HomeMy WebLinkAbout2019-02-26 Parks & Recreation Summary MinutesAPPROVED
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MINUTES 5
PARKS & RECREATION COMMISSION 6
REGULAR MEETING 7
February 26, 2019 8
CITY HALL 9 250 Hamilton Avenue 10 Palo Alto, California 11 12 Commissioners Present: Anne Cribbs, Jeff Greenfield, Ryan McCauley, Don McDougall, 13
David Moss, and Keith Reckdahl 14
Commissioners Absent: Jeff LaMere 15
Others Present: Council Member Cormack 16
Staff Present: Daren Anderson, Natalie Khwaja 17
I. ROLL CALL 18
II. AGENDA CHANGES, REQUESTS, and DELETIONS 19
Chair McDougall: The next item on the agenda is any changes, requests, deletions from 20
the agenda as it was published. If there are no changes, then we'll proceed with the agenda 21
as it's set. 22
III. ORAL COMMUNICATIONS 23
Chair McDougall: I have a number of speaker cards. So far, they're all relative to the 24
tennis/pickleball item that's on the agenda, Agenda Item Number 3. Agenda Item Number 25 3 follows approval of minutes, so I'm not going to change the order to accommodate the 26 speakers. If there are cards that are not pickleball- or tennis-specific, please say so. The 27 last two I have do not say what project we're addressing, so I assume they're pickleball. 28
There are no other oral communications that are not specific to an agenda item, so we'll go 29
on with the Department Report. Mr. Anderson. 30
IV. DEPARTMENT REPORT 31
Daren Anderson: Good evening. Daren Anderson, Community Services Department. I've 32
just a few brief updates. The first of which is last night the City Council authorized the 33
City Manager to submit an offer to purchase the 0.64-acre parcel located at 3350 Birch 34
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Street. The next steps are the Real Estate Department will assemble and submit an offer. 1
Those offers will be reviewed by the seller on February 28th. Exciting news. There's a 2
joint study session planned between the Parks and Recreation Commission and City 3
Council scheduled for April 1st. I apologize. There was some miscommunication and 4
changing of dates earlier in the day. April 1st is the date we'd like to make sure you're 5
available. If you'd please let Natalie or Kristen know as soon as possible, that would be 6 appreciated, if that date works for you. The reason for the last-minute change was there 7
were only two dates open, the 1st and the 8th. The Youth Council was the other CSD spot 8
we wanted to fill. They were only available to go on the 8th, so we swapped. 9
Unfortunately, the Baylands Boardwalk ribbon-cutting got canceled due to weather. We 10
will be scheduling a new date for that, and I'll be sure to let you know as soon as we can. 11
I did want to let you know that to date all the visitors that have been stopping by and using 12
it really appreciate it, are very happy with it, and had nothing but positive things to share 13
with staff. I mentioned this via email but, to reiterate for others who may be watching or 14
in the audience, the wash-out on Los Trancos Trail that required the closure has been 15
repaired. The trail is open, and people are enjoying it. My last update relates to the Peers 16
dog park. The grass has worn prematurely there. It's really beloved and heavily, heavily 17
used. The grass failed kind of quick. When the rainy season hit, it turned a good deal of 18
the dog park into a mud pit, which has not slowed the use one bit. We brainstormed with 19
some of the users, saying "let's look at our options, what we can do." The best option 20
seemed to be going with some mulch out there. We put down approximately 4 inches of 21
mulch over about three-quarters of it to see if people would like it, how it would take, how 22
it performed. That went in last week, and so far so good. People are enjoying it. It's 23
holding up. We'll see how it does. The remainder of the dog park, we're hoping we can 24
try to reestablish grass. It was a special request from some of the users. Staff is not 25 especially hopeful. In fact, the people who were using the dog park after we put in the 26 mulch said, "Don't bother with the grass. This is really nice, and you're never going to get 27 grass to grow." We're playing that one by ear, but I think we'll give it one more try. If not 28
and if the mulch performs well, we'll continue to spread the rest of that mulch. It seems to 29
be helping cut down on the mud and the problems there. That concludes the Department 30
Report. 31
Commissioner Reckdahl: I have a question. 32
Chair McDougall: Before I go to questions from the Commission, I would like to welcome 33
Council Member Cormack to our meeting and give her the chance to comment on AT&T 34
from a Council perspective. 35
Council Member Cormack: Thank you so much, Chair McDougall. It's a pleasure to be 36
here. It was very exciting last night. I know the community at large, certainly the Parks 37
and Rec Commission and the Ventura neighborhood, is very excited about the opportunity 38
for us to potentially acquire that land. It's likely, as Council Member Kniss said last night, 39
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that there will be others who are interested in land in Palo Alto. Everyone should keep that 1
in mind. As the report indicated, there's limited funding in the parkland dedication. I know 2
there are many things on the Parks and Rec Commission list of interest. It's certainly 3
exciting, but I just want everyone to understand that it is a competitive situation. We're 4
very happy to be moving, and we'll see how it goes. 5
Chair McDougall: Thank you very much. Commissioner Reckdahl. 6
Commissioner Reckdahl: About the dog park, at one time we had talked about perhaps 7
having a fence in the middle and during the rainy season only using half the dog park at a 8
time to give it a little rest. Is that something we're considering or is that … 9
Mr. Anderson: It doesn't seem like that's going to be successful in terms of getting the 10
grass to stay. It's either shaded out and got leaf-drop problems on parts of it that we would 11
close. There's no chance no matter what you do of growing grass. The parts that do have 12
grass or have the potential to grow grass are so heavily used that you would have to shut it 13
down for probably three months out of the year. The feeling that I'm getting from the users 14
is that's not what they'd prefer. I'd really love to see how this mulch performs, if they're 15
