PRC 1988 10 18
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CHANHASSEN PARK AND RECREATION COMMISSION
REGULAR MEETING
OCTOBER 18, 1988
Chairman Mady called the meeting to order.
MEMBERS PRESENT: Sue Boyt, Jim Mady, Ed Hasek, Larry Schroers and Carol
Watson
MEMBERS ABSENT: Curt Robinson
STAFF PRESENT: Lori Sietsema, Park and Rec Coordinator and Todd Hoffman,
Recreation Supervisor
APPROVAL OF MINUTES: Hasek moved, Mady seconded to approve the Minutes of
the Park and Recreation Commission meeting dated September 27, 1988 as
presented. All voted in favor and the motion carried.
ACCEPT COMMISSION RESIGNATION SUBMITTED BY MIKE LYNCH.
Sietsema: I wanted to make a comment on number 3. I did start writing a
letter and then I went in and talked to Don and we think that given Mike's
long term with the City, we thought he should be awarded a maple leaf
award which is a distinguished award that not everybody that
~ . serves on a commission gets. Carol's got one. Because of the long
time that he served on the Park and Recreation Commission the different
committees that he worked.
Schroers: I don't think we should accept his resignation because we need
those darn Boy Scouts.
Boyt: Let's have a reception.
Mady: Let's move that we regretfully accept Mike's resignation and
strongly suggest or recommend to the Council that they consider Mike Lynch
for a Maple Leaf Award due to his 10 plus years on the Park and Recreation
Commission.
Sietsema: It's 9 years.
Mady: Politically everybody's kind of stretching the truth this year.
And you can put that in the minutes because we know those guys never read
it. And we strongly recommend.
Hasek: You can alter my motion to say what he said.
Sietsema: Did you make a motion?
Hasek: Yes, I voted to give him the award.
r-
Boyt: Do you want to include the reception?
Council hosted that.
It would be nice if the City
Hasek: You mean put that into the motion?
Park and Rec Commission Meeting
October 18, 1988 - Page 2
...,I
Boyt: Yes.
Hasek: Consider a reception, if that would be in the order, I guess I
donlt see any harm.
Mady: On the side, do you mean you'd rather do it up here and not
somebody's home?
Boyt: If it's a City award, it's appropriate to have some wine and beer
and cheese and crackers when he's getting the award.
Sietsema: Typically they give the award at the Council meeting.
Boyt: We can have it out there while they continue their Council meeting.
Mady: Are we going to be involved, when I got on the commission, I
was...by the commission and Sue was too. Then the Council did some of you
guys. Itls kind of a hit and miss affair.
Watson:
I have been interviewed over and over.
Mady: And what some of the candidates are saying, we are a citizens
committee. That's who we are is citizens. We don't get paid.
.....",
Sietsema: Yes, I will corne with you on what the policy is. It's changed
and things have been revised. I know that the Planning Commission
interviews all of the candidates and makes their recommendation as first,
second, third choice. Then they're actually selected, it goes to Council
with the Minutes of those interviews and all of the applications and
Council actually makes the selection. It's been done a couple different
ways with Park and Rec. 1111 have to find out.
Schroers: I was interviewed by the Mayor and then appointed by the Mayor
and the Council.
Mady: I guess lid like to be able to ask questions. They need to know
what we're like...
Hasek: I think if we are to report to the Planning Commission primarily?
Sietsema: No, we donlt.
Hasek: We report to the Council? Then the Council ought to make the
selection. Just like the people select the Council, I think...
Sietsema: The question is, who asks the questions. Who interviews the
candidates. The Commission or the Council?
Hasek: I still think it should be the Council.
.....""
Mady: lid like to have an option of being able to talk to the people.
Park and Rec Commission Meeting
October 18, 1988 - Page 3
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Sietsema: I'll look at the ordinance. I know that when they codified
everything, they may have made everything the same for each commission.
I'll just have to check and see what the policy is now.
Hasek moved, Mady seconded that the Park and Recreation Commission
recommend to regretfully accept the resignation of Mike Lynch and to
strongly recommend to consider Mike Lynch for a Maple Leaf Award due to
his 9 years on the Park and Recreation Commission. Also, to consider
having a reception in Mike Lynch's honor. All voted in favor and the
motion carried.
