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HomeMy WebLinkAbout04-12-2023 PRC MinutesCity of San Luis Obispo, Agenda, Planning Commission Agenda PARKS AND RECREATION COMMISSION Parks and Recreation Commission MINUTES April 12, 2023 Library Community Room – 995 Palm Street The City of San Luis Obispo has returned to in-person meetings. Zoom participation will not be supported. For those attending in-person, City facilities will be at limited capacity and masks are strongly recommended. INSTRUCTIONS FOR PUBLIC COMMENT: Public Comment prior to the meeting (must be received 3 hours in advance of the meeting): Mail - Delivered by the U.S. Postal Service. Address letters to the City Clerk's Office at 990 Palm Street, San Luis Obispo, California, 93401. Email - Submit Public Comments via email to advisorybodies@slocity.org. In the body of your email, please include the date of the meeting and the item number (if applicable). Emails will not be read aloud during the meeting. Voicemail - Call (805) 781-7164 and leave a voicemail. Please state and spell your name, the agenda item number you are calling about, and leave your comment. Verbal comments must be limited to 3 minutes. All voicemails will be forwarded to the members and saved as Agenda Correspondence. Voicemails will not be played during the meeting. *All correspondence will be archived and distributed to members, however, submissions received after the deadline will not be processed until the following day. Public Comment during the meeting: Meetings have returned to an in-person format. To provide public comment during the meeting, you must be present in the Library Community Room, 995 Palm Street. Zoom participation will not be supported. The Parks and Recreation Department is located 1341 Nipomo Street, San Luis Obispo. If you have questions, contact the City Clerk's Office at cityclerk@slocity.org or (805) 781-7100. Minutes - Parks and Recreation Commission Meeting of April 12, 2023 2 | P a g e Wednesday, April 12, 2023 5:30 p.m. REGULAR MEETING Library Community Room 995 Palm Street CALL TO ORDER: Chair Spector called the meeting to order at 5:30 p.m. ROLL CALL Present: Commissioners: Chair Bob Spector, Vice Chair Kari Howell, Kari Dupperon, Adam Stowe, Toni Kincaid, and Rick Blair present. Absent: Commissioner Kris Roudebush (arrival 6 p.m.) Staff: Parks and Recreation Director, Greg Avakian Recreation Manager, Meghan Burger Administrative Assistant III, Lisa Russell Oath of Office of new Parks and Recreation Commissioner, Toni Kincaid Certificate of Appreciation for Service to Outgoing Commissioner, Andrew Webber PUBLIC COMMENT: At this time, people may address the Committee about items not on the agenda. Persons wishing to speak should come forward and state their name and address. Comments are limited to three minutes per person. Items raised at this time are referred to staff and, if action by the Committee is necessary, may be scheduled for a future meeting. Cathy Marvier – Thank you to the Board and Parks and Rec. Commission and Staff for funding the Senior Center events. SLO Rep trip, Coastal bus tour to Cambria, Melodrama trip. Senior Center members are extremely grateful for the assistance. Hadley (Clegg, Recreation Coordinator) is a wonderful addition to the program, very responsive to our requests. The newsletter is great. It is a much more robust newsletter. We will request vouchers to the ball game again. It was a huge success last year. Commissioner Blair – Thank you to Cathy for all her hard work and leadership at the Senior Center. Your joint efforts with Hadley are wonderful. Chair Spector - The funding model your program is doing is amazing. John McKenzie – Community Forum comments (SLO City Dog Parks). Glad to see there will be three dog parks in the plan. What will be the outcome of the Master Plan with dog parks? Righetti and French Park area. The three parks will be used by people all over SLO and by tourists to the city. Minutes - Parks and Recreation Commission Meeting of April 12, 2023 3 | P a g e CONSIDERATION OF MINUTES 1. Minutes of the Parks and Recreation Committee of February 1, 2023. Motion made (Blair and Roudebush) to approve February 1 minutes as submitted. Approved: 7 yes: 0 no. *NOTE: March 1, 2023 PRC Meeting was cancelled and rescheduled to April 12. CONSENT ITEMS 2. Receive and Comment on Department Staff Report Program and Services Update from February and March 2023 (Avakian). Director Avakian: New developments: Many of Parks & Recreation staff were at a CPRS conference last week, thus the reason for our April