happy with it, and look at that option. I don't have a feeling they're going to be in support 16
or want that closure period necessary to establish grass, only to have it fail really quickly. 17
Chair McDougall: Commissioner Moss. 18
Commissioner Moss: That's better than the Astroturf that they're using at San Antonio 19
Road, that dog park? 20
Mr. Anderson: Did you ask if we have Astroturf at Peers Park? No, this is natural grass. 21
Commissioner Moss: Is that an option? 22
Mr. Anderson: It could be. It's really from the design up, and it's quite expensive. There 23
are other elements to those too where you'd have to sanitize it on a regular basis because 24
not being natural grass, you're not irrigating it. There's a base under it. Not all of our dog 25 park users support that amenity either. For right now, I'd probably recommend sticking 26 with this. As we look at new sites, as we do the outreach, if there's a really strong push 27 towards it, I'd say we pitch it knowing the funding right now that we have allocated to the 28
every-other-year dog park CIPs is inadequate to give us synthetic turf. 29
Chair McDougall: Are there any other questions? 30
Vice Chair Greenfield: I just want to call attention to the Foothills Park trail fix that went 31
in. It's not often that problems get addressed quickly and faster than anticipated. It's good 32
to highlight the rare occasions when this does happen. That's awesome. Thank you. 33
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Mr. Anderson: Thanks so much. 1
Chair McDougall: My notes also say congratulations on fixing the trail. Let's hope we 2
don't have to do it again in the immediate future at some other location with the weather 3
we're having. Thank you for that. If there are no other questions to the staff report, we can 4
go on with regular business. 5
V. BUSINESS 6
1. Approval of Draft Minutes from the January 22, 2019 Parks and Recreation 7
Commission Meeting 8
Approval of the draft January 22, 2019 Minutes was moved by Commissioner Reckdahl 9
and seconded by Commissioner Cribbs. Passed 6-0, LaMere absent 10
2. Approval of Draft Minutes from the February 7, 2019 Parks and Recreation 11 Annual Retreat 12
Approval of the draft February 7, 2019 Minutes was moved by Vice Chair Greenfield and 13
seconded by Commissioner Reckdahl. Passed 6-0, LaMere absent 14
3. Update on Dedicated Courts for Pickleball 15
Chair McDougall: Welcome, Adam. 16
Adam Howard: Good evening. Adam Howard, Senior Community Services Manager with 17
the City of Palo Alto's Recreation Department. Thank you for hearing me tonight. We are 18
here to talk about the possibility of adding dedicated pickleball courts at Mitchell Park. 19
This has come about just with really overwhelming demand to the Rec Commission and 20
the City Council to provide pickleball space. This started with the Palo Alto Pickleball 21
Club, formerly Silicon Valley Pickleball Club, who has been very active at the courts at 22
Mitchell Park, on 5, 6, and 7. When they originally started, they were just showing up on 23
a first-come-first-serve basis. On August 29, 2018, Staff made a recommendation to 24
change the Court Use Policy so that this would allow pickleball some time on these three 25 courts. Previously, the policy was very strict to only allowing tennis, so we wanted to 26 make this change to also allow pickleball to be played on the courts and to provide some 27 designated times and days. That policy was approved on October 15th by the City Council. 28
In that time, we also redesigned and resurfaced the small paddleball courts in Mitchell 29
Park, so they are now two pickleball courts. With that policy change, there was still a 30
strong request for designated space. The policy allowed for multiuse space, which it's good 31
to have flexibility, but it certainly made it that pickleball had to have an organized structure 32
to come out, set up nets, put everything away when they were done. That really didn't 33
allow for drop-in play. It really had to be a very organized movement at certain times that 34
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would allow for pickleball to be played on those courts. We felt the need to provide some 1
designated space. I just want to start quickly with the current distribution of tennis courts 2
in Palo Alto. There are 54 public tennis courts; 17 of those courts are lit. This is a list and 3
distribution of where they are in Palo Alto. The highlighted areas are the ones that are lit. 4
This "P" should be lit over the Palo Alto High School courts. This list does include the 5
school tennis courts. The asterisk shows that those courts are only available to the general 6 public after school hours, 4:00 p.m. on, and weekends and during the summer when there's 7
no summer school. I want to make sure that information is out there. A little bit on the 8
proposal. This has been brought up multiple times, as we know. We keep coming back to 9
the Mitchell Park site. The reasoning for that is staff has looked at other new areas, areas 10
where we could build independent of tennis courts and provide new space. That just wasn't 11
something we were able to find that would work. Some of the reasons for that are pickleball 12
is a little bit of a louder sport, so you can't be in close proximity to the neighbors because 13
that would cause real issues for their wellbeing. Also, it tends to have a large group of 14
people playing at one time, so you really need a lot of parking, which even at Mitchell Park 15
can be a concern, an issue. We can't always house all the parking, but it's one of the bigger 16
parking lots that we have attached to a park. Cubberley has come up often, especially as 17
we go through this redesign process. Staff would love to continue to keep Cubberley in 18
the discussion for additional designated pickleball space, somewhere where we could 19
separate tennis and pickleball. At this point, with really no timeline for when that process 20
could actually take place, we didn't feel like that was any kind of solution that would satisfy 21
us any time soon. When we say no timeline, we could be looking at 10, 15, 20 years. 22
There's really just no timeline as to how we could make that process work, so we didn't 23
feel it was right to put all our eggs in that basket. To the proposal itself. If you look up at 24
