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PRC 2016 02 23 CHANHASSEN PARK AND RECREATION COMMISSION REGULAR MEETING FEBRUARY 23, 2016 Chairman Kelly called the meeting to order at 7:30 p.m. MEMBERS PRESENT: Cole Kelly, Brent Carron, Luke Thunberg, Jim Boettcher, Rick Echternacht, Jennifer Hougham, and Lauren Dale MEMBERS ABSENT: Steve Scharfenberg STAFF PRESENT: Todd Hoffman, Park and Rec Director; Jerry Ruegemer, Park Superintendent; and Katie Favro, Recreation Supervisor PUBLIC PRESENT: Adam Welsch 4140 Lakeridge Road John Saindon 4181 White Oak Lane Andreas Gehring 3900 Minnewashta Court Carmen Brinkman 110157 Stanford Circle, Chaska Jeanette June 960 Daylily Drive, Victoria Chris Przybylski 5580 Dahlgren Road, Chaska Carol Hammer 402 Highland Drive Linda Scott & Sue Morgan 4031 Kings Road Deanna Bunkelman 4191 Red Oak Lane Karin Maas 4151 Red Oak Lane Glenn Kaufmann 6870 Redwing Lane Bill Coffman 1000 Boone Avenue, Golden Valley Dave Hess 8682 Flamingo Drive Paul & Carol Paulson 9250 Great Plains Boulevard APPROVAL OF AGENDA: Chairman Kelly approved the agenda as presented. PUBLIC ANNOUNCEMENTS: Kelly: Any public announcements tonight? Hoffman: Other than we had a very successful luminary walk this past Friday at the Chanhassen Nature Preserve. That seems to be a growing and popular program. About 100 people took in the nice weather. The wind died down. The sun came out and had a great walk. It starts at the Holiday Inn Express so look for it annually this time of year. Park and Recreation Commission – February 23, 2016 Kelly: Thank you Todd. VISITOR PRESENTATIONS. Kelly: We’re going to move into visitor presentations. However since tonight we are discussing the Wilson Tree Farm subdivision and the Roundhouse Park sport court improvements, anybody who’d like to make comments on those please wait til we get to that time. Right now if we have any other visitors, and I understand we have the Lions here tonight. Now would be the time to come up and make your visitor presentations. Glenn Kaufmann: Good evening folks, how you doing? I’m Glenn Kaufmann, Lions and this is Lion Dave Hess. We’re with the Chanhassen Lions Club. Kelly: Name and address please. Glenn Kaufmann: Glenn Kaufmann, 6870 Redwing Lane. Dave Hess: Dave Hess, 8682 Flamingo Drive. Kelly: Thank you. Glenn Kaufmann: Sure. So reached out to Adam and to Todd. The Chanhassen Lions, for those that don’t know we’re, we’ve been around about the same amount of time as the Rotary Club has. Couple months afterwards actually is when we started in 1988. We’re a service organization. The Lions Club International has been around for 100 years next year so it’s a big 99 for us this year and what we’d like to do is we’d like to work on a big service project for the City kind of as a gift. To the City from the Lions Club. We don’t really have a dollar amount yet. We don’t, we’re sort of in the brainstorming mode so we wanted to come to you guys and just let you know what we were thinking and you guys could kick around some ideas and we’d like to get together again later and just do some more brainstorming. Maybe offline if necessary. A couple of things, and I put them on the pamphlet. Basically it’s our projects that we’re currently involved in for those that don’t know the Lions Club very well. We’re always recruiting good members, although that’s not why we’re here. We’re involved in sight programs, health programs, youth volunteer opportunities, community environmental programs and disaster relief. Where we’d like to focus our area for a big project is in the youth and community areas. What we’ve got is, with this being our, next year being our hundredth year we’re talking about a big legacy project for the city and I guess you could use the word big is debatable. We’re not a big financial club but we’ve got some ideas and some things that we’d like to just kind of push out there and see if anything jumps out at you guys as a project you’d be interested in listening to. I’ll just kind of go down a list I kind of put together. They’re basically park and playground ideas. This is not on the list. This is just ideas I’ve jotted down to just kind of start a conversation. Shelter or a shelter repair. Playground upgrade. Repair. Maybe make a playground more inclusive if that’s an issue. We’re not looking to donate just for the sake of 2 Park and Recreation Commission – February 23, 2016 donating so if something doesn’t jump out that’s a good fit for both of us we could also be interested in talking to the school systems about maybe working with them somewhere. One of our mottos is we serve and where there’s a need there’s a Lion. That’s another big part of us. Talking about the parks, refurbish a basketball court. Climbing wall. Sandboxes and another idea, I don’t know if you guys remember these as kids. The lion water fountains maybe when you grew up you got a lion water fountain in your city. That could be another idea. Maybe donate a water fountain in the 3 big parks. Just something to start with. Anything you want to add Dave? Dave Ness: I just wanted to mention you know many of you have been to Lake Ann Park I’m sure and the Lions made a large financial commitment to the lighting of the fields at Lake Ann Park years ago. There’s a monument there dedicated to the Lions and just this fall we put a memorial bench there at the park in memory of past Lions, present Lions and Lions of the future so we’ve done a lot at Lake Ann. Maybe there’s an opportunity to do more but that’s an example of you know something that we’ve done in the past and you know something that we’d like to do as a legacy project. Lions International is emphasizing this centennial service project for 2016- 2017 so we have some time. 2017 is the centennial and we just want to do something big and partner with the City and like Glenn said we’re just here to brainstorm and certainly we don’t expect to nail anything down tonight but just kind of plant the seed. Glenn Kaufmann: So I guess I’d welcome any questions, comments and I understand it’s kind on the spot so I don’t expect any if there are none. It’s fine. We can come back another time. Kelly: Any questions right now? No I think this is a wonderful idea to do something for the City and I appreciate you coming tonight and offering you know services and/or something else because it’s a lot of these things that you brought up are a lot of things we’ve been talking about lately in the city so it’s timely for us also so we will take into consideration and try to figure out where a good place for you to fit in and have some dialogue with you in the future. Thank you very much for being here tonight. Glenn Kaufmann: Okay, thanks. Any other visitors other than the subdivision or Roundhouse? No other visitors. APPROVAL OF MINUTES: Boettcher moved, Echternacht seconded to approve the verbatim and summary Minutes of the Park and Recreation Commission meeting dated January 26, 2016 as presented. All voted in favor and the motion carried unanimously with a vote of 7 to 0. RECOMMENDATION TO CITY COUNCIL REGARDING PARK AND TRAIL CONDITIONS OF APPROVAL FOR PROPOSED WILSON TREE FARM SUBDIVISION; GONYEA HOMES. 3 Park and Recreation Commission – February 23, 2016 Kelly: Todd let’s talk about new business. Let’s start with the Wilson Tree Farm subdivision please. Hoffman: Thank you Chair Kelly and members of the commission and I know we have some folks in the audience here for this application as well so welcome and we’ll walk through a presentation. Have some time for questions and input from the applicant and maybe some of the neighbors and then take questions from the commission prior to your recommendation to the City Council on this item. For everyone in the audience the Park and Recreation Commission is an advisory body to the City Council. They make recommendations and then the City Council takes the final action. So this is the proposed Wilson Tree Farm subdivision by Gonyea Homes. The site has proposed 46 single family lots. 45 of those are new lots. One is an existing lot that has been brought into the subdivision. It’s just about 40 total acres plus the 3.78 acre remnant parcel for Lot 46 as you’ll see on the plan. The site’s currently utilized by Wilson Nursery as a distribution yard. It had an active tree farm some time ago. They’ve since moved west of the metropolitan area and have a much larger tree farm there but they utilize this property as an office site. Distribution yard up until this time. And as I mentioned one of the 2 adjoining properties, residential properties, single family home is joining in the subdivision. We’ll talk about existing parks and trail improvements. There’ll be a description after this slide as well so we can show you in a visual diagram. So we have the Fox Woods Preserve which is just west of here. It’s 50 acres of woods and wetlands direction adjoins the subdivision on the western boundary. A little history of that, if you recall in the 90’s there was a referendum put forth with citizen really initiation about setting aside some land during the high point of development in our community for open space preservation and this property which is now the Fox Woods Preserve was subsequently purchased after that successful referendum was passed by the citizens of our town. And so you’ll take a look at that. The exciting thing about this subdivision is that this will offer the first public access to that property so it’s been quite some time since the property was acquired and since it did not have public access adjacent to it the public did not have readily available access. This subdivision will bring that first public access to the site. Trails, benches and overlooks will be added and the site plan for this shows the Gonyea property is this piece of property right here in the center. To the west is the Fox Woods Preserve and it’s actually been enlarged to the north of this property which was excess Trunk Highway 212 right-of-way was added and so this entire parcel now is the Fox Woods Preserve. Again the Wilson property we’re talking about here tonight. The 2 residential lots that we’ll discuss. This first one is the one that is being involved in this subdivision planning. The second one is not. And then just across the street Highway 101 is Bandimere Community Park and the exciting thing there is that with the trail underpass that was put in with the