##VIDEO ID:fqIbmrIrVGI## that was my first thing that I was going to say is just so everyone knows um this meeting will be recorded uh we'll also have it on our website um Park projects.com and you'll have that information later on um so thank you for coming we're here to present um our next uh renovation project for Rotary Park um what we're going to do today is we're going to show you um a conceptual design and we'll get your input and we'll we'll work on that um what I do want to note is we're gonna have a presentation we're gonna have a few people come up and talk about it at the end of the presentation you'll have the ability to ask any questions um also those of you on Zoom can uh put your questions through the chat I will tell you that um we will be limited to in our questions to answer about what's going on in the park if you have any questions about let's say the street traffic or parking we do have comic cards and I want to make sure that you give us your questions on those with an email because what we'll do is we'll talk to whether it's our Public Works director our right of ways director whether um it's our parking director and we'll definitely get that information to them as the parks crew and the design crew you know any answers that we gave you right now would not be um answers that would be definite because we don't control those processes but what we're here to do is look at the the design of Rotary Park for those of you that have been in that area for a long time um we bought that land and we'll go into the history I was I've been here for a long time myself so uh you may recognize me we did yeah a little more hair and a lot less gray um and uh we went through this the initial design we're back again because it's time to refresh the park the park needs a renovation and that's what we're going to present today um that's people that are going to help us today um we have in the back is um Carolina aester who's our Deputy a deputy director of my department my name is Fred I'm the community recreation director um Fabio segre is from the designer from the architect gurri Matti we have Shelly Weiss who's also going to present from gurri Matti and we also have our Capital Improvements team project manager Adela Pearson is here and so is um the head of Capital Improvements which is Jose Alero so we got all the people that we need to to answer questions and helping us today with the the video and the signin and the zoom and all that stuff from um the community recreation department is Sarah spino and Susan L Fiesta that are also here um so we're going to get started with the with the presentation um here's the first picture this is you all should know that little picture pretty well well that's good to know good to know what up did I lose okay that's good to know you know we we we had a we had a service call on a chicken I don't know if it was in that Park we we had a service call on about two or three different chickens but not in that park I think it's all over the city where I don't know we're getting a chicken inundation um my staff was telling me I had to call animal control because they're like we're not equipped to handle chickens but thank you for letting us know I'll have my my staff check on that so really quick uh just some notes on on the meeting um it's hybrid we're showing it on video but we're also on person um we're going to record it as we talked about um I already talked about what we're going to do with the presentation and questions after and what we also do is we do a community input period um and we do it for a month so starting today today is the first meeting we'll have this um presentation on our website you can see it there parks projects at cor gables.com anyone who could have make it to this meeting anyone who forgot something when they were here and they come back you can share that online and we'll we'll um keep keep it open for comment for the entire month um to make sure we get the proper input from the community what I want to do now is I want to turn over to kolina because Carolina did a lot of research on this site and I want her to just do a brief history on it um I kind of lived it but I want to make sure that it's presented to the community go ahead so always fun for us like Fred mentioned is to look back when we have an opportunity to redesign a park is look back at the historical data of the park so this park is actually not as old like some of our other parks in the city and it actually came about as four separate Lots two of each that were joined later on and right now that's kind of why you have the division in the park that there is because those two bottom Lots got joined the two top Lots got joined but then the rest is still divided so those were part of the Block 17 of the core Gables and Flagler Street section and the first one got basically joined in 2000 and purchased and acquired by the city and then two years later they worked with the owner of the two vacant Lots 78 and then they basically acquired those two so each lot measures about 11,500 square feet and then the park was actually named before was built it was named in 2005 and hence the name in honor of the Rotary Club of cor Gables in Award of its 100 years of service so there you'll see the PLA and in 2005 the park was named before it was constructed so in 2006 there was a resolution that was passed accepting the funds from a bond which was called the building better communities General obligation Bond it was a program from Miami day County and with those funds they identified uh the resources to go ahead design the north side of the park and build a playground as well as fund the the different markers so there's currently two markers there one that basically names the park and then the the description of Rotary International as well as a a kind of signage marker so I believe that rotary sign that you see up there was actually provided by the rotary and then in 2008 an ordinance of the city commission was approved for a change of the land use from residential use to single family low density to parks and recreational use as well as a change from the zoning before both of those properties from from sfr to single family residential to S special use so that's why both of those properties are going to remain Parks properties even the the vacant property that we'll show you what we have in mind um those are not going to be anything that'll be in the future where there's a building those are basically Parks properties for the rest of their use and life and with that I'll turn it back to the director so um just going to go over the existing conditions before we go over the design um for those of you that may remember and if you don't um we talked about the purchase of of the Lots there there was also homes there which we demolished um and that's how we created the park um what we wanted to do is kind of had of a division of the an active part and a passive Park which is why you only have half with a playground you have the other half that we tried to keep natural and and passive so as you can see that's the layout um one thing that we didn't mention is the