the map, the area currently highlighted in yellow would be the addition of two designated 25 pickleball courts that would be outside of what is currently Court 5. The palm trees that 26 line that fence would be relocated into the park, and the fence line would be bumped out 27 so that those courts were included in the main playing area. The light towers would not be 28
moved or altered. Now highlighted is Court 5. The proposal is to promote those to four 29
designated pickleball courts. Those courts would be lit because of the current lights at the 30
site. The current fencing, which is really hard to see, lies between Courts 5 and 6. That 31
fencing would be extended to allow both spaces to be used without interfering with one 32
another. Courts 6 and 7 would remain multiuse courts with tennis given priority 3:00 p.m. 33
to 10:00 p.m. seven days a week. Pickleball priority is 8:00 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. seven days 34
a week. This is really trying to give each sport their designated time during their peak 35
hours. It's not perfect; we understand that. We felt that was the best compromise for that. 36
We would look at adding a bump-out in the fence area that would allow pickleball rolling 37
nets to be stored. When those courts wanted to be pickleball courts, the nets could be rolled 38
out and placed rather than having to be put together and moved away. They could just roll 39
them into a space that wouldn't interfere with play. At that time, all courts would be 40
resurfaced, so the surface for all the courts would be new. This proposal gives eight 41
designated pickleball courts in Mitchell Park, and that includes the two recently redesigned 42
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paddleball courts, four designated tennis courts with lights; and two multiuse courts which 1
would either be two tennis courts or seven pickleball courts depending on the priority time. 2
On Tuesday, February 19th, we held a public meeting, invited tennis players, pickleball 3
players, and general park users to attend. We had about 60 people in attendance at that 4
meeting. Some feedback we got. Pickleball would like to see seating incorporated into 5
this plan, which is something staff will look into. There are some issues around if we add 6 seating, it gets a little close to the creek, and we want to know what that involves putting 7
forward before we put it into any plan. They asked for the addition of a water fountain, 8
which would benefit everyone that uses that area. Staff will look into that. They felt the 9
split of dedicated hours would work well for them. Of course, the trees that line those 10
courts are an ongoing issue that has been around for a long time. We continue to trim them, 11
but there's not a lot we can do outside of removing them, which is probably not a real 12
possibility. Some of the feedback from the tennis community. A real strong desire to keep 13
the courts multiuse. The more flexible the spaces, the better they feel it would be used by 14
the community. The lit court is a real big desire for them. They want to keep as many lit 15
courts as they can. A lot of talk about tennis having a lot of young kids involved. Mitchell 16
Park, especially weekend mornings, is very busy, so there's not a lot of room for tennis. 17
When we talked a little bit about the 54 tennis courts in Palo Alto, there was at least some 18
discussion that the grouping of tennis courts is important to their community as well. We 19
didn't get to go into a lot of detail on that because that might be an important part of why 20
some of those other spread-out courts aren't being used as much as Mitchell Park courts. 21
Some additional questions that came post-meeting via email that I thought would be 22
important. There's a thought process that Palo Alto is taking on the bulk of pickleball. I 23
wanted to look into that a little bit. Foster City has designated two tennis courts to eight 24
dedicated pickleball courts. Redwood City dual striped I'm going to say all their courts, 25 which are only six, and provide indoor space. Menlo Park has added pickleball to their 26 Master Plan, putting as a high priority to find space for them. Mountain View currently 27 under construction has three outdoor courts, two will be permanent pickleball courts and 28
one will be flex use. The tennis center there offers pickleball lessons, and they have multi-29
striped those courts. Sunnyvale took two tennis courts and made them seven pickleball 30
courts. San Jose really has a wide range of courts with five permanent courts, four 31
temporary courts, and a long list of multiuse areas. Pickleball is not something that just 32
Palo Alto is trying to solve. It is up and down the Peninsula. We're not creating the hub 33
of pickleball in Palo Alto. The next steps of this process would be tonight's review. If this 34
moves forward, we would turn this into a park improvement plan, which is a more detailed 35
plan of the drawings. We get specific about lines, showing the bump-outs, all the fencing 36
design work. That would come back to the Parks and Rec for review. Ultimately, that 37
would get approved by the City Council. Once City Council makes an approval, then they 38
would be ready to go out to bid and start construction. Questions? 39
Chair McDougall: I have a number of cards here for speaking. What I'm going to do is a 40
process that allows the three members of the field and facility ad hoc, Jeff Greenfield, Keith 41
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Reckdahl, and Anne Cribbs, to ask questions and comment. Then, I'll go through the public 1
statements. We have enough of those that it'll be limited to 2 minutes. Then, I'll come 2
back to the whole Commission. I hope that will be an efficient way to move through this. 3
The thing I will comment on is we have a number of separate emails that were sent to the 4
Commission and that are part of the information and input we have as well as the speakers 5
that are here tonight. I'll start on my left with Commissioner Reckdahl. 6
Commissioner Reckdahl: I don't have any questions. I was at the meeting. You did a nice 7
job moving the meeting along and keeping it from getting bogged down. I thought it was 8
productive. People on both sides were able to voice their opinions. We have such few 9
pickleball courts that we really need to add these pickleball courts. We should do it sooner 10
rather than later. I'm more worried about schedule. Can we do the planning in parallel? 11
Have we submitted anything to the Planning Department and have them give a preliminary 12