upgrade of Trunk Highway 101, residents on both sides of Highway, Trunk Highway 101, both current and future will have convenient access back and forth underneath that highway. So that’s how the site lays out. Bandimere Community Park is 45 acres of active and passive park amenities. It has ballfields, playgrounds, a disc golf course, walking trails. A future hockey rink that is going to be under construction this year and sport courts. The most recent addition to Bandimere Park were these 2 lots. Single family residential lots which were purchased and added to the park as a part of the road project and then when the new entrance was put in Bandimere Park. Trails are important in our community. We 4 Park and Recreation Commission – February 23, 2016 have an existing Highway 101 pedestrian trails. We’ll talk about an extension of the Highway 101 pedestrian trail on the west side of Trunk Highway 101. It stopped at the underpass. It does not go north currently. This subdivision will allow an opportunity for that trail to be extended. The Bandimere Park pedestrian underpass which is in place and then future connecting trails and sidewalks that would be built at the time of development to gain access to the future residential lots in the subdivision. So the red lines are in place. Primarily the trails that you see along Trunk Highway 101 and those were both in place prior to and then even further enhanced as a part of the road project. The underpass at this location. So this is where we stop currently and then as a part of this subdivision, which only includes you know we’re talking about this property from this point south to this point so they have that section of 101 trail directly adjacent to their property. We would like to work with them to build this entire piece down to here and we’ll talk about who pays for what as a part of that. Most of the costs are born by the City but they would bear some of the cost in this piece since it is contiguous to their project. The other lines would be sidewalks that go down the residential properties. The two connections into the Fox Woods Preserve. One from this cul-de-sac and then one down from this cul-de-sac and so now you have public access into what will be a nature preserve with natural trails. Some hard surface trails but mostly, primarily woodchip or natural trails. That property has been actively managed for buckthorn removal over the past 10 years and so the woods is in great shape and it’s got some really nice views. Good wildlife viewing in there and so this will be an attribute obviously not just to these homes but anybody who once there is public access chooses to take advantage of the property and take a walk there. And then a future trail along what would be the next subdivision south, whenever that comes in. It would allow people to come through the underpass, down the 101 trail and then directly into the Fox Woods Preserve on this trail alignment. It’s also, you’ll see it on the plan there’s at least discussion of a potential trail, probably a natural surface trail just coming directly out of the box culvert to wrap around the back side of these properties. Now these are privately owned properties. The one is involved in the subdivision so we’re requesting an easement there to allow that trail but the second one is not involved and so we would not have the ability to build that trail there today and acquisition of either an outlot or a trail easement or, would have to occur at some point in the future. When that land goes through some sort of other transaction. Proposed motion which I won’t read but it has all the different things that we’ll talk about tonight. Park dedication fees are paid in lieu of gaining additional property. The dedication of that outlot adjacent to Lot 32 and across this other part of Lot 46 which we just talked about. And then the planning and engineering building of those trails and as we go through tonight if there’s further explanation of those proposed motions. These are conditions of approval and so when people bring in property for subdivision then the City has the ability to apply conditions of approval as a part of that subdivision process to make sure that all of the elements of the Comprehensive Plan are taking place. Parks, trails, transportation, sewer and water and so that’s how these conditions are applied and then when it goes forward all of these conditions are then added to what happens at the Planning Commission which is even a much more robust set of conditions that are applied at that time. So the payment of park fees in lieu of parkland dedication. Park fees are currently $5,800 per home or for this subdivision that would be $261,000 in total paid at the time of platting. The existing home is not, does not have to pay a park fee but all the new ones would and then these dollars would be 5 Park and Recreation Commission – February 23, 2016 in turn, turned around to help utilize to financial the construction of the Highway 101 trail extension and so, but you have options as a park commission and as a community. You could say well we don’t want to take the cash. We want to take land. We further want to expand like the Fox Woods Preserve. That’s an option but in this case you also at some point need to accept those cash fees so you can pay for other improvements in the vicinity of the development. So it’s always a balance on which way you should go with the City and the voters purchasing that Bandimere Park property in the past, it offers these homes very nice access to open space and in staff’s opinion additional acquisition is not necessary at this time. The trail outlets, so we need a trail outlot at this point for this access so you always want to have public property so the public can gain access along that trail and so there would be one public outlot here. One public outlot down here. And then the other one we’re talking about is across 46 and so in the, at the bottom of the slope on 46 coming across with an outlot at that point and then it’s not defined but getting an outlot through here so you could bring a trail from the underpass, which is right at this location, across the back of these 2 lots and then gain access over to the street. Typically trails, people really appreciate when there’s a looping type of configuration when they can take a walk in the evening or the morning and if they have more loops, opportunities available that’s a nice thing and so that’s just a potential for a future trail connection and it makes a direct connection to an underpass which is a big piece of public infrastructure already in place. As long as you have it there you might as well take advantage of it to the best of your ability. Planning and engineering construction of the Highway 101 trail extension. We talked about that and so this is the piece we’re looking to build as a part of this subdivision so we get involved with not only planning for roads and lots and sewer and water but also planning for the final connection to this trail and it was discussed at the time of the Highway 101 road project that why should we stop it here. You know let’s continue it up and then it was determined at that point that this section would be built when the Wilson Tree Farm came in to allow for you know constructing everything all at one time instead of doing the trail first and then maybe having to change grades or take a section of the trail out when that property came in and so it was determined to wait until this property was developed for that section of trail to be built. This is a sketch of area wide trails and connections that could be built as a part of this entire area. You have Lyman Boulevard on the north. 212 on the west. Highway 101 at this location. Bandimere Park. The Gonyea subdivision in the center and then the Fox Woods Preserve. These red trails are nature trails or natural surface trails and then basically an asphalt trail looping this entire region. Taking advantage of all the different corridors that you have available and so residents in this subdivision, the future subdivision to the south but then also residents in the entire area. Across the road to the east. Back to the northeast can gain access to this as a recreational amenity to make, improve their lives and so it’s going to be a nice system when it’s all said and done and most of these type of trails are done concurrent with development so when development or subdivision is occurring then you gain access to those properties and you start finishing out these trail networks. So that’s that current concept. I’d be happy to answer any questions from the commission. The audience as well. Would like to hear from the applicant and then any other interested parties before we move on with the commission. Kelly: Thank you Todd. Why don’t we hear from the applicant right now. 6 Park and Recreation Commission – February 23, 2016 Bill Coffman: Good evening commissioner members of the commission, my name is Bill Coffman. I’m with Gonyea Homes. Office address 1000 Boone Avenue, Golden Valley. We concur with staff’s recommendations. We’re pretty excited about this project of course. We think staff’s done a nice job laying out the trails. Our new neighbors will greatly appreciate all the opportunity to get into that woods which has been very well maintained. I mean it’s a joy to walk out there now even when you’re on the Wilson property but other than that I’ll be available for any questions but we concur with staff’s recommendations. Kelly: Questions for Bill or Todd right now? So Bill pushing your subdivision when you’re trying to sell it you do push the trails quite a bit as part of the features or how do you? Bill Coffman: Oh absolutely. Kelly: So how do you present that to people, just out of curiosity. Bill Coffman: Just as an amenity. Pretty straight forward quite frankly. Everybody likes to get out and walk and some of those trees in there are just, it’s one of the nicest wooded areas in the southwest metro in my opinion. I think Todd may concur with that. Kelly: Other questions? Comments. Thank you Bill. Bill Coffman: You bet. Kelly: Somebody want to, do we want to have further discussion or are we going to put it to the question? Hoffman: I don’t know if there’s any other. Kelly: Oh I’m sorry, is there any other. I apologize. Anybody else want to get up and comment on the Wilson subdivision? Okay. Carron: