PRECA 09-02-1992 - Laserfiche WebLink

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F August 6, 1992 TO: / Maurie Anderson, Parks Director New Brighton Park Board Mayor Bob Benke cc: New Brighton City Council Erny Mattila, City Planner FROM: Norm Schiferl and Deborah Woodworth 2729 Mission Court, New Brighton RE: Driftwood Park Improvements AS ~ ~ ¢y. C~6~ ~ - 1 ~~~ Last night I (Norm Schiferl) attended the Park Board meeting to discuss potential improvements to Driftwood Park. Thank you for notifying residents of the area and for listening to our concerns, I brought up several issues (my neighbor John Baron voiced many of the same concerns). One issue is that we have been concerned for some time that some day there will be a terrible accident at Mission House Lane and Fifth Street because users of the ballfield and volleyball court frequently park their cars right up to both sides of the intersection (coupled with the frequent disregard for anything resembling the 30 mph speed limit by many users of Fifth Street). Mr. Anderson and Park Board members agreed to work with other City departments to alleviate this situation, probably with "no parking to corner" signs on Fifth Street. We appreciate your attention to this matter. Another issue is the lack of appropriate parking for users of the ballfield and volleyball court. Because Driftwood Park has a very small parking lot, Fifth Street, and sometimes Mission House Lane, are used extensively. In addition to the traffic itself, using the street as a parking lot tends to carry a party atmosphere to the street. While most people are respectful, a sizable minority are not, resulting in a regular pattern of noisy behavior (yelling, and loud radios and boomboxes with the bass turned up high), coupled with dumping of trash on the lawns and periodic squealing of tires. This park is located in a residential area, and it faces the backyards of our house and those of our neighbors. Mr. Anderson and the Park Board agreed to look at alternative parking options, including a formal agreement with Salem Covenant Church for parking. Other possibilities discussed included developing a new parking lot between the ballfield and the waste treatment facility, and limiting parking on Fifth Street, perhaps only to the south side. We heartily endorse these recommendations, particularly in concert, as measures to reduce traffic on Fifth Street and Mission House Lane. We also suggest that the City explicitly inform softball and volleyball teams that they should only park in specified areas as a condition of being able to use these facilities; our experience in other situations is that most people will comply with such requirements if they have reasonable alternatives (such as the Church parking lot and a new