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HomeMy WebLinkAboutMinutes RAB 101606PARKS & RECREATION ADVISORY BOARD REGULAR MEETING October 16, 2006 MINUTES The Regular Meeting of the Parks & Recreation Advisory Board of the City of Palm Beach Gardens, Florida, was called to order at 7:05 P.M. in the Council Chambers of the Municipal Complex, 10500 North Military Trail, Palm Beach Gardens, Florida, and opened with the Pledge of Allegiance. Patricia Snider, City Clerk welcomed the two alternate members. Charlotte Presensky explained the duties and responsibilities to the 2 members. Expectation is that they actively participate in the group conversations. I. ROLL CALL: Municipal Services Coordinator, Tuesday Craig called the roll: Present Tory Buckley Dr. Carolyn Chaplik Philip Milton Robert Premuroso Ernest Volonte Mary Anne Hedrick Tim Frohling — 1St Alternate Arnie Schneider — 2nd Alternate Others Present David Levy — Council Liaison Charlotte Presensky — Staff Liaison Tim Kasher — Alternate Staff Liaison Absent Wendy Walker II. APPROVAL OF MINUTES: Minutes for the August 21, 2006 meeting were amended and motion to approve was granted. There were a few corrections that needed to be made on the September 25, 2006 meeting. The Board members requested a hard copy of the minutes before each meeting. The September 25' 2006 minutes will be held until next meeting for approval. Parks and Recreation Board Advisory Meeting Minutes 101606 Page 1 III. ITEMS BY STAFF LIAISON: Charlotte Presensky thanked the Board for their nomination for the NRPA Citizen Board Professional excellence award. She was in Seattle and brought back each member a little present. She is very pleased for the work that everyone does and what they do for the community. Receiving something from the citizens, she thinks is a highest honor. She wanted to recognize the following people who do the work behind the scenes. Mike Kelly —Parks Director Tim Kasher — Programs Superintendent The rest of the Parks and Recreation staff, also without Jack Doughney as their boss and Ronald Ferris as their City Manager, they could not serve the public in the manner that they do. IV. COMMENTS BY COUNCIL LIAISON: Councilmember David Levy said it's the staffs leadership and vision that has enabled the Parks and Recreation program to be so good and used a playoff football game he attended as an example. He went to the triathlon for the children's program, the participation and organization was very impressive and he got a lot of compliments from participants and parents. Another great thing he said the City was partially responsible for was the Green market. He thought this was done in a superb manner. He also congratulated the new appointees from the City Council meeting on October 5, 2006. V. OLD BUSINESS: Charlotte Presensky spoke on the PGA Park Master Plan, they met at the park on October 7, 2006. They received 27 written surveys, 40 people joined them at the park and also present were: Council Member Jablin Tory Buckley Tim Kasher Mary -Anne Hedrick Ernest Volonte Charlotte mentioned that there were a lot of good comments and thank you's from the public. Sunday was the Green Market. A majority of the members were there and there was great interactions in the booths. Tonight (October 16) is the final input session for the members /public that might want to speak. After they've spoken, she would like to capture comments on record, compile all that information, all the written information, all the minutes and pass it on to Russell Moore from the RMPK group. He's the consultant who's doing all their conceptual plans. Hopefully in November /December, they'd like to come back with the final draft conceptual so that they can put together a recommendation to start the process. Once they get a draft conceptual, they'll have to analyze it for a few things whether or not to go through a Planning Zoning and Appeals Board process if there's enough change in it. They also need to involve the Council. But before this even happens they might want to start looking at the staging of the construction. 15` Phase and 2 "d Phase, which is a couple of months away from having a solid plan which is the visual and then the words to go along with how they're going to do it. Charlotte distributed copies of the plan. Parks and Recreation Board Advisory Meeting Minutes 101606 Page 2 VI. NEW BUSINESS: Capital Budget Highlight Todd Engle wanted to discuss some ongoing projects they currently have and what they are planning on doing this year. Sandhill Crane access park, the Burns Road renovations, City Park Phase 2, the Dog Park expansion, the Lilac Expansions and the Lake Catherine Park renovations. The Sandhill Crane Park, there has been a lot of issues with the park and joint uses. They've got all this resolved and construction has been started. This should be completed by March of next year. They will have a Boat ramp, access points to the canal right of way, fishing pier, picnic areas, parking areas and restroom facilities overlooking the structures. The