I just have one question Todd. Can you, do you have an idea or maybe Bill would too. What’s the change in contour from the Lot 46 down to the wetland? Approximate. Bill Coffman: It’s fairly steep that rear yard of Lot 46 which actually is the Paulson’s lot and Paul and Carol Paulson are here tonight. I don’t know the actual contour without looking at the map but it’s probably 20 feet. Paul Paulson: I think it’s closer to 100 feet. Bill Coffman: 100 feet from your. 7 Park and Recreation Commission – February 23, 2016 Paul Paulson: I think the lower level, lower area is about 880 and the upper level, well actually it’s about 930 so that’s more… Bill Coffman: About 50 feet from their, so it’s fairly steep so that future trail will be on a side slope which is somewhat problematic to be honest with you. Carron: Okay, thank you. Hougham: Todd do we have an estimate of the price for these extended trails? Hoffman: We do not at this time. Hougham: That the City portion would be. When would we have that? Or at what point in the process. Hoffman: So once this subdivision comes in and is officially applied and then we don’t have a submittal at this point so once we get a little farther in the process with the Planning Commission, the City Council then we’ll go out and start taking a look at those costs and you know it’s going to be a part of their subdivision so the cost estimating will actually become, they’ll be delivering that information to us. Kelly: Other questions? Somebody want to make a proposal? Carron: I’ll make a motion that the Park and Rec Commission recommend to the City Council to apply the following conditions and approval of concerns for the parks and trails for the proposed subdivision at the Wilson Tree Farm property at Gonyea Homes, 1, 2, 3 and 4 as written on the memorandum H-1. Including the information in regards to the trail and how that will all be divvied up between the parties. Kelly: We have a motion on, as spelled on out H-1 without any changes. Is there a second? Boettcher: Second. Kelly: And a second. Carron moved, Boettcher seconded that the Park and Recreation Commission recommends that the City Council apply the following conditions of approval concerning parks and trails for the proposed subdivision of the Wilson Tree Farm Property by Gonyea Homes: 1. Full park dedication fees shall be collected per city ordinance in lieu of requiring parkland dedication; and 8 Park and Recreation Commission – February 23, 2016 2. Dedication of an outlot adjacent to Lot 32 to accommodate future construction of a trail; and 3. Planning, engineering and construction of two planned 10 foot wide trail connections leading from two cul-de-sacs into the Fox Woods Preserve; and 4. Planning, engineering and construction of a planned 10 foot wide Highway 101 trail connection between the current trail terminus at the Bandimere Park Pedestrian Underpass and the northern terminus of the plat adjacent to and along Highway 101. Trail right-of-ways within the subdivision shall be provided within outlots as a condition of the plat. Acquisition of trail easements outside of the plat shall be the responsibility of the City of Chanhassen. The Developer shall be responsible for the installation and payment of the two planned 10 foot wide trail connections leading from two cul-de-sacs into the Fox Woods Preserve. For those sections of the Highway 101 trail situated north and south of their property boundaries, the Developer shall be reimbursed by the City of Chanhassen for the full cost of planning, engineering and construction of a planned 10 foot wide Highway 101 trail connection between the current trail terminus at the Bandimere Park Pedestrian Underpass and the northern terminus of the plat along Highway 101. For that section of the Highway 101 trail located within or adjacent to the Developer’s project boundary, the applicant shall be reimbursed by the City for the cost of the aggregate base, trail surfacing, retaining walls and storm water systems utilized to construct the trail. This reimbursement payment shall be made upon completion and acceptance of the trail and receipt of an invoice documenting the actual costs for the construction materials noted. Labor and installation for the trail surface and design, and engineering and testing services for all components of the Developer’s section are not reimbursable expenses. All trails shall be 10 feet in width, surfaced with asphalt and constructed to meet city specifications. All voted in favor and the motion carried unanimously with a vote of 7 to 0. Hoffman: Thanks folks. We’ll be in touch. It’s really exciting to have that many new lots in town. It’s been a while since we’ve seen that size of subdivision. It’s a beautiful area of the city and so looking forward to it. RECOMMENDATION TO CITY COUNCIL TO APPROVE ROUNDHOUSE PARK SPORT COURT IMPROVEMENTS INCLUDING ONE TENNIS COURT, FOUR 9 Park and Recreation Commission – February 23, 2016 PICKLEBALL COURTS AND ONE-HALF COURT BASKETBALL AND ADVANCEMENT TO THE 2016 PARK FUND CIP. Kelly: Todd I think we’re now going to talk about Roundhouse improvements and the park fund. Hoffman: Thank you Chair Kelly, members of the commission. We also have a presentation to go through about Roundhouse Park. So these are proposed Roundhouse Park sport court improvements. There’s the proposed motion for this evening for your consideration that the commission recommends the City Council approve the construction of Roundhouse Park sport court improvements that include 1 tennis court, 4 pickleball courts and 1 half basketball court. Advance the project to 2016. You currently have some dollars in 2017 for a sport court project but this recommendation brings that forward to 2016 and amend the maximum budget expenditure to $254,000 for those improvements which includes not just construction but planning, engineering, testing, all the costs involved in that potential project. So a little bit of park history on the Roundhouse Park. It’s an 8.29 acre piece of property known as Roundhouse Park acquired in 1995 as a part of a subdivision, just like the one we saw here this evening and so in that case the City and the neighbors of that area really desired a park. A neighborhood park in the Minnewashta area. As you can imagine the negotiation to get the lakeshore was a little bit of a challenge. The developer wanted to keep that for their subdivision but the neighbors and the City has the option, when you take park dedication you can take the first property that you see fit and so we said we’ll take the lakeshore first, which put the park about halfway back and then we said we would like to acquire through cash purchase the rest of it and so we dug back into the park dedication fund at that time so we utilized all the park dedication we had available to us as a part of that subdivision and then took some cash and bought the rest of the park to make it the full size that you see today. After ’97, so in ’97 construction of the parking lot and pedestrian trails happened and then things that have been happening since that, the children’s playground, open playfield, half court basketball, swimming beach, fishing pier, renovations of the round house and most recently the construction of an open air picnic shelter. That was one of Mayor Furlong’s initiatives as he left office. He saw an inequity in our new parks having picnic shelters, open air picnic shelters and our existing parks not having them so he advanced that through the support of the remainder of the City Council so now all of our parks are getting one in the next 5 years. One thing I think as we get into conversation this evening it’s important for everybody to realize and understand is that there’s always this public process going on as a part of park acquisition and development and so this same type of meeting was taking place 15 years ago so what you currently see there today is based off of a master plan that had public input. Park board review. City Council approval and so what you currently have in the plan is built based on that master plan that was approved at that time. When people talk about new improvements they would like to see, other things they would like to see that’s perfectly acceptable but that just takes a change to the master plan. It takes this group to make a recommendation after hearing from the neighborhoods and then for the City Council to support that change as a part of the master plan. So just need to understand the process as we move through making changes to these public park spaces. So to that effort last year in the summer 10 Park and Recreation Commission – February 23, 2016 you said let’s have a meeting with this park neighborhood. Talk about what the neighbors, you know what’s been going on. What would they like to see changed. What would they like to see added and so last July the Park and Recreation Commission conducted a neighborhood meeting at Roundhouse Park to talk about you know what the neighborhood was most interested in for future improvements and I think you had pretty good participation. I would say this neighborhood has always been pretty involved and so I like to see them here again this evening and so they have that reputation from the start. I think Commissioner Hougham and others gathered some information about you know what did people want through an email correspondence and then a survey that was taking place that day and so through that tennis came out on top. Basketball had 7. Pickleball 4. Playground upgrades. Hockey. Soccer with a temporary net. Softball and then just leave the park alone and so we’re here to hear, tonight we can hear more about are these still where the folks that are represented here tonight is this what they see is important or do they want to see other things happen as well. So subsequent to that meeting the park commission in August made a recommendation to the City Council to put $135,000 in 2017 for a sport court so yet to defined what that was at that time and then there was th some neighborhood follow-up. Some folks came in on December 14 to a City Council meeting to encourage the construction of a sport court improvements in 2016 instead of 2017 and so that was about 10 or a dozen people came to that meeting at the City Council level. Concurrent with the original construction of Roundhouse Park a pad, a grading was put in place that would accommodate