assessment before we do the final plans? 13
Mr. Howard: Some of that process has already started. We are trying to do it in 14
conjunction. We do feel that, if we move forward with this, the plan could literally be 15
ready to go out to bid the day after Council approves. That process could be as quick as 16
coming back next month with the park improvement plan, which means it could go to 17
Council the following month. 18
Commissioner Reckdahl: It has to go through Planning before it comes to us, right? 19
Mr. Howard: Yes. We'll meet with Planning and have them … 20
Commissioner Reckdahl: Those skids have been greased? 21
Mr. Howard: Yeah. 22
Vice Chair Greenfield: I want to thank Adam and Stephanie for all of the persistent work 23
on the pickleball project. We've been at this for a while. The ad hoc's been working with 24
you as well and taken a lot of community input. I don't have a specific question. I do feel 25 like, given the work that's been put in and the consideration of all the different angles and 26 looking for creative solutions and considering all the factors, the compromise proposal 27 that's being floated is the best compromise for all. It was heartening at the public meeting 28
to hear a number of people from both the tennis and pickleball community recognize that 29
this does seem like a good compromise. It's not perfect for everyone, but it does increase 30
the number of dedicated pickleball courts for the community, and tennis does lose one lit 31
court, but it's not losing three lit courts, which would seem a little closer to what some other 32
communities are doing. I applaud your efforts. Thank you. 33
Commissioner Cribbs: Me too, I applaud the efforts. Thank you very much, Adam, for all 34
the work that you've done. Thanks to the community too for all of the input. We have 35
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been at it a long time. I'm going to ask the question. Once the Council approves, how long 1
is it going to take to go to bid and then get things built? After a year of use, would you go 2
back and review the usage with the community and staff and the Commission with maybe 3
look to see how we can light more courts, both tennis and pickleball, if there are not funds 4
in the City coffers, if there are funds someplace else to do that? 5
Mr. Howard: Daren might help me with the construction timeline. In terms of reviewing 6 policy, that's key. We constantly need to be doing that, not just get comfortable with what 7
it is, but constantly going out and making sure things are working, getting feedback from 8
the community, and making sure everything is working to the best of its ability. We would 9
definitely commit to reviewing it again in a year. 10
Mr. Anderson: To answer that question about the timeline, I believe starting in August and 11
completing in October is reasonable and achievable. Your question about lighting is a little 12
more complicated. The permitting process, if we were to try to lump it in this round, (a) 13
we don't have money so it's not feasible. It is an added complication that will slow things 14
down and make it challenging. We can certainly revisit it and keep an eye out. I think it's 15
wise and prudent not to have it linked to the project right now because of the delays. 16
Commissioner Cribbs: I hope I didn't misspeak. I don't want to put it in the project right 17
now. Let's wait and get this done quickly, as fast as we can, and then later see about lights. 18
Chair McDougall: Thank you, ad hoc. I'm going to start with the public comments. Many 19
of the cards do not have email addresses. I would remind people that there's a space there 20
for it, and we like to have the email addresses so we can follow up and get comments. The 21
cards are in random order because they were sent up here in batches. This is not necessarily 22
in the order that they were handed in. I'm going to start with Thomas Shoe [phonetic]. 23
Following Thomas Shoe is Susan McConnell, if you can anticipate that you're coming next. 24
Thomas Shoe: My name is Thomas Shoe, and I'm representing tennis players, mainly a 25 tennis friend of mine. His concern was about time limit enforcement issue. Currently, 26 each court may be used for 60, 75, 90 minutes each, but people including tennis players 27 and pickleball players do not honor that rule. Sometimes a large group of pickleball players 28
will just play there a long, long time. Again, I'm representing someone else. There's 29
concern about how we can change that rule, enforcement, clear signs. In general, tennis is 30
usually a 1.5-2-hour game. I also play pickleball. They can play all day; they can play 31
half a day; they can play 4 hours at a time because they have a huge group. We're just 32
thinking there's a way to enforce that on both sides. Are you guys going to answer? I just 33
say my piece? 34
Chair McDougall: The Commission will not respond to any of the questions. We'll take 35
the input. We appreciate the input. 36
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Mr. Shoe: Number two, lighting is a very important issue. For the pickleball courts, the 1
current court right next to Courts 1-4 is not lit, and it would benefit both pickleball players 2
and tennis players if that was lit. Of course, pickleball players would have more options at 3
nighttime. Same goes for the walls, which should be lighted. Also, at night there are ne'er-4
do-wells smoking pot behind the walls, and it's unsafe for the general public. That was 5
feedback. I would propose to tear down the tennis walls to create more tennis courts, if 6 possible, in that location. Thank you. 7
Chair McDougall: Thank you. Susan McConnell followed by Ann Lemmenes [phonetic]. 8
Susan, I'll have to start your 2 minutes. 9
Susan McConnell: Good evening. My name is Susan McConnell, and I am a member of 10
the Palo Alto Pickleball Club and a resident of Palo Alto for 46 years. For 18 years, I 11
captained many Palo Alto USTA teams until my knees gave out. I would like to thank the 12
Palo Alto Parks and Rec Department, particularly Adam Howard, for their plan to add 13
pickleball courts to Mitchell Park. This is a very fair compromise. Tennis players will 14
have 16 lit courts instead of 17. The tennis players will still have six lit courts at Mitchell 15
Park, four in the front that have been newly resurfaced and two in the back. This is a win-16
win for everyone, plus the pickleball players will finally, finally have a real pickleball 17