REZONING PROPOSAL TO PRESERVE MINNESOTA VALLEY.
Sietsema: Number 4 is basically an informational thing. There's a lot of
information to get through there. Really there isn't a lot that we can do
except support the proposal to have this area rezoned. There's a lot of
ramifications and different things that Planning Commission is going to
have to look into on what the effects, actual effects of the different
property owners and what land uses would be allowed and not allowed but I
think for the purposes that they need, I think if we wanted to support
their efforts through a motion, I think that would be in order.
,.....
Schroers: There's so much here that I don't think we need to spend a
whole lot of time on it. Especially since we can't really do anything
besides lend our support. I don't know who on the Park and Rec or why
someone on the Park and Rec wouldn't be in favor of a rezoning of this.
Just not to waste any time, I would just like to go ahead and move on it.
I'll move that Park and Rec support the Planning Commission's efforts to
rezone the BF District along TH 212 to limit development along the
Minnesota valley.
Boyt: Second.
Mady: A couple of comments I wanted to make. Tim apparently was pushing
for A-2, Agricultural Estate. I read through this whole congolmeration.
I'm still not real sure what's the difference between A-I and A-2 is. I
don't think I ever will understand it, at least not for a while so we'll
go with their recommendation. I think...that are really good to get back
into more of a green space.
Schroers: That's really all I can see. That's pretty much what I got out
of it too.
Boyt: The City Council can deal with the businesses that are down there.
We're just saying we're in support of the concept.
~ Mady: They've got to realize too that TH 212 is probably going to be
moving in 10 years.
Park and Rec Commission Meeting
October 18, 1988 - Page 4
.....,,;
Schroers moved, Boyt seconded that the Park and Rec support the Planning
Commission's efforts to rezone the BF District along TH 212 to limit
development along the Minnesota Valley. All voted in favor and the motion
carried.
REVIEW CURRENT BALANCE IN CAPITAL IMPROVEMENT PROGRAM FUND.
Hasek: Am I to understand that our budget got approved?
Sietsema: Yes, without any of the cuts that we made the last time. It
got approved at $169,250.00.
Hasek: Were there any lots in there at all?
Sietsema: I don't think they even questioned it that I know of. I wasn't
at the budget meeting myself but nothing came back. There were some
questions on how the 1988 budget got revised to take out the tennis courts
at South Lotus and the trails be put in so I included in their
administrative packet last time where they did indeed do that. That's
what we were accusing us of. Sneaking it through.
Mady: If they read our Minutes, because they get them verbatim, they
would know exactly how it happened. -'
Schroers: I have a question Lor, the unencumbered balance. Is that
monies that just have not been earmarked to something specifically?
Sietsema: Right.
Hasek: Is that an amount that you'd like to kind of hold in case
something comes up?
Sietsema: It's just that we identified what our needs were. We look at
what we expect to spend in the different areas and what we've actually put
on reserve for different projects. That's just the amount of money that
we anticipate to have given our expectations of revenue next year that we
haven't earmarked.
Hasek: What was our balance at the beginning of this year? Ballpark.
Sietsema: $50,000.00.
Hasek: Where did we end up at the end of the year?
Sietsema: 352 but you take out your reserve. The $352,260.00 is what was
not spent but our reserve was $300,000.00.
Hasek: $352,000.00 and that's basically you ended up with that reserve
that funding covered at the end and that carried over to this year? -'
Sietsema: Right. It just keeps carrying over. It stays within this
fund. It's not budgeted to be spent on anything. Not that we might have
Park and Rec Commission Meeting
October 18, 1988 - Page 5
,....,
had the figures for how much we collected in each different area further
back than 1986 but evidentally we didn't keep the specific program areas
at the very beginning.
Mady: A couple thoughts on the budget for next year since we did have
difficulty getting projects completed this year because of lack of staff.
Maintenance. When we go into things like the totlot equipment up at City
Center Park, we may want to pursue avenues such as getting the volunteer
Fire Department and Boy Scouts as groups together for a couple Saturdays
to install that stuff. A number of communities have done that. It takes
some organizing but Dale can probably do that.