the future double tennis court and so the original master plan had a double tennis court on it. That’s what everybody agreed at that time would be important and there just was not financing. The City had just acquired the property and spent those dollars for the acquisition of the back half. Done some of the parking lot and trail improvements and so there just wasn’t cash left at that time for a double tennis court and then admittedly it was some years between that time when that was built and the next conversation about what should be happening took place but a half court basketball facility was constructed in one corner of that pad and that’s been in place for approximately 15 years. So the current plan increase the scope of the work to include 6 individual court surfaces. One tennis and 4 pickleball in one location. On the pad where currently the half court basketball is and then taking a separate half court basketball court and moving it across the parking lot over to a flat spot which is currently utilized for open skate in the winter and soccer and other sports in the summer. And so this would increase the project budget from $135,000 to $254,000. Increasing the budget and advancing the work to 2016. You currently have $775,000 worth of projects allocated for 2016. This would increase that to a $1,029,000. And then taking that project out of 2017, the $135,000 would just decrease your projects in 2017 from $370,000 to $235,000. Here’s the plan. This is the Roundhouse Park in it’s entirety with the beachfront. Minnewashta Parkway. The round house is located here. The new open air shelter at this location on the knoll above the playground. For those curious the playground always included a phase 1 and phase 2. Phase 2 was never constructed and I don’t think it makes good sense to put in phase 2 until this is all redeveloped and phase 1 and phase 2 is for age groups and so the current playground is for ages 5 through 12 and then there’s a phase 2 or a 2 through 5 playground that would go in and so in the future when this playground is redeveloped that would be the time to come in. Change the surfacing to probably an engineered wood fiber instead of pea gravel and then construct a new 5 to 12 playground and add a 2 to 5 11 Park and Recreation Commission – February 23, 2016 playground for toddlers. The court improvements are scheduled for here on top of that existing pad and so you can see by the configuration it can either be 2 tennis courts in that same configuration or you take out a tennis and you can put 4 pickleball courts in and I think the gain of popularity of pickleball nationwide and then the success of the pickleball courts at the Rec Center you know are advancing this sport. It seems to be a sport that generally older folks were playing but now I think that’s changing where there’s all sorts of ages of people that are starting to play pickleball. The one thing to consider is that you can always modify once you have this pavement in place you can always modify it and so some people say that tennis won’t be popular. We’ll make more pickleball. Some people say pickleball won’t be popular, we’ll make more tennis and so you have that option in the future. It’s really just making a decision about what’s best to do today. And then the basketball over at this location. This still leaves plenty of room for open skate and I know this is another topic of conversation among neighbors. One of the original master plans they had a hockey rink at this location and then the boards were never built and so there’s lots of discussion about is that a good place for hockey. Open skate is just not that popular because you can’t play hockey when you have hockey boards and you have lights it’s much more popular. That would be a significant investment in this park and then also visually on that corner would present you know a pretty large structure on that particular corner to put hockey at that location so that’s another conversation you know that can be raised this evening. And then this open play field, one of the things going on in baseball is there was always kind of a small baseball field put in at just about every park but you can play baseball on an open field as well and so at the time the neighbors decided that they just wanted an open play field but this could be manufactured. Graded. Changed into a, you could create a small baseball field there. You could create a small soccer field at this location. The proximity to the road is a little bit of a challenge so it’s a pretty good sized park. You can modify things into the future but those are primarily the open space sites that could be looked at for future development. So as I talked about at the start City Council approval is needed to amend the project budget to advance the project construction from 2017 to 2016. Thanks to the neighbors for your continued involvement and participation in planning and the maintenance of Roundhouse Park. There’s our summer playground program that takes place so that’s called Summer Discovery Playground. Neighborhood kids can come down and participate in playground programs. Staff’s happy to answer any questions about the proposal you have before you tonight and then any other general questions. When we get this many neighbors out it’s nice to listen to hear what they are thinking about their park and take that input as well so thank you. Kelly: Thank you Todd. I think what we’ll do is we’ll start with neighborhood input before we start asking questions and when you come up here please give us your name and your address. Thank you. John Saindon: Hello. My name is John Saindon. I live at 4181 White Oak Lane. A couple concerns about the park and really it’s a wonderful park. It’s very open park and there’s quite a few things there that I really like about it. One concern I have about the, well and Todd you already kind of answered a question already. You know what does the future hold for the court. The tennis courts and the pickleball court because I’m wondering okay what’s going to be 12 Park and Recreation Commission – February 23, 2016 popular now and later and so, so I mean is pickleball going to go down. Not be as popular in 10 years or 15 years so I’d like to make sure that we have that opportunity, maybe turn that into a tennis court later on if it’s possible but you already answered my question on that. Another concern is about the basketball court. Half court which I like and you moved it over. Is ice going to be covered, or if you have ice are you going to have ice covering that area? Hoffman: We don’t have to. There’s enough room there left for the open skate area without putting ice on top of it. John Saindon: Right because if you did that actually might ruin the court so. Going back to the tennis courts. I want to make sure it is accessible meaning that handicap accessible so if you go from the parking lot into the tennis courts or pickleball court, is it you know level and it’s not too hard for these people in wheelchairs to move into the tennis courts. Another thing about tennis courts that I have is, I noticed that there’s no gate or door on the side of the tennis courts. Is that right Todd? Hoffman: Correct. John Saindon: Okay. Is it possible that you could put a door there or a gate there just because and let’s say somebody hit the tennis ball over the court, well they have to go through the pickleball courts and go all the way around. Hoffman: Oh we did put a corner gate in just for that reason. John Saindon: Okay, good. I didn’t quite see it. Hoffman: And then the opening coming through the pickleballs is wide enough for a handicap accessibility and then the trail down from there to the parking lot would be maintained at a slope so that would be accessible. John Saindon: Okay, great. Okay that’s it, thank you. Kelly: Thank you John. Adam Welsch: Hi. Adam Welsch, 4140 Lakeridge Road. I live on the other side of Lake St. Joe from the park. When I bought my house about 8 ½ years ago we bought it, the Roundhouse Park was one of the big selling points to buy the house. My house has a bad slope. We don’t have very usable, a good usable yard so the park has been a god send. We, I brought my kids there every summer. My kids are in the playground program and we love it and I’m really in favor of a lot of these improvements. Just a couple things I’d like to say. I would love for the basketball court to have a hoop that can be the kind that are adjustable from 10 feet down to 8 feet because children can’t really use them when they’re at 10 feet and I think, I know I was at the meeting during the summer and one of the comments was the courts really aren’t used that 13 Park and Recreation Commission – February 23, 2016 much and I think they’d be used a lot more if they could be adjustable. On the basketball pickleball courts I don’t see on the plan any provision for trees and as a tennis player having shade is very important. There’s really, if you’re at the park it’s a beautiful park but there isn’t a lot of shade in the park and to be able to sit down on the side of the court and rest with some shade would be nice. Also at the meeting last summer there was discussion about is there a way to have a drinking fountain installed. Nobody was sure at that point whether that was possible. If it is possible that would also be nice. I’m not a big pickleball fan. I have played it. The fact that it could be converted in the future if it wasn’t popular anymore is good. I noticed in one of the plays it was written up, it was said that the tennis courts can be striped to accommodate pickleball but the opposite is not true so I guess I would be more in favor of having 2 tennis courts with one being able to be converted back and forth between tennis and pickleball. That seems like a more flexible use of the facilities. Oh and I love the open, the open part of the park that he talked about earlier is terrific. We can play soccer there. We can play baseball there. You can also fly kites there. I think it should be left that way and a softball field or a soccer field should not be put there. The only other question I had was on the basketball, is there a reason that a full basketball court wasn’t thought of since I assume you would not have the skating rink would not bend around the court. You’d probably only put it to the side so is there any drawback to having a full