05-08-2024 Parks and Recreation Commission Packet (4)

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Parks and Recreation Commission Minutes Page 8 April 10, 2024 fields to have more organized tournaments in a specific location. When they looked at the fields and user groups, a lot of ballfields and lacrosse/soccer fields were in their home or niche, more compacted geographically. The current DAAC location could be used more as an interim recreational complex that’s more youth-driven based on the nature of those fields in being in such proximity that user groups don’t prefer to use the west face field because of the sunset and other safety concerns. There are a lot of things that need to be improved at DAAC so rather than do that in a tight, confined space the feeling was to relocate and repurpose and combine the fields at PT Complex. Commissioner Niziolek asked if we’re looking at the long term should the city make good statements about the fairground being of value to the city maintaining DAAC and expanding the complex. Commissioner Loidolt said that will incur extra costs and the city already owns the parcels, except the high school baseball field. Chair Anderson stated it’s hard to see into the future, but he likes the idea of having baseball/softball on the PT Complex campus. Since there are three new Commissioners, he would like to see the utilization study findings on page one and then the implementation sequencing and strategy. Commissioner Stewart would like a sequence summary. They are interlocking puzzle pieces where one needs to occur before the next can occur, but he’s concerned that if we fail on the front, we’ll fail on the back. We need to ramp up the PT Complex first. Would like to build off of the phasing plan. In a perfect world these are the steps we want to follow but we need to look at off ramps if that sequence doesn’t hold. Chair Anderson asked what the ultimate action item is down the road. Mr. Stremcha said we would want a mutually agreed upon concept that will be the pedestal for which the fundraising begins. When we talk about the next 10-15 years or whatever the Council deems as the appropriate timetable to move forward with the project, this is the vision for the complex to look like as a finished project. Conceptually this will be the number of fields, where lacrosse, baseball, and softball have a home, those are the concepts, not necessarily the finalized design that will go out for bidding. The plan will be tweaked and be refined over the next decade but it’s not necessarily what will be built tomorrow. This will need to be clarified in the communication piece because once this ends up in the paper people will be asking how their tax dollars will be used, and that’s not the narrative we want to communicate. This is what we want to see in the future. Council Member Beyer shared he’s a big-picture guy and sees that we’re trying to draw people into Elk River and we’re growing at a pace that we need additional fields, but does Elk River want to grow? What happened to where the city meets the country? Do want to grow to the size of St. Cloud and Maple Grove or do we want to be Elk River? He wanted to throw that out because that’s the question he’s had when there have been great big proposals and want to build big residential areas where they want the city to buy them a water tower and sewer, which is fine if it’s cost neutral, but we don’t want put the burden on the taxpayers. It’s great to have long-term goals but it has to fit into everything else in the city. He appreciates the time the Commission is taking to decipher this. Mr. Stremcha said this will go to the Council as an awareness piece, there is going to be a consistent conversation around what the long-term plan needs to be identified, from the standpoint of rebuilding what we have existing or expanding and what is the philosophical approach to both. Page 10 of 125