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PRC 2016 12 13 CHANHASSEN PARK AND RECREATION COMMISSION REGULAR MEETING DECEMBER 13, 2016 Chairman Kelly called the meeting to order at 7:30 p.m. MEMBERS PRESENT: Cole Kelly, Brent Carron, Jim Boettcher, and Rick Echternacht Jennifer Hougham arrived during visitor presentations. MEMBERS ABSENT: Steve Scharfenberg, Luke Thunberg, and Lauren Dale STAFF PRESENT: Todd Hoffman, Park and Rec Director; Jerry Ruegemer, Recreation Superintendent; Katie Favro, Recreation Supervisor; Adam Beers, Park Superintendent; Sue Bill, Senior Center Coordinator; and Jodi Sarles, Rec Center Manager PUBLIC PRESENT: Dan Mertes 8671 Flamingo Drive Cathy & Wesley Erpelding 9061 Springfield Drive Sam & Tyler Treat 2148 Wynsong Lane Caden Kulik 8761 Reflections Road William Anderson 9380 Kiowa Trail Joseph & Kevin Smith 112231 Hutchins Court Ted & Luke Lebens 8270 Hidden Court Glenn Kaufmann 6870 Redwing Lane Renee Anderson 9380 Kiowa Trail APPROVAL OF AGENDA: Kelly: Anybody have anything to add or delete? I think Todd we’re adding a Webelos speaker? Hoffman: Correct. Kelly: Under visitor presentations and is the young man’s name Tim did I hear? Audience: Sam. Hoffman: Sam. Kelly: Sam, thank you. Any other additions or subtractions to the agenda tonight? PUBLIC ANNOUNCEMENTS: None. Park and Recreation Commission – December 13, 2016 VISITOR PRESENTATIONS. Kelly: We’ll move right into visitor presentations and Sam I think you’re up first. When you do approach, you can lower that down so you can speak into the microphone and give us your full name and address and then you can tell us what you’d like to tell us about. Samuel Treat: My name is Samuel Treat. I live on 2148 Wynsong Lane. My Pack is Pack 330. We’re the pack of St. Hubert’s school. We have a pack meeting every month during the school year and a den meeting per month for the lower dens but once we get to Webelos we usually have 1 or 2 per month. We have a bonfire at the start and end of every year and we also have 2 camp outs. One in the fall and one in the summer. Hoffman: Why did you come tonight? Samuel Treat: We came tonight to earn our requirement that we need to get our arrow of light which goes to some sort of political meeting. Kelly: Oh good. Thank you for telling us what you’re all about Sam and thank you for being here. Anybody have any questions for Sam? Carron: What’s your favorite camp Sam? Samuel Treat: I have to say summer. Carron: Does it have a name where you guys usually go? Samuel Treat: I don’t know. Carron: Phillippo? Samuel Treat: Yeah Phillippo. Carron: Yeah down…sweet. Cool. Been there many times. Kelly: Good, thank you Sam. Nice job. Any other visitor presentations that are not part of the schedule tonight? Okay, moving right along. Welcome Jennifer. APPROVAL OF MINUTES: Kelly: Anybody have any changes to make to the Minutes? I do. Here we are, page 9. First paragraph, last sentence. It said I’d rather be fishing. It should be it said comma and it should be in quotations “I’d Rather be Fishing” end of quotations. That’s my only change. 2 Park and Recreation Commission – December 13, 2016 Carron moved, Echternacht seconded to approve the verbatim Minutes of the Park and Recreation Commission meeting dated November 22, 2016 as amended on page 9 by Chairman Kelly, and approve the summary Minutes of the Park and Recreation Commission meeting dated November 22, 2016 as presented. All voted in favor and the motion carried unanimously with a vote of 5 to 0. RECOMMENDATION TO CITY COUNCIL ACCEPTING DONATION OF LION’S HEAD DRINKING FOUNTAIN FROM THE CHANHASSEN LIONS CLUB. Hoffman: Thank you Chair Kelly and members of the commission. Tonight I’m pleased that we have a representative of the Chanhassen Lions Club here with us this evening and the proposed motion before you is that the Commission does recommend that the City Council accept the donation of a lion’s drinking fountain from the Chanhassen Lions Club to replace the existing water fountain at Lake Ann Park, and it’s near the ballfield concession area so it’s the drinking fountain that’s currently there. Just about 50 feet to the south of the building. So Dan and Glenn are here to represent the Lions. I’m going to let them speak and give a presentation but I just want to give a little background about what the Chanhassen Lions Club has done in our community in the past. They’ve been around for a number of years and so the Lions have made past donations to the City including partially funding the lighting at Lake Ann Park Ballfield #4 and that ballfield at Lake Ann Park is designated as Lions Field in the community. Installing a monument sign recognizing Field #4 as Lions Field and most recently installing a memorial bench at that same location and that was to honor one of the members who had passed away and then to honor all Lions who serve in our community so you can take in a ball game from that beautiful bench there just outside of Field #4. Additionally they’re very involved in other activities in our community. Service events including the sponsorship of the Chanhassen Senior Center annual summer picnic so they really do a great job with that event. They provide the picnic. They provide all of the meal and then the sandwiches and all of the other things that go along with that but then they attend, cook it, provide entertainment and really provide a community experience for our seniors so we appreciate that on an annual summer basis. They’re partners with the firemen’s organization. The Lions Pancake Breakfast which takes place at the main fire station. They sponsor our Christmas Tree lot here in Chanhassen. The Lions Christmas Tree Lot and they host a summer hosta sale. There are other things as well. I’ll let Dan or Glenn talk about those and so at this time I would like to bring Dan up and he can give his presentation and talk about the project. Kelly: Thank you Todd. Dan, name and address first please. Dan Mertes: I’m Dan Mertes. I am at 8671 Flamingo Drive in Chanhassen and Mr. Kelly and fellow members of the commission thank you very much for having us tonight. Pleasure being here. I am the Treasurer of the Chanhassen Lions. I’ve been a proud member of the Lions for about 12 years and am joined by our former President Glenn Kaufmann and certainly if you have any questions at all on this presentation please don’t hesitate to stop me. As Todd had shared 3 Park and Recreation Commission – December 13, 2016 with you, trying to center that a little bit better. As Todd had shared with you we are proposing to provide a fountain at Lake Ann. It is very close to the existing playground that is there so we are thinking this would be a great facility for kids to use. It would fit very nicely on that spot. There’s a nice concrete pad there which I’ll talk about in just a moment. There’s existing plumbing there so we’ve got a drain. We’ve got a water supply line. Basically everything that we need. So let’s dive into this and I’ll walk through a couple of the steps that we’re talking about. In terms of what we’re looking at doing really phase 1 of this proposal is to include that fountain at Lake Ann Park, as I mentioned earlier. Where it would be located is the Lions Field location, as Todd had shared, so basically just west of the lighted fields at Lake Ann up on the hill. If you’re familiar with that. Very close to the pavilion that’s there. So that’s where we’re looking to put the fountain itself. The current spigot that is there, and