Board of Park Commissioners

Board of Park Commissioners Regular Meeting Minutes Monday, January 8, 2017 3:00- 5:00 P.M. 455 N Main C I T Y D O F City Hall, 11th Floor WICHITA Park & Recreation Conference Room Wichita, Kansas 67202 Members Present: Cindy Claycomb, Tori Deatherage, Troy Palmer, Bill Ramsey, Hoyt Hillman, Lawanda Deshazer City Staff: Troy Houtman (Director, Park & Recreation), Penny Garding (Clerk), Stacey Hamm, Troy Hendricks, Elizabeth Ha.rlenske (Assistant City Attorney), Angela Buckner, John Philbrick Absent: Eddie Fahnestock Item Descri�tion Call.to Order Cindy Claycomb, President, called the meeting to order at approximately 3:03 p.m. Public Comments There were no Public Comments. 1 Approve Minutes Recommended Action: Approve, sign and file minutes of the December 11, 2017, Board of Park Commissioners Regular Meeting. Motion by Palmer, second by Ramsey, IT WAS UNANIMOUSLY VOTED to approve, sign and file the minutes of the December 11, 2017 Board of Park Commissioners Regular Meeting (6-0). 2A Sale of Park Land Houtman stated he shared information with the board members prior to the meeting. In the middle of December we received information regarding a sale of propertythat is adjacent to College Hill Park. When doing a survey they found that part of the property is encroaching onto the park. They can't sell the property until we resolve the encroachment. It is goes 8-10 feet into the park and is the length of the property. There is also infrastructure in the area, the pool, fence and part ofthe driveway. Today it looks like it is supposed to be this way. We were approached to see ifwe would be willing to sell that lot or the portion of the property. We did our research and determined everything showing is accurate. It is staff's recommendation that.we move forward with that. We.only recommended the sale of the portion that is encroaching, not the entire lot. The rest of the lot would remain park property. The purchasers of the property are here to answer question or provide. any clarification. The property is about 1,300-1,400 sq. ft. It is not enough to have an impact on maintenance. We are not in the habit or selling property; but in this case, it is not going to have an impact on our operations. BOARD OF PARK COMMISSIONERS REGULAR MEETING January 8, ?-018 Page 1 of9 Steven Suellentrop, 13601 W Hardtner. He is the interested party and has been under contract for about three months. As part.of the contract, because it is a unique property, a survey was completed. This will be their primary residence and they have some long term plans. Lot 8, as it is now, is 25 feetwide and about 8-9 feet is currently where the improvements are that have been there for quite some time. The house was built in 1921.and Lot 8 was deeded to the. City of Wichita six or seven years after that. Our preference would be to not only to purchase the portion with improvements, but also be. open to discussion to purchase the entire lot. They have had surveyors measure and draw out along the sidewalk. They are not intending to encroach upon the park land. They see the park as an asset to the community and themselves as potential buyers. They are asking for consideration to be allowed to purchase more property than just the 8-9 foot strip that is encroaching, Whether that be all of Lot 8 at25 feet wide, which still leaves about 2"3 feet between the existing sidewalk and what they would maintain. The purpose of this would be to have the ability to maintain the area that has not been maintained. This would not c impat access to the park. Claycomb inquired of Mr. Suellentrop, confirming they are referring to the whole strip of land, not just the yellow highlighted on the handout. Suellentrop responded the yellow highlighted part goes right to the edge of the driveway. When measuring 25 foot between Lots 8 and 9 it goes to about three foot east of the sidewalk. Claycomb asked Houtman about staff recommendations to go to the edge of the sidewalk and then straight back. She then inquired about the pool that is.at the back that is partially in the encroachment as well. Suellentrop responded the driveway, which includes the air conditioner unit sitting on the driveway, a pergola and some of the fence are encroaching in Lot 8. Houtman stated the.reason his staff recommends selling just the portion of the area that is encroached and retainingthe rest of the property is we don't want to set a precedent of selling property just to let someone else maintain it. We could come up to an understanding regarding maintenance of that property so that it meets both of our needs. This Board is making a recommendation, because the property is not Board of Park Commissioners owned; the City owns the property. When we get past this and have a good understanding of what the purchase is going to be, we will then turn it over to