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HomeMy WebLinkAbout1989-08-21; Parks & Recreation Commission; 889-2; Citizen Request/Parks & Recreation MinutesPARK S RECREATION COMMISSION - AGENDA BILL AB« 3&3-Z MTH A -21 -€& DEPT. A-£ TITLE: CITIZEN REQUEST/PARKS AND RECREATION COMMISSION MINUTES DPPT. HD. PITY ATTY filTY MGR. RECOMMENDED ACTION: Review Staff Report on procedures regarding Commission minute approvals and take appropriate action. ITEM EXPLANATION During the June 19, 1989 Commission meeting, prior to approval of the May 15, 1989 Parks and Recreation Commission Minutes, Commissioner Castner requested an amendment. He stated that several of his comments with regard to the formation of a subcommittee to review parks issues in the northwest quadrant were not reflected. After a statement (Exhibit 1) read from the notes he had used to address this issue at the May meeting, by proper motion, the May 15 minutes were unanimously approved as amended. * At the July Commission meeting, the (May) amended minutes were attached to the June minutes. During public comment at the July Commission meeting, Marjorie Monroy expressed disagreement with the 1989, Commission meeting. In addition, proceedings involved with the approval additions, deletions, or other changes. addition to the minutes of the May 15, she requested information regarding the of Commission minutes with respect to According to the City Clerk, by necessity, the minutes of Council and Commission meetings are essentially recorded in a summary format and not verbatim. At the time of minute approvals by the Council or Commission members, if change is requested, the change is so stated to more accurately reflect what was mentioned by the responding member. If the board members are in agreement to those statements, the minutes, by proper motion, are then approved as amended. If members are in disagreement, the tape recording of the meeting is reviewed by the City Clerk or person responsible for minute recordation. If after review of the recording, amended statements are found to be in conflict, the minutes will not be amended for reasons so stated. Included as Exhibit 2 is a verbatim transcript of Commissioner Castner's statements as recorded during the May 15th meeting (Re: Northwest Quadrant Subcommittee Formation). After staff review of this issue, the minutes as amended during the June Commission meeting (Exhibit 1), in essence (or summarization of intent), are an accurate reflection of each other. In any event, staff feels it appropriate that the amended minutes of May 15, 1989, and the verbatim transcript as documented as part of this agenda bill, become permanent record on file in the Parks and Recreation Department Commission Agenda files. Exhibits 1. Amendment to May 15, 1989 Parks & Recreation Commission Minutes 2. Verbatim Transcript - Commissioner Castner's comments 15 MINUTES PARKS AND RECREATION COMMISSION May 15, 1989 Page 7 COMMISSIONERS ADDITION TO PARKS AND RECREATION COMMISSION MINUTES OF May 15, 1989. Commissioner Castner requested the following addition: Commissioner Castner said he was In favor of the City buying as much land as It can afford, but he did not agree that the Northwest Quadrant was short of parkland according to the Growth Management Plan. He said when the citizens voted for the Growth Management Plan, they knew that school land was to be Included. In the Northwest Quadrant, there are 27.3 acres of school land, and In the other three quadrants combined there are 17.8 acres. These other three quadrants at bulldout will have more schools and more acreage and the Northwest Quadrant wl I I not. Commissioner Castner said he did not agree that 40 percent of the time we do not have the use of school park acreage. The children have use of this and they are not using the public parks. We will always have schools, and do not have to worry about school land being sold off. If It Is, this school land, like all school property, would be very difficult to dispose of. The sale of school property requires unanimous consent of all the Members of the School Board, then It goes to the State and the State has to approve of that. After that, the City has the first chance to buy It, so we don't have to worry about It being sold off. Commissioner -Castner said the Northwest Quadrant Is not deficient In parkland according to the requirements In the Growth Management Project—but perhaps you want to exceed the Growth Management Project, and he said he agreed with that If there Is the money. There are 89 acres In Hosp Grove, 53 acres of which will cost the taxpayers 17 million dollars from the General Fund. Those 89 acres comprise 60 percent of the total requirements for this Quadrant. We are only counting 27—and Commissioner Castner said to count all 89 and develop It. Commissioner Castner said that Thelma Hayes, of the Committee that appeared before this Commission, was quoted as saying that demographics demand that existing and future parks be accessible to citizens. He said that Hosp Grove Is certainly accessible for active and passive recreation such as hiking trails, picnic areas, horseshoes, volleyball, tennis, outdoor basketball, to name a few. Commissioner Castner stated that In the Northwest Quadrant, In addition to the small parks, we have Macarlo Canyon, all 288 acres of It, two lagoons and the ocean beach. Hosp Grove with 89 acres, plus Macarlo Canyon, with 288 acres, total 377 acres, all In the Northwest Quadrant. These two parks alone comprise 93 percent of the total acreage required by the entire City at bulldout. If the City has the funds, and we can Improve upon this, Mr. Castner was In favor of Improving upon It. In conclusion. Commissioner Castner said that he thought Just as It exists today, the Northwest Quadrant Is not short of parkland. 