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HomeMy WebLinkAboutMinutes_PAREB_08.09.2018Minutes of the Meeting of the Parks and Recreation Advisory Board City of Georgetown, Texas August 9, 2018 The Parks and Recreation Advisory Board met Thursday, August 9, 2018 at 6:00 pm at 1101 N. College Street, Georgetown, TX 78626. Regular Session (This Regular Session may, at any time, be recessed to convene an Executive Session for any purpose authorized by the Open Meetings Act, Texas Government Code 551.) A Call to Order — Katherine Kainer, Parks and Recreation Advisory Board Secretary The meeting was called to order by Katherine Kainer at 6:00 pm. B Roll Call — Katherine Kainer, Parks and Recreation Advisory Board Secretary Present: Katherine Kainer, Larry Gambone, Wayne Byer, Michael Simpson, Danelle Houck Absent: Jim Hougnon, Scott Macmurdo Staff present: Eric Nuner, Jill Kellum, Robert Gaylor C Introduction and Presentation of Parks and Recreation Intern, Blane Chambless - Eric Nuner, Assistant Director of Parks and Recreation Robert Gaylor introduced Blane Chambless and Eric Nuner explained our intern program. He stated we normally have a summer intern and August is usually their finally project. A requirement from the Parks and Recreation Department is that they give a presentation to the Parks and Recreation Advisory Board. Blane Chambless explained he worked with Camp Goodwater this summer and he stated he went to Texas State University, part of the OWLS program; Occupational, Workforce and Leadership Studies program. It is an Arts and Applied Sciences degree plan. He designed a program on what he is wanting to do and his interest is going into teaching PE. He stated he worked at Frost Elementary in Georgetown last year and this year he will be at a charter school in Leander. He is wanting to encourage healthy behaviors in children and adolescent; mainly physical activity and some nutrition as well. He stated he was a camp counselor at Camp Goodwater. He was wanting to observe the kid's physical activity levels, nutrition and their attitudes toward physical activity. He wanted to make them aware of not just the quantity of the years of life but the quality of those years. He stated the lower camp; the younger kids were more willing to participate in physical activities. They had more energy and were more excited. There were only a few complaints and mostly about the heat. They did the energizers in the morning. The upper camp had lower participation. They had a bad attitude toward any outdoor activity; they wanted to be inside. In observation of the lunch; he was surprised that most of the kids had healthy lunches. He stated a lot of the kids skipped breakfast. He encouraged kids to eat breakfast and get physically activity. Eric Nuner asked what Camp Goodwater could do in future years. He stated more of a physical activity routine such as morning energizers. Also, come up with Page 21 of 27 activities when gym space was available. He stated that kids don't think they enjoy physical activity because they don't have a lot of people around them doing the same. If they have friends or family participating as well they will have the encouragement. He stated there are a lot of physical activities in the camp already, but he would like to see a variety of activity. He also encouraged an interactive health class. It was asked if the kids were able to go to the pool and he stated they were. D Introduction and Presentation of Parks and Recreation Intern, Cameron Speegle - Eric Nuner, Assistant Director of Parks and Recreation Robert Gaylor introduced Cameron Speegle. Cameron Speegle was our Parks and Recreation intern and his internship was to give him broad exposure to the entire department. Cameron Speegle has worked for the City of Georgetown as a lifeguard, head guard and pool manager and he already had a lot of skill sets that the department utilized. He goes to Texas A&M and will graduate in December. He explained some of his duties in the Parks department. He was a camp counselor for Camp Goodwater and Tennis Camp. He also helped with the Aquatics department with pool maintenance. He actually got to see how all the pools operate. He also helped with the grounds crew lining fields. He also helped the Special Events Marketing Coordinator with the Sunset Movie Series. He was in charge of organizing the Pirate Party at the Georgetown Recreation Center, Cameron Speegle thanked the department and board for allowing him the internship. E Presentation and discussion of the City's 2030 Comprehensive Plan Update Process — Nat Waggoner, AICP, Long Range Planning Manager (1:15:13) Eric Nuner introduced Nat Waggoner to present the 2030 Comprehensive Plan Update. Nat Waggoner asked the board, what does the park system looks like in 2030. Board members stated the trail system and connectivity in Williamson County and to Austin, Westside Park, a 2nd recreation center as the community grows and being able to serve all the community, more parks and keeping up with the maintenance of current parks. Larry Gambone stated he hates to see green space black topped over. The more parkland the city can get the better. He states he is also concerned about water. Nat Waggoner stated his second question is, what is the connection to the transportation system and it was discussed about the bike trails and connectivity between cities. He also stated at the most macro view this is about setting a vision for the city by 2030. That is what comprehensive plans are supposed to do. 2008 was the last comprehensive plan and in 2014 the council said to update what was done in 2008 and there was no need to recreate the wheel and they had certain aspects they wanted to focus on. He stated it was still aspirational for the goals that were set in 2008. Those goals are not off limits in terms of Open Space, Preservation, Efficient Transportation, Cultural and Historical Preservation. There are internal staff that are the lead for this project and there is also a consultant and another group of volunteers that are helping from an awareness and outreach