basketball court as opposed to half and that’s the only other thing I’d say. Thank you. Kelly: Thank you Adam. I’ll address one of your question that has to do with the water fountain. We checked into that and we could put water in if there was running water like at the roundhouse and there isn’t and the cost is prohibitive to put it in so it won’t happen. We looked into it and it would have been a nice thing to have but it’s not going to happen I can tell you that right now. Thank you for getting up. Anybody else like to get up? Sue Morgan: Hello, my name is Sue Morgan. I live at 4031 Kings Road directly across from the park. I think the improvements are a great idea. The only concern I have and being a master gardener is Scotty, a master water steward is that there’s some drainage issues and I was wondering, I saw that there’s some money set aside for evaluating soil and soil amendments that maybe there could be water gardens or something put in because that’s a ton of asphalt that we’re adding to that park and it would be nice, and Lake St. Joe is a natural environment lake, that we have some way of kind of holding some of that water back out of the lake. Hoffman: That’s a great idea. Sue Morgan: So if we could incorporate that that’d be great. Hoffman: So the planning to this point is basically schematic and then once we get approval then we go to more detailed planning. We talk about water runoff and grading, soil conditions and so we’ll take that into consideration as we move through. Same with landscaping. Trees going in. 14 Park and Recreation Commission – February 23, 2016 Sue Morgan: Yeah. Hoffman: Propose some benches with shade because you’re not going to have shade right away. And the other thing was courts, you don’t want to put trees directly adjacent because they do harm the surface over time and so you never really want to shade courts. Provide shade in the general area. Sue Morgan: That’d be great because every year they take down more trees but none have been planted for quite a while so it’d be nice if we could add some back. Great, thanks. Kelly: Thank you Sue. Sue Morgan: You’re welcome. Kelly: John come back up. John Saindon: Thank you. I forgot the one thing. About the tennis courts, can you, is it possible to put in some sort of barrier on the fence for wind resistance for those who play tennis or pickleball. The other thing is, is it possible to put a lighting on the tennis courts and pickleball court and put it on a timer? So for example you know maybe you want the time, the lights to shut off at you know 10:00 or at night for the neighbors so maybe not too late but is it possible? I think it’s a good idea to have lights at night maybe some people want to play tennis but then again I really don’t want to disturb the people, the neighbors that are right next to the park. I’m concerned about that too so. Sue Morgan: Can I come up again? Kelly: Come on up Sue. Sue Morgan: I live directly across the courts and people play basketball at 11:00-12:00 at night with just the lights in the park at this point in time. I would appreciate that there aren’t any lights on the courts at night because my bedroom is right across from the park so. Kelly: Thank you for those comments. If we were to put in lights it would probably increase the cost of what we’re looking at between 50 and 100 percent so that’s not likely to happen. I can tell you that right now and it’s not going to be taken up. Hoffman: And by policy typically lighting takes place in community parks in our community so neighborhood parks, just for some of the reasons we talked about. I can’t think of a lighted facility that we have in a neighborhood park. Community parks are where we put the athletic lights or tennis court lights. Not at neighborhood parks. Echternacht: Todd I do see that we do have a light for skating. 15 Park and Recreation Commission – February 23, 2016 Hoffman: Yep, for winter skating. Kelly: Anybody else like to get up and make a comment? Andreas Gehring: Hi, my name is Andreas Gehring. I’m at 3900 Minnewashta Court. I just live down the road from the park and I appreciate everybody coming out and voicing your opinion and including the rest of us in this discussion. I’m actually a big hockey fan and my number one vote would be for a hockey rink down there but I do appreciate trying to include as many things as we can. You must be a pretty strong pickleball lobby going on. Maybe we over estimated it’s popularity and I do like that they are thinking ahead of functionality and being able to make adjustments depending on that so I support the, either 2 tennis courts or 1 tennis court and 1 multi-use. If there was a huge cost savings involved by not having the secondary pad for the basketball and including that in the tennis courts, maybe one side of the tennis courts could be tennis courts and basketball. Maybe reduce the amount of pickleball. Something where we could save costs and maybe reserve funds for future planning and possibly a hockey rink. That’s all I have, thank you. Kelly: Thank you Andreas. Andreas Gehring: That would also save space for expanding the parking lot on the opposite side. Kelly: Anybody else like to get up and make a comment? Okay, moving right along. Questions for Todd. Todd I’m curious, we had the funds in 2017 and we’ve increased the funds and moved them back into 2016. I’m curious why we did that. Hoffman: The enthusiasm for something to happen in this park was pretty evident and it has been pretty evident so just to get a project going and underway. If you leave it in 2017 then you don’t have it til 2018. If you build it this year with the enthusiasm that was shown then you can build it in 2016 and get playing in 2017. So we went through the timeline. It’s been quite some time since we’ve been out in Roundhouse Park. It’s a nice neighborhood park. It’s kind of, for those familiar with our community, we have 2 parks that are very similar. North Lotus Lake Park and Minnewashta, Roundhouse Park on Minnewashta Parkway and so even though they are neighborhood parks they’re a little bit larger because we have neighborhoods that are isolated from the remainder of the community and so to get out of this neighborhood and get to another location is difficult and so we’ve always seen, that was one of the basis points for acquiring such, so much property in the beginning. To be able to add additional amenities because it is a little bit different situation. There’s a lot of people that live in this area. Along the parkway. They have great access on the trail so it’s just to advance the project and get something underway to capitalize on that enthusiasm that you have through your neighborhood park meeting and the follow up that you had here at the City Council meeting this past December. Kelly: Thank you Todd. Other questions? 16 Park and Recreation Commission – February 23, 2016 Thunberg: Just following up on that Cole. Bringing the 2016 expenditures up over a million dollars is something that makes me a little nervous. I don’t, and I apologize for not bringing it with me but does anybody recall what, what we have in there? Thank you. Hougham: I have a question in the meantime. Thunberg: Go ahead. Hougham: Is there anyone here to talk to the pickleball request? I’m just interested in learning more about that and their request for the pickleball. Hoffman: The pickleball association, they’ve got a robust association. Some of the folks that live here are involved in that. I requested that they not, they could have filled this room with 100 people if we would have let them. I requested that they not do that but these pickleball courts you know will be utilized. We’ve been hearing things that you know the tennis isn’t going to get utilized. The pickleball’s not going to get utilized. I think as a city and as a commission we’re probably at a point where we have to make a decision and the pickleball courts at the Rec Center are highly utilized. You could build 2 courts. You could build 4 courts. I think it’s, I don’t think it’s a trend. I think it’s something you’re going to see into the future where you’re going to go back. Many cities are taking out tennis and putting in pickleball because they might have 6 tennis courts and they’ve transformed 2 of them into 4 pickleball courts so, but I don’t know if there’s any pickleball folks here tonight. If we would have told them to show up, they’d have filled this room. Audience: There’s some of us here. Hoffman: You’re awful quiet. You might want to say hi. Audience: We’re listening. Hougham: Will you tell us a little bit about how pickleball is played or what it look likes because it’s not with a pickle. Jeanette June: I heard it’s named after a guy’s dog… Hello my name is Jeanette June. 960 Daylily Drive. Actually I live in Victoria but you can see that the Pickleball Association covers many areas and so, and I belong to the Pickleball Association so Minnetonka, Chan, Chaska, Victoria, all of us belong to the association. Pickleball is played on a smaller court than a tennis court. It’s about the size of a badminton court. The net is lower and you play with, looks like a ping pong paddle and a whiffle ball. So we are so appreciative of the courts at Chanhassen. Many people from Eden Prairie come out to play on those courts and you know there are 6 courts there. The outside courts and those many times in the summer are completely filled and we have at least 10 or 12 people waiting to play. Same thing on the indoor courts at the Chan Rec Center 17 Park and Recreation Commission – February 23, 2016 that we set up 3 courts and on Friday afternoons that thing is completely filled. All courts are busy and we had 20 people waiting to play so it’s a very popular sport. Questions? Thank you. Hougham: Yeah, I’ve got a question. How do you foresee the use of the Roundhouse Park courts? Would that be for extra people as just recreation outside of that association or would the association use it? Jeanette June: Oh sure, sure, yes. We are always encouraging anybody who wants to play that we will teach them to play. We’ve got extra paddles and pickleballs and so that anybody that shows up, we teach them and we’ve offered several introductory clinics over the years for people to play. We will, we’d love to have everybody come out and join us. Boettcher: So would this, excuse me. Would this also include, because I know