building better communities Bond did give us some money but it gave us money for a lot of projects so we didn't have a ton of money um to to put towards this park if anyone was with me back then remembered we we tried to be very um economical tried to find things that we can put in there um for play value but that were also uh a good cost this was during the time where this where there was a lot of economic rollbacks there's recession we lost you know a lot of um budget money back then in the 20072 2008 area and um so we did find that's where you have things like the hippo and things like that which were a little bit more lowc cost um they've held up you know and and they were were fun for people so that's why we had it but um these are some of the the features that we have um right now the benches the trash receptacles the the perimeter walls the picketed fence um as you can see some of this stuff is um ready to be replaced it's it's it's in its time we're we're we're that's why we're here that's why we're looking at it um the little park sign up at the top we're going to give you a plan to get rid of that puppy and do something a little nicer um and uh that's something that we we are really in favor of um and I want something that's a little bit that's more beautification and looks better so we're going to show you some of the stuff that we're going to do um but these are some of the the the place sculptures that we have it's a small playground it was a it was a good a good manufacturer um and we did really well with it um but um we're hopeful that what you see today you'll see that there's an advancement and we have a little bit more funding this time um there's some of the park benches we're going to remove them we're gonna add some some really nice new ones the concrete walkway is going to be removed and we're gonna we're GNA improve it and you're going to see what the plans are for the different surfacings that we're going to have um the little Free Library we're going to keep um that's rather new and we're just going to relocate it and now I'm going to turn it over to shayy who's going to start with what the inspiration was for the design and how the design comes about and then you'll see everything that we're going to put in here thank you so the design concept behind this park rotary was inspired by the park name rotary which means a motion revolving around a center or axis so this concept can also be seen throughout the City of Coral Gables through some of of the iconic landmarks and features so with the park name we thought it was only fitting to implement this concept into the design so for the north portion of the site which is where the playground area is the playground is kept in the center similar to what is existing and then the path goes around it the two main axises stem from the center and um direct you to the main entrance to the park and of the site features and amenities also direct you visually to the center that way you have full visibility of that playground area and you don't have any kids running behind you um and nobody gets lost um and then in the south portion of the site the visual accesses connect you to Nature so as you come in you're going to be seeing that beautiful tree that exists in the center and for the new entrance that we're posing in the corner that's the similar concept as you walk in you're surrounded by all this nature and we're planning to keep that area pretty open and we'll expand on that in the future slides sure because it it was landscaped by someone that and if you go that there's a lot of native PL that are really some of them endangered and so so I think that's a plus for the park we agree um and and what are you planning to doing with the landscape that's there now except for you're going to keep the tree okay because it is definitely an important part yeah we agree that start my part of the presentation just repeating what you just say okay well we can okay well discuss that my turn okay well I was impressed When I visit the parkk for the first time you guys are the neighbors you're very familiar with the park but what shocked me was the landscape the the beauti the beauty diversity that you have in this park you have flurry Al you have slashpine you have Palo you have all the native plants that we are bringing as well because we we're not touching the landscape at all what we're doing in our new park design is kind of like to respect what is there and just build around it just renovate what is existing we want to make sure that you guys have the same kind of order and we're just adding beautification to it then going back to ch's point about the rotary comp set around the playground it's an existing playground we're just replacing the surfacing we're bringing new equipment we bringing a new concrete sidewalks around which is all the circulation around the playground that's the playground area which is the north of the park also we adding some uh uh picnic tables we are in the the CCTV camera with a blue button system which you can can contact and reach out to the police immediately that's part of the city of Miami new program for parks and then on the south as you mentioned as Charlie mentioned what it's more important for us is to preserve what is there however this part doesn't have a point of entrance you don't know where you can get to the park then we're creating this new entrance on the bottom which is kind of like an AIS through the four corners and then whoever is coming from the East can Define already where to go where is the entrance in that entrance we are adding landscape all native plants we some borders some Uli borders a new bench and this is all the the flexipay which is going to be a surface um for Ada but it's going to look like a like a regular uh Earth and this is the idea for the south of the park I don't know well you're going to see now in the landscape plan that we're moving most of the public activity toward spons Theon the way would you keep that privacy between the neighbors and the park I know that it's very important for those neighbors adjacent into the park to maintain that privacy and we are adding a an edge kind of like a privacy landscape Edge adding to what is existing there then for the next part of the presentation is the playground of course brand new playground brand new Surface we're going to present option nib I want you guys to vote which options you guys better but we're going to get there um circulations are on the playground with the rotary comcept that Charlie just described a integrated concrete that way this is doing durable we're going to have root barriers to make sure that you don't have what's going on now that the roots just break through the breakdown and you have bounds around the playground and then this is the comet the bik the B rack by the entrance out the perimeter fence we actually keeping the perimeter face when it is we we're keeping the perimet fence in the playground area on the south side we don't have a fence still like an open Park everyone can walk in and walk out and that's the intent that we have then next is the plague oh some of the