City Commission Agendas & Minutes

AGENDA CITY OF WILTON MANORS CITY COMMISSION/ MICKEL FIELD REPURPOSING FOCUS GROUP JOINT WORKSHOP TUESDAY, JUNE 3, 2014 6:30 PM – HAGEN PARK 1. Call to Order 2. Focus Group Meetings and Process 3. Introduction of Focus Group Members 4. Additional Community Input 5. Multi-Functional Recreational Opportunities “Flexible Facility” 6. Suggested Amenities 7. Construction Costs 8. Funding Strategies 9. Public Comments 10. Adjournment Pursuant to FS. 286.0105, if a person decides to appeal any decision made by the Board, Agency or Commission with respect to any matter considered at such meeting, or hearing, he will need a record of the proceedings and that for such purposes he may need to ensure that a verbatim record of the proceedings is made, which record includes the testimony and evidence upon which the appeal is based. ANY PERSON REQUIRING AUXILIARY AIDS AND SERVICES FOR THE MEETING MAY CALL THE ADA COORDINATOR AT 390-2122 AT LEAST TWO WORKING DAYS PRIOR TO THE MEETING. IF YOU ARE HEARING OR SPEECH IMPAIRED, PLEASE CONTACT THE FLORIDA RELAY SERVICE BY USING THE FOLLOWING PHONE NUMBERS: 1-800-995-8770 (VOICE) 1-800-955-8771 (tdd).  19 Communitywide Benefits of Parks and RecreaƟon Economic Prosperity 1. A rac ng Tourists 2. A rac ng Businesses 3. A rac ng Re rees 4. Enhancing Real Estate Values 5. Reducing Taxes 6. S mula on of Equipment Sales Environmental Sustainability 7. Protec ng Drinking Water 8. Controlling Flooding 9. Clean Air 10. Reducing Traffic Conges on 11. Reducing Energy Costs 12. Preserving Biological Diversity AlleviaƟng Social Problems 13. Reducing Environmental Stress 14. Community Regenera on 15. Cultural and Historical Preserva on 16. Facilita ng Healthy Lifestyles 17. Allevia ng Deviant Behavior Among Youth 18. Raising Levels of Educa on A ainment 19. Allevia ng Unemployment Distress  62 The Keys to Park and Recreation's Future Viability I <J,ihii U, ( « i m i i i u i i i l \ i \ i i l e IJL-IIL-IIIS ili:il Pml» aiul K c , - i v : i i i o n A j i c i i c i ^ I ' m i l d I W u l i i i l l x I V 1 I \ L T Economic development is widely viewed as being central to a community's economic prosperity because it is viewed as a means of enhancing the tax base. The enhancement is perceived to provide additional tax revenues, which governments can use either to improve the community's infrastructure, facilities and services, or to reduce the level of taxes that existing residents pay. It is seen also as a source of jobs that provide income, which enables residents to improve their quality of life. Park and recreation agencies can be a central contributor to economic development. That role may take the form of: 1 Attracting Tourists: The major factor considered by tourists when making a decision about which communities to visit on a pleasure trip is the attractions that are available. In most cities, those attractions are dominated by facilities and services operated by park and recreation agencies and their nonprofit partners (parks, beaches, events, festivals, athletic tournaments, museums, historical • sites cultural performances, etc.). Without such attractions, there is no tourism. 2 Attracting Businesses: The viability of businesses in the highly recruited high-technology, research and development, company headquarters, and services sectors in many cases is dependent on then- ability to attract and retain highly educated professional employees. The deciding factor of where these individuals choose to live is often the quality of life in the geographic vicinity of the business. No matter how quality of life is defined, park and recreation opportunities are likely to be a major component of it. Attracting Retirees: Anew, clean growth industry in America today includes the growing number of relatively affluent, active retirees. Their decisions as to where to locate with their substantial retirement incomes is primarily governed by two factors: climate and recreational opportunities. Enhancing Real Estate Values: People frequently are willing to pay more for a home located close to a park or natural area than they are for a comparable home elsewhere. The enhanced value of these properties results in their owners paying higher