RESOLUTION

DISC GOLF RESOLUTION

Presented by Wards 4 & 7 NPA's

(To be presented to the Parks and Recreation Commission and the Disc Golf Working Group)

~ Whereas the Parks and Recreation Commission has appointed a Disc Golf Working Group to evaluate the proposal for an 18-hole disc golf course at Leddy Park;

~ Whereas the Disc Golf Working Group has been charged to obtain input from the constituents who they represent;

~ Whereas the Chittenden County Forester, in a letter, dated September 22, 2008, stated, "…it would be hard to make a case that clearing the understory for disc golf (in Leddy Park) is consistent with maintaining long-term forest health or with the existing forest management plan.";

Now, therefore, be it resolved that:

The residents of Wards 4 and 7, as represented by their NPAs, are not supportive of a disc golf course in Leddy Park due its adverse environmental impacts; and

The Disc Golf Working Group shall include this Resolution within the recommendations it makes to the Parks and Recreation Commission; and

The Parks and Recreation Commission shall direct the staff of the Parks and Recreation Department to work with the BTown Disc Golf Club to identify alternative sites for a disc golf course in Burlington, or surrounding communities.

The resolution concerning Disk Golf was proposed by Nancy Powers and seconded by Michael Crane from Ward 4; proposed by Greg Jenkins and seconded by Phil Lavigne from Ward 7.

The vote result:

Ward 4

support the Resolution 42

oppose the Resolution 0

uncertain 12

Ward 7

support the Resolution 14

oppose the Resolution 0

uncertain 9

RESOLUTION

Supported by Ward 4 & Ward 7 NPA's

(To be presented to the Parks and Recreation Commission and the Disc Golf Working Group)

~ Whereas the Parks and Recreation Commission has appointed a Disc Golf Working Group to evaluate the proposal for an 18-hole disc golf course at Leddy Park;

~ Whereas the Disc Golf Working Group has been charged to obtain input from the constituents who they represent;

~ Whereas the Chittenden County Forester, in a letter, dated September 22, 2008, stated, "…it would be hard to make a case that clearing the understory for disc golf (in Leddy Park) is consistent with maintaining long-term forest health or with the existing forest management plan.";

Now, therefore, be it resolved that:

The residents of Wards 4 and 7, as represented by their NPAs, are not supportive of a disc golf course in Leddy Park due its adverse environmental impacts; and

The Disc Golf Working Group shall include this Resolution within the recommendations it makes to the Parks and Recreation Commission; and

The Parks and Recreation Commission shall direct the staff of the Parks and Recreation Department to work with the BTown Disc Golf Club to identify alternative sites for a disc golf course in Burlington, or surrounding communities.

__________________________________________________________________________________

The resolution was proposed by Nancy Powers and seconded by Michael Cain from Ward 4; proposed by Greg Jenkins and seconded by Phil Lavigne from Ward 7.

The vote result:

Ward 4 support the Resolution 42

oppose the Resolution 0

uncertain 12

Ward 7 support the Resolution 14

oppose the Resolution 0

uncertain 9

DISK GOLF COURSE IN LEDDY PARK? STOP Wasting City Time, Resources, MONEY and Energy!

Dear Commissioners,

I am writing about the newest in a series of failures that have plagued the review process for the Leddy Park disc golf course proposal. This latest, an obvious conflict of interest for one of the experts sitting on the Disc Golf Working Group whose recent action calls into question the completeness and accuracy of any expert technical advice he provides to the group.

Brenden Bush and Peter Hess of BTown Disc Golf Club are to be "technical advisors to the DGWG regarding the design and operation of a disc golf course" according to the Parks & Recreation Department. In this role, one would think that Bush and Hess would be available when questions arose that required the input of a technical expert.

Anybody who has attended a DGWG meeting has seen the BTown members sitting at the table with other members of the DGWG actively involved in discussion and giving opinion on matters beyond technical aspects of the course design and operation.

Members of the public have recently been granted two minutes to give their opinion during the public comment portion of the DGWG meetings, while two Btown members are given hours of unfettered access to the DGWG while it deliberates. This is another process failure on its own but not why I am writing.

To my main point, Brendan Bush's February 13 post on the BTown Disc Golf Club FaceBook page calls into question his ability to provide the kind of unbiased expert information required by the DGWG and further, presents an obvious conflict of interest.

2/13/09:

Hey,

A lot of you have been asking what else you can do to help move the Leddy Park disc golf project forward, beyond showing up to give your public comment to the working group.The group opposed to the course is organized online and in their neighborhoods, and it's time for us to step it up and do the same.

So here's the deal: we're holding an organizing meeting on Thursday, February 19, and we want you and your disc-golfing friends to be there.

Where:
Sapa's Coffee and Tea
9 Center St. (between Climb High and Daily Planet)
Burlington

When:
7:00 p.m.
Thursday, February 19, 2009

RSVP:
Send an email to info@btowndisc.com or RSVP to the facebook event listed on our facebook page to let us know you are coming ( http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=51130228790&ref=nf )

We'll be going over our plans to engage and recruit more members of our community, and what you can do to help.We'll have talking points, flyers and signup sheets for you to use, and we'll give you some basic guidelines on reaching out to those in your neighborhoods, classes, offices and anywhere else.

