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HomeMy WebLinkAbout04-16-2004 Approved PCSC Minutes O.?DT,UBLXN 2 PARKS AND COMMUNITYSERVICES COMMISSION �� g s� ?'F $ Xy 6 Y Yy d MI NUT,.ES cE ?MO RAY,AP The meeting of the Parks and Community Services Commission was called to order at 7:00 p.m. at the Dublin Civic Center,Dublin, California,by Chairperson Flores. Pledge of Allegiance Chairperson Flores led the Pledge of Allegiance. Roll Call Commissioners Present: Cain,Flores,Hildenbrand,Jones and Pawlowski Commissioners Absent: Guarienti Oral Communication-None Approval of Minutes Parks & Community Services Director Diane Lowart directed staff's attention to page 3, 1st paragraph where she advised that the motion was to offer a co-ed teen bowling league,not a co-ed volleyball league. ON A MOTION BY CM. HILDENBRAND, SECONDED BY CM. JONES AND BY UNIANIMOUS VOTE, THE COMMISSION VOTED TO APPROVE THE MINUTES OF MONDAY, MARCH 15, 2004 AS CORRECTED. ABSTAINED-PAWLOWSKI Written Communications Request to Waive Field Use Fees for Challenger Baseball Program Lowart explained that Dublin Little League President Sheri Schaaf has requested that the City waive Field Use Fees for the Dublin Sports Grounds for the Challenger Baseball program. Challenger Baseball is a division of Little League Baseball established in 1989 that provides mentally and physically handicapped children age 5 to 18 an opportunity to play real baseball. Dublin Little League has volunteered to host the Little League Baseball District 57 Challenger Baseball program. The Challenger teams that play at the Dublin Sports Grounds include teams from Dublin, San Ramon, Danville, Livermore, Tassajara Valley and Pleasanton. Student volunteers of the Dublin High School Leo Club serve as announcers for the games and the Dublin Lions Club in cooperation with Dublin Little League, host an end of the year BBQ picnic and awards ceremony to celebrate a successful Challenger season. The Challenger Baseball program is held on Sunday afternoons from March 14 through June 6 with three games held each day. The estimated loss in fee revenue to the City in granting the fee waiver is $640. Chairperson Flores asked if there was anyone from the public who wanted to address this issue with the Commission. Sheri Schaaf, President, Dublin Little League addressed the Commission asking for the waiver of fees for the Challenger Baseball program. Schaaf asked the Commission if they had any questions or comments regarding this request. The Commission raised no questions for Schaaf. ON A MOTION BY CM. JONES, SECONDED BY CM. HILDENBRAND AND, BY UNIANIMOUS VOTE, THE COMMISSION RECOMMENDED TO THE CITY COUNCIL TO WAIVE THE FIELD USE FEES FOR THE CHALLENGER BASEBALL PROGRAM WITH THE UNDERSTANDING THAT THIS WAIVER IS TOTALLY INDEPENDENT OF WAIVING ANY OTHER FIELD USE FEES FOR DUBLIN LITTLE LEAGUE. Public Hearing Amendments to Fee Schedules • Minutes—April 26, 2004 Page 2 of 5 Parks&Community Services Manager Paul McCreary explained that on an annual basis, Staff undertakes a review of the expenditures and revenues related to various Department programs and recommends fee adjustments as necessary. Staff reviews the fees charged by other local agencies to be sure that the proposed fees are comparable to the market average. Non-resident fees are 15%higher than resident fees. Typically the updated fee resolutions are presented to the Commission in July each year following the adoption of the budget. However, this year, there are two fee adjustments that need to be considered by the Commission now in order to be advertised correctly in the summer edition of"The Guide". The remainder of the recommended fee adjustments for fiscal year 2004-2005 will be presented to the Commission in July. The Shannon Community Center Preschool serves children three to five years of age. The Preschool includes four class levels and is a co-op program, which reduces costs by requiring parents to volunteer in the classroom. Staff proposes increasing fees an average of 4.5% to help offset increased staffing and operational costs. The proposed fees for the Preschool classes average $4.04 per hour, which continues to be a good value compared to other programs in the Tri-Valley. The Swim Center sells a variety of"punch-passes"that provide 15 admissions for the price of 10. The passes used for programs such as Recreational Swimming, Lap Swimming and Water Exercise. This year, use of the Department's registration software was expanded to the Swim Center in order to provide online registration for swim lessons. Additionally, "membership management" software was installed to sell passes and track usage. For punch passes, the system requires that each admission be the same value. Currently,not all of the passes sold at the Swim Center can be evenly divided into 15 admissions. Since the fees for punch passes were already increased for the season, Staff recommends nominally decreasing the fees to compensate for the new software. The fees are being decreased by about$.05 each and therefore will have no significant impact on the budget. Chairperson Flores opened the meeting for public comments on the amendments to the fee schedule. There were no public comments to this issue therefore Chairperson Flores closed the meeting for public comments on the amendments to the fee schedule. ON A MOTION BY CM. CAIN, SECONDED BY CM. JONES AND, BY UNIANIMOUS VOTE THE COMMISSION AGREED TO ADOPT THE AMENDED FEE RESOLUTION #01-04 AND RESOLUTION #02-04 AS PRESENTED TO THE COMMISSION. Unfinished Business-None New Business Emerald Glen Park Parking Study Parks and Facilities Coordinator Rosemary Alex