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Date
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November 23,
2009
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Agenda
Item No. 56 Roll
Call No. 09-
Communication No. 09-828 Submitted by: Donald
M. Tripp, Director of Parks and Recreation |
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AGENDA HEADING:
Approval of recommendation to construct a multi-use recreational
trail connection to McHenry Park.
SYNOPSIS:
Approval of recommendation to construct a trail connection to
McHenry Park as part of the rebuilding of Birdland
Levee. This trail will connect
McHenry Park, the Kiwanis Nature Island and the Neal Smith Trail.
FISCAL
IMPACT:
Amount: The
estimated costs for the City’s portion of McHenry Trail in the Army Corps of
Engineers project are estimated to be $230,000.
Tree mitigation is estimated to be another $35,000,
and the study of McHenry Park, other parks and open space for conservation
practices will also include some costs, although the amount is not known at
this time.
Funding
Source: This will be
funded from Fiscal Year 2011 Capital Improvement Plan, Park Improvements, Page 22, Recreation
Trail, PKS045; Page 10, Forestry Improvements, PKS146; and Page 29, Urban
Conservation Project, PKS167.
ADDITIONAL
INFORMATION:
For many years there has been a
trail connection along the existing levee between McHenry Park and the Neal
Smith Trail, just west of the Kiwanis Nature Island. Over time, the trail connection has
deteriorated and it does not meet the slope guidelines for new trails in
accordance with the Americans with Disabilities Act. Plans were to eventually close the trail connection
because it was no longer viable and it was heavily damaged in the floods of
2008. Also during the floods of 2008,
the Birdland Levee was breached and flooded and the Birdland
Neighborhood, including several park and recreation facilities, the Neal Smith
Trail, Birdland Pool, Birdland Baseball, Birdland Tennis and the Birdland enclosed shelter were flooded. Since that time, the City and the Army Corps
of Engineers have accelerated work on a new levee that will better protect the
Birdland Neighborhood. Several park and
recreation facilities will be impacted by the new levee, so the Parks and
Recreation Department has worked extensively with the Army Corps of Engineers
to minimize the impact to existing facilities.
During the planning process for the
levee, Parks staff asked about the possibility of developing a new trail
connection to McHenry Park as part of the levee project. The Army Corps of Engineers reported that the
project was feasible and would meet the Corps’ cost sharing guidelines, which
would allow 50% of the cost of a trail connection to be funded by the Army
Corps of Engineers, if it were constructed at the same time as the levee. In addition, the Army Corps determined that
the soil that would be removed for grading of the trail connection could supply
some of the soil needs for the levee project.
By utilizing the soil from McHenry Park for construction of the levee,
the costs for transportation will be reduced, thereby reducing project costs
and saving the City the proportionate local share. The opportunity to provide a new trail
connection to the park makes the most economic sense during the levee
construction process because of the opportunity to use the soil for the levee
and because of the cost participation by the Army Corps of Engineers.
The last City Council action on
October 12, 2009, approved the Project Partnership Agreement (PPA) with the
Army Corps of Engineers that included the respective responsibilities for
funding and constructing the Birdland Park levee, improvements to the downtown
flood protection system and construction of a multi-use recreational trail from
the Neal Smith Trail to Riverview and McHenry Park. On October 12, 2009, Roll Call No. 09-1833 mentioned
that the decision regarding the McHenry Park trail connection was pending. By approving the construction of this trail
connection, the City Council action will finalize the decision to obtain soil material
for the levee construction while providing an accessible trail connection
between the proposed levee and Oak Park Avenue through McHenry Park. No further City Council actions are
anticipated regarding construction of the Birdland levee by the Corps of
Engineers.
Benefits
of a Trail Connection:
The proposed trail connection
would follow the top of the new levee, which will be built across the center of
the Kiwanis Nature Island and to the dead end into the McHenry Park hill. At that point, the trail will follow the
south edge of the park to the west and eventually end at the north end of the
park near the shelter and restrooms.
(See attached map for proposed alignment.) By creating a new accessible trail connection
between McHenry Park and the Kiwanis Nature Island, there is a potential to
reactivate the two parks and increase the number of people using the parks and
reduce undesirable activity. In addition
to benefiting the two parks, there are benefits to the surrounding
neighborhoods by providing the citizens in the Oak Park and Highland Park
neighborhoods better access to the Kiwanis Nature Island, the Neal Smith Trail
and all of the Central Iowa Trail System.
Tree
Loss and Mitigation of Tree Loss:
Construction of the trail connection
will require extensive grading of the hillside on the south side of the park
and cause the removal of approximately 113 trees with a circumference of 9
inches or greater. No decision that
would cause the removal of any trees comes lightly for staff, so in order to get
more expert information to help with determining the staff recommendation to
the Park and Recreation Board, staff hired Terracon Consulting to conduct a
limited environmental assessment to investigate tree removal, habitat and
wildlife. The Terracon study was not
intended to be a recommendation, but rather a data gathering assessment that
would assist staff in making a recommendation on the trail connection. The assessment identified 113 trees that were
of 9 inches or greater in the proposed grading areas for the trail
connection. In a few locations they were
not able to survey any trees smaller than 14 inches in diameter, so there will
likely be a few additional trees between 9 inches and 14 inches in the proposed
grading area.
A new tree ordinance and
corresponding City policy was recently adopted by the City Council that
establishes mitigation of tree loss in the City of Des Moines. This policy will
guide staff in preparing for the mitigation requirements of the tree loss. Based on this new policy, it is anticipated
that the Park and Recreation Department will need to plant approximately 250 trees
to mitigate the removal of the 113 trees above 9 inches in size in the grading
limits of the trail.
