Travis County Commissioners Court
Tuesday, August 10, 2010,
Item 7
7. Consider and take appropriate action on the following: a, approve conceptual master plan for 2005 bond-funded phase 3 improvements at northeast metro park; and b, approve amending the northeast metro park master plan to include a second park entrance road
>> good morning.
>> good morning, joe gieselman, charles bird,
>> [indiscernible] with t.n.r. And we are here to present some amendments to the master plan of the northeast metropolitan park. Partly brought about by the 2005 bond election and some improvements that we're making in the park. Wendy is going to go through those amendments.
>> good morning, commissioners.
>> good morning.
>> i've been a member of the design team with park staff on working on this project. I also have been responsible for taking it through the -- through the public review process. So this is a 2005 bond project. It's phase 3. We got money in '97 and 2001 to do sports fields in the northern part of the park. In this phase we are moving south and this is consistent with the master plan that the court adopted. Oh, back in -- i guess it would have been 96 or 70. If -- at that point we had two activity centers. And for general recreational use, picnic tables, restrooms, trails, in the course of the 2005 bond program you may remember that the skateboarders organized themselves and came out and made a very compelling case for building a skate park in the county park. It is in this vicinity here. So i'm going to give you a brief overview of the plan. And then talk about public input. And then joe will talk about the -- about the proposed road master plan amendment. So we are -- we are in the park that -- in the park that tbil land creek run -- gilleland creek runs by, lots of wooded areas in the creeks in the eastern part of the county. These areas weren't typically cleared for agriculture, because this whole area and up here are -- are former -- former you arein Pflugerville, on gilleland creek in eastern travis county. So -- so we're bringing the woodlands up higher, i mean, this is going to be a long, ongoing process. We have -- we have kept the -- the hedge row that was there as part of the farm. Farmland. And as a reminder of this culture ral historic -- cultural historic use of the land, we will punch some trails through there, but we want to keep that largely intact. We are using this very curvilinear farm to echo the form of the creek winding through the site. Here we have the -- the skate park and there's going to be a restroom in this vicinity. We have an existing basketball court. A previously grant funded project. And -- and there are existing trails that go through here. This is a remote part of the park. There aren't any roads coming down here, but nevertheless it ends up here currently. There are people that take the effort to come down into this part of the park. This is a great, open area, that has pecan trees in there, there's picnic tables. So you will go out there on an evening and there are people walking, there are people using basketball court. So that is going to be incorporated and the intent of this plan is to -- is to support the existing use and draw more people into this park. So we have the -- the skate park area and then down here are the facilities that someone like me would use. Picnic, facilities, picnic tables, a restroom and then there's going to be a playground that is not going to be a typical playground in which we have equipment out of the catalog. We are -- we're using natural materials, sand, rock, water. And the thinking on this is that -- is that, you know, children are not getting enough outdoor exposure to nature. This is a -- this isn't nature itself, but natural materials, this sort of play encourages imaginative play and cooperative play. So let's see a skate park, general recreational facilities, there's room to extend the picnic area because we imagine there's going to be demand for that as this area gets known. Skate park as i mentioned, let me talk about public input now. We started out with two. The consultant skate park designer, started out with two meetings, one in Pflugerville, one down here to just meet with the skateboarders. There was a potentially contentious issue in that you have the older first generation skaters who want a bowl, this type of con riggation. You have younger skaters who want what they call a plaza type of skate park. They have steps, they have railings and bench type of structure that's just like skating on the city street. So actually they worked this out and most of the area is going to the plaza type of design, then there is going to be a bowl, also. I don't know the names of these things, but they are colorful, like the waterfall, the slappy wall, the snake run. Anyway, they are very happy what we were coming up with, this is going to be one of the nicest skate parks in the area. We then had general public meetings, again Pflugerville and downtown and the project, project design was very well received by the skaters, by the general public and city of Pflugerville elected officials and staff came to the meetings, also. Construction cost estimate is 2.8 million. $4 million was allocated to this project. 2.8 is not tapping into the contingency fund. That doesn't include the consultant fees, there's also the bond issuance and administrative costs and in 2005 we also had an inflation allowance on it. So we are well within budget. You know, we think this is going to be a great project and the community is very interested in it, so we hope that you decide to approve that today. Approve this. And, joe, he's going to talk about the -- about the --
>> this is skating like the x games on television?
>> you mean like shaun white? At a smaller scale, yes.
>> yes, this is skate boarding, like you would see on x game.
>> turning flips.
>> i don't think that scale. We are really hoping this becomes an amenity for other people, you know, a spectator sport.
>> do we check with legal about our potential liability?
>> have we --
>> that's my first thought every time i see it on tv.
>> well, i have not checked with legal on our potential liability. Okay? Wendy can i ask you about the -- actually the playscape, the imaginative creative playscape. I understand there's a climbing rock, also a water feature where you can make little canals, change the trajectory of the water with rocks.
>> yes, there's a park on -- on brushy creek that we saw that inspired this. What you will have is -- is a little spray park, which is some simple spray features that the children can run through. We are capturing that runoff, bringing it down by the sand pit, a large sand pit, which -- which will be covered so -- so the shade and children can play with the water. What we saw up at this park was that they actually had moved rocks and directed the water into the -- into the sand pit area. So -- so -- so you know it's -- it's interactive and in a little bit more interesting than -- than your standard playground.
>> thanks, wendy.
>> okay, you are very welcome.