you can see this fairly faintly in the presentation or in the slide. That is used I think primarily to wash cleats so if softball players are coming off the field they can wash their cleats there. That’s spigot would stay so that is not a loss. The drinking fountain that is there now would be replaced with a lions fountain. As I mentioned there’s plumbing there already so we can leverage that and the existing pad based on the measurements that I took would be both ADA compliant as well as actually fit the lion itself so it’s a great location for that in addition to the number of kids that use that space. We’re looking at a targeted installation of June or July of this year. Based on the manufacturer they’ve got about a 6 month lead time so my thought on this is we would gain your approval. Take it to the City Council. Hopefully get their approval. Place the order and have the fountain ready to go probably June-July of this year. In terms of installation we would take care of that and I’ll talk about that in just a moment. The existing pad based on the measurements that I took is 70 inches wide, 121 inches long, so just about 10 feet long and then there’s also an asphalt approach so as you can see to meet ADA requirements it needs to be at least 4 feet wide. Well we’ve got closer to 6 feet in width by 30 inches in accessible pad and we’ve got well more than that so there should be no problem there at all. In terms of modifications to the existing site, really all we would need to do is drill 3 holes for the mounting of the lion fixture itself. You’d do that with a masonry bit into the concrete and that would basically be about the only change that would be needed. There is an access port that you can use to drain both the spigot as well as the fountain itself that’s just to the right of that fountain that’s there today. My thought is that we’ll be able to work right around that and put the lion right next to it but if any modifications need to be made to move that access port that’s something that we would also bear the cost of so that’s what we’re proposing to do is put the lion in that spot where you see the fountain on the right in this picture. So in terms of what we would provide, the Lions would provide the purchase of the fountain. Delivery of the fountain. Installation of the fountain via a licensed plumber. We would make sure that it’s done to city code as well as ADA code. We would remove and dispose of the existing fountain and also complete any required inspections or permits that need to be completed for the installation of this fountain and I think with any typical donation once it’s installed it would become City property so certainly you know we’ll work with you. If there’s something that needs to be done down the road but again once it becomes installed it’s City property. So at this point I’m open to questions if anyone has questions for me. Kelly: Thank you Dan. It looks like your total donation is getting close to $5,000 to the City. 4 Park and Recreation Commission – December 13, 2016 Dan Mertes: That’s exactly right. Yeah the fountain itself is about $4,000 and then you’ve got plumbing and installation, delivery so it’s about $5,000. Just under. Kelly: So do I have to put my head in there to get some water? Dan Mertes: You do. It’s part of the novelty. Kelly: It looks like a very well thought out plan. Questions for Dan? Carron: Thanks for your donation. Dan Mertes: Absolutely. Kelly: Thanks for your partnership. Somebody want to put it to the question? Carron: I’ll recommend that the Park and Rec Commission recommend that the City Council accept the donation of the Lions Drinking Fountain from the Chanhassen Lions Club to replace the existing water fountain at the Lake Ann Park ball field concession area. Kelly: Okay there’s been a motion proposed as staff has recommended. Is there a second? Echternacht: Second it. Kelly: And it’s been seconded. Carron moved, Echternacht seconded that the Park and Recreation Commission recommends that the City Council accept the donation of the Lions Drinking Fountain from the Chanhassen Lions Club to replace the existing water fountain at the Lake Ann Park ball field concession area. All voted in favor and the motion carried unanimously with a vote of 5 to 0. Dan Mertes: Thank you very much. Kelly: Thank you for your donation Dan. And to the Lions Club. Dan Mertes: Thank you. PARKS AND RECREATION SYSTEM PLAN PROGRESS REVIEW. Hoffman: Thank you Chair Kelly, members of the commission. Tonight it’s our pleasure to have with us Gabrielle Grinde from Hoisington-Koegler Group Incorporated and it’s the organization we’re working with on our parks and recreation system plan. This is the first check 5 Park and Recreation Commission – December 13, 2016 in with the Park and Recreation Commission. We’ve had 2 advisory committee meetings over the past few months and we’re really happy to be here this evening. Lots of great information and then we’d like to have some dialogue back and forth between the commission and staff and Gabrielle as we move forward to our next meeting which you’ll also be involved in and that will be in January so Gabrielle. Kelly: Again Gabrielle full name and address first please. Gabrielle Grinde: Do you want my home address or business address? Kelly: Home’s fine. st Gabrielle Grinde: Gabrielle Grinde and 3309 41 Avenue South, Minneapolis. I have quite a few slides to go through and there’s a lot of information that you were given in the packet for tonight so please interrupt me if you have any questions to clarify the information as I go along. So I’ll be going through the project process for the parks and recreation system plan. Going over the community engagement that we’ve done so far. Looking at a few recreation trends that we’ve analyzed for the process and then looking at some system evaluation that we’ve done and needs assessment for the park system and then looking at some peer community comparisons. We looked at 10 other communities in the metro region and then some national park standards that we compared Chanhassen to and then at the end I’ll go over the key findings which we have come to as a result of all the community engagement and system evaluation and then I’ll talk about the next steps in the process. So what is a park system plan? It is a document that serves as a comprehensive guide to the staff and city decision makers. It will be a document approximately 40-50 pages that will include all of our needs assessment, the process that we’ve gone through, recommendations for the system and then implementation guide for future steps for the system. We’re looking at a range of 10 to 25 years into the future for visioning and guiding for the parks and recreation natural areas and trails in Chanhassen. And then we’re providing guidance, planning for maintenance and equipment replacement. In addition we’re working on the comprehensive plan chapter for recreation. So the schedule as you can see, we are in about the fifth month of the process going through next fall. This is our first update to the park commission. We have updated the City Council once and we’ve had 2 advisory committee meetings. We’ve completed the first round of community engagement and you can see in the late spring, early summer we’ll be doing more community engagement and then there will be more updates to the City Council and to you as a group and then we’ll have a few more advisory committee meetings. So for community engagement we