Burns Road Renovation, consists of the completion phase of the landscaping. One phase has been completed with the opening of the building. There's also the playground renovations which they will remove the old playground and replace it. They are currently in the design phase of that. Both the Sandhill Crane Park and the Burns Road projects should be completed in the spring. City Park Phase 2 is still under construction. The lighting of the basketball court is completed. Shade structures have been ordered for the playgrounds. Currently waiting for their Park Court Tennis contractor to be mobilized. Four racquet balls court to be built and an exercise strip. The Dog Park expansion is almost completed, a shade structure has been added, a dog exercise area has been added and they are waiting on the delivery of the dog water fountain. The Lilac Park expansion is currently under construction, 3 large playgrounds are going in, all shaded areas, picnic pavilions, boating access, extension of the jogging trail, more exercise facilities and awater fountain area. The Lake Catherine Park renovations consist of total renovations. New fencing, new lighting, new back stops, new playgrounds and new practice areas. This should be up and complete by December of this year. District Parks 2006 -2007 — $400,000.00 They also have Plant Drive Expansion Phase 1, Golf Course Pavilion, and Riverside Expansion. District Park is their annual allocation with $400,000.00 made to the county to expedite the construction at this park. Plant Drive expansion, knock down the old water plant, make way for new parking, drainage facilities, and new pavilion. Parks and Recreation Board Advisory Meeting Minutes 101606 Page 3 Next year they are going to expand the current areas between the hockey rink and the skate park to a multi - purpose field. An aquatic complex expansion to include 2 fitness stations, more shading area, pool deck and an expanded area for water play. There is a pavilion expansion right now by the golf course, 1600 sq ft for open air dining. There are also some expansions up on riverside. An update on the Back Cover since the last meeting, Todd is currently on the design stage for this and these were all pre- manufactured pavilions. Charlotte Presensky spoke about building a club house for tournaments, dining area, being able to rent out the facility and having 300 people in a room. A question was asked why spend $200,000.00 on building a pavilion that will not fit their golf carts inside? wouldn't it be better if they took the $200,000.00, add it to some other funds and build a club house. Charlotte responded, saying that the tournament pavilion was added into the budget to solve a couple issues and she said Tim is right about the golf carts. The staging area that they currently have is old and deteriorated. They try to build things that do more than one thing. One thing you can do after a tournament is to have an outdoor luncheon for the tournament. Even though you build an indoor facility, you will still have the need of staging and that will be addressed. The current overhang is getting past its useful life. A comment was made that the staging area need upgrading but he totally disagreed that after a tournament that anyone would want to hold a luncheon in the heat, not in Florida. Charlotte thinks it's something that's needed out there and in the winter time Florida is not that horrendous. The monies for the Proshop expansion does not show up until 2009 -2010 and that's 1.2 million right now which is not going to be a sufficient number. A question was raised as to what happens as we build this and or build on to it, will we come back later to say we built it in the wrong spot. He also spoke about adding drop curtains and air - conditioners /cool fans to bring down the heat. We could have those meals after a tournament. Another preference was to be in the air - conditioning after a tournament, mentioning that on the 2nd floor of the club house there's an open space but no floor space to eat. She is not sure about doing a pavilion. Charlotte reminded her that this was in the Council budget and the 5yr plan that's been submitted to council. She says they have great momentum going on at the club house; the pavilion not only serves a purpose but it keeps momentum. She thinks its needed and they are back on track on a plan that has already been approved. To hold $2,000,000.00 out for 4 years and do nothing with the golf course is not a proven decision. An issue was brought up with the rates, thought that there should have been a discount for Palm Beach Garden residences. Charlotte says most of those rates are market driven and will have Dan give a briefing on that. The main expenditure for the club house was scheduled for 2009 -2010, they had to do a little tweaking to find the money for the club house for this year. There are a lot of issues that need to be addressed if they are going to have events. The allocation for next year is about two million and they are expecting a little downward