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2012-04-24 Regular Meeting 2 KODIAK ISLAND BOROUGH 0 PARKS AND RECREATION COMMITTEE tr�' MAY 1 5 9 2p 012 MINUTES April 24, 2012 Regular Meeting & Trails Summit 7 .p.m. in the High School S OFFICE CALL TO ORDER CHAIR SALTONSTALL called to order the April 24, 2012 regular meeting and Trails Summit at 7:10 p.m. ROLL CALL Roll call was taken and Committee members present were Pam Foreman, Hans Tschersich, Jeff Huntley, Patrick Saltonstall, Rick Lindholm, Sandra West, and Michael Marion. Absent was Andy Schroeder. Ex- officio member present was Casey Janz. Absent ex- officio members were Jack Ransom, Ian Fulp, Chris Lynch, Steve Doerksen, and Brent Watkins (alt.). A quorum was established. Community Development Department staff present was Bud Cassidy and Sheila Smith. APPROVAL OF AGENDA COMMITTEE MEMBER HUNTLEY MOVED to approve the agenda. VOICE VOTE ON MOTION CARRIED UNANIMOUSLY MINUTES OF PREVIOUS MEETING There were none AUDIENCE COMMENTS AND APPEARANCE REQUESTS There were none. OLD BUSINESS There was none. NEW BUSINESS A. Trails Summit 1. Introduction Role and Responsibility of the KIB P &R Committee 2. Introduction of the Kodiak Island Road System Trails Master Plan 3. Goals and Objectives of the Plan - Implementation of the plan 4. Trails Summit Concept 5. Trail Management Objective (TMO) development for trails. 6. Audience comments on road system trails issues - 3 minutes per speaker a. Identify project ideas, talk about trail conditions, and issues. CHAIR SALTONSTALL stated the first part of the Trails Summit is to identify issues raised with trails, and talked about working with the community to develop TMO's for each trail, implementing the Trails Plan, and trail maintenance. CHAIR SALTONSTALL stated the committee is here mainly to collect data on road system trails and Russian Ridge trail system in the second part of the meeting which the comments will be discussed at future P &R Trails Summit Page 1 of 7 April 24, 2012 meetings to try to come up with resolutions. CHAIR SALTONSTALL introduced the committee members. The committee took public comment on road system trails. Public comments were given by: Philip Tschersich stated at one of the meetings for winter trail use, the comment he made he wanted to commend the Snow Bruins on their education of their members and other motorized winter trail users just to reduce conflicts with the non - motorized crowd typically on Pyramid Mountain. This winter was another good example of the casual social contract between the users on Pyramid at the few times that snow machines did drive up Pyramid. Tschersich said he observed someone who was a veteran Snow Bruin go up to someone asking them to reduce the impact on the non - motorized crowd, maybe to drive on the other side of the highway or down in the Flats. That is an example of how this community basically comes to an understanding between the various winter trail users on how to reduce conflict, and it seems to work out well for everyone. Tschersich said he noticed a lot more cross country skiing this year especially in the Buskin Valley, the conditions were good for Swampy Acres also. Island Trails Network started grooming the loop at Swampy Acres and got a lot of positive comments. The Coast Guard is probably going to take over maintenance of area and the Swampy Road will probably be widened to make it wide enough to drag the groomer through that area. The community is doing a good job on winter trail use. Within the non - motorized crowd there is a lot of different users and then you have the cross country skiers, you would think the non- motorized crowd would get along really well but skiers don't like it when the snow shoers are post - holing or digging up the double track trail so it's a matter of educating the different users on trail etiquette. Walking in a ski track impacts the experience of the person skiing in that track. He feels there should be some basic trailhead signage that says something like "walk left, ski right" would probably solve a lot of the issues. Hopefully, we can modify the tow behind ski equipment that lays the track off center so there is plenty of room to walk and snow shoe and have your dog on one side and the ski tracks off to the side. Deb Houlden - Engvall stated she thinks if you've been here for a while you know where the trails are by virtue of going with someone who's already been on that trail but if we are looking at out of town visitors there is no signage to know how to get to trails. Stacy and Hans did a great job on their trail thing but you go around a corner and park in a little pull out but there's no signage that says here is Heitman Lake Trail or whatever trail. People can see trails but can't find the start of it. She knows there are issues with putting signs to go across private property. She just wants to see signs at trailheads. Mike Sirofchuck stated he was a 10 year member on the Parks & Recreation Committee and again thanked the committee for all the work done on the Trails Plan. A concern of his is apparently Governor Parnell has put $30 million into the budget that's been approved for major construction at the Kodiak Launch Complex