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HomeMy WebLinkAbout04/27/2017 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 APRIL 27.2017 CALL TO ORDER: Chair/Sulakhe called the Parks and Recreation Commission meeting to order at 7:00 p.m. in the City Hall Windmill Room, 21810 Copley Drive, Diamond Bar, CA 91765. PLEDGE OF ALLEGIANCE: C/Hsieh led the Pledge of Allegiance. ROLL CALL: Present: Commissioners Lew Herndon, Kim Hsieh, Vice Chair Benny Liang and Chair Manisha Sulakhe Absent: Commissioner Dave Grundy Staff Present: Ryan McLean, Assistant City Manager; Anthony Jordan, Parks and Maintenance Superintendent; Christy Murphey, Recreation Superintendent; Alison Meyers, Recreation Coordinator and Debbie Gonzales, Administrative Coordinator. A. D134YOUTH — RECOGNITION OF OUTGOING/INCOMING BOARD MEMBERS — RC/Meyers C/Herndon thanked RC/Meyers for all she does to help the DB4Youth be so successful. MATTERS FROM THE AUDIENCE: None CALENDAR OF EVENTS: As presented by ACM/McLean. 1. CONSENT CALENDAR: 1.1 Approval of Minutes for March 23, 2017 regular meeting — continued to May 25, 2017. 2. INFORMATIONAL ITEMS: 2.1 RECREATION PROGRAM UPDATE — RS/Murphey 2. 1.1 Power Point Presentation on DB4Youth — CS/Meyers 2.2 MAINTENANCE REPORT — PMS/Jordan 2.2.1 Power Point Presentation on Heritage Park — PMS/Jordan. 2.3 DBC Use Analysis — ACM/McLean APRIL 27, 2017 PAGE 2 P&R ACM/McLean presented the Diamond Bar Center Use Analysis for Fiscal Year 2015-16, the last full year of available data. Staff has been working on this analysis for a number of months going through all of the rental folders to determine the types of use, date, location, room, amount of time, classification of rental, etc. This analysis meets a City Council goal which was adopted during the Fiscal Year 2016-17 Goals and Objectives study and satisfies C/Hsieh's request for information related to volume and type of events held at the Center. There are no recommendations with this analysis. This report is simply a collection of the data for a report to the Council and Commission. This report will be used in the future to develop policy decisions which will be brought to the Commission for comment and to the Council for consideration and adoption. He thanked SA/Lopez for her many hours working with Diamond Bar Center staff to make this a reality. Staff found that over 10,000 hours of use was programmed during FY 2015-16. Usage was split into six categories shown in Table 1 at the bottom of Page 2 which consists of: Senior Clubs 40%, private events 20%, City Fee-based Contract Classes 18%, Senior No -fee, free contract classes 16%, Church in the Valley (Paid Rental) 5% and City organized events 1 %. There are four established senior groups that have free use of the Center. Three of the four groups made up a total of 35 percent while the fourth group made up 65 percent of use (total hours). He noted that one of the groups that used only 13 percent of the time actually had the highest use by square footage. One of the groups uses the Grandview Ballroom on a regular basis. The Grandview Ballroom is the largest space in the Center. Other groups may use smaller rooms for greater amounts of time. The vast majority (63 percent) of use is during the week with the remainder on weekends. It is noteworthy that free weekday use by senior clubs limits the City's ability to market the facility for paid corporate rentals that help subsidize free use. This presents a conundrum that there is very limited space to provide for corporate or non-profit rentals during the week because most of the time is pre -booked. C/Herndon said that the senior contract classes represents another 16 percent in addition to the 40 percent which means that seniors are basically using more than half of the available time. ACM/McLean responded that C/Herndon was correct. Contract classes are categorized differently than the senior clubs but in aggregate they are at about 56 percent overall. The private event section (Page 4) made up 20 percent of the total hours. Staff sub -categorized the private events as follows: Weddings and bridal related events 42 percent, private receptions (anniversaries, birthdays, baby showers, etc.) 17 percent, business and corporate rentals 16 percent, non -profits, community groups and schools 9 percent, proms and Quinceaneras 7 percent, other city events 4 percent, and senior social events 4 percent of the total percentage of private events. APRIL 27, 2017 PAGE 3 P&R COMMISSION 92 weddings were held in FY 2015-16 with 85 percent taking place on the weekend, which represents 60 percent of all weekend dates available at the Center. Page six details rooms utilized for weddings, with most events taking place in the full or 2/3rds of the Grandview Ballroom. There were fewer weddings in the smaller rooms. There were a total of only 247.5 hours of business rentals during the year, 78 percent of which took place during the week. Business rentals are divided into four different categories including meetings 43 percent, public seminars 37 percent, holiday parties 6 percent, and other 14 percent. C/Herndon asked if the City was turning away much business due to lack of availability during the week and ACM/McLean responded yes which means that the City is limited in its ability to market the facility. In short, the City does not put out much information about open business or corporate rental availability because the Center does not have the capacity - a matter for further discussion. C/Herndon said that if the City is turning away a lot of weekday business mainly because