Lake Hiawatha Park - Master Plan

Neighborhood Meeting

November 1, 1999





AGENDA



6:30 p.m. 1. Introductions and Meeting Purpose
Ken Grieshaber, Mitzi Patterson
6:35 p.m. 2. Building Information
Peter Paulson
6:50 p.m. 3. Park Concept Plans - Overview
Chris A. Behringer/Sherri Buss
7:10 p.m. 4. Group Discussion of Concept Plans
Everyone!
8:00 p.m. 5. Prioritize Park Elements
8:20 p.m. 6. Next Steps and Adjourn




MEETING NOTES



Approximately 40-50 attended this meeting.

After the introductions, a discussion was held on ideas for changes in the building. People requested that a room or rooms be added to allow for more than one event to be held at the same time. Mr. Paulson suggested a divider could be put down the middle of the room but that idea was vetoed by members of the community for a few reasons: the floor in the building is one of the old suspension floors (which is great for dancing) and putting a divider down the room would lose the impact of such a floor design, a divider would not help to control the noise between the two events, and the divider would not solve the problem of getting to the Director's office during a class or event. People also expressed the need to have a receptionist desk at the front of the building to allow people to check in with the director or ask questions without having to walk through the middle of a class or sporting event. The question came up of possibly adding a second floor to the park building and was told by Mr. Paulson that the Park Board has one park building that has two floors and has found that monitoring both floors is difficult so they no longer will construct two-story park buildings. A two story building would also include the installation of an elevator which greatly increases the cost. Mr. Paulson will work up some schematic designs and present them at the next meeting. The meeting then moved on to the layout:



1. Most people agreed the turnaround for handicap drop off was preferred over the straight through. It was suggested to try to find a way to put the fire hydrant from across the street in the middle of the turn around and possibly include a parking space or two for handicapped parking.
2. The volleyball court remains as depicted on the previous drawings.
3. Most people felt the 10 + kid's play area was not needed as the costs are high for the equipment. The idea of adding an 8 ft basketball court instead of 10+ play equipment was raised
4. People expressed concern over the landscaping along 28th Ave. that the trees and/or shrubs not be too high and not too close to 28th St. The Park Board representatives assured us that the landscaping would be set back from 28th Ave. the same as the snow fence presently is and the landscaping would be only a few feet high and the trees would be interspersed among the shrubs.
5. A debate was held on the berm to separate the playground equipment and the basketball court.
6. People agreed they wanted to keep the idea of the 4 season verandah and the Park Board will check the set-back requirements.
7. Would like to maintain the athletic fields and add soccer fields but change the location of the main field and back stops.
8. The tennis courts will be kept in the same location but will also include signage for rules and regulations.
9. Asked if it was possible to move the toilet away from the stairs going down to the lake - they had just recently been move right next to the stairs and people find it offensive when going down the stairs.
10. Everyone liked the idea of the water activities by the wading pool - displays were available of what the water activities look like.
11. There were also displays of the various types of benches and picnic tables available - most of which were made of recycled materials.


At the next meeting the Park Board will be bringing more detailed drawings of the plan for the park as well of the building. Unless there are issues that cannot be resolved at the November 15th meeting, it will be the last meeting for the Master Plan development.



Graphics provided by: