okay good evening everyone uh this is the park and wreck uh committee meeting uh for Monday April 21st uh we'll start off by having a roll call of members so if you could state
your name we'll just go down the line here we'll start chris Casey Adam Der Larry Schulz Mary Larson Jacob Paul Amanda Cahill and J okay real
good um first agenda item is to approve the park and rec committee meeting minutes of uh March 17th 2025 those were sent out in your packet would anybody like to make a motion to approve those
minutes so moved is there a second i second okay uh motion has been made and seconded to approve the meeting minutes of March 17th uh any further
discussion hearing none all those in favor of approving the March 17th meeting minutes signify by saying I i i oppos say nay motion carried uh next item is uh petitions
proclamations suggestions uh complaints from citizens committee members or staff uh does anyone have anything they'd like to bring up this evening okay uh I have some updates so um just uh to kind of keep you guys informed of
some things that are coming up if you um have paid attention to mail in the last month you should have received the um spring and summer uh recreation guide and so in this has lots of goodies for this summer as well as registration registration for all things are
currently open um in addition we do have um something that got rescheduled from what was originally advertised to this coming Friday so if you um yourself have any or know of anybody with toddler preschool age um kids and you want to join us at the superhero party that will
be this Friday at the Victoria Recreation Center so it'll be lots of fun with bounce houses capes all sorts of prizes and activities so um that'll be there from 5:30 to 7:30 um we also some exciting news um for anyone who
lives uh near the Deer Run Park area um we talked last year about a second wave of um updates coming to that playground um so that was completed and finished being installed this past Monday um and so there's additional climbing features
um different amenities things like that that would increase the capacity because one of the comments that we had received last year was that um it was limited um in terms of ages that um could utilize the space and so these new amenities expand it um so kids of all ages can
enjoy the space um it is open and um accessible to the public now so if anyone wants to check it out um that is out there and then another communitywide event that's coming up is Victoria in Bloom on May 3rd and so that'll be here downtown um there'll be lots of activities music um interaction with
downtown businesses things like that so we encourage you to come okay wonderful all right next item we don't have any old business tonight uh new business um as
we do every year in our April meeting we there's a selection of chair and vice chair this is for the 2025 26 year uh beginning April 1st I guess from now on till next March 31st
um any nominations for for the floor for the uh chair position i have a motion to elect committee member Larry Schultz as chair of the Victoria Parks and Recreation Committee
i second okay motion's been made and seconded um any further discussion or any other nominations okay um um motion's been made and seconded to have Larry Schulzby
chair for the coming year all in favor signify by saying I i i oppose say nay and I'll abstain i'll open myself well thank you okay next
next item is uh uh is there a motion for um vice chair nomination for vice chair i'd like to make a motion to elect committee member Amanda Cahill as vice chair the Victoria Park committee for
next year okay is there a second to that i'll second that okay mo motion's been made and seconded to have Amanda Cahill uh be the vice chair for the coming year are there any other nominations before we continue or any
discussion hearing none um all those in favor signify by saying I i oppose say nay congratulations thank you i forgot to tell you I'm going to be gone most of the night
i'll see you next March okay um also like to welcome our two new members too this is their first official meeting so uh welcome gentlemen and uh it's always good to have new people and
new ideas and new perspectives so thanks for stepping to the up to the plate and joining our group excited thank you okay um next item is a member orientation so this is uh not only for our our new
members but I think it's a good opportunity for us to see a review of some of the things we do and what our role and responsibilities are and uh Jenna has uh put together a presentation for us to take us through the uh member
orientation so I'll just turn it over to you Jenna wonderful thank you um also feel free at any point in time while I'm giving giving the orientation if you want to interject with questions or um anything like that I'd be more than happy to address those as we go on otherwise um so first thing again I
would also like to extend the welcome um to our new members uh new this year uh city council did approve um a nine-person committee so right now we um are missing a few of our members um but uh this is a nine-person committee so um
the current members we have a handful their terms so everyone who was previously on we have three additional um new committee members uh joining us tonight are uh Chris Casey committee member Adam Der and we are missing our
new committee member um Alex um Heim so he will be joining us at the next meeting and then I do serve as your um staff liaison and so you are welcome to come to me with any questions thoughts concerns um and for the most part I will be the person that you'll get to see
every meeting um just to do some overview highlights for um what the committee member responsibilities and duties are um so one of the biggest area that we lean to you on is uh to review and recommend a lot of the things that uh
pertain to the parks and recreation department and so you serve in an advisory uh capacity to city council regarding the department uh you recommend city council ordinances related to the park system and recreational facilities and programs you review programming needs of Victoria
residents and provide recommendations for programming changes uh you review proposed um housing developments for park planning and make recommendations to the city council um and planning commission on the proposed park and trail dedications um reviewing uh recommended updates to
our current park system in accordance with the city council's um park system plan and strategic plan and the next big area is being a champion um to promote our city parks facilities events and programs and so this is where you are out in the community being that voice um
you act as a a hearing board or a sounding board for citizen concerns um they will get to know you and they will recognize you um as somebody that they are able to reach out to and so that's a great opportunity for you to connect with them and bring information back to us um you promote our existing
facilities our programs our recreational opportunities and then this last one is participating in um events and evaluating the experiences of the current park system and this one is a big one that we lean on this committee on because um this is an opportunity for you guys to um be out in the public um
participate in engagement opportunities serving as an ambassador to our community and then from there a lot of the work that we do in our meetings um after we have those engagement events is evaluating that feedback so that we can make informed decisions moving
forward um basic meeting information so our meeting times are typically the third Monday of each month um here in this room at the council chambers in city hall at 6:30 um occasionally we will see um changes due to either scheduling conflicts holidays or
elections um in the summer it's um kind of dependent upon what our um agendas are we do have a pretty full work plan this year so I don't anticipate a reason that I would cancel um but there are some times where scheduling conflicts come up that we need to reschedule a
meeting um with that we do because it is open meeting laws we do have to provide um public notice and so we would do that some ones to anticipate we do um typically at the very beginning of the year all of our meetings fall on federal holidays and so um the first two of the
