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HomeMy WebLinkAbout06-19-07 PTRC Minutes CITY OF ARDEN HILLS PARKS, TRAILS, AND RECREATION COMMITTEE MEETING TUESDAY, JUNE 19, 2007; 7:00 P.M. ARDEN HILLS CITY HALL 1. CALL TO ORDER Chair Henry called the June 19, 2007 meeting of the Parks, Trails and Recreation Committee to order at 7:04 p.m. MEMBERS PRESENT: Committee Chair Bill Henry, Committee Members Jim Crassweller, Lanny Baumann, Roger Williams, Steve Zilmer, Rich Straumann, John Peck arrived at 7:40 p.m. OTHERS PRESENT: Michelle Olson, Park and Recreation Manager; James Lehnhoff, City Planner. MEMBERS NOT PRESENT: Joani Werner 2. APPROVAL OF AGENDA: MOTION: Committee Member Williams motioned, seconded by Committee Member Straumann to approve the agenda as presented. The motion carried unanimously. 3. APPROVAL OF MINUTES – May 15, 2007 MOTION: Committee Member Williams motioned, seconded by Committee Member Baumann to approve the minutes as presented. The motion carried unanimously. 4. PARKS, TRAILS AND RECREATION UPDATE Ms. Olson provided the following update:  There will be a meeting with the National Guard on Monday, July 30, 2007; 6:00-7:00 PM The National Guard will be presenting plans for their property with the contemplation of a possible community center. The community center project could possibly involve the City.  The Committee Policies and Guidelines previously tabled was discussed at last night’s Council Worksession. It will go to future Council Meeting for approval.  The Parks and Recreation playground programs started last week.  The City flower gardens are being finished up this week.  All Public Works seasonal employees are on board.  The City is currently recruiting for an Office Support Specialist position and will be recruiting for the soon to be vacant Assistant City Administrator position. Committee Member Williams referred to a discussion from the previous meeting in which Council Liaison McClung stated the Council has directed staff to look at the portion of road from Lindey’s Triangle across Highway 51 for MN State Aid. Ms. Olson stated that the City was looking at the area by County Road E and the CP Rail Bridge. Staff was currently verifying the estimates for the County Road E Bridge and the CP Rail Bridge as well as the City’s MSA fund balance. Ms. Olson would try to have additional information forwarded to committee members before the work session with Council. 5. COMPREHENSIVE PLAN UPDATE, City Planner James Lehnhoff The Planning Commission and City Council had an official kickoff of the 2008 Comprehensive Plan Update last night. State Statues in the Metropolitan Council require all cities within the seven county metro area to update their plan every ten years. Although plans must be submitted by the end of 2008, they must actually be completed sometime in the spring of 2008 since adjacent communities, watershed district and the school district were required to be given six months to review the plans. PARKS, TRAILS AND RECREATION COMMITTEE MEETING June 19, 2007 Page 2 Mr. Lehnhoff stated that the purpose of the Comprehensive Plan was to provide long-term guidance and help set priorities on a community wide basis for the City Council level on down. The Comp Plan overall usually included some form of a SWOT analysis that looked at strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats. The last plan would be looked at to determine what has worked, what has not, what was missing, what still remained to be done, what was old and no longer applicable, and what the accomplishments were. Throughout the process, policies to strengthen opportunities and reduce the threats and other weaknesses would be developed. Cities are allowed to customize their Comp Plan, but must include land use and housing, transportation, water resource management, parks and open space and natural resource protection. One of the important reasons for the comp plan is that it would provide the city with strategic influence with Ramsey County, Metropolitan Council, MnDOT, and the Federal Department of Transportation. The plan has public involvement and technical components. Several meetings have been scheduled to get public involvement. August 8, 2007; 6:30-8:30PM (Visioning of the City as a whole)  October, 2007  March, 2008  In addition to these three meetings, there will be a number of small meetings now until March, 2008 that involves the City Council and Planning Commission. Also, there will be at least one and potentially up to three meetings involving the Blue Cross Blue Shield grant that the City has for active community living; one meeting will directly involve the PTRC. Chair Henry suggested having the trails presenter/speaker from Boulder come