venue. I cannot wait for this to happen. Thank you. 18
Chair McDougall: Susan, thank you for your comments. I'd ask people not to be 19
applauding. It's inappropriate, and I would ask people to copy what Susan did and state 20
what city you're from. Ann. Ann will be followed by Susan Kearney. 21
Ann Lemmenes: Hi, good evening. My name is Ann Lemmenes, and I'm a member of the 22
Palo Alto Pickleball Club and a resident of Palo Alto. As you all know by this point, 23
pickleball can't be played on just any court. The court has to have lines taped or painted, 24
nets have to be assembled and put on the courts and then taken down after play. It's a 25 lengthy and laborious process and, quite frankly, it's time and energy that would be better 26 spent playing pickleball. This is also just one of the reasons why dedicated courts are so 27 essential for Palo Alto. I strongly support the plan. It looks great. Thank you, Adam. 28
Let's get it done. Thank you. 29
Chair McDougall: Thank you. Susan Kearney followed by Sam Friedman. 30
Susan Kearney: Good evening. My name's Susan Kearney, and I'm member of the Palo 31
Alto Pickleball Club. I reside currently in Los Altos. I too would like to thank the Palo 32
Alto Parks and Rec Department, particularly Adam Howard, for the plan to add pickleball 33
courts to Mitchell Park. I know it's taken a lot of work to get where we are right now. The 34
courts at Mitchell Park are packed with pickleball players seven days a week, Monday 35
through Sunday. Often the newly resurfaced front four tennis courts are empty. Our free 36
clinics are regularly over-subscribed and have waiting lists as do the classes taught through 37
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Palo Alto Parks and Rec by our club ambassador, Monica Williams. When our club runs 1
clinics or round-robin tournaments, we no longer have enough courts for open play. The 2
popularity of pickleball is exploding in Palo Alto just as it is in the rest of the country. 3
Mitchell Park is a wonderful facility, but there is simply not enough court capacity to meet 4
the demand for everyone who wishes to play pickleball there. Many of us are former tennis 5
players, and we welcome pickleball newcomers including tennis players. Our club motto 6 is arrive as a stranger, leave as a friend. We welcome the kind of support from civic leaders 7
that will enable us to continue to extend this hospitable outreach. Thank you. 8
Chair McDougall: Thank you. Sam Friedman followed by Lori Michelle [phonetic]. 9
Sam Freedman: Good evening. My name is Sam Friedman; I'm a Palo Alto resident since 10
1972 and a member of the Palo Alto Pickleball Club. I wouldn't blame the Commissioners, 11
when seeing pickleball courts on the agenda, for bracing for the horde of passionate 12
pickleball players to once again plead their case for dedicated courts. I thank the 13
Commission and the staff for listening to us and for, through a dedicated and well-thought-14
out process, a viable and fair plan for Palo Alto to join other local communities in providing 15
court space and time for this wonderful game. This is one time where I'd say the sometimes 16
maligned Palo Alto process is working well. I also wish to give a special thanks to Adam 17
Howard for chairing an open-forum meeting last week on the plan to be presented tonight. 18
Adam hosted a meeting that enabled everyone to have a chance to express views pro and 19
con and to hear each other through a civil discourse. The tennis and pickleball players 20
found some common ground, especially in relation to a needed water fountain and longer 21
bathroom hours. I look forward to approval of this plan by the Commission, the City 22
Council, and then construction later this year. Thank you. 23
Chair McDougall: Thank you. Lori Michelle followed by Monica Williams. 24
Lorie Michelle: Hi. My name is Lorie Michelle. I'm a Palo Alto resident and a member 25 of the Palo Alto Pickleball Club. I've been a resident for over 30 years. This is only my 26 second Council meeting, so I'm a little nervous. Even though pickleball is the fastest 27 growing sport in America, Palo Alto is really not leading the pack in addressing these 28
needs. Our neighboring cities, like Foster City, Sunnyvale, Concord, and Santa Cruz, 29
already have permanent courts. Some are so expansive that they're actually sponsoring 30
tournaments, which attract a lot of business into town. I strongly support the Mitchell Park 31
plan, and I thank Adam and the Rec Department for putting so much thought into it and 32
trying to work with both the tennis community and the pickleball community to work out 33
the best plan. Thank you. 34
Chair McDougall: Thank you. Monica Williams followed by Mark Nadel [phonetic]. 35
Monica Williams: Good evening, Chair McDougall and Commissioners. I'm Monica 36
Williams, President of Palo Alto Pickleball Club and past member of the Board of the Palo 37
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Alto Tennis Club. I was an avid tennis player for 60 years, and I'm now a confirmed 1
pickleball addict. In respect for all your time, by the way, we decided our pickleball group 2
will just be a few speakers. The sport of pickleball is rapidly growing, and cities all over 3
the nation are providing facilities for their communities. I have discovered that one or two 4
courts scattered in a variety of parks does not work for pickleball. Pickleball is a gathering 5
and a coming-together of a community like no other sport. The ideal facility is one with 6 many courts all grouped together. Players know the block of time people will be there so 7
that anyone can drop in at any time, pick up a game by placing their paddle next to the net, 8
and challenging the winners. Mitchell Park is a destination for pickleball friendship and 9
fellowship. Young people are now discovering pickleball and becoming professional 10
competitors. Some tennis players are crossing over because they've heard about the many 11
tournaments held every month and the cash prizes that are awarded. I'm very excited about 12
these proposed plans that Adam and Stephanie have presented. I'm very impressed with 13
the creative work that's being done by the Recreation Department to add more pickleball 14
courts. I've been teaching pickleball to adults for two years and now want to concentrate 15
on sharing pickleball with our youth, but we need permanent courts so they can practice. 16
