03-14-1994 Council Packet - Laserfiche WebLink

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MINUTES OF THE ORONO PARK COMMISSION MEETING THURSDAY, JANUARY 6, 1994 acting in a reactive mode rather than a proactive way and she felt it was time for a plan to be developed- McMillan concurred. -- j Moorse stated that presently there are issues coming before the City which have required decisions to be made regarding land use which have not been fully explored or * He stated that it was time to move forward with the plan because funding was avaUable to do this. He noted that the City Council believed that developing such a plan wou d be a means to address some of these concerns. He discussed the needs of the school district and as the City grows, the municipality may need to provide some of the needed facilities. He stressed the need for citizen input. McMillan commented that she would like to have a consultant to help the Commission on issues that regularly arise and Moorse responded that the Park Plan would theoretically provide that assistance; however, there were many parks that were a halt acre in size, which was quite small. Shardlow commented that the best use of the land is one aspect of a park plan, but they also establish goals and standards by translating policy that has been set by the City. This can be done bv the Commission through surveys and public input. He noted tha the City was pretty Wll developed but with Highway 12 being upgraded, it will increase property values, and it would be best to determine where parks were needed or wanted before that occurred. He stated that neighborhood parks are usually ideniihed on an official park plan and these parks were created using park dedication fees. He felt tha the first step would be to establish goals and policies and then development standards could be determined. The final step would be to determine the sites which would be acquired. Case commented that the City of Orono may have a set of standards which would apply given the diversity of the area N^ithin the City. He felt that an inventory of casting parks within the City needed to be done and a determination made regarding whether they met the needs of the City. Shardlow stated that the public needed to be informed of the existing park system and alerted to the other factors which may impact that system. This should include everything that provides recreational facilities for the City. He commented that the community wide survey was an excellent tool for obtaining citizen mput into this process. He noted that the following steps were utilized in implementation of a park plan for a comniunity: 1. Inventory and analysis of existing parks and recreational facilities. 2. Obtaining public input, through surveys or public meetings.