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HomeMy WebLinkAbout05/23/2013 PRC MinutesCITY OF DIAMOND BAR MINUTES OF THE PARKS & RECREATION COMMISSION DIAMOND BAR CITY HALL -THE WINDMILL ROOM 21810 COPLEY-DRIVE, DIAMOND -BAR, CA 91765 MAY 23, 2013 CALL TO ORDER: Chair/Grundy called the Parks and Recreation Commission meeting to order at 7:02 p.m. in -the City Hall Windmill Room, 21810 Copley Drive, Diamond Bar, CA 91765. PLEDGts OF ALLEGIANCE: Vice Chairman Owens led the Pledge of Allegiance. ROLL CALL: Present: Commissioner Lew Herndon, Vice Chairman Ted Owens, Chairman Dave Grundy. Absent: Commissioners Benny Liang, Dave Roberto were excused Staff Present: Bob Rose, Community Services Director; Anthony Jordan, Parks and Maintenance Superintendent; Christy Murphey, Recreation Superintendent; Crystal Knox, Community Services Coordinator, and Debbie Gonzales, Administrative Coordinator. MATTERS FROM THE AUDIENCE: None CALENDAR OF EVENTS: As presented by CSD/Rose. 1. CONSENT CALENDAR: 1.1 Regular Meeting Minutes of the April 25, 2013 Meeting — Continued to June 27, 2013. 1.2 Chair/Grundy agreed to accept transmittal of Parks and Recreation Month Proclamation from the City Council at its June 18 meeting. 2. INFORMATIONAL ITEMS: 2.1 Recreation Program Update — RS/Murphey C/Herridon asked what high schools held proms at the Diamond Bar Center and RS/Murphey responded that they were not local high schools. She said she would get back to the Commission at its next meeting with the requested information. RS/Murphey responded to VC/Owens that the wait list is a combination of all of the weeks. MAY 23, 2413 PAGE 2 P&R COMMISSION 2.1.1 Power Point Presentation on the Contract Classes - CSC/Knox ClHerndon asked how the City promotes contract classes. CSC/Knox responded that staff provides flyers to the schools. Staff has a blanket authorization from the Pomona School District -so the flyers are emailed for approval and upon approval, staff drops off flyers at each office for the Pomona Unified School District. These flyers are done at the expense and time of the instructors. She collects flyers from the instructors, sends them out for approval and upon approval, the instructors deliver them to the schools. Walnut Valley Unified School District provides approvals as well and the instructor provides packets for each class. ClHerndon asked if it's possible to utilize the City website to alert coaches when fields are not being used. CSD/Rose responded that the facilities are primarily allocated to the organization so if a coach decides not to use the facility on a particular day, anyone else from that organization could use the field since it is already allocated to them. If an entire organization gives up a field it becomes available to other users. The sports fields can be put on the calendar. RS/Murphey said we could put them up there. There are so many different fields and different configurations with different options at each facility. When the City first got Rec Track and Web Track staff only put the rooms on there, otherwise, there would be a huge list. But it is something staff can look into again. The site is much more navigable now but it will depend on the user groups letting staff know so that it can be lifted off. ClHerndon asked if picnic rentals are available online. CSC/Knox said she did not show it because it is not available now for picnic use. The only way to register for a picnic is by coming into the Diamond Bar Center. Something staff is looking to add is a "Permit Request" so that individuals can go online and put in a Permit Request from the facility calendar and then it will send an email to the office that someone has requested that date which will offer a little more convenience to the individual who can then print the permit. They could do a similar program with the fields; however, there is so much to offer that it gets a little confusing. MAY 23, 2013 PAGE 3 P&R COMMISSION Chair/Grundy commented that for future example demonstrations, staff has Family XXX and when you picked adult, it was Adult XXX. He asked if the comment cards staff has received in the past have indicated why there is a trend in decreased enrollment and CSC/Knox said not specifically. Unless there was actually -a complaint on the comment card there have not been any specific reasons why people are not returning. She said she believed that when comment cards are passed out during the classes individuals might -be a little more reserved about what they write on a farm that they are turning in to an instructor who will read the comment. She believed that by offering the comment cards online it would provide more useful and honest feedback. Chair/Grundy asked if staff had asked other cities what seem to be the hot classes today and CSC/Knox responded- "yes." In fact, today she went to a brochure exchange in Fullerton. There were about 50 participants from about 15 different cities and current trends were discussed. The group also discussed different ways cities are getting people to