Sietsema: Volunteer Fire Department I don't think we'd have a problem
with but Boy Scouts or something like that. If you don't put your totlot
equipment together the way it's supposed to be put together, you've got
some liability problems. Something we might want to consider, if we don't
look like we can get it done in the timely fashion that you'd like to see,
we could hire the company that supplies the equipment to come out and put
it together.
Mady: I know we've been doing this in the last year, there have been a
couple different playground projects that have been funded and then
assembled by volunteers.
,....,
Boyt: It was overseen by the architect.
Mady: We need that type of overseeing. Somebody who knows but still you
can do a lot more and get a lot more done.
Boyt: Speaking of getting things done in a timely manner, I think a
calender of when each of the projects is expected to be started would be
helpful for us and for you and for Dale so if things aren't happening, we
need to look at alternatives.
Sietsema: What would be helpful, if that's what you'd like to see and I
don't see any problem with that, if you guys would prioritize what you
want to see done first because Dale he can do things, he can prioritize
them and do them on a schedule but it may not be the same schedule as what
you have. The same priority as you have. There are somethings that
wouldn't necessarily be able to be done because he just has to work with,
sometimes he has to borrow people from the utilities department or do all
the paving at the same time with the street department. Things like that.
In this case, the paving didn't get done until September.
Boyt: We should probably look at this over the next couple of weeks. It
looks like there's only going to be a couple of things that will be a high
priority and then it would be up to Dale to set up a schedule.
~ Sietsema: Or I could have Dale look at it and see what kind of a schedule
he would anticipate being done and then bring it back and see if you have
changes that you'd like.
Park and Rec Commission Meeting
October 18, 1988 - Page 6
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Hasek: He might want to corne to that meeting too to discuss with us to
see if we're making the right decisions so we don't go off half cocked in
the wrong direction.
Watson: He can give us approximate time frames better than we can. It
takes so many men approximately this length of time to assemble this or do
this.
Schroers: And a lot of these things are seasonal. We'd like to see them
get going so they're in place and functional at the time when they can be
used and should be used.
Mady: A point aside, I drove by Carver Beach to look at how the Scout
project is corning along. It looks really nice. They've doing a beautiful
job. I'm not sure if it's done or not. It looks like it might get some
bollards but I don't know.
Sietsema: I was out there on Friday and it looked done.
Mady: I was only on the east side of the walkway down. There's bollards
along the west side of that walkway in front of the parking lot area but
there wasn't any on the east side, the right so I was just wondering...
It looks really nice with the sod. He took his new parking area and
really dressed it up.
...""
Sietsema: Yes. If I lived across the street from there, I would be very
pleased that that project is done.
Mady: Use that as an example of how we can actually dress up, make
something that's, people were all fearful...
Sietsema: I don't think it cost us as much as we even have budgeted for
it. They did it very economically too.
Mady: Does he corne into you when he's done?
Sietsema: Yes. He'll be corning to me to tell me that he's done and have
staff inspect it to make sure it was done to what the plan showed.
Hasek: I think it would be nice to send a little letter along.
Sietsema: Definitely when it's done then we would bring them in. He may
corne in and tell you what he did too. That might be part of his project.
I'll have to touch base with him again and see what his plans are.
Schroers: It might be good to have a little note in the paper just to
make mention of the fact that the project is done and completed and it
might apease some of the residents in the Carver Beach area also that they
have this potentially beautiful area there and nothing gets done with it.
...""
Sietsema: He usually gets some press when he gets his Eagle Scout award
too because that is a big award for them.
"....
Park and Rec Commission Meeting
October 18, 1988 - Page 7
Mady: You don't need any motion on that?
Sietsema: No. I'll have Dale work up a schedule and attend the next
meeting.
UPDATE ON TRAIL TASK FORCE.
Sietsema: The trail task force is out meeting with different groups.
We've met with a mixed response I guess I'd say. There are a lot of good
questions out there. There are some people that are convinced that the
trails aren't going to be used regardless. If the trails are in there or
not, the kids are still going to play on the street. I think we've
answered pretty well most of the questions that people have come up with.