greeted the Commission and advised that Carducci &Associates, Inc. will be presenting the results of the Emerald Glen Park Parking Study. After the presentation of the study,the meeting will be open for public comment. Alex advised that design of Emerald Glen Park Phase III would begin Fiscal Year 2003-2004 and that construction would be commencing in Fiscal Year 2004-2005. The Emerald Glen Park Master Plan incorporates the following primary elements in Phase III: two soccer fields; one little league field; picnic area; restrooms; street frontage improvements and parking. Prior to commencing the community design process for Phase III, a parking study has been prepared. The purpose of the study is to determine the amount of parking required for all building and outdoor recreational facilities proposed at Emerald Glen Park. Alex introduced Bill Fee with Carducci & Associates, to present the results of the parking study to the Commission. Minutes—April 26, 2004 Page 3 of 5 Originally, the 1998 Master Plan proposed 450 parking spaces for Emerald Glen Park. The 1998 Master Plan was subsequentially updated in 2002 with the approval of Phase II design and includes 541 parking spaces. Upon the evaluation of similar facilities, the Community Center and Recreation & Aquatic Center Parking Study recommends a total of 650 parking spaces for the park at build-out. • The study shows that the increase in parking indicates some spatial modifications within the Phase 4 and 5 development area. This includes the relocation of the volleyball courts to another park and the possible relocation of the amphitheater to the Phase III picnic area or another park. Other options for the amphitheater include reducing the size and integrating it within the existing grove of Italian Stone Pines or removing the trees to retain the size of the amphitheater. A second recommendation within the study is the possible spatial requirement for a State-of-the-Art Recreation and Aquatic Center. Development of a State-of-the-Art Recreation and Aquatic Center is one of the six strategies adopted by the City Council. A high priority objective for Fiscal Year 2004-2005 is to complete a programming study to determine the preferred components for this facility. As this facility is currently located at Emerald Glen Park and since it is likely that the facility could result in the expansion of the originally proposed Recreation and Aquatic Center, the parking and space requirements for an expanded facility were evaluated as part of the parking study. The potential increase in building space will reduce the amount of area intended for outdoor recreational use by 1.63 acres and result in the elimination of one soccer field. Fee proceeded to review the parks and facilities that were reviewed as park of the parking study including San Ramon Central Park in San Ramon, Robert Livermore Park in Livermore, Mahany Park in Roseville, Rengstorff Park in Mountain View and the Shannon Community Center in Dublin. As seen at all parks and facilities in this study, it is possible to overload all available onsite parking lots. It has become necessary to utilize parking management strategies that include offsite overflow parking lots with shuttle service. Fee explained that the study suggests that there be a redesign of the parking lots intended to serve the Community Center and the Recreation and Aquatic Center. It is recommended that the Master Plan be adjusted to incorporate additional spaces near the building entrances. This results in the following changes to the Master Plan: • Shift soccer fields west to provide adequate land for Phase 4 and 5 construction • Provide 7.37 acres for Community Center,Recreation&Aquatic Center, lake,parking and other necessary Phase 4 and 5 site amenities • Eliminate volleyball court • Possibly relocate amphitheater to Phase 3 Group Picnic area or locate at another park • Separate service and staff parking from visitor parking • Provide 240 spaces for Phase 3 • Provide 278 spaces for Phase 4&5 • Provide a total of 650 spaces for park(including existing lots in Phase 1) • Develop a transportation management plan for large events Lowart distributed comments prepared by Cm. Guarienti, regarding the meeting's agenda items for tonight, to all Commission members. Cm. Guarienti was unable to attend tonight's meeting due to a scheduling conflict and asked that his comments on this item be shared. The City Attorney advised that it was appropriate to enter his comments into the record for the meeting. Cm. Guarienti's comments are as follows: I have some major concerns with the Emerald Glen Parking Study(Item 8.1), which are: I believe an oversight in the study of showing the Senior Center on all the park maps and stating that the 51 paved parking spaces currently in that location is a Phase 2 parking lot but did not look at the possibility of keeping this lot as permanent parking and adding to the 541 spaces allocated in the 2002 updated Master Plan. Minutes—April 26, 2004 Page4of5 I am not in agreement with reconfiguring the Central Core area facilities to accommodate extra parking (especially if the 51 temporary spaces can be made permanent). I believe that the volleyball courts should remain at Emerald Glen and not be relocated to another park, if possible. I believe that the amphitheatre should remain in its current location and absolutely should not move to the Phase 3 picnic area or be relocated to another park. Also, DO NOT CUT DOWN ANY OF THE TREES!!! I have no major objections at this time for the possible development of a State of the Art Recreation and Aquatic Center if it can be accomplished with no