Recreation & Parks Advisory Board

Regular Meeting of the Advisory Board of Recreation and Parks Held at the Falls Church Community Center 223 Little Falls Street, Falls Church, Virginia 22046 DRAFT Minutes December 2, 2015 1. Call to Order Mr. Selby called the meeting to order at 7:05 p.m. Members present were Kathy Chandler, Lori Lafave, Charley O’Hara, Leslie Rye and Steve Selby. Staff members present were Danny Schlitt, Director of Recreation & Parks, Amy Maltese. 2. Receipt of Public Petitions and Board Member Petitions Mr. Selby asked if there were any petitions. There were none. 3. Minutes Lori LaFave motioned to approve the November 4 meeting minutes. Leslie Rye seconded the motion. Upon unanimous voice vote, the motion passed. 4. Recreation Director’s Report a) Winter Spring program brochure will be available in a few weeks. b) Come shop at the Holiday Craft show this weekend. The Great Zucchini and Lunch with Santa as well. 5. New Business Big Chimney Master Plan Review– Thank you for coming. Please note, you’ll see “Big Chimney” a lot on this presentation. We know it is “Big Chimney’s”, not “Big Chimney”. Original Park Master Plan was made available to public in attendance. - Eight years ago Council approved a Master Park Plan and we now need to know if it is still what people want or if we need to make changes. - Master Park Plan will help design site plan. Original plans were created with the idea of a City Center. There may still be more development in the area but we can’t keep this park on hold. Goal is to engage neighborhood and community to help develop plan. - Park is in low lying area and holds a lot of water. It is a bowl. - Replace and reroute entire trail. Increase/enhance park access. - Improve landscape beds and gardens. Maintenance needs of gardens are a concern. - New large, inviting park sign. - Aerial photos were shown as well as images of rain gardens and splash park features. - Brief animated video was shown.  - Original outline of Big Chimney’s home still on site. Comments from public -Parks is very dark. It has very little lighting. -Especially since folks will cut through to go to the Harris Teater at night, the park should be lit. -Resident asked what age range the play structure would accommodate -Director’s response – there would ideally be two play structures, one for younger and one for elementary. If we do not have the space, the one structure would ideally accommodate 4-10 year olds. -Resident suggested a local park that has a small size but a lot of features for a variety of ages – Tuckahoe Park. Has a spider web and baby swings -Resident said she likes the idea of a splash park. If flowerbeds are costly to keep up, just put in some greens and use the money for the splash park. They really need a children’s place with a quiet place for adults as well. There are so many people moving into the area as is, they don’t want a public performance area that will attract even more people. She would like the performance area wiped out. She also said she doesn’t think the grils get used. Tables and gazebo are nice but BBQ are should be removed. -Another resident said the grills do get used. -Resident – Likes the swing set. -Christinalynn McCoy, 279 Gundry Drive: In the park twice a day. Wants a dog park. Thinks the space is underutilized. Son is baseball player and he would like a running lane. Would like it lit 24 hours. Hates the idea of splash park because there are already a lot of nats and mosquitos. -Another resident – also feels park is underutilized and would like to see a god park -Director said he would like to see research on how small a dog park could be made and still be effective. -Miss Csaszi – 215 Gundry Drive – youth – had a birthday party there and really likes the big open space. -Jen Csaszi – 215 Gundry Drive – has been to other places where there are splash parks and loves them. Doesn’t think it would encourage mosquitos because the water is constantly flowing. Also likes the idea of extra lighting. -Matt Degnan – 139 Annandale Road- wants to keep open space for kicking a ball around. Does not want a dog park. Thinks the space is too small. -Martha Cooper 207 S. Virginia Avenue – not excited about a dog park. Would like to keep the hill intact because in the winter time the little hill is used for sledding. Does not want parking in the park. Thinks the dog park would encourage more people to come and there is already no parking. Adults do enjoy the park and eat lunch there. Would like to see a place where adults feel welcome. Aesthetic area, bushes or something along bowling alley side of the park. -Cayce Ramey – 275 Gundry Drive: Would like to keep hill for sledding. Likes the idea of it not being a flat space. What is difference from splash structure to typical playground cost per square foot. What is the cost tradeoff for a splash park? -Chuck Anderson – 137 Annandale Road: All for preserving as many resources for Big Chimney. Best memories are of open space at Big Chimney’s. -Pete Bockelman – 269 Gundry Drive: Concern with new residents – could be overwhelming. Additional dogs may overwhelm park. Have wee approached Harris Teater about them sponsoring the park. -Director spoke of $1,000,000 to become available after certificate of occupancy and it is to be split between transportation and the park. There is no absolute line where the million dollars is split. Planning commission has stated they want as much of the money as possible to go to parks. That million dollars will get us started. There will be a lot of engineering and moving of land. Money would be available July 1, 2016 at earliest. There was a $50,000 profer for this park which is very small which is why City Council earmarked the million dollars. -Diane Bartley – 331 James St.: All here because they can very much about Big Chimney’s getting as much of the million dollars as possible. How can they help? -Ed Gray – 161 W. Annandale: They would like swings if possible. There are never enough. Likes the rendering of the trail with the idea of circling the park. Doesn’t think there is enough space for a dog park. At first his family was very excited about splash park; but then though how many months of the year will it be used and it takes up valuable space the rest of the year. -Director – we clearly have opponents