Loading...
Park Board Minutes 2006 09-28-06 UNITED CITY OF YORKVILLE YORKVILLE PARKS & RECREATION DEPARTMENT BOARD MEETING Parks & Recreation Administrative Office Riverfront Building Thursday, September 28, 2006 MINUTES CALL TO ORDER: Meeting was called to order by Ken Koch at 7:03 p.m. ROLL CALL: Ken Koch, Van Truman, Gary Golinski, Debbie Horaz, and Seth Schoonover GUESTS/CITY OFFICIALS/STAFF: Dave Mogle, Director of Parks and Recreation Sue Swithin, Superintendent of Recreation Scott Sleezer, Superintendent of Parks Laura Haake, Park Planner Carrie Hansen, Wiseman Hughes Vince Rosanova, DBCWCTD Mike Schoppe, SDA Loren Underhill, Yorkville Reds Baseball Steven Hanson, Yorkville Reds Baseball Kim Hanson, Yorkville Reds Baseball Jennie May, Yorkville Reds Baseball Kevin May, Yorkville Reds Baseball PUBLIC COMMENT: Steven Hanson attended the meeting tonight because youth baseball field usage was on the agenda. He and others wanted to be present to hear information and answer any questions. Westbury Development will present an updated plan. After the scheduled presentation, the agenda will be moved related to these guests,. PRESENTATIONS: Town homes of Windett Ridge The Board Members were given the preliminary plan of the Townes at Windett Reserves. The .3 acre parcel for a park is adjacent to and east of Route 47. The 85 acre Townes at Windett Reserves will soon be requesting annexation. Vince Rosanova requested the Board to discuss the land dedication or cash in lieu of contribution. Mike Schoppe presented more details. In October 2005 the concept review was similar to the one now presented. Townes at Windett Reserves consists of all town homes. The one park in this development would be a 3 acre parcel that would be next to the school site. The combined park and school site would be 21 acres. The Plan Commission meeting is October 11`x'. Wiseman-Hughes would like the Parks and Recreation Board's input on l the preliminary plans and how it relates to the recreational improvements. The main east/west road that borders the park and school site will connect to Penman Road(north/south)which will be part of the Hudson's Lake project. The large open space corridor starts at Windett Ridge (head waters of Aux Sable Creek) and continues around some open space. In the master plan the trail is extended and divides the parld school site,through the drainage corridor, and then to Aux Sable Creek. Townes at Windett Reserves consists of 180 attached units and 10 detached units. Based on current city calculations tables for park purposes only, 4.87 acres dedication will be required. The population increase with this subdivision will grow to approximately 487 people. This will be a low density area of 2.16. Vince Rosanova believed that the Board earlier had the intentions of 3 acres in land and the remaining 1.87 cash in lieu of land at $80,000 per acre which would be approximately $150,000. The developer wants to work with the Board in solidifying the location of the park. Originally, Carrie Hansen at a previous meeting with staff proposed a 3 acre L-shaped park parcel, but was clear that the Wiseman- Hughes plans were open to what Parks and Recreation would like. The L-shaped parcel was not ideal. At a meeting also with Dr. Engler, Mike Schoppe encouraged looking at the whole open site, including an adjacent7 acre park site in Windett Ridge already dedicated to the City, in order to maximize the layouts of the school and park sites. Dr. Engler was open to moving the trail adjacent to the school site in a different way other than the original plan. Wiseman—Hughes is willing to be flexible on the park placement. The Board's input is encouraged for the trail connection extending through the park/school open space. The Board should decide if the trail should be extended and if so the size of the trail, easement specifications, and the credit given for part of that. There has not been a conversation about trail in lieu of sidewalk along the east/west road north ofthe park site. Parks and Recreation asked Heartland Crossing fora trail to Penman and Aux Sable Creek. Land cash credit will be given and/or land swapped to compensate for the north/south road that bisects the original Windett Ridge park site. Scott Sleezer wanted to note to the Board the drainage issues. A drainage swale, currently showing in the plan, should not interfere with park space. There is a need for water to drain through the open space somewhere with inlets. Within reason the water path can be moved slightly to fit the school and park plans. Carrie Hansen stated that the 21 acres (15 acres for school and park's 4.87 acres) can be a combination of land and cash. She knows the Board would like up to a 3 acre park. Scott Sleezer, Dave Mogle, Laura Haake, and Mike Schoppe can meet to further discuss placement of the park. Scott Sleezer will