RIVER FALLS — The River Falls City Council approved a motion that removes specific park designations from Park Impact Fees, instead forming a single fund to go toward all the parks at the Aug. 25 meeting. The council also green-lit phase two of the Glen Park improvements and heard the first readings of multiple residential property ordinance revisions.

City Conservation and Parks Manager Brooks Ostendorf presented the park items.

Collected park fees are currently 60% allocated to neighborhood parks and 40% to regional parks. The city has 28 parks, with Sterling Ponds, Glen and Hoffman being the three with master plans.
“Over time this has created funding imbalances. Newer neighborhoods accumulate funds while older parks with greater needs often do not. In some cases, this can create a pressure to spend funds simply to avoid that expiration at the end of 20 years rather than on true priority needs,” Ostendorf said.

The Park Impact Fee Fund has a $950,000 balance, with specific amounts tied to each park. Sterling Ponds Park holds the highest available funds at $107,000. There is $280,000 tied to regional parks, $435,000 to local parks and $234,000 in a general pool that cannot be tied to a specific park.

“Without master plans, improvements tend to be reactive and piecemeal. Expanding master planning across the system will allow for more strategic, equitable and defensible use of Park Impact Fees,” Ostendorf said.

Glen Park’s project is in phase two, which includes the removal of the bathroom building, picnic shelter, sand volleyball court, play structures installed prior to 2019 and the basketball court. A multi-use sport court, open air pavilion, completion of the play area and an improved Cascade trail connection is proposed. There is also potential for a future phase three.

“The primary reasoning for this phasing strategy is that the pool is a major investment for which funding is not currently available,” Ostendorf said.
Additionally, the Kinni Riverway improvements could affect a few of the park areas, so staff opted to wait until after the improvements to take on work in those sections of the park.

Between the $850,000 toward Glen Park’s second phase, a new picnic shelter at Sterling Ponds, a Grow to Share water service at DeSanctis and two shade structures at the dog park, Ostendorf said they would arrive at the fund balance total.

Alderperson Sean Downing suggested making the multi-use sport court larger, which would put the city in position to target grants to offset the cost. Alderperson Nick Carow said the city could broaden even beyond grants for funding, including naming rights. The sport court is expected to be used as an ice rink in the winter, which Carow said is highly anticipated by many residents.

“I kind of would like the process to go through the Park Board and let them build it out before we go through the endeavor of trying to seek a grant,” Carow said.

After amending the motion to include the pursuit of the funding opportunities, the council approved both the move to a single park impact fee fund and Glen Park’s second phase. The project was expected to be completed in 2027, but reworking the sport court and seeking the grant may delay the plan to 2028.

First readings

The council heard three first readings, one for the fence ordinance, one on the boulevard maintenance ordinance and one for the traffic control map.

The fence ordinance has a history of amendments as recent as 2018. That 2018 change introduced a three-foot setback for fences along the right-of-way as well as landscaping requirements. Fence encroachments along Division Street caused staff to reconsider those amendments.

“Such encroachments must be relocated out of the right-of-way, but in working with the property owners, many independently noted the increased burden of having to set back the fence an additional three feet beyond the property line due to existing structures on the private property,” Senior Planner Harley Mehlhorn said. “Upon deliberation, it was found that the [landscaping requirement] has some implementation difficulties and is, to some degree, a subjective policy.”

The Plan Commission recommended removing both requirements, which will return for a final vote next meeting. Mehlhorn said there is no conflict with pedestrian and bike safety because city sidewalks are built with a buffer and there are vision triangle ordinances to protect the intersections.

The first reading of the boulevard maintenance amendment requires adjacent residential property owners to maintain the area between their property line and the curb or street edge.

“It has long been an implicit assumption that property owners or occupants would maintain that strip of land, whether there be a sidewalk there or not. There has been no recorded issue exclusive to boulevard maintenance, but there is also nothing in the current ordinance making this an explicit requirement,” Mehlhorn said.

The amendment includes both boulevards with a sidewalk and without. Councilmembers asked Mehlhorn about how much control residents have over the use of the space. Mehlhorn said they are often lenient toward growing plants in the space, as long as it does not interfere with runoff or sight lines.

“We typically are very permissive when it comes to that. In fact, we have some that are planting corn right now,” Mehlhorn said.

Council hear the first reading of an ordinance amending the Official Traffic Control Map to include:

1. “School Bus Stop Ahead” signs in locations that meet the criteria.
2. “No parking here to corner” signs on Radio Road near the roundabout
3. 35 mph speed limit signage on Powell Avenue from Apollo Road to Radio Road
4. “No parking here to corner” signs on North Wasson Lane from East Division Street to the first driveway
5. Stop sign on Balmoral Place at the intersection of Newcastle Drive
6. Pedestrian crossing signage and crosswalk at the intersection of North Fremont Street and West Division Street