this summer and he believes they're going to construct a new launch pad directly across the road from the current launch pad. Sirofchuck's fear is they will be cutting off access to Fossil Beach, Narrow Cape Loop Trail, and some of the areas out there. He encouraged the committee to contact KAC to see if there will be any restrictions to trails in the Narrow Cape area this summer. The paper said they were looking at late summer construction and that's a pretty nice time to be out there hiking, deer hunting, and there's good berry patches out there also. Anything we can do to make sure access is maintained would be a good thing. He also echoes Philip & Hans' ideas about winter users, it's interesting to find that the non - motorized users having conflicts P &R Trails Summit Page 2 of 7 April 24, 2012 within themselves, but he thinks education and a few signs would be good. People don't realize that for skiers that track really makes for a nice experience and when the track is stepped in and post -holed it does reduce the experience. Paul Van Dyke thanked the Parks & Recreation Committee for their effort in seeing the Trails Plan come together and he's looking forward to seeing the TMO's. He'd like to see some emphasis on the Monashka Bay area with regards to 35 or 36 on the trails map, on the south side of Monashka Mountain there's a 17b easement that goes from Monashka Bay to Neva Cove and that easement is called out on the map but there's some issues with that with Natural Use area and he believes the borough has designated. It goes back to the 1997 DNR Trails Atlas as an established trail or to be established. It's also on some USGS maps and that allows the 17b easement in the Trails Atlas allowed for motorized vehicle use and with Leisnoi coming of age and their ownership issues being resolved it would be nice to see another ATV trail in that area managed by the community. Doug Long stated one of his concerns is as a commuter some of the routes around here, like going to the airport and to the basin, for some of us to be riding on bikes along with the cars in some of those areas things are being thrown at them and he would like to see some routes addressed that would allow people to ride to these places without being hassled by drivers. I don't know what you do in town to make it more bike friendly with places to park bikes. Some of the places that you have for overlooks people could park their bikes to go look at things being able to secure the bikes. A break was called to allow the public and committee members to look at the trail maps, code sections, and other information hanging on the wall. CHAIR SALTONSTALL introduced Bud Cassidy and turned the floor over to him. B. Russian Ridge Trail System 1. Introduction 2. Review of issues identified during in the Trails Plan process on Russian Ridge 3. Audience comments - Russian Ridge Trail System Cassidy talked about the boundaries, popular locations for hiking and motorized vehicles, and city and borough regulations in place on Russian Ridge showing on the map the upper and lower reservoir, the trail, and other areas. Cassidy also talked about the zoning districts, topography, and the possibility of a land sale in the fall. Cassidy stated the trails have been GPS'd by Andy Schroeder who GPS'd 400 miles of trails along the road system. Cassidy explained the zoning codes associated with the area. Public comments on the Russian Ridge area: Philip Tschersich asked what the appropriate uses of city property, the off road vehicles within city property. The only thing you said about borough property was that the Natural Use was for possible future development, are there restrictions? Cassidy replied the borough has few restrictions on motorized vehicles in the Conservation zone. We have the Natural Use zone suggests that it's for open space and natural use. You can't use a zoning category to enforce. The Conservation zone allows hunting and 4 wheeling. P &R Trails Summit Page 3 of 7 April 24, 2012 Doug Long asked for people who are beginner walkers or bikers, are there any routes that are smoother, less work to get to so their first experience would be enjoyable and make them want to come back? CHAIR SALTONSTALL said there's a map in the Trails Plan that shows the different grades on a lot of the trails. Cassidy said a lot of the data gives the information wanted; what's the grade and tread but that's not available yet. We're hoping to find a place to host the data so you can download the information onto a GPS. The data collected talks about the grade, the length, conditions and those kinds of things. Near Island is a great beginner trail. Thomas Campbell lives on Selief and said we find a lot of water issues in the area. He hikes Russian Ridge and the trees filter out a lot of the water and the trees hold the hill together. If you build up there you will run the risk of putting a lot more water on the town than we'll want to deal with. Rolan Ruoss said he lived out in Monashka years ago and marveled at the steep grades on the roads the bad septics, bum wells, and all the disasters of that subdivision and he wondered how it came to be so he called the Community Development Department and