slope and then incline back up, decisions will need to be made on whether to add a second phase in a second year. Right now all the monies are in year one. Looking in 2008 -2009 you are sitting with 2.7 million in that activity Parks and Recreation Board Advisory Meeting Minutes 101606 Page 4 center planning construction. There are funds out there, it just has not come down to priorities and decisions. I Don't think we should jump ship and build a new facility that we may not be able to attract people out there, rather than working our way into it and getting a feel of it. We need to have some history on this first, copies of the presentation were handed out. I wanted to thank Todd for the tremendous job he's been doing. He's always doing something different. VII. COMMENTS BY PUBLIC: Wendy Deter, 71 Dunbar Rd. on PGA National in Palm Beach Gardens, she is the Board Member for the Football Board and the Cheer Coordinator and also acts as the president of the cheerleading program. She said that her football program was looking for a home place that they could call home and one of their biggest issues is having ample parking. Police were out writing all the parents tickets for parking at Mirasol because the field was overused. The upper left hand corner of the field between the High School and Mirasol, is a lot of green space. Cheerleaders need room to practice with the possibility of having something covered, like huge gazebos that could hold 25 girls. Unfortunately she says, there is not even any field space for children to play. Charlotte Presensky asked if there were any other comments form the public and mentioned that she's been communicating with Wendy Deter by e -mail because they've been trying to get a cheerleading program going. but she hadn't seen her in over a year. Robert Premuroso said most of the feedback he received from the people he'd spoken to was very positive. People have been looking at the diagram and understand the need for more parking and the need for the multipurpose field possibly a third field. Charlotte says Mike Kelly has been working on an Arial map through GIS to see if they could position that in. Burt says parking has been an issue, the dog park, people are hot and cold on it but most of them are ok with it just trying to find some space out there to put it, maybe in the North West corner or but so much down in the corner incase another field is put in. He says that there were a lot of people talking about regulation fences, also a few comments of having a new playground, Rigby Golf, a jogging trail and walking trail. Mary -Anne Hedrick heard that residents would like more parking over by Ryder Cup. A question she had was with the new plan coming, "will that help with some of the flooding issues ?" Charlotte responded, "Yes, that's one thing they would definitely solve." Carolyn Chaplik said some of the comments she'd heard from the residents was putting a dog park in the South East corner by the maintenance building and close to a parking area in case someone had an older dog. They also thought that the North West corner was under utilized as far as efficient use of space, were hoping that there will be a bridge connecting to the North West corner of PGA, parking issues and with the multipurpose field. Parks and Recreation Board Advisory Meeting Minutes 101606 Page 5 Tory Buckley commented on the lakes and canals surrounding the park, there is over grown grass, not up to standards. He walked around and took a look at it himself and thought it was pretty depressing and we need to get in contact with the Northern Improvement Drainage District. Charlotte said that Todd Engle is in communication with Northern Improvement Drainage District quite a bit and they will convey that. Tory Buckley was only pleased with 25% of the design they have. He says that looking at it does not make any sense when he looks at the space that can actually be used. Comparing the Master Plan map to the Arial that they have, it does not look right. There is a lot of land where parking could go, get some access roads back into that North West corner, and nice covered pavilions that people could get to. He thinks this park is not user friendly, only some parts of it is user friendly but most of it is definitely not user friendly, and need to consider looking at the access to different areas of the park. Looking at the plan, he does not feel that they're utilizing their facilities properly, there's a whole lot that can be done. The restrooms need to be more accessible, access to Ryder Cup Blvd, moving basket ball courts around, making it more user friendly, getting a nice jogging trail around the park and designing a Disk Golf course. This park could be made user friendly with more facilities where a lot of people would love to go, which could make an economic impact. Tory Buckley asked Mike, Charlotte or Todd a question about the opening area where there's always been an insect problem. Particularly red ants especially when it rains. Charlotte says sports turf will be put in