completed a variety of initiatives. We had several pop up meetings which some of you were involved with. We went to the farmers market. To softball. The Rec Center. Pickleball. Dog park. High school football game to try to engage and reach as many people in the community as possible and these were informal meet and greets where we tried to get people to just give basic comments they have on the park system. We had 2 stakeholder meetings with the Senior Commission and athletic associations and then we had several online engagement efforts. We had a general community survey which we received 935 responses on. There was a targeted recreation center survey which we received 6 Park and Recreation Commission – December 13, 2016 322 responses and then a targeted senior center survey with 120 responses and then we had an interactive mapping application which is called Social Pinpoint which allowed people to look at a map of the city and provide comments on specific sites that they had things that were positive or negative to say about the city. And in addition Todd sent out many emails to local organizations including the Lions Club, Chamber, Rotary, Booster clubs, Minnewashta Preservation Alliance among others. There were park posters put out and a flyer in the Villager so I think we made a lot of people aware of the process even though the number of responses we got, around 1,000-1,500 I’m sure a lot more people heard about the process which is good. So for the general community questionnaire you received a graphic summary which you may have looked at but just a few of the highlights are that of the almost 1,000 people that responded over 80 percent of the respondents use parks and recreation in Chanhassen at least once a week. Almost all of the respondents, 895 reported that they use parks and recreation in other communities as well including Eden Prairie, Chaska, Excelsior, Victoria and more. A lot of that was related to the recreation centers in those communities. Of the facilities that we asked about how often, or how much people use the facilities in the community trails were the most used of all the facilities and then following close behind that were neighborhood parks and community parks and then beaches, Rec Center and preserves were about half the people. Half the respondent use those. The most popular programs in the community are the community events. You have really strong events in this community and then youth activities followed that. When we asked people how well the system is meeting their needs people responded favorably overall so most of the facilities meet the needs very well. However we picked the top unmet needs or when people selected that these facilities don’t meet our needs to a high level. The Rec Center was the highest of those. And the most desired facilities to add in the community are natural play areas and an indoor/outdoor pool. Then when we asked about the Rec Center specifically, that was about 300 and some respondents, 42 of the respondents said they use the Rec Center a few times a year. That was the highest group of, the largest group of how often they use it so most people in the community are not using the Rec Center on a regular basis. And 20 percent of the respondents said that they never use the Rec Center and of those people 35 percent said they’re not interested in what it offers and 18 percent use the Rec Center in another community so that’s an area that we’re looking at specifically for how can we improve the Rec Center. And then for the people that do use the Rec Center the most popular usage is for attending an event that would be there so that would be the few times a year and then participating in a class or using the fitness were close behind that. And when we asked people about additional facilities and programs people really want a running or walking track, an indoor pool, larger fitness center and more exercise classes and studios. So then we asked about the senior center and we got about 100 and some respondents to that survey and 33 percent of those respondents said they use it about once a week so pretty often. The most popular program is field trips. About half the respondents said they use the field trips and then the arts and education classes were close behind that. 41 percent of the respondents said that they never use the senior center because they’re either unaware of it, they’re not interested in what it offers or they go to a senior center in another community. And then when we asked about what additional facilities or programs are needed at the senior center, people said more programming and fitness class space as top priorities and then also larger meeting or event room with a kitchen possibly. And we asked 7 Park and Recreation Commission – December 13, 2016 about the support for building a new senior center, maintaining the senior center as it is today or replacing it with a facility that would be in combination with the Rec Center and those 3 choices were pretty close. They were all around 35 percent so it’s hard to tell what to do there. So then Social Pinpoint was the final online initiative that we had. This was the mapping exercise and you received detailed comments in your packet of what people said about the system but you also received a link so you can go in and see that some of those comments lots of people liked. There were many comments about Lake Ann and those comments were liked several times so that means even though you see the comment once a lot of people approve of it so their comments, most of the comments were about the trail system. Repairing trails. Closing trail gaps or building tunnels or safe crossings across busy roads and then Lake Ann like I said, the additional land on the west side of Lake Ann. A lot of people mentioned that. That they want to preserve that for our trails around the entire lake. There’s high desire overall for more natural and open space throughout the city for several reasons. Whether it be the aesthetics or preventing more development and then more safe crossings, especially of Highway 5. So then we looked at a few parks and recreation trends that are nationally and regionally occurring in parks and recreation which include people have increasing demands on time. Being out in Chanhassen a lot of people work outside the community so it takes more time to get to work and get home and so they have less time to participate in parks and recreation activities so we looked at how can parks and recreation be more convenient for people. Disconnected from nature refers to how kids spend more time indoors. More time in front of a screen. They’re not in natural areas as much. This has been a trend nationwide for many years and we’re looking at how to improve the access to natural spaces for children. Aging actively. Baby boomers are aging. People are living longer and they’re staying active when they get older so how can we provide spaces for seniors to be active. Budget constrained. All cities and governments are constrained with how they spend their money so how can we establish priorities that meet the needs of the community. And then place making is a trend that refers to how parks and unique and create special places such as downtown Minneapolis. The Vikings stadium has that new park to it, next to it which is programmed with events year round so making it a special place that can be used for special events. Some other trends include that people are more transient these days. There’s