11/12/1996 (2) - Laserfiche WebLink

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M M M Director Keating advised that staff had worked closely with Director Callahan in forming their recommendations. Chairman Adams questioned the use of an 81,000+ population figure, and Director Keating explained that was the 1990 census figure; the 1995 figure is 122,000. Concerning beach parks, Commissioner Eggert wondered whether there would be a need for additional ocean or river parks for quite a while with all those presently in place, and Director Keating advised that the State did not require them to break out LOS by specific types of parks, although it had been done in 1990 because those were the types of parks at that time. He thought what might be needed would be river access in the south county, on the mainland side. He pointed out that the plan for the Oslo Park boat ramp is being eliminated due to sea grasses and an inability to dig a channel. Commissioner Bird agreed that the county was in good shape.on,., beachfront parks, and that the improvements planned for Round Island would help the south end of the county. There was a need to improve the channel and car and boat trailer parking for the river in the south end as well. Commissioner Eggert believed that some parks would be more popular if there was more playground equipment in place. Director Keating requested more direction as to whether the Board wanted "Charles Park -type parks" scattered around the county or if they wanted to focus attention on larger regional parks which might provide ball parks and so forth. Commissioner Bird recounted his 14 -year history of achievements in parks and recreation, telling of the little parks scattered around originally and of the difficulties in maintaining those small parcels. He stated that the Parks and Recreation Committee had taken the position of concentrating on larger/regional parks. Now that the larger parks have been established and the population has infilled, he suggested there may be a need to carefully plan for smaller neighborhood parks in higher population areas where there is no regional park. Director Keating advised that the Board would not need to make a final decision this year, but merely give a general indication of which direction staff should proceed. In response to Chairman Adams' inquiry on Policy 1.1 above, Director Keating advised that the recommendation of 4 acres/1000 people was a compromise. Administrator Chandler recalled that a few years ago the City of Vero Beach and the County funded a study, but the final 5 November 12, 1996 k BOOK 99 Face ls9