out. The presenter’s perspective was really important in terms of what the City does with existing trails and new trails. Chair Henry also encouraged the inclusion of an accountability section that encourages the City Council to monitor the plan on a quarterly or semi-annual basis. Also, he thought the plan priorities should be included as part of the annual goals of staff. Mr. Lehnhoff will email a PDF document that includes goals, policies and projects identified in the 1998 version of the Comp Plan to Committee Members. Please review and compare them with the 2002 Open Space Plan and 2006 Strategies. Committee Members were asked to review the goals, policies and projects and to write down comments. Also included in the PDF attachment would be Attachment B - opportunities, strengths and weaknesses when looking at the City as a whole. Mr. Lehnhoff requested that th the marked up drafts and Attachment B be returned to him by July 17. He and Chair Henry would then review the policies and comments. In regards to Attachment D, the City is required to have a natural resource protection section. The Metropolitan Council has provided a map of the area that they encourage us to protect. That area is identified as the area by Tony Schmidt Park that extends throughout the whole wet land complex up towards Mounds View High School, the remaining part of the National Guard Property and the Rice Creek Corridor. Mr. Lehnhoff stated that the City’s Shoreline Ordinance was more lenient and therefore not in line with the DNR’s Shoreline Ordinance. The Planning Commission will, by default, review this section if the PTRC does not. Mr. Lehnhoff will also add the applicable parts of this to the PDF document he will be emailing to Committee Members. The web address for the Comp Plan dedicated website is www.arden-hills.mn.us\compplan. This web address was also printed on the helpful links card that was give to committee members. PARKS, TRAILS AND RECREATION COMMITTEE MEETING June 19, 2007 Page 3 Ms. Olson stated she was notified that the City was not awarded the DNR Grant for the trail from Lift Station Road to Perry Park. The grant is available yearly and the City can reapply. WILD ANIMAL CONTROL DISCUSSION – GOOSE REMOVAL 6. At an October 2006 City Council Meeting, the topic of wild animal control was discussed. At that time, City Hall received a number of complaints regarding geese, wild turkey, deer and moles. The City Council consensus was that staff should provide information regarding animal control issues to the public, but only address wild animal control issues that could impact public safety in Arden Hills. The Lake Johanna Improvement Society has asked that the City contribute to their goose removal program. The City has contributed $500.00 every year since 1996. In March of 2007, the City sent a letter informing the Lake Johanna Improvement Society that it would no longer be able to contribute to the th program. Ms. Jenny Michaels, of the LJIS attended the March 29 Council Meeting and asked that the Council reconsider their position. The Council directed staff to bring the topic of wild animal control from a global perspective to the PTRC for discussion. Staff would bring back PTRC recommendation(s) to the Council. Chair Henry stated that it was not just an animal control issue, but also a water quality issue and lake quality issue. MOTION: Committee Member Crassweller motioned, seconded by Committee Member Zilmer to recommend that the City Council promptly contribute $500.00 to the Lake Johanna for goose removal. Improvement Society It was also mentioned that an important factor was whether the area is public or private property. Since Lake Johanna is a public resource, it is legitimate for the City to contribute to this cause. The Committee also volunteered to assist the City in drafting a wild animal control policy, if the Council is interested. 7. JOINT PTRC/CITY COUNCIL WORK SESSION Ms. Olson would draft a memo. 8. NEXT MEETING – JULY 17TH The next meeting was the joint PTRC/ Planning Commission /Economic Development Commission picnic at Cummings Park The barbeque would start at 6:00 p.m. and an informal meeting at 6:45 p.m. Ms. Olson would email a food sign up list. Chair Henry stated that the City of St. Paul was going to use a few of their parks for off-leash use earlier in the morning and later in the evening. He would like to have a conversation at the September meeting about the feasibility of that in Arden Hills. 9. ADJOURN MOTION: Committee Member Crassweller moved and Committee Member Williams seconded a motion to adjourn the meeting at 8:40 p.m. \\Metro-inet.us\ardenhills\Admin\Committees\Parks Trails and Recreation Committee\Minutes\2007\06-19-2007.doc