An 18-hole disc golf course in Leddy Park will be a huge asset to our community, and we need to make sure that everyone in our community understands that.So please join us on Thursday, February 19 at Sapa's in downtown Burlington.

Thanks, and I look forward to seeing you there,

Brendan Bush
BTown Disc Golf Club

p.s. Please send this email to everyone you know in Burlington who supports this project, and ask them to join us on Thursday as well.

During DGWG member selection, the Parks & Recreation Commission were so adamant about not wanting to introduce bias into the group, that they felt it necessary to exclude neighbors whose property abutted Leddy Park, even when the those neighbors had been vetted by the NPA and offered as DGWG candidates to the commission. Certainly the actions of Bush would fail those same standards.

Clearly, members of the DGWG should not be involved in activity related to the Leddy Park disc golf proposal that represents a conflict of interest with their DGWG responsibilities. Bush's recruitment and organizing efforts in support of the Leddy course proposal are inappropriate and represent a conflict of interest while he is serving on the DGWG.

BTown Club members like Bush, who invested time and energy into getting a course built in Leddy Park before this current period of review started, are not the unbiased experts the DGWG should be depending on for technical advice. In fact they are just as biased as any park neighbor who does not want to see valuable park woodlands cleared for disc golf.

I'm sure you will take appropriate action to address this issue. But addressing this issue alone won't solve the larger issue surrounding the current proposal.

Our community would be best served if the DGWG were immediately dissolved and we stopped wasting city resources, time, and energy on a flawed process to find justification for the controversial and divisive proposal to place an 18 hole disc golf course in Leddy Park. Instead what is needed is the creation of a task force with a broader mandate to find an appropriate location for a disc golf course that does not require the destruction of valuable city open space, has the support of city residents including any neighbors, and meets the requirements of the BTown Disc Golf Club.

Respectfully,

Mark Barlow

a project where everyone comes together!

Phil Baruth's Vermont Daily Briefing has an interview with Andy Montroll:

VDB: Speaking real quickly about the New North End, I noticed that at that same mayoral debate — again, in a yes/no question — you opposed the development of Leddy Park into an 18-hole disc golf course. And you were pretty firm about that. Can you explain your reasoning there, and what you’d do with that issue?

Montroll: I think around 10 years ago or so I was down in Maryland visiting some of my family, and they took me to play disc golf. First time I was ever exposed to it. It’s a very fun game. A really great game. And I actually came back and told Wayne Gross, Director of Parks and Rec, that we should do disc golf up here in Burlington. It wasn’t one of the projects that I actively promoted or anything, and I was kind of disappointed that they never did anything about it.

So I think it’d be a great addition to our recreational offerings here in Burlington. I don’t think Leddy Park is the place to have it, though.

And the more I’ve been hearing about it, it seems that it’s really a very different use than what Leddy Park is currently being used for, right now. But there are places in the city where you could have it. Another one of our Councilors, Dave Berezniak has been looking at another site that looks like it could be really good. And it looks like there are some creative ideas —

VDB: Where would that site be?

Montroll: His site is where the city’s old landfill is. It’s been completely capped and, as I understand it, it’s completely safe there. And it’s a big, open area that could accommodate a project like this. There are other areas in the city where I think we could do something as well.

So, rather than focusing on just one location, that’s so controversial — I just don’t think we need to do that in Burlington. I think we can develop a project where everyone comes together and says, “This is great.”

___________________________________________________________________________________

From: "K. Wright"
Date: Feb 13, 2009 2:08pm
Subject: Re: Your Position on Leddy Park Disc Golf
To: Mark Barlow

> Mark,
>
> I actually am opposed to disc golf at Leddy Park--it was just the way they asked the question that was unclear to me. Andy was able to get a clarification on the question before answering and I wasn't. So yes, I do oppose it at Leddy and believe they could find a more suitable site for it.
>
> I have to say, I am just not a fan of yes or no questions unless they are on something really simple--for example I wasn't sure whether they had asked if I supported disc golf at all or whether it was site specific.
>
> If elected I can guarantee you the process will be better and I will not just accept this happening at Leddy.
>
> I am glad you e-mailed me Mark, so I could clarify my position. Feel free to share this, Thanks,
>
> Kurt

Note: I have observed, more than once, that Kurt stands with his neighborhoods, no politics about it. Lea

Parks Dept. does not answer....

Wayne,

Please sensitize the disc golf working group to the issue of homelessness in our community. A good person to speak to the group would be Mike Schirling, Chief of Burlington Police. He spoke on the subject recently on Ch17 Live@5:25 . It is unkind to refer to homeless people as tramps, or as otherwise undesirable. A selling point for disc golf in any location in our community is NOT that it will displace or drive away homeless people. If homeless people are creating problems in the park, we have an excellent community policing program that will work with residents, social service agencies, and homeless people to resolve that issue. The solution is NOT disc golf.

