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CANDL~LIG~IT PAf~K I~~CON~IGU(~,TION May 15.200 <br /> <br /> a~ <br /> Background <br /> Candlelight Park is a 12 acre pazk site on the north side of Royal, between Terry and Danebo. <br /> The City is planning to develop the park in the summer of 2004 with POS bond funds. Park site <br /> master plan process with public involvement is anticipated to begin later this yeaz. <br /> Ross Murray is a developer who recently purchased the undeveloped 45 acres adjacent to the <br /> park site to the north. In order for this property to be developed into housing, City Transportation <br /> Planners aze requiring an arterial connection to Royal Avenue. The only way this can happen is <br /> thru the pazk site. Earlier diagrams showed this splitting the pazk site in two. The developer is <br /> anxious to begin land use permits and start the subdivision construction. <br /> Both the City and the developer have had wetland delineations performed on their properties. <br /> Both the developer's property and the city park property contain wetlands. There has been .67 <br /> acres of wetland delineated on the pazk property. <br /> In an effort to coordinate the subdivision's development with the planning and subsequent <br /> development of the pazk site, City staff met with the developer in January of 2002. At the end of <br /> February 2002, City staff (PDD Planning, Pazks Planning, Transportation Planning, Storrn water) <br /> met with the developer and his engineer for a design charrette exercise and site visit. Additional <br /> meetings, phone calls and faxes were exchanged over the next couple months which has resulted <br /> in a proposal which appears to address developer interests as well as City interests. <br /> The Proposal <br /> The City and the Developer proposes to reconfigure their parcel boundaries, which will reorient <br /> the long axis of the pazk from an east-west direction to a north south direction. (See attached <br /> map) This reconfiguration will give the Developer approximately 456' of frontage on Royal <br /> Avenue. The park site will retain approximately 500' of frontage on Royal Avenue. A new <br /> arterial street can thus be located between the subdivision and the park site, connecting on Royal <br /> at a location desired by Transportation. This will allow both parties to share in the dedication of <br /> two new streets that will border the new park site. Having surrounding street frontage for a park <br /> is highly desirable. <br /> The new park site should end up being approximately 965' in the north-south dimension and after <br /> street dedication should be approximately 11.2 acres in size. The rectangular configuration <br /> should maximize the development potential of the park site, roughly equivalent to the potential <br /> that the park presently has. The configuration will also allow for a reasonable degree of <br /> flexibility in relocating an open drainage way that presently exists on the park site. In doing so, <br /> an opportunity exist to alleviate a problematic situation with a drainage way on the south side of <br /> Royal, by crossing Royal further east into the park site. <br /> F <br /> <br />