and shade structures are -- you know, are one of the big trends that are coming out. At
one time there was the -- the para-fitness trail, which was a piece of equipment, you know,
every half mile or quarter mile and now they are doing those in pods . They are as much
social as they are exercise and people gather there, it's kind of like your gym outside and
-- and, then, the one on the left is -- is spike ball and so that is a -- it's one of the things --
it's played on both coasts and it's kind of working its way towards the middle of the
country. It's a great activity for young people, as well as adults. It was featured on Shark
Tank recently and so they have bought into it, so you will kind of see that grow, you know,
exponentially. Also one of the things that I -- that I didn't mention early on is as we looked
at our recommendations and we looked at those actions, we took into account your newly
adopted strategic plan and a lot of those -- the recommendations and the actions that you
had within the strategic plan we incorporated into this and you will see that the developing
and maintaining of a signature event for the city is -- you know, directly relates to your
strategic plan, as well as the family centered recreational opportunities. So, you will see
those intermix within the -- within the recommendations. Maintaining and improving your
existing facilities and amenities. You know, as we look at the facilities and making sure
that you're staying on top of those, keeping up with your current standards, expanding
your pathways and your connectivity doesn't necessarily mean that you have to do it all,
you know, the -- I know you have, you know, some plans with developers and kind of
doing some of the connectivity in the pathways within those developments as they are
growing, so not all necessarily being put on your shoulders, but, you know, working
collectively with the community to do those. Adding indoor recreation space. Developing
new amenities that -- at your new parks, as well as existing parks based on your service
levels. Acquiring park land. I kind of mentioned that earlier as you kind of get out towards
the end of this -- this plan you're going to kind of start dropping down at your level of
service again and you will -- you will be looking at acquiring new property. Improving your
parking at parks. Not building new parking spaces, but looking at -- at how you schedule
events, looking at how you may do off -site parking and shuttling to events, really -- you
know, what you don't want to do -- what we would never recommend is that you kind of
plan the parking for a large scale tournament, kind of like the church concept, if you don't
build parking for church for Easter Sunday and Christmas Eve, which is when it explodes,
you know, the same, your -- you know, you want to plan for your day-to-day activities and,
then, come up with -- with alternative plans for when you host a large tournament and
those things. One of the -- one of the phenomenon that you see is kind of as you -- again,
with the scheduling piece, as you look at a tournament, really, the majority of your parking
shows up kind of 20 minutes before a game starts and 20 minutes after a match starts.
It's that overlap of -- near the two teams that are playing and the two teams that are
coming all showing up at the same time and so in between the parking is adequate and
you kind of get this -- there is parking close for the first match and, then, there is parking
away for the second match and, then, it fills in again close for the third and so making sure
that you're not overdoing the parking and doing away with the green space for -- for
parking spaces. And, then, continue to improve your ADA accessibility at your facilities.
You do a good job -- you do a great job of it now and just keeping that in mind, making
sure that you're -- you know, as you're doing that you're updating your -- your ADA
transition plan and staying on top of those things and so we talked about, you know,
upgrading your comfort, convenience and your cultural amenities at parks and of those
specifics. Adding, you know, destination park amenities within the -- within your facilities
to give them that identity. Addressing your current and future athletic field demands,
whether that's through lighting. You know, I know in the concept plans that we talked
about last month, you know, their athletic fields identified within those parks and keeping
up with those to meet those needs as the demand grows. Developing additional aquatic
opportunities, you know, whether that's splash pads or, you know, or aquatic opportunities
within the -- within the department. You know, fishing, kind of those things. Considering
program needs, you know, when adding new components and, then, you know,
monitoring the use demand, new trends of your current recreation components as you
move forward. And so those are the -- the objectives that we have for -- for our
recommendations and so as Steve had mentioned, your next steps really are -- will be
kind of developing and finishing the draft to the master plan. We will be presenting that to
you in early November. Receive comments in November. W e will give a final master plan
presentation to the Council on December 8th. We will do the final presentation to the
Commission on December 9th and, then, Steve will present the plan to -- to the Council on
December 15th. So, I know I kind of sped through that very quickly and so are there any
questions, comments? You know, I would be open to anything that you have.
De Weerd: Council and Commission, any questions or comments? I know a lot of this
information isn't new, but it's -- it's been organized so it all makes greater sense. I
appreciate your presentation and -- and the communication you and your team have had
on this entire process. You have been very good at keeping us all up to date and that's
been very refreshing as well.
Thatcher: Thank you very much.
De Weerd: So, thank you on that. So -- Mr. Borton.
Borton: Madam Mayor.
De Weerd: Do you want to bring your -- thank you.
Borton: Are there any -- any matrix that you have seen other communities measure that --
when you were doing this study you saw we are missing out on tracking?
Thatcher: One of the things that -- that I did comment with Steve initially -- Steve and
Rachel initially -- and we will reiterate -- the dashboards that you use are phenomenal. I
have shared them with a couple of my other communities to say, you know, these are the
things that you need to be measuring. You do -- you measure and you use things greatly.
One of the things that we are looking at is kind of -- some of those matrix that -- that you
use are universal in looking at park staffing and maintenance staffing, you know, acres
mowed, miles of pathway maintained, number of fields, you know, lined and those are
pretty standard. On the recreation side there really isn't that standard and so w e have
been working together and are looking at -- you know, at your number of teams and
number of staff people who are administering those teams and how you have made those
changes. Because you have such great historic data we are able to look at where y ou
were and when you added staff and kind of begin to develop those matrix specific to -- to
the community and so -- which are very helpful and so we are looking at that as it relates
to athletics, as it relates to events, you know, the number of temporary use permits that
you -- that you do and the number of staff that monitor those and those things, as well as
looking at your arborist and your forestry and what your tree canopy is and what your new
growth is and, you know, how -- how that relates to -- you know, to staffing and to
programming.