fixures that we're going to have this is the typical fence that we're using for the typ for the C gagos we're going to have this oi Boulders as as the pilasters then we're going to have the perfor metal fence around the park you're going to have the regular pick fence which is going to be bring optic gold which is four feet now I think you have two feet and six inches and this is the the plexipave and the integrated color concrete that we're planning to use this is all part of the presentation and you guys will have be able to comment if you have any comments but yeah yeah sure which wall no no concrete the concrete walkway it's it's the entire the entire sidewalks around the the playround so you're gonna You're Gonna Keep that I think it's pink now so that stays right the wall oh you saying the wall between the properties is that yeah no no but where removing the wall in the top we're just keeping the wall between the neighbors and okay yeah yeah because that wall is damaged as we speak it's all crack and yeah we do have cameras and all that yeah but let's talk about the playground ladies and gentlemen if I just want to remind you because we are also recording on Zoom it would be really really helpful if we let them finish the presentation and then when you want to comment just raise your hand because we do have to each individual person because this is a public record and we put the the presentation up on website thank you this is the playround area next then well I already spoke about this okay this is the options that we're showing you this is the playground that we're proposing this is the equipment for option A we want to keep the the curv linear concept which is part of the rotary we want to keep this Arch being repeated in every single playground and this option give us a lot of transparency which I think that that's why you want in a park like this you want transpar from the street you have any kind of like call the police can just pass by and see whatever is going on behind that equipment this option a pro give you the the arch we love this option actually I will recommend this option but we want to present another option to you guys that way you guys choose know the designer then option b is is still oh go this is a rendering from above how this option will look like this is a 3D rendering I have you one important note and I do want to point this out for the the playgrounds because um one of the things that when we have um when we show playground presentations one of the big requests and the most popular playground item that you'll find will be SNS um unfortunately because the majority of the parks that we have are tiny swings if you go back to the slide that had um the youth zones the FR yeah if you look um though look at the the dotted lines is what has to be safety zoned um so these swings are toddler swings are the buckets so for the younger ones because for the older kids you would have to basically eliminate the majority of the playground so we still wanted to figure out a way to put swings in here um but I think that's always seems to be the most popular thing that we get from parents especially the bucket swings for the smaller children because the older children climb around slide and do everything else but the younger children it's a little more challenging and they love the swings so just wanted to share that sorry no no it's important I completely forgot about the swing which is is is a it's a new feature that you don't have in that playground yeah actually most of these features are new and it's going to be super fun and active yeah next then option b is it's pretty much the same concept we still have some of the arch idea but then we're integrating more like a small kits with a kind of like Slide the roof protection and Etc this is also something for you guys to consider we also have a swim as you see there but it's a different typ of like a different design it's kind of like a cross type of shape but again we I think that we're going to be open to inter to vote uh you guys can tell us via emails which options you like I personally go for option A but I like both that's my personal opinion and this is the rendering for option b yeah next then okay the landscape that you mention about the landscape this is a preliminary layout and again if you guys would like to add to to our design and say well I want this type of species I know that we are very flexible of course it's going to be a public record and we're going try to to meet the request again on the on the East sorry on the west side which is adjacent to the properties to adjacent to the to the neighbors that's when we have the the tall screen Edge which creating this privacy between the existing houses and the park then the rest of the the landscape is just adding to what is existing we're not touching a single tree we're not moving any Tree from where they are that's that's the idea then on the next slide you're going to see some of the species that we are proposing most of them are Floria native such as the CRA bottom wood the sensor stopper and and the shrops also most of the Florida native plants next the more of the of the ground cover this is all the ground cover is going to be around the existing landscape areas and this is I will add um since we were talking about the the Landscaping I did work with um the person who planted those natives was a former public service director who since retired for the city his name was Dan kees and we worked on this this design um and it was um we did if if any of you recall there was a lot of plantings we had to cut some of them back because there were security concerns because people were were able to be in there nobody can see that they were in there and um we did have I remember some of the the the neighbors that to the West uh telling us that there were some issues there so we started looking at how to have the VIS so we had to cut a little bit back um but yes we concentrate on Natives and we wanted to keep that um what our our um our Focus here was let's renovate it refresh the park but let's keep the the spirit of what the park is um which is you know an active side and that passive side because that's what we started with that was what was um the uh ongoing sentiment when I first presented the community way back went um and I think that's we wanted to stay with um so these are some of the things that um we just talked about we are going to have the Ada accessible entrances um there's especially in the passive area right now it's not Ada accessible there's benches and you got to get on the grass so what we're trying to do is in that corner and on one section of long ponds is put that flexi pave and what flexxip pave basically is if any of you want to see what it is we have one at Lisbon Park um it's that spongy um eily kind of um it's like a glued together substance and it's kind of soft when you walk on it but a wheelchair can go through it and we're only going to do it we're not going to do too much on the passive part of it because we don't we don't want to make it so active we just want to be able to get to a bench and to get through through