Loading...
HomeMy WebLinkAboutParks Commission Minutes 051619 fiNCITY OF CENTRAL POINT Parks Commission Minutes May 16, 2019 MEETING CALLED TO ORDER : 6:00 II. ROLL CALL: Mark Ludwiczak, Patricia Alvarez, Fran Settell, Lee Orr, Mike Parsons (Council Representative) Staff: Matt Samitore, Dave Jacob, Nikki Petersen, Elizabeth Blodgett III. REVIEW MINUTES: Lee moved that the December 15, 2018 minutes be approved as presented and Fran seconded the motion which was approved by all present. IV. CHANGES TO AGENDA: No changes to the agenda V. PUBLIC APPEARANCES: No public appearances. VI. BUSINESS A. Dennis Richardson Memorial: Matt reported that he had presented an option to city council to rename the gazebo at the war memorial as for Dennis Richardson, but the council and those present at the meeting wanted to look at other options. An ad hoc committee was formed to review options and John Galbraith, Landscape Architect, was contracted with to assist with developing concepts for a memorial. A memorial could be located to the east of the war memorial. This could be a garden or a water feature. Another option had been to rename the Don Jones Park or possibly a new park for Mr. Richardson. As the process moves forward we'll keep the commission informed. B. Central Point Little League—Master Plan/Lease Agreement Update: Matt reminded the commission that at the last meeting he had discussed developing a master plan or a facility plan for the Central Point Little League fields. The city attorney requested that it go through city council since it was $25,000 commitment with no guarantee of positive results. The council agreed to move forward with the project providing an initial $15,000 to do a site assessment to better understand what the issues are with the fields. If it seems financially feasible after this assessment, the next phase would be to develop conceptual drawings. Patricia asked if the fields would be brought into the city limits. Matt said no but if a lease was drawn up, city funds could be expended on the site. Lee suggested that if the fields were improved there could be potential for other uses such as soccer. C. Revised Special Event Fees: Nikki said that the special event fees had been changed to better integrate with the new CivicRec registration system. Because we were working under a deadline the changes had been reviewed and approved by city council. Nikki provided an overview of the changes: Times were now done in blocks of hours. There were also additional permits City of Central Point Parks Commission Minutes May 16, 2019 emN Page 2 added including water use, bounce house, etc. Additionally, we have added Rec & Go Birthday Parties as a rental. These would provide the van, staff and a gazebo for 2 hour blocks of times. Mark asked if the rental was available at private residences. Nikki said no,just in parks but the van was also available for use in the schools. D. Park Banking: Matt explained that the area under consideration was located on the east side of Central Point. It was rezoned about 5 years ago and is now called the East Side Transit Oriented Development (TOD). This is the last area of the city that does not have any current development but we are receiving a lot of applications for building.This area would be similar to the Twin Creeks TOD. The difference is that Twin Creeks was owned by one developer and the East Side TOD has multiple owners with individual plans for the area. One of the issues is with open space. The city currently does not accept any parks of less than one acre. Land use regulations require a specific amount of open space be provided for every home, apartment and business built. The problem is that with multiple developers the city would end up small parks in each development, many under one acre. These parks are not usable and are expensive to maintain. Stephanie Holtey, Central Point Principle Planner, suggested the idea of park banking. This would give the developers the option of building a small, private park or providing equivalent funds to the city that would be used to purchase property for one large regional large park. Preliminary discussions have been held with a few property owners and there was some interest. Before moving forward with discussions, we want to have approval from the commission to continue developing the park banking concept. Patty moved that the concept of park banking be forwarded to city council for further discussion. Lee seconded the motion which was approved by all. E. Park and Recreation Budget 2019-2021: Matt reviewed the budget for the upcoming two-year budget cycle which was approved two-weeks ago by the Budget Committee. There was a 3% increase in both parks and recreation budgets from the previous budget. The Recreation A building will be remodeled starting in July. New events will include Made in Southern Oregon and Battle of the Food Trucks. Battle of the Bones will be expanded. A recreation support person will be hired as well. In the parks department, they have added two maintenance positions. Park projects include Bohnert Park, Flanagan Park parking lot and playground, and possibly Forest Glen if funding is available. At Skyrman Arboretum, we're looking at remodeling the house which will include restrooms and new roof. Matt reported that the community survey had been completed and results were positive for City of Central Point Parks Commission Minutes May 16, 2019 OIN Page 3 construction of a community center.The question related to adding an additional recreation fee was not as positive but with community outreach we may be able to increase support. The next steps will be to seek support from the city council to hire an architect to develop conceptual drawings. Once completed we will hold a series of public meeting to get input into the project. Matt had also submitted an application to the state for surplus funds for a community center but this was unlikely to be funded. VII. OTHER BUSINESS— A. Park Updates: Dave reported that progress is being made on the Pfaff Park Playground although there had been some problems with the rubber tiles that need to be corrected. Also, Dave reported that the Park Foundation had approved purchasing signs for Flanagan Park. B. Special Event Updates: Nikki reported that the Made in Southern Oregon event would be held this coming Saturday. She expected approximately 80 venders to be there. Pine Street would be closed for the event and a geocache event would be held in conjunction with it. She also thanked the foundation for donating bikes for the 4th of July Kids Fun Run. Parks and Recreation Day would be held on July 17th at Twin Creeks Park. There would be games, prizes, etc. Battle of the Bones would be held in September. There will be eight movies in the parks this year with one held at Twin Creeks Parks and one at Don Jones Park. C. Recreation Program Updates: Elizabeth reported that we would be offering our first week-long camp at Hanley Farm. Also we would be offering a variety of camps throughout the summer. Dave reported that the new recreation software was up and running with mostly positive results. VIII. Next Meeting: August 15, 2019 at 6 pm. IX. ADJOURNMENT: Meeting adjourned at 7:10 pm.