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Home My WebLink About02/28/2006 Adjourned Meeting 1 4 &I., ADJOURNED MEETING OF THE YAKIMA CITY COUNCIL FEBRUARY 28, 2006 - 7:30 A.M. COUNCIL CHAMBERS - YAKIMA CITY HALL 1. RoII CaII Present: Council: Mayor Dave Edler, presiding, Council Members Ron Bonlender, Micah Cawley (after 7:38 a.m.), Norm Johnson, Bill Lover, and Susan Whitman Staff: City Manager Zais, City Attorney Paolella and Acting City Clerk Moore Absent: Council Member Neil McClure (excused) 2. Presentation of the 2006 -2011 Parks and Recreation Comprehensive Plan Denise Nichols, Parks and Recreation Manager, explained that the reason for the plan is to guide the future park development and park acquisition. A comprehensive plan is a requirement to apply to the Interagency Committee (IAC) who provides matching funds for anything dealing with outdoor recreation. They require a comprehensive plan every five years. The plan is an information resource addressing future challenges, and identifying broad and specific issues. Based on citizen desires, it is a three -phase process; collecting background information (demographics, opportunities etc), assessment of parks interests, needs, and desires, and the third phase is review and adoption by the City Council. Mrs. Nichols then gave an overview of the plan by chapter: Chapter 2 — History, environment and social economic features An important item in the plan is population density, as dense neighborhoods many times lack green space. Density figures provide a measure for an area's degree of development and land availability. We must look in advance of annexation. We do not have any undeveloped properties within the city limits that are not designated as Parks land. We only have five undeveloped acres at Randall Park. As we look at the demographics of the community, 34% of the City's total population is Hispanic and is growing. They have different cultural recreational desires and needs, so one of our objectives is to try to be the lead for changing demographics. Also important are ADA standards. Other important factors are the age, education and income of the community and how that affects park use. Folks with limited incomes tend to use neighborhood parks more. Chapter 3 - An inventory of our facilities dividing the parks into certain categories: • Community parks - 20 acres or more with multiple recreational activities (e.g. Chesterley Park with soccer, playground, walking trail, and skate park). • Neighborhood parks - around 3 acres, usually has multiple features and has more passive recreational opportunities serving the immediate area. • Mini -Parks — less than 3 acres, passive in nature, (e.g. Cherry Park, Portia Park) • Special use property - e.g. central business district, the golf course, Tahoma cemetery • • School district facilities 462 ADJOURNED MEETING — PARKS COMPREHENSIVE PLAN FEBRUARY 28, 2006 Chapter 4 - The organization as a municipal parks agency, maintenance, and recreation services. Chapter 5 - Important issues determined by the community. Used for accountability on what we said we were going to do in the prior document. It also lists the mission and goals and objectives for the next five years. Chapter 6 - Planning areas and recommended improvements for each Shows demographics of each planning area based on the 2000 census and identifies what parks, properties and amenities are in those areas Chapter 7 — Data gather process to develop the plan Soliciting citizen input by holding public meetings, and an opinion survey. Also received input from many groups such as the Bicycle /Pedestrian Committee, and information from the Yakima County Plan, the West Valley Plan, and the Selah Plan. Chapter 8 - Industry standards The National Parks and Recreation guidelines are 3.13 acres of parkland for every 1,000 residents. Compared to other cities in the state, Yakima is significantly lower. This may be due to the perception that there is a lot of open space, Chapter 9 - Recommendations ➢ Council Discussion With regard to acquisition, the City will look at every possible venue to attract property; either by donations, grants, or passing bonds for property acquisition. Condemnation would be the last resort. There will have to be new funding sources for operations, maintenance, acquisition, and improvements, as the funding is not available today to accomplish all of this. Bruce Benson, Planning Supervisor, explained that we currently have no open space ordinances, but only have a lot coverage standard in residential development (45% of a lot). We try to encourage developers to incorporate open space but to this point we haven't had anyone willing to do that. It would have to become a requirement for development in the zoning ordinance. Council Member Johnson suggested talking about the West Valley Park in the Intergovernmental Committee. Chris Waarvick, Public Works Director, raised the concern that if we obtain that park, all our other properties would be diluted with the cost to take care of it. Mayor Edler reaffirmed that we're all in favor of parks as a quality of life issue, but the challenges municipalities have today in funding is the key issue. Mrs. Nichols spoke about the citizens' desire for the development of pathways. There is a strong desire to provide linkages to other pathways. Council Member Lover raised specific questions on various sections of the plan. One major issue he suggested was dropping the objective of the development of Gardner Field as a girls' softball park. Mayor Edler countered that the Sports Commission is coming forward with a recommendation of turning Gardner Park into a girls fast pitch complex. Mrs. Nichols said the school district approached the City about making renovations to accommodate girls' fast pitch in this community. That sport is underserved. She said we have agreed to work with them to make Gardner Park more accessible for girls' fast pitch, changing fence lines, bases, and restrooms. We will also 2 46, ADJOURNED MEETING — PARKS COMPREHENSIVE PLAN FEBRUARY 28, 2006 play slow pitch on that complex when the fast pitch season is over. Discussion continued on the subject. Council Member Lover suggested the upper Kiwanis area be used for girls' fast pitch. Mrs. Nichols responded that the upper area is designated for neighborhood youth activities, there would be the argument in that neighborhood there is a greater need for little league fields versus anything else. Mayor Edler tabled this portion of the discussion. Council Member Cawley had comments about surveying Yakima's youth for input on their desires for parks and also spoke about park security and potholes. 3. Audience comments Lynne Kittelson asked for a copy of the plan and said the entire process has been user - unfriendly and she was frustrated. No other citizens came forward to speak. Council Member Johnson suggested efforts be made to put grass and a tree on the triangular pieces of property in east Yakima that are currently just dirt and a collection of bottles and cans. He also suggested working on West Valley Park through the Intergovernmental Committee, and for the City to begin identifying money in the budget to increase our acreage for parks. Mayor Edler spoke about the difficulty in obtaining financial resources. He suggested a part of this should be public relations to help the community understand their role in providing for assets of this type. 4. Adjournment The meeting adjourned at 8:56 a.m. and Council took a five - minute break before moving into the 9:00 a.m. Adjourned City Council Business Meeting on the library annexation issue. . . / : s °r READ AND CERTIFIED ACCURATE BY _ 7 CIL M MBER DATE COUN r�u d �� 7�� 1 - / �4 - COUNCIL MEM DATE ATTEST: ,Iii _41 ..,__„‘ If /, , CITY CLERK DAVI EDLER, MAYOR Minutes prepared by Linda Watkins. An audio and video tape of this meeting are available in the City Clerk's Office. 3