research regarding the trail along the water. If the trail is near the drainage swale of open space it would be about 1000 ft. long or 1400 feet if the trail is along the east/west road. G ' Yorkville has lots of park space north of Westbury. The south side of Galena is in need of packs. Greg Stevens will ask Ocean Atlantic if the 16 acre park space could be swapped with the Single Family A area. According to Greg Stevens, the original park sites proposed for the Westbury expansion will remain. In lieu of increasing the acreage of those parks like the Board requested, this additional land is proposed. The staff's concern is that too much land is not desired, if not enough cash comes with it for park development . Dave Mogle and Scott Sleezer will look at nnnbers and call Greg Stevens to meet again, Youth Baseball Field Usage The Parks and Recreation Board met on Monday, September 250' for a special meeting. The Board's direction is to have facilities for everyone with the highest priority to YYBS because of its agreement with the City. The Reds organization is also valued. Jason Pettit, Director of Kendall County Forest Preserve District, and Dave Mogle spoke on the phone and the Reds could use the Harris Forest Preserve Field, since it appears that the YYBS are abandoning use of it. The Forest Preserve District, is open to working with the Park Board concerning this. The Regional Ball Diamonds will be reserved for the adult Yorkville Parks and Recreation programs starting at 8 p.m. Monday through Friday. Perhaps in the future there may be some weekend tournaments too. Van Truman verified that YYBS has a few tournaments on Saturday, but Sundays are open on the Grande Reserve Diamonds. That could be an option for the Reds. Steve Hanson from the Reds questioned why YYBS would not use Harris and the Reds organization keep Hoover which is sentimental to them after a year of play and work on the field. Sue Swithin answered that the intergovernmental agreement with YYBS and the Forest Preserve with Hoover allows Parks and Recreation to put park funding into Hoover. This is not true for Harris. Scott Sleezer looked at both Harris and Hoover fields and thinks they are comparable and both require work. He said that Harris is a county field, so the make up of the Reds' team players could represent kids in Yorkville and among the county. The fields that Parks and Recreation control that YYBS can use are Fox Hill, Beecher, Van Emmon, and Hoover in the future. YYBS has separate agreements with the schools and YYBS maintained those school fields. ICim Hanson, involved with the Reds, feels YYBS over exaggerates the need for fields. Last year the Reds asked for Parks and Recreation fields and were denied. The Reds had an arrangement to use high school fields. Then YYBS pulled out their agreement with the school district and the Reds were told the high school fields could not be used. As a result of that, YYBS had use of all high school fields, both Circle Center fields, and all Parks and Recreation fields. Seth Schoonover said YYBS did use 2 back high school fields. For practice the field with no fence was used. The big tree field was used for girls' transition softball. He stated with 60' bases, only young khds could use those fields. j During the summer, the boys' freshman field was used twice a week for practice for YYBS. "Three times a week the freshman summer league used that field as well. Seth Schoonover hopes the middle school would have school ball and that the new school would have an 80 foot baseball field. Maybe in the summer, other organizations could get duel use of it. The Reds would regret losing the field at Hoover. However, the Board is trying to compromise with alternate options, so the Reds are not denied their field requests. It takes $490,000 to light the 3 fields in Grand Reserve. A 4-5 baseball field complex is envisioned at Hoover. After that construction, lighting those fields may be a phase 2 project. The staff's concern of building an additional baseball field at Hoover in the near future is that it might only be temporary, Once Hoover is developed for City recreation, the location of the fields might change. Steve Hanson wondered if YYBS could start its season 1 week earlier and extend it 1 week later. These 2 extra weeks would open up 17 fields times 5 time slots. That would be 85 time slots. If you add in 2 Saturdays, it could add close to 300 time slots. Without Hoover, the Reds are asking for 8 time slots a week for 12 weeks which would add up to 96 requested time slots. The extra 2 weeks would give a bigger window for rain out games. The Board needs more time to make progress. YYBS gave the time slot schedule to the Board. YYBS will have its schedule ready by March 1st.. A few big schedule changes do happen from March through May. Sue Swithin, addressing the Reds