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HomeMy WebLinkAbout04-16-24 - PTRC Minutes CITY OF ARDEN HILLS PARKS, TRAILS AND RECREATION COMMITTEE MEETING TUESDAY, APRIL 16, 2024, 6:30 PM ARDEN HILLS CITY HALL CALL MEETING TO ORDER Committee Chair Jill Anderson called the April 16, 2024 meeting of the Parks, Trails, and Recreation Committee to order at 6:30 p.m. MEMBERS PRESENT: Chair Jill Anderson, Committee Members Dan Dietz, Kerri Seemann, Lacy Loosbrock, Nancy Jacobson, Kate Olson, Emelia Rogers, Elizabeth Johnson and Youth Committee Member Maeve Edgar OTHERS PRESENT: Recreation Supervisor Matt Johnson and Council Liaison Emily Rousseau ABSENT: Committee Members Tim Nelson and Abigail Weber 1. APPROVAL OF AGENDA Chair Anderson requested moving item 5E to Unfinished Business as 4B as an update under the Habitat Restoration group. MOTION: Committee Member Olson moved and Committee Youth Committee Member Edgar seconded a motion to approve the meeting agenda as amended. The motion carried (9-0). 2. APPROVAL OF MINUTES A. March 19, 2024 PTRC Minutes MOTION: Committee Member Olson moved and Youth Committee Member Edgar seconded a motion to approve the meeting minutes as presented. The motion carried (9-0). 3. REPORTS A. Council Liaison Update Council Liaison Rousseau indicated the City Council held a special worksession on April 15 at which time they discussed strategic goals, noting each Councilmember was to provide their top 5 goals to the City Administrator. She stated that she thinks a consultant would need to be utilized to help facilitate the conversation. She asked the PTRC if they had any goals they would like her to forward to the Council such as land management or even such as New Brighton with certain grants for their parks. She requested the members send her an email if they had ideas for this. Parks, Trails & Recreation Committee – April 16, 2024 Page 2 Committee Member Edgar asked for clarification about if she was seeking specific goals or was it more a vision. Council Liaison Rousseau stated she was seeking ideas for long-term visions. She explained that if the goal was land management and a component of that is rain gardens, that may involve a multi- year project to update the rain gardens and create a maintenance plan. She noted 2025 budget discussions start in June. Committee Member Jacobson asked if there were any concise goals that had been put together for 2024. Chair Anderson said the 2024 list wasn’t as concise as what will be created for 2025. Committee Member Rogers explained her take of a vision versus a goal. She stated this is an opportunity to include bigger things such as hosting events, for example, but that the park space needs to be big enough to accommodate the whole of Shoreview, New Brighton and Arden Hills so they can all gather together. She wants to cast vision toward bigger goals such as a City Center and having parks that aren’t just for the neighborhood but are for the whole community. She noted the City’s parks currently can’t accommodate a large number of people. Council Liaison Rousseau reiterated her preference of involving a consultant for strategic goal planning and expressed concern over how successful the endeavor was going to be with the Council doing this partially in-house. She requested Committee Member Rogers forward her idea to her, noting she would try to work this in some way. She hoped strategic planning would be an annual exercise. Chair Anderson asked for clarification if they were to identify goals or more so priorities. Council Liaison Rousseau said it’s more so not just “I want a trail” but instead all of the trails and that it’s more of a program opportunity versus a one-off. She also said the Planning Commission is currently not in a place to make these recommendations and that they are meeting with a consultant later this year that will provide better opportunities to work on items. She also noted the Economic Development Commission was currently revising its mission. Council Liaison Rousseau stated she had buy-in from the other commissions regarding a Code of Conduct and that she had provided this to the Mayor a week or two ago. She noted she had asked the Mayor to partner with her prior to presenting this to the full Council because of his role on the Personnel Committee and friendship with Mr. Kelliher. She was hopeful she could provide the Code of Conduct back to all committees and commissions in the next month or so. Council Liaison Rousseau indicated the City Council discussed next steps with PTRC projects and that she had used Committee Member Jacobson’s rain garden roadmap as an example. She noted that Council discussed having the PTRC members attend a worksession to present their plans, which would enable the PTRC to obtain Council buy-in. She doesn’t want the PTRC to do so much hard work and then find out later that the Council is not interested. She suggested having this be an item potentially at either the May 13th or 28th Council worksession. Council Liaison Rousseau