property taxes to governments, reflecting the benefits they receive from their proximate location. When the incremental amounts of property taxes that are attributable to the park are aggregated, they are likely to be sufficient to pay a substantial proportion of the debt required to retire the bonds used to acquire, develop, or renovate the park. . Reducing Taxes: There is a prevailing myth that development is the "highest and best use" of vacant land. Consequently, growth is perceived to be the key to enhancing the tax base and keeping property taxes low. The reality is that while residential development is likely to generate significant tax revenue, in most cases the cost of providing services and infrastructure, especially schools, to the development is likely to exceed the tax revenue emanating from it. So the taxes of existing residents will increase. Creating parks and natural areas is likely to be a less expensive alternative to taxpayers than residential development. Stimulation of Equipment Sales: Manufacturers and retailers of recreational equipment and others who sell related services (equipment repairs and leasing, outfitters, et. al.) depend on the availability of recreation facilities at which people can use the equipment. This creates jobs and income for residents and sales tax revenues for government.  Where the Field Is Moving CHAPTER 3 63 Environmental Sustainability Parks and natural areas enable nature to perform environmental services cost effectively that otherwise would require costly investments in infrastructure and technology to provide. These services include: 7. Protecting Drinking Water: Development of watersheds brings degradation to both aquifer and surface sources of drinking water. The degradation emanates from septic and sewer systems, from lawn and garden chemicals, and from rooftops, parking lots, and highways runoff. In addition, the development removes the natural processes that filter pollution. Keeping water clean by acquiring or preserving watersheds as natural areas is almost always less expensive to taxpayers than having to invest in the expensive equipment needed to clean them after they have been polluted. The impervious surfaces created by development redirect runoff from water aquifers into culverts and drainage ditches, so in addition to adversely affecting its quality, development may result in reduced quantity of drinking water. 8. Controlling Flooding: When flooding occurs, it is testimony that the efficient and effective drainage system created by nature has been abused either by the overdevelopment of watersheds or the infilling of floodplains. Controlling flooding involves substantial cost in dredging, channeling, concreting, and building dikes and levees. This is expensive, tends to deflect the flooding to downstream areas, rather than resolve it, and periodically fails in times of atypical storms with disastrous consequences. (This was vividly illustrated in New Orleans in 2005.) Creating substantial park and open space areas in the watersheds and preserving floodplains as greenways manages the flow of the runoff more effectively and less expensively than do concrete sewers and drainage ditches. 9. Cleaning Air: Air pollution threatens the health of those with asthma and other respiratory diseases, contributes to heart and lung disease, and increases the risk of cancer. Trees and vegetation improve air quality by removing from the atmosphere: (i) ozone, other gaseous pollutants, and toxic chemicals; (ii) participate pollutants; and (iii) carbon dioxide. Urban areas have especially high concentrations • • of these pollutants from traffic, boilers, generators, and other sources, and trees are a relatively inexpensive way to mitigate these pollutants. 10. Reducing Traffic Congestion: A complementary strategy for cleaning air is directed at reducing traffic congestion. Automobile travel can be reduced by providing hike and bike trails to encourage people to walk and ride, rather than to drive. In addition to alleviating air pollution, diverting people to trails reduces the magnitude of investment needed in highways and encourages people to exercise and embrace a more healthy lifestyle. 