at the Rec Center I’ve driven through there and I’ve seen the people waiting and they don’t look happy but talking about following up on Jennifer’s question as far as let’s say matches and stuff, would you even take overflow from the Chan Rec Center? Was that anticipated to use these 4 courts like we do with baseball and softball in the summertime? Some goes to Lake Ann. There’s overflow that goes to Lake Susan Park, Bandimere or whatever, would you anticipate even using these courts and then what would that do as far as the neighborhood if all of a sudden you fill the court with people playing pickleball from Victoria, Chaska, whatever? Not that that’s, we don’t want you here but how would that affect the neighborhood since this is a neighborhood park instead of a community? Jeanette June: When people show up to a place always totally open we’d just, and we rotate people in or out and you know it’s not exactly like tennis where you play with the same people all the time so we rotate people for example if you know you win 2 games and you sit out and take a turn playing but I don’t see us taking over the Roundhouse Park, yeah. Yeah. A lot of it depends on the time. Since it’s outdoor it’s totally open, you know totally open. Karin Maas: May I just back you on this? My name is Karin Maas, 4151 Red Oak Lane. Jerry Maas is my father-in-law. Jeanette June: Oh okay. Karin Maas: He’s Mr. Pickleball. And I’m not here to rah rah pickleball or anything. I just want to tell you what I at least can see for the park. I lived at this address for 15 years so when we first moved in it was a round house sitting there that I didn’t know if it was or was not occupied. A new playground which we were thrilled at because we had small children and a basketball court I guess that we don’t play basketball so that wasn’t a thing and then all of this grass with a few trees and we have used it as our children have grown in different ways so we’ve appreciated it being a neighborhood park. The tennis court idea is fantastic I think because we would go over to Cathcart and attempt and play but what I like about the pickleball idea is that if you have small children, smaller children you can still get them with a tennis racquet and you’re 18 Park and Recreation Commission – February 23, 2016 not looking at a gigantic tennis net. You’re not looking at the big long court. You’re looking at a much smaller, less intimidating perhaps court. Whether you know you’re all playing pickleball or you know these two, a mom and a daughter or son and whatever are playing just a little tennis back and forth, it’s a great space for that kind of a thing too I think. It doesn’t have to be all pickleball. It could be testing our tennis too. And I do know that pickleball is, my, people that I know that play it will say, oh I used to play tennis but I can’t my shoulder or I can’t, so it’s a little slower game and easier in some ways whether you are young and old and I do think that as much as I may hate to admit it from my father-in-law because he’s gung ho about it but it is up and coming. I think it’s out there and whether you’re young or old people are playing pickleball so, and since I’m here and you know who I am I just want to say that I’m sorry, I’m not a hockey fan although we are in the land of hockey. What I do enjoy about the Roundhouse Park in the wintertime is the frozen ice rink but at any time when I drive by there I can see a mom and a dad and a small child with a chair you know figuring out how to skate. I can also see the pick up hockey game that kids and dads can come out and they play so I don’t think that, the fact that we just have frozen ice there is an inviting space for young and old and athletic or just playing a game. I have noticed in our neighborhood over the years if they are gung ho about hockey and they don’t want to be in that spot, they’re putting a rink in their yard. We are fortunate enough to have yards that are large enough that you could do that thing so it hasn’t stopped the people, and I do understand wanting to pick up big games and all but I like the idea that I can turn the corner and the park is still nice. I could use some trees someplace. Thanks. Kelly: Thank you for your comments Jeanette and I think you said your name was Kari but I wasn’t quite sure. Karin Maas: It’s Karin like in the garage. K-a-r-i-n. Kelly: Oh Karin. Karin Maas: And M-a-a-s. Kelly: Thank you for your comments. John you got another comment? John Saindon: Yeah I do. Is it possible that you could put a board where you could play tennis against the wall? Hoffman: Yep, that will go in. Kelly: Come on up Sue. Sue Morgan: Sue Morgan again at 4031 Kings Road. The only reservation I have and kind of flags go up when I hear about other neighborhoods, Victoria, Chaska playing pickleball in the community park because we have very limited parking and I know right now when we have, the small kids come in. They have their soccer tournaments or their football tournaments, there’s 19 Park and Recreation Commission – February 23, 2016 parking all the way down Kings Road and some on Minnewashta Parkway so the parking situation doesn’t lend itself to a lot of play from a lot of different towns so just if we can keep that in mind that that’s not being expanded even though the facilities are so. Kelly: Thank you Sue. Any other comments? Okay, other questions from the commission. Carron: Todd just to follow up with Sue, have we looked at what the existing parking lot can hold and what the potential might be? Expansion. Hoffman: Yeah the existing parking lot is you know you can call it the stalls. It’s not, it’s good size. It’s not extra large and then the thing with parking is, in a neighborhood parking setting you don’t want to build a really oversized parking lot. It’s just going to sit there so there’s going to be sometimes when this overflows into the street. Kings Road is not a bad place to park. I don’t, during typical times you know there’s busier times. The league play that she talks about, we don’t schedule that. It just pops up and so that’s neighborhood coaches that say hey, I’ve got a park down the street. Let’s schedule this and so that occurs so with the current parking that’s there and then the overflow on Kings Road I think can handle this. I don’t, we’ve never foreseen a parking lot expansion at this park. At least it’s just, it’s not come up. Carron: Okay and then following up with Adam’s question, do we have any adjustable hoops in the city now and if we do or don’t, what are the possibilities? Hoffman: We don’t. We could certainly give it a try. The challenge there is the abuse that they would take and so that’s, you know in a public park setting things have to be pretty sturdy. By design those are not necessarily sturdy because they’re mechanical and so there could be some damage but it’s not to say we couldn’t give it a try at some location. Carron: Okay. And then as you stated before this is pretty much a preliminary plan. We’ll get closer but can we just make a note that we’ll probably have to add a little trail spur coming off the trail to the parking lot with ADA access. Hoffman: Yep. Carron: Okay. And I think that’s about it. Thunberg: A couple questions Todd that were also brought up. I had similar questions. Was a full court basketball court looked at? Does that fit? And then does a tennis court allow you to put a basketball hoop on it? If the answer was just have a half court, could we instead do a half court with having one hoop on the tennis court? Hoffman: A full court was not looked at this location. Most all of our neighborhood parks it’s a half court basketball and again it’s just due to the nature of the use and so you know you have 24 parks to take care of in your city. If you put a double court or full court in all of them then you 20 Park and Recreation Commission – February 23, 2016 add those costs over time and so a half court, does that accommodate what people want to do in a neighborhood park setting? Typically yes. We have 2 full courts. One is at a new park in southern Chanhassen at Pioneer Pass and one is at Lake Susan. Other than that we probably have about 15 half courts in our system. And the second question about putting them on a tennis court. We have a few of those where you have a single tennis court. It’d just be a challenge to put basketball on there because then if somebody’s playing basketball you can’t play tennis and vice versa. We do have some locations where we have a double tennis court where we have hoops that reach over the fence and then somebody can be playing basketball at the same time somebody’s playing tennis on the other court so you can accommodate that and again that’s just to take advantage of that hard court that is there. You know somebody referenced it, anytime you put in courts you’re going to see all sorts of play so you’re going to see kids on bikes, Big Wheels, trikes down on the sport court and so it’s just a hard surface. They’re going to play other games there other than basketball. Anything that takes, you know four square and those type of things and so you’re allowing those type of activities to take place but putting basketball on that single court would probably not be a good idea. Carron: Just some comments. I think when we talked about this at the CIP about the $135,000 that we were going to put in, the half court was already there. We were just talking about a tennis court at the time. I think the way that it’s drawn up now and the way staff presented it with the feedback from the city and the community, I think the way it’s drawn up, I like the idea. I like the idea as it’s presented here. I think we’re taking advantage of spending some good dollars in a park that could use a new facelift here and I don’t think, I don’t think it’s going to go unnoticed at the city and I think we’re going to have some pretty good use out of this so with that I’d like to, before anything happens further I would like to just thank the city staff and residents too for helping out and we’re always looking for people to come up and give us ideas and what you want because ultimately we’re just a couple people up here trying to figure out and read you guy’s brains on what you might want but it helps when we get comments from the community so thank you very much. Kelly: Any other questions? Thunberg: I have one more. So going to my initial