Over 100 people attended the community park open house on April 21st held at the new community park property just east of the Watertown-Mayer Elementary School at the corner of County Road 20 and Paul Avenue. There was a lot of great input from people. People who came to the open house were given the opportunity to comment on the park elements in the park and what they thought was their highest priorities. All the information was compiled and the following was the list of priorities from the people who came to the open house:
1) Athletic fields
2) Swimming pool
3) Sports courts
4) Ropes course/outdoor classroom
5) Picnic and bathroom shelter
6) Amphitheater
7) Campground/picnic area
Community gathering area
9) Splash pad
10) Dog park
11) Luce Line Trail head
12) Multi-use park building

The Park Commission will be taking this information and discussing what to do next. Please contact the City if you have any questions.

By popular demand, a dog park is shown in the final park scheme. The timeline for the dog park as well as the funding source is unknown at this time. We are hoping that a group of dog owners and future park users will come together and design the dog park. The dog park in Burnsville called Alimagnet Park is a very popular park and was created by a group of residents. Visit http://www.alimagnetdogpark.org/ for more information.

The final scheme has a variety of alternatives built into the plan to allow for flexibility based on the needs of the community and what citizens choose to do for each park component. Community Park Scheme

An example of this is the swimming pool. The swimming pool was a park component that many people would like. Since the City cannot construct a swimming beach due to state health reguations, the city could cosider either a swimming pool or other alternative water features. Some people have suggested that another swimming pool in town is not necessary since there is one at the Watertown-Mayer high/middle school. Water foundains, sprayers, zero depth/splash pad are alternatives that could be considered once the park starts getting built.

There will be a Community Park Open House on Wednesday April 21st at the Watertown-Mayer Elementary School from 3-7pm.

The open house will have the final scheme (Community Park Scheme) presented along with park components and preliminary cost estimates. Please come to find out about the proposed community park plan and give feedback.

The elementary school is located at the corner of Paul Avenue and County Road 20 and the east side of the city. Call 952-955-2681 for more information.

Before we figure out how we are going to pay for it, the City needs to find out what the citizens want first. The park most likely will not be built out at one time unless we find a pot of gold somewhere. The park will be funded through donations, grants, park dedication money the City has received in years past, and possibly other ways as well. The thought being we would build items as the money becomes available. Right now the City doesn’t have a final cost estimate because we don’t know what is going to be in it other than roads, trails and open space. The goal right now is to give the public an opportunity to provide input now that the final park plan is being designed. The ultimate goal is to have one design and then prioritize the elements in that design so we can then focus on funding sources and figure out ways to develop everything that is in the final park design.

Over 20 conceptual design ideas for the park were developed by residents of Watertown at the open house last April. The 20 concepts were compiled along with the comments the City received at the Open House and the park survey and staff developed three designs. The 3 concepts are displayed at City Hall and also here on the website. The sandy bottom swim beach is no longer included in the concepts as a public swimming area due to new federal legislation and the safety risks involved. Swim ponds lack sufficient filtration, which can result in murky water and poor visibility. A tragic accident that happened in 2007 involving a 6-year old girl being injured when she was pulled to the bottom of an open drain in a wading has resulted in the Department of Health discouraging the new construction of swim ponds due to clarity and cleanliness. See posting dated June 29, 2009.

3 new Community Park concepts available as .pdf files. These .pdf are:
Concept #1
Concept #2
Concept #3

We are asking the public to comment on these concepts and to provide the City with any thoughts that you may have. Please click on the Get Involved! link under this posting to make your comments. Please provide us your feedback!

The final park design will be completed by the end of the year.

Many responses from Community Park surveys and the Community Park Open House held in April indicated that a sand-bottom swim beach or swim pond was a desirable park amenity. Unfortunately, a swim pond is no longer a viable option for the new community park due to the safety risks involved. Swim ponds lack sufficient filtration, which can result in murky water and poor visibility. The lack of adequate filtration also compromises the cleanliness of swim ponds, which poses another health hazard.

In December of 2007, President George W. Bush signed legislation that encourages states to develop pool safety laws. Due to this legislation, as well as the Abigail Taylor Act, man-made water bodies designed for swimming have been reevaluated for their safety. The Abigail Taylor Act came about after 6-year-old Abigail Rose Taylor was severely injured when she was pulled to the bottom of an open drain in a wading pool at the Minneapolis Golf Club in St. Louis Park in June of 2007. Part of Abigail’s intestinal tract was pulled out, severely damaging her pancreas and liver as well. She endured a triple organ transplant, but tragically died nine months after the accident, just before her 7th birthday.

This incident led to the Abigail Taylor Act, which calls for increased safety in swimming pool drains, and it also has led the MN Department of Health to strongly discourage the construction of swim ponds due to clarity and cleanliness issues. Therefore, the City will not be pursuing the sand-bottom swim beach concept in the new community park. It is, however, considering a standard pool with some fun features.