that area as part of the package they have putting together. Mr. Buckley asked Mike if he thinks they could get 3 fields out there. Mike's response was that their GIS managers did a rendition on the area and it can be done. Charlotte says that the lakes can't be touched. He needs something to be done to the canals. There is too much concrete at the park that's taking up more than they need. It needs to be re- designed and get some more parking back up in the North West corner and the Central area. The dog park is in the wrong spot. About the walking or jogging trail, there was an issue of safety that needs to be looked into. Charlotte says that it was a concern brought up by some of the Disk Golf players that if you do encourage a walking trail, there is a safety issue walking in line of the baskets, and this is something that needs to be looked into. Councilmember Levy asked Charlotte about the proposed Master Plan as to where the volley ball courts are now if that's where the basket ball court is. Charlotte says yes, the basket ball court is where the rest room is and the Police sub - station. Tory asked if they are proposing moving the tennis courts. She would recommend not moving the basket ball courts. Tearing it up and relaying it, they've got new lights there, the surface is bad. Todd assures her that the sub - surface is good and they could do some milling and laying on top of it and recreate the court. She says that one thing that would be nice at the basket ball court is fencing it in. Charlotte will have Russell take the comments back and do the layout only then will they really know. Councilmember Levy suggested to Charlotte that they should go back and take a look at the design again before going any further. Charlotte responded that she'd like to and not to rush the retake on the conceptual, she prefers to bring this item up on the December agenda giving her a week or two to compile all the comments, get them back verbally from the clerks office, give it to Russell, give him some time to play with it. The last thing she'd like to do is rushing a project like this. Parks and Recreation Board Advisory Meeting Minutes 101606 Page 6 Carolyn Chaplik asked Charlotte where there was a roundabout, there is a little planting in the middle, if someone wants to make a u -turn left onto the parking lot on the West side, how would they do that? Charlotte says it is a clearable entrance for fire trucks and ambulances. This is normal, the planting is just window dressing, it makes the entrance look good, the clearance is acceptable. Burt Premuroso asked Charlotte if there is a standard height for the pavilion. Charlotte responded saying, depending on the span of the structure, practice pavilions like the ones the schools uses for physical education, are said to be higher and those were significantly higher than a picnic structure. She would like to see them high enough to prevent vandalism. There's really no standard she says. Charlotte clarified what Carolyn mentioned about the entrance coming in. Carolyn was talking about the drop off not the main entrance. The Ryder Cup Park exit and entrance is difficult, since there is no light. Charlotte will look into this issue. Paul Becham, 13744 69 ST a long time Disk Golfer. The last thing he wants to see is a Disk Golf course getting dismantled. He thinks this is a great piece of land and wants to consider keeping the equipments there if he could, he also heard that there's another 80 acre park opening up in the future which would attract a professional tour coming through. In its current state, if none of the improvements were done, and the grounds improved a little bit, he would be there more often than he currently is. With all the other improvements, this limits the ability of having a good championship type for just golf. Another concern he had was once the other facilities are put in place, there is a safety issue as the park popularity grows and more people plays Disk Golf. Less experienced players may not be as considerate as the seasoned players. This facility could be great for just golf but not if you add too many more improvements to it. Paul Becham was asked what would it take for a good or great course to be put on this thing and still include fundamentally all the issues they want to do ?" Paul says it's possible with a re- design, he has played in courses in California, Michigan, Tennessee, Ohio and Indiana to name a few. The issue with the multipurpose park is that you want to keep the Disk Golfers away from the other users. With those other improvements, they're squeezing out a good feasible area to have a good safe Disk Golf Course. Councilmember Levy asked if the size of the park along with everything else he wants to do would accommodate what he's talking about. "How about if it was recreational but only 9 holes "? Paul Beecham provided an example, the new maintenance building, the Dog park being in the South East Corner where a Basket lies, it's lined up in the North West corner, there are two holes, you put a