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Parks, Trails & Recreation Committee – November 19, 2024 Page 5 it would be great to have a third park in the southwest corner. She asked what the formula is used to determine how much space is needed. It doesn’t seem like there is a lot of park land. Council Liaison Rousseau asked how they came up with the numbers. They seemed arbitrary and couldn’t give a specific answer. She thought we could have used that formula to apply it to the southwest corner that may encourage the developer to put another park there. There are some other smaller parks that won’t be maintained by the City. They would be under the jurisdiction of an HOA. She shared a map showing where the parks are located. Recreation Supervisor Johnson said all of the parks will be public, but the majority will be HOA maintained. There are only three parks that the City gets input on. Committee Member Jacobson said some cities have established formulas based on density or walking distance. She thinks it makes sense to look at that. This land has been in development discussions for a long time. It doesn’t seem like there is a lot of park land. If the plan is to include active sports in the parks, parking needs to be considered, which takes up a lot of space. Recreation Supervisor Johnson said it is based on a factor of how many houses. The developer has to donate a specific amount of land based on the number of homes. The number may have changed since 2016. Council Liaison Rousseau said of the green spaces, the City only gets to choose three of them. The next step is for the JDA to have discussion with the developer to determine what will be in the City’s scope and what will be private HOA related. She thought the PTRC could send a recommendation to the JDA representatives laying out what you feel strongly about. Committee Member Jacobson doesn’t know if it’s enough, or too much. It’s hard to tell just by looking at the map. She thinks there are a lot of resources for people to go Rice Creek. If Arden Hills wants to make some of the parks active, that is a different discussion. Recreation Supervisor Johnson agreed. He said we need to know if they are neighborhood parks or destination parks. The majority of them are neighborhood parks. If we wanted to have a big ticket item like a ball diamond or a soccer field, we would need a lot of park space. Committee Member Nelson thought the formula for how many parks is based on people, not units of housing. The density formula that the developer is talking about is very conservative. They calculated 1.7 people per unit. That’s a really low number. We could have a lot more people in these spaces and the need for parks will be much greater. Committee Member Jacobson asked if the population number they are using is low. Committee Member Nelson thinks the population assumptions they are using is ridiculously low. Council Liaison Rousseau said they are talking about up to 1,960 units. Discussion ensued regarding how many residents will be in that area. Chair Anderson asked if the PTRC wanted to make a recommendation regarding the park space in the RCC.