Real Estate and take it to City Council for their approval. Claycomb added we.have had things like this come to us in the past. We usually look at it and don't generally add property to it. We.have held on to as much park property as we can because of precedent setting. Palmer expressed an understanding that historically _you would not, but in this instance with the sidewalk where it is, there is a definite separation and feel we should consider selling the lot. Ramsey inquired what the zoning on Lot 8·is. Philbrick responded it is single-family. Ramsey then inquired about the type of easement that needs to be.maintained on it. If we were to sell them the entire portion up to the sidewalk, what is the easement? BOARD OF PARK COMMISSIONERS REGULAR MEETING January 8;-2018 Page 2 of9 Philbrick responded there would not be an easement, they would own Lot 8 and we would own Lot 10 and beyond. Claycomb made a motion to take staff recommendation and sell the part of Lot 8 that has the yellow highlighted encroachment reflected on the attachment. Hillman seconded the motion. Ramsey clarified the motion is for just the highlighted section. Claycomb confirmed yes. Houtman added the proceeds from sale would go back to the park and should be included in the motion. Additionally, whatever property is decided, we will charge fair marketvalue, which is currently $4-8 per square foot. Claycomb stated she will add that to the current motion. Hillman inquired who will be doing the trimming and maintaining of the tree in the picture if we keep the motion as is. Houtman responded we will be doing some maintenance but will also have expectations and conversations with the new homeowner regarding the maintenance. Claycomb asked Hillman ifhe was okay with adding to the motion that the proceeds from this sale go to the Park Department. Hillman inquired if that would be the Park Department or the Parks Foundation. Houtman responded itwould be going back to the park. Claycomb clarified it would be going back to College Hill Park. Hillman responded then, yes, he is okay with that addition to the motion. Houtman added if we sell a portion of any park it goes back to that park. Claycomb add to the motion that the proceeds go back to the park. Hendricks stated we do have the ability to do a memo of understanding to work with the homeowner on maintaining the property outside of theirs but to standards that we set. Palmer made a substitute motion to seH all of Lot 8 to the new homeowner with the proceeds going to the park. Deatherage seconded the. motion. Hillman inquired if the.new homeowner would be willing and able to pay for the additional expense. Ramsey responded they have already stated that was their desire to get the entire lot. Hillman responded that was at the rate of $4-8. Philbrick stated that would be about $13,000. Claycomb added thatwould be negotiated through Real Estate. Deatherage inquired if City Coundl approves the whole lot are they committed to buying the whole lot, or do they have the option to buy only the portion encroaching. Houtman responded we are going to take one or the other to Council. Philbrick stated what will happen is once you have a recommendation we will negotiate with the property owners and we will have a contract before going to Council. He would propose, ifthe Park Board is amenable, to sell whole lot and if BOARD OF PARK COMMISSIONERS.REGULAR MEETING January 8;2018 Page3of9 they chose to only buy a part of the lot, that would be acceptable. Ramsey stated he understands the reasons for not wanting to set a precedent, is that small bit of land of any advantage to the park. Houtman responded not really. They have been encroaching on the park for long time. We are not asking for anything back of value from all that period of time. We want to work with them and give them the amount of property that is going to make sure they are not encroaching on the property any more. When we start letting people purchase more, that sets a precedent for the neighbors and others around that want to do landscaping beyond property lines, I'm sure we can buy some park property, they did it at this location. Harlenske stated to remember youjust passed the encroachment ordinance, which is relatively new. Claycomb added when the encroachment ordinance passed .staff told us it would not be fixed the.next day. Houtman added as we are finding encroachments we are advising the homeowners they need to remove their property. Joey Lorie, JP Weigand, the seller's representative added when the current owner purchased the property the driveway, fence and swimming pool were already in place and she believed them to be part of the property. Houtman stated it is going to be a win-win situation in either case. If we just sell the portion that is encroached upon, we will still work with the new purchaser on the maintenance