PRC change of date. Staff reports: Chair Spector: Any questions from Commission to Staff? Commissioner Blair – Youth services. How are you addressing the demand and supply for programs? Chair Spector: And the subsidizing/supporting to attend this program? What can Staff do to assure we have the information to review? Director Avakian: We can run reports and know who is using the program and how many are on the wait list. Burger: Most schools do not have space for housing the entire childcare needs. Over several years the schools will be building out. We also need to be able to hire more staff to support the programs. The schools will be able to fund programs for certain categories of families. The city is working with Cal Poly and school district to explore additional opportunities. Chair Spector: How are subsidies distributed and administered? Director Avakian: In review for scholarship programs across the board and we will receive additional funding from City council when the next budget is approved. We have stats on the wait lists that we can provide. If we used satellite locations (facilities), not schools, how would we get the children there? Minutes - Parks and Recreation Commission Meeting of April 12, 2023 4 | P a g e This presents another element to consider. All needs to be considered as part of the master plan project. Vice Chair Howell – Would like to see more outward promotions for these programs and the partnerships with other organizations and to low-income families. Commissioner Blair: How do we supply for the demand needed? Commissioner Roudebush: I understand the challenges. We need to understand what the issues are and to quantify them. We would like to ask for the data. BUSINESS ITEMS 3. Introduction and Receive Overview from the Volunteer Coordinator on the New Volunteer Program (Burger/Anderson – 20 minutes). Introduction to Kiersten Anderson by Meghan Burger. Highly qualified candidate and we are so pleased to have her. Now building infrastructure and outreach for the program. “Inclusive and Meaningful” are at the core of the program. Presented the goals for the internal and external volunteer programs. Meeting with P&R divisions to understand how teams are currently using volunteers. Data base is being created to manage all volunteer information. Conducted a volunteer survey and assessing the results. Some ideas and roles being explored are Neighborhood Ambassadors, Adopt a Park to name a few. Need a streamlined process for volunteers to sign-up. Chair Spector – There is a need for infrastructure in order to be successful. Will volunteers work to volunteers? Anderson - This is a city-wide program, housed within in the Parks and Recreation department and if mentor volunteers are needed, we will address that. There will be many opportunities for engagement with city programs. Burger – We have focused on the Jack House Docent program first. Commissioner Howell - Glad you are connected with the College Core program, DEI programs and Pillars. Commissioner Blair – Glad to see your enthusiasm. 4. Discuss and Outline the Next Steps of the Righetti Ranch Park System Community Input for Project Design (Avakian – 20 minutes) Minutes - Parks and Recreation Commission Meeting of April 12, 2023 5 | P a g e a. Debrief and discuss between Parks and Recreation Commissioners on initial community forum held on April 11. Staff share and review the additional outreach methods and timeline for the upcoming design process. Director Avakian - Community Forum held for the first time in 3-4 years. Great community turn out (approximately 200 attendees) and high energy at the drop-in event for viewing the concept plans. Commissioner Blair – Parking is necessary and important for the soccer field area. Could also be room for another tennis court and shared use court for tennis and pickleball. Chair Spector – No one likes shared space courts. Commissioner Stowe – we must have shared use spaces because there are so many users. Commissioner Roudebush – Very excited to see these concepts. Parking is a necessity and important. Too far to walk to the picnic area from the parking area. Divide the parking area into two parts, one at the bottom and one at the top. John McKenzie – Friends of SLO City Dog Parks. Pocket Park is a good example of what could be used for a community garden. Dog park will serve areas across the city. 1500 residents within walking distance. Maximize as much area as possible for the dog park. Additional parking would be useful. Glad there will be another dog park in the city. Director Avakian – Thank you