On October the 25th and the 26th, are the two general information nights.
Kind of like town meeting type thing where people can come in and ask
questions and get the information that they want. It would be nice to
have as many people there to mingle with the crowd before and after the
meeting to answer any questions. Also, as I said earlier, we need letters
to the editor in support of the trails. Mary Durben is going to be doing
an article on the pros and cons and she's going to have people write
articles that are against the trails as well as in favor of the trails.
It's difficult to know...
",..,..,
Watson: She's going to solicit letters in opposition?
Sietsema: Yes. She called for names of people who were against the trail
plan. I try to keep in touch with Mary because I told her, you know
there's a lot of misinformation out there being said with the campaigns.
People are saying erroneous things and I said, if you have any questions,
make sure you call me when you're writing your article because I don't
want the wrong information to go out. I just don't know what she's going
to say or how this is whole thing is going to turn out so I think if you
have 2 minute to spare, if you could just jot down how wonderful the
trails on Kerber Blvd. are or how many people you see using them. How
much you would use them if we had them. Why you want trails.
Watson: I always see several people who walk. I'm never out there alone.
Sietsema: We only have two more issues of the paper before the election
and it has to be in by Friday to be published the next Thursday. For the
Villager, that's optimal. He's telling me you can get them in by noon
on Monday but.
Hasek: That's for what paper now?
,....,
Sietsema: The Villager. And don't get them too early because she'll lose
them on her desk. Article after article has gotton lost on her desk.
Mady: I even bring mine in over the weekend and put them through their
mail slots so they have them first thing Monday morning. Not in their
mail but in their other stuff.
Park and Rec Commission Meeting
October 18, 1988 - Page 8
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Schroers: That trail along Kerber Blvd. is so terrific, I can not believe
that anyone in their right mind wouldn't want to support the trails.
Boyt: You should have been here when we talked to the City Council and
the candidates and half of my neighborhood about trails. There was a
councilmember who could only complain because he drives through Eden
prairie and there never use their trails there and why didn't we include
snowmobiles and dirt bikes. Just on and on.
Schroers: A council person asked why we don't have dirt bikes on our
trails?
Boyt: Yes. And why we don't provide a place for them in town because
they're there anyway.
Mady: Illegally by the way.
Watson: A present councilman?
Boyt: Yes. His son has a dirt bike.
Sietsema: His point was that we shouldn't eliminate any uses and if there
are going to be people out there with dirt bikes and four wheelers, that
we should provide a place for them to ride or else they'll illegally ride~
on the trails so we should provide someplace where they can legally be.
Hasek: Then if they get injured, it's our responsibility.
Boyt: Maybe they need to have an area to take their bikes in another
town.
Schroers: Is there a community around that offers such an area? I think
the liability would be out of site on something like that.
Watson: Not only that but we can't maintain something like that in the
first place.
Sietsema: But anyway, we really need the people out there talking about
trails and we need the letters. That's all I had on that item.
SET NEXT PARK AND RECREATION COMMISSION MEETING DATE.
Sietsema: The next meeting date, I would like to recommend that we meet
on November 1st. That's a Tuesday rather than November 8th because the
8th is election day and next week is our normally scheduled meeting and I
don't think I'm going to have enough items to really meet. I've got a few
things already built up in the bin but not really enough to call everybody
together. I could dig some stuff up but. So I thought if we could meet ..
in 2 weeks, that way that would hit between next week and the 8th so we ~
could still get the site plans that I've got corning in done in time. We'd
have enough for a full agenda then and then we can go back to the regular
meeting. The next meeting would then be the 22nd.
,......
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Park and Rec Commission Meeting
October 18, 1988 - Page 9
Boyt: I talked to Tim on the phone about his letter on the trails and I
said that I thought we don't have to have horses on every nature traIl.
We have the goal of the Park and Rec define some areas somewhere in the
City to have horse access. He thought that sounded fine. I asked if he
would work with us on that but not every nature trail we have would be
horse accessible.