And the trash that the golf course designer said they cleaned out of Leddy Park? They did not clean it up, they left it in piles and Friends of Leddy removed it. Why isn't trash cleaned out of the park by park staff?

Finally, I have some unanswered questions on your desk and I would appreciate answers. Our NPA steering committee meeting is this Thursday, and we have been asked to follow up on the way the working group was formed. You may recall that there was some confusion about the selection process, we gave you a list of recommendations, and now we observe that many people in the working group are affiliated with the golf club and have a clear conflict of interest in recommendations the group will make. Whatever your thinking was when you formed the group, we would appreciate hearing from you about it.

Lea
NPA Steering Committee, Ward 4

Landfill site would rate high!

I know we are all striving for a win/win solution to the dg dilemma. I wish someone would just say "I screwed up," so we could all start over, and move this idea forward with good process and a good location that residents can support enthusiastically. Together we can do it!

Wayne Gross discouraged the working group from considering alternative sites, but that does not prevent us from making preliminary inquiries about the landfill site on our own. We can talk with Dave Berezniak, Ward 2 City Councilor; meet with staff at DPW to find out what their concerns might be; and request agenda time at the NPAs (they book several months in advance) so we are ready to move forward in a positive manner. I expect that many of the present dg course adversaries will be supporters and help pitch the new site, because they have studied this closely and they have learned where a course would be appropriately sited, and where it is not appropriate.

I spoke with a dg player who was very excited about the landfill site. He said it would be a challenging and interesting course, with variety and beauty.

If you check a website that rates courses, you get a pretty good idea of how the landfill location would rate (high), as compared to Leddy Park (low). At best you're going to get 8 flat fairways in Leddy, none near the shoreline or ravine. Here's an example of the top-rated course -- which site does it remind you of?


Pros:

This course is set on a big hill overlooking ....

It has a major fun factor due to almost every hole being down hill. The designer did an excellent job of maximizing the elevation changes.

There is road around the park with parking spaces at different holes. You can park at any basket and play from there and finish there for a staggered start if it's busy.

There is a picnic area and playscape right in the middle of the course and the flow of the course comes back to the middle three times which is pretty cool. It would be a great place for a family reunion or DG party or tournament.
http://www.dgcoursereview.com/

Keep thinking positive, and please look for common ground to resolve this dilemma peacefully, for the good of our community. And, please forward this email to neighbors.

Lea Terhune
Ward 4, NPA Steering Committee

Science-based public input:

February 4, 2009

Dear Member of Parks & Recreation Disc Golf Working Group,

I am writing to offer my thoughts regarding the proposed Disc Golf at Leddy Park.

I have lived in Burlington for the past thirty-six years and feel very fortunate to have such beautiful parks. I have a degree in Plant and Soil Science and Environmental Studies and an ongoing interest in the environment. In the past, I worked with Warren Spinner on special projects as a volunteer and then as a contract and seasonal employee. I respect the hard work Warren does and that of Park Department employees who number a few but who have the awesome responsibility of maintaining hundreds of acres of heavily used parkland with dwindling resources. I have some idea of the pressure the Department must be under and therefore I appreciate Mr. Gross’s search for creative ideas that will bring in needed resources. Disc Golf could be a great idea but I believe the selection of Leddy Park is inappropriate for environmental reasons.

Main concerns:

• The woodlands at Leddy are not just patches of derelict land but instead the land acts as a buffer for the lake. While I agree that the woodland is not in stellar condition now, it could be. At a time when we need to be actively restoring woodlands along the lake, I question the wisdom of establishing a Disc Golf course at Leddy that would do the opposite.
• Disc Golf would undermine the health of the trees in this environmentally important area by damaging roots, bark and making the soil surface less permeable to water.
• Soil compaction leads to the creation of rivulets. Rivulets caused by compaction carry undesirable runoff quickly into lakes and streams. Conversely, soils that are not compacted act as a filter, allowing pollutants to percolate down into the soil before reaching the lake.
• At a time when we should be considering redesigning and ‘greening’ the parking lot at Leddy, a popular disc golf course could put pressure on parking at Leddy. More cars bring more pollution to a lot that is already too close to the lake.
• DPW recently received a grant to tackle the issue of urban runoff more effectively. They are hiring a person specifically to work on this issue. I wonder if there has been inter-department communication regarding the proposed Disc Golf course at Leddy?

Other concerns.

• Noise is a real concern for neighbors whose homes are in close proximity to the course.
• Safety – Discs move at high speeds. Given the mixed use of the Park, I wonder if other users can be kept safe?
• Parking - pressure on adjoining neighborhoods and commercial lots could easily become an issue. Historically, users of Leddy Park have parked in adjoining neighborhoods and commercial lots to avoid Park fees.

I hope that you will consider looking for an alternative site in Burlington for Disc Golf that will not compromise the limited woodlands we have that help to protect the lake.

Sincerely,

Jean Markey-Duncan