question back to the bringing the 2016 CIP up to the $1,029,000, just looking at kind of our rolling chart of where each brings us to our year end balance and we’ve typically stated that our year end balance as kind of a rainy day fund or whatever is always maintained over a million dollars. If we did this, this would bring it down to it looks like around between $700,000 and $800,000. Just like to Todd get your thoughts if staff would also then recommend a current project in 2016 gets pushed back to revisit the CIP or get commissioners thoughts on that. Just when we’ve done the CIP conversations those are some things we’ve typically maintained and so just curious on. Kelly: About 4 years ago we spent down to about a half million dollars when we had the opportunity to get the additional property at Bandimere and we did that and that’s kind of what the rainy day fund is for and in a short period of time more money came in than we thought so 21 Park and Recreation Commission – February 23, 2016 we got back over that threshold and I think what we’re looking at now, obviously 2017 is going to be a little bit sparse and what you’re looking at changing in 2016 is the hockey rink. That’s not going to change so there’s not really anything to change in 2016 so you either, we do this in 2016 or we push it back to 2017 which pushes it back another year but you’re still spending the same dollars and maybe what we push it back another year we’re spending a few more dollars because the price can go up you know 5 or 10 percent possibly and you’ve got to angle that side in so I’m usually one, I don’t like to see it go below the million dollar threshold but that’s part of what the money is there for is to make sure that the community gets something and I think this is an opportunity for us to go below the threshold and I am in favor of it as it’s set up in doing it in 2016. Knowing that 2017 we’re not going to be doing a lot but we’ll be looking at a lot going into the future so at this point for a number of reasons I’m in favor of it and I think it’s a good time to do it and that’s just my opinion. Thank you for the question. Anybody else like to comment on that? Hoffman: Commissioner Thunberg I have no reservations about going down below that million dollars and for those in the audience that don’t know what park dedication funds are and so these are not your tax dollars that you’re paying on your tax bill. These dollars are collected as a part of development and so single family homes, townhomes, industrial and commercial lots pay into the park fund. It’s basically can be considered as a kind of like an association dues. You pay it one time and then in return for that the City makes a pledge through our park master plan that we will provide parks, recreation amenities throughout our community really at one time. Once they’re built out then it’s going to take tax dollars in the future to maintain and revitalize and refurbish those but these are still park dedication dollars that are collected at the time of building permits and that’s what we’re talking about investing this evening. Kelly: Other questions, thoughts. Does anybody want to put it to the question? Hougham: I make a motion that the Park and Recreation Commission recommends that the Chanhassen City Council approve the construction of Roundhouse Park Sport Court improvements including one tennis court, four pickleball courts and one half court basketball, advance the project to the 2016 Park CIP and amend the maximum budgeted expenditure to $254,000 for these improvements. Kelly: Is there a second? Echternacht: Second that motion. Kelly: We have a motion as stated on H-2 with no wording changes and a second. Hougham moved, Echternacht seconded that the Park and Recreation Commission recommends that the Chanhassen City Council approve the construction of Roundhouse Park Sport Court improvements including one tennis court, four pickleball courts and one half court basketball, advance the project to the 2016 Park CIP and amend the maximum 22 Park and Recreation Commission – February 23, 2016 budgeted expenditure to $254,000 for these improvements. All voted in favor and the motion carried unanimously with a vote of 7 to 0. Kelly: Thank you everyone for being here tonight and for the comments. We appreciate your input. RECREATION PROGRAM REPORTS: FEBRUARY FESTIVAL EVALUATION. Kelly: Okay Katie, you’re going to tell us about lots of fish getting caught. rd Favro: Yes. Thank you Chair Kelly. The 23 Annual February Festival was held on Saturday, th February 6 from 12:00 to 3:00 p.m. at Lake Ann. It is estimated that over 1,000 people attended this year’s event. I just want to extend a special thank you to all the commissioners who volunteered. Luke, Jim, Jennifer, Cole, Brent, Rick and Lauren was there as well as Steve Scharfenberg and thank you to Todd and Jerry and Adam’s crew and everybody who had a big help in putting this event together. We had a lot of help support from the Chanhassen Rotary as well. They drill all the holes so it’s always a team effort. A real community event. So the Chanhassen Rotary Club and Culver’s operated the concessions for this year’s festival. The Rotary sold a variety of beverages while Culver’s had their burgers, fries and cheese curds. We appreciate all the service of the Chanhassen Rotary Club and are looking forward to having them continue for future events. We had two bonfires this year that were placed on opposite ends of the contestant areas. Those are always pretty popular even though it was a nice day. The Boy Scout Troop #330 had another successful year selling bait and s’mores kits. We always welcome them back next year. They seem to be a big hit for people wanting to buy live bait at the event. We had a skating rink this year. That’s always popular. There was a bunch of people of all different ages. Little kids learning to skate while you know parents skating with their kids and even just some youth with hockey pucks and hockey sticks. The horse drawn wagon rides continue to be popular. There always seems to be a full wagon and a long line to get onto those events. The horses make a large loop towards Greenwood Shores and then they come back. We had Tips Outdoors came again this year to just demonstrate for people who are younger, who have never ice fished before or anybody who is new to the ice fishing world, just kind of different techniques and different ways to set up portables and use fish hooks and all that fun stuff that goes along with ice fishing. This year’s medallion hunt was assisted with, from the Friends of the Chanhassen Library. Linda is her name. Linda Landsman. She helps come up with the clues and where we were going to hide it and this year it wasn’t found until Friday night and brought in Saturday morning. I like to think it’s because Linda and I made some really hard clues and not that we got a foot of snow that week. The winners receive a gift basket which is valued over $500. This is always a fun event and I know people look forward to it. So the ice fishing contest, a total of 635 fishing tickets were sold at the contest. For the contest. 97 were sold in advance and 538 were sold on the ice at the event. Tickets were, sales were a little bit down from last year. Over $6,000 in prizes were awarded to the top 50 fish caught by weight 23 Park and Recreation Commission – February 23, 2016 and we had a computer system that helped enter all the data and tally the top 50 fish. We probably caught over, around between 100 and 120 fish this year which was definitely up from last year. So our door prizes are always a big hit too because everybody who comes into the contest gets a door prize ticket. You don’t have to be fishing. We had over $3,000 in prizes. The Chanhassen High School Key Club, the Chaska High School Key Club and the Interact Club provided volunteers to help sell fishing tickets and distribute door prize tickets on the ice. They were very helpful and we would like to continue to try to keep that friendship and have them volunteer for this event and other events throughout the year. Do we have any questions? Echternacht: I’ve got a question regarding the ice fishing demonstration. Favro: Yes. Echternacht: I noticed that it stated that it’s been fun in the past but we’re going to move on and looking for something else. Was the numbers down this year or are we just looking for some other venue? Favro: Always kind of looking around for something else. This has been something that is popular but we want to make sure that all the ice fishing that takes place is in the contest and those fish are getting counted. We don’t want you know fish being caught in other parts of the lake that aren’t part of the contest necessarily. Echternacht: Okay. Carron: Katie I have a real problem. Favro: Yes. Carron: 23 years running this Feb Fest event and the integrity was almost spoiled this year on the last second and I see in your comments and suggestions you left out the fact that we have an onus to the people that pay $10 and the $40,000 in cash prizes and goods that we know what we’re doing and I think we need to have some training in the future because what’s going to happen if someone comes up… If someone comes up with the infamous Thin Mints cookies and all of a sudden everything that gets brought up is being weighed and measured. So I think as a suggestion for next year we look at maybe going a little bit of advanced training for our ring masters. Favro: Oh yes. Carron: That’s all. Hoffman: By the way that young man has been banned for 3 years. 24 Park and Recreation Commission – February 23, 2016 Carron: Oh has he? Kelly: Good. So Katie. Carron: These are really good by the way. And the cookies still fresh. Kelly: Katie there was some open water over by the skating rink I understand. Favro: It wasn’t necessarily open water. It was just kind of more slush and up on shore it was brought to our attention and we just tried to cone it off and avoid people from going close. Hoffman: That’s from the water making the ice skating rink. Kelly: Oh okay so. Hoffman: It pushed the ice down. Kelly: I noticed we finally got some yellow tape out there. And the other thing I noticed is the, you might want to remind the boy scouts, the boy scouts ran out of chocolate when, but not marshmallows when they were selling s’mores. You might want to remind them to bring some more chocolate next year so they don’t run out. Favro: They might have got hungry and had a few snacks before they sold them all. Kelly: So I liked the DJ again this year even thought DJ Bob wasn’t here this year. His replacement was a good guy who worked well. I can’t remember his name now. Was it Kevin? Hoffman: Jeff. Kelly: Jeff, that’s it. Thank you. But I thought it was a great event and it was fun to see a line for the fish coming in. It was just like oh, this took me back a few years now because last year we were praying for a line. Hoffman: Yeah and really just so heartwarming that we had our festival. So many had to cancel. All over the metro and all over the state because of the poor ice conditions primarily so we were fortunate. 