major impacts to other park facilities and no further increases in parking requirements. In summary, I cannot support the recommendation to increase parking to 650 spaces and make major changes to the Central Core area. I believe the 541 allocated spaces with the possibility of adding the 51 temporary spaces should be more than adequate to handle the perceived need. Therefore, I could not support approval of the parking study based on my belief that the oversight of not deleting the Senior Center from the map and including it as a potential parking area led to conclusions to eliminating or moving key park features to provide increased parking. Chairperson Flores opened the discussion on this item for public comment. The public raised no questions or comments therefore Chairperson Flores closed the discussion to the public for this item. Cm.Hildenbrand is very concerned that overflow parking would flow out onto the public streets,which are already maxed out at this time. Cm. Hildenbrand agrees with Cm. Guarienti that the Senior Center needs to be removed from the plans in order to be accurate and she does not want to cut down any trees either. She would also like the amphitheatre to stay at Emerald Glen. She would not like to see the amphitheatre relocated to the picnic area because it would encourage more people to park on the street to walk to the amphitheatre and it is also very windy in this area. Cm. Jones stated he wouldn't mind losing one soccer field in order to have a State of the Art Recreation and Aquatics Center. Cm. Jones also felt that there should be separate parking for staff Cm. Hildenbrand stated that she and Cm. Guarienti feel very strongly that the people who were involved in the planning process for this park want an aquatic center. Therefore, we need to stick as close to possible to the original intent of project. Chairperson Flores stated that she did not want to see the amphitheatre moved to another location within the park. She would also like to suggest that the area between the community center and the proposed parking lot,be used as a circular pick up and drop off location. She also wanted to know if the area,which was designated for the Senior Center, could be made into picnic areas near the playground. Fee stated that the hill is very steep and would not be accessible by ADA requirements but instead it would be an area for informal picnicking. Cm. Pawlowski stated that he would not like to see the volleyball court removed from Emerald Glen as this is a unique component of the park which teens in the area will get a lot of use out of Fee stated that it could be moved to the area near the basketball courts and skateboard park without too much difficulty. ON A MOTION FROM CM. JONES, SECONDED BY CM. HILDENBRAND, AND BY UNIANIMOUS VOTE, THE COMMISSION RECOMMENDS APPROVAL OF THE PARKING STUDY TO THE CITY COUNCIL AS PRESENTED. THE COMMISSION ALSO RECOMMENDS THAT THE AMPHITHEATRE Minutes—April 26, 2004 Page 5 of 5 BE LEFT IN IT'S ORIGNAL LOCATION AND RELOCATE THE VOLLEYBALL COURT NEAR THE BASKETBALL COURT AND SKATEBOARD AREA. Other Business Brief INFORMATIONAL ONLY Reports from Parks& Community Services Commissioners and/or Staff Cm. Jones stated he went to the St. Patrick's wrap-up meeting where it was recommended that next year they shut down Dublin Boulevard 20 minutes before the parade starts to allow more time for people to clear the streets. The Committee recommended moving the start location of the parade to the corner where Carrows and Target are located. He also attended the Youth Sports Liaison Committee Meeting. He was disappointed that the two major user groups, Dublin Little League and Dublin United Soccer league, did not show up for this meeting. Lowart stated it was unfortunate that they were not there as the consultant for Emerald Glen Park Phase III was at the meeting to obtain input from the.Committee on sports facilities. Cm. Hildenbrand stated that she has received emails from concerned citizens about the weed growth at Emerald Glen Park. Lowart stated that the weeds at Emerald Glen would be taken care of by maintenance, in accordance with our abatement program. Cm. Hildenbrand asked when Phase 2 at Emerald Glen would open to the public. Lowart advised that the goal is to go to the City Council in May with the caveat that the fountain will not be open yet because there is still work going on in this area. Then, once the maintenance period is over, Phase 2 will open to the public. Cm. Cain asked if Phase 3 included completing the sidewalk all the way to the bridge, at Tassajara Creek. Lowart stated that the sidewalk is included in Phase 3, all the way to the bridge. Chairperson Flores stated that she would not be at the May meeting, due to the delivery of her child. She hopes to be back for the June 2004 meeting. Lowart reminded the Commissioners to R.S.V.P. for the Tri Valley Commissioners and Board Members Dinner scheduled for May 13th. McCreary stated that there were over 400 participants at the Eggstravaganza held at the Shannon Community Center and Shannon Park and the event was very successful. Spring swim lessons are starting the first week in May and all of the classes are full and an attempt is being made to add classes to try and accommodate everyone on the waitlists. There is clearly a large demand for swim lessons in this area. The summer activity guide is scheduled for release the week of May 3rd. Swim lesson registration is now available for online registration. Adjournment Being no further business,the meeting was adjourned at 8:23 p.m. Re ec lly submi ed, C .stie Marks Senior Office Assistant APPR)VED: airperson