Everyone should have the same privilege to play as tennis players have had for years and 17
permanent nets on courts so that they can drop in to practice whenever they choose. I'm so 18
grateful for all the hours and work you all have spent on this creative court proposal that is 19
not ideal but a very good compromise for both tennis and pickleball players alike. All we 20
both want is to be able to play a fun sport and to get some good exercise in a safe place. 21
On behalf of the 400 members of the Palo Alto Pickleball Club, I urge you to support the 22
proposed plans. Thank you very much. 23
Chair McDougall: Thank you. Mark Nadel followed by Najool [phonetic] N. 24
Mark Nadel: Thank you for your time. I am a Palo Alto resident. My name's Mark Nadel, 25 and I am representing a chat group with 83 tennis players called the Palo Alto Tennis 26 Group. It's one of very many tennis chat groups, leagues, associations, whatever that spend 27 part of their time at Mitchell Park playing tennis. I first want to acknowledge the pickleball 28
players because in the near future I'll probably be one because I can't really play tennis that 29
much anymore. I do have to say that they are a well-oiled, well-organized, slightly militant 30
organization. They show up in force, which is great. The reason why I'm here almost alone 31
representing my group is they're younger than me and they have children. They usually 32
get underrepresented at 6:00 or 7:00 when their children have activities or it's dinner time. 33
I hope you will take that into your consideration. Tennis players, just for your information, 34
are six times as many nationwide as pickleballers according to the two associations, tennis 35
and USPATA, whatever the acronym is. Eighteen million tennis players, just over 3 36
million pickleball players. There's nothing that would lead you to believe—6:1 is a very 37
generous ratio if you consider how many tennis players there are in Palo Alto. Our own 38
estimate would say roughly 2,000. I would encourage you to do some neighborhood 39
surveys and figure out what the specific numbers are. Just seeing who's here or doing some 40
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random samples at the tennis courts is not very accurate. When our members were asking 1
you for the data and to understand the analysis, there was no transparency. You're going 2
to have 2,000 or so upset people because a lot of us go there. We go to a lot of clubs but, 3
from what I hear, there's a lot of pickleball clubs around here, tennis courts being made in 4
Mountain View and other locations. I would urge you to consider not making some of the 5
mistakes that I saw proposed. Permanently dedicating Court 5 only for pickleball is a big 6 mistake. It doesn't make much sense. 7
Chair McDougall: Mark, I'm going to let you continue for 20 more seconds because you're 8
representing 83 other people. 9
Mr. Nadel: No, I'm done. (Crosstalk) got my message. I want you to consider the families 10
of Palo Alto. It's not just the players themselves, but the parents whose kids want to get on 11
the high school tennis team. They want to get a scholarship for tennis. They may want to 12
become a professional tennis player like Roger Federer. You should consider that Serena 13
and Venus Williams all played on public tennis courts all through high school. You should 14
think about those things. 15
Chair McDougall: Thank you, Mark. 16
Mr. Nadel: Thank you. 17
Chair McDougall: Najool N. 18
Mr. N.: Thank you for having me. I've been a Bay Area resident for 20 years, and I live 19
in Palo Alto for 10 years. I'm a very big tennis fan and so is my family, my son. I know 20
many families live here. Their kids go to high-level national and northern California, and 21
they play in Palo Alto. We are having constantly to move around to two or three tennis 22
courts to find just one damn tennis court. You won't believe how much my son goes 23
through every single day, every weekend. He does his homework early or goes to bed early 24
just to play tennis. Every single weekend, Friday through Sunday, every morning until 25 afternoon, pickleball, tennis takes up Mitchell Park last three courts. First two courts are 26 taken by City, assigned by the coaches. We only have two courts, so we don't go to 27 Mitchell Park at all because we will never find a court. At Cubberley, the City's offering 28
courts to the adult league, so they occupy all the courts. There is illegal coaching going on 29
in Palo Alto like crazy. I can name three or four tennis facility where they occupy it for 30
hours. You cannot argue with them. It becomes sometimes physical and bad language and 31
all of that. You don't want to do that with your young kid. Where do we take our kid? 32
Sometimes I go to Redwood City. This is not an ideal situation for everybody. You guys 33
need to understand that you have to provide a separate facility for pickleball because tennis 34
players and young players do not get any opportunity to play. My son (inaudible) tennis 35
for a long period of time, so he knows, but not the younger player and the parents who 36
want to get kids into tennis. They'll get discouraged because they don't find the court, and 37
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they'll just walk away and never play tennis again. Pickleball is for old generation, not 1
new generation. That's a separate opinion. 2
Chair McDougall: Thank you. Cam W. Followed by Kay Carey. 3
Mr. W.: Hi. I'm a Palo Alto resident, and I'm both a tennis player and a pickleball player 4
when there are no open tennis courts. I'm against converting any existing tennis courts into 5
any other use permanently. This just happened to be pickleball. Although we have a lot 6 of lit tennis courts, 17, Mitchell Park is the only site that has lit tennis courts south of 7
Oregon Expressway. Also, two of those courts are occupied by City coaches 24/7. The 8
public has no access to those two courts. This is for my daughter; I'm going to read what 9
she writes. As a current high school varsity tennis player at Paly, play at the number one 10
slot, these few tennis courts are not just a way to improve my tennis skills through practice 11
but a way to relieve the stress from school work being in high school. Oftentimes, when I 12
spend hours studying at home, I need a quick mental break from staring at my computer. 13
My father, who is also my coach, and I would go out and play some tennis. Now, a high 14