and operations of it. We will be good neighbors, butwe don't want to set a precedent where we sell more property than what is needed to rectify the situation. Deatherage inquired as to who has been caring for the shrubbery up to this point. Suellentrop responded it has not been maintained for a number of years. When he researched it,.Park Forestry advised them it was believed to be private property. The homeowner indicated it was park property. Deatherage then added now that everyone knows it is park property is it back on the schedule to be.cared for. Houtman responded once.this is decided; it wiUbe. If we sell the whole lot we are not going to maintain it. Once the sale is complete we will work with the new homeowner and determine whatwill work best for all parties. Claycomb stated there is a motion and second and also a .substitute motion and second. Harlenske stated you should call for a vote on whether thesubstitute motion replaces the original motion. Claycomb called for a vote on substituting the substitute motion for the original motion. The substitute motion is to sell the entire lot to the homeowner and the proceeds go back to College Hill Park (2-4). The substitute motion.did not pass, with a vote of 2-4. The original motion is now back to the board. Claycomb called for a vote on the original motion, The original motion is to sell only the highlighted portion on the handout to the homeowner with the proceeds going back to College Hill Park. Harlenske added for clarity that is what would be recommended to. City Council. (4-0-2 abstain) Motion passes. Motion by Claycomb, second by Hillman, IT WAS VOTED AND APPROVED to sell only the property, highlighted on the handout, to the new homeowner with the proceeds going back to College.Hill Park. Harlenske added, for clarity, this.is what would be recommended to City.Council. Motion passes 4-0 with 2 abstentions. BOARD OF PARK COMMISSIONERS REGULAR MEET1�!3 January 8, 2018 Page4of9 2B Election of Officers Claycomb confirmed with Harlenske that an election could be held based on current bylaws. Harlenske stated the bylaws state the election shall be when a full board has been appointed. Claycomb stated we have a full board appointed and lll(ould entertain nominations. Hillman responded the. nominating committee met and were on hold because we did not have a status of when elections would take place. The nominating committee has no slate selected. Claycomb responded today we could still entertain motions for President, First Vice President and Second Vice President. Ramsey nominated Palmer for President. Deatherage nominated Ramsey for 1st Vice President, Palmer nominated Ramsey for President. Claycomb called for a written ballot based on requirements of the bylaws. Garding tabulated the votes and. stated Palmer wins written vote for President (4-2). Motion by Hillman, IT WAS UNANIMOUSLY VOTED to accept Ramsey as 1" Vice President (6-0). Motion by Claycomb, IT WAS UNANIMOUSLY VOTED to accept Deatherage as 2nd Vice President (6-0). 3A Naftzger Park - Troy Houtman Houtman stated things are moving forward between the City and the Developer. There are a couple items to go to Council. When those are done, we will start talking again with the designer and design team to go back and finish what was started. Hopefully it will be only a month or so before we can start talking about a timeline. Claycomb stated the Community Improvement District will be voted on tomorrow at Council. Is that what we are waiting on? Houtman responded yes. Then there is one more vote for the development plan. Claycomb added then SWAwill come back as the designteam. 4 Recreation Update (Stacey Hamm) Hamm shared December Highlights • Kids Konnection is a holiday break day care for school children. These numbers represent all three centers: 570 kids attended and we received $11,020 in.revenue. • Night with Santa, Thursday, December 7 at Century II had over 2,500 attend. There were no long lines so it was easy for families to participate in the activities. Thetree give-away was a big hit. Hillman inquired about the schedule for next year, will the Mayor plan an Old Town tree again? Hamm responded the Mayor will decide that in November, but most likely they will remain separate. Hamm will reach out to the Mayor's Office to get a decision earlier. 