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2000-11-11 JAN - 8 2001 c_r. _.. _._ ._:._~. Meridian Parks and Recreation Commission November 11, 2000 The regular meeting of The Parks and Recreation Commission was called to order by David Moe at 7:42. Present were David Moe, Sheri Baker, Ed Fong, Tammy De weerd, Debbie Watkins, and Tom Kuntz Agenda: Debbie Watkins made a motion to adopt the November agenda, Sheri Baker seconded, all ayes motion carried. Approval of Minutes: Sheri Baker made a motion to approve October's minutes seconded by Debbie Watkins, all ayes, motion carried Public Introductions/Comments: Present was Jerry Dragoo from MIG. Correspondence/Announcements: None Old Business: Action Plan- Sheri Baker made a motion that the Commission recommends to Council to adopt diagram 2, which includes the seven-park layout with trails as shown with our action/comprehensive plan. Debbie Watkins seconded this, all ayes motion carried. Issue 2-park planning- Jerry went over level of service vs. cost of service-if you start charging for services costs go down. He also went over the different type of recreation centers. The first is a community center, which focuses on passive events such as meetings with no recreation space. The second is a recreation center, which is more of a health club theme, with some meeting rooms. These facilities should generate revenue, some break even. The question is do we want one. Debbie Watkins asked if we want one as a part of the park system, or do we want someone else to come in and get the revenue. Jerry said that in partnering, you do lose some control. Sheri Baker said that she had a real problem trying to hold a function for one hundred people, and there is no facility in Meridian to house such an event. The old high school is too pricey and you can't reach the owner to even make a reservation. Debbie Watkins said local PTA's need to go to Boise for their events and the City is having their Christmas party in Nampa. Tom said the issue here is does the community want a recreation center, and should we put it in the action plan. The commission said yes. Sheri Baker said the Commission represents different areas and backgrounds in the community, and we are getting big enough that we definitely need something like that. Tom said the next step would be the needs assessment which will tell what will actually go into the facility. Tom said if you want the recreation programs to grow, we need a recreation center. Jerry Dragoo discussed some specialized recreation facilities that as the City grows, we can provide specialized recreation facilities. Some of those are and adventure playground, splash pool, rose garden etc. The cities that have them may hold fundraisers and a community weekend to build the facility. The skate park is already in the budget, and the Commission liked the ideas for an inline hockey rink, an adventure playground and group picnic areas. The question then was how aggressive of a plan will we have here. Meridian has been going along on a pay as you go system with impact fees and general fund money. The Commission stated this tactic is not getting us very far. The second option is to go for a bond to build a large amount of improvements atone time. That would get us caught up with the demand, but could we get a bond. Sheri Baker said we should go for the bond. David Moe said he would like to go for bond, but we just passed another school bond. Sheri Baker said that it was aforty-five million- dollar bond for the school, so ten or twenty million for a parks system doesn't seem so big. Sheri also feels that if we show diagram 2 to the public, and tell them that if we pass this bond in the next five years we will have all of these new parks. We will need to buy the land while it is cheap and available and we would like to build this community/rec. center. If we present these ideas to the public and show them what they can get for only two dollars per thousand of your taxes, they may go for it. The down side to this is that if they don't pass this bond, and it is twenty years before we ever see half this amount of land. Debbie Watkins said that we have to be aggressive, we don't have a choice. If we don't buy the land today, it won't be here tomorrow. Ed Fong asked about the cost of maintaining the land per year after it is purchased. Jerry said he estimated three to four thousand an acre. Jerry then gave a hand out to the Commission for them to figure out where to spend the funds. The Commission's shared priorities are developing community park sites, acquisition of parkland, development of sports fields, trails and an indoor recreation center. Tom suggested that we initially put money into development to show the community that we can do something. David Moe feels that impact fees should be raised to purchase land so that bond dollars can go to the development of parks. It is the opinion of the Commission that we go for a bond. Steve Siddoway from Planning and Zoning came in and discussed the landscape ordinance with the Commission. Tom said he felt the landscape ordinance has a direct bearing on who will take care of the small 1-acre neighborhood sites. Steve talked about a new draft plan, one section of which deals with required open space in new subdivisions. The initial draft states 5% of entire area must be usable for recreation. This is exclusive of any entryway or street landscaping. Developers have balked at this idea saying that we are trying to make another park impact fee out of this ordinance and have asked that we include the street buffers and entryways. However, P&Z realized that some subdivisions could reach that 5% with those buffers and have nothing for passive or active recreation. One suggestion was to state that half of the five percent could be the buffers and the rest must be internal. The question is, is that enough to give the subdivisions a feeling of open space in them so that we don't feel like we have four miles of housing with no break up whatsoever. The 5% works pretty well with the big chunks of land, but not the more typical 20-acre subdivisions. Sheri asked if the developers see the benefit of open space in their neighborhoods. Steve he asked the developers if they weren't already doing this or more already. The developers agreed, but said the City shouldn't be requiring them to do this. Ordinances write a minimum standard, this is for the developers who are doing nothing. Debbie asked what other cities require. Steve said he could not remember. Jerry said the one stake that we still have is that we can say we will just raise the impact fee. David said if we do this trail system, we are talking about using the trail as open space. Jerry would like to see us encourage developers to create a linear trail system that will connect the neighborhood to our parks. Sheri said if the developers don't go for it, what does it matter, potentially nothing. What are they going to do, not build here? Steve has been instructed by the Council to work this out, and he feels it is important to have the developers support. Ed Fong made a motion that the Parks and Recreation Commission adopt the position of supporting the current internal 5%, exclusive of street buffers and right of ways to support park concept number 2. Seconded by Debbie Watkins, all ayes motion carries. Jerry suggested he and Tom should meet with the Council to go over the park plan in pre-council meetings. Steve suggested having a Commissioner at the next Council meeting to reiterate the support of the 5% because at the following meeting that is when BCA (the developers) will speak. Someone should be at that meeting as well incase we need a rebuttal. Sheri Baker stated some concerns that she has regarding the Council and the lack of time they have to study this action plan. David Moe said the Commission has given a recommendation regarding this plan, and the Department is behind this plan as well. The Council should look to those departments regarding this plan. David also said the makeup of this Commission was that we would be the voice of the community. One thing on our side is that we have a Council who seems favorable to the Parks and Recreation Commission and its recommendations. Sheri said that this is the role of the Commission, the Council can't know every little detail, nor do they have the time to study it, this is our job. Tom would like to propose that we get this before the Council next week so that we can take them through the steps that the Commission went through tonight and Tom would like to have the Commission there. Jerry asked how this fit into Norm Landerman Moore's plan. The Commission said that we would adopt the first plan and adopt the action plan as an addendum. Jerry said we should adopt Norm's plan as is and get direction from addenda. Sheri Baker asked if we would have any say in designing the 5% landscaping in the new developments. Jerry said yes. Jerry feels that the big piece is trying to get the financing plan together. David said handed out resumes for the commission seats, and would like to know the top 4 from each Commissioner. Sheri made a motion to adjourn at 9:15 seconded by Debbie Watkins.