Font ResizeEric Kirk conducted the meeting and began by saying that the financial information is still not available. Kirk said the board members hope to have eight years’ worth of income and expenses on the park’s Web site soon.
”We want to hear from you,” Kirk said. He said the board members hoped to “get a discussion going that probably should have started a long time ago.”
Those attending, the majority of whom are actual neighbors to the park, were ready and willing to speak. The concerns expressed are the same concerns that have been expressed at previous meetings. Neighbors fear that the park board has a hidden agenda that includes large events of thousands of people, amplified music that destroys their peace and quiet and goes on into the wee hours of the morning, traffic congestion, massive parking lots on park property and spilling over to the river bars, and motorized sports on the park’s trails. The park neighbors also want the park board to conduct its business in a transparent manner, have open meetings and move towards becoming a public entity with a publicly elected board of directors.
Kirk denied that there were any plans for a motocross track on the park property and Dennis Huber insisted that there was no place to hide anything in the Environmental Impact Review document the board must prepare to proceed on their request for a rezone. They want a rezone that will leave them free to do a variety of things, including large events, without the need to get a Conditional Use Permit.
Peter Ryce said that although the park has been around for 10 years now, they are still in the “infancy” of making a park.
”We’re trying to be as inclusive as possible so we don’t have to go to the County for every little thing,” he said. He said that the park board doesn’t have any “fixed idea” about what it wants but that they want what the community wants. He later conceded that if the “community” wanted motocross then there would be motocross.
Neighbor Dan Nicholson asked how someone got on the park board. He said that he was pretty sure he couldn’t get on the park board and wanted to know how Kirk, Van Sant and Huber had gotten on the board.
The fact is that Steve Dazey selected the first park board and all subsequent board members have been selected by the existing members.
”The park belongs to the board and that’s the number one issue,” Nicholson said.
Huber asked that Nicholson make “constructive comments.”
Nicholson responded by saying that they should have open elections. This idea was supported by most of those attending the meeting. Kirk resisted the idea on the basis that it would make it harder to get anything done. He also suggested that the work of the board is too complex and hard to accomplish in an open fashion.
Businessman and pastor Tom Culbert asked about the park’s bylaws and supported the idea of an elected board.
”What I see now is not what I was told,” he said. “Seems to me you have a lot of carts before the horses. You ought to seriously consider being an elected board.”
Culbert said, and others agreed, that there is a problem with the structure of the community park organization. When asked directly about liability issues arising from the unpermitted events held there in 2006 and 2007, or in regard to the trails that go over private property owned by Dazey, the board members confessed that they were not informed about the insurance and what it would cover, but were certain that there was insurance and it was adequate.
Park donor Virginia Graziani said that Redwoods Rural Health Center was a good membership model to follow. Memberships are free and anyone can sign up to be a member. She said that she thought Steve had picked a good board when the park group was still under the umbrella of Southern Humboldt Working Together, but that the time had come for a membership and open elections. She suggested starting with putting three of the seven seats up for election to make for a smoother transition.
When asked, Kirk said that the park board doesn’t have a business plan, but that they want to be able to do concert events and a housing complex because they need money.
Huber said they couldn’t come up with a business plan or even determine what use the park will be put to until the County approves their EIR and zone change.
”You make your plans as you go along,” Ryce said.
”I don’t think you do that if you’re smart,” neighbor Jerry Latsko said.
There were several calls for protecting the park, leaving it as it is, and getting rid of the gravel mining across the river from the park. This digressed into a discussion about how to define a park. Golden Gate Park was held up as an example of a park by Kirk and Huber. Kirk said that in the beginning, Dazey wanted to build a hospital and a school on the property.
The discussion also drifted to whether or not the Summer Arts Festival would be held there. The Mateel website claims that 10,000 people attend the Summer Arts and Music Festival. Kirk scoffed at that number and said the only thing that mattered was how many people were there at any one time.
Neighbor Pam Hanson said that she was concerned about plans for big events at the park because the road is so inadequate for the kind of traffic they will generate. She said it was “ludicrous” to even consider large events at the park.
Park neighbor Jerry Latsko said a park is not a real estate development. He added that the park has a ten-year history of being vague.
”It’s been ten years of being diverse,” Huber countered. He said he defined the Community Park as “a receptacle of ideas.”
The park board doesn’t have a management plan for the park either, it was revealed. Huber said they couldn’t come up with a management plan until after the county approved their zoning change. They are waiting to see what the County will allow them to do, he said.
The park board does have Articles of Incorporation and a set of by-laws, but they are boilerplate by-laws and no one at the meeting confessed to having read them. Those attending also complained about the lack of minutes of the meetings of the board, both those which are held publicly and those which are private.
Suggestions were made for alternate financing to the raising of money through boogies. The park already has use fees for some things. The idea of becoming a park district and drawing on the county’s bed tax for a steady income was suggested. Graziani, who is an alternate on the LAFCO Commission was asked to research that possibility.
Peter Ryce insisted that the park board needs to generate income, and they will require about $75,000 to complete their EIR in hopes of getting permission to hold concerts in the park. They plan to finance it with donations and fundraisers. Someone pointed out that they could get an EIR for a fraction of that cost if they left out the large concert events. This, apparently, is not being considered,
Ryce said that they are spending about $4,000 a month to keep the park open and still owe about $200,000 on the mortgage.
Culbert urged the board members to “respect the wishes of those who live in the community.”
The park board members, however, suggested that the neighbors’ opinions were too subjective and they wanted to bring in some experts.
Underlying the neighbors’ concerns is the memory of what happened to Piercy and Reggae on the River. It started out small and grew exponentially with the full support of the Planning Department and the Planning Commission. Members of the Planning Department were on site at events that had clearly exceeded the legal limits, but the event was allowed to go forward for an economic benefit to the county.
”I don’t feel like the County is going to save us,” Feretto said. She said that she didn’t trust the County to enforce the regulations in the Community Park any more than they did at Reggae on the River.