stated that Council discussed youth membership on committees. She noted that Councilmember Holden wanted to ensure that taxpayers are being represented on the Parks, Trails & Recreation Committee – April 16, 2024 Page 3 committees and commissions. She explained how she had added an additional applicant to the PTRC because of the size of the committee and the quality of the applicants were awesome, and that she also added an additional member to the EDC as well because the applicants were awesome. She noted the Council was considering a change to City Code regarding committee/commission membership. Council Liaison Rousseau indicated that Northeast Youth and Family Services was hosting a leadership luncheon on May 8 from 11:30 am to 1:00 pm and PTRC members were welcome to attend. Council Liaison Rousseau stated she had spoken with Eagle Scout Kevin’s mom and wanted to acknowledge that she said her son’s experience working with Kerri was great and to thank her. Lastly, she noted she and Committee Member Olson met with Jody from the Arden Hills- Shoreview Lion’s Club. She requested she provide an update to the group. Committee Member Olson discussed that last year the Lions did an old-school picnic type community event in Shoreview and would be hosting a similar event in Arden Hills in August at Cummings Park. A short discussion ensued regarding the potential offerings at this community event. 4. UNFINISHED BUSINESS A. Trail and Parks Projects Update Recreation Supervisor Johnson indicated that there were items the City had pursued assistance from a consultant with but had scored low; however, City staff was working to make these items happen. He referenced ongoing projects that include the Hazelnut parking lot and Safe Routes to School. He noted Floral and Arden Manor Parks were good to go and urged the members to check them out. Recreation Supervisor Johnson said that the City was working with Bolton & Menk for the 2025 Arden Oaks and Freeway Parks improvements project and noted a resident survey would be generated to properties within a certain range of each park and a QR code will be posted at the parks, seeking input from the community. Committee Member Dietz asked if the main entrance sign at Floral Park was the correct sign as it was bowed. Recreation Supervisor Johnson responded no. Committee Member Dietz said he is curious about that sign and asked if he had seen what that new sign looked like. Recreation Supervisor Johnson replied that he thinks so. Committee Member Dietz said it’s a sheet of plastic with stickers on it and he was curious how did the City decide to choose that particular sign. Parks, Trails & Recreation Committee – April 16, 2024 Page 4 Recreation Supervisor Johnson said he believes that is the type of sign that is being used anywhere that gets a new sign so that everything is uniform in style. Committee Member Dietz reiterated the Floral sign was bowed already and appeared to be plastic with stickers on it. Discussion further ensued about park signs. B. Work Group Updates Committee Member Olson stated one of the items on the list of the Community Outreach group was to work with the Lions Club, of which she provided an update earlier this evening. She noted the group was working to secure a food truck or hotdog stand to operate at the Touch A Truck event in May. She said Recreation Supervisor Johnson was checking with Ramsey County as he believed they have had a hotdog stand that could come and that she was reaching out to another vendor. She also indicated the group was discussing a fall sports kickoff day. She asked if she should be providing updates on 2025 items. Chair Anderson stated it would be appropriate to share the group’s ideas for 2025 and get feedback from the group if needed. Committee Member Rogers said her group had just started to brainstorm about what could be done in 2025. Some ideas included Earth Day and composting, a bigger sports kickoff and photo day with food trucks, a garage sale weekend hosted by the City, and a concert in the summer or a medallion hunt. She stated they wanted to have each year build upon the prior year. She noted there were no direct asks yet. Chair Anderson asked if hosting a food truck or hotdog stand would cost money and how this would be arranged. Recreation Supervisor Johnson stated the City was changing verbiage for food trucks in the city to be much more lax and they would no longer need to have a City license. Committee Member Olson stated she believed the City still had to approve the food truck to be located in a park. Recreation Supervisor Johnson responded this was correct. Chair Anderson asked if there was an update on habitat restoration as well volunteers and future planning from the Community group. Committee Member Lacy Loosbrock stated she was in contact with Boston Scientific to potentially do woodchips at Crepeau. Committee Member Jacobson stated their group did a tour of their neighborhood to look at the condition of the rain gardens and their goal was to talk to