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MEDLIN Johnny R From: MEDLIN Johnny R To: NNATHANS Cc: ANDERSEN Chris F; Hammitt, Bob; ETTER John F; WEBER John J; NORRIS Linda H Subject: Re: FW: Somerset Hills property Date: Tuesday, December 06, 1994 10:49AM Hi Nancy, I've tried to put together answers to the questions you posed and keeping it simple rather than turning it into a major research project. The research performed was from Parks Planning files and through conversations with staff who were involved or at least familiar with the various issues. I hope this will give you the information you need. 1. Whether a portion of the Somerset development qualifies to be purchased with Park SDC is dependent on if the land could be developed as a Neighborhood or Community park as defined in the Parks and Recreation Plan. Purchasing the land with the intent to have it remain undeveloped or as open space likely would not qualify. The Parks and Recreation Plan designates the acquisition of open space to be a "Metropolitan" park issue and as such was not a component of the adopted Park SDC rates methodology. Considering the steep terrain, and that 12 acres is much too small for a Community Park, I believe we'd be limited to looking at it's potential as a Neighborhood park. The problem I suspect we face with this parcel is that land acceptable for development into a Neighborhood Park typically has the same topographical requirements (flat and mostly dry) which make it a good candidate to be developable commercially. I suspect the opposite is also likely to be true in that land not well suited for commercially development (steep and wet) is not suited for Neighborhood Park development. The 3 -5 acres, from this 12 acre parcel, we would want for a Neighborhood Park is likely those most valuable for development. This 3 -5 acres would be eligible for purchase with Park SDC but the remainder likely would not. Thinking about other citizen efforts that are going on, I believe work on acquiring open space in this geographic area would be very similar to the issue Barbara Keller is pursuing regarding acquiring the headwaters of the Amazon. 2. The amount of SDC funding which has been collected within the Churchill Neighborhood is approximately $53,000. However there is no legal requirement to spend SDC funds within the area where they were collected. After we determined if the purchase qualified for SDC funding I believe the question here would be if this purchase was a high enough priority when compared with neighborhood park acquisition needs city -wide. The criteria developed by your and Barbara's subcommittee would likely be a major determining factor here. For your use as a cost comparison benchmark, land in the northern parts of Eugene which we have been reviewing as suitable for neighborhood park are generally in the $25,000/acre range. The assessments for abutting streets and sewers when the surrounding developing occurs are additional expenses and can double this figure. 3. The 5 acre parcel in Willow Creek south of 18th and West of Bertlesen was purchased using park bond funding but I'm told by park staff involved at the time that there never was the intention to develop it. Their recollection is that the Nature Conservancy wanted to see the City make some good faith investment in this area to match their efforts, and that this 5 acres was that good faith effort. I find that it was erroneously listed as a neighborhood park. This was likely due to it being a separate parcel of neighborhood park scale. The classification should have been "metropolitan" since it is attached to a much larger natural area which is now managed by the Nature Conservancy. While bond issue funding was used to purchase the site on 7/14/82, it doesn't appear that we have any grounds to suggest that a replacement site be found to mitigate for a site that can't be developed. Three other neighborhood park sites, and one community park site, are suggested for acquisition in the Willow Creek Area. All will be fairly central to areas which are expected to develop in the context of the Wetland Study. Three of the four sites have the potential to be sited so as to abut a wetland, which could spatially enhance a park site. Page 1