The Park and Recreation Department has placed significant
resources into the reforestation of our urban forest with annual tree
plantings. In 2006, the reforestation
plan was put into action by the planting of 1,007 trees in the parks
system. In 2007, the reforestation
effort continued with the fall planting of 360 trees. In 2008, the reforestation effort expanded with
a fall planting of 330 trees in a total of 24 parks, 3 cemeteries and 1
community center. In 2009, to continue
the reforestation effort for all City parks, a bid proposal for the fall
planting of 660 trees in a total of 20 parks, 4 cemeteries, 4 athletic
facilities and along 2 recreational trails was awarded by the Des Moines City
Council on October 26th. All
660 trees will be planted before the spring of 2010. In addition to all these trees planted, the
Park and Recreation Department has budgeted funding in the six year capital
budget to continue reforestation efforts throughout the system.
Decision
Making Process:
On August 26, 2009, a
neighborhood meeting was held with the Oak Park, Highland Park, River Bend and
Union Park Neighborhoods. Staff also mailed out invitations to about 180
surrounding properties. There were about 45 people there, not including
City staff. This meeting was an opportunity to introduce the trail
concept to the neighbors and gather input as to which was more important to the
neighborhood: preserving the existing vegetation, habitat and trees or
constructing a new trail connection between McHenry Park, Kiwanis Nature Island
and the Neal Smith Trail. A quick poll
of the audience at the meeting’s conclusion revealed that they were
overwhelmingly in favor of the trail connection (only 1 vote against).
On September 14, 2009, the Trails
and Greenways Advisory Committee, an advisory committee to the Park and
Recreation Board, held its monthly meeting.
Staff extended additional invitations to groups and organizations that
would be interested in the McHenry Park trail connection. This meeting was well attended and discussion
focused on the potential loss of wildlife and the surrounding habitat. In addition, the discussion also included the
potential benefits of having an accessible trail to McHenry Park and the
potential increase in users over those using the existing trail. The Committee declined to make a
recommendation on the project at its September meeting.
It has been a difficult decision
for staff to make a recommendation on this project, since losing this many
trees is not an easy proposition for those involved. To ensure that all factors were considered,
on October 7, 2009, a committee consisting of four Park and Recreation Board
members, the chair of the Trails and Greenways Advisory Committee, a member of
the Urban Conservation Committee, the head of Forestry from Public Works and
twelve Park and Recreation staff members met to determine what recommendation
the department would forward on to Park and Recreation Board. This committee met for three hours to discuss
the pros and cons of moving forward with a trail connection and leaving the
site untouched. The minutes of the meeting
are attached. After three hours of
discussion, the committee decided that the best option was to move forward with
the trail connection between McHenry Park and the Kiwanis Nature Island, if a
few conditions could be met by the Army Corps of Engineers.
After this meeting,
staff sent a letter to the Army Corps of Engineers detailing the
recommendations from the committee and asked them to respond to each one. Staff received a response from the Army Corps
on Wednesday, October 21, 2009. The Army
Corps responded favorably to each item that was addressed to them and if approved
by the Park and Recreation Board, Corps staff will work closely with them on
final design of the trail connection and throughout the construction process to
make sure that impacts to the park from the construction process are minimized
as much as possible.
At the October 27,
2009 Park and Recreation Board meeting, the Board asked staff to work with the
Corps to bring back a final plan of the trail for consideration and approval at
its November meeting. The Board also set
up a sub-committee meeting to look at the plans and refined recommendations
from the Park and Recreation Department Staff.
This sub-committee met on Friday, November 13, 2009 to review and
approve the following recommendation from staff.
At their November 19,
2009 meeting, the Park and Recreation Board approved the following
recommendations for construction of a trail between McHenry Park and the
Kiwanis Nature Island as part of the Birdland Levee project.
Summary:
The following is a series of recommendations by the Parks and
Recreation Department Staff for the construction of a trail connection between
McHenry Park and the Kiwanis Nature Island on Des Moines’ north side. These recommendations seek to develop a plan
which enhances the overall ecological sustainability of McHenry Park and
improves the recreational opportunities within the park by creating an
accessible trail connection. They also
set in motion a process to review the ecology of City parks and greenways, seeking
to identify high priority restoration and protection areas providing unique or
significant conservation opportunities, and subsequent development and
implementation of an improvement plan for those identified areas. The key recommendation is moving forward with
a trail connection that balances the sometimes conflicting goals of
conservation and recreation, and ultimately leads to a larger plan that expands
and improves the health of natural areas in the park system as a whole and
enhances citizen usability and familiarity with the natural environment.
Recommendation #1: Approve the Army Corps of Engineers trail design from McHenry Park
to the Kiwanis Nature Island that works to protect eight to nine specified
trees that will be valuable specimens for the park by incorporating them into
the mitigation and restoration plans.
Recommendation #2: Develop an ecological restoration and mitigation plan for McHenry
Park that considers relevant factors in the park such as soil types, existing
vegetation, slopes and any other condition which may contribute to a
sustainable natural landscape that is native to the state of Iowa. It is anticipated that this will likely
include mitigation for the tree removals from the trail connection, removal of
invasive species, implementation of prescribed burning to encourage the natural
return of the herbaceous layer in undisturbed areas of the park and seeding, if
deemed necessary (if few native plants return after burning).