the the entrance so if someone wants to use a bench they can't tell us that the the passive side is not accessible we're going to make it accessible um so as we talked about we're going to have all new features the the new litter receptacles the drinking fountains and we're going to put a bottle filler on those you know that's what's new where you can bring your water bottle and fill it up um so we're excited about that we showed you the playground components um one thing that we didn't cover in there um we are also putting in a um CCTV light um so and it's going to have one of those blue buttons you know the emergency buttons so it'll have CCTV cameras and it'll have a light and so so that is something that we were going to do even before we were getting ready to design the park um we already had plans for it so we're going to we're integrating this into that system so you're going to have th that light there as well that security light with that blue button in case anyone needs it and we'll also be able to activate cameras if we need to there um we're GNA have a new park sign um they when you walk in the corner I want to just tuck it in on the side and we're going to have it it's going to be a big one it's not going to be a concrete one it's going to be similar to ones that we do at our other par Parks um and uh I think it'll be in line with what we want to do I don't want those concrete pedestals I mean we have them in a few of the parks I I can't tell you what I think of them in terms of what they remind me of but you guys can figure it out if it's a it's a Concrete pedestal coming out of the ground um the uh I think adding the Uli Boulders gives it a little bit more of a of a natural touch um you have those rocks also our fencing um FAO mention it the fencing that we have there is is lower back when we made this park the safety guidelines didn't specify a bigger height now anything that has kids in it you got to go four feet so it's a little higher but what we've done is and you can check any of our newer Parks um we have a standard for fencing where we put these oolite Boulders pedestals and then we attach the black aluminum um picket fencing it looks really clean um and nice and as the park um goes through time you get that nice natural look weathering of the of the of the Limestone um and it gives a really nice natural look it doesn't look manufactured or anything like that so it's great um this is what we're looking at as I said we got a little bit more money this time um so we the total estimated project is 780,000 um it's divided that way um you know if what's good um now is we've prepared over years on funding um we've worked with the city that our department now I have something called The Matrix and what the Matrix does is it it starts um pocketing funds into certain accounts for future expenditures so we had been putting money in for Rotary Park for a while knowing that we have to do it and what's also good is you know this regardless of whatever design we come we we land on option A or option b once we have that Park and we have the design um because of that Matrix I have the ability to if there's a few dollars that we need to have not too many but there a few dollars that we need to add to to meet the design that we want because I have a matrix and I have funds that are for renovations we're able to to make sure that we can get this done when I presented to this community you know in 2008 I didn't have that ability I just had x amount of money and that was it um but we've we've looked at it we know what things cost and we've been able to prepare so we're pretty um excited that we have the funding for this and we'll be able to do it um and this is where we are we're at the the community input portion um what we'll do is we'll have a follow-up staff meeting if there's any changes in design hope not um it'll be great if but there is there is it is what it is then we have to go through permitting um Board of Architects all that stuff then after that is procurement where we have to go and find a contract a contractor construction that usually takes three months because you have to post it you have to get bids you have to criteria check and then you have to select one and then make sure once they select that they're responsive and they have the ability to do the job um and then and then it'll be the the timeline so I wish it would be quicker um but those are the times that we're looking at we're hoping um you can shave a little bit of the 9 to 12 months off if there isn't a lot of change in design and we don't have to go back to the drawing board and um the construction timeline all depends on the contractor so that's where we are so there's the information on the parks projects at Cor gables.com and at this point now we're ready for questions and I will answer them to the best of our ability yes ma'am we need to get her oh she's gonna get okay and I live nearby so the issue I want to talk about is the parking so at this point I've talked to two parking directors there's so much people Park from those buildings on the corner the medical buildings everyone uses that as a parking lot and the people at like a all those places they use our park to park in and I've spoken to two parking directors and they said no we want to give those people room to park and it's free at the park and we want them to park there to me that's an Abomination we can't go to the park during the day because there's people there until five o'clock or six o'clock they come from everywhere and park there so I've seen people with baby strollers you know they can't park there or dogs that come to use the park and the park parking director wants people to park there for free and they've always refused to put up either meters or anything like that so is that something you guys can address or are we just stuck with it well we're not stuck with it um I can give you what I've been working I can't give you definitive because I'm not the parking director we do have a new parking director I don't know if you've met the new one new parking director and she told me the exact same thing we need to give parking spaces to the people that work at lacasita people that work in the big buildings down the street they need that parking and they can't afford to pay for it so we give it to them for free at Rotary Park we'll have to revisit that because that in so many words yeah we'll have to revisit that because she she didn't tell me that and what we were looking at is some sort of timing times parking you know you could be there an hour at a time a two hour we have that in other areas and I asked her if we can do that and that's something that we're working on okay well we're gonna this is live um we're going to put it and we're going to talk to him so absolutely absolutely absolutely so we'll we'll we will revisit it I can't guarantee anything like I said I'm not the parking director but we are working on that and that's something that we talked about even before the renovation came up this is my question so if you're coming out from another want to use a m hi my name is Evelyn di as I live at 36 Mona