Mady: Right now it's not a problem so let's go. Once the problem crops
up, then we'll deal with it on that. I don't see us needing to be
proactive at eliminating them.
Watson: We're always batting at windmills.
Boyt: We're going to get this question at our public hearings. They'll
say, oh does it mean that every nature trail is horse accessible.
Schroers:
meeting.
That goes back to that motion I tried to make at the last
Certain trails for it.
Sietsema: I've talked to Tim about this. I would like to hold off on
this one. I have one other item, if we could just wait because Carol was
going to corne and talk about this again. She had some things that she
wanted to say to people regarding Tim's letter. The letter from Tim
Erhart, this came after Tim invited me out to look at the trails. He's
got some nature trails on his property to see what horses do to trails. I
went out there. We took a Jeep ride around the trails and in spots like
at the top of a hill, at the crest of a hill, it was worn down to the
dirt. In most other areas it's like a road, like a sealed road so it was
dirt in some places anyway. In other places it wasn't worn away at all.
Then in the wetland areas, it wouldn't be a logical place to have horse
trails because their hooves would sink up to their knees. It would tear
it up and I don't think people with horses would want to walk through
there. After that I indicated to Tim, Tim felt that he had shown me
that's what horses do to trails and therefore there shouldn't be horse
trails. I said to him that I didn't think that that was evidence to me
that we should eliminate one valid use of trails because it wears away the
grass in some spots. I think there are some ways to deal with that and
there are other areas that we may want to designate that are not
accessible to horses. Following that we got this letter outlining his
concerns for horses and on trails and how they're not compatible with
people and what they do to trails. I think that a lot of those questions
we answered at our last meeting when we talked about the different uses
and compatible uses and when Larry talked about Hennepin Parks, the trails
at Hennepin Parks. There's a lot of horse nature trails in different
Hennepin Parks as well as State Parks that are not having the problems
that he's outlining in this material here. I brought this to your
attention because he addressed it to you and also because I wanted you to
see what he was talking about. But my personal feeling is that we should
look at each trail section and we should still allow, I still think that
horseback riding is a valid use and we should allow it where it's logical
that they would go. A wet, soggy area is not logical for a horse rider to
want to go through as well as not something we'd want to encourage. We
Park and Rec Commission Meeting
October 18, 1988 - Page 10
'--'
can accomplish that through signage and information. Carol is here to
respond to some of the information that is in Tim's letter. I'll just
give her the floor next.
Carol Dunsmore: I guess I'd like to hear your discussion first. If there
is a need for me to continue.
Mady: From my point of view, I'm kind of the most negative person up
here. I read Tim's thing going, this is interesting but I think you've
demonstrated that there really is, we don't have a problem right now. If
a huge problem occurs, you're going to know it before we know it probably.
My biggest concern was, before you told me about everything was that...
Hasek: ...at that point I guess I would be in favor of realizing that
trails were basically there for people. If some of the people happen to
want to ride horses, it would be in my mind really no different than if
there's a conflict between snowmobilers and cross country skiers. We have
to provide for what most of the people want so until that happens, there's
no reason why we shouldn't provide for them where we can.
Schroers: I'm in favor of having horses on the trails wherever it's
appropriate. I have no problems with that at all. I really just see on
this horse issue two parties involved. Tim and Carol. Are there other
interested people here? Is there more than just two parties here that -'
we're dealing with?
Sietsema: Tim's the only one that I know that's against the horses on the
trail. I know that there is a significant number of people that are in
favor of allowing equestrian use because they signed a petition a while
back that we saw here. There were what, 70 signatures on that petition
that were in favor of allowing horses to use the trails.
Schroers: If it is his personal property, he has the right to say how he
wants it used. I guess there's no question there but on other city owned
property, I certainly think that if the trail can support horse use,
there's no reason not to have it.
Wes Dunsmore: There are a couple other horse owners on our street also
that aren't here tonight because of other obligations that would like it.
I understand that's Tim's property. He can do whatever he wants. I have
no disagreement with that. All we ask is that you keep in mind through
the development of the City, that if there's room for trails, fine. I
know you're not going to have problems finding the trails. We're
seasonal.