year typically are um rescheduled to um typically on a Wednesday but that public meeting calendar is approved at the end of the year uh we do always meet here in the same space um and then for member commitment u members are asked to not miss more than three consecutive um
meetings and then um you are to let me know if you are going to miss obviously things come up we understand that everyone has a personal life outside of here um but just uh let us know so that we can try to make sure that we're maintaining quorum for our meetings what is our new quorum then
six i think it would be five five that's it okay it has nine members yep majority majority okay all right so the next um area is pretty much the workflow of our meeting so you've
already seen some of this take place um tonight um so we do start um each meeting with the chair um calling us to order um so that will kick off our meeting um get us started we do start promptly at 6:30 if there is an evening where you happen to be running late that's totally fine um just hop on in
you'll catch us where we're at then we do go through a formal roll call um we approve the minutes beforehand um those minutes I do send out um with the meeting agenda and so those um get typed up um as a draft that are included into
the meeting agenda um so you'll have it at least 3 days if not more um beforehand to review uh feel free to bring back any comments whether I misqued something whether I forgot to include something or even if it's something as simple as a grammatical error feel free to let me know i'm only
human um so I do make mistakes sometimes but feel free to come to the meeting with any suggested changes um you can as a part of the um approving the minutes policy or portion of the evening um you would be able to um provide any
suggested updates and then the meeting minutes could be approved with the recommended changes um next there is the section for um opportunity for the committee uh to be able to bring forward anything that they've heard from the public um whether it's complaints
comments suggestions um anything like that um there's an opportunity for us to uh start every meeting with that as well as a time for me to uh provide any updates regarding um things that are going on with our department um maybe an update on something that you guys have
let me know or just citywide news that is pertinent to this committee old business is an opportunity for us to address something that was on a previous agenda that we didn't quite wrap up or perhaps I have more information to share with you and so
this time you'll you won't see anything on tonight's um old business but an example of something like that would be um a project that we had approved with some recommendations and then I bring back um a final one to get approval and
so that would be an example of um an old business so something that we've already discussed that we just um are doing a followup on and then of course new business is the um main show of our meetings um sometimes it's one item of
new business sometimes it's multiple um but these ones will be included in that meeting agenda um as well as there will be an agenda report that will be attached to it so it'll give you a brief highlight of what um that agenda is in
reference to all of our meetings i go more in depth um in terms of a presentation um so the presentation that will be here will be providing more information that what than what you'll see in the meeting agenda um and so the meeting agenda if you have questions um
beforehand uh feel free to let me know because that could be something that I would include into the presentation if you're like you read through an agenda item and it's like I know I'm going to have questions about this so if you can come with that information that's something that would be wonderful to share with me because I'd be more than
happy to come prepared with that information if I know it's something that you would have a question on um and then everyone's um least favorite portion of the night is adjournment um but obviously it's a formal closing of our meeting anybody have any questions
about that before I continue on if there is suggestions or complaints or proclamations is there usually like a followup at the upcoming meeting if um if it's something that um I need to look into then yes I would come back with more information um we are pretty
informal around here and so if um there is something that um you come with a question on um or maybe a concern and I know how to address it like we're already in process of or um that's already feedback that we're looking into that would be something that I would respond to you on the spot if it's
something that requires me to do some more digging then I would do more digging and bring it back to a future meeting okay or perhaps it is something that we need to work on and we'll add it to a future agenda item cool so and we encourage people to bring things up too because we're the eyes and ears of the
committee in the community so if you're hearing your neighbor or say or hearing things or you're at the park and you see something you want to talk about it it's this is the place to do it so wonderful all right um so for our
meetings um what you got emailed is uh something that's sent out through our um agenda software it's called I Compass and this is something that is accessible to the public um so they're able to view all of our stuff and so with this um if
you go to the city's main page uh you'd be able to find it um either by searching for it or by clicking through and then whenever you get to um the software itself you would find um the parks and recreation committee box um and it would have all the information
here so just quick little um detour going to show you how to find it and so when you go to um the city's website so victorin.gov you would go to the
government tab um if you just want information about the Parks and Recreation Committee all of your lovely names um and your terms will be listed if you clicked on this link um and so if you want to find information about our committee itself you'd click here and then in terms of accessing our agenda
software you'd click on the city meetings follow through click on the meeting portal and this would bring you straight to the page um and then you can scroll down there's lots of information on here so if you really want to nerd out and do all the things city council all the planning commission things you
are more than welcome to peruse all the information a quick way to get to the parks and recreation stuff is to click on meetings and then that's where you find that box that I had showed you earlier um and then you can hover over the parks and recreation committee uh title and this will bring you to all of
our history um and so you can scroll through all the back um dates for our information and so say you wanted to look back in October you'll be able to see um the agenda agenda and agenda
packet as well as watch the video or read through the minutes um for the meeting and you'll be able to find this for all of our um parks and recreation committee meetings all right uh next thing to um make note of
as you just saw that there is a video feature it means that all of our meetings are recorded um pending some sort of technological difficulty that requires them to be down in that case we would have um old-fashioned written notes um so all of our meetings are live
and recorded for on demand so people could be tuning in right now and watching it or they can come back later um if you ever miss a meeting and you want to catch up on the things that we discussed you are also um able to go back and uh watch later uh so some some things to keep in mind because we are
live um and our mics are considered hot um be mindful of um any non-verbal things that might be going on because cameras would pick that up as well as side conversations and background noise um so if you are talking to your neighbor or something like that that might be picked up on um the microphones
um and then just always assume that the cameras um and the audio is on unless we've you know officially adjourned the meeting um where we can watch this so um all of our residents could watch this through Mediacom on channel 8 um they could watch it through that agenda