was told that the State of Alaska designed the subdivision from aerial photos relaxing at their desks. Here's an opportunity for us to get a more rational grip on community planning. Russian Ridge, whether you like it for recreational or whatever, it's a sun drenched piece near municipal property that could appropriately be developed in contrast with what was done in Monashka. One of the good things is that it drains really well for sewer development. Monashka should have sewer but it won't unless we get a huge grant from the feds. Now that the trails system has been identified that establishes another community value that can be integrated into real community planning. This is a good opportunity to make a sensible addition to the residential spaces in the community. Whether it seems like the best use or not will come out through the process, none of this will happen behind closed doors at this point. Cassidy stated the cost of installing water and sewer is astronomical and if we could tag on to the existing facilities it would leave the rest of the area for trails. When Mike Anderson built the road across to Near Island and Trident Basin it was $imillion a mile without water and sewer. If you throw in roads and sewer and water can you imagine what the cost of a lot may be but it's not that simple to run water and sewer up the hill because it's a pretty steep hill. Being a planning professional he'd like to think here's an opportunity to do it right taking into consideration the drainage, steep slopes, not all the trees being knocked down, and little houses on top. The houses would probably be higher than the reservoir so he doesn't know about the water pressure. There's a lot of engineering that goes into it. Rolan Ruiz said he was surprised to hear the borough was thinking about extending Lakeview Drive because he read in the newspaper was the need for housing that serves maybe the cannery workers and such, that was one of the suggestions was 4 plexes, 8 plexes and that kind of thing. If they are off the end of Lakeview they won't be very accessible to the downtown working population so he was more guestimating that they would be somewhere like behind Dark Lake or something more parallel with Selief or accessible for walking or a short drive. Lakeview is kind of a driving disaster with the really steep grade in the wintertime. Any extension off of Lakeview sounds like a piece of bad community planning to him. P &R Trails Summit Page 4 of 7 April 24, 2012 Cassidy stated right now there isn't anything planned but we are looking at mixed uses. Unknown person said on the trails system itself, some people like to go someplace and do something, is there going to be like gazebo type things something where people can stop and rest, relax a little, and take in the scenery. Cassidy stated we talked about signage earlier, we don't have parking lots in some places, we have nothing more than a turnoff on the side of the road in the right -of -way so there's a lot of needs and the question is how do we slowly address those needs. We're not going to do it in one year, 10 years, or 20 years but we need to identify what's needed, prioritize them, and then go after some money to build it. COMMITTEE MEMBER FOREMAN said part of the purpose of this meeting is to find out exactly what you would like to have on Russian Ridge so if that's something you would like to see then let the committee know. Philip Tschersich said before the issues with restricting access to watersheds came into being it used to be popular to go up and over the lower reservoir down the other side to Monashka Bay Road and then you could go out the road. Then the area was deemed not open to public access and yet there's lots of public access up there. There just seems to be this attitude by the authorities that as long as they don't acknowledge that there's access it can continue to be used surreptitiously. It's obvious to everyone that there's motorized use on Russian Ridge, they just drive or walk around the fences. As long as it's obvious to everyone that people do what they want up there can't we build a trail up and over the lower reservoir route through that saddle and re- establish the community's ability to get out in the Monashka direction without having to go all the way around Rezanof past Fort Abercrombie and the dump? The community's attitude about the laws up there is kind of strange, there's some kind of general sense of denial in the community about what's happening on Russian Ridge. There's laws on the books that are sometimes enforced, often times not. He's afraid in the end people are going to feel put out by whatever the product is. He has mixed feelings about the trail use. He's been using Russian Ridge extensively for over 20 years and he's seen changes up there. He's not opposed to property development up there if it's responsible. Is there any way to establish a sanctioned route up and over the lower reservoir like we use to have. Mike Sirofchuck said it's so nice to see the trails up there and he has mixed feelings about some of the use, damage, and erosion. It's important that we the public, the trail users, and Parks & Rec Committee stand firm about any development