representatives, said that Parks and Recreation Staff have the obligation to help the largest population of people. After that group, in this case YYBS, is blocked in, then other groups have what remains. If YYBS did not have the current program,Parks and Recreation would take up that responsibility. She would like to see the Reds work with the school district as a feeder program when more fields are available, similar to the youth football program. It is the Board's responsibility to work with Seth Schoonover, the School Liaison, and utilize the fields as best as they can be. Parks and Recreation has the responsibility to take care of the largest group and provide facilities for the tax payers. The school district can help additional programs like the Reds. On the YYBS Field Requirement page, school fields were not listed. However, Seth Schoonover met with YYBS and they plan to use some. YYBS offered to pay for a fence on one of the fields. He hopes for 70-80 foot baseline transition fields at the new middle school/park site. The Board would like to schedule the Reds baseball teams. The Board members are aware that the Reds are scheduling in good faith and want to accommodate both organizations. NEW BUSINESS: Autumn Creek Park A Equipment Recommendation The Parks and Recreation Board has a list of 6 playgroup manufacturers' proposals for the transportation themed park at Autumn Creek. This park is near a school site. Laura Haake and Staff recommend NuToys for the 5-12 year old play structure including loop, circular play with upper body equipment. Two airplanes will be on top (steel or aluminum) with a full pilot and driving panel. From Zenon Company, a shelter looks like a filling station with a clock and gas pumps. It could be called "Green Standard Filling Station", named after an original Yorkville station. The shelter is 25 feet by 16 feet and fits two 8 foot picnic tables. Zenon would provide some equipment for the 2-5 year old play structure such as a roadster, stairs, slide, climber, and driving panel. The swings will be in their own area with 2 bays of belt swings and 1 bay of tot swings (6 swings total). Autumn Creek Park A will have working traffic signals, signage, and striping so it can be used for Safety Town. A railroad crossing is 60-80 feet from the roadway. Another sitting area without a shelter, but with trees and picnic tables will be used with the Safety program too. The developer is enthusiastic about the plans and will front fund the park, Larua Haake will do the construction documents and the developer will build it according to the Parks and Recreation specifications. Other amenities of the park are a 10'-12' sledding hill and a mini skate park. The skate park includes a table top (regular picnic table made for skating), a grind box, and concrete stairs. Laura Haake and Scott Sleezer would like to start planting more native trees to the area, but also unusual varieties such as Kentucky Coffee, Horse Chestnut, Tulip, and Walnut trees. The diversity would help prevent disease infected trees. Flowering trees will still be used too. The budget is about $300,000 per annexation agreement. The developer will most likely do some fine grading, earthwork, and seeding to help absorb some costs, possibly a savings of$29,075. The savings would come to the Parks and Recreation in land cash dollars.. This park will be near a new school site. After viewing and talking with the school about their site, Parks and Recreation wants to compliment that area and plan different open space activities Van Truman motioned for the approval of the recommendation of play equipment from a variety of manufacturers for the transportation theme park of Autumn Creek A for $81,148.00. Debbie Horaz seconded the motion. Roll call vote: Ken Koch—Yes, Van Truman—Yes, Gary Golinski—Yes, Debbie Horaz—Yes, and Seth Schoonover—Yes. The motion was unanimously approved. APPROVAL OF MINUTES: The minutes from the special meeting of'August 21st regarding Westbury Village ate still under revision. Those meeting minutes will be on the next meeting's agenda along with the minutes from the September 25°i special meeting. The minutes from the September 14, 2006 Park and Recreation Board Meeting were approved on motion by Gary Golinski and seconded by Debbie Horaz. The motion was unanimously approved. BILLS REVIEW: Cash Analysis& Bills List Gary Golinski motioned to approve the cash analysis and bills list. The motion was seconded by Van Truman. Roll call vote: Ken Koch—Yes, Van Truman–Yes, Gary Golinski—Yes, Debbie Hoiaz—Yes, and Seth Schoonover–Yes. The motion was unanimously approved. OLD BUSINESS: Board RetreatAgenda and Update Board Members discussed modifying the list of 14 possible agenda items to discuss during the Board Retreat. "Special Recreation Association" can be discussed at a fitriue Board meeting. Research needs to be done to identify the number of special needs people in the community and what are the special needs. Dave Mogle has the name of someone to possibly contract out to do this research. Sue Swithin thought park and recreation land,park amenities, facilities, and programs should be counted and then the Board would discuss how they fit with the national standards. This would lead into the short term goals (1-3 years) and long term goals (4-10). Retreat discussions will allow the Board to compile questions to ask the community for the future survey. Sue Swithin will try to look at the last community survey and srunmarize what was or will be accomplished soon for the community and what is still lacking. 