portal that I had just shown you or we have a city YouTube channel that um anyone can access so I know that several of you recently attended the um open meeting law training for all of our new committee members uh but just a refresher because this is all something
that's really great to keep in mind especially now that our committee has grown significantly um there's a lot more people um so we need to be mindful of um any sort of information that might be shared outside of um public meetings and so
um all of the public meetings need to be open um and accessible to um the public um and this is because of three main areas that pro prohibits things being discussed in secret um where essentially we want the public to be
able to have access to it so if there's you know multiple people getting together um if you're discussing city business um be mindful of when you might potentially be meeting a quorum um and maybe if you just happen to be friends with everybody in this room and you guys
are getting together for a barbecue make sure you're not discussing any sort of city business because at that point you'd be um hitting a quorum um and we would want to make sure that that was uh public um so the the public has a right to be informed of the things that are going on and essentially the biggest
guideline with this is we don't want any decisions or any conversations that impact the direction of this committee to be done behind closed doors and so we want transparency and we want authenticity um for this committee so um if you are seeing some committee members outside just make sure you're not m not
hitting that quorum um some other general guidelines um is to um think about the communication channels that we might use so technology also um applies to the quorum that we might reach so if you get pulled into an
email and there's multiple people on it um that are on this committee uh I would recommend not doing a reply all or anything like that so that you avoid um some of that public information because even personal emails might be pulled into public data if it um is doing city
business any questions regarding any of this awesome all right ready for the fun stuff all right so um just wanted to highlight some some work so the things that happened during these meetings are things that actually do provide
direction for um what the department does and so um some things that we had accomplished as a committee last year um is I got a crash course the second that I accepted this position so for our new committee members I started last year
almost a full year ago um it was this meeting last year that it was announced that I was joining you guys um and um when I first got here I was quickly thrown into the world of learning how to be a um city planner because I had never reviewed a sketch plot in my life we
reviewed a lot of sketch plots last year so City of Victoria is a rapidly growing community um and we have new housing developments that are coming and with the city of Victoria being dubbed the city of lakes and parks um something that is um very important to both the city council and of course this
committee is making sure that that is the forefront of our decision-m when we're reviewing a lot of these new developments that come through and so throughout the course of last year there was quite a few um developments that came through that um this community reviewed um in terms of identifying what
parkland was being dedicated what trails sidewalks connections um were being included in the plans um as well as uh park dedication fees that would aid in the development of future parkland and so there was um what four five different um
residential and commercial developments that were um conducted last year um that um some passed some didn't um that this committee reviewed and moved moved forward another thing that um this committee um had accomplished was um
different areas of public engagement and so um earlier on in the year uh this committee provided um ideas and thoughts regarding the theme of um types of questions that they wanted to ask um for the uh Victoria Recreation Center survey
um we are approaching um a time of decision um in the direction and the future of that facility and so this survey helped us get a pulse on um what the community was looking for and so this committee was able to um gather um thoughts and ideas of what to ask and
then when that information was um gathered um this committee reviewed all that information and um found some of the major key themes for us to consider as we move forward um earlier this year uh we did uh review a public engagement
policy um that is helping to steer our engagement efforts as we continue on with new developments and upgrades to larger um facilities this committee also reviews um projects that are proposed um and so last year there was two Eagle Scout projects that
um were presented to um this committee for review one of them was a Gaga pit and for um any of you who've never experienced Gaga it's a really fun game of a confined pit where it's kind of a dodgeball game and it's really popular
with the youth and um so one of the Eagle Scout groups um did a project um over at Rap City Park to install one over there and that one was a big hit this past summer um additionally another Eagle Scout came forward with the idea to um install four
new um community garden plots over at the Holy uh Holy Family uh community garden site and um these ones are accessible they're slightly smaller which was a need that the community had expressed that they wanted um and um so this went forward and they were able to
finish that with ample time for us to be able to get it ready for the season and good news is that the community loved it and they are all already rented out for the year um and then a final one is the committee also reviewed recommendations um regarding uh park signage that is
coming up um that park signage is actually in place so if you've been to any of our parks and you've seen a stake in the ground um that's because that is a proposed location for a site some of them are being modified slightly um but new park signs are going to be put up in um our park system this year and so it's
going to allow for people to really know that they are at a Victoria park um these signs are great you guys provided lots of great feedback for um what those will look like and so those are some things that we did there um and then another um big passion project for this committee is um focusing on trail gaps
and so we reviewed um the trail gaps um that were previously identified um ensured the prioritization um was correct based on the committee's needs um as well as um the committee also added in a few more and I will go in depth into that um here in a little bit
because we will review all of those um areas um but the big thing with that is um with us being such an um pedestrian friendly city um it's important to address those uh connections so that people can get through and the ultimate goal is to make sure that people can travel throughout the whole city
regardless of what mode of transportation they're picking right so um for our park system overview as I said earlier we are the city of lakes and parks so what does that mean so um for the city of Victoria um we do
have 26 parks seven of them are larger neighborhood parks eight are smaller neighborhood parks two are community park so like larger draws um we have a signature community park um regional park uh an urban park like the downtown
area here and then six defined um nature areas and I will say um that number is um slightly different than last year because we did sell um that Tamarak um overlook um as a part of the arburetum plan um and so that one is going to be considered it's still a community
amenity um it's just not a city-owned property anymore we do have u approximately 53 miles of trail um and even more sidewalk throughout the entire city um throughout all of Victoria there's approximately 200 acres of
parkland um and 613 acres of open space in terms of um the overall city this expands even greater when we include some of our um other county partners our privately owned operations things like that so uh the Carver Park
Reserve um increases our um land use um significantly um that is an amazing amenity that this city of Victoria has right in its backyard um we also have a privately owned um deer run golf course and so that's included as a recreational