people moving in and out of your community so marketing is really important to make people aware of what’s going on in the city. Trail use is very big right now. Everyone wants more trails. Better trails. Trail amenities. Green alternatives has to do with sustainability. Low impact development. Building facilities that are sustainable in the long run. Non-traditional outdoor activities such as Pokémon Go are getting people outdoors in unique ways that they haven’t been outside using parks in the same way with their phones. It’s different than walking on a trail or using an athletic field. And then special facilities such as splash pads are really popular right now. So for the system evaluation we did a GIS analysis mapping the city. We looked at the gaps of residential areas within a quarter mile and a half mile of parks so we wanted to insure that every residence in the city has equitable access to be able to walk to a neighborhood park or has a community park that they can drive to rather quickly. And then we did a distribution analysis where we looked at all the different facilities such as basketball courts. Where are they located throughout the city and are they adequately represented in all areas of the city. So I’ll just quickly go through these maps. You have these maps in your packet as well. 8 Park and Recreation Commission – December 13, 2016 But for neighborhood parks we found that most residential neighborhoods are served by a neighborhood park. There are a few gaps mainly in the southern area of the city where there are larger lot residential neighborhoods and then there’s a few planned medium and high density residential areas which are not served within a quarter mile to a park so these are areas where we’ll look at maybe building new parks. Community parks are mainly located in the center area of the city and they also serve as the athletic complexes in the city. Minnewashta Park serves as a regional park even though it’s not part of the city so that does meet the needs of the people in the northwest part of the city. And then for community parks there is a gap as well south of Highway 212. So in terms of facility distribution. Playgrounds and shelters have good access. They’re pretty much located in most neighborhood parks and so in the south where there aren’t neighborhood parks there’s a lacking of the playgrounds and shelters. Athletic fields are primarily located in the community parks which are in the core of the city so they’re not located on the edges which seems to be working now but that may be an issue if there’s expanded residential development on the edges of the city. For informal summer recreation tennis and sand volleyball were some of the facilities we looked at there. They’re more centrally located and then informal winter recreation seems to be at parks where it seems feasible to include skating rinks so there’s no recommendation to expand those. And then specialty recreation would include things like fishing piers and beaches so those are at places where there are lakes in community parks. So then we looked at peer communities. There are 10 peer communities that we studied and we took an average of, we looked at facilities basically and acreages of parks and then we took Chanhassen’s numbers. We took the range of the 10 communities that we compared them to and then an average. So you can see on this chart here, let’s see does this work. Oh that doesn’t really work. The first column is Chanhassen and then the range is in the middle and the average you can see on the right side. Chanhassen is pretty close to the average, either higher or lower in most instances so that’s good for Chanhassen. However if the goal is to be better in any certain facility then we would look at where we are lacking so the number of parks for Chanhassen is 30. The range is 18 to 56 and then the average is 33 so Chanhassen may have a goal to add a few more parks to meet it’s peer communities standard. And Chanhassen does have more overall park acreage than other communities which has to do mainly with the preserves that Chanhassen has. And then looking at tennis and basketball and playgrounds, these are all higher than average so a question for the future is, is it a desire for Chanhassen to have more of these facilities in the city compared to it’s peer communities? Should we keep replacing tennis courts, basketball courts and playgrounds to maintain a high number or should some of those facilities be replaced with other types of park amenities? Another thing to point out is that there’s no indoor ice rink in Chanhassen whereas most of the other communities we looked at do have at least one indoor ice rink. And then something to note is that the number of ballfields and rectangular fields are high in Chanhassen but most of these are small youth sized fields so it’s hard to get an apples to apples comparison when looking at those numbers. And the athletic facilities study that Chanhassen did will provide more detailed information on the, what’s needed in terms of athletic fields. Also the outdoor aquatic facilities number is high. There are 5 beaches in Chanhassen but there are no pools so when the average in other communities say .7 that could be related to indoor facilities like pools or it could be splash pads. And then another thing to note is that Chanhassen is lacking permanent restroom facilities in it’s parks which did 9 Park and Recreation Commission – December 13, 2016 come out in the surveys. That people desire that. So when we look at the national standards their ranges for population that the national recreation and parks association has for a number of facilities, a few things to point out there is that the diamond fields and rectangular fields are pretty high compared to the national standards but they are mostly the small youth sized fields. So it shows that Chanhassen in the far right column the deficit. Those are positive numbers which shows that Chanhassen has more than the national standard requires. And then again the swimming pools or aquatics we included 5 but that is all beaches. There’s no pool in Chanhassen. So there was one other national standard that we looked at which is the pro-rages system which includes all information that is inserted by parks and recreation directors or employees throughout the country so it just, it’s based on what is entered into the system. It’s not a national standard and it doesn’t have all the communities in the country. But based on the population range of 20,000 to 50,000, which is where Chanhassen would fit in, they do have, we do have a lower number of residents per park than the system information average or median says so that’s good generally but Chanhassen is at the lower end of that population scale. And then in terms of acres of parkland it’s also Chanhassen is also higher but the population scale is 20,000 to 50,000 so Chanhassen’s at the lower end. So in comparison Chanhassen looks good but it’s not really an apples to apples comparison for that one. So from all of the information that I just went through we came up with a list of key findings. We have I think 5 or 6 categories that we’ve organized the key findings into. So I’ll quickly go through these. I’m not going to read them word for word but you do have these in your packet as well but this is where we jump off to the visioning and the guiding principles which we’ll be working on in the next couple months so this list should be comprehensive of what