and supporters of the dog park. We’ll need to look further into it. -Miss Csaszi – 215 Gundry Drive - really cares about the environment – thinks we should plant plants for butterflies - Cassandra Csaszi – 215 Gundry Drive: Reason why it is called Big Chimney’s – likes the idea of making it more permanent/preserve history. -Director – we will pull all this information in to revise Master Park Plan -Steve Selby – this will be a long haul – advisory board’s job is to advocate for the parks. Residents should also help advocate for the parks. City only has enough in budget to do one leave removal a year. While we may be able to fund large projects, the park maintenance budget needs to be advocated for as well. -Director – since we know this park will take some time. Are there pieces we can fix/enhance to make the park more usable in the interim? Resident asked cost of West End – Director replied it was about $650,000 total. -Miss Csaszi – 215 Gundry: tunnel has graffiti in it. -Add in baby swings and spider web in the meantime. Small structures that can be put in now and replaced later. -Resident – would French Drains work in this park? -Dori Hazan – 313 Gundry Drive: Safety issue around smaller play area, nails are always popping up. -Steve Selby – what do the younger kids like most about parks? -Exercise equipment, monkey bars, slide -Director – We will go through current master plan and put a new draft together, further discussions on dog park. Must have playground components. We will gather again as a group. Will need to work on the financing. We’ve learned we are most effective with our funding when we do one large project at a time. -Resident – what is the next step/timeline? -Director – residents can continue to lobby council about the funding. He will put a timeline together and get it out to the folks that have signed in tonight.  -Letty Hardy – Budget discussions begin in February -Director – Attend Town Hall meetings.- it is a great opportunity to get your voice heard. Introduced Letty Hardy. Will also have to have an archaeological dig before anything happens in the park. -Leslie Rye – if you have any further comments, email Danny Schlitt. -Resident – wants trash cans right at the pathway, not a foot in. Does not want to have to step through muddy grass to get to it. -Director - It should be known we are also replacing play equipment at Cherry Hill Park and it is scheduled to be done before Big Chimney’s. Frady Park is no longer accessible and so we are making Cherry Hill accessible. A1) Barry Bushow – Economic Development Authority regarding Mini Park. -EDA downtown area is not walkable and needs to be enhanced/promoted. EDA will put up $250,000 of what they believe is a $500,000 project. -Unity Club has just signed another long term lease. -Option they chose has a water feature. -They would like to close alleyway along Hunan Café. They are speaking with the property owner about it. It will enhance walkability. They are conducting a traffic study second weekend in December. -Would include moving transformer box and adding eating tables. -EDA has selected option 3 with lawn area, entertainment area, and splash area. -$500,000 would include engineering. Moving the transformer is not as expensive as they were originally thinking. It now looks like it would cost $75,000. -City has no regulations on sidewalk use by restaurants. -In the road there would be a greenway which would help park connectivity. -Recreation and Parks would be responsible for the maintenance. -EDA wants to see this project done next year. -EDA considering giving Recreation and Parks annual money for maintenance. -Danny – if restaurants use the tables, they should pay a rental fee for the tables. -Barry – existing trees would be replaced with other tress in different locations. -MOTION by Charlie: Support motion to advice council and planning commission to support downtown Falls Church plaza option 3B as proposed by the Economic Development Authority. Motion was seconded by Lori Lafave. A vote was held and was passed unanimously. 6. Old Business a) Park project updates 1. Spent time with Cunningham and Associates finalizing West End Park. There will be a few thousand left over which will be used for some gaming tables and additional benches. 2. Howard E. Herman – going to begin placing benches, trash and recycling bins. Wants to ensure the path is always usable and not overgrown. 3. Entrance sign at West End has been very well received.  4. Cherry Hill ADA accessibility – Charlie dos not believe Parks and Rec should pay for the ADA at Cherry Hill. Danny was able to move $100,000 from Howard E. Herman to Master Park Improvement money for Cherry Hill. Charlie does not want to see money that can be used in another park used for something he believes the school’s should have to pay for. Charlie recommended making a motion to schools stating that the AB believes the school board or council should find other funding to make the park accessible. Board would like to see that $100,000 moved to either Big Chimney’s or Berman Park. Board would like this information to get to council not filtered through City staff. Rather than making a formal motion, Cindy Mester will be invited to the next meeting. First formal meeting on the CIP will be February. 5. Old turf is up at GMHS. All previous rubber and sand has been full vacuumed up. New carpet will be installed in the next few days. Lines will now include football, soccer, girls lacrosse, boys lacrosse and field hockey. 6. Park Master plan edits. Board recommends adding a cover page to all the plans stating that: By motion on November 4, 2015, the Advisory Board of Recreation and Parks has removed the designation of Community and Neighborhood Parks in all Master Park Plans. 7. Leslie Rye asked about concussion protocols. -Danny Schlitt – the City has adopted a policy. All coaches must take the Heads Up training provided by the CDC. The program is underway. 7. Adjournment Kathy Chandler motioned to adjourn the meeting; Leslie Rye seconded the motion. Under unanimous voice vote, Mr. Selby adjourned the meeting at 9:05 p.m. The City of Falls Church is committed to the letter and spirit of the Americans with Disabilities Act. This document will be made available in alternate format upon request. Call 703-248-5027 (TTY 711).