amenity for the city um and then the um University of Minnesota's Arboritum is also located in part here um as well as a variety of privately maintained parks and playgrounds some unique features to um the city of Victoria we've got our Wasserman Lake
Preserve um so you'll see that in the middle picture on the far right um this one is a very natural landscaped area um it had been um redeveloped um recently um it has two park shelters that um or one large one that has two two areas
that can be rented out um where the whole thing can be rented out it has natural play spaces it has a boardwalk that leads to the lake area it also has a kayak launch there um so there's a lot of really wonderful nature amenities um in that region it's also home to some of
our youth camps um and new this summer we are um going to be offering um an outdoor workout program there um so if you want to join workout at Wasserman that's also happening there this summer we also have um Puppets Field which is located at Lions Park and that one is
the home to the uh the VIX so if you guys are baseball fans there's um town ball that gets played there this year and that schedule is already out uh we also have the Charleston Thoon uh community band stand right behind us um right outside Stiger Lane uh that one uh
we host a a variety of uh community events um whether it be concerts in the park we've got um lunchtime tunes that happens there um lots of exciting things that happen there as a part of um downtown um life we also have the Kirk Lockan Park which um leads us um
directly into the Minnesota River Valley Trail so um just to kind of give you guys an overview of um some of the national trends so for those who were here last year some of this will be repeated information but something that is really
important to us as a city is um ensuring that our residents have access um to a lot of amazing amenities throughout the the city and so um there's numbers that we strive for and we look to meet if not
exceed our uh market cities so these market cities will be ones that are comparable in size and population things like that but just to give you kind of an overall idea of what um national averages are um smaller cities are and then of course the ones that are closest
to us um we are doing really great um with our median number of residents per park and so um obviously the um areas that are a little bit more condensed um like major cities things like that that number tends to um get significantly
higher so our residents do have um a lot of access to parks in addition um there's parkland so this is more of like the natural spaces things like that green space um we do have about 18.2 acres per um thousand residents in
Victoria and this is a little outdated um based on the population since we are growing um but um that number um will not change much because we do have additional parkland that's being dedicated as part of that growth um we also have approximately 611
residents per playground um which far exceeds our market cities um and especially the national average we've also got um quite a large number of diamond fields so we have a lot of associations that use um our
fields which um is home to a lot of the baseball leagues that the kids in the community participate in and so um we are doing almost double what um our market cities are doing and then median residents per
tennis court um we do have really wonderful tennis courts located at the um Holy Family Catholic School site um as well as a few community ones throughout um the city and um we are also doing really great on that number there
and then in terms of basketball courts um we've got about a little over 1500 residents per basketball court compared to the market cities of 2700 and then in terms of our outdoor ice rink this past summer um we did not
um operate it because we are re-evaluating the way that that's working um but um we will be including this as a part of conversations for um future park redevelopments and focuses um as we are looking for winter
activities and so this is one area that we are looking to continue to improve still beating the national average just not quite where our market cities are so then moving on to what Victoria actually has because we do have 26 parks not everything could fit on this slide
so I will skip over this one fairly quickly to get to the backside um but we do have a a wide variety of parks throughout the city and so pretty much every neighborhood has walkable access to um some sort of park amenity nearby
um and so on this slide you'll see the totals um so throughout the city of Victoria we do have 14 ball fields um we do have our one community band stand we have six and a half um basketball courts and the half is because there is one that is a half court um and then we have
two bike fix it stations um in our trail system um we currently don't have a boat launch in the city that is one thing that um will be noted as our uh committee is continuing to meet this year as we talk about um park spaces and amenities that we're lacking um we
currently do not have a public um waterfront access um we have uh I forgot to update this number we um do have community gardens and we we will add in for um a little
bit more for that one and then uh fishing pier we do have uh one fish or two fishing peers um here in this the city um the one outdoor ice rink that was previously at Lions Park is still included in this list um we do have the eight pickle ball courts that are located right outside the Victoria
Recreation Center um we have seven uh park shelters we have 18 playgrounds currently um we do have um some rain gardens um that are more natural throughout the city we have one skate park located at Lions Park um there are
three snowshoe areas um in the city and these are in partnership with some of our community partners um we have five soccer fields and 11 tennis courts and then um in terms of some of that growth um we do have um a few parks
that are slated for construction at some point um the two most up and cominging ones are the Huntersburg Park and the Marsh Hollow Park and so with that one um we do have uh public engagement events that are coming up this summer and so in that lovely uh program guide
that I shared um the very first page as you open it up is our explore together dream together events and that's what these public engagement events are referring to um and so we have those um coming this summer that as um parks and
recreation committee members you are invited and encouraged to attend um the first one will be um on Tuesday June 24th um and this one will be focusing at and on the Huntersbrook um future site park um and then Tuesday August 19th is
um the is at the Marsh Hollow Future Site um and we'll focus on the development there um as well as we have one um that is focusing on trails that will be at the Noterman Trail on Tuesday um Wednesday or on July 2nd
um so Jenna for those Are we going to like have not really a formal training but are we going to discuss at a future meeting prior to those happening like just so that we're
prepared with any like question and answers that we may get yeah so um part of this is more so informal just so you can be there to hear what people are saying and engage with the public um because as friendly as I might be they may not
necessarily want to um share the information with me they might want to share it with um the parks and recreation committee member or their their neighbor um who happens to be going at this um and so some of it will be very informal and it'll just be conversations um with you and the committee but I can certainly go over um
maybe some more key points or maybe some things that we might um need help with okay um and some of it will um the staff will be providing information on um I'm working on a community survey that will be going out this summer um that will be talking about park developments and the
survey will um focus on some of these areas but it'll also talk about the park system at large um because there's some things that might be able to go in these future developments and then there's some stuff that we might want to consider um in terms of overall um park visioning um because as we are um