the City in a systematic way about each rain garden. She noted they emailed a list that also contained pictures, thanking Youth Committee Member Edgar who also provided the locations of rain gardens that she saw while on her run. She looked forward to determining the best way to communicate on this topic. Parks, Trails & Recreation Committee – April 16, 2024 Page 5 Chair Anderson asked if the group needed support in any way, noting they were slated to attend a Council worksession in a month. Committee Member Seeman agreed that she just found out about being slated for an upcoming worksession and said she would love for the City to provide the verbiage that was put into communications at the point these were installed, versus sewer drainage systems. She wanted to understand the reasoning. Recreation Supervisor Johnson stated he believed the City was supposed to get reimbursed for putting those in or something like that and that it was mostly the property owner volunteering that they would maintain them. Chair Anderson said it seemed like the manpower that would need to go into maintaining those even from a logistical standpoint of organizing volunteers and may not be the most effective or efficient way. Committee Member Jacobson stated the group provided critiques of the rain gardens located in her own neighborhood to Public Works Director Swearingen and asked which rain gardens are functioning. She hoped to receive feedback about a process prior to the worksession before putting too much time in working on this issue. Chair Anderson asked what was needed to approach the Council. Council Liaison Rousseau said her hope was to provide a two-page executive summary which summarizes why this is important and here is what is known, and then also to include a roadmap. Committee Member Jacobson suggested the technical information come from Public Works. Council Liaison Rousseau noted that Public Works Director Swearingen attends most worksessions and reaching out to give him a heads up would be good. Committee Member Jacobson stated she would wait to hear from Public Works versus trying to find information herself by searching the City’s website. Council Liaison Rousseau asked that she cc her on the email to Public Works Director Swearingen. Discussion continued about rain gardens and presenting the information to the City Council. Committee Member Seemann indicated that she met with Great River Greening last April to discuss a potential partnership with Great River Greening to help with habitat restoration at the parks which entailed getting rid of buckthorn and replacing it with native plants. She noted the PTRC recommendation the partnership which the City Council approved and funding was applied for last spring. She reported that not as much money was approved by the State. Committee Member Seeman said a grant proposal was written and would be online in July. She stated originally it was proposed to work on Floral Park and Hazelnut Park but that has been changed. Parks, Trails & Recreation Committee – April 16, 2024 Page 6 Becca Tucker, Twin Cities Metro Program Manager with Great River Greening, explained they are a non-profit habitat restoration organization based in St. Paul that works on lands that they do not directly own, but rather they work with the affected communities. She stated they facilitate funding, coordination, contracting and volunteering. She noted she had met with Kerri and Mark (Kelliher) last spring to discuss potential projects and briefly discussed the various projects that were contemplated. Ms. Tucker recapped the meeting from the previous spring. She discussed the grants that are available as well as potential options for projects at various city parks. She explained that any work done at Perry Park would be coordinated with Ramsey County as the County park is adjacent to Perry Park. Ms. Tucker referred to the outline of funding that is available on the budgets page of Great River Greening. She said the current metro Great River Greening grant is online and the metro Great River’s 14 grant which has $250,000 from a State Grant and is earmarked for the project at Floral Park would be coming online in July. She noted that grant is a 5-year grant, was comprehensive in nature, and would leave the park in a manageable state for the City to continue into the future. Ms. Tucker explained that Great River Greening does not own any of the property that they perform work on, rather they facilitate the work when they have the funding with the intent that the land owner will maintain and sustain the property in the future. Chair Anderson stated she wanted to make sure she understands the timeline. She asked if the process for tonight was for the PTRC to approve a plan and then bring it to the Council for consideration. Ms. Tucker said the funding that is currently online is available now through June 2027, noting this was the time sensitive piece. She indicated there was time to coordinate with the City, but the next steps would be to bring a