Eagan Advisory Parks Commission Meeting - November 18, 2024
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Eagan Advisory Parks Commission Meeting - November 18, 2024
The Eagan Advisory Parks Commission met on November 18, 2024, at 6:00 PM at Moonshine Park. The meeting covered a recreation division presentation, updates on Goat Hill Park and the Eagan Community Center construction, a commissioner resignation, approval of the 2025 fee schedule, and development reviews for Metcalf Park and Trail End Commons. The commission voted on several items, including park and trail dedications.
Consent Calendar
- Agenda approved unanimously.
- Minutes from August 19, 2024, approved unanimously.
Public Comments & Testimony
- No visitors to be heard.
Presentations
- Recreation Division Overview: Recreation Superintendent Tanya Mozingo presented highlights from 2024, including new teen programs (Leaders in Training, Teen Planning Committee), CDBG-funded outreach, preschool drop-in programs, and early summer camp registration (moved to February). She noted over 550 preschoolers annually, 1,700 kids in Summer in the Park (6% growth from 2023), over 3,000 attendees at Destination All Play, 1,000+ pickleball players, and 1,800 weekly visitors to Eagan Market Fest. The Eagan Food Truck Festival hosted 13,000 people. Sustainability efforts included 1,500 reusable produce bags and 4,600 cups diverted from landfill. The Eagan Art House expansion is on track for completion in spring 2025, with a grand opening planned for September 13, 2025.
Discussion Items
- Recreational Facilities Update: Jared Flewellen and Tanya Mozingo presented updates on Goat Hill Park (new shelter building with two team rooms, renovated north rink, improved parking and stormwater management, 79 trees planted, light and noise mitigation), and the Eagan Community Center (phase one fitness center addition of 5,000–6,000 sq ft, cold storage, construction to begin November 2024 through May 2025).
- Commissioner Resignation: Commissioner Richard Costine resigned effective October 15, 2024. The commission accepted the resignation and moved Commissioner Means from alternate to regular position. Motion passed unanimously.
- 2025 Fee Schedule: Jared Flewellen presented proposed increases ranging from 2% to 10% across most fees (park/trail dedication +4%, tree mitigation 0%, park pavilions +10%, ice time +$5, Cascade Bay season passes +$5, ECC no increase during construction). Discussion included concerns about the fee options program (scholarships) for low-income families, with commissioners noting issues with cancelled classes and reallocation of funds. Staff acknowledged challenges and stated they are reviewing the program. Motion to recommend approval passed unanimously.
- Metcalf Park Development Review: Applicant Pulte Homes proposed rezoning and preliminary plan for 245 multifamily apartments, 66 senior cooperative units, 97 townhomes, and 42 villa twin homes on 35 acres at 2250 Diffley Road. Park dedication of 0.82 acres (valued at $283,000) and trail dedication via installation. Commissioner questions about access, parking, and maintenance. Staff noted the park is a neighborhood pocket park, not a destination. Motion to approve park and trail dedication passed unanimously.
- Trail End Commons Development Review: Amendment to allow 104 townhomes on 22 acres at southeast corner of Yankee Doodle and Laredo Road. Park dedication previously satisfied; trail dedication via installation of public trails. Motion to accept trail dedication passed unanimously.
- Round Table: Commissioners thanked staff for park maintenance during challenging weather, noted flexibility of art house staff in reopening a cancelled pottery class, and reminded of the Holtz Farm holiday event on December 8. Welcome to Commissioner Means as full-time commissioner.
- Staff Reports: Jared Flewellen reported on seasonal transitions, park projects (new playgrounds at O'Leary and Lexington Diffley Park, Blackhawk fishing pier rebuild, Moonshine maintenance), hockey season, Cascade Bay LED lighting retrofit ($130,000 federal grant), senior programming, and ECC construction.
Key Outcomes
- Accepted Commissioner Costine's resignation and moved Commissioner Means to regular position.
- Approved recommendation for 2025 fee schedule increases.
- Approved park and trail dedication for Metcalf Park development.
- Approved trail dedication for Trail End Commons development.
- Meeting adjourned.
Meeting Transcript
Good evening. I'd like to call the Egan Advisory Parks and Rec Commission meeting for November twenty twenty four to order. Pledge of the flag of the United States of America, the Republic for which is one nation under the justice for all the changes to the agenda that was printed. No chair. Do I have a motion? I'll move to approve the agenda. I second. All in favor? Aye. Opposed. Motion carries. We approve the agenda. All right, we have the minutes. We haven't had a meeting for the last couple years. So this is from August. Any questions or comments before we accept a motion on the agenda of the uh minutes? Seeing no discussion, do I have a motion? We move we accept the minutes. We have a second. I'll second. All those in favor? Aye. Aye. Opposed. All right. Any visitors to be heard that are not on the agenda already. Seeing none, we'll move into presentations. Pass it off to Tony. Chair and Commission, we have our recreation superintendent, Tanya Moazinger here to present on her division that includes all the fun recreation activities from the art house, preschool, special events, adult athletics, and more. And more. And more. We'll try to keep the Ann Moore short tonight. But Chair and Commissions, thank you very much for having me. Jared, thank you for the introduction. Excited to share with you some of the awesome things the recreation division has done over the past year and maybe forecast some of those items that are coming up here in 2025. Like Jared said, my name's Tanya Mazingo, superintendent of recreation. I've been with the City of Vegan just about eight years. Um leader of the recreation team for the past four. On my team, we have three recreation supervisors. You'll hear about each of them individually later, as well as two recreation programmers and a plethora of part-time staff that help us out serve the community in a variety of different ways. We also are supported by the customer service team, our maintenance team, and a ton of uh internal teams as well. We couldn't do what we do without their support. So I'll jump right in. We'll give a brief overview of some of the different areas I want to cover tonight. We'll go through each of those in depth, and we'll start off with some of the new initiatives. Um of the new programs that the team has implemented this year have been focused around teen programming. Um so we held our first ever leaders in training program, which was held this summer. Um we heard lots of great feedback and are excited to make some adjustments to welcome it back for 2025. Those kids um helped us. They were trained and onboarded as if they were summer staff, and then they headed out into the field and helped our uh parks and recreation staff at our summer in the park sites throughout the summer and got to gain some work experience.
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