we found from community input. What we found from the system analysis and then what we got from staff input so the advisory committee has seen these key findings and they have edited them but we would like your input on these key findings. If you hear anything that doesn’t sound right or something that needs to be worded differently please let me know. So for parks the key findings say that overall Chanhassen has a large number of park acres compared to other cities and the city is still active in developing new parks because it has a growing population so future park development should be strategic and it should look at serving the under served areas such as the southern part of the city. Overall accessibility to parks is pretty good but there are a few areas of low accessibility which we’ll need to address. And then there are several barriers which are the major roads and lakes which prohibit access to some of the parks so more tunnels under busy roads would help increase this access. We found that partnerships with the school districts have contributed positively to facilities and so that would be a recommendation that we would want to stay with those partnerships. And then there is an interest in additional park amenities such as permanent restrooms and other amenities in neighborhood parks. And picnic shelters are in high demand. The City has been building new picnic shelters recently and will be building more next year so that’s a good point. And then for facilities there is a high interest in, from residents in improving small neighborhood parks with updated facilities. There’s a lot of deferred maintenance on basketball courts, playgrounds that need to be updated. Community parks are well used. Some people feel that athletic facilities in the community parks should be enhanced and permanent restrooms should be added. There’s a strong desire for a new recreation center with state of the art facilities. Pool. Walking track. Fitness center. Could be combined with senior center. This 10 Park and Recreation Commission – December 13, 2016 is a big issue that I think we’ll need to wrestle with what we recommend here. Seniors appreciate the senior center today but there’s a desire for more programming and improved facilities. Compared to other cities Chanhassen does meet or exceed the amount of outdoor facilities and fields so the athletic fields should be recommended based on the athletic facilities study and like I said a lot of the fields are youth sized so looking at what sizes are really needed into the future is important. For an indoor skating or hockey rink we said that there are other rinks in the surrounding communities so we didn’t make a recommendation either way here but we’re just saying that there are other ones available if the City wants to recommend maintaining the facilities that it has today. And then Chanhassen needs to continue to respond to changing recreation trends such as disc golf and pickleball which it is doing a good job of but there’s more input in the surveys for expanding those facilities. So for open spaces people are happy with the way Chanhassen has it’s preserves. Has natural open space throughout the city but they would like more of it. There’s opportunities to improve connections to the preserves with better trail connections, tunnels and trails within the preserves as well and then natural play areas are desired. And there is the desire for the natural open space around Lake Ann which came out very clearly in the surveys. So for programming the City does have good working relationships today with recreation groups and athletic associations and they seem to provide a lot of the youth programming. There was some interest in the survey for better youth programming provided by the City itself. The City does provide the very young level athletic programming so the City needs to look at whether they want to provide more of the teen to young adult athletics or leave it to the recreation groups. There is interest in adult and senior programming for arts, fitness and outdoor education. And the City does provide several events which are very popular and well attended and there is an interest in actually providing more events because people like the ones that are provided today. And then better facilities are desired for events or rentals such as kitchen facilities. There is a desire from many residents to provide programming such as aquatics and indoor pool. There were several people who mentioned on the surveys that although Chanhassen has private recreation facilities like Life Time Fitness, not everyone can afford those facilities. And then for trails, trails came out as the most popular facility city wide. The 76 miles of trails in the city is very notable compared to other cities in the metro area. There’s a strong desire though to complete those trail gaps that connect parks and that connect neighborhoods across busy highways. Highway 5 again was mentioned as a busy road that needs safer crossings and then safety issues overall such as lighting and other amenities along the trails should be addressed. And then there’s also an interest in natural surface trails within preserves and ongoing maintenance of trails is desired including updating or repairing parts of the trails. And then maintenance, management and operations. There are some concerns about deferred maintenance issues especially on trails and in the small neighborhood parks such as was mentioned before for the playgrounds, basketball courts, hockey rinks. There are concerns about natural resources. Lake water quality was mentioned as an issue. And there is the recognition that ongoing investments will be needed to maintain the system because it is a high quality system today and so to maintain it into the future to the level it is will require more funding. So with that I’ll open it up to discussion for your input on the key findings and anything else I went through. 11 Park and Recreation Commission – December 13, 2016 Kelly: Thank you Gabrielle. Nice presentation. Can you correlate from the responses if we expanded the recreation center we would take away some ballfields and that would mostly be for the smaller kids in soccer and baseball. Can you correlate with the responses you had how they’d look at losing fields to expand the Rec Center? Gabrielle Grinde: Are you referring to the physical space that’s it located in today? Kelly: Right because we’d have to take up more land which means the only place to go is where the ballfields are right now. Gabrielle Grinde: Right. We did not ask about that specifically but that would be for further community input in the spring when we’re looking at more specific recommendations for should the City expand the Rec Center where it is today or should it look for a new location to build a new recreation center so we didn’t look at that issue specifically but that would be something that if we asked about in the spring we could specifically mention those issues. Kelly: Now when you said you know obviously some of the busier streets, and I noticed a comment in here somewhere that we need to get a trail along the Arboretum and across 41. Well we do have an underpass coming in 2019 going under Highway 41 and the Arboretum has agreed to build out the trail to the underpass so was that knowledge, Todd was that knowledge not known when we first did the surveys or is it just that some people don’t know that? Hoffman: Yeah most of the community would not know