participate. Some cities are doing showcaseslpreviews for their programs which is something she -is looking to do for next summer. She plans to have an expo where all of the instructors have booths and demonstration of what their classes have to offer. This expo will be advertised throughout the City and be available to the public so that they will have a preview of what will be offered for the summer. Some of the popular classes that the group discussed were "Polaxi" which is a combination of Pilates and boxing. Staff attends. brochure exchange two or three times a year in different locations in order to get a wider variety of what is popular. She has also contacted local cities to see what works for them and what commercial instructors they might be working with and asking questions about what is working and what is not working. ClHerndon asked if the Diamond Bar Foundation was sponsoring a Concerts in the Park again this year and RS/Murphy responded that they were sponsoring the last concert of the year.ClHerndon asked if that fact was promoted in the City's newsletter and RS/Murphy responded that they were. ClHerndon 'said the Diamond Bar Foundation doesn't seem to have a lot of visibility and wants to get whatever publicity is available for the Foundation. CSD/Rose asked why it is called a "splash" page — CSC/Knox responded that is what the company calls it. It is a splash or splotch page because it splashes or splotches different information on it. MAY 23, 2013 PAGE 4 P&R COMMISSION 2.2 Parks Report — PMS/Jordan 2.2.1 Power Point Presentation on — PMS/Jordan Chair/Grundy suggested that the City send a letter of thanks and commendation to the Diamond Bar High School kids for what they have done. C/Herndon said that when the gallons per minute are reduced does it mean that the City has to water longer and how does the City determine how much the plants need for healthy growth. PMS/Jordan responded that one of the capabilities of the City's irrigation system is the ability to water based on ET (weather). Essentially, there are weather gauges throughout the City that measure evaporation and it communicates with other controllers to tell them that for example, there has been a % inch loss of water today and the system puts back that amount. Once it is all fine- tuned and dialed in that capability exists. The benefit of these nozzles is that if the City is not careful with its watering times there will be a lot less water thrown with these nozzles and a lot less water will be wasted. Water can still be wasted by overwatering but the nozzles (Rainbird MPR's --- Mass Precipitation Rate) that were replaced when Silver Tip was completed a couple of years ago was a pretty precise nozzle. However, Toro Precision nozzles provide a phenomenal water savings. Within a year to a year and a half the technology continues to march forward. if only those nozzles were used the City might have to increase the watering times but by using the ET base just the amount of water the plants require is being put back. 2.3 CIP Projects --- CSD/Rose 2.3.1 Dog Park at Pantera Meadow — CSD/Rose .reported that construction will begin next Tuesday. All pieces are in and staff will construct the shade shelters, drinking fountains and benches. Staff hopes to have the project completed in two weeks but is allowing a month to give added time to make sure everything is done correctly. Signs are posted showing that the park will be closed beginning Tuesday and staff will post updates on the City's web page and sign the park with the reopening date, once that information is available. 2.3.2 Grandview Trail and Grandview Trail Link — CSD/Rose stated that the conceptual plans are completed and construction documents are about 90 percent complete. Staff will meet with the design firm the second week of June to go over the plans and make sure a final route is agreed upon. At that point, the construction documents will be completed and the project will go MAY 23, 2013 PAGE 5 P&R COMMISSION out to bid-. The project -is fully funded. The budget was approved Tuesday night and .it includes funds to pay for all of the trail work, half of which is through grant funding and half from the City's General Fund. 2.3:3 Site D Public- Park — CSD/Rose reported that Lennar Homes held its public park meeting on May 9. Staff believes that the consensus plan was well-received by those in attendance. There is additional - research that staff needs to do on the rain garden concept to make sure there are no unknown: or hidden issues. It is a relatively - unique amenity to this type of park, and staff is looking at sites that are similar and have a detention basin concept built into the park. Part of the design process will be to present the information to the Commission. 