school freshman, practicing tennis has continued to be the recipe of my stress relief; yet, 15
this soon turned into a big distress. Oftentimes, we drive all over town between tennis 16
courts searching for an open tennis court. First, we headed out to Mitchell Park, but the lit 17
tennis courts were occupied by pickleball players and mostly unauthorized tennis coaches 18
teaching lessons. Next, my dad drove me to Rinconada Park, and the six lit courts were 19
taken. Then, we drive to Paly, and courts are taken up by unauthorized coaches and meet-20
up crowds. An hour has gone by, and I did get to play any tennis let alone any mental 21
stress relief. This is just one typical night I often encounter nowadays. Exercise is a healthy 22
stress outlet for most high schoolers, and tennis is a popular sport loved by many. I do not 23
want any existing tennis courts taken away since I have already encountered difficulties 24
finding an open court to play on. Please let my voice be heard. Camila, I'm 14 years old, 25 Paly High School freshman. 26
Chair McDougall: Thank you. I've already said something about the applause, and the 27 applause is not helping the people who are applauding. Kay Carey followed by Andy Reid 28
[phonetic]. 29
Kay Carey: Hi. I'm Kay Carey. I'm a longtime Palo Alto resident. I'm also a former 30
President of the Palo Alto Tennis Club, still playing tennis, doesn't mean I won't play 31
pickleball. I have been involved in following the process of the court conversion. I want 32
to commend the Palo Alto Park and Rec on this compromise solution. It's clearly just a 33
compromise for now so that you can get pickleball going, get it evaluated, and also find 34
out what the lacks are in the tennis community. It strikes me that you should think about 35
putting in a public bathroom back there because you're talking about a lot of people coming 36
to pickleball events. I can foresee problems. Since Mitchell Park is so popular, long term 37
you really should be thinking of keeping Cubberley in sight and lighting the courts at 38
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Cubberley. There is a need for more tennis courts than we have now. There may or may 1
not be a need for additional pickleball courts. You'll be in a better position to assess it after 2
you've worked through this plan. Quite a few tennis players feel that this is a reasonable 3
compromise, but you should still keep working on it to get a better tennis and pickleball 4
complex in the future. Thank you. 5
Chair McDougall: Thank you. Andy Reid followed by Jenny Chin [phonetic]. 6
Andy Reid: Thank you, Chair McDougall and the Parks and Rec Commissioners, for all 7
your work for the City. We are so lucky as citizens of Palo Alto to have many lovely 8
outdoor recreational areas available for our use for free. Recreational assets include many 9
permanent tennis courts that often go unused. Pickleball players have temporary nets that 10
they have been setting up on Courts 5, 6, and 7 for the last three years. We could get 11 11
pickleball courts out of three tennis courts. Mitchell Park is the only place to play 12
pickleball in Palo Alto, and eight to 40 pickleball players will show up every morning. 13
Pickleball is currently in the ascendant and is very popular. Thanks to the posted schedules, 14
that works out really well with the designated times and days, and it is very rare that we 15
step on any tennis toes. It actually works out very well. All we ask is that tennis share the 16
limited recreational facilities. These current plans include repurposing one tennis court in 17
order to make four permanent pickleball courts which, when added to the proposed two 18
adjacent new courts, makes six designated pickleball courts close together. As Monica was 19
saying, the way pickleball works is that people can show up and pick up a game, no partner 20
necessary. Critical mass is important. We gather in groups. We switch players and teams. 21
These six permanent courts will help out a lot so that we don't have to set up and take down 22
movable pickleball nets all the time but can set them up on the busy days during the 23
designated pickleball time. We are not saying that tennis has had all of these 54 courts for 24
20 years and now we want them. We are saying, "Let's share." We are asking tennis to 25 lose one permanent court, a very modest request. We hope you can get this show on the 26 road. Thanks very much for your hard work. 27
Chair McDougall: Thank you. Jenny Chin. The last card I have is a second Mark Nadel. 28
Jenny Chin: Hi. My name's Jenny Chin, and I'm a Palo Alto resident. I first want to thank 29
Adam. He worked really hard on this whole project. He's been very objective and really 30
creative. Two things I'd really like to bring to your attention. One was mentioned by this 31
gentleman. We have seven lit courts in South Palo Alto, two are used by coaches. We're 32
down to five. When you take away one of the five, you're taking away 20 percent of our 33
lit courts. It is detrimental to the tennis community. If you had 17, no, but you're looking 34
at one of five. At last Tuesday's meeting, I overheard one of the pickleball players mention 35
that the pickleball club has 400-plus members. Out of those 400 members, only 45 percent 36
are Palo Alto residents, so 55 percent are not. That's 200-plus non-Palo Alto residents 37
coming to Mitchell Park to use our parking spaces, to use our bathroom. I am a Palo Alto 38
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resident. I hate it if I know I can't find parking space because 200-plus nonresidents are 1
using up my parking space. If this plan gets approved, I'd like to ask the City, "Do you 2
plan to add more parking spaces? Can you add more bathrooms?" We have the Magical 3
Bridge, which draws a lot of people from outside Palo Alto. We have Mitchell Park 4
Library. If we put in these permanent pickleball courts, we may draw even more pickleball 5
players than we have right now. On weekends, I cannot find a parking space at Mitchell 6 Park. It's really frustrating. We have USTA tennis tournaments at Mitchell Park on 7
weekends. Our opponents always complain to us because they cannot find parking space. 8
They're late usually by 20 minutes. This is a real issue. I feel Palo Alto should try to find 9
space for pickleball players. Cubberley should be a place to be evaluated. There's a lot 10
more land. There's a bigger parking lot, maybe even more bathrooms. I don't know how 11
