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1999-12-13DEC 1 7 1999 'h ~ Frl r .. _. Meridian Parks and Recreation Commission December 13, 1999 The regular meeting of The Parks and Recreation Commission was called to order by Chairman David Moe at 7:40 p.m. Present were David Moe, Sheri Baker, Glenn Bentley, Tammy deWeerd, Trace Leighton, Kristin Smagula and Tom Kuntz. Agenda: Jim Keller made motion to adopt the agenda, seconded by Tammy de Weerd. All ayes, motion passed. Minutes: Sheri Baker made a motion to pass the November minutes, seconded by Kristin Smagula. All ayes, motion passed. Sheri asked if the minutes need to be so detailed. The consensus was no. Public Introductions/Comments: Tom introduced Gary Benoit to the Commission. Gary has purchased the building around Generations Plaza. Correspondence/Announcements: The Christmas tree lighting ceremony went very well, thank you to all who attended. Tammy de Weerd asked about a letter she had written regarding a plaque that she had requested for Tully Park playground equipment. Tom said that he had not done anything with that yet, and asked Tammy if she had a copy of the letter she had written. Tammy said that she had it somewhere, and she would get a copy to Tom. New Business: Proposal for the land around Generations Plaza. Gary Benoit talked about the building that he has purchased behind Generations Plaza. They have found a tenant, which is Smokey Mountain Pizza the idea is to create a plaza, almost like a mini Center on the Grove. They have spoken to a candy shop and an expresso bar who are interested in this. They are in the process of getting the land to the north under contract. This could revitalize the downtown area and there should be more development up and down this street. Gary talked to the Mayor about acity-supported revitalization, where we could maybe organize the colors, or work on the alleys and parking downtown. One of the elements that we are dealing with is to vacate the alley that runs to the north of the Plaza. The tone of the building that they are going to be working with is a brick and sand stone, building it to look like it has always been there. They would also like to build a patio for the restaurant onto Generations Plaza. The patio will be 15 foot by 40 foot. Gary's company feels that this would be a great enhancement to the Plaza. We need to be careful about how private enterprise uses public land. If they can get the alleyway from ACHD, then they would like to consider a land swap, trading part of the alleyway for the area with the patio. If they can't get the land, then they would like to work out along-term lease of the land. Tom said that if they can get the land from ACHD, we would lose some asphalt, and gain some green space so we would actually gain more green space than we would lose. Tammy was concerned about signage. She was apprehensive about being assaulted by some bold sign that would ruin Generations Plaza, and also possibly awnings or table umbrellas with beer slogans etc. Tom said that if we still owned the property, we would have some say in those matters, and even if we don't, those concerns can be brought up with the city and the city can put things like that in their agreement. Sheri Baker was concerned about parking. Parking is a big concern with everyone. Sheri asked when they would hear from ACRD. Gary said about 2 weeks. David asked for feed back, and he stated that he though this was a good idea as long as we get something back as well. Sheri's concern is that if we don't own the land anymore how can we have a say in what is on their property. David said that it could be written in to the land swap agreement. Kristin said people would linger in the area and look in the local shops. Glenn said that the Council discussed a concept like this, when they first started designing the plaza. Jim asked who would be reviewing this in the city, since we probably don't have a lot of input. Tom said that our recommendation is valuable, as far as do we support the concept. Kristin asked if we had any input as far as what types of tenants could go into the second building. Tom said no. Jim asked if they would be partially responsible in maintaining the surrounding area. No one was sure. David asked if we wanted to motion that agree in principle, what we were shown by Gary Benoit including parking, and maintenance, and the whole ball of wax. Jim motioned that we support the concept of encouraging the developers to proceed with utilizing the area there to develop restaurants and shops, and that we coordinate a land swap, use of the area, parking issues, and maintenance issues. Kristin Smagula seconded, all ayes, motion carries. Tammy added that maybe we could strengthen their case by writing a letter of support to ACHD, and communicate with other departments. Election of Officers: Jim moved that we accept David Moe as President of the Parks & Recreation Commission. Kristin and Sheri seconded that simultaneously. David asked if there were any further nominations, the answer was no, all ayes. David Moe will remain Chairman. Sheri Baker nominated Jim Keller as Vice President of the Parks &Recreation Commission. Tammy de Weerd nominated Sheri Baker as Vice President. Sheri stated that she would like to withdraw her nomination. 