to Mr. McKenzie for the Laguna Lake Dog Park hand sanitizer donations. Commissioner Dupperon – When will the roads and the bike paths connect? (Bullock Lane and Orcutt Road) Director Avakian – No firm timeline at this point. Commissioner Dupperon – There are multiple events happening at Damon-Garcia at the same time so could there be a connector between the two areas? Director Avakian: Yes, that is all part of a long-term city goal within the ATP. Commissioner Kincaid - Need to have more parking. Commissioner Roudebush - What is the size of this dog park? How would the parking accommodate people who come to work in the Community Garden. Director Avakian – Dog park section is approximately .5 acres. This is a neighborhood/community focused park. Neighborhood residents would walk to this park. Minutes - Parks and Recreation Commission Meeting of April 12, 2023 6 | P a g e Chair Spector – We must assume the dog park portion will be busy. Director Avakian – May 3 will be the next proposal to review the concepts with the public. Commissioner Dupperon – Is contact being made with the groups using the sports fields? Director Avakian Yes, all the contacts we (the Department) have (on record) have been notified and invited to the Community Forum. Lights and turf are among the amenities still on the table for discussion. We have received input from many clubs which can all use the grassy area. Chair Spector – The Pocket Park concept was not well understood. Many people wanted to have a “community space” for neighbors to gather. Overall, the audience was enthusiastic and wanted to talk. Director Avakian – Next steps: the survey closes May 10, and we will review and add up all comments from Forum, along with all other communications. We will then sit down with project engineers and RRM. PRC meeting on May 3 could have large attendance and another review of the proposals shown at the forum. A new proposal will be presented after all the input is gathered and it will be provided sometime in June. There will be opportunity for both active and passive areas in the park. Commissioner Roudebush – Definitely looking for opportunities for passive areas. There is a need. Chair Spector: I would like to request a budget update. Director Avakian: $9-10 million budget impact to the city budget due to the winter storms. We are now operating under a fiscal management protocol. May will be a big month for reviewing where we are city wide. We have budget revenue goals we must meet. Commissioner Roudebush: Laguna Lake dog park budget review, are we on target for May? Can we pause staff reviews of this until May? Chair Spector: Motion introduced to accept the staff report. Commissioner Howell motioned; Commissioner Blair seconded. Motion carried. SUBCOMMITTEE LIAISON REPORTS & COMMUNICATIONS Minutes - Parks and Recreation Commission Meeting of April 12, 2023 7 | P a g e Subcommittee Liaison Reports (Chair– 15 minutes) 5. Discuss and Select New Liaison to Represent the Jack House – (Avakian - 10 minutes) a. Adult and Senior Programming: Commissioner Blair: Senior Center is doing very well. b. Active Transportation Committee: Open position, no report. Commissioner Roudebush expressed interest in holding the position for the interim period. Vice Chair Howell is also interested. The committee meeting is the third Thursday of the month, every other month. Motion made to nominate Vice Chair Howell. 7 yes, 0 no. Motion passed. c. Youth Sports Association: No report. d. Jack House: Open position, no report. Commissioner Kincaid volunteered for the Jack House Liaison position. Would be an interim position until October. All in favor of the nomination of Commissioner Kincaid to the position. 7 yes, 0 no. Motion passed. Communication: ADJOURNMENT at 7:30 p.m. To the Regular M eeting of the Parks and Recreation Committee as approved by the PRC to Wednesday , May 3 , 2023 , at 5:30 p.m. to be in-person at City Hall (990 Palm Street). The City of San Luis Obispo wishes to make all of its public meetings accessible to the public. Upon request, this agenda will be made available in appropriate alternative formats to persons with disabilities. Any person with a disability who requires a modification or accommodation in order to participate in a meeting should direct such request to the Parks and Recreation Department at (805) 781-7300 at least 48 hours before the meeting, if possible. Telecommunications Device for the Deaf (805) 781-7107. Meeting audio recordings can be found at the following web address: http://opengov.slocity.org/WebLink/1/fol/61014/Row1.aspx