pavilion there suddenly you're thrown into a pavilion. As an advocate of Disk Golf he suggests it's almost better not to have just golf there anymore. But consider taking it away from the City of Palm Beach Gardens. Keeping this park the way it was designed, keep the equipment because it can be reused, keep the funding and design it with a Disk Golf Course in mind and not as a secondary thought. You can spend money on Disk Parks and Recreation Board Advisory Meeting Minutes 101606 Page 7 Golf, put all this equipment in and still no one would come to play. He understands this is a multi - purpose park, that's why he wanted to tell everyone about it being an experienced golfer. He says that Disk Golf is one of the most popular and fastest growing recreational sports in the country, 41 courses in Florida and only one in West Palm Beach. Mr. Becham was asked if there was anything in the North County area that he'd seen or would like to see ?" he said nothing at this point but he did hear about this 80 acre track land from District Park. Charlotte says usually these unique facilities are provided by the larger governments like the County. They usually have those one of a kind facilities and they happen to be doing that right now. Great course at PGA national, if Mr. Becham wanted to get it to that level, her suggestion is that they work with the county. Maybe that's something he needs to consider. Additional information could be found at www.pd.ga.com stands for Pro Disk Golf Association. Tory Buckley wanted to go back to the discussion about the entrance to Ryder Cup. As he recalls, Chief Stepp did not want to have complete access to that park. Looking at that, they might have to put a barrier there to avoid complete access. Charlotte says that once they come up with a more conceptual design, they will have PD look at it and make sure the best crime prevention they can offer happens. Residents would like to see a little bit more parking. Another concern was on the parking of the West side, the grass median is a bit too wide from not utilizing the space in the park. Charlotte says there are City codes that they must comply with. Charlotte was asked how do we configure the parking spots? Charlotte says there are standards that they use, sometimes what you plan for the standard is not enough. Proposing right now are 300 spots and we currently have only 68. Charlotte says you could fill 300 spots with one pavilion, 2 football games and maybe adult softball and a couple of drop -ins for tennis and golfers. Charlotte says parking is something that constrains our park right now. Hopefully once they finish the construction of the school they maybe able to continue with an agreement to have access to the Mirasol parking. Tim Frohling asked if the parking, could it be one way angled parking? Mike Kelly says it does not always work. VIII. COMMENTS BY BOARD: It was brought to the Boards attention that a lot of participants at our park at Mirasol were getting ticketed. It's being over utilized, there's no parking, and he thinks there is a problem somewhere if our residences are getting ticketed. Mr. Kelly responded by saying that there's been a lot of cars that's been ticketed not only at Mirasol Park but here in Gardens Park because they are illegally parked on grass, off the pavement, not in parking areas and that's the majority of those tickets. Parking in the swales is not helpful but is a concern when our residents are getting ticketed while they are out there trying to enjoy the park and we don't have enough parking facilities for them. If there is not enough room for them in our parking areas and they are parking where ever they can and still getting ticketed, he doesn't think that's right. He thinks this should be addressed and they should ask Chief Stepp. Sometimes when the middle school is Parks and Recreation Board Advisory Meeting Minutes 101606 Page 8 having games going on, there's usually limited parking. Maybe contacting the Police Department to allow leniency when they have activities going on. E -mails have been received from citizens about that same problem. Charlotte says that they will follow -up on that and figure out what can be done after talking to the Police Department. Next months meeting will be on Monday November 20, 2006. Charlotte mentioned that for the next meeting there was only one item on the agenda so a meeting during Thanksgiving wouldn't be necessary but will send out an agenda a couple weeks prior to the meeting for everyone to decide whether they will attend or not based on a Quorum. Charlotte reminded everyone that she needs their shirt sizes to update their recreation Advisory Board shirts. Parks and Recreation Board Advisory Meeting Minutes 101606 Page 9 APPROVED: Attest: Wendy Walker, Wce Chair Note: These summary minutes are prepared in compliance with 286.011 F.S. and are not verbatim transcripts of the meeting. A verbatim audio record is available from the Office of the City Clerk. Parks and Recreation Board Advisory Meeting Minutes 101606 Page 10