2.3.4 Larkstone Park — CSD/Rose stated that staff met with Lewis Homes representatives. who are planning to move forward to construct the homes. Lewis Homes will sign on a developer that will actually construct the project. Lewis Homes found an ancient landslide on the site. Apparently, the geotechnical information that was turned over to Lewis Homes contained that information but Lewis Homes just noticed it in the last month or so, so it may require a complete design of the park. As a result, the geotechnical people are looking at the possible solutions to the landslides and how they would need to be repaired in order to construct the park. They may be back in front of staff with a new design and the same process will again take place before the design is approved. VC/Owens said that he read in the paper that the City of Costa Mesa was having problems with the turf in their dog park. They took a survey and found that there were a lot of non-residents using the park so they were thinking about implementing a non-resident fee. He said he hoped that would not be an issue for Diamond Bar. CSD/Rose said that Diamond Bar does not use turf. He is sure that non-residents are using the Diamond Bar Dog Park. For example, Chino Hills does not have a dog park but they are in the design phase for a dog park. San Dimas, Claremont and Fullerton have dog parks so Diamond Bar is surrounded by quite a few cities that have dog parks. Staffs experience -is that people travel around to different dog parks but believes.that in Diamond Bar and especially Pantera Park which was developed with Prop A funds would have to remain available -to non-residents because Prop A funds are countywide funds. CSD/Rose said that he believes it would cost the city more to collect non-resident fees than what would be collected in non-resident fees. MAY 23, 2013 PAGE 6 P&R COMMISSION C/Hern-don said he was astounded that Lewis Homes was just now working with -this (landslide) issue because it seems to him that a year or year and one-half ago during meetings the Commission was discussing this particular problem. It appears someone was not doing his job. CSD/Rose explained that there is an entirely new project team and it was the new project team that discovered this. There was a large landslide on Morning Sun that impacted the homes in Rowland Heights and there was so much time and energy spent on that side that staff thinks that what was going on on the park side was forgotten or lost: in thought because the folks in charge of the project turned over a couple of times. Lewis had approved plans to construct the park and now they have to start over. CSD/Rose presented a slide presentation overview of the site proposed for the Grandview Trail Link. C/Herndon said that during previous discussions about trails one of the things that everyone wanted to avoid was switchbacks and he sees it is necessary for this trail. CSD/Rose showed C/Herndon where lodge pole fencing would be installed to attempt to keep hikers from cutting across the system as much as possible. 2.4 List of Pending Commission Requests -- CSD/Rose CSD/Rose stated that today he was told that the stage lighting is complete, staff has been trained on its use and it is ready for use. RS/Murphey said that it was used on Saturday night. CSD/Rose said that with respect to Silver Tip .Park and the trail connect with Pantera Park the CCC is ready to start walking the area to determine a path. If a reasonable workable path is found there is money in the Prop A Youth at Risk account to allow the CCC to begin cutting a path after staff reviews the proposal and obtains a cost estimate. 2.5 Pony League Baseball Fields — CSD/Rose CSD/Rose reported that staff met with Pony League Baseball representatives on February 20 and their main concern is that fields are being used for only one season per year from January through May. The use during the summer is limited to all-star team practices. The facilities are fully available from end of August/first of September through December depending on how many all-star teams are still practicing. Pony League Baseball is making the fields available to other users due to rising costs to maintain the fields, which at this time, amounts to about $24,000 which includes the use of volunteer labor. The officials were seeking a Lorbeer type agreement with the City wherein the City would pay for all or a portion of the maintenance and the City would then allocate MAY 23, 2013 PAGE 7 P&R COMMISSION the fields to other users. Staff estimated the cost to the City for that type of agreement to be between $8,000 and $12,000 depending orL the amount of use and time allocation. Staff compared the Pony League Baseball facilities with park facilities taking into consideration that parks have a much more extensive maintenance specification. The closest park for a comparison was Peterson Park as far as the approximate -size to the Pony facility. Peterson Park maintenance amounts to about $56,00cf per year which does- not include lighting because the . Pony facility does not - - --- - have lights. This comparison would be using the same specifications that the City uses for the Lorbeer agreement which are very similar to the parks specifications. In - talking with CM/DeStefano after the meeting., his goal is to have priority for the