NEWS

new mcpherson park master plan committee appointed

Tuesday,  November 29, 2001

November 30th
Colleyville City Park
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NEW McPHERSON PARK MASTER PLAN COMMITTEE APPOINTED…by Linda Newton

After a lengthy discussion about its purpose and mission, the Colleyville City Council appointed a new seven-member committee at Tuesday night’s meeting.  At least three of the seven are currently active in sports associations, and only one of the original committee members was carried over to the new group.  Individuals appointed include Mark Howe, Bill Mitchell, Tom Sweatt, Lynn Putnam, Ed Havran, Pat Davis, and Bob Leininger.

The McPherson Dairy operated at the park site prior to its purchase by the city several years ago, and had been in existence since the 1920’s. The city acquired 27 acres of the original 160-acre dairy property as a site for an elevated water storage tank and a fire station.   The original Master Plan Committee worked with consultants and the community to develop a plan that would preserve the agricultural heritage of the area and provide a passive park for residents.  That plan included picnic areas, hike and bike trails, an amphitheater, a tree farm, and play areas.  The fire station was designed and built to fit in with a farm setting.

During the council’s priority-setting sessions last summer the council introduced the idea of reconsidering the use of the 27-acre park site.  Proponents of the original plan have accused the council of attempting to fulfill campaign promises to sports associations by converting part of the park to playing fields.  Currently all sports associations in the city are lobbying for more space for playing or practice fields, and the city has not purchased any additional park land since 1999.

An analysis of the McPherson Park site by Newman, Jackson, Bieberstein, Inc. in March 2000 identified the following potential park elements as being “not suited” for the McPherson site: practice soccer fields, lighted football fields, practice baseball fields, and lighted soccer fields.

Tempers flared at the October 16^th council meeting when a resolution to establish a new committee was considered.  After several council members referred to a “$7.8 million dairy museum” as the reason why the city had not moved forward with the park, individuals who served on the original planning committee responded.  Linda Baker, Nelson Thibodeaux and Ed Havran pointed out that the original plan was composed of three phases, and that the museum would have been in the last phase.  The original plan was to construct a museum with donated funds; however, subsequent councils never pursued that plan and the opportunity to lure the Southwest Dairy Museum to Colleyville was lost.  The $7.8 million figure was the total cost for all three phases, not just the museum.  Questions about the museum should not have kept the first two phases from going forward according to those who spoke.

No citizens spoke during the public hearing at Tuesday’s meeting.  Prior to making nominations, Councilman Richard Newton commented that the resolution passed on October 16^th did not state the committee’s mandate, what the deliverables were or the time frame estimated to complete the plan.  Mayor Donna Arp responded that the mandate was to look at the current plan.  Deputy City Manager Dianne McWethy added that the city staff would meet with the new committee initially.  They will review the current plan and go over options for recommendations, which she estimated would take four to six months.  The new Master Plan Committee will make recommendations to the eight-member Park Board, which will then make recommendations to the City Council.  The new plan will receive two public hearings and all meetings through the process are open to the public.  The council voted to amend the resolution to include the wording that the committee members would serve until September 30, 2002, and that the deadline for submitting a plan to the Park Board would be August 1, 2002.

Newton also mentioned that Councilman Joe Hocutt had brought up the possibility of expanding the committee to more than seven people based on citizen input at the October 16^th meeting and that he supported that idea.   Councilmembers Tigue and Rice then gave their reasons for wanting to keep the committee small, which included a desire to “speed up the process”. Tigue also stated that she thought the citizens could rely on the council to appoint a balanced committee.  Newton questioned the wording of the agenda briefing, which stated that the committee was to address “both the current and future recreation and athletic needs of the City”.  He noted that there was no mention of addressing the passive parkland needs.  Councilman Rice stated that the reference to “recreation” meant the same thing as “passive” and that they had specifically chosen that wording.  Councilperson Tigue then stated that only seven would be chosen and the nominations began.

Mayor Arp announced that she would make the first nomination and placed the name of Mark Howe up for consideration.  He was elected to Place 1 when no other nominations were received.  The same process followed when Councilman Hocutt nominated Bill Mitchell, Councilman Rice nominated Tom Sweatt, and Councilperson Feldman nominated Lynn Putnam.  However, when it was Councilman Newton’s turn to submit a name and he nominated former committee member Linda Baker for Place 5, Hocutt then nominated Ed Havran.  Havran was elected.  Newton continued to nominate Baker for the next two spots, but Tigue nominated Pat Davis, and Hocutt nominated Bob Leininger, both of whom were elected.  Ed Havran was the sole member of the original committee selected to serve.  Mitchell, Sweatt and Leininger all represent sports associations.  Additional applications were received from Nelson Thibodeaux, Jenifer Zimmerman, Shawn Roach, Gail Manion and Dee Barker.

Following the meeting Linda Baker told LNO that during her interview it had been suggested that she might have a conflict of interest because she lives within 200’ of the park site.  Baker served on the first two McPherson Park committees without that ever being mentioned, and it does not fall into the category of “conflict of interest”.  Baker has extensive agricultural experience, but has been openly critical of the council’s actions in recent months.  Other applicants mentioned that during their interviews, which were scheduled for only five minutes each, they were asked how they would change the existing plan.  Several applicants for previous committee appointments have complained about not being interviewed at all.

Following the appointments, Newton stated that he was concerned about the practice of accepting applications for appointments past the deadline dates and asked that the council consider making that clearer to the citizens.  Several applicants for the recently appointed Ethics Committee complained when no interviews were held for those positions and all those appointed had submitted applications after the deadline passed.

While there has been heated discussion surrounding the possibility of changing the land use for McPherson Park and the appointment of the new committee, there has been little talk about how the final plan will ultimately be financed.  The only money currently budgeted for the development of the park is $125,000 in CEDC funds in 2004.  Councilman Newton pointed out at Tuesday’s meeting that those funds had been pushed back twice in two consecutive budget years.  Councilman Hocutt then suggested that the museum was the reason why the funding had been delayed.  However, Newton pointed out that the first two phases of the park development could have been implemented regardless of the outcome of the museum discussions.

The city is currently undergoing a budget tightening due to economic conditions, and no other revenue sources have been identified at this time that could be used for the park.  In the past the city has taken advantage of the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department matching grants to develop several of the parks in the city.  McPherson was originally designed with that in mind.  The grants are based on the elements included in the park and the criteria for grants change periodically.

The City of Colleyville Comprehensive Parks, Recreation and Open Space Master Plan adopted in January 2000 identified a current shortfall of 79.76 acres of parkland in the city based on industry standards.  The shortfall at build out, assuming no additional purchases of land, will be 145.81 acres.  The city currently has 184.43 acres of parkland.  The monetary shortfall in parks project funding as of September 1, 2001, based on currently planned projects, is $23,606,882.  That includes the purchase of the additional land needed, but only allows approximately $45,000/acre for that purchase. 

For an October column about McPherson CLICK HERE

Copyright LNO 2001 - All Rights Reserved