talking about park replacements new developments things like that we do want to look at it with a larger lens um throughout how are we impacting the entire community not just how are we impacting this one particular neighborhood um because I will u mention that the Huntersburg Park and the Marsh Hollow Park are both just over five
acres so they're fairly large-sized parks and so um these are areas that we want to um be able to really keep a good eye on like are they spaces for you know potential fields are they So is that similar in size to Rap City okay that's
super helpful um and then another one um that um we've uh received lots of questions on is the uh future Brook Park um that one is going to be included in the upcoming capital improvement plan and so as of right now there's not a
specific timeline when that one will be um conducted but um like all of our uh park developments there will be public engagement that will happen beforehand um for this one specifically um we do need to secure funding for it um both the Hunters Brook and the Marsh Hollow Park um are included with park
dedication fees um the Brookar Park um needs separate funding um because it wasn't included with that it was acquired through a different process um so um that one will be done at some point in time so if you do have residents um that are asking regarding that one it will be included in the
capital improvement plan that will be completed later this year jenna can you remind me where the Brookmire Park yes so that one um it's in um the LAR development that's um kind of off Coachia and Kerber Court oh okay
actually knew that one you should be proud of me awesome yeah so for so for so for example for Hunterbrook like at that session would you have materials out that say like ball fields are possible
oh yeah fullsize tennis court or a fullsize basketball court is possible so that residents can react to like specifics yep so a lot of examples of what could be possible in each of those locations will be a part of this the materials that will be at these events
and so um no need to worry on any of that we'll have all those materials we'll also um be working with our communications department um and we've already been brainstorming some ways to make it interactive um so that people can be engaged with it and it's not just a conversation it's you know some
visuals things that they can engage with um things like that because we really do want the community to tell us what what it is that we want we don't want to just create a park um that may not meet the needs of the residents and so as much engagement as we possibly can um the better and so um we even we want the
kids to be involved too because if there's stuff that they're seeing that they really want we want to include that so there'll be um ways to engage with through not just different methods but for all ages okay all right any questions on that wonderful all right um we'll move
on to our trail assessment so um I will be going through our um trail gap priorities and so this is something that this parks and recreation committee um has evaluated before um but we did um rep prioritized them last year um there
was a lot of sites that were mentioned that um are still a part of that trail g trail gap list um that we prioritized um as well as a couple additions that were included so um with this list um I'm just going
to go through um there's a lot of different um reasons that things might be on this list whether it be a development um you know environmental um restrictions um maybe private lands things like that um maybe it's a county
road that we need to work with our community partners on um so there's a variety of reasons that these trail gaps exist um and so we will talk through those kind of on a high level um as we continue on and I'll also kind of give an update as to where some of these are
because the good news is that there's a quite quite a few of these that are actually going to be addressed as a part of the arburetum transportation plan um that's coming up and I do encourage any of you um if um trail gaps are a priority um for you
um reading through that arburetum transportation plan it has a lot of really wonderful information on there as to how they're addressing this and kind of a timeline of when some of these things are coming and so the first uh trail gap that we have identified is the very road east trail um this
can I ask you to share one thing because I knew I didn't get this and understand this for a while can you share like all of our park funding is from like park dedication fees and specific budget but
trail funding is completely separate from that so I don't know if you want to speak more to it but I know like um that has always been a question that we've like redised sure yeah so um so new developments do
come from park dedication fees upgrades are things that um for parks are things that get budgeted parks and trails um or the trails are also things that have to get budgeted for some of them these ones are tricky because um some of them might be um streets related some of them might
um interact with a county system or a highway things like that and so sometimes the funding is a little bit different um for our trails um the city does have um the lens that they want um trail gaps to be addressed when new developments and street projects come
through and so a good majority of the trail gaps um are addressed when we do upgrades to a street like say a county road needs to be replaced that's a time for us to be able to do those upgrades to incorporate that into potentially you know different sources of funding um in
terms of some of the maintenance that comes along with it or um things like that those are things that we are um working on a plan to kind of establish um an ongoing thing so that is something that um I'm working with our um finance and creating a plan to kind of address
which is slightly different than how it's been in the past um but um typically that's something that um it comes from a completely different funding source and so trail gaps um unfortunately exist for a reason and that's because they're really hard to fund um because it's not um something
that just has an ongoing budget for it doesn't have a revenue source that's coming in for it um and so some of these that's why um you'll hear me note that it's being included in a future plan um for development or a street project or something like that um but the city is
working on um finding a way to create a sustainable funding source um that we can continue moving these forward um but the details of that um are yet to be determined but feel free to get excited because work funding source i think one of the things
too that until we got real you know looked at these and u we saw what the cost of some of them are it's a lot more than you would realize you know some of the trails were you know around a million dollars uh 500,000 was not
unusual that doesn't get you a whole lot because they have to meet certain standards and other things too so it's I know when I first got on here it's like well it's kind of like doing doing your driveway you know so you do a few of those and you're $15,000 we should kind
of get this one done and it's not even close to that so is is there a link or a direction to a specific um set of minutes or collection of minutes to find the actual study that
developed kind of these outputs um so there is a meeting minutes somewhere the date that um it is I'm not 100% sure um it was towards maybe November that we talked about it last year however if you
go online um to Victoria Victoria's website and just search um trail it'll pop up there's a um an entire page on our website that talks about trail connections the prioritization is listed on there which I will note that um I
have shared the prioritization list with our communications department recently um and so they will be getting the updated it still has the outdated um you can blame me on that one um I got the information to them and they will be working on updating that so you'll be able to find it there and the updated
version is coming soon but maybe Larry I mean you want to share and Mary have been on here for years uh like we relooked at trail gaps but if you guys want to share your history
that's helpful too okay well I can uh uh when I first got on the committee we looked at all the gaps and we had some criteria we were trying to we established first we looked
