3.0. SR 01-21-1997 - Laserfiche WebLink

Home Browse Search

The Commission believes that the community center issue cannot be adequately addressed until it is determined if the Minnesota Sports Federation (MSF) proposal is going to move forward. This leads us to one of the basic questions of"what is a community center?"... Is a community center a meeting space area or is it a health club facility. The city attempted to define the community center issue a number of years ago. In late 1989, a community survey was conducted by Decision Resources. This survey concentrated on park and recreation activities as the city was putting together the Comprehensive Park and Recreation Plan, but also asked questions regarding a community center. Following this survey a Community Center Task Force was established with an open agenda. The Council wanted the Task Force to "think big", and then the City Council would scale back the proposal as finances and reality dictated. One of the issues that has never been addressed is how to scale back the community center proposal to correspond to the needs identified in the community survey. Attached for your review is the community survey from 1989, the Executive Summary of this survey from 1989, and selected pages from the late 1990 community center report. Questions #106-136 of the survey relate to park and recreation and community center issues. Pages 2-5 and beginning at the end of Page 7 to the top of Page 9 of the Executive Summary relate to park and recreation and community center issues. One of the key components of the community center attachment is the phasing in concepts at the end of the report. It seems that a number of issues are on the agenda to be discussed at this meeting. One issue is whether or not the city should allow the park and recreation bond issue to move forward. Another issue relates to if the City Council should require a community center to be part of any public bond referendum and/or whether or not this will cloud the issue so that neither question gets a fair opportunity before the public. Additionally, if a community center issue is to move forward now, the next question is whether a Task Force should be established before or after a community survey is completed. It is the Park and Recreation Commission's desire to move forward with a community survey now, to only deal with outdoor park and recreation issues as a public referendum question, and to have a community center issue wait until it is determined whether or not the MSF proposal is moving forward. Attached are the 1/2/97 Special Park and Recreation Commission meeting minutes when a possible bond issue was discussed. kXelkriverX, syskshrdocXcouncilkpark&recXbndrefdm.doc