that. Kelly: Okay. Gabrielle Grinde: Yeah so those are things that have to do with I guess just marketing and awareness which was another thing that came out somewhere in the survey is that the community or the City could do a better job of marketing and awareness but not everyone is going to pay attention to plans for trails and underpasses so. Carron: So with your next phase 3, January through March system visioning, that was an awesome presentation. A lot of data. Can you talk about how you narrow it down to get a specific vision? How that’s going to be done? Gabrielle Grinde: Yeah so we’ve already started in our office we’ve started developing recommendations based on these key findings. If there are updates from you tonight or from staff to edit the key findings then that will affect where we’re going with this but in January the advisory committee and the parks commission are invited to a visioning session where we will look at the draft recommendations that we have come up with and analyze how important those recommendations are and where the priorities lie and then we’ll come out with a list of draft recommendations which would go then to community engagement to see what the community thinks about this so we took all this information that we received. We came up with the 12 Park and Recreation Commission – December 13, 2016 recommendations of like we think the City should build a new recreation center in a new location. And then in the spring we’ll ask the community do you agree with these recommendations? So the visioning will be a series of guiding principles for what is the vision for what Chanhassen looks like in 25 years. Are you going to have the same system that you have now or is it going to look different with maybe more unique features and less traditional features. Things like that. Does that answer your question? Carron: Yep. Kelly: So Gabrielle when we do the visioning down the road when you said you make the recommendations like we get the recreation center. Will you have like a price tag on there like if we expand the recreation center it will be $5 million dollars and if we find a new place to build one we probably need $10 million dollars, things like that and is there a recommendation then at that point that it might be good for the City Council to look at a referendum and again I’m just thinking down the road. Gabrielle Grinde: Yeah. In the next few months we would talk anecdotally about costs. Not specific construction costs but once the recommendations are developed then when we develop the implementation plan that will have costs for the overall action steps so the final plan that is developed in the summer will include a list of key priorities with costs associated and then that would be approved by the City Council and maybe going to a referendum would be one of the recommendations in order to meet those implementation steps. So we talked about the community engagement in the spring would ask about costs but we would not have all the detailed costs by that point. We would just ask about ranges of cost for specific actions. (Rick Echternacht’s microphone was not turned on so some of the following comments were not audible.) Echternacht: One thing you mentioned about the size of the ballfields and how our’s…smaller than other communities. Did you actually collect information on the other communities as far as the size of their’s versus the size of our’s? Gabrielle Grinde: No. That’s a good question. So that’s why we don’t know for sure if we, if Chanhassen has a lot more fields than other communities because there is a range of sizes in there so all we know is that Chanhassen has a lot of youth fields so we don’t know in the other communities what the sizes are. We can look at maybe what we know or what staff knows of other communities but no, we did not include that. Those numbers specifically. Echternacht: …ball players in other… I just had a question. You talked about…preserve… Gabrielle Grinde: Oh maybe I mentioned between the preserves. So there are the many preserves that, well there’s the Bluff Creek Preserve that connects several different areas and so 13 Park and Recreation Commission – December 13, 2016 connecting between those is maybe what I meant. But yeah I don’t think within the open space area there would be, yeah. Hoffman: Continuing to provide unimpeded access to the pedestrian tunnels which the City has done a nice job of thus far. I don’t know the full count, 13 or so but pedestrian underpasses are a key component because we know they provide that, they take away the barrier from any access. So our park service map I think we’ve done a very nice job in the community, that half mile of every neighborhood park and then a mile to 2 to a community park so we know that map doesn’t work unless you have unimpeded access. You know not having to cross busy roads so…pedestrian underpasses. Kelly: Jim are you on the advisory committee? Boettcher: Yeah. Kelly: You and Steve are? Could you, how many meetings have you had so far? Boettcher: Two. Kelly: Two. Could you tell us a few things like start with who’s the chair of the committee and what you’ve discussed so far in the first two meetings. Boettcher: Well Gabrielle and her partner, I can’t remember her name but. Gabrielle Grinde: Rita. Boettcher: They always lead the discussion. I don’t know that we have a chair as such. Not really. It’s pretty much just an open forum. Representatives, you know Steve and I from here. We have a lady from an arts group. We have the two school districts. Some students. Is it 3 high school students? Hoffman: Two. Boettcher: Two. So it’s pretty well represented as far as the community but there’s no person that’s an actual chair. It’s just discussion what’s going on. What these findings have been. Kelly: So you’re still pretty much at the learning stage? Boettcher: Right. Kelly: Okay, thank you Jim. Other questions for Gabrielle? 14 Park and Recreation Commission – December 13, 2016 th Gabrielle Grinde: I do have one final slide then. So the next steps are January 12 is a visioning workshop which you are invited to attend with the advisory committee and then a late winter and early spring will be the development of the system recommendations and then following that will be the community input. That’s it. Kelly: Thank you very much. It’s a lot of information for us to take in and I’m sure as time goes on there’ll be more questions, especially as the committee gets together a few more times and starts to shape that vision and brings it to us for our input at that point but it’s an excellent survey and presentation and it’s a great start for us. Thank you Gabrielle. Gabrielle Grinde: Thank you. SENIOR CENTER UPDATE. (Sue Bill’s microphone was not turned on so some of the following comments were not audible.) Kelly: Moving right along. Sue I believe you get to give us a senior center update. Bill: Thank you. I’ll keep it short tonight. Just wanted to mention we had a holiday party a little early this year… There were about 120 people there. Good times. Good food. Good conversation. The last 2 years I have sent out letters to past participants who either have had a change in their living arrangements or some…concerns and that has really generated…for a number of people. They brought their family members and come back and visit old friends so that was really a joy to see some past friends at the senior center. There were 3 representatives from Charter Bank and they always have a wonderful time interacting with the participants and th this is the 11 year of their sponsorship and as they walked out the door they said we’ll be back next year so that’s really appreciated. KleinBank was a sponsor of our Lifelong Learning program for the past 10 or 11 years. When I submitted a proposal to them they will no longer be assigned to the Lifelong Learning program. They want to devote more of their resources which is another good thing for their concert series in the summer. So then I’m thinking what do I do or can I get a little bit more money so I did contact BMO Harris Bank and they are going to do a sponsorship of $400. Thought we’d start small. They’ll be sponsoring of my programs and they’re really excited to do that so…I’m looking forward to that in 2017. The only other thing I want to focus on is I’m sure you’ve all heard me talk about Passport to the World program. When we did, I think it was in September, October we had a program called From Russia with thth Love and that was 25 program. 