Borton: Thank you.
Thatcher: Yeah.
De Weerd: Anything further?
Cavener: Madam Mayor?
De Weerd: Yes. I wasn't sure who said that back there. Mr. Cavener.
Cavener: Art, while we are on the parks tour I was going to ask you a question, I wanted
to give you a month to think about it, so -- and here it is. What -- what's the amenity that
our -- our park system is lacking that we need to be thinking about including and what are
those emerging trends that we as a Commission and a Council really need to be paying
attention to?
Thatcher: What -- you know, I thought about that and, you know, I think as we have talked
one of the -- one of the trends that we see, you know, around the country and I kind of
have a picture of it here, here is the -- you know, the workout stations --
Cavener: Uh-huh.
Thatcher: -- they are -- they are huge, both, you know, for -- for young people, as well as
seniors and active adults, they are as much social as they are physical. People gather
and it gives them a place to go and to be social and be outside. That's one of the things
that we see. You know, the -- kind of adventure sports are -- you know, are really kind of,
you know, moving in that realm, you know, rope courses, challenge courses are -- are
coming up. Many communities are kind of looking at the -- the commercial side of things
and having somebody come in and build those and run those commercially. There is --
there is one down in Nags Head that my wife h as worked with the builder of that and it's a
-- it's a huge unit that has 40 different elements and goes from 20 feet off the ground to 60
feet off the ground and so you will do three or four elements while you're -- while you're
roped in and, then, you will zip line into this center console and, then, they move you to
the next level and you can -- people are paying 50 bucks for two hours to go and just --
and play and it's -- it's amazing. And, then, there is some other smaller ones. But it's --
you know, there is some great outdoor adventure. One of the things that we were talking
about earlier is Parkour, which is -- you know, Parkour in skate parks are -- you know, are
kind of huge. Parkour is -- started over in Europe. It's -- it's kind of a combination
between gymnastics and tumbling, but it's done at more a street course in your -- Google
it and -- or YouTube it, you will be amazed at what kids are doing. A lot of -- a lot of the
gymnastics gyms are introducing Parkour courses to attract more males into their gyms.
They are also doing the -- the Ninja warrior type games in these gyms to -- if you have
ever watched, you know, American Ninja , you know, some of those kind of extreme, but --
but still physical fitness pieces are, you know, a lot of what we see.
De Weerd: Alls I can think of is liability. I mean -- I think partnering with some commercial
outfit is really the way to go if we go that direction. Liability.
Cavener: Madam Mayor? I know we are running out of time , but maybe just a follow up
and I guess it's off the survey that you sent. If you had your dollar to spend on Meridian
parks where would you be spending it?
Thatcher: I would be spending it on your -- on your pathways and your trails that -- that
connectivity piece.
De Weerd: Shelters.
Thatcher: I would be, you know, spending it on developing the current parks that you
have and I would be looking at, again, shade structures and -- and comfort amenities
within the parks. You know, it's one of the things that -- you know, that we see are -- you
know, are great recipients and, then, you know, looking at that kind of that -- the
equipment -- the fitness pods, I would definitely invest there.
De Weerd: So, right now we are in the process of a pilot project for participatory
budgeting and Steven and I have kind of talked about maybe doing a north and a south
park by doing an amenity enhancement to existing parks and giving it to some HOAs or
those -- that radius around that park to kind of address what you have mentioned in terms
of the park amenities and starting to fill in and give character to some of our parks, that
may be that participatory approach too that would be an interesting way of doing that and
engaging another group into our budget process. So, a lot of it is hinging on our youth
council pilot project, Mr. Borton, so -- yes. No pressure. But we -- any other questions?
Anything else? Any other questions from our parks commissioners? No? Well, thank you
so much for being here. I know you have a plane to catch and we appreciate your report
and spending time with us collectively. Anything, Steve, that you want to add?
Siddoway: I will just say, you know, I took notes and I'm feeling like there is general
consensus among the groups here that these directions, as ideas, the things that we
should be aspiring to, I know there is lots of work where the rubber would meet the road
down the road, but at least in terms of -- are these the things -- are these the right things
to be aspiring toward. I'm sensing that that is the case. So, if anyone doesn't feel that
way let me know, but we will move forward with the draft master plan with these in mind
and have that out in a few weeks.
De Weerd: Okay. Thank you. Anything further from Council on this? Okay. Well, thank
you again. We appreciate your work.
Thatcher: Thank you very much. I appreciate it.
Item 7: Adjourn City Council Meeting (Parks and Recreation Commission
Meeting continues in Council Chambers Conference Room)
De Weerd: Okay. Council, we are at the end of our portion of this agenda and I know our
Parks Commission will be adjourning into the next room to continue their meeting. I would
entertain a motion to adjourn this City Council joint meeting.
Rountree: So moved.
Borton: Second.
De Weerd: I have a motion and a second to adjourn. All those in favor say aye. All ayes.
MOTION CARRIED: ALL AYES..
MEETING ADJOURNED AT 6:17 P.M.
(AUDI --ECORDING ON FILE_OF THESE PROCEEDINGS)
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