Avenue my question is if you're from another area in The Gables let's say a few blocks down and you want to come and use a park where do you park so that's a great question and I will tell you here's here's the thing with this park this park was conceived as a neighborhood park um so what we want is we want people that live in the area to walk to the park um that's why parking is limited we have a lot of parks like this that are smaller um that don't have parking because what we want to do is cater to that neighborhood and the way we what we've done is we put we're close to having a park within a what 10-minute walk of every single home we about 85 to 90% down so then you don't have to drive over you can walk over but one of the things that we're looking at is um and this is what I've been talking with parking director about is maybe some time parking there but really what we want to focus on is making it a neighborhood park because I don't want thousands of people out your Park um that's why that playground is small um I have I have playgrounds with big I I have parks with big playgrounds if you want something that's big and expansive Salvador is there in about a year Phils Park is be the biggest best playground you've ever seen in your life if you want to go there and you can drive there yeah my question is just does the that budget include the grant that we got for the security does do those numbers include that Grant or not the grant for the security remember there was a grant that was uh given given to for uh security to different parks and our Park was one of the ones chosen for that oh no so that wasn't a grant that was that was part of capital funding that was given for um the light poles with the aeds that's the blue pole so that's part of that that's factored into it it's included in there in there yes we're gonna get that you're gonna get it you're gonna get it yeah everything that we presented design we're focused on getting okay with the funding okay I just wasn't sure since it wasn't wait let me let me let me go back I'm GNA go back to it just to show you make sure that I know you guys wouldn't forget it but it wasn't no no no no that's what I said that's that blue light CCTV okay oh new CCTV and Code Blue System it's on the left and as you see it's right over the playground is there a laser here go ahead you show it okay I have another question the lighting that's something very important right there's only two poles the that their verree so my final question is so that light's GNA be right in the middle that's not part of the funds that you reflected here that's in addition or you added it to the budget that you showed I just want to know because the more money we get the better right I know you guys wouldn't make a mistake no no there now in the capital budget in the capital budget there's a separate sheet for funding for these light poles now with this particular budget because we this was a budget that was already built before the current budget approval so we already factored in to have some sort of system if the additional funds come through then those can be added to the project but when we first started the planning was not with the current budget approved so that's why that additional funding for the light pools was a separate sheet if you go in the capital budget it's a separate sheet for several parks that are piloted for this program right right and if you and and we also added extra funds because originally we only had 567 I added more to get it to what once we got the design we saw what the project estimate was so we added that and it came in in this in this last Capital funding cycle yes sir hi um I'm talking about the active area in the park you basically have made a just for children how about a pickle ball court would that fit there um I'm I'm gonna be honest with you I think the neighbors there would kill me because pickle ball is very loud and you're right next to homes and um you can to the highway that's coming to Philips I know but but the home to the and it's plastic and it's trust me I I I do I do a lot of I do a lot of pickle ball um stuff I've got Four Courts at the youth center if anyone watches City commission meetings they know that I presented on pickle ball probably 10 times in the last year um that is not in my professional opinion that's not a good St I was just trying to make it more age inclusive what we try to do what we try to do is um you know we got one side for the children and what I have heard in the past was the passive part was the part where there's more of a respit more for the adults more uh less noise that's that's that's how we designed it at first how about an exercise um round for adults in one side you if you do that you can it's not that you can't I mean that would be an additional phase because that would be extra funding um we can do that um it I mean I just want to include other people than just people that have children okay because I don't have children and I get it you know I get it well you can I mean we we can look at that that's that's if if we get enough of a resounding Community um participation to do that we can look at it no question hi uh I have one question in reference to the lighting as you know it's very dark in that Park and I know you guys in um put some light post a few like maybe two years ago they're very dim right and they don't like the parking so we're gonna we're gonna do two things we're going to look at those and see if we need to relamp but there's the but this on Cal the light post are on Cal so what I did was I called fpnl and they changed the fixture that is on the sidewalk right of facing the pot you will get this light and it'll be up and it'll light more of this area Okay um and we also have we have landscape lighting we have landscape lighting yeah I didn't see it here all all throughout I to I didn't see any orange Giger I isn't there an orange Geer there now I didn't see any on your list of plants orange Gyer I think there's one now well we're not gonna move We're Not Gonna remove anything that's in there at this point all right yeah we're going to need some service of someone to grab those mangoes for us every once in a while but we're going to go to her and then we'll go to yeah hello I just want to know how how do you measure the number of people what's the metric of the people visiting the park for example you're really stressing about a quiet subdued whatever you want to call that area I you know raised my grandkids there going to that little Park without nothing I was there my babysitter used to live in that place where the other playground was the babysitter of my kids imagine how many but I don't see any use to that who sits there I mean have I have never ever gone by the park that I've seen people in that quiet area why can't they just make the I mean I know that I mean it's too too late but one nice big Park you know I don't see that that Placid beautiful whatever landscaped area that you're talking about what's what's the use there is it useful we I mean our taxpayers money really you know seeing some kind of payback for that well well there's and there's