To: VVHA Membership and
Interested Parties
From: Jim Lamont
Date: August 21, 2006
RE: VVHA
Status Report - Vail Recreation District/Town of Vail Recreation Master
Planning.
Vail Recreation District/Town of
Vail Recreation Master Planning:
A joint study by the TOV/VRD
reporting on the community’s recreational desires was recently published.
The study consisted of a community mail back survey and focus group
interviews. The report yielded some very interesting findings. A
significant gap was revealed between the perceptions and goals of the Town
of Vail to satisfy local voters and the constituencies of the VRD, which
include large numbers of Colorado part-time residents. The Homeowners
Association is concerned from the perspective encouraging facilities that
serve our constituencies and the making of prudent public financial
decisions.
Particularly targeted by the
survey Local employees living in the Town of Vail-sponsored affordable
housing projects. They showed an extraordinary indifference by responding
in negligible numbers to the mail-back survey, which the Town had gone to
the unusual extent of hanging on their apartment doorknobs.
The Association noted in a joint
public meeting of the governing bodies that the survey was heavily weighted
towards local residents. It observed if the survey had accurately
represented the VRD’s voting part-time residents, the negative sentiment
against funding recreational projects through a property tax increase would
be overwhelming. An increase in property tax would require the VRD to gain
approval from local and Colorado part-time property-owning voters.
The Town Council, in an earlier
work session discussion, considered its option to bond $40 to $45 million
for one or more recreation buildings from the Real Estate Transfer Tax Fund
(RETT). The Town Council could authorize such expenditures from the RETT
Fund without a vote of the electorate. The TOV has, for political and
others reasons, never spent RETT funds for building recreation buildings
even though the RETT legislation was amended some years ago opening the
opportunity.
There were suggestions in the
Town Council’s deliberation that RETT should be used to build a
multi-purpose recreational facility that included a swimming pool as part of
contemplated redevelopment of the Vail Golf Club House. With the exception
of a swimming pool, no other uses considered for this project, received
strong recommendation in the community survey.
The Association suggested to both
the Town Council and the VRD Board of Directors that prior to spending any
money for costly facilities that a comprehensive master plan, which receives
broad community input and scrutiny, be prepared based upon a set of planning
principles. The necessity of adopting a set of pragmatic planning
principles was suggested as a method of breaking the failure cycle of
financially top-heavy projects designed to serve narrow special interest
groups previously rejected by the community. The Association suggested in a
prior session with representatives of the VRD that the master planning
process should include the following principles:
1.
Facilities and programs should be maintained and integrated into all
community neighborhoods.
2.
A range of alternative facilities and programs are to be proposed for
each neighborhood to take advantage of opportunities as they may arise,
including incorporating them into private developments at the developer’s
expense.
3.
Facilities and programs are to be given budgetary and utilization
priority that directly benefits the greatest number and aggregate of both
community (District) taxpayers and residents followed by short-term
visitors, user fee constituent groups and other types of economic
development interests.
4.
Large and expensive mixed-use facilities, proposed to be all things
to all constituencies, should be given a lower priority for consideration.
5.
Portions of Town owned land north of I-70 should be interconnected
and integrated with Ford Park, thus allowing compatible recreation,
education, cultural, infrastructure uses and facilities to be expanded.
6.
Facilities and programs are to be balanced so that they provide for
the needs of all ages and stages of life represented in the community.
7.
The District will participate with community cultural, educational,
and social improvement interests in a comprehensive and coordinated effort
to improve the physical, social, and intellectual well being of the
community and District taxpayers.
Vail Seniors Have The Beginnings
of an Activist Agenda:
Gretta Parks and a group of her associates, at the suggestion of the
Homeowners Association, met recently with the representatives of the VRD to
discuss the needs of seniors in the community. The discussion could well
lead to an increase in programs for seniors being initiated by the VRD.
Should more seniors join in this effort to request programs tailored to
their needs, there could well be a ripple effect through other service
institutions, which may come to recognize their responsibility to serve the
growing senior population in Vail and the surrounding region. Mrs. Parks is
a founding director of the Homeowners Association. She is also pursuing
efforts that would provide for electric scooters and carts to be available
at key locations, such as at the community’s transportation centers, for
those who have challenges accessing businesses and facilities in Vail
Village and Lionshead.
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