perspective. There is a group of people helping with Outreach and Awareness Perspective. There is a land consultant; and the city is directing them away from a generic plan but a more defined plan. There is a housing market consultant; looking at housing market and what that means for the future growth of the city. They are also looking at the retail market and Page 22 of 27 healthcare perspective. Wayne Beyer as about the Emergency Response Team. Nat Waggoner explained that this has been discussed with Chief Sullivan and his efforts on how they relate to Emergency Response Team and also his efforts as he deals with the Commission on Aging. There is an initiative called Aging Communities, Livable Communities and that is an AARP statistic that looks at how livable your city is for everyone. That is not a direct effort of this project, and the city charter, which is the same charter that called for our parks and open space, it also calls for a health and human service component and this has been identified as a need that needs to come next. He stated they are also working with the Georgetown Police Department as they go out into the community for National Night Out as part of this public input process. These are the groups that are leading the project: Technical Advisory Committee Steering Committee Joint Sessions P&Z/Council General Public Nat Waggoner stated there are 6 sessions with these groups about very specific policies and the general public. The idea is to start W ith one group to the end and work back around. They start with very technical data and share that with the public. There the public feedback is brought all the way back through to the technical side of things. He stated there are 14 major tasks that are associated with this. Some of the Major Tasks: • Alignment — what is the parks master plan need from the overall city growth plan and vice versa. • Updated Demographics — age, income, education level, disabilities • Housing Elements Update — this is a crucial component. What we are facing in Georgetown is no different than what we are facing in Central Texas and the Nation. Cost of living is increasing and part of that is housing and median wages are staggered. The question posed by the City Council was, what is the housing situation for the low income, for our work force and for our seniors. This is where the parkland dedication process comes in and where we plan our neighborhood parks is important. • Housing Toolkit — this is policy decision. After the housing situation has been described they will present to the different groups and ask now what do we want to do about it. • Gateway Development Strategies — There are 14 different ways that have been identified in the city that you can travel; IH 35, HWY 29, Williams Drive. What are the goals and strategies for this project? It was discussed about when the growth going to stop. Danelle Houck stated that on the steering committee the majority moved here within the past 5 —10 years. She stated that the members on the committee did ask when the growth would end but how to have responsible growth. Nat Waggoner stated the city now has a new tool called the Fiscal Impact Model. It is a cost serve; everything from the number of trucks it takes to service the Parks to the number of Police it takes to Page 23 of 27 respond to emergencies, we now have a tool where we can look at the cost of a project specific to the city and it also allows us to look overall at the city. The city will use that tool for the Growth Scenarios. • Williams Drive Subarea Plan • Growth Scenarios - The questions are how much should we grow our residential subdivisions and how much should we grow our commercial tax base. This goes back to responsible growth. We do have policies to how we manage our growth. • Future Land Use Map Update — Another thing that we have that relates to how we grow and whether or not that track should have been residential is the Future Land Use Map. This Map shows how we want to look at 2030. It is different than zoning. This is not a regulatory document. At the end of the 2030 plan, this map will change. • Public Engagement • Implementation Strategies • Adoption Nat Waggoner explained that we have a city charter and that is like a constitution that says you have to have a plan to regulate and manage the future development. A comprehensive plan is a visionary document; not a regulatory document, not the final answer. It does set forth a lot of "dominoes". It sets forth how we do our capital improvement plan; where we spend money on roadways, parks. It sets forth expectations for developers. It was asked if the plan includes schools, fire stations and hospitals. Nat Waggoner explained that reserving land in this map, no, only reserving types of categories hospitals would go into. It may be appropriate in certain areas designated on the map for institutions or community commercial; but there is no guarantee that it will go there. It was stated by a board member that it might be a little short sighted. It was stated by another board member that hospitals are getting bigger but there are more and more clinics. It was stated that the market will drive it. Nat Waggoner stated that the charter does require a health and human services element and so us further defining what those future needs might be, be a result of that study and as we look at these demographics and how our population is going to age in the next 12 years and forecast some of those needs. I think we should be drawing some very serious conclusions about what that means for our population that wants to stay here and not want to move somewhere else because their services are not met from transportation, or access to medical or recreation. Nat Waggoner stated this plan supports the boards and commissions and sets policy for consideration by the city council. He stated we work closely with the school district and their forecasting of their needs from a demographics and land use stand point. The city has grown 40% since the time this plan was done. Nat Waggoner stated we have new goals and strategies that