>> in the process of looking at the park with fresh eyes, we looked at the long term access and the need as this park develops and has more and more activity, it's drawing more people to the park. Let me first give you a context. This is state highway 130, comes on the east side of the park. You have pecan street, which -- which it goes from 130 into Pflugerville. And then -- then on the south side, you have -- what is currently called killingsworth lane, a future wells branch parkway. This will be a -- a multiple lane arterial, pecan will be a multiple -- is a multiple lane arterial. Then you have a state highway. All to say there's going to be quite a bit of new development, urbanization in this area, in the next 20 years. And we see Pflugerville growing out from its core to 130. We will see the same thing happen on the south. These two tracts in particular, this is called the anderson tract, it's currently owned by the Pflugerville economic development corporation. And then this large tract is owned by tim timmerman, they have plans for significant commercial multi-use development. We have exclusive use of this park road right now. They approached us some time ago about getting access to the park, we're still in negotiations with them about that. However, looking over the hill, we see the day that we are sole -- our sole access to the park may be compromised by alternate uses of it. So we said well perhaps now is the time to amend our plan and provide for a southern access from this arterial on killingsworth. We went in and amended the plan to provide for another access road from the south that would connect up wells branch parkway or killingsworth to -- to our loop road internal to the park. So it would give us a north access and a south access. We don't have any plans at this moment to construct it. We are merely amending the plan to say at some future date will have a southern access.
>> so where are the soccer fields on that --
>> these are the soccer fields right here, right internal this to loop road.
>> and, joe, just for context purposes, we have a path that runs along this access road on our north. Our north entrance is essentially a very long driveway between two tract planned for commercial development out on to the con, so i think that we are -- in amending the plan to include this southern ingress egress, we are acknowledging that that very long driveway will some day be some level of a collector, Pflugerville street, that is servicing a fairly dense multi-use area immediately to our north. So just looking at the map, it becomes plain that we need a -- a southern entrance off of killingsworth, which will in the future will wells branch.
>> there are all sorts of issues associated with that given that this is a park property. It's purchased with bond money. So it is parkland. And there's also an issue of compensation for -- for providing access to what is otherwise a park road. And those are being discussed with the city. The economic development district and the city of Pflugerville.
>> i was trying to recall years ago when -- when this particular park, i guess, looking at -- looking at gap money i guess that was used back then to deal with the trail, hopefully connecting to other parts of the county south, was that depicted anywhere in the map, that particular b gap money that -- trail that was -- that was a part of -- of this particular park?
>> we --
>> points south, hike and bike trail? I'm sorry, i didn't mean to cut you off.
>> we did use some federal funds to construct a trail from -- from Pflugerville to the park.
>> to the park.
>> and it's actually part of its within the right-of-way of pecan street. It goes back to Pflugerville and then there's the trail within the park road that connects pecan street to the -- to the proper, the park -- the trails within the park itself. So there was a -- there was -- i believe it was a 10-foot concrete trail that came down parallel to the park road.
>> okay.
>> now, this -- this particular portion of this, i know there's a lot of community input, which is really good, i mean that's fantastic. When you have the community making suggestions on how to design a park. I mean, that's pretty good. When you get that type of participation. And with that participation, what can we anticipate bringing this to closure, i guess, in the time line, time frame, with -- with this particular access, when are we looking foreclosure on that? With the improvements and everything else.
>> the -- 12 we will finish with this phase with the skate park. Literally a year and a half.
>> okay, okay, all right. Thank you.
>> also, just for the global picture, that trail goes up the road and then along gilleland creek, then also additional creek improvements that -- that take it almost to i-35.
>> that's pretty -- pretty extensive project.
>> [indiscernible] that was in collaboration with Pflugerville, there was federal money involved in that. As well as i believe city of Pflugerville contribution.
>> commissioner huber?
>> i notice that there's an existing contradict field out there -- cricket field out there, i wasn't aware we had one in travis county? Does it get much play, for those watching who are interesting, they should know that it's there.
>> the games are long, they sometimes last a few days, you have to take a break, go home, finish the game.
>> which is short for a cricket game. I understand they can go on much longer. But there is actually a central texas cricket league, does get considerable play. I believe almost any sunday there's cricket going on in the pitch. It's a beautiful part of the park. If anybody would like to go out and watch the game of cricket played, it's really, really fun.
>> it's the only athletic event that i think we have the -- where the players wear ties.
>> [laughter]
>> mr. Reeferseed.
>> thank you, sir. Just a short question about the park usage. That is other i'm ignore rapt, but anywhere in this vast amount of land that people can liberate their dogs from leashes?
>> actually, we have a leash rule in the park system. And -- and we have had discussions about putting in a dog park and this has been one of the facilities that we -- that we targeted as a possible dog park, but we are not at that point, yet. Right now we have a leash rule.
>> is there a way for citizens like me to express our -- our ideas on that issue?
>> absolutely.
>> this is one way to get into the record, we have a few other items that we need to incorporate into a master plan update.
>> i'm sorry.
>> let's check with our lawyers about the potential legal liability.
>> we'll do that.
>> and do we need this back next week or two weeks from for you?
>> judge, i've -- do you -- i would like to move 7 b the inclusion of the road into the updating of the plan. But i agree that 7 a should wait for a week for a weigh in by legal counsel.
>> i second the motion.
>> perhaps it would be possible to move this into executive session and get that legal advice this afternoon. So we can move forward if there are no -- no issues.
>> but we don't know what the legal advice it. I'm presuming legal could have that legal advice.
>> i will need another week anyway.
>> this is not an unusual activity.
>> on those --
>> actually on the second one we are just acknowledging the southern route.
>> right.
>> and the intention is at some point to -- to implement it.
>> that's right.
>> is that your motion.
>> my motion is to include 7 b into the park plan. Thank you.
>> seconded by commissioner davis. Discussion? On the motion? All in favor? That passes by unanimous vote. 7 b has been approved. 7 a will be brought back next week.
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Last Modified:
Tuesday, August 10, 2010, 2010 1:30 PM