school -facilities and the Parks Master Plan shows that the Youth Sports Facilities needs can be accomplished adding a lighted soccer/baseball field at Lorbeer and three lighted soccer fields and four lighted ball fields at South Point Middle School. At this time, the City Manager has decided to conserve the City's resources for maintenance until these facilities are constructed and not to use it on a privately owned facility. C/Herndon asked if the $56,000 was for the entire year and CSD/Rose responded that it was, in fact, the total cost for 12 months. C/Herndon asked if the $8,000 to $12,000 per year was realistic for the partial use and CSD/Rose responded that it sounds low because there are restroom facilities onsite, there is a snack bar on site and both would have to be maintained. Right now the park facilities are maintained seven days a week plus staff makes rounds, and stops in to double check to make sure the restrooms are stocked. He believes the $8,000 to $12,000 estimate is based on a lot of volunteer assistance. ClHerndon asked about -six months and CSD/Rose said it would likely be $12,000 to $28,000 depending on the details of the agreement. VC/Owens asked if the Pony League had any travel teams that play in the off-season and CSD/Rose said that he was not aware of any. VC/Owens asked what user groups would use the field and CSD/Rose responded that the League would make it available for games so it would be available to all ages during Saturday and daylight savings time. Chair/Grundy felt the cost to the City would be higher even if the City reached an agreement with the League because as reported, they are paying only $24,000 a year and they are not likely to want to pay more to maintain the facility at the same level that the City would and the City would most likely have to take up the slack. C/Herndon asked if staff could come up with a "draft" schedule. MAY 23, 2013 PAGE 8 P&R COMMSSION CSD/Rose responded that it should not be that difficult because the City has Paul C. Gr_zw that has some of the same issues. It has only one soccer field and no lights so staff could look at the use there and compare it to the League field- and come up with a "draft" schedule. ,C/Herndon asked who could use Pony League facilities. CSD/Rose said he says AYSO but there is also the Diamond Bar Soccer League. Pop Warner has used the Little League facility in. the past but was not sure whether they use that facility at the present time. At least those two organizations would be interested. He is not sure about softball because there are grass infields at the Pony fields and softball has different pitching distances. Staff can look at how much additional time could be given to those three groups. VC/Owens said he had not been to the site in years. Is it possible the whole site could be laid out differently to maximize the uses? CSD/Rose said that this option was considered during the Parks Master Plan process but found that the first two fields immediately off of Sunset Crossing belong to the YMCA, behind that is the Pony League Complex and behind that is the Lanterman Developmental Center. Staff was looking at the possibility of creating a park at the front side and creating a sports complex in the back with access around the park into the Lanterman Developmental Center. The hiccup is that the City has heard Lanterman is for sale and will be closed. Staff has also heard that CalPoly Pomona has an interest in the facility for growing their educational program. Also, the City of Pomona has eyes on the facility as a possible commercial development. So to reconfigure the area to get maximum benefit would probably need to involve the YMCA to capture the front park access and road circulation. All of this involves large dollar amounts. Chair/Grundy asked if the proposal was to further investigate how Diamond Bar Community Foundation funds could help with the feasibility of a going forward plan. He asked that staff keep in mind that if staff believes it is more than $56,000 per year to maintain he feels that the Pony League should be approached and asked to participate financially on an equal basis. 3. OLD BUSINESS: None 4. NEW BUSINESS: None 5. ANNOUNCEMENTS: C/Herndon stated that as always, staff does a great job and he appreciates all of the work staff does and the reports that are forthcoming to the Commission. MAY 23, 2093 PAGE 9 P&R COMMISSION VC/Owens thanked staff for the Power Point Presentations. - Chair/ -Grundy thanked staff for their efforts and all of the great reports and presentations they provide the Commission because it helps the Commissioners - - -to better understand what's going on and more appropriately provide input. ADJOURNMENT: VC/Owens moved, C/Herndon seconded, to adjourn the Parks and Recreation Commission meeting. With no one objecting and no further Business before the Parks and Recreation-Commission,—-Chair/Grundy adjourned the meeting at 8:40 p.m. The foregoing minutes are hereby approved this 19 day of August , 2013. Respec ully, mitted, a I 1 B E, SECRETARY