also I've never seen there I mean and so there's a lot of things there's a lot of things to consider that like you it's a it's a passive space so there is some value in having open green space in the middle of development right up against a tree and what we tried to do is we tried to split you know split the middle tried to split the middle do a little bit of active and and and do passive and this was that design was not something that we did that was what we got from the community at the time back when I when I presented because um there were some people that were at the moment not in favor of anything there they wanted it to look like the bottom half the entire thing um yeah you live next door right yes you okay you were at those meetings cuz there was not going to be playground it was just going to Natural Area with a little walkway and that's it that's all be and the reason we don't want that two playgrounds is because all the noise that's going to happen if you have this huge playground so I as a neighbor I don't want that and I and I I I recognize you now um yeah we we started that way we did get we did we we have a there was a burgeoning community at the time that wanted the playground which is why we got there um but that's where that that's where we are and I think I think it's a it was a compromise um and so if that's if we want to uh stray from that we can always look at that it would be a second phase and we'd have to get funding for that other side because that's another $780,000 so D go home the big kids come out at night and the big kids at night drink smoke and leave a lot of garbage in the area I don't think it's safe for women walking by well you know that's we so we're directing some efforts at that the first thing is that that blue button with the CCTV is number one number two is what I talked about before where we got to keep that natural growth not so high because our officers have asked so when they drive by that they can see all the way through um now we want to buffer the homes we want to keep you uh the people that live there want to keep them protected from noise and everything else but everything else we want uh cars police cars as they go by to be able to see it so that's when the communication that I've had with our with our police chief so uh I I I commend the uh first of all my name is Felix Paro and I commend the designers for doing really a nice nice job and you know using the existing um very carefully selected many years ago and and not just throwing it away and starting from scratch um I also like the conceptual um message which is uh the rotary wheel and one of the things that I would like all the neighbors to understand is that um this was named after an organization that promotes world peace and does all sorts of things from U eradicating polio worldwide to putting wells in other countries for for people to drink clean water and and to provide promote things like this locally and the only thing I would ask is that on that other elevation that you had that says Rotary Park if you could please put the rotary wheel right next to it the rotary wheel is very symbolic and the reason is because there is a cog in every wheel there are 1.3 million rotarians in the world yeah we can put that in the park sign well what I'm I'm talking about is your new gate that says rotary okay you could Nestle it in right to the right of it easily it's already curved yeah it's already curved it's that's why I said right there if you could put the rotary wheel we would really we would really appreciate it so I've been a rotarian for for 39 years of perfect attendance that means we meet once a week for 39 years that's a lot of rubber chicken so the thing is that we do great things throughout the world and I think that this is a really nice thing that has been done for many years for all the Neighbors in that area that deserve that green space and I do uh agree with Fred in saying the safety Factor you know from a from a swing standpoint because it's the most popular thing I think maybe you should rethink a little bit same design just maybe pull it out a little bit kind of inverse where you have the width of the walkway use the outside portion as the inside you'll pick up more than enough distance there to be able to provide The Swinging safety distance for the kids and you know at the end of the day this is really a children's and for the Neighbors you know this is this is really the Next Generation that's the way I see it when I moved into my house the one I live in now which is only a couple blocks away from the youth center we went through a massive renovation there and it it was the best investment that we could have ever made in this community and this is a great investment in this part of the community and the same as Philip's Park also and I was just talking to Keith Phillips who's a fellow rotarian this morning and his and and that Park is named after his father who was our mayor many years ago and it's the most popular of all the parks if that thing were open 247 they'd be using a 247 so uh I agree right and I I don't necessarily think that half of the park should not be accessible to well when and so so if you I mean I'm not saying that there should be something for children but there's a lot of us that are retired and don't have children okay and half of the park now is not accessible to and and and you know and one of the differences I think that we should all keep in mind when we empathize with other people and and what they you know what they are looking for in life keep in mind there's a big difference between the Coral Gables Youth Center where where I bought my house that house 35 years ago because I bought it next to the youth C so I knew that the noise the you know the kids the sports the activity it's an active part when this thing was donated 25 years ago keep in mind that the neighbors around there they looked at this as a as a softer type of thing the comment you made about pickle balls is is I understand it's super popular Etc there are other places that are much better the decibel level of pickle ball play I didn't just sayle I also said in you did yeah and I mentioned T easily sure right sure right I say that the pickle is that the decb from the impact of the balls is is is it really travels a lot and it really affects people's quality of life so I think this this part you know when you when you incorporate something as you say as you know to walk around you just reconsider the size of the park you know which is it's not a big Parts it is small but it's also got a fence that really protects the children from running out into the street it it's such an asset and I'm I'm very happy that we did what we did many years ago to to make sure that this park you know was really in a in a really nice area of the city which many times gets forgotten so I I think that if if they if they improve this park this way I mean I think it's wonderful and and and I think you you make very good points and I think that that the point that you're making also should really be part of the input into Philips park because it's substantially larger and me