5 Golf Update (Troy Hendricks) Hendricks stated the numbers are not final yet. Month-end and year-end will dose next week. Rounds shown are correct. Auburn Hills was up 3% for the year; Tex Consolver was even; LW Clapp was down 8%, MacDonald is down 11% and Sim was BOARD OF PARK COM�!SSIONERS REGULAR MEETING January 8, 2018 Page 5 of9  down 4%. Revenue and expenditure numbers are tentative. Those are the numbers pulled right after the first of the year. There are still things to be posted. Rounds are down 4% for yearsto-date. December was a good month, we had 4,200 rounds compared to 2,800 the year before. Revenue was about the. same, which is normal with season pass play. Claycomb inquired if rounds are up so much why revenue isn't up as much. Hendricks responded regular greens fee at Auburn Hills is $25 on a week day, if you have a season pass player playing, he is paying $6. There are more season pass players in winter because they have the pass and it doesn't cost as much. Houtman added another interesting statistic we keep is the reyenue per round which does not match the prices we charge because of the discounts. Hendricks clarified on the report where it says 2016 it is actually 2017 numbers. Claycomb inquired why total revenue is down if revenue per round is up. Hendricks responded everything is tentative until the final closing of the month. The numbers also include the debt service payment being withheld. Houtman added that could change tomorrow. Golf finished in the red at the end of the year, because we have already given our debt service back to the City. Tomorrow that will probably be reversed so that Golf has cash to rnake payroll and payments .. It is jus.t an accounting process. 6 Golf Advisory Committee Update (Hoyt Hillman/Troy Houtman) Houtman stated that at the request of this board numbers were provided in December regarding revenue and expenditures per course and the history behind f each course. As staf has been looking at this, there are red flags. At the Golf Advisory Committee meeting there were different ideas shared to create more revenues. Staff is being creative with marketing. Then there was discussion regarding the current status of each course. The way the golf system is going right now, we are not going to be sustainable. Past history shows previously we had only four courses with roughly 200,000 rounds. When we added a fifth course we have less rounds now; down to 160,000 rounds. It is obvious we have more holes·than what we need. There are many other parameters including where the courses are located, what neighborhoods are involved, history and many other things to be aware of before decisions are made. We all agreed something different needs to be done. There needs to be drastic change. We have cut all expenses as closely as we can. We are marketing and pushing. We have seen some improvements but they are not substantial enough to make a huge impact. Gaining 100 golfers is not enough to stem the tide. We still want to bring in younger and different types of golfers. We are too big for the lack of demand,. something has to.change. Hillman stated that was a,good summarization. Palmer added it was unfortunate not all ofthe committee was present, there were some big voices absent. Claycomb inquired how many were there. Hillman responded three. Palmer would have liked to have heard the .conversation with everyone present. Houtman stated Councilmember Clendenin was in attendance as an observer and.shared some information and thoughts. One thing that was talked about was is there a need to bring a consultant on board to help evaluate. We don't know what that cost would BOARD OF·PARK COMMISSIONERS REGULAR MEETING January s;201s Page6of9  be, but staff has looked at it closely and has a good grasp on it. Without voting it seemed obvious, even from the observers that we didn't want to spend the extra dollars on the consultant. We have a good understanding of what needs to be done, it is just a matter of having quality discussions and having a plan in place. There was also.discussion about ifthis comes to having to close one of the courses, how do we manage that loss. Staff is starting to research other places and how do we prioritize which course gets closed and what do we put in its place. Regardless of which neighborhood, there will be an outcry. How do you manage the sense of loss? Ramsey inquired what was Councilmember Clendenin's thoughts during the meeting. Houtman responded he understands the situation and that LW Clapp is the most vulnerable to being closed. We also started looking at what can we put in its place? Other cities have put in new playground systems or new walking trail systems. Now you are putting in something that everyone can enjoy. There are more opportunities for people to use the property. These are just ideas. Part of it could be developed, with a partnership, with retail or commercial property or residential property. There are several places that turned golf courses into residential/parks and upgraded the parks and homes there. There are lots of options. No one,has made any decisions about what we are. going to do. Hillman .added there was also talk about involving the neighborhood. Claycomb asked if LW Clapp is owned by the City of Wichita or by the,Board of Park Commissioners. Houtman respond it is the Board of Park Commissioners. Palmer added having