of the senior clubs, is it feasible that a less expensive type of facility could be made available for the senior groups. CVS, for example, has a huge warehouse space in their facility that is not being used and they have tried to rent the space out. He wondered if the City could approach CVS to see if that facility could be rented at a modest rate and relatively easily turned into a "senior center." ACM/McLean said that he did not have sufficient information about the facility to comment but that staff could look into alternative options for senior programming. There are some City -owned facilities that may be available depending on what policy decisions are made down the line. These facilities might include something like Heritage Park where there may be space to accommodate some of the uses. Page 7 breaks down in more detail the private receptions, anniversaries, baby showers, proms, etc. Most private receptions are held on the weekends (275 of the 336 hours). Staff chose to break down the proms and Quinceaneras due to the scale of those events. There were 10 proms and 8 Quinceaneras, all of which were held on weekends. The Center is also open to non -profits (32 events), local community groups and schools for different events. There were 17 (80 hours, 65 on the weekend) senior social events (paid reservations). Page 8 shows a breakdown between weekday, and weekend use for private events. Most private events (nearly three-quarters) are booked on the weekends, mostly because of limited availability on weekdays. Page 9 shows the geography of those who patronize the Center which covers a wide swath of southern California from Santa Clarita to the north into Orange County eastward into Riverside County. The table shows that by far the most reservations are within Diamond Bar (91765 or 91789 zip codes). One item of note is that some of these rentals were made by a resident on behalf of the individuals that were actually holding the event. APRIL 27, 2017 PAGE 4 P&RCOMMISSION For example a couple getting married who live in West Covina and their aunt lives in Diamond Bar might have the aunt come in to reserve the facility to get the `resident' rate. The Center has a policy that if a Diamond Bar resident is reserving the facility, they are paying for the facility and they get the refunds and monies are not routed to anyone else. There must be a single point person that is a Diamond Bar resident that submits payments and receives any reservation refunds/deposits. ACM/McLean reiterated that this study was done to provide insight into this facility/enterprise. This is one of the first such reports and staff plans to continue this analysis in order to make educated' policy recommendations to the Commission and City Council. The Diamond Bar Center is one of the most valuable assets the City has and the programming decisions and policy decisions that the City makes should be based on a review of the use. The City Council recently adopted a Strategic Plan which includes an action item for staff to go back and revisit the Facilities Use Policy. Future recommendations will be brought to the Parks and Recreation Commission for comment before proceeding to the City Council for consideration and action. C/Hsieh asked about the percentage of discounts for non -profits and religious groups and RS/Murphey responded that there are non-profit rates, resident rates and non-resident/business rates. The resident rate is not necessarily discounted. Non-profit rates are about 30 percent below a resident rate. Chair/Sulakhe said it was a very comprehensive report and she is especially proud of the Table on Page 9 which shows reservations are considerably higher than surrounding comparable cities. She just did not know if it was economically feasible and hoped that Diamond Bar would make more profit according to the comparisons with other cities. She appreciates all of the work that went into the compilation of the survey. 2.4 CIP Projects — ACA/McLean 2.4.1 Pantera Park Trail — This project above and adjacent to the Dog Park at Pantera Park is substantially complete, with a few punch list items needing attention. The trail is complete. Signage is in the manufacturing process and will be installed when it arrives at City Hall. Opening date will depend on when the work has been completed. 2.4.2 Larkstone Park — This project has been planned for many years. The development of the 99 home project next to South Point Middle School is well underway with the model homes completed and open to the public and being sold. Part of this project is a requirement that Lennar develop a park on the site directly across the street from South Point Middle School, construction of which is also well underway. The park is a two-tiered park with an upper pad and a lower pad. The lower pad is closest to the housing development while the upper pad is closer to the entrance to South Point Middle School. The lower pad is primarily a APRIL 27, 2017 PAGE 5 P&R COMMISSION passive area with walking path and landscaped seating areas. The upper pad is more active and includes playground equipment. The lower part of the park is complete and will not open until the upper park is completed to its full scale and turned over to the City. New signage is consistent with streetscape improvements that were done at Grand Avenue and Diamond Bar Boulevard and Diamond Canyon Park and will be done within future projects citywide. C/Herndon asked if staff had investigated the possibility of a fence by the play area on the upper park. ACM/McLean said that there is no fence shown on the plans and it is difficult to see the layout that has not been completed. Staff will continue to look at the situation but it is not something that is on the plans and would therefore have to be done after - the -fact if warranted. 