being a senior also um I always like and I look for those particular things so I I just wanted to Philip spark will have pickle ball and Philips Park will have an exercise area so it's much bigger it's a different type of of environment like no it's gonna have separate pickle ball separate tennis and separate basketball okay Phillips where at Heron Douglas um I I wanted to ask because I I like Gardens I like Greenery and on that side where it's more of the adult side yeah um have you considered putting any kind of um a focus uh a water feature or a Pergola or something that would make it more along the lines of you know a garden type of look so perolas are tough um because of building codes you can't have those simple little wooden structures it has to be a very sturdy very big concrete um base it has to be no no I I know I know what you're thinking what I'm trying to tell you is unfortunately due to cor Gable's building codes it has to be something sturdy and I and I'll tell you why I I I ran into this right now I've been running into it I've had like five six years trying to deal with this at um the Granada golf course we have these little pergolas that these little things which is what you would like um those have to be um taken down and what we had to put in because the building code were much bigger much more expansive nobody wanted them so I haven't been able to do anything there because we're trying to find a way that we can meet building code and have it be a small footprint um in terms of the water feature the I mean the you can do a water feature you can do a fountain it's a cost you got to have plumbing and you got to have get through the irrigation my my concern with water features at small Parks is um you know becomes a little bit of a magnet for insects and when you have a small Park and you have a lot of vegetation there what you do there that's my concern um it's not an open area like we have a water feature at Phillips I mean at Pon Circle Park but that's like wide open it's on the street there's a lot of activity going on it we don't get as much um but that's that's usually my concern with small because we can't do a big giant Fountain it would be a small something and and we we did um we did something there at Lisbon Park and it it it's it's tough because it's it's it's a yeah it's hard for maintenance and it's there's a lot of bugs um so we didn't consider that for this um you know that that's those are the reasons why um no I just wanted to say that um somebody was saying well are there ever any kids there and yeah there are after five o'clock there's kids on weekends you drive by and it's there's kids so I like to see that all right I'm starting to get a large group of questions online so I'd like to get through some of them and hopefully it answer some of your questions um so we started to get questions about um why not join the lots to create a seamless space it seems just jointed so I don't know if you want to answer that one we we we've kind of already answered that that this was kind of where we went with um with the project in terms of what the community wanted at the time which was we started off with a complete passive area then as the gentleman stated we added the ACT part later on because of um some um Community input on doing that and that's kind of the way we functioned with it we don't we're not here to we when we're doing a renovation and we're doing renovation of a park that the community is happy with and um you know their satisfaction with I don't want to recreate the wheel I want to make sure that we have and I say wheel rotary um but I don't want to recreate that I want to make sure that we have um the same continuity and a design that works that the community has been happy with for very many years at this point okay so the next question will there be any Landscaping to help combat the mosquitoes such as lemongrass s chanella it's a good question I think we had those in there did we have those in there um if not we will we will definitely add that and we'll noted it for the record to make sure okay uh next question will there be anything for dogs in the park no um so uh when we one of the things that I've encountered um and it started a few years ago when we started building some smaller Parks neighborhood parks um is uh there was a battle between um dog users and bringing dogs in the park and then people being able to enjoy the park because of the dog waste and also because of the danger sometimes of Unleashed dogs when they're in there there's only one area that's that's that's fenced and that area is going to be um there's not going to be any grass there it's going to be the playground it's going to be the turf so and we're not going to fence in the other area we're not going to have dog features we didn't put any in there inside the park um we are building we do have one dog park at Salvador we're building another one at um underneath the Metro Rail so that that'll be our second dog park and we have plans in the far future to maybe put one right down this street over here at an open lot one of these days um so that's kind of what we're we're doing and if we do that um those are going to be the the service areas for dogs okay next question when will Phillips Park renovation be complete for the dog park I just want to add there is a dogway station outside the park so it's currently the open grass area when we visit a lot of people are walking their dogs through the open grass area and they're using the dog W on the sidewalk yeah um Phillips Park um we uh are we just got the funding um today is the first day of our new budget and we just got the final 4.5 million for that Park so uh we are in the process of um the uh permitting procurement and we do need to have philis Park done by April of 2026 because we have a grant that matures at that point so it'll be done by April 2026 okay next question it's um more of a comment please uh fully support the swings but please consider shade for the plate area that's a good question that we looked at um the pro you know there is a lot of there there's a lot of trees there that's why we didn't pursue the shade um because especially in the afternoon when we hit the use um and the sun's on the west side we do have that buffer so we have a good shading there um and the the problem with the shade also is it limits the visibility in that Park so that's why we kind of went away from it um and we think that we have pretty good shade and to be honest I mean the the the the person that described in the chat maybe uses it I will tell you in the history of the park I have very rarely ever received any complaints about shading issues there because of the the trees I mean maybe there is some that nobody bothered to tell me but yeah at the very beginning of the morning yeah yeah so in the two playground options if you see option two we did present the little Treehouse option so the shade cover is around the park but right in the middle where you don't have the tree canopy so we provided that option so if somebody wanted to at least provide the little that has shade over the house adding any existing