Reprinted from the Carver County News
article by Todd Moen

Thanks to what officials are describing as a “win-win” agreement between Jerry and Kathy Berg of Watertown and the city, Christmas arrived a few weeks early this year in Watertown.

Bergs Donate Land for Community Park

The Bergs are giving the city about 40 acres of land to be used for a community park, an amenity that has been on the wish list of city officials since 2003. In return, the city has agreed to some future considerations concerning other property owned by the Bergs. Officials estimate the donation to have a net value of just over $1 million. The agreement was the main event at the city council meeting on Dec. 9.

The 40-acre parcel is located on the south and east sides of Watertown-Mayer Elementary School between CSAH 20 and the Luce Line Trail. It contains 26 acres of usable open space and about 12 acres of old growth forest. It features access and visibility from Paul Avenue and CSAH 20 and pedestrian access from the Luce Line Trail. At one time, much of this land was earmarked for the Woodfield development.

An added feature of the location is the reciprocal benefit of being next to the school and its 12 acres of soccer and baseball fields, basketball court, playground and parking lot. An agreement already exists that those amenities can be used by the city during non-school hours.

In the agreement, the Bergs will donate about 40 acres of land for the community park. As part of this agreement, the city will construct two roads in the park as well as extend sanitary sewer and water from the point it ended in the school property east to the edge of the park property. The city has five years to do these projects and the rest of the build-out of the park will be phased in as funding becomes available.

In exchange, officials have generally agreed to allow 165 acres of property currently owned by the Bergs that is adjacent to the community park to be developed under one of two concepts that have been presented as the Oak Lake Master Plan, which at this time is purely conceptual.

In both concepts, the development includes 28 lots located to the east of the park and to the west of a corridor reserved for a future county road. The future county road would run north/south from CSAH 20 to 30th Street, where it would meet up with another future county road that runs east/west. All 28 lots would be one-half to three-fourths of an acre, which is about two to three times the size of lots in the Wildflower development.

The rest of the Oak Lake development would be located on land east of the future county road, south of CSAH 20 and, for the most part, north of the Luce Line Trail. Concept A features 39 estate lots, meaning they are 1.5 acres or more in size. Concept B has 68 one-half to three-fourths of an acre lots and 11 2.5 acre lots.

As part of the agreement, the city will waive all park dedication fees related to future development in the Oak Lake Master Plan. On the 28 lots to the west of the future county road, all sanitary sewer and water connection and area charges will be waived. On the lots to the east of the future county road, the fees will be waived if service is not required (the estate lots will be allowed to use septic systems).

The Bergs have also set aside about 10 acres of land that could eventually be given to a local church.

City officials praised the Bergs for the donation, which saw the start of negotiations in April.

Mark Kaltsas, interim community development director, described the donation as rare, noting that he has seen donations of five or six acres to a city but nothing on this scale. Mayor KJ McDonald mentioned that the donation is the largest gift of land to the city since the Dakota Indians ceded the land that was to become Watertown to the original settlers in the 1800s.

Asked why they made the deal, the Bergs indicated they saw an opportunity to make arrangements that would benefit the community as well as help them when it came time to developing the rest of their land.

The Bergs look forward to seeing the development of the park and hope the community enjoys it. Kathy thanked attorney Pat Neaton as well as son Rob Berg for their work during the negotiation process. The Bergs were also pleased to provide for estate lots in Watertown, as were city officials.

Officials acknowledged that some concessions were made, such as the potential lost revenue in waived fees, but the offer of free land for the park was too good to pass up.

As noted, the net value of the donation is about $1 million, but this figure actually applies to only 20 of the 40 acres. Officials wanted a 40-acre parcel of land for the community park because the city has a standard of nine acres for every 1,000 residents (4,500 residents = 40 acres) for its community parks.

To accomplish this, the deal was made to acquire an additional 20 acres from the Bergs with the potential waived fees used as compensation.

With the land acquisition out of the way, officials are pleased that the city won’t have to spend the additional money on land acquisition costs and can concentrate on the infrastructure costs of the park instead.

In 2009, the city will likely spend about $25,000 on the park, namely for property transfer fees and annexation costs with Watertown Township (about 10 acres will need to be annexed, something that has already been arranged). From 2010 to 2014, around $1 million will be spent on the initial infrastructure costs of the roads and the utilities (some of this could be assessable).

Beyond that, the city can expect to pay somewhere around $650,000 to $1.5 million for grading, seeding and trails. These figures are based on current estimates, which could prove to be lower or higher in the future.

Officials noted that the process is just beginning and every effort will be made to include the community on the planning of the community park. For example, public input will be sought on what people want to see in the park and how the city should pay for it.

Citizens can learn more by watching a presentation related to the community park on Channel 12. If citizens want to get involved with the planning of the park or if they want to be included on a mailing list about the park, they can contact city hall at 955-2681.

View the .pdf of the Community Park Presentation given at the December 9, 2008 Council Meeting.