2.4.3 Sycamore Canyon Park Storm Damage — The trailhead remains closed for some time in the future. This is a major project that will require significant investment to cure. Staff had a conference call today with FEMA to make sure that as the City goes through the repair process, it is consistent with FEMA guidelines in order for the City to receive as much reimbursement as possible. Usually, the breakdown for a presidentially declared disaster is 75 percent reimbursement from FEMA, 18 2/3 from CalOES and the remainder from the City. Staff is working on bids for repair of the playground area and hopes this area will be back up and running in time for the Concerts in the Park series. The playground mitigation has FEMA reimbursement ability as well, and staff will make sure to meet all of the necessary requirements for that reimbursement. FEMA will be onsite next week to look at the sites and walk them with staff. 2.5 LIST OF PENDING COMMISSION REQUESTS —ACM/McLean The third item, request for breakdown of number of events, has been satisfied with tonight's presentation and distribution of the Use Analysis. Staff would ask that this item be removed from the list. With respect to the request for updated Trails Maps, staff is working on this and will need to bid it out to an architect to develop ideas for the layout. There are features that need to be included in order to properly vet it for the final desired product. This item is budgeted and will move forward to completion.. C/Liang asked for additional exercise equipment. At this time, there are no other circuits scheduled to go in. There are currently two available, one at Diamond Canyon Park and on the Mesa Trail. In the future, staff will look for options to include exercise circuits in new or existing facilities where appropriate and makes sense. C/Liang asked that his request be moved from the list. APRIL 27, 2017 PAGE 6 P&R COMMISSION C/Hsieh said she was okay with staff's request to remove the request for use analysis of the Diamond Bar Center and thanked staff for their work in preparing the report. 3. OLD BUSINESS: None 4. NEW BUSINES: None 5. ANNOUNCEMENTS: C/Hsieh said she noticed a lot of weeds that were being neglected at residences. PMS/Jordan said that weeds this year will be outrageous because of all of the rain. As it pertains to weeds on private property, the Code Enforcement officers will issue courtesy notices for people to clear their landscape. However, it is mostly in areas where vegetation is visible from the street. C/Hsieh said that some is dry and she is concerned about fire. ACM/McLean said that Code Enforcement will respond to specific properties with visible violations including overgrowth of weeds. Related to the fire issues, LA County Fire Department sends out weed abatement notices in May and they will be going around to homes that have additional open spaces behind their back yards with weeds or tall grass and work with property owners to make sure those items are cleared to provide a defensible space between the homes and the open wildlands. C/Herndon said staff is very responsive. He previously reported a neighboring property for overgrowth issues and within days the problem was mitigated. Chair/Sulakhe said she heard on the radio today that the City of Anaheim got goats to clear their weeds and that it will take them two weeks to clear all of the fire hazard areas. PMS/Jordan said this is the 6th or 7th year the City has used goats in District 41 to take care of the canyon adjacent to and across from Ronald Reagan Park. C/Hsieh thanked audience participants. C/Liang said tonight's presentations were very informational. The Diamond Bar Center Use Analysis is a great tool for the strategic planning and for future policies for Facilities Use. He commended staff on the City Birthday Party Which he said was great. C/Herndon said every time he hears about the DB4Youth programs he is thrilled and believes RS/Meyers has done a tremendous job with that program. There are some really stellar young people involved with the group. He was involved with the City Birthday Party which was a great event. He thanked the City for their support of the 2nd Annual Diamond Bar Community Foundation Walk/Run. There were more participants this year than last year, the first year of the event. Everybody commented on how well it was run and a big part of that was the City's participation. Thank you to staff for the Diamond Bar Center Use Analysis which he believes will be invaluable to future planning. Thank you to staff for all they do. APRIL 27, 2017 PAGE 7 P&R COMMISSION Chair/Sulakhe said it was great that staff could help seniors with their taxes. It is great to look forward to the Concerts in the Park series and staff is doing everything possible to get Sycamore Canyon Park ready. She thanked ACM/McLean and staff for the great Diamond Bar Center Use Analysis which will be very handy for strategic planning and for the future understanding of the City's economics. She thanked AC/Gonzales for the reminders and staff for all they do. ADJOURNMENT: With no one objecting and no further business before the Parks and Recreation Commission, Chair/Sulakhe adjourned the meeting at 8:14 p.m. The foregoing minutes are hereby approved this22 day of June 2017. Respectfully RY Attest: Al 'f i VJ k), s MANISHA SULAKHE, CHAIRPERSON RETARY