25 country we visited through that Passport program. It started in 2009. People continue to come. I’ve got one in January on traveling through Sweden and Norway and I already have 39 people signed up so it’s just a wonderful program so hope to continue to offer those and all in all it’s been a good year and look forward to 2017. Kelly: Thank you Sue. Questions for Sue. 15 Park and Recreation Commission – December 13, 2016 Echternacht: …that one in January? Bill: It is the second Friday I think in January and a friend and neighbor is doing that. He’s the Vice President for International Food Sales for Cargill so he’s traveled pretty extensively… It should be interesting. Kelly: Thank you Sue. Hoffman: Chair Kelly and just a note if I may. Kelly: Yes. st Hoffman: Really pleased to announce that Sue’s position will be full time starting January 1 of this coming year and so you’ll see Sue here at City Hall in the senior center 5 days a week and that’s a reflection of the level of service that division or our department is providing to the seniors and the increased demands on her time so we’re glad to have Sue here full time. Kelly: Good, well I’m going to congratulate the City. They’re lucky to have her full time. PARK AND TRAIL MAINTENANCE OPERATIONS UPDATE. (Adam Beers microphone was not turned on so some of the following comments were not audible.) Kelly: Okay next Adam, I think you’re going to give us an update on the park and trail maintenance operation. Beers: Absolutely, thank you Chair Kelly and commissioners. Obviously winter is finally here. We’re on our way to plowing snow and…so each fall we go through a series of shut down operations now that all the sporting events are over. Everything is blown out and a lot of our maintenance on the fishing piers and the facilities, the concession stands so we do most of our painting or just kind of anything that needs to be updated we try to get done the first few months before the snow takes over so over the last month the guys have been working hard on getting those things prepped and taken care of. We had our first big snowfall was last weekend so we…finishing up everything today actually. Get things cleaned up and…so it’s good to be back in full swing there. The skating rinks we started flooding today. All the snow’s removed between yesterday and this morning so we have the guys running 24 hour shifts now taking place…until we have it running. Warming houses are coming tomorrow morning so we should…final hook up and get everything…so we’re well on our way to making ice and moving into the next season. Kelly: So Adam we saw some pictures of the construction of the new ice rink at Bandimere. Is that completed? 16 Park and Recreation Commission – December 13, 2016 Beers: It’s not completed. They finished, will open the straight runs today…our guys will be working on putting the boards up and then the other guys will start the rink…so we’re optimistic that Thursday and Friday…but a lot of delays over the summer. We had quite a few rain days and just kind of…how that goes so we’re trying to stay positive and… Kelly: So we’re hoping by this weekend to start flooding at Bandimere? Beers: That’s the goal. Kelly: Okay, great. Beers: Hopefully early next week we’ll be… Kelly: Okay, well that will be wonderful. Beers: Yep. Last month Todd gave kind of a brief update on some of…projects that were completed… Bandimere and Roundhouse were pretty big projects. Both expansions are going well…at Roundhouse, basketball court’s in place. There is one tennis court in place so come spring time we’ll be able to…and get nets up and start playing. Some smaller projects. We updated Old Village Hall. That got a new paint job and new cedar shingles which is long overdue. The train depot pavers were all replaced…so all good things. Really proud of the guys this year. We had a huge CIP list…so it’s good to get all these things done. Look forward to 2017 and just want to say Merry Christmas to everybody. Kelly: Thank you Adam. Any other questions for Adam? So I look forward to seeing the trails off the trails because I like using them in the winter. You guys always do a great job, thank you. RECREATION CENTER UPDATE. Kelly: Jodi. Rec Center update. Jodi Sarles’ microphone was not turned on so some of the following comments were not audible.) Sarles: Thank you Chair Kelly and commissioners. It’s definitely December in the Rec Center and everybody knows what to say when they come in. It’s cold outside so we keep the heat up and we make them work out when they get there so. There’s always a fun time of year with all the programs going. We’re going through…and all the kids are off for their winter break… Dan for Fun winter session is underway. We’ve got over 171 participants. We have 25 classes offered. We do a Winter Showcase…all the dancers to go before a little bit of an audience and their family members at the Rec Center gym…so it’s always appreciated by the families so it’s a fun event. From there we go into our Rec Center Sports and we’ve got a whole bunch of little 17 Park and Recreation Commission – December 13, 2016 ones through football, soccer, basketball, gold and track and field so just a little bit of everything going on now. Surveys are up to see how everybody is enjoying it…working to improve programs so we’re excited about that. We’ve had a couple fun events. These are some of my favorites. The artisan fair and the holiday boutique. It’s always interesting to see what the community members have and bring out to sell. We had a number of people. We had 30 local artists for artisan fair and 28 for the boutique so each event…shopping with the people in our community. Personal training program has, it’s grown this year. One of our facility supervisors, she is a certified personal trainer. Since she started the program has really improved…so it’s just nice to have somebody there at the desk that has that understanding…If they want some additional help they can…personal training. Then we also started doing some Rec Center fitness orientations. She’s walking people through 45 minute sessions… Basically at the end of that they’re given a couple of free passes to come back in and work out so we encourage people to come back and use the Rec Center…And as always we talk about pickleball and it’s still a very popular program. With that we’ve changed a little bit of our gym schedule. We’ve moved Tae Kwon Do into a few rooms and we’ve opened up some…for pickleball