5 votes for Jim Keller, 1 vote for Sheri. Jim remains Vice Chairman. Old Business The speedway lease: Tom went over the memo and packet, which was a result of a letter from Mark Brandt for after he met with the Dairy Board and Ken Hamilton. The question was asked has the Council done anything with this. Tom said yes, at the planning workshop they directed the City Attorney and himself to meet with Mark Brandt of the Land and Water Conservation Fund and come up with a permitting method that would allow the area in question to be allowed for parking. As a result of the meeting, they came up with a couple of options. First is they want to come up with a permitting method that will not only accommodate the speedway, but will accommodate other groups who would like to use our facility. Long term, if that property is going to stay under the Land and Water Conservation Fund project guidelines, it has got to be turned into a park. Parking can be part of the design. So, the long term solution that Tom has come up with is to find 5 acres at a different site, which has the same value and recreation value and do a conversion. That would do a couple things for us. First, this would eliminate any restrictions on that piece of property, which Tom recommends that we still retain ownership and use a permitting process for the speedway parking on Thursdays and Saturdays. This will help us achieve our goal of acquiring more parkland, and the LWCF restrictions would be transferred to the other park, and free up Storey Park. There would be a percentage that we would need to pay for the conversion process, Tom thinks the amount is about 3 percent. Sheri says she doesn't know if we should bend over backwards for something that might not be there in a year. Jim said he thought it was a very good idea to get more parkland this way. Capital outlay the next sheet you received tonight is a capital outlay sheet. The Council approved last Tuesday, and so we will be moving ahead with these projects, some of which are complete. 5-Mile Creek Pathway, Tom and Gary Smith will be meeting next week, with the only stumbling block being the Joe Simonitch property. This might be the type of thing where we might need to make the decision to cross onto the other side of the creek, or doing a land purchase. Tom would like to get the Commission out to the site when the weather turns nicer, so they can get an idea about what we are working with. Tom also wanted to note that there is no capital at this time other than the tiling of Davis Drain. There is no development money for Chateau park or the 56 acres or land acquisition. Sheri asked if they had expended the rest of the capital outlay. Glenn said that at the end of this Council meeting, he thinks there was $13,000 left. David said that once the Comp Plan is in place, we will have the tool to be able to say 'if you want to do this in 10 years, we need to get some money to start getting this developed'. Glenn said that once the pathway costing $300,000 is built, we would get back 90% of the cost. Tammy said that Jim Hall suggested borrowing against projected impact fees and being able to purchase and green up/sprinkle the 56 acres. So with the possible impact fees and the $300,000 we are not at zero. Jim said that we borrowed from the enterprise fund, and paid it back with impact fees. Kristin asked if we can make a small brochure with this comp plan that we can send out to the public to give people options and tell them what we need, funding options etc. Tom said that he contacted Don Beltz who came with Bob Droll to the meeting for Chateau Park and the 56 acres, because Tom wants to accelerate the designing of Chateau Park. Tom also spoke to the land group and told them that he wants to meet with them about Generations Plaza and Chateau. What tom is trying to find out is, if we do Chateau in phases, is phase 1 power, sewer, water, parking lot, gravel path around the park, sprinkling and grass. What would our costs be? If we can come in with the right dollar amount, and then approach the City Council, we may be able to get funding for that and get started before the summer. Jim said that if we got $1,000,000 bond, which would cost us about $800,000 a year to pay off over 20 years. If we took part of that as impact fee, and the rest in taxes, people would barely notice the increase to their tax bill. Comprehensive plan: The figures have been increased I the comp plan, but they are still low. Tom said he would like for the Commission to write up a summary of what they have found in the Comp Plan, listing the pages with problems on it. Kristin said the Comp plan is to long. It is not readable, and if it were shorter, people would be more inclined to read it and we would get more interest from the general public. Tom said that he didn't feel that Norm got enough input from the people of Meridian. Norm said that he got enough input at the meetings. The Commission is concerned that Norm got most of his information off the shelf, and the user groups that he did get the information from, were from Boise. These are national averages and do not reflect the population of Meridian. Some examples are ice skating and beach activities. Tom says he doesn't think we got what we paid for, we need a blue print for Meridian, not the nation. The Commission is in agreement that we need a survey. Tom said some questions that need to be addressed are is it necessary to present things twice in the document, are we talking about the city limits or the impact area in these things. Sheri said that she would contact the user groups to get their input if we think that is necessary. David said that there is no inventory in the plan at all. This could include schools as far as amounts of ball fields that we can take care of and use. Tom says the level of service is what should drive this, such as needs and growth perspectives from PAL and Babe Ruth. Directors Informational Items- None Other Business Joe Da Rosa has now missed 2 of the 3 commission meetings since being on the Commission. David said he is planning to write Joe a letter reminding him of the ordinance as far time missed. He will need to show up in January, or we will request to the Mayor to get someone else to take his position. David thanked Tammy for all of her service on the Commission. He also thanked Glenn. However, Glenn left earlier. Tom needs to contact Anita to see about the Commission seat being listed in the paper. Adjournment Sheri Baker made motion to adjourn, seconded by Jim Keller at 9:45.