the council has developed and they need to own this plan. He stated that he knows it is a public input plan but council has to have ownership of it because they make some real decisions every day that are driven by this. He stated it has to have a lot of public input and make sense in terms of the numbers and we have to be able to report on our progress every year. Page 24 of 27 He stated from a technical standpoint, when looking at the Parks masterplan we will be looking a new data points. He stated speaking to Eric Nuner and Kimberly Garrett that we want to be more engaged with the community and what they need from an outreach standpoint. Nat Waggoner explained that we are hamstrung on bonding from a debt capacity standpoint. We have a great plan that the voter's approved but then you have to compete with the tax rate. This hamstrings the ability to get grant funding. Eric Nuner added that the city manager's budget has moved through the process and in that on the Parks CIP side it was reduced somewhat from what was planned so the masterplan has moved into 2020. Mike Simpson stated that the 2030 Plan is not very long from now and they need to be looking beyond that. He gave input on the water needs and educating people on xeriscaping and the San Gabriel Rivers that run through the city and protecting them and being able to enjoy nature and wildlife. He also expressed concerns about housing, parks, and mobility. He asked to be looking past 2030 and that is not looking far enough. Wayne Beyer stated it needs to be looked at from a county view; a plan for the county. He stated we need to look at the other cities in Williamson County and what they are doing. Jill Kellum asked if there was a survey being done from the higher dense communities such as Austin and why people moved out of the area; was it due to transportation or they couldn't afford to live there any longer. Nat Waggoner stated that we are not directly surveying other cities, but some of the housing stuff they are looking at is historic and they are looking at trends in the real estate market from surrounding cities in the Austin metro area and trends specific to Georgetown too. They are looking at literature from a national standpoint. They have some good data related to property tax and they can know look at, this is the median income, this is how much they pay in property taxes and take the trend date, what does that mean for that median income. Wayne Beyer added another thought is the city looking at people that live here on a partial time basis and the footprint that leaves here. Nat Waggoner stated in 2008 they didn't look at the density of homes. He stated we are seeing a lot more units per acre now. From that the city will draw some conclusions to lot size and density related to the types of product. He stated they will present some data to help draw some conclusions on what the housing stock is and what housing type is. Nat Waggoner continued stating the city is engaged with the real estate community and have had a round table event already and will have another one in the spring. The economic development plan is from 1986 and the urban design plan is from 1986. Those are the efforts they have to date and this is the alignment and time to update some of these things. The participation plan from 2010 will be changing the model. There is nothing on the books for historic preservation, health and human services, or conservation and environmental resources. There are some things related to water conservation but not a plan. He stated this will be important as council said to align all of our efforts and if our city charter requires it we should be doing it. Wayne Beyer stated you don't see large companies coming in and asked do we want to see that. Nat Waggoner stated, I think we do and stated we recently completed strategic plans that target industry and target work force. Also, completed the recruitment and retail strategy from a commercial development standpoint. He stated we want high paying jobs that are in the IT field and professional classes and also identified manufacturing as a target Page 25 of 27 industry but all asked where are those manufacturing jobs going to live and we have to be able to support the mid to low wage workers. • Utility demand • Align council goals Nat Waggoner also stated there is a good website that has the goals of the entire project, and there are goals in how we are engaging the public. You can register to get updates from the city and you can request someone speak to your organization. There is an engagement event called On the Table. To get more information you can go to the webpage: 2030. Georgetown.org. They are working with the Georgetown PD National Night Out. He stated they are going to council the end of August, visiting with the Youth Advisory Board and then the National Night Out on October 2, and then the first time to sit down and talk to council about policy is the end of October or the first part of November. F Update from the Friends of Georgetown Parks and Recreation - Danelle Houck, Parks and Recreation Advisory Board member Danelle Houck stated the Friends of Georgetown Parks and Recreation met. They are having their general meeting Monday, 9/17/2018 at 7 pm. They are doing their Daddy Daughter Dance 10/27/2018 and are looking for volunteers. They were busy this summer with assistance with soccer registration. It was asked how many Boys and Girls Club members have they served since they started Georgetown Swims and they have taught over 500 and they have passed through the level 1 and 2 swim lessons. Legislative Regular Agenda G Consideration and possible action to approve minutes from the July 12, 2018 meeting - Jill Kellum, Administrative Supervisor Motion made by Danelle Houck second by Wayne Beyer to approve the minutes from the July 12, 2018 meeting. Approved: 5-0-2 Adjournment Motion made by Katherine Kainer second by Larry Gambone to adjourn the meeting. Meeting adjourned at 7:57 pm. Approved 5-0-2 Page 26 of 27 Katherine Kainer, Secretary c--__ ;4, jijj5kellurn, Board Liaison Page 27 of 27