Open Space Advisory Board 2018 01 10 Final Minutes

Home Browse Search

Open Space Advisory Board Minutes January 10th, 2017 Page 3 of 6 David asked Helen whether her response to this motion was more about policy or more about the topic at hand. Helen answered that she had a reaction at both levels. She didn't like that Council told the board what to recommend before the board even made a formal recommendation. But she was also disappointed that closure of the DOLA was taken entirely off the table. She added that it felt too early to make that decision, even if the closure is politically unlikely. Helen spent about 30 minutes after the Council meeting meeting with citizens who were very interested in helping to be good stewards of the DOLA. She said it was really inspirational to hear how much people cared about the land and how they want to organize and to help. Jim added that he also sincerely appreciated the citizens' input. B. At the December OSAB meeting, the board intended to discuss the memo written by Jim and Helen about options for the DOLA. Due to the large public attendance that night, the meeting turned into a listening session and the memo was never formally discussed. Helen called the board's attention to the City of Denver's Off- leash Park Plan and the City of Portland's Dog Plan, as examples of how other cities have tackled these issues. Fiona particularly liked how Denver created small citizen user-groups. Helen added that there are recommendations from the Council meeting, the December OSAB meeting, and the Denver document. Mike expressed his frustration at coping with dog issues year-after-year, focusing on DOLA rather than the issue of dogs in the City, holistically. He added that in his mind, the true issue is that the DOLA is inconsistent with the Open Space. He wants to develop a holistic plan, then see how the Davidson Mesa DOLA responds. He thinks a key component in doing this will be the input of Parks. Joe asked for a few representatives from both PPLAB and OSAB to form a working group. He added that there are some parcels that the City owns that are neither Open Space or Park, that might be suitable for dog recreation. Jill Ruggle (893 Larkspur Ct) requested that citizens should be included in this working group as well. Helen asked for volunteers for a dog recreation strategy tiger team to meet with Joe and PPLAB. Mike and Fiona volunteered. Mike asked Joe if any PPLAB members volunteered and Joe answered that they hadn't yet. C. Jim attended the Walk with the Mayor event. He thought it was a nice event with 6-8 attendees. The mayor, Ember, and the ranger were all there. Jim witnessed Ranger Aubrey warn a citizen who had a dog off-leash. VII. Public Comments on Items Not on the Agenda- A. Rick Ruggle (893 Larkspur Ct) reported that the recent Davidson Mesa DOLA clean-up event went well. He added his impression that there were a lot of emotional citizens at the last OSAB meeting who hadn't fully understood some of the issues. He felt that the City needs a better way to communicate with the users. He added that Davidson Mesa is getting "hammered," noting that the parking lots are always full, and there is lots of dog waste outside of the DOLA. He reported that he sees lots of photographers walking all over the fields, not staying on trail. He would like to see more enforcement. He commented that businesses and Boy Scout troops can volunteer to help with clean-up. B. John Park (477 W. Sycamore Ct) commented that there were a lot of strange comments at the last meeting. He would like to see a well-defined list of the issues at play. He would like to see clearer communication of the issues from the City to help get better citizen buy-in. Fiona agreed that she would also like to see citizen this. C. Bruce Janda (806 W. Mulberry) wanted to see better communication with the public, specifically recommending clipboards at the site.