11-19-13 PTRC Minutes - Laserfiche WebLink

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Parks, Trails & Recreation Committee Meeting Minutes November 19, 2013 Page 2 whether they do or do not pay taxes. This would be a different revenue source for the City to help finance capital outlay projects that the City has. This fee would be passed through Xcel and then ultimately to the property owner. The fee they are discussing would be about $4.75 ($3 for electric and $1.75 for gas) a month which amounts to $57 a year for the property owner. At this time, they are not sure how it will impact the non- residential customers. The numbers in mention would generate about $400,000 a year for the City and the Council has talked about using these monies for parks, trails, and streets. City Administrator Klaers indicated this could help with some of the needs that were pointed out in the Parks and Recreation Community Survey and some of the needs that the City Council has identified, particularly trails. He indicated a lot of cities have gone to franchise fees as a revenue source for a variety of reasons. He informed that there will be public hearings February 10 and February 24 and once Council gets that input they will make a decision. If Council decides to move forward they have talked about the program being implemented January 2015. City Administrator Klaers reported that staff plans on doing an insert to the utility bill so that residents get some information about the franchise fees and to also invite them to the public hearings so they can give their input. He stated the master plan, survey results, Council’s input, and input from the PTRC will all be considered when determining what the highest priorities are for parks and trails. Ms. Holmes indicated she felt it was important for the PTRC to attend the public hearing in support of the franchise fee since the plan is to use a large portion of the revenue for trails. B. Parks and Recreation Community Survey Follow-Up Staff provided the comprehensive results of the community survey for the committee members to review at the October meeting. At that time the committee asked for the comments to be categorized by park and then brought back for further discussion. Staff did categorize the comments by each park and also by trails. After discussion, staff recommended that the committee utilize the survey results to assist with the PTRC’s work plan and then present the work plan and survey findings to Council at the March joint work session. The committee also discussed showing the results of the survey on the City’s website after that time. Ms. Olson recapped that Committee Member Kramlinger suggested the PTRC come up with a subcommittee to talk about trails and felt the PTRC should discuss the survey results one more time before deciding how to utilize the results. Chair O’Malley reminded the committee that they had discussed looking at the results of the survey for any quick fixes that could be done like the comment about the lack of a trash can at Crepeau. Ms. Olson indicated that will be done next spring when they put the trash cans back out. Ms. Olson informed that some other items that were completed were the removal of the gates at Cummings and putting in the domes and the handicap accessible concrete slabs; removal of the gate at Floral and the gates at Hazelnut; installing bike racks at Cummings, Perry, and Floral and Hazelnut; removing the chain