at different things like um access to the downtown area u how many people might be using this are there neighborhoods that are excluded that can't get on trail system uh we made a
list of all those and we kind of went through this process it took a long time um I think I had dark hair then um but uh it took a lot of time and we came up with some some priorities and uh
and the role of this group is not that we're going to do this it's to recommend this to the city council so we're kind of advisory in a way but the city council looks for our recommendations and and those things so we'd looked at that and we recommend that you know here
are the trail gaps that that we see and then uh we attempted to go forward to uh address some of those major gaps that we could and there was some funding at that time uh but we found it didn't go too
far so the staff is always looking for grants and and things and we did receive one grant uh that would have completed one of the trails but uh we needed uh to get some rightaway approvals that we weren't able to get at that time uh so
that one kind of we only could do part of that that trail and with the uh ivoryum uh project uh that will be completed uh coming up so that's good and then each year we kind of take a look at that and see you
know is this still the case uh and uh I think if nothing else it continues to bring uh to the attention of the council and the city residents that you know that there is an ongoing process to look
at at gaps um I don't know Mary or Amanda or Jacob anybody want to add or uh Perry i've been on the committee six years and I think we've had one cap completed in six years so I mean it's it's a slug to get through them but the
one thing I'll you'll just echo what Jenna is saying is Arboritum Transportation Plan is going to um take care of a few and even like the project with the roundabout that's going in down on Victoria Drive and um Pioneer Trail they're going to the countyy's going to put in some trails there to go up the
west side of Victoria Drive so you know when the county gets involved in some of those projects then they're taking care of some of those trails so sometimes just have to be patient um and wait for those trails to be connected on somebody else's dime um but it's just it's hard
it's expensive and and every year that we wait the costs keep going up but it's expensive i was I had no idea how expensive it was one of the one of the things too and uh Jenna mentioned this in her presentation was um that we look
for when developments come that's been the the biggest so far so we've actually knocked a few things off that list oh like Cochia like Coachia was a huge connector um there was a trail done at Lions Park that was part of the you know
some of the other work they were doing there um so there's there's several of them that are happening um and we're always looking for that but the real key is looking forward and that's something else Jenna had mentioned that we review
the the plat for new developments so we're always looking and encouraging that's the time to put the trail in have it part of the development and it's never going to be cheaper than to do it then and do it right and so uh we've
been very successful so far uh in all these developments are coming that there's trails part of that so that will people that are serving on a committee like this uh 25 years from now won't be talking about those trail gaps for those
new developments hopefully so but yeah I mean I would just say like um it probably goes back I think I like to I like to go back to meeting minutes jenna said if you're on there um like so I oftentimes bring work that
we've done in the past to make sure that like yep this is aligned with what we've done in the past and in Trail Gaps was way back in 2019 so like before I was even on the committee I was following
the work of this committee and um like finding those initial prioritizations and stuff like Larry said and a lot of that initial work was is this how is this connecting Victoria to other cities and other trail systems as well so like
we have all these um neighboring cities that have trails coming in and how are we connecting into them as well um but then also um at the start of a meeting like um we have seen citizens come in
and that's most likely the reason that we see citizens come in is to um advocate for their neighborhood trail connection so because people have come in then our most recent um
uh trail gap prioritization list included some additional spots um and and like I said I know I used to come in before I was on the committee as well so
yeah and one last thing too is uh several community surveys have taken place and uh some of those address community park and wreck things and the first one that I was involved with or
was on the committee with park or the trail gaps was the number one issue and I think the last one that we had it was like second uh after water amenities oh so there's some some big things uh to look at and should be exciting times as
our community grows and uh we have opportunities to uh continue to improve our park system trail system when do we hear about like county projects i know Victoria South's having a big transportation one in a couple years i think it's two years do we usually get a
good amount of notice to maybe have conversations with the county too uh it depends on our involvement with it sometimes it's a decision that's made okay and so if it's something that um we can provide feedback on um then we will
do that but there are sometimes that the decision is made on um a much higher level um and so we might not necessarily have feedback on it but um one thing to rest assured is our city council um also um makes this a huge priority um and so
even if it only stops at city council they are pushing these forward as well and so it's a big passion for them to make sure that we um are addressing the connections and anytime something is being done um we have like our city planning and engineering team um that's
the first thing that they do um the city also has a development review team which I also sit on and so when these things do come across I'm advocating for it um and so um even if it is something that um doesn't quite make it to the committee I will keep you guys informed
when I know when things are coming um as well as be advocating for that outside of this so some of some of this um is work that um you guys are making those recommendations and bringing forward and then some of it is you've already made your your stance very clear of these are the things that you want so these are
things that I will continue on um outside of these meeting times you can personally sign up for arboritum area transportation plan updates and ask to be included in their mailings and emails as well i get them all the time it's
really informative it is yeah wonderful cool all right hey Jenna all right so I'm going to um briefly go over this um and if you have any questions regarding any of these specific trail gaps um feel free um to
ask or um see me later um and again um there will be more detailed information that will become available online soon so this first one um is a little over a mile uh between um Highway 5 and County Road 18 um this um trail connection um
would be a major hub for a lot of different things um including the Minnotonka regional trail uh it'll get you to Carver Chaza the Arboritum things like that this is one that is included in that Arborita area transportation
plan so this one is being addressed um the next one is um an extension of the Lank Minnetonka Regional Trail um this one um is one that um this committee had um ensured
that this one was a higher priority um in terms of like if we have a choice to be able to address it um one thing to note with this one um there is a wetland and creek between Kirk Walkan and Lake Bridge so this trail is one that's challenging to complete um there's also
some um privately owned parcels that would need to be acquired as a part of this trail um so this is one that is rather challenging to com to complete um but the city is continuing to identify solutions for this con this connection as well as um working with any future developers um that might come through