'This should be discussed near the end of the retreat. Preparing to talk about the Comprehensive Plan, updated demographics should be known through census data. City growth will relate to almost all agenda items. Debbie Horaz stated that many of the recreation programs are sport related. Perhaps the cultural programs can be expanded like art, music, and nature classes. Future staffing was mentioned and the possibility of a marketing person, a certified arborist, additional park planning staff, and facility maintenance staff may be proposed. The Boatel Retreat agenda items were limited to the following: 1) Comprehensive Plan, 2) Recreation Programs and Facilities (including Hoover utilization and park/school relationships), 3) Future staffing/organizational structure (city growth impact), 4) Short/ long term goals, 5) Community survey(city growth impact), 6)Revenue enhancement, i and 7) Land Acquisition Plan. The Friday opening session of the retreat will include working on a vision statement . On October 3rd, Dave Mogle, Sue Swithin, Scott Sleezer, and Facilitator Laurie Gibson will meet about the retreat and discuss the agenda items. Hoover Conceptual Plan Review Dave Mogle and Jason Pettit met last week to revisit the original Hoover Conceptual Plan that was completed a couple of years ago. The Board was asked to consider possible adjustments to areas of the originally proposed Hoover plan or new ideas. For example, a family aquatic center was included originally, but Yorkville will gain a private water park in the near future, thus possibly making a public aquatic facility less of a priority. Winter recreation activities included as ideas were cross country skiing with well groomed trails, a refrigerated outdoor ice skating rink, and sledding hills. Other ideas were additional picnic areas, a maintenance facility built to care for the 60-80 acres, BMX tournament style track, and a butterfly museum. Still other proposed options were a rustic-looking recreation center for classes and might include a gym, a big skate park, a large playground with more than usual elements with interactive features including the 5 senses, full outdoor basketball courts, a ropes course, and an amphitheater, Parks and Recreation Board and Staff will update and revise plans for Hoover in the future. REPORTS No reports given for Parks and Recreation. ADDITIONAL BUSINESS NRPA Conference Attendance Dave Mogle will attend the National Park and Recreation Association Annual Conference in Seattle and will miss the Board's next meeting. He shared his itinerary that includes a session on dog parks. Fox Highlands The homeowners of Fox Highlands (adjacent to Raintree) want to give Parks and Recreation 3 parcels of park land. Dave Mogle and Scott Sleezer visited the areas. One area is just too small. A second area is larger, but it has no neighborhood access and is along busy Route 71. The third area is less than ''/n of an acre that borders Route 71 and is between two multiple family housing units. There is already park land in Raintree which is only a couple blocks away and a 1-2 acre wooded site in Windstone near by. Dave Mogle will write a letter to say the Board is not interested in the parcels of Fox Highlands. YMCA The north branch of the YMCA approached the city and would like to partner with Yorkville and its parks and recreation department to build a swimming facility. The facility will be across the street from the Regional Ball Diamonds., The YMCA invited Dave Mogle and a park board member to sit on an Ad Hoc committee to discuss this proposal during lunch. Councilman, Jason Leslie would sit on the committee as well. Debbie Horaz volunteered for that meeting. Swimming is not offered through Parks and Recreation or the School District. ADJOURNMENT: The meeting adjourned to Executive Session at 9:52 p.m. following the motion by Debbie Hmaz and seconded by Van TYuman. 'The motion was unanimously approved. The meeting reconvened from Executive Session and adjourned at 9:59 p.m. following motion by Debbie Horaz and seconded by Gary Golinski. The motion was unanimously approved. Minute Taker—Eileen Lesak