proposal to the City Council after which the City would enter into a cooperative agreement with Great River Greening. She further explained details of the process. Chair Anderson asked if they had heard from Public Works Director Swearingen and what his feedback was. Ms. Tucker stated Public Works Director Swearingen saw the proposal and had questions, which were addressed. She noted he had asked for clarification about volunteer engagement, community communications, the matching of grant funds, and the City’s responsibility for future maintenance. Committee Member Johnson asked if Great River Greening has performed similar work in another city that the PTRC could look at. Ms. Tucker recommended reviewing the Great River Greening website. She noted the group has worked with the City of Fridley and Dakota County, specifically the Lebanon Hills Regional Park, and this was the first time they have ever worked with Arden Hills. She stated she would send examples of other parks. Committee Member Jacobson asked for clarification if online meant accepted or ready to go. Parks, Trails & Recreation Committee – April 16, 2024 Page 7 Ms. Tucker said that referring to online meant the grant itself has been passed by the Legislature and signed into law as a bill. She noted the grant has been utilized for the last year and half at this point and that the project this funding was going to be used for is no longer active. So they are basically replacing the closed project that they can’t work on with Hazelnut Park as a potential project that could be started as soon as the City itself is legally on board. Committee Member Olson asked if there was another project in the running as well. Ms. Tucker stated that no, there was no other project being considered and that because this project already has made progress with native plantings and buckthorn removal, it puts the project farther along in the approval process. Committee Member Jacobson stated this is a terrific program with a cost-benefit to Arden Hills. She briefly discussed what some of the neighboring communities are doing. Ms. Tucker said she herself is a Roseville resident and noted the signage in their project areas. She discussed the variations in projects with different cities. Chair Anderson if there should be a motion to move this forward to Council as a presentation. Council Liaison Rousseau asked if she wants this as a presentation or does she want to make a motion to move forward in this direction. She said she would confirm with Dave Perrault that this item is on a future agenda. Council Liaison Rousseau stated that if the members like this proposal and don’t want any changes, or if there are other considerations, someone should make a motion now that the PTRC would recommend the Council adopt it. Chair Anderson asked the group if there were any further questions. MOTION: Committee Member Jacobson moved and Committee Member Olson seconded a motion to approve the presentation from Great River Greening and to present the item to the City Council at a worksession. The motion carried (9-0). Chair Anderson and other Committee Members thanked Ms. Tucker for her presentation. Chair Anderson asked if there were any further work group updates, for which there were none. 5. NEW BUSINESS A. Bench Initiative Chair Anderson noted Councilmember Rousseau had sent out information on Be Active! Be Green! Bench Initiative. A brief discussion ensued regarding this initiative. Parks, Trails & Recreation Committee – April 16, 2024 Page 8 Recreation Supervisor Johnson stated the City has GIS software which tracks the locations of donated benches but he is not sure if all of the benches are in fact accounted for. He said the PTRC could plan a route first and then determine where the current benches are in order to decide where future benches are needed. Committee Member Rogers indicated that they don’t have a map of the trails that is accurate. Committee Member Jacobson stated she understood Recreation Supervisor Johnson was suggesting that they provide a bench route indicating where they want to see benches placed. She thought this was an interesting way to look at it and they would be able to determine which route(s) gets used a lot. Then they would confirm if there are benches on that route already. Youth Committee Member Edgar stated there are a lot of benches along the Hazelnut loop and that her grandma walks that route, noting it was nice for her to use the benches. She suggested placing benches at other locations that have a similar walking loop. Recreation Supervisor Johnson noted there is a trail map though it may not 100% updated, so we know where the trails are. He also referenced the GIS software which has recorded the locations of at least the donated benches. He said a majority of benches are placing in park settings, next to a playground or looking out over a baseball diamond for example. He asked the PTRC to make a recommendation of a location such as a trail loop. Chair Anderson said unless there is an