11. Reducing Energy Costs: The urban heat island effect is caused by the dark surfaces of rooftops, roadways, and parking lots in urban areas absorbing the day's heat and radiating it at night. As a result, cities cool less at night than do surrounding rural areas, and they remain hotter during the days. The shade and evapotranspiration provided by trees act as natural air conditioners to help keep both individual homes and cities cooler, reducing the amount of energy and cost needed to do this. 12. Preserving Biological Diversity: Gene pools of species and ecosystems may be essential for future human survival. Species as yet unknown or unresearched may hold the key to future food, medicine and fiber sources. The preservation of natural areas and the creation of conservation corridors connecting them are of prime importance in preserving genetic diversity, (continued on next page)  64 The Keys to Park and Recreation's Future Viability 1 ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^H^^^^E ul Kivrc.iiu'ii AJH-IIL-IL *. 1'ir.ilil IWnliiilK IVliM.-riCniiiiniicil) ^ ^ M Alleviating Social Problems From a societal perspective, all of the issues identified in this category of benefits are effectively summarized by the mantra "Pay now or pay later." A failure to invest resources in delivering sendees that will preempt the potential social problems is likely to result in society paying a much higher cost at a later date to resolve the problems when they have escalated to a more serious level. If people are exposed to more than one or two of these social problems so they become mutually reinforcing, then the impact of them may be sufficiently great to reach the chronic problem level, which is embraced by the term "social exclusion." Often the challenge is to assist vulnerable groups, frequently young members of ethnic minorities, in becoming employable and to engage in civic life and civil society. It involves bringing marginalized residents into the mainstream to strengthen community cohesion. Parks and recreation is potentially a strong vehicle for facilitating this social process of enhanced connectedness. (xiii) Reducing Environmental Stress: Environmental stress may involve both psychological emotions, such as frustration, anger, fear and coping responses, and associated physiological responses that use energy and contribute to fatigue. It is experienced daily by many who live or commute in urban or blighted areas. Parks in urban settings have a restorative effect that releases the tensions of modern life. Evidence demonstrating the therapeutic value of natural settings has emerged in both physiological and psychological studies. The cost of environmental stress in terms of work days lost and medical care required is likely to be substantially greater than the cost of providing and maintaining parks, urban forestry programs, and oases of flowers and shrubs. (xiv) Community Regeneration: Regeneration involves improving the physical, social, community, and environmental aspects of an area. Effective regeneration is unlikely to be forthcoming if park and recreation services are not an integral part of it. (xv) Cultural and Historical Preservation: Without a cultural history, people are rootless. Preserving historical remnants offers lingering evidence to remind people of what they once were, who they are, what they are, and where they are. It feeds their sense of histoiy and often is critical to community identity. (xvi) Facilitating Healthy Lifestyles: Growing recognition exists that the key to curtailing heath care costs lies in prevention of illness so people do not have to be treated by the expensive medical system. Many health problems are caused by people making bad lifestyle decisions. Engagement in physical exercise is a function of personal and social factors, behavioral change programs, and the physical environment. Traditionally, park and recreation agencies have focused on programs. Recent evidence suggests the extent to which the physical environment is "activity friendly" is a central factor because it makes it easier to elect to exercise. (xvii) Alleviating Deviant Behavior Among Youth: Strong evidence exists demonstrating the effectiveness of recreation programs in preventing "at-risk" youth from engaging in deviant behavior. These programs are likely to be most effective when then characteristics include: being carefully structured to provide interactions and relationships with adult leaders; leadership opportunities for youth; intensive and individualized attention to participants; a sense of group belonging; engagement in challenging tasks and activities; youth input into program decisions; and opportunities for community service. The return on investment of such programs is substantial when it is related to the costs of incarceration. (xviii) Raising Levels of Educational Achievement: There has been a movement to increase the amount of time that children are involved in educational activities beyond regular school hours in order to enhance their educational achievement levels. Recreation has proved to be an effective "hook" for persuading many to participate in after-school programs. Children are permitted to engage in the recreation activities only after they have completed the educational enrichment components of the program. (xix) Alleviating Unemployment Distress: Park and recreation agencies can contribute in two ways. First, they are extraordinarily well positioned to create meaningful construction, renovation, repair, and maintenance projects that can absorb relatively large numbers of people who are unemployed. Conservation and park work is relatively labor intensive. It offers many opportunities for unskilled people to enter the workforce and to subsequently develop vocational skills that expand their employability options. Second, agencies can develop recreation programs targeted specifically at this group and designed to provide some compensatory benefits.  City of Wilton Manors Leisure Services Department Mickel Field Repurposing  MISSION ENHANCE QUALITY OF LIFE THROUGH ADEQUATE PARK PROGRAMS, AMENITIES AND SERVICES DESIRED BY CITY RESIDENTS  COMMUNITY INPUT  PARKS SYSTEM MASTER PLAN  FOCUS GROUP  RECREATION ADVISORY BOARD  CITYWIDE SURVEYS  PARKS SYSTEM MASTER PLAN: ADOPTED 2010 MICKEL FIELD CURRENT CONDITIONS:  PARK IS LIMITED SERVING ONLY ATHLETIC USE  LAYOUT HAS DISCONNECT TO BALL FIELDS, PLAYGROUND, CONCESSION BLDG & PARKING  RESIDENTS CONCERNED WITH PARK SAFETY  VERY LITTLE SHADE EXISTS ON SITE  LACKS CONTINUOUS PATH OR TRAIL CONNECTING THE FACILITIES  PARK HAS NOT BEEN REPURPOSED IN 30 YEARS  PARKS SYSTEM MASTER PLAN: ADOPTED 2010 MICKEL FIELD OPPORTUNITIES:  ENHANCE CONNECTIVITY OF RESIDENTS/PARKS  PARK HAS ADEQUATE OPEN SPACE TO EXPAND DESIREABLE RECREATIONAL AMENTIES  REPURPOSE TO INCLUDE A WALKING TRAIL THAT CONNECTS ALL RECREATIONAL ACTIVITES  PARTNER WITH POLICE TO PROVIDE SUB- STATION AT EXISTING BUILDING  USE TREE TRUST FUND TO ADD SHADE CANOPY  MICKEL FIELD REPURPOSING FOCUS GROUP PROCESS  Initiated FOCUS GROUP March 1, 2013  Focus Group Participants: Majority from West Area but also included members from Central and East Areas, Budget Review, and Advisory Board  Developed Needs Assessment, (Survey Monkey) May 2013, Results concluded July 2013  Recreation Advisory Board October 17, 2013  6 Meetings, July 24, 2013-April 29, 2014  City Commission Meeting May 13, 2014  Commission Workshop/Focus Group June 3, 2014  MICKEL FIELD CITYWIDE SURVEY  FITNESS TRAIL: WALKING/RUNNING 71%  CONCERT PERFORMANCE AREA 65%  PAVILION SHELTER 44%  PET FRIENDLY 40%  BICYCLING 37%  COMMUNITY CENTER 34%  OUTDOOR FITNESS EQUIPMENT 29%  VOLLEYBALL & PLAYGROUND 18%  BASEBALL / SOFTBALL 13%  RACQUETBALL 10%  Suggested Design Elements  Fitness Trail & Lighting  Outdoor Fitness Equipment  Renovate Existing Recreation Bldg.  Site Prep and Utilities: Grading, Sod, Drainage, Electric, Sewer & Water  Trees / (Tree Trust Fund)  Estate Style Fencing  Shelter/ Stage Concert Area / Courtyard  Additional Lighting and Security System  Suggested Design Elements  Site Furnishings / Benches, Bike Racks, etc.  