that takes place up there should preserve those trails almost as something that's grandfathered in so that any development takes place so if there's going to be a subdivision that's going to incorporate land that those trails are on he thinks the requirement that the trail remains so it's the developer or property owner's responsibility to not block access and to be aware that the trail exists and it should continue to exist. Paul Van Dyke said he echoes Sirofchuck's sentiments and there is a lot of use up there that is illegitimate but it hasn't been enforced. I realize this is the Borough Parks & Rec Committee and there isn't anyone here from the city but whether it's ATV use, hiking, biking, there is a lot of activity in the area and it would be nice to see the Parks & Rec Committee stand up for the citizens and put some pressure on the city to legitimize that use. He ventures up into the Russian Ridge area on his 4 wheeler to get firewood after he gets his woodcutting permit. It's a sustainable system if it's not developed. He also lives in P &R Trails Summit Page 5 of 7 April 24, 2012 the area and it would be great to have water and sewer. Van Dyke and his wife snow shoe along the ridge line. Doug Long said he used to be involved in auto racing and people would complain about the tracks that were already there. What is going to happen here regarding the noise ordinances if the development moves into the area of these trails? What happens to the noise concerns? Stacy Studebaker said if anyone is new and is perplexed about all the trails listed here and don't have any idea where they are and you'd like to get an introduction to the trails here Kodiak's Audubon Society leads weekend hikes on Saturday and Sunday from June through August. We line up volunteers every summer and publish a hiking schedule that will be out any day now. It will also be published in the newspaper in the Summer Fun Guide. People clip it out and put it on their refrigerator. Every weekend a knowledgeable local person guides one of these trail hikes. It's a great way to get to know the trails. Most of the trailheads aren't marked. If you have any questions you can call the Audubon Society. COMMUNICATIONS There were none. REPORTS There were none. AUDIENCE COMMENTS There were none. COMMITTEE MEMBERS COMMENTS Hans Tschersich said there's an Audubon hiking map available also that can be picked up around town in many of the stores and at the Visitor's Center. It's been out for a few years and even though it's partly for beginners. At least on the map you can orient yourself. He recommends you go on these weekend hikes, they are really great. The roads shown on the Russian Ridge map are mostly washed out and are poorly maintained and is difficult to hike. There are numerous parallel trails which are basically game trails but we hikers have used them and built partial bridges over wet areas so they are much nicer. Pam Foreman thanked the public for coming tonight and she hopes if you didn't give comments that you will take the time to fill out a comment form. Also the Parks & Rec Committee meets twice a month on the second and fourth Tuesdays. We encourage you to come to our meetings and we meet in the Borough building downstairs in the School District conference room. Go downstairs and turn right and we're at the end of the hall. We would welcome your participation as we develop some TMO's for the Russian Ridge trail system. Casey Janz also thanked the public for coming and she encouraged everyone to go out and help educate to get other people involved in the process. Russian Ridge has a lot of different aspects to it so it's a big one to bite off. Other people have other areas they are concerned about and other trails. Help others to know this process is happening. We are looking for input. Mike Marion said at least stay engaged. We're a small group and need all of your input so the input we get from as many people as are out there and interested in Russian Ridge will help us to make some good recommendations. P &R Trails Summit Page 6 of 7 April 24, 2012 Rick Lindholm thanked the public for coming. It's just good that your all here and involved. Sandra West thanked everyone for coming. We talked about signage and we have no budget. We think it's a great idea to put signs out on all the trails but sometimes signs are spelled t- a- r- g -e -t. We have to deal with vandalism out there. Jeff Huntley thanked the public for coming tonight. He was surprised and was afraid it would be a fairly contentious meeting but he thinks we've moved past that. It's time this really comes together and we're going to do some good. Patrick Saltonstall echoed Huntley's comments and he thinks we are going to have to have some compromises because not everyone is going to be happy. We're going to do our best and he thinks it will make it better in the long run. The tires have hit the road. ADJOURNMENT COMMITTEE MEMBER FOREMAN MOVED to adjourn. CHAIR SALTONSTALL adjourned the meeting at 8:40 p.m. KOD.AKISL•ND I:ORIUGH PAR RE I RE Tl ON CO tE By: ts% 'atrick Saltonsta , C ATTEST �iF� By: fletra liXl 1 Sheila Smith, Secretary APPROVED: May 8, 2012 P &R Trails Summit Page 7 of 7 April 24, 2012