4.0. SR 04-05-2004 - Laserfiche WebLink

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CURRENT STATUS As previously noted, office space has always been a concern at LPC. I think most everyone knew when LPC was built that if City Recreation was successful and if a Park and Recreation Department was established, then the office space at LPC would not be sufficient to meet our needs. Nonetheless, at that time in 2000-2001 a larger footprint did not seem reahstic considering the location of existing facilities that were on site (bandshell, sliding hill, skating rinks, parking lot, etc), the soil corrections that were needed, and the additional funds that would be required. Now, in 2004, since City Recreation is successful and given that a Park and Recreation Department is being established, the city has to address the office space issue and there are viable options available for the City Council to consider. The attached memo from Director of Planning Michele McPherson presents these options for City Council consideration. I continue to support the plan that was presented to the City Council on March 15 and 22, 2004. This is the maximum plan that can be accomplished at LPC without breaking out a wall; enclosing the shelter (or part of the shelter); having the Lion's Club move and using their space (incredibly unlikely scenario); or making the large meeting room smaller. Once the City Council sees the old bathroom and kitchen areas and the existing office space and storage areas, hopefully support will be obtained for the staff recommendation. Everyone knows that $50,000 for the office remodeling project, building repairs, and FFE for new offices is a lot of money and I don't think anyone is overly happy about using park dedication monies for this project. Nonetheless, the Council should keep in mind that the park dedication fund has a balance in excess of $1.2 million. Also, over the years there have been park acquisitions and improvements that have been made with money outside of the park dedication fund such as use of the NSP reserve for the acquisition and development of the Oak K_noll Complex and the Youth Athletic Complex. Additionally, the Council recently authorized the expenditure of $33,000 from the 2004 contingency fund for the Park and Recreation Commission requested Natural Resource Inventory project. MISCELLANEOUS COMMENTS An additional comment for the City Council to consider is that doing this entire project now may save a little money as compared to if the City Council decided to do only part of the project now and then in two-three years decided to do the balance of the project. It should be noted that doing all of the project now will send a very positive message to the park and recreation staff and to the new director that, as city employees located outside of the City Hall complex, they also deserve good functional office space and a designated break/lunch room. Part of the Council discussion at the March 22 meeting centered on the policy for and usability of just the old bathrooms and kitchen area. Information on this use is included in the attached memo to me from Michele Bergh. Michele also approached me with a question regarding the handicap accessibility law. In this regard, I asked Lead Building Inspector Terry Zajac about this law and was advised that the "guidelines" are that if we have indoor bathrooms available for the public, then they need to be handicap accessible. An outside handicap accessible port-a-potty being available while using indoor non-handicap accessible bathrooms is not an acceptable situation. Essentially, this means that we have not been following the handicap accessible guidelines in the past and we need to adjust our policies if these old bathrooms are to remain available for public use. A likely result of this discussion is that if the old bathrooms are to be available to the public, then the new bathrooms also need to be available to the public as these are the only inside bathrooms that are handicap