canopies would affect the existing tree canopy that's there yeah yeah all right uh Sarah anything else um the next question is um the fence on the playground side can it be moved towards the sidewalk on Pon Leon maybe leaving a twoot step back from the sidewalk it would increase its size and would also allow more people to be inside and enjoy the park so the reason why we we we did it that way is we wanted to kind of hide the fence from the street um and so then you have the continuity of the natural barrier all the way down PS um if you see the play area um moving the fence the only thing we would look to do is you just have a bigger circle and a little more space in between things we wouldn't necessarily add any more features not with the budget that we have and then you would make it bigger and it'd be more more of a of a well that's true also um the next uh comment thoughts on multi-age multi-use playground structures that can be used for adult Wellness in addition to children activities so of a comment um those those are that is difficult to do um because when playgrounds are designed they're designed for ages but if we can look at do I have did I lose it did I put it in my pocket oh ful so if you look at this um you can see you have that climbing fence structure um that you can do for agility and strength exercises for all ages if you want to do it you know it's not going to be a 20 foot Ninja course because we can't do that there but um it it does provide some sort of um rope and um agility strength core if you want to do that um and the last one here midday the center area is fully exposed a canvas canopy over PlayStations would go along way yep um as as we address um we can look at it um it adds to the safety feature um safety issues and um we can um look at it it's a cost also but we have to make sure it doesn't factor into the the trees and the play but um if that's a consensus that we get from the input throughout the month then we'll look at it absolutely that's kind of what we do here we we present we tell you why we design things and as we go through the month if we get an overwhelming consensus of of a certain thing we will def definitely change it um but it has to be it has to be overwhelming consensus um yes sir is is it possible maybe what the gentleman was was talking about um you know if you recall a few just a few years ago you put in all the exercise stations around the youth center where a lot of people walk around yeah and and maybe that would be a good idea to you know you can't put 10 of them but maybe you could put two or three of them that in in the passive area and you could actually maybe even incorporate one in that area that was just discussed now between the fence and PS you know in that area so you might be able to put one two three somewhere and and they could be kind of you know where they're not in your face but but they're accessible there and it would give you know people the ability to use them adults to use them without right right open grass area or anything you can share them and put some some active exercise equipment for adults so the whole part can be used with as many of people in different age categor yeah and and that won't create noise that will will upset the neighbors P there's a gentleman that just bought the house next to the passive space he's not here today but I think he should be included in in these comments if you're intending on putting some exercise equipment or some other stuff well look all all these are suggestions when we what we do is we we gather all the information from everyone like if you have any suggestions on the change of the park please put them in the comment cards we're going to gather it all and what we don't do is we don't do we don't make a change to the park if it's one person or two people if it's a consensus then absolutely we're gonna look at because that's what we want the community to do not necessarily he's a fireman no well he has he has a month and and everyone's got a month to do input and go on to the website we want to make sure that just because somebody doesn't come here today they still have the opportunity to put in their input so we'll we'll today count correct of course okay well I I I'm sorry sorry y' I hate to differ I mean my kids are my grandkids are also getting bigger but kids need area to run around I would not take any part of that Park away from the kids maybe Philips park again I go back to that but I wouldn't change what you have for children that's my humble opinion right so my other question was can you go back and compare uh between A and B how many play areas you have from 5 to 12 in each is it the the same amount or not same amount just the equipment the equipment okay yeah so so can we go back to see so this one the the structure is this kind it's got a little bit more uh climbing it's open it's got some rope it's got a little bit overhead then you got the big rope there and then you got the the swings which are the arch swings so as you can see there's the back of that slide yeah it's got a monkey bar a portion also actually that we were talking about um for adults they could use that as well um and then option b it's a more traditional structure similar to something that we have um if you go to mayorca Park which is the one across street from the country club it's very similar um it doesn't have as much activity around the slide it's got some log steppers and like a chain fence and some steps but that's all climbing into the structure it's not a lot of Adventure there um this um the the swings are a little different let's see if we get another angle swings are a little different not the arch swings they're not as you probably won't go as High um but um and then this climbing structure is more closed in it's more of a net type um thing it doesn't have as much um you know height and climbing value as the other one but um it's also yeah the the other one seems to be more active I mean what is this where the little girl is sitting that's a little spinner you just sit and you yeah the other one seems to be a more active playground so I mean there's you know they're both good choose right they're they're they're both good um you know and we we're we're good with either one um this is they both have a xylophone so we actually we have one at Salvador Park um we we it's it's that feature we use to have our it's our adaptive play feature um it's accessible and it's used and it's one of those features that's um really um used in a lot of inclusive playgrounds throughout the country um so without the yes that's why it's an inclusive it's an inclusive feature um Salvador park has a lot of those features if you go down there there's a it that's our that's our most inclusive playground that we have yeah yes got a lot of of stuff anything else Sarah no there's nothing okay all right so thank you very much um please if you have any more comments put them on the comment card go to Parks projects uh cor gables.com we want to get all the input we can before we move forward and thank you for coming I do appreciate taking time out of here Tuesday night thank you thank you