Volleyball, Bocce Ball, & Adult Game Tables  New Playground Area & Shade Structure  Existing Multi-purpose Field Renovation  Restroom / Shelter at New Playground Area  New Storage Building  Main Entry Sculpture Garden  Racquetball, etc. PROJECT CONSTRUCTION COSTS  THE PROJECT WAS ESTIMATED BY A CONSTRUCTION COMPANY ESTIMATOR AND THE TOTAL COST OF CONSTRUCTION IS $2,022,148.50  COMMUNITY BENEFITS OF PARK REPURPOSING  ECONOMIC REDEVELOPMENT OF THE WEST SIDE  ADDED TREE CANOPY/GREENING TO ASSIST ENVIRONMENTAL SUSTAINABILITY  ALLEVIATE CRIME; ASSIST IN A MORE HEALTHY POPULATION  FUNDING SOURCES GENERAL FUND BOND ISSUE & LONG TERM FINANCING IMPACT FEES GRANTS RTP $55,835.50 ALTERNATIVE FUNDING COMBINATION  Mickel Field Re-Purposing FUNDING STRATEGIES UP FRONT FUNDING PHASED FUNDING   $100,000 from General Up Front Funding Fund FY13-14  $270,000 from Impact Fees, FY14-15  Grant Funding will reduce amount to be borrowed  Remainder to be borrowed – October 2014 bank loan- $140,000 annual debt service from General Fund  Entire project can be completed during FY14-15  Bank loan later rolled into possible General Obligation loan during FY16-17  Not recommended by Finance Department Phased In Funding  $100,000 annually from General Fund  $270,000 from Impact Fees, FY14-15  Grant Funding will reduce amount to be borrowed  Remainder to be borrowed – November 2016 bond referendum  First phases can be completed during FY14-15  Final phases completed during FY16-17  Recommended by Finance Department Mickel Field Funding Options – Pros and Cons Up Front Funding Pros • The project is completed more quickly. Cons • Unlike with the City’s recent loan for the new parking lot and new lift station which had sources of revenue to pay back the loans, for the Mickel Field Re-Purposing there is no dedicated revenue stream that could be pledged for loan repayment that is directly related to the project. • If the 2016 General Obligation referendum is not approved, or the City decides not to hold a referendum, then the General Fund will be responsible for annual debt service of $140,000 for the remaining life of the 15-year loan (0.1556 mills at FY13-14 millage rate). • The bank loan would use Communications Services Tax (or some other revenue) as the pledged revenue stream. This reduces the City’s flexibility in seeking other financing that may be needed. Phased Funding Pros • The project is completed as funding is available. • There would be a dedicated revenue stream to pledge for loan repayment that is directly related to the project (General Obligation loan). Cons • Full completion of the project would be delayed by two years. Some Financial Terminology General Obligation Loans (or Bonds) – A loan that must be approved by a majority of voters. The voters agree to repay the debt service (principal and interest) on the loan through an ad valorem tax (property tax) assessment that is dedicated specifically to this loan repayment and which may not be used for any other purpose. The City currently has two General Obligation tax assessments – one to repay the 1999 Parks bonds that were used to build Hagen Park, ICPP, and upgrade the Library; and the other to repay the 2008 City Hall bonds used for construction of the new City Hall and Police Station. Ad Valorem Tax (Property Tax) – A tax based on the assessed value of real (land and buildings) and personal property (such as business equipment). Ad valorem taxes are used to pay general obligation debt and to support the General Fund. Pledged Revenue Stream – A dependable, recurring source of revenue that is used as collateral to secure the repayment of a loan. If the City were to default on a payment, the bank could attach the revenue stream directly from its source. In the case of Communications Services Tax, the City currently receives about $600,000 annually in this revenue. The City has already pledged Communications Services tax in the amount of about $190,000 per year as security on the 2011 Utility and Parking Loan. However in the case of the Utility and Parking Loan there are other revenues available from the Utility Fund and the Parking Fund for the loan repayment. In the case of a potential loan for the Mickel Field Re- Purposing Project, there is no alternative funding source, so the loan repayment would have to come directly from the General Fund, therefore reducing the amount of General Fund revenues available for other City purposes.  DISCUSSION  Greatness is not a function of circumstance. Greatness, it turns out, is largely a matter of conscious choice, and discipline. ~ Jim Collins