Open Space Advisory Board Agenda and Packet 2014 05 14

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Open Space Advisory Board Minutes April 9th, 2014 Page 4 of 7 be unencumbered by the end of the month. The project is very close to being both on- budget and on- schedule. 4) Ember shared the summer Boulder County Youth Corp program calendar. They will split their time between parks and open space. They will do activities such as weed control, parking lot clean up, floating wetland planting, and Russian olive removal. Ember has scheduled a half -day to have them help brainstorm and develop a youth education program. 5) Parks and Wildlife is helping staff design a school program about coyotes for local elementary schools. The goal is a 15 minutes presentation. 6) A new date for the Open Space Advisory Board study session with Council needs to be scheduled. The originally planned date will not work. Ember will get in touch with us. 7) The Open Governmental Training Meeting has been moved to Monday, April 28th, 6:30pm at City Hall. Several board members will need to attend. 8) The Hecla Lake project looks good. Since the floating wetlands project may be cost - prohibitive, staff is considering building an actual island instead. The reservoir is tentatively scheduled to be filled with water in May, so staff would need to move fast to build the island. The lake will contain approximately 25 acre -feet of water. At spillover, the depth of the lake will be about 4 -5 feet deep. VII. Board Updates- Christopher asked about the status of the Cottonwood Park purchase (aka. the First Baptist Church property on So. Boulder Rd.) setting off a long discussion. Joe said staff are currently doing due - diligence looking for hazardous materials on the site. The demolition of the church is being planned since it is in poor repair, making renting or repurposing the building difficult. It may also contain asbestos. The entire cost of the purchase and demolition will likely come from the Open Space & Parks Conservation Trust Fund. Jeff Lipton said that council discussed subdividing the property to see if the land next to the road could be sold to offset the purchase cost, but that idea did not have support. It has not currently been decided whether the land should be zoned as "park" or "open space" and how the land should be used. Joe has received suggestion for the space including: community gardens, sports fields, and a location for historical structures. Another cost will be that the parking lot will need to be re- designed as it is in poor repair. Spencer asked Jeff if there is a citizen expectation that things will proceed quickly. Jeff and Mike were both under the impression that there isn't a sense of urgency about development. Helen asked Joe about the public process to decide what the land use will be. Joe suggested that they could take ideas to all the boards and commissions and also have public meetings. But there is no immediate planning for this process. Tom suggested that he would like to see a plan for the site addressing immediate concerns: will the church leave a hole in the ground? How soon