PRSR INFORMATION 10-09-2002 - Laserfiche WebLink

Home Browse Search

SEP 0 3 2flr August 30, 02 Duane Peterson, Chair Elk River Park and Recreation Commission 19495 Upland St. NW Elk River, MN 55330 Dear Duane: I am writing to briefly outline several issues that I feel require some clarification regarding the Elk River Parks and Recreation Commission's position on these issues. Speaking for myself, these clarifications would not only be helpful as we conduct our work as a Commission, they would also provide a context in which to represent the views of the Commission to the Comprehensive Plan Task Force. The first issue is the Commission's vision of the ultimate composition of the Elk River Parks and Recreation system. An important element of this vision is finding the balance between regional and neighborhood parks, green space and playing fields, natural areas and more public spaces. Defining this balance then sets up the context in which the Commission makes its recommendations to buy or otherwise acquire land—in what amounts, in which locations and for what purposes. Another important element is the long-range planning which details what level of development takes place at a specific location, when it is scheduled to occur, and the financial support required. Concerning the vision, I think the Commission has taken several key steps toward defining one, but we still need to do a lot of heavy lifting to insure that each member is clear about what our collective vision is, the land acquisition and development priorities inherent in the vision, the financial investment required for both acquisition and development, and the realistic time line required to make it happen. While I still refer to the key list of land acquisitions we conducted several years ago, I think the list needs to be updated and the actual process/criteria for researching and formulating solid land acquisition recommendations to the City Council, needs to be fine-tuned. The second issue is the Commission's view regarding park, recreation and trail development outside of the Urban District boundaries. As the rural areas in Elk River accelerate in development, the boundaries between rural and urban will blur. Right now, our Master Plan—with a few exceptions—has the Commission focused on the Urban District. As the Commission looks ahead for the next 5-15 years, will this position change? Given the current Comprehensive Planning Process, it is somewhat inevitable that the Commission's vision beyond the Urban District will come up. It would be helpful to me to have a Commission consensus to present to the Task Force. I feel that both of these issues will require some discussion time away from our regular meeting. In fact, they may require several such meetings in order to do justice to the topics. I suggest that we address the Urban District boundary question in a special