03-10-25-R - Laserfiche WebLink

Home Browse Search

ARDEN HILLS CITY COUNCIL WORK SESSION – FEBRUARY 10, 2025 6 Bryce Shearen said they have a lot of tools. Their Marketing and Communications Team can identify areas of lower income, people of color and those neighborhoods can be directly targeted for community engagement. Casey Byers added they have communications that can be shared with City Staff to distribute in newsletters, direct mailings or other forms of communication. Councilmember Rousseau asked if, in addition to surrounding community parks, they look at other businesses that have market share such as YMCA. Bryce Shearen said they do look at that to determine if they are adding amenities that already exist. Councilmember Rousseau said that she was speaking to someone in Little Canada who said they have a Park Master Plan but they don’t have funding. She asked if they would break it down so that the plan can be budgeted for and implemented. Casey Byers said he works with a community in Central Iowa that has a population of 30,000. They did the Park Plan and it included a splash pad and pickle ball facility. Those items were tabled for a 5-10 year time frame. They set up a budget allotment every year, for the first five years to put in accessibility improvements or replacing a portion of the playground or replacing a roof on a shelter. This approach allowed them to chip away at the smaller items to get their park system in better shape. Councilmember Rousseau said she has seen some of the grants that have been awarded to New Brighton. She thinks the decisions are going to need to be balanced based on grants. She likes the idea of the steering committee, and she thinks the PTRC involvement will offer great insights. The interests of the PTRC members are very diverse. Everything from natural resources to playgrounds for their kids. Bringing in a plan so Staff and future councils know what the focus will be for the next few years. She said the City is working with Great River Greening on a multi- year commitment to remove buckthorn from the parks and beatifying the land with natural species. She would like to keep those in a base layer where we are having those conversations on how to focus on sustainability and natural resources and build out from there. Mayor Grant said wants vs. needs has been discussed. He said the steering committee is going to be full of people who are passionate about parks, trails and recreation. He said Mounds View just completed a Parks Master Plan and the estimate is $20 million. There are budget limitations. He wondered what the best way is to distinguish needs vs. wants and have it outlined in the plan. The needs will be addressed first so we need to see that delineation in the report. Council will need to know that. Casey Byers said a lot of that is just a combination of those data points. Community feedback, staff feedback, the NRPA metrics and comparisons, the proximity mapping helps with that. There are a lot of different ways to steer that ship. That is their responsibility. They will help take all the information and steer the City in a direction that is responsible for the community. It is a balancing act. You want to have attractive things and you want to be competitive. People don’t move because of the streets, they move because of the amenities. The resource and the financial price tag is an obligation that comes with it, doesn’t mean Arden Hills has to do it alone. The plan