Hasek: I don't know, there are some people thinking that maybe we are
trying to build a thousand miles.
Schroers: I think the community in general would like to see us be able
to get the most use of all our trails if we can. I think it's the way -'
things are going these days and it's a sensible and practical thing to do.
Everyone should have a fair chance in using them the way they want to as
long as it's not interfering with other people's use. As long as people
Park and Rec Commission Meeting
October 18, 1988 - Page 11
If!"""
coexist, I don't have a problem with it at all.
Mady: As long as your horse doesn't leak oil and need a muffler.
Hasek:
don't we
provided
use.
I was just thinking, that's the response to the question, why
build trails for dirt bikes. It's simple that we haven't
trails for snowmobiles because it's incompatible with pedestrian
Watson:
The snowmobile club provides trails for themselves.
Hasek: If bikers want to go out and start that same program, they have
the right to do that. We as a city haven't provided it and we don't intend
on providing motor vehicle uses on our trails. There isn't a trail in the
city that a pedestrian can't use, right? We haven't provided for any.
Watson: We don't have anything in the city a pedestrian can't use.
Hasek: Motor vehicles aren't allowed on the trails that we have either
are there? So why in the world would we ever build trails specifically
for a motor vehicle or allow them on the existing trails? We wouldn't.
What would be the point?
~ Schroers: And that's why we wouldn't want to designate specifically a
horse trail and say okay, this trail is for horses only. The next week
the bikers are going to be in here saying, where's our trail. We want
more trails.
Hasek: As long as it's compatible with pedestrians, that's...
Wes Dunsmore: I don't think you'd have a problem with bikers coming here.
I'm the superintendent of Parks and Rec for the city of Eden prairie and
we just got rid of the BMX track, last year or the year before. People
wanted it but there was such a liability we couldn't even get insurance
and the only place that they could come up with was like a million or 3
million dollar coverage and it was someplace in Texas so we just went in
and ripped it out last year. It doesn't work anymore.
Schroers: That was the one behind Flying Cloud there?
Wes Dunsmore: Yes.
Hasek: That was a BMX? Only for bicycles?
Wes Dunsmore: Yes.
Hasek: Is that similar to the one that's up on TH 7?
.,.....
Wes Dunsmore:
I'm not familiar with that at all.
Hasek: That's bicycles, not motor vehicles.
Park and Rec Commission Meeting
October 18, 1988 - Page 12
-'
Wes Dunsmore: ...we spent a lot of money building it and then the
liability got to be a problem and then the people that wanted to come in
and run it, then they were getting a portion of that money, they were
making money from the city and it's not worth the hassle. The liability
was just too, you couldn't get the insurance on it.
Hasek: So I understand, I asked the question and I guess I didn't get an
answer, was yours only for bicycles?
Wes Dunsmore: Yes.
Schroers: I saw the one on Flying Cloud operated and I thought it was
pretty neat. Did you have many serious injuries?
Wes Dunsmore: Not that I'm really aware of but it come down to the
insurance liability. What's going to happen? If you know as a city
yourself, like we've got $50,000.00 invested over there on equipment. The
liability's ridiculous so it just wasn't worth the hassle. I don't think
you'll have any problems allowing horses on the trails. If a biker comes
in, how much liability does he have? You don't have the 150 horses type
operation here...
Hasek: I think the other thing that I'd like to really see go along with
that is to encourage the people that do use it, the local people that
really organize it and get a club or something together, to kind of po1ic~
your own.
Wes Dunsmore: That's another thing. We've also got a snowmobile trail
out there and that's kind on a year to year because they're taking all of
our parks over there. Last year, you're kind on notice the club was told.
If you don't police your own people... I think the people with horses are
going to be responsible. Things that Tim wrote in there, people do not go
out on rainy days up and down hills because nobody wants to...
Mady: Okay, are we done?
Schroers: We haven't really talked about the property up here yet.
