Stetson Hills Neighborhood

This petition is stop the Stetson Hills Community Association from going forward with plans to modify the main park as noted in the board minutes from July 26^th, 2006. 
Meeting minutes available on-line at (under Boardroom): http://www.stetsonhills.us/doc/toc.asp?assn_id=12029

1.)    Stopping all modifications being planed to the main park that would restrict the parks usage to Stetson Hills residents. This includes the planting of trees and construction of ribbon sidewalks through the main park designed to restricting the parks usage.
2.) Support of the park being used by residents of Stetson Hills to practice sports. 

Additional Information:

Marshall Chess, Community Manager states, “The board is getting bids and construction ribbon sidewalks throughout the park with lots of trees..” As someone who has been involved in master planned communities for over a decade, I know that you don’t do that because it creates a haven for the homeless and attracts lots of skate boarding activity.

Suzie Myers states: “Is there anyone out there sick of having sports teams practicing in the park every night?” Suzie you would be surprised how many of the kids live in Stetson hills…just go ask the coaches and they will tell you.  When we did baseball in the park 8 of the 12 kids lived in Stetson Hills. You asked if anyone feels similar please speak out… I’ll speak out. I couldn’t disagree with you more!  If you didn’t want to live in a family community you should have purchased in one of the many Active Adult communities in the valley… Now lets get to the real topic:

The American Heart Association says: “Increased physical activity has been associated with an increased life expectancy and decreased risk of cardiovascular disease.  Physical activity produces overall physical, psychological and social benefits. Inactive children are likely to become inactive adults.

They then go onto say physical activity with children helps with: controlling weight, reducing blood pressure, raising HDL ("good") cholesterol, reducing the risk of diabetes and some kinds of cancer, improved psychological well-being, including gaining more self-confidence and higher self-esteem.

The center for Disease Control and Prevention says: “It is very importance for kids to maintain a physically active lifestyle”

What gets in the way of children being active? The American Heart Association says some of the items that get in the way of kids practicing good health are watching TV or using the computer / game machine, lack of adult supervision… they then go onto say that it is very important to engage kids in regular physical activity (this is true not just for kids).

Why wouldn’t you have a community park that caters to the families in the community with kids in organized sports? Clearly it serves as a very important benefit to the community and I have not heard one educated or articulated reason why we shouldn’t continue to use the park for organized sports, other than it inconveniences some of you with your driving. I will state again the problem isn’t organized sports using the park, the problem is that some of you have conformed to the wrong way and you think the park shouldn’t be getting used for organized sports… I will tell you that if the park wasn’t being used, that would be the problem and we should be figuring out how to get the Stetson Hills families using the park for activity.

Now I’ll address some of the interest, and conflicts with activities at the park.

1.)    Walking & Running… Ok, if the park is being used and you are walking the community has all kinds resources available beside the park that frankly are better than the park.

2.)    Golfing in the park… First I’ll state this probably isn’t the greatest idea but then again it isn’t that bad. I see the guys golfing and they are never golfing into other people and frankly are very good and have good control of the balls. Now if I was golfing in the park that may be a problem… but like most people I’m smart enough to know that with my skills that wouldn’t be very wise… I suggest letting individuals think a little.

3.)    More tables, trees, and trails… Ok I’ll take this one at a time… First putting tables in a flood area doesn’t seem very wise. More trees for shade would be nice for the parents watching the kids play sports.  More trails?…give me a break it is already grass which is much better to walk on than cement.

4.)    Broken sprinklers. Don’t think that will stop… I live next to a green belt and every day of every week we have at least one broken sprinkler… and guess what we don’t have any organized sports on the greenbelt but we do have kids.

5.)    Traffic. . . It is a wide road with plenty of room for parking. Someone said it was dangerous… I guess that may be the case if you assume your neighbors are not smart enough to supervise their children and look both ways before crossing.  Have there been accidents there?  I don’t think so. Another suggestion here would be that since it is after-school hours, might we be able to ask the school if we could use their staff-parking area and cross in the crosswalk to the park?

In closing, I would encourage the community and the board to look at how experts such as Stephen Covey resolve real world issues without creating policy. Covey says that you must “Think Win-Win”. The key paradigms are that each part must seek the benefit of the others, not just there own. This community offers a lot of open area and the last thing we need is an open area that we can’t leverage as a community. The plans of changing the park would be described as “Win-Lose” by Stephen Covey. People with a win-loose mindset are concerned about themselves first and last. They want to win, and they want others to lose. They achieve success at the expense or exclusion of others. They are driven by position and power.

Marshall Chess says: “first having tried other tamer solutions, the board voted to prohibit organized team sports”. Please share what you have tried.  I think you will quickly convince yourself and others that you haven’t really tried anything other than to create policy and put up a few signs saying private park. This stuff must be managed, not just discussed.

In talking with every neighbor on my street I have learned that not one household is in favor of changes being discussed so it is unlikely you will get a 2/3 vote to approve the changes once the residents learn of the plans... I sense the board has gone off without proper due-diligence on what the residence want and you are listening the squeaky wheal.