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N <br />7. IMPLEMENTING THE REGIONAL PARK SYSTEM <br />How can the Council ensure that the implementing agencies can acquire <br />and develop the regional park system that the Council determines is <br />needed? <br />Currently, local consent is required to acquire land for most of the regional <br />park sites. In some instances and for various reasons, municipalities have <br />withheld consent and thus stopped the acquisition of land identified as needed <br />for the regional park system. In some cases, this has resulted in substantial <br />reduction of recreational benefit, particularly where a park spans two or more <br />municipal boundaries and land has been acquired in one municipality, but the other <br />municipality has withheld consent. <br />The Council should consider a policy that addresses this problem and provides <br />a fair and equitable solution. <br />8. THE CAPITAL IMPROVEMENT PROGRAM <br />Should the capital .improvement program for regional recreation open space <br />adopted by the Council include all projects and all sources of funds? <br />Or should it continue to include only projects to be funded with regional <br />park funds? <br />The Metropolitan Parks Act requires that the Council prepare a capital improve- <br />ment program for the regional park system.. To date, the Council has prepared <br />the program by considering the requests of the implementing agencies, together with <br />the systemwide perspective of the Commission and the parks and open space staff. <br />The product has become a capital improvement program for regional park dollars, <br />but not necessarily for the overall regional park system. This is because some <br />implementing agencies are investing other capital funds in the parks that they <br />have either raised locally or received through other grant programs. Some of <br />these investments have been made before a master plan was adopted by the Council. <br />Other investments were used to implement projects included in an approved master <br />plan that were not. programmed for funding through the Council's capital improve- <br />ment program. <br />9. CONVERSION OF PARKLAND _ <br />Two questions regarding use of undeveloped land acquired for regional parks <br />should be addressed. <br />(1) Should the procedure the Council has adopted governing the interim <br />use of undeveloped regional parklands be incorporated in the policy <br />plan? <br />(2) Is Policy 18 in the current policy plan governin conversion of <br />undeveloped parklands adequate? <br />9 <br />