Sietsema: Let me go over it real quick. There's 33 acres of parkland
that's called the Bandimere Farm that's up for sale right now and it's
adjacent to Bandimere Heights Park which we currently own. It's about 3
to 5 acres of parkland. I'm bringing it to your attention right now
because it's up for sale. If we want to move on it, we should do
something about it. It's roughly, I think they're asking $3,500.00 an
acre but one of our conditions, actually it was a must, was that the park
had to be 80 acres. A minimum of 80 acres. Even though this isn't 80
acres, it is a big chunk of land and we're running out of chunks of land
that are over 50 acres in the southern area too. I wanted to just get
your input on it.
-'
Watson: Couldn't we have two parks?
Hasek: We already talked about that.
Park and Rec Commission Meeting
October 18, 1988 - Page 13
,....
Watson: One 35 and another...
Hasek: What we're talking about is this 33 acres plus this 3 acres is 36
acres so we're looking at 45 to 50 acres additional to that. If you look
at this, there's a chunk here. There might be a part of a chunk here and
a part of a chunk here. There might be a piece here. This piece, there
might be this piece and this piece. Or a piece of this and this. Or this
and this. There's a ton of ways you could go. You could even potentially
jump over and look at something north of Tom's piece there. I think this
might be the catalyst to get everything going.
Boyt: I was saying to Lori, Jim and I were talking about this piece the
other day. We played soccer at Bandimere this year and I thought, that's
a nice kind of entrance to a park and we should look at this property.
Hasek: I don't think that would be an entrance but probably...
Mady: Still, the parkland is there. We've got enough street right-of-way
that we can get into the park. If we want to acquire up here, all of the
access could come from up here.
""'"
Boyt:
Yes, I think we ought to look at it.
Sietsema: So, do you want to go out there and look at it?
Mady: Yes. Try to schedule like a Saturday when we can look at this
parcel. Go up by Ed's house and look around. Go to Pheasant Hills and
trapze around up there. Take a couple hours on a Saturday afternoon.
Boyt: Sunday afternoon.
Mady: Sunday. Whatever. The Vikings aren't that encouraging to watch
anyway.
Hasek: Our problem is, I think between Larry and myself, I go hunting.
I'm going to be starting into it here and weekends are going to be shot.
Sietsema: Weekends are not going to be too good.
Hasek: That's until November and I don't know if that's too late. Is it
possible that we can meet at like 5:30? If we knew far enough in advance
that we were going to do it.
Sietsema: That's good for me. I can do that.
Schroers: I don't have a problem with that.
~ Hasek: That would give us an hour that we could may go out to this one
and look at it and maybe drive over...
Schroers: I think since staff is just groping for things to do, what I
would like to do is if someone could look into the feasibility of
Park and Rec Commission Meeting
October 18, 1988 - Page 14
.....",
acquiring that land adjacent to it.
Sietsema: Yes, I can do that.
Schroers: What's the possibility that any of that property adjacent to it
will be up for sale or that the owners would be willing to entertain an
offer of some type on that.
Sietsema: For a second phase.
Hasek: Yes. You might have an owner out there who doesn't want to sell
right now but if you give him $5,000.00 or something as a holding fee on
an annual basis...
Mady: We need to know a couple of things though. How long is the
referendum money, is that available?
Sietsema: I think it's like 5 years.
Hasek: I think if you've got an option on a piece of property that in
actuality they'll consider it a purchase.
Mady: We need Roger's input on this. I think we also need to send a
message to Council saying we're entertaining some ideas here. Would they
be receptive to the idea of having an active park and passive park -'
separate from each other because we're concerned that we may end up buying
the ideal piece of land that's flat for active purposes will not be
adjacent to another piece of land. So maybe looking at 30 acres
someplace and 50 acres someplace else as long as they're in the same area
of Chanhassen.
Hasek: I don't know that 30 acres is enough to make it active is it?
What can you put on 30 acres?
Sietsema: Well, we've got 20 acres that we're putting the three
ball fields and a soccer field on at Lake Ann.
Hasek: But that's a fairly rectalinear piece right?
Sietsema: Yes.
Mady: That's a fairly square parcel there.
Hasek moved, Watson seconded to adjourn the meeting. All voted in favor
and the motion carried. The meeting was adjourned.
Submitted by Lori Sietsema
Park and Rec Coordinator -'
Prepared by Nann Opheim