CouncilmemberClendenin understand and see the numberswas a big thin·g. Houtman added another thingwe talked about was if we keep all five golf courses operating, somehow it needs to be subsidized. Who is going to make that happen? Right now there is not an appetite to do that. When we got the new golf carts $250,000 of that came from the Forestry Fund. That then.has an impact on Forestry service. Claycomb stated is was said we have too many public golf holes for the community, is that still true during peak times .. Hendricks responded yes. Claycomb added for example on Saturday morning is everything totally full every Saturday morning. Hendricks responded in season, from when we open at 6:00 am until 10:00-10:30 am, yes. Palmer added even at LW Clapp? Hendricks responded LW Clapp isn't. Houtman added when we do maximize our peak times, it give us more flexibility as well as leverage _to discount to get people to the other times that are not full. When we aren't full, we don't have that. Making some of these changes will have an impact on the operational budget. It will be up to the City Manager and Budget Department to figure out. Deatherage stated it would be interesting to see a comparison of the numbers from how it is now compared to how it is as a park. Houtman added a couple ideas include contracting some of these services. We might have.a contractor that does the foot golf and disc golf and we give them a great rate to operate out there. We just need to be creative. Whatever we decide to move forward with we are going to have to figure out what to do with the old golf shop. It could be an asset or it could be removed. 7 Wichita Parks Foundation Update (Troy Houtman) Houtman stated they are still working on Plates for Parks. It should go to the State in a month or so. We will not get any revenue until 2019, BOARD OF PARK COMMISSIONERS'REGULAR MEETING January 8, 2018 Page 7 of 9  They are also working on.some new board members, some additional fundraising ideas, and Fourth.of July. 8 OJ Watson Park Committee Update (Troy Houtman) Houtman stated the Polar Express event was very successful. We are putting in an irrigation system that will use reclaimed water from the other side of the river. We are trying to get that done in the next:couple months. In 2019 we will be looking at a new rental space. It would have garage doors that can open, .and will be climate controlled on the inside. It will be located on the south side of the park. Hillman inquired about the amount of water coming from the treatment plant. Houtman responded we are not getting all of it. Claycomb added you are taking only what you need. 9 Aquatics Master Plan Update (Troy Houtman) Houtman stated he met with Councilmember Johnson. He will be going to the District Advisory Board in February. We are hoping to gain some input on where District I the swimming pool is going. The ideas include the current location at McAdams or the current location at Edgemoor. A new idea could be at the Boys & Girls Club and they operate it. There are some challenges there but it is definitely a good possibility. The rest of the sites have all been put in place. We have gone to each of the DABs and talked about design. We are going out next week to get an RFP for a designer. 10 President's Update (Cindy Claycomb) Claycomb inquired about the Recreation Superintendent search. Houtman responded it closes at end of day on Monday. We have received 70+ applications. About 20 of those meet the standards. There are five or six that have caught his attention. We will start setting up interviews for the beginning of February. There will be a panel for the first screening. It will consist of the Derby Director and the Hutchinson Director and Houtman. This panel will take it down to three odour candidates. Then we will have two or three panels and have some Park Board members on those panels. Hillman inquired about KRPA and asked for the agenda so the board can see if there are any sessions they want to attend. Garding will send the link to the agenda to all board members. Claycomb welcomed. Lawanda DeShazer to the Board. Deshazer has already been through the orientation. 11 Director's Update (Troy Houtman) Houtman welcomed DeShaze.r and thanked her for joining board. Houtman thanked Claycomb for her service.. Deshazer inquired about sharing and talking about information received in these meetings. Claycomb responded they are public meetings and people are welcome to attend. Buckner thanked Claycomb for her service, on behalf of all the Recreation staff. BOARD OF PARK COMMISSIONERS REGUlAR MEETING January 8, 2018 Page8of9  Adjourn There being no further business, the meeting was adjourned at approximately 4:25 p.m. The next regularly scheduled meeting will be held on Monday, February 12, 2018. BOARD OF PARK COMMISSIONERS REGULAR MEETING January 8, 2018 Page 9 of 9