objection, this discussion was more informational. She said this topic could be tabled or put on the list for 2025 and be revisited in the future when the group looks to finalize the 2025 plan. Committee Member Olson noted the group has ideas, but it is more how to sort the list and how to make the idea happen and when. Committee Member Jacobson asked if trail projects come with benches. Recreation Supervisor Johnson replied this was probably not the case. MOTION: Committee Member Johnson moved and Committee Member Committee Member Olson seconded a motion to move the bench initiative to 2025. The motion carried (9-0). Committee Member Dietz stated the benches should be facing a nice view. He noted while resting on the bench, he would like a sit-spot to have a view. Youth Committee Member Edgar said to her the point of a bench is to rest because not every spot along the route will have a nice view. Parks, Trails & Recreation Committee – April 16, 2024 Page 9 Discussion ensued about benches, including the locations, and a future work group that could handle this topic. B. PTRC Hold Event Ideas Chair Anderson stated that Councilmember Holden had attended the last PTRC meeting and shared her ideas about different projects. She wanted to know if the PTRC had interest in pursuing any of those items in the short-term, tabling the items or including them in the 2025 potential goals. Committee Member Olson said she and Committee Member Rogers chatted about Isolation Day as that would be a community thing that would fall under their group. They determined they would rather see a community event that would draw people out of their houses versus focusing on this particular type of initiative. She would like to hold an event that would attract all different kinds of people. She said as the Community Event team, they would not be interested but were open to other opinions. Chair Anderson asked if there were any other thoughts on what Councilmember Holden talked about. Committee Member Johnson said that regarding a barrel project, it seemed to be super labor intensive. She noted that unless there were an additional work group especially for that, she wasn’t sure how they would do it. Committee Member Seemann said she agreed that trying to grow perennials in barrels and having to store them over the winter would be a lot of work. Committee Member Rogers stated that for the gleaning piece, she felt that with especially one of the Arden Hills Facebook groups and also the buy nothing groups, that this is happening already. She thought it was pretty organic as it is and that how the city is structured, it may not work as well as what Facebook can do for individuals. She thought this could potentially be combined with garage sales. Chair Anderson said at this point it didn’t seem that the group was interested in moving any of these projects forward at this time but they will be noted for potential future projects. Committee Member Olson suggested an email be directed to Councilmember Holden to thank her for coming and to let her know what the group discussed. Committee Member Rogers noted the values that Councilmember Holden expressed are important. A short discussion ensued about bringing the community together and how to include the various demographics. C. Backstop at Cummings Park Parks, Trails & Recreation Committee – April 16, 2024 Page 10 Chair Anderson explained a resident had reached out to Public Works Director Swearingen about replacing the backstop and gave a quick review of the individual’s request. She noted that this could be a fairly small project but suggested more information be gathered about this. Committee Member Dietz said he wanted to consider the noise for the people that live in that area. Discussion ensued about if adding the backstop would add a noisy element to the neighboring area and what the project could potentially entail. Youth Committee Member Edgar said this would be a good opportunity for community outreach and to show the Committee is listening to residents and what they want in the parks. Committee Member Olson said she would be happy to assist and spearhead this project. Discussion ensued about how to proceed with community feedback and then bringing a potential proposal forward to the City Council. Recreation Supervisor Johnson stated that one person came forward with this idea and the person should prove that people actually want it. The consensus was the requestor should obtain a petition showing that the neighborhood is interested in the backstop before bringing the matter forward to Council but more information needed to be gathered. Chair Anderson suggested this matter be tabled to a future meeting. D. Eagle Scout Project Discussion about this project and the consensus was to have this topic be at the top of the next agenda so there was time to discuss. E. Great River Greening Buckthorn Management Update This item was discussed under item 4B. 6. NEXT MEETING A. Tuesday, May 21, 2024 ADJOURNMENT The meeting was adjourned at 8:00 p.m.