areas on Tuesday. There’s Tuesday afternoons…beginner play so anybody who would like to try out pickleball, Tuesdays is the best time. It’s a fun group of people that come out and play and they’re kind of learning the game together. We’ve got one older gentleman, our pickleball ambassador that comes Tuesdays now and he helps teach that… And other than that I guess we are underway with our punch card sale so every December we run a punch card sale. If you buy a 40 punch card and you’ll get a 10 punch free… For a resident it’s about $30. For non-residents it’s $35 so… And then we’ve got a few different promotional events if you want to try a Fit for Life trial th class we’ve got that coming January 5 and then we also have a Tae Kwon Do instructor is also…winter wellness revival trial class. It’s a group. It’s going to meet at 7:30 in the mornings on Wednesday and work on all sorts…like Adam I wish you and your families a Merry Christmas, Happy New Year, Happy Holidays and if you have any questions. Kelly: Jodi for those beginners who want to come over for pickleball, do you have all the equipment for them to use? Sarles: Absolutely. Kelly: And of course we won’t know for some time on the 20 year vision committee but they mention that they might be looking to you to have more programs for older kids. Now haven’t you already partnered with the YMCA in developing a little bit of that? Sarles: We’ve done a few things. I think typically the older kids they’re in the…dance program goes up to 18 but most of mine are for the elementary school aged. We’ve tried some… Kelly: Something for you to take back to the committee Jim. Sarles: Yeah it’s a tricky age because you have to get them involved. The other thing is the school district really does have some great community ed programs and they have a little bit 18 Park and Recreation Commission – December 13, 2016 more of a variety because they have the facilities so maybe like robotics. Some things that really interest some of the kids… Kelly: Great, any other questions for Jodi? Thanks for all the great work you do over there Jodi. TREE LIGHTING CEREMONY EVALUATION. (Katie Favro’s microphone was not turned on so some of the following comments were not audible.) Favro: Okay, well thank you Chair Kelly and commissioners. This year’s tree lighting rd ceremony was held on Saturday, December 3. Mayor Laufenburger and members of the firefighters memorial committee were the team that helped flip the switch that illuminated City Center Park. We had a great turnout again this year with over 400 people in attendance. This is just an annual holiday celebration that many people enjoy year to year. Refreshments were provided by Buy Chanhassen with just different businesses around Chanhassen like Byerly’s, Caribou, Cub Foods and KleinBank. The park maintenance staff set up instead of 2 bonfires one is easier for everybody to kind of huddle around and stay warm. The second one is for people to roast S’mores. Southwest Metro Chamber of Commerce…so people can roast marshmallows around the bonfire. Santa Claus made a visit again this year…came out of Santa’s workshop which was built by Adam…everybody in park maintenance. People really enjoy that, how it looks very nice sitting out there in City Center Park right now. The Mustard Seed also provides a live reindeer for people to take pictures of along with…They are a great partner and we’ve worked with them for many years… Carolers from Living Christ Lutheran Church come to carol Christmas songs. For this event we had about 15 carolers for the event and… We had the annual gingerbread house contest that were on display for the event. There were 3 winners or 3 categories that we had. It was most creative. Most improved and honorable mention. And then new for 2016 was a Toys for Tots drop off site and that was provided by Southwest Transit. They brought a trolley that was lit up so people could kind of try out the trolley that goes around town and anybody who brought an item to donate to Toys for Tots was entered into a drawing… Carron: Looks nice outside. Kelly: And I think Jerry made some adjustments out there but it was hard to hear the carolers initially unless you went right down there. I don’t know if we want to get more mics out next year for them but I think Jerry I think you made some adjustments so we could hear them better. Otherwise it was, as always a very impressive ceremony when the firemen lit the, flipped the switch and not just the lights in the park but all of City Hall is lit up and it was, it’s very impressive. Very fun to see and it was a great event. Thank you Katie. Hougham: I agree it was a great event. I got to attend with my family and my daughter was very excited to see Santa. Just a few comments on it. For the Toys for Tots we brought a toy and we waited to drop it off until after the light switch and they were already gone by then so we like 19 Park and Recreation Commission – December 13, 2016 caught them like as they were like leaving. Like take our toy please so we got ahold of them but just a comment there. And then where they have the reindeer and the S’mores the lines kind of got really busy and it was kind of hard to know where to go and the reindeer was poorly lit. I don’t know if that was on purpose for the reindeer or just where they were located so just lighting around. Favro: Yep sometimes the… Hougham: Yep, great event. Kelly: Thank you Katie. COMMISSION MEMBER COMMITTEE REPORTS. None. COMMISSION MEMBER PRESENTATIONS. None. ADMINISTRATIVE PACKET. Kelly: Todd, do we have an administrative packet today? I don’t seem to see it. I didn’t think so. Hoffman: Not today and again just want to thank our Webelos for joining us this evening and learning. If you have any questions feel free to mix and mingle with the commissioners afterwards. You can ask them any questions you have about what happened here tonight. They’re one group and then they make recommendations to the City Council and the Mayor and City Council are elected and they make the final decisions so this body is a recommending body and their positions are appointed by the City Council, the people that are elected to serve our community. Carron: And to tie into that I would challenge you guys to stay in and be active. I’m an Eagle scout and had an awesome troop and I want to let you guys know that after Webelos you get into boy scouts. Northern Star Council is one of the most progressive, well funded councils in all of the United States so just know that and they’ve got a lot of great camping things that you guys can go to and then you get into high adventure and everything to the boy scouts is a huge thing. They’ve just recently purchased a little while ago 14,000 acres in West Virginia for their national, oh the national jamboree so that’s pretty powerful when you can do something like that and they’re building it for you guys so definitely I challenge you guys to take advantage of it so thanks for coming. Kelly: Yep it’s great to have the Webelos here tonight. You’re always invited to our meetings even when you become boy scouts. We’d always love to see you here. Anybody want to put it to the question tonight? 20 Park and Recreation Commission – December 13, 2016 Carron moved, Echternacht seconded to adjourn the meeting. All voted in favor and the motion carried unanimously with a vote of 5 to 0. The Park and Recreation Commission meeting was adjourned. Submitted by Todd Hoffman Park and Rec Director Prepared by Nann Opheim 21