16 EXHIBIT 1 MINUTES Meeting of: Date of Meeting: Time of Meeting: Place of Meeting: PARKS AND RECREATION COMMISSION May 15, 1989 5:00 p.m. City Council Chambers COMMISSIONERS Commissioner Welshons concluded that there is the pool, Senior Center, beaches and the two lagoons so the concerns are there but you also have to recognize that they have a lot of items that some of the other Quadrants do not have. She stated that her back was up on this one. BEGIN CASTNER COMMENTS Commissioner Castner agreed with Commissioner Welshons state- ment and Mr. Monroy's recommendations, and stated that Mr. Monroy did not want to hold the City hostage and there is no reason why it should be. The committee should be appointed to work with our subcommittee and the Parks and Recreation Element should be approved, and in his mind it is. If the committee comes up with recommendations then it is up to the City Council if they want to make amendments to what we have, but stated he was in favor of the CMty buying as much land, anywhere in any Quadrant that can afford. In the Northwest Quadrant there are a few rJrcels remaining but they are not going to be here for long, and in his mind it is not whether we should buy it, but how we should buy it. Mr. Monroy said he had some ideas; that it would sure help me if I knew what they were. I hope there practical. He stated that when we voted for the growth management plan we all knew what was in it, and when I look at these names of this committee, there are quite a few people that were very prominent in pushing that, in fact, the chairlady of that committee is on this. So we all knew what it was for, and to go ahead and cut this land out, alright, maybe one or two schools in the future may be shut down, but the City is growing and we will always have schools, and so their using it 40% of time; but while their using it, they are in school, and they can't be out using other parks that we will have. They are getting a lot of use out of it, and they are our children. Commissioner Castner stated that he does not see any problem with that. They say that the Northwest Quadrant is so deficient, but it seems like we have a sacred cow, some sacred land here in the Northwest Quadrant, only 27 acres of Hosp Grove is counted toward our requirement and that raises the question why? And it also goes back to #7 here that Thelma Hayes proposed. "The demographics of the .Northwest Quadrant demand that existing and proposed park iccessible to citizens". He stated that we are getting absolutely nothing out of those 27 acres of Hosp Grove. Now, we have 89 acres of Hosp Grove, the last 2 \ years the City obligated itself for 17 million dollars for 53 of 17 EXHIBIT 2 MINUTES PARKS AND RECREATION COMMISSION May 15, 1989 Page 2 COMMISSIONERS those acres. That's a little over $320,000 an acre. He stated why are we not using it, there could be many forms of recreation in there without destroying it, such as picnic areas, tennis courts, outdoor basketball courts, horseshoes, trails, many things and that 89 acres is something like 73% of the requirements of the 120 acres required for the Northwest Quadrant. He questioned what is sacred about that, does it belong to just the people that live in it, or live on its borders. He stated that we are all paying for it, lets get some use out of it, even if we buy this other land, he stated he was in favor of buying the land, but questioned where are you going to get the money with out going into debt again, like we did with Hosp Grove. Chairperson Dahlquist asked Commission Castner if he wanted Mr. Bradstreet to respond to his last question. "^mission Castner stated that the statement was just rhetoric i._ further stated that there are other things in the Northwest Quadrant, such as, Macario Canyon and regardless of the fact that 216 acres of the 288 are counted toward the credit for the other three quarters, its still there, and in this quadran is where the facilities are going to be built. Now we are not going to be equal in every quadrant, there is just no way of getting lagoons and beaches in the eastern quadrants, they are in the western quadrants. We should be practical about this and stated that he believes our subcommittee should Teet with the committee appointed by the City Council to study this, and if a viable solution is found, the Growth Management program can be amended, but in the meantime he stated he did not know what Mr. Monroy's program is. There are two viable solutions and only two that I see in the horizon and both are controversial. Raising the T.O.T. to 10% will bring in $850,000 that is equal to the payment on Hosp Grove each year, and the other is finding a place for the Price Club or some other similar enterprise. He concluded that he does agree with Kim's recommendation. END CASTNER COMMENTS Commissioner Knox stated that she was glad that Phil clarified that the City started many years ago, and that a lot was .-already here. She further stated that unfortunately we are jt like the City of Irvine where we can not take a blank piece of land and patch it out and make it all look pretty and nice. She stated that she had no objections to the Ad-Hoc committee in endorsing them to review the situation. She stated that she does not think that it would hold up the Parks and Recreation Element and that it could be for something down the road planning.18