this area the next one um is a little over a quarter mile between or along County Road um 11 um and this one would connect um Chevel to Red Fox Trail um the city
is continuing to work with the county uh partners to develop this trail when um future improvements um occur um this one would um require um county rights of way access um to that trail crossing at um Red Fox
Drive next one um County Road 11 to Watermark neighborhood um along 43 um this one is just under half mile um this portion of the trail um or a portion of this trail was connected um in 2023 2024
um from Green Crest Drive to County Road 11 um and this is another one where we're continuing to work with our county partners to um find a solution for next one um is um Bavaria Road West um this one um is uh another one that's
a part of this um Arborita area transportation plan um to be completed um so this one we are working with our county um to be able to address this one the next one um is a portion of um our trail it technically we discussed
this one it technically isn't a trail gap it is a trail um so it does connect it is just not paved and so it does um impact accessibility for um certain types of um traffic um to go through this one um
we are working with the county i had a conversation with our county partners last week that um we want to try to find a way to um take care of this and so those conversations are continuing to be had in terms of how we can get that
section connected through pavement the next one um is um between Tellers Road and Marsh Lake Road um this one is another one that um would require county rights of way access um and multiple road crossings um and so um there is a
little work that needs to be done in order to be able to develop this portion of the trail um and we would be working with our county partners with this one as well the next one um is just a um crossing so it's um not creating a brand new trail but it is providing a safe crossing um
this one exciting news it is also being included in the Arburrito area transportation plan um so an underpass is being um created for this one the next one um is on um Earling Acres North
um this one is a stretch of land that um is also being included um as a connection um as a part of the area arboritum area transportation plan i'm getting tongue-tied saying that so many times but it's great news it's being done it's being included so I am so
excited when we can redo this prioritization list and cut all those out all right the next one um is um a connection along Highway 7 um and it would connect um some neighborhoods um that would give them some safe crossings
um so we are um supporting a city of Shorewoods legislative bonding request for a corridor study of this area um so we don't have any identified um ways to be able to address it quite yet um but um this study would help um secure potential funding um to be able to um
provide that safe access um and any improvements for future projects along this area next one and this one was the previous final of um the last prioritization list so the um the next two after this one are brand new this one um is a stretch
um along Auburn Drive uh or connecting to Auburn Drive and this one is um going to be um a section that is going to require quite a bit of work because it's going to be a part of a um major project in that western development area so
roundabout area is going to be popping up so feel free to um check that um road developments because that will be included in that project next one is a new one um excuse my drawing here it's not as fancy um but this one is connecting that Waterford uh
Water for neighborhood um to Rolling Acres and so this one is um also something that would have to be working alongside um um regional partners because of Highway 7 um but this is something that we will uh take into
consideration as we um continue on um and especially when road improvements occur then the final one is a SAP crossing um that has been brought up um so this one it would be a safe crossing at Woodstone Drive to connect that
watermark trail all right any questions about that before I move on to our last portion how much of these usually have like wide shoulders on the road have we analyzed that before too or is it usually just a sidewalk i'm sure you've looked at it but
a lot of them actually have really deep ditches and so part of our problem is you're going you might have to build a boardwalk through the wetland and you've got deep ditches and it's it's a that's the engineering part of it is why it gets to be really expensive that's why we get to get into the half
million to millions of dollars yeah and so and also I don't know the language but like these are considered more trails so it's not like a neighborhood so in language terms like a
neighborhood sidewalk is like the um white sidewalk that like neighbors you know you have to shovel off these trails are like citymaintained larger they now have a
larger width requirements right and different types of pavement as well also it's mimous paving rather than concrete which um concrete um and our trails do use different um types of machines to take care of them um and they are
different to maintain um and so that's something to keep in mind so sidewalks are definitely connections um but trails are the ones that are maintained by the city or our community partners depending upon what they are okay yeah i was just going to add uh if
you're curious one or two of these is sort of part of the Carver County uh plan for the they call it the Southwest Regional Trail it would connect uh like Lake Mitanka Regional Trail to the Minnesota River Bluffs Trail Victoria to Chesca um so they they've been working
on that for I think 15 years now but they just updated the master plan in 2022 um and so there's a lot of information on their website about that which ones are which are those um well it would be the one we moved to number two is
potentially part of that um I don't know that was the number two one yeah um and then yeah that one uh because they're trying to figure out how to connect the Lake Minnotonka Regional Trail down to basically Waserman um and so that's part
of that and then the other one um that's by Wasserman was would also be part of that okay what's the timing of that have any idea someday someday we'll be able you know the the key though all this is
you know we go through this um process and while it doesn't necessarily going to happen tomorrow or next year even it's there's a plan so when discussions when staff has discussions with community partners or partners in the
area or opportunities come up it's like oh we can kind of kill two birds with one stone here and there is a plan as opposed to not having a plan and then it maybe gets missed or we miss an opportunity so uh it's good to have a
good planning process yeah I was curious because like I've lived in Minneapolis and that had wide shoulders and big trails right next to each other which is really nice so then in Shockp it's a lot of trails but no shoulders so it was kind of hard based on what you're working on so yeah it's a unique spot
where can you hit two at once just one so awesome all right so our next um thing to talk about is the Victoria Recreation Center so this um facility was originally built in 2002 um and was named the Victoria Fieldhouse at that
point in time it was one sheet of ice um so the site was built um with just that one rink it was lacking a lot of the amenities that we know it to be now so it didn't have meeting rooms or office spaces or storage or things like that um so the school district came on board in
2009 um which allowed the expansion to two rinks as well as additional amenities um within the facility um the recreation center is um fully self-sufficient with funding um it's not supported through city tax dollars um
it's funded entirely through revenues from rentals from memberships and the partnership with um the school district which gets um revenue from um their rentals um their lease agreements as well as um tax dollars that the the
school district gets um the city owns the building but it is co-maintained um between us and the school district um we maintain the recreation center side of it so the gymnasium multi-purpose room fitness center things like that um and then the school district operates the