23 years and never been cancelled for bad weather or ice. Kelly: So it was a great event and congratulations to everybody who organized it and followed through. I know it took a lot of work to get it done and it was really a fantastic event. Thank you. 25 Park and Recreation Commission – February 23, 2016 Echternacht: I’ve got a question. Jerry you know those scouts that, cub scouts that went out there to do some, learn how to fish before it started. Was that a problem with any of the contestants? Ruegemer: You know didn’t hear anything from the contestants within the fishing contest area. I think just to be consistent into future years I guess you’re going to have to make a decision whether you’re going to fish outside the contest area. If you’re trying to do both we’re going to eliminate that through a rule change next year so just so we kind of keep it consistent so if you want to fish during the contest that day, you’ll have to make that choice so. Hoffman: Did those kids fish in the contest as well? Echternacht: Yes. Ruegemer: They did. Echternacht: They did. Hoffman: Yeah so we’re just going to have, you can’t fish on the waters of Lake Ann before the contest. At the end of the contest. We’re just trying to prevent future problems. There weren’t any problems this year other than the frozen fish that was brought from another lake. Kelly: What did we have, was it 2 years ago? Hoffman: Yeah a rotten fish out on the ice. Kelly: Yeah. Hoffman: That one was easier to tell. Kelly: Amazing what people will try. Favro: Just one comment for you about the computer program. I got to see that first hand. I would recommend for the number of fish that come in, especially this being like a really high year to just probably use Excel in the future. I think that can handle what we needed for this. Ruegemer: We’ve had 2 or 3 meetings since Feb Fest and a new program is about 90 percent done right now so Aaron who was out there that day has been in my office several times. We’ve been discussing lots of options from location of the, you know kind of that tournament headquarters to electronic iPads to just a number of different things right now so we will improve that system for next year and we’re looking to even potentially do multiple entries if we can get multiple people entering into one centralized program to speed up that process as well so we’ve 26 Park and Recreation Commission – February 23, 2016 talked amongst staff as well so we definitely want to improve that situation. I think I probably, my blood pressure was probably about 300 over. Favro: I just think simple is best. Ruegemer: I agree. Favro: Like for the number it didn’t need to be that complicated. Ruegemer: Thank you for your comments and thank you for your help. DADDY/DAUGHTER SWEETHEART DANCE EVALUATION. Kelly: Katie, you’re going to tell us about the Daddy/Daughter Sweetheart Dance. th Favro: Yep. The Daddy/Daughter Sweetheart Dance was held on Friday, February 12 at the Chanhassen Rec Center. There was a total of 93 dads and daughters that participated this year. This is a very popular event and we’ve got a lot of attendees who continue to return each year. I just want to extend a special thank you to Lauren and she brought her friend Andrea and they volunteered at this event and they were awesome and very helpful along with Carol Dunsmore who’s City staff and she’s been there for many, many years so being a new person coming in and having Carol kind of being there to help guide us along was very helpful. This year the event was catered by Chuckwagon Charlie’s of Chanhassen. The menu included pulled pork sandwiches, macaroni and cheese and coleslaw and actually no carrot sticks or cupcakes. No carrot sticks but we did have cupcakes. They’re always a big hit. Staff we had many compliment about it especially with it being lent people liked that there was a meatless option. We would definitely recommend using them again. They were really helpful. They deliver right to the Chanhassen Rec Center. DJ Paul Young provided the music and entertainment for the dance. He did an excellent job keeping the participants engaged and dancing the whole night. We did extend the dance portion about a half hour longer this year so this gave just dads and daughters more time to do dances and have more activities out there. He does a lot of you know group dances and a train and so he keeps everybody really engaged. There were several different games and activities that were offered throughout the night. Some of the favorites are the annual heart guess. We put a bunch of hearts on the wall and you have to count specific ones and whoever can get closest to that guess gets a prize that is donated by ABC Toy Zone. We also have a candy guess. Just trying to guess how many pieces of candy are in the jar. We also have some little carnival games and a craft. We also just put out some coloring sheets at the table just for something to do during dinner. We had a door prize drawings for the dads. There was a gift certificate to Pizzaioli. Houlihan’s. Culver’s had donated a value basket. Papa John’s had donated a pizza and the Dinner Theater gave away a dinner and show for 2. We had a face painter there and I don’t know if anybody has seen these pictures. She is very elaborate. She’ll do tiger faces. Fox faces. We had some dads with sharks and so it was really fun and she is great and we will continue to use her services again next year. VP Booths of Eden Prairie 27 Park and Recreation Commission – February 23, 2016 provided a portable photo booths for dads and daughters to take as many pictures as they wanted in there and then they get the printout and so overall it was a very successful event. We got many compliments about just being a great night out for dads and daughters to hang out and at the conclusion of each, at the event each child gets a carnation and a heart flower. Or a heart balloon. Kelly: Lauren since you were there do you want to make any comments about what you saw and how well it was run and that type of thing? Dale: It went really smoothly. There was no like complications and it was fun like getting to see little kids have fun. Kelly: Well good. Good. It sounds like it was another great success. Thank you Katie. Favro: Yes. Hoffman: Another program that’s been around for over 20 years. COMMISSION MEMBER COMMITTEE REPORTS. Kelly: Any commission member committee reports tonight? Carron: Just a question for Todd. Todd we didn’t get a chance to rank any of the interviews or talk about that so. Hoffman: You can do that. Carron: Do that right after or? Hoffman: We can… Kelly: Can we watch? COMMISSION MEMBER PRESENTATIONS. None. CORRESPONDENCE PACKET. None. Hougham: Can we get an update on what happened with the referendum or funding in the 2025 plan? Hoffman: Sure. Hougham: Where we currently sit with that. 28 Park and Recreation Commission – February 23, 2016 Hoffman: Yeah. City Council has wrapped that all into a much more robust planning process as a part of our Comprehensive Plan so the 2040 Comprehensive Plan is coming up and so they’re going to invest probably $60,000 to $75,000 in the park section of that and that will include questions about what people want to see at their existing parks. What do they want to see refurbished? How do we do those refurbishment plans? What dollars do we invest to finish? What kind of dollars do we invest to maintain our parks over time? And so we’ll be soliciting consultants to bring that process forward and then we’re one component so parks and recreation will be one component of the 2040 Comp Plan. Transportation. All the other components to that as well. And then the council is going to decide if 2 or 3 or 4 million dollars worth of projects come forward that people would like to see happen, they may just go ahead and finance those as a part of a future bonding process. For example last night at the council meeting we hired a consultant for just under a million dollars to do the west water treatment plant. That plant costs in excess of $20 million dollars. When they bond for that they could wrap in some park refurbishment bonds as well and so they just think there’s other ways to move those projects forward without a referendum but in order to understand what people want exactly they want to bring a larger process in so what you’ll, what you saw this evening there’s just going to be a whole lot more of that coming up this summer where we’ll be going out as a commission with a consultant into neighborhood parks. Bringing them into you know both formal and informal meetings. Hearing about what they have to say and so what you saw tonight I think you’re going to see a lot more of that and you’ll have to be listening and obviously there’s always a variety of opinions and much of it comes from what people are particularly interested in from their point of view and then you’ll have to capture all that input and make some decisions. The consultant will do a lot of that. City councils from time to time do this across the country. They just hire, bring somebody in. Say okay we want to understand. We either want to have a referendum or we want to invest dollars but we want to understand what that is. Let’s go talk to our citizens and find out what they want so that’s what we’re going to be doing. Kelly: Thank you Todd. Any other questions about anything from anybody? Carron moved, Echternacht seconded to adjourn the meeting. All voted in favor and the motion carried unanimously with a vote of 7 to 0. The Park and Recreation Commission meeting was adjourned at 9:00 p.m. Submitted by Todd Hoffman Park and Rec Director Prepared by Nann Opheim 29