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HomeMy WebLinkAboutMinutes 02-23-04APPROVED Members Present: Mike Eliason (arrived 7:04 p.m.), Mark Jacobs, Eric Johnson, Steve Wilson, Phil Sterner (arrived 7:19 p.m.) Members Absent: None Staff Present: Dan Schultz, Director of Parks and Recreation and Sonja Honl, Recording Secretary Student Volunteer: None Others Present: None CALL TO ORDER: Jacobs called the meeting to order at 7:01 p.m. ADDITIONS TO THE AGENDA: None. 3. APPROVAL OF THE JANUARY 26, 2004 MINUTES: MOTION by Johnson to approve the minutes of January 26, 2004. SECOND by Wilson. Ayes: 3 Nays: 0 Motion passed. Jacobs once again complimented Honl for the great job she does putting the minutes together. Johnson stated that the minutes are always clear and easy to understand. 4. AUDIENCE INPUT: None 5. DISCUSSION (Response to Audience Input): None 6. OLD BUSINESS: a. Athletic Complex Site Plan – Schultz reviewed the revised sports complex concept plan from Ingraham and Associates. This plan covers 93 acres, which is the estimated amount of land required to include everything the Commission wants as far as sports facilities in one complex. The revised plan includes more soccer fields and two football fields. The Commission and Schultz liked the revised plan. The plan doesn’t include storm water ponding areas or other on-site amenities. Schultz felt that at this point, the Commission should recommend that the City Council begin actively trying to pursue a land purchase. The land that we find available will help us identify what will be built. Jacobs asked what the process is for purchasing the land for the facility, and whether we need a referendum. Per Schultz what we are recommending right now would be to start a serious attempt to acquire land. Once we find a landowner willing to sell, we would go back to the City Council and proceed from there in acquiring the land. What the Council needs to hear from the Commission is that we are in favor of moving forward to acquire land for an athletic complex. MOTION by Johnson to recommend that the City Council begin the formal process of acquiring land for the Rosemount athletic complex as designated in the Parks Master Plan. SECOND by Eliason. Ayes: 4 Nays: 0 Motion passed. b. Wiklund Property Preservation – The City is working with the DNR and Dakota County Farmland and Natural Areas program to preserve open space in Rosemount. The City hopes to receive funding from both groups to acquire the fee title for the Wiklund property. The DNR would hold a conservation easement over the entire property and the City would hold the fee title. Schultz reviewed a map of the property and identified a small sliver of land along Barcardi Avenue that is not owned by Ms. Wiklund. There is a sliver of land between the Wiklund property and Bacardi Avenue that is owned by Earl Bester. Schultz has spoken to Mr. Bester regarding the sale of this land to the City and will continue to pursue the purchase of this land, once the Wiklund property acquisition is approved. MOTION by Sterner to recommend that the City Council pursue the purchase of the Bester property between Bacardi Avenue and the Wiklund parcel, contingent on the acquisition of the Wiklund property. SECOND by Johnson. Johnson asked if it was an acquisition or an easement, and also stressed that the Commission should be clear in stating that the closing of this transaction would occur simultaneously or directly after the actual closing and recording of the Wiklund property. Schultz explained that we end up getting the fee title, but Ms. Wiklund is being paid for the conservation easement. FRIENDLY AMENDMENT by Jacobs to change the word “acquisition” to “acquiring the fee title to”. The motion would now read: Motion to recommend that the City Council pursue the purchase of the Bester property between Bacardi Avenue and the Wiklund property, contingent upon acquiring the fee title to the Wiklund property. Ayes: 5 Nays: 0 Motion passed. NEW BUSINESS a. Director’s Report – The Park Improvement Fund balance as of January 24, 2004 was $249,289.83. The City Council approved 13 people to serve on the Facilities Taskforce. The first meeting will be held in the next week or two. Schultz informed the Commission that the Parks and Recreation Department has hired Tom Schuster as the new Parks Supervisor. Tom formerly worked for the City of New Hope where he most recently was the Contract Manager and City Forester. Previous to that, he was the City’s Parks Superintendent. He has a strong background in park construction management and much of his job will be taking over responsibilities we previously contracted out to engineering firms. He will also be responsible for monitoring field use and long-term maintenance requests for repairs and replacement of equipment at the parks. Update on Minnea Project – Bloomfield Meadows. The developer, Centex Homes, is coming in to final plat this property. The total parks dedication will be approximately $444,000. Mr. Ach would like to be able to spread the payments out over all of the final plats. Schultz told the developer that per our subdivision ordinance, parks dedication fees are due with the final plat. Mr. Ach can go to the City Council and ask them to change the way the money is collected. Schultz felt that all of the money should come up front along with the land because we are looking at developing that park this summer and fall, with a completion date in early 2005. We want to avoid the problem we had with Bloomfield Park, where we were building the park when a large number of people had already moved in. There’s no benefit to the City in waiting to collect the money. Johnson asked for an update on the park signs. Schultz stated that there has been discussion on marketing and possibly changing the City logo, and this might affect the look of the park signs if we planned to include the logo on them. Tom Schuster will be working on this project. We plan to have new park signs installed this spring. Schultz will bring a couple of design options for park signs to the March meeting. Eliason was asked by a representative from RAHA about facility usage and fees and who is getting free facility usage as far as groups go. The inquiry was regarding why we give gym time to RAAA free at night, and RAHA isn’t getting the same thing for use of the ice arena. Per Schultz, the ice arena is operated differently. It is identified under an enterprise fund, which is where at the end of the year if the ice arena has any type of operating profit, that profit is kept and put back into the rink. The Community Center is not operated as an enterprise fund. Johnson asked for an update on the sports dome. Schultz stated that the Planning Commission approved the CUP. The sports dome representatives have some issues that they need to clear up, including the storm water ponding (NURP Pond) on National Guard property. This project still has to go through the building permit process. Schultz expected this item to be addressed at the March 1, 2004 City Council meeting. 8. ADJOURNMENT MOTION by Sterner to adjourn the meeting. SECOND by Johnson. Ayes: 5 Nays: 0 Motion passed. The meeting was adjourned at 7:56 p.m. Respectfully submitted by Sonja Honl, Recording Secretary