two ice rinks this cur this contract that we have with them currently is set to expire in 2032 um but we may see some additional changes come forward um as uh the Chanhassen Bluffs Community Center was recently passed and um as it would
make sense for namesake um Chanhassen Storm would um the plan is to move them to um this facility um when they are able to open it so it creates new opportunities for us to be able to consider the use of this space and how we want to operate it um when that lease
agreement does end or if it enter so the Victoria Recreation Center um has a lot of different things that operates out of it um like I said there are the two ice rinks so it is home to um currently the Chanhassins uh storm uh
boys hockey team um the Holy Family Catholic School does um have um it is home to both the boys and the girls hockey teams um and it's also one of the home ice rinks for the Chesca Chan Hockey Association um so they are major users but we do have other community
partners that use the space um as well as um we have our open skate program that's there as well um we also have other amenities um at um the recreation center in addition to the ice arena we have a gymnasium which has two um full-size basketball courts in there um
but these basketball courts aren't just used for basketball um the courts are designed so that it can be used for a variety of things um including um there's um volleyball nets that are kind of built so that you can place them into the ground um so it can be used for
volleyball nets those basketball hoops are designed to come up and down to be out of the way um it is also home to the beloved indoor um open pickle ball um that happens in our winter seasons um slash really cold spring seasons because Minnesota is Minnesota um and so um we
do have um different things like that we also do rent it um people like there's public users that come and rent it um for sports or programs as well as different community events like home shows and things like that um as well as um blood drives happen in there as well
it's also home to elections when those come around uh we also have multi-purpose room um this one is a large open space that can be partitioned off into two rooms so that's why you see the A and the B um and this one used to
be home to a um daycare on site um it is not operated that way now um but it does um host a variety of programs events um fitness opportunities um things like that it also has a really great outdoor connection um straight from that room uh
the recreation center also has a fitness center um that is available to members um so all sorts of fitness equipment gear things like that um and there's a walking track that is um open and free to the public uh fair warning it is above the ice rink so it does maintain a
consistent winter temperature but when it's hot in the summer it's very popular um and so a lot of people tend to come um especially if there's um bad weather days um so the VRC does have memberships and passes so it's both member-based um
so unlimited access um if you're a member um and then there's passes you can do a daily daily rate or there's discounted punch passes that are available um both members and uh pass users uh have access to the fitness center um new this year all of those
options include access to um group fitness um the gymnasium during um just open gym open pickle ball um as well as just any non-rened times that's open to our members um members also have access
to our open skate periods um and then members get um discounted uh rental rates to the multi-purpose room in the gymnasium as well as continuing on with access to the free walking track um the parks and recreation department just a quick overview we also
do recreation programming so we're not just facilities we are programs as well and so this is something that um you might hear from your members of things or the community that um they're interested in certain things things like that um we are a growing department and so um we do hope at some point to be
able to bring on additional staff to run more programming um and so those are things that if there's something that you're hearing from the public that um they really wish a certain type of program existed in the community feel free to let me know um I want to be able to create an environment where we're
providing the services and the programs that the community wants and so if there's something that we can do feel free to let me know some of the existing programming um that we already have um it ranges in age and we are looking again to grow the opportunities that we
have and so we have you know family events like our royal ball our superhero party um new this year I started uh senior bingo programs um which uh were a hit and we have another summer one that's coming that'll be out at Wasserman uh we have a variety of youth
camps some that are um run independently by us some that are in contracts um with community partners and some that are um through private um contracted instructors um we've got um open pickle ball like I already mentioned we offer a
variety of art technology and enrichment classes at the rec center um there's a lot of community events that's done throughout the city um that is offered and then there's more that I'm sure that I forgot um last thing is looking forward so um
if you have reviewed our work plan there's a lot of wonderful things that are on there and so some of the things that we're looking forward to accomplishing as a committee this year um is some of those park engagement for park projects um it's a wonderful time to be a part of it because you get to um
play an active role in um casting the vision for how we want our parks to be developed um we've got some non-traditional park spaces that we'll be evaluating this is um some of those open green spaces it could be trail spaces it could be water amenities that we're searching for things like that um
we have some code ordinances that are going to be reviewed this year um so you'll have the opportunity to shape a little bit of how we enforce usage um throughout our city um as well as um a continued conversation on the Victoria Recreation Center so as we do approach
that end of that contract um we will be transitioning to how we are going to be maintaining um that facility long term any questions okay well thank you Jenna that was very informative
um hearing no questions uh is there any other business we need to cover this evening i just thought of one thing okay sorry I didn't bring it up earlier um I I know last time we talked about how the city
is providing a service along with a provider for um the emerald ashore management plan um do we also have a a a opportunity or
connection with a provider for like purchasing trees i've heard about um programs run with other cities where residents um uh are provided an opportunity to buy trees for their
properties at at I believe like discounted um rates uh currently um there is not um that uh type of program um but I can bring it up to our uh
public works team because they would be the ones with connections with that and see if that's something that we would even be able to do as a city okay um I've personally not worked with um anything like that before i do know that other cities run it um it's usually in partnership with some sort of um
uh a company that um does the trees so not sure um if that's something that we'd be able to provide but I'm more than happy to bring that forward as a question okay okay i do have a just a couple things one is like to take this opportunity to
thank Mary Larson for serving as the vice chair for the last several years and thanks for filling in when I wasn't here and uh doing so very well thank you and then uh also uh Jenna mentioned but
she's finished her first full cycle of being our park and wreck dire or director done my estimation excellent job of leadership and it's kind of uh come
uh along as learning the system and and uh I think she's enjoying what she's doing you can tell by uh her excitement about park and recre so thanks Jenna for all that you do for all of us and the community and welcome to our new members
so okay anything else for the good of the cause if not a motion would be in order to adjourn i move to adjourn okay is there a second second okay i assume everybody said
yes thank you everyone