Open Space Advisory Board Agenda and Packet 2025 12 10

Home Browse Search

- The City Council is preparing its legislative agenda for the year. OSAB has been invited to provide recommendations. Susan would like an OSAB statement on wildfire mitigation funding that would also include protection for wildlife. - Susan proposed to add to section i the following: "and methods to effectively protect wildlife and plant life while maintaining habitat." There was unanimous agreement by OSAB to recommend this change to City Council - Susan proposed to add to section ii the following: 'protect and preserve...'. There was unanimous agreement by OSAB to recommend this change to City Council. 10. 7:50 pm Discussion Item: Open Space Candidate Parcels: "Opportunities for Preserving Open Space and Improving Trail Connectivity"- Ranking Properties. Presented by Susan McEachern, OSAB Chair (45 Minutes) OSAB members discussed the format and final recommendation on the Open Space Candidate Parcels to City Council per OSAB parcel visits and collective rankings of each of the parcels included in the OSAB package (highlights of discussion below): o The D parcels are tricky since their main value is to reroute the Coal Creek Trail and the city would need to acquire two of them to do that. Consensus of group is if they were to be pursued, a trail reroute is worth doing. o Most people agree with the high rankings of the BB, WWs, ZZ, 00 parcels. o It was noted that Graeme and Mark only ranked visited sites. o Rankings represent OSAB viewpoints on parcels. It is important to put this on record, since we know that City Council members will change and this will help new members understand parcel ranking history. o It was noted that the City Manager asked OSAB to provide acquisition strategy in the spreadsheet. She wanted to see the rationale. o When considering parcels for Open Space, access to trailheads and the open space should be a strong consideration — i.e., where to place and how to build public access to a trail and add parking. o Davidson Mesa parking lot tends to be full during high traffic times; it may be worth considering overflow parking at WW and WW1. Rangers may also benefit from this access to do their patrols. This would also help with emergency access. o Susan recommends keeping the OSAB ranking format to keep consistency with previous OSAB reviews. o All OSAB agree with top 5 OSAB rankings, which meets the City Manager's request to identify OSAB's top priorities There was discussion about whether to prioritize parcels that have conservation easements on them, especially parcel CC. One member preferred not to include them, 5