many bathrooms there are. Cubberley is an ideal home for pickleball. Mitchell Park is just 12
too small. The parking lot is just too small. Thank you. 13
Chair McDougall: Thank you. I'm going to open it up to the Commission for questions 14
and comments. I'll start with Commissioner McCauley. 15
Commissioner McCauley: One thing I noticed this evening in the course of comments, 16
that I don't think I've seen before, is there is some levity between folks and people are 17
smiling and recognizing people's points from other sides of the aisle, so to speak. That's 18
certainly something that I appreciate. There's common understanding and respect, which 19
is excellent to see. It's been very clearly underscored that we have a scarcity of resources. 20
We've talked about this before. Certainly, your voices are heard on that. One thing I'm 21
concerned about is we've pitted pickleball players against tennis players. If there is a silver 22
lining, it is that we are underscoring the needs that are unmet in the City. That's for both 23
pickleball players and tennis players who need more resources. We've identified just this 24
evening—I'm sure at the community meeting last week you did as well—a number of 25 places for improvement. Perhaps we need to look at the timing and schedule of City-26 sponsored lessons as part of this overall assessment. Adam, you've presented to us on 27 numerous occasions on pickleball and at least one other time on this specific plan. I think 28
it was in December. Has anything changed from the December presentation or was this 29
essentially reflecting the feedback you received from further public comment? 30
Mr. Howard: That's correct. The only addition is the priority hours that we provided 31
evenings to tennis and mornings to pickleball. Otherwise, the plan is basically the same. 32
We haven't gone deeper yet. 33
Commissioner McCauley: A number of people commented that this is a compromise, and 34
that was the feedback from your public meeting as well. Perhaps, it's the right compromise. 35
How onerous is it to move the pickleball nets on and off the courts, which is the plan for 36
Court 5? With the addition of the new space that you're planning, will that ameliorate that 37
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concern? Is there consideration for doing the same thing for 6 and 7? Excuse me, you're 1
doing that for 6 and 7; doing it for 5 as well. 2
Mr. Howard: If I'm understanding the question correctly as could the storage areas work 3
across the board, in some regards yes. Ultimately, that self-storage is going to have to be 4
locked so that we don't lose stuff. That would not allow for drop-in use because you'd have 5
to either get a permit or be one of a couple of people that have a combination much like 6 goals on soccer fields. It would not allow the general pop-in use. 7
Commissioner McCauley: In light of that, this is an excellent compromise. The hours that 8
you propose are also pretty solid. I echo the comments from the committee that we should 9
evaluate this after a year or whatever you think is the right period of time to determine 10
whether this is the permanent state of play for these particular courts and think about the 11
broader opportunities within the park system. 12
Commissioner Moss: You said that there are no tennis courts available at Mitchell Park 13
on weekend mornings. Can you clarify that? 14
Mr. Howard: I think the feedback is they're often full. There will be four courts available 15
on weekend mornings. The front one and two do have City lessons on them. When lessons 16
aren't in play, they're available to the public. Courts 3 and 4 would be available to the 17
public. 18
Commissioner Moss: Are those lessons taught anywhere else in the City, on any other City 19
… 20
Mr. Howard: They also have two courts at Rinconada. 21
Commissioner Moss: They could move those to another park if push came to shove. Is 22
that right? 23
Mr. Howard: Right now, it's in contract. When the contract is over, we could redesign 24
how that looked. 25
Commissioner Moss: I've said a number of times before that, because land is so expensive, 26 we are not going to get many more tennis courts. Therefore, the long-term solution is to 27 light every single tennis court in the City, every public tennis court in the City. You've 28
said a number of times that it'll cost about $100,000 to light tennis. How much is it costing 29
to add these two pickleball courts and to restripe Court Number 3? 30
Mr. Howard: The new construction we thought was about $80,000. I don't have a very 31
good number for the restriping because it's something we do every two years. It's part of 32
an ongoing contract, unless Daren has real specifics on striping. Because we have 33
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restriping in our general spending, I don't know exactly what that would be because we 1
would be doing it regardless. 2
Commissioner Moss: I want to emphasize what Anne Cribbs said earlier that we have a 3
501(c)(3) called Friends of Palo Alto Parks. It certainly would be nice if the pickleball 4
community would contribute something towards this $80,000 so that we could light another 5
tennis court with some of that money. I also encourage the Palo Alto tennis community to 6 contribute to that same fund to help expedite the lighting of another court or two. It's 7
absolutely essential that we get a public-private partnership for this kind of thing. None of 8
this was in any CIP plan or anything like that. What's the earliest that people can play 9
tennis and what's the latest that they can play tennis? Can we stretch those hours? 10
Mr. Howard: It starts at sunrise and ends at 10:00 p.m., which is the ordinance for all lights 11
in Palo Alto. All of our stadium-type lighting is off at 10:00. 12
Commissioner Moss: Even in a park like Mitchell Park that has no residences anywhere 13
near it? I can see that for Cubberley. 14
Mr. Howard: That is the current policy. It's something we could revisit when there are no 15
neighbors. 16
Commissioner Moss: Going back to the 501(c)(3), it disturbs me that there is such a high 17
percentage of non-Palo Alto residents using the pickleball courts. They should pay 18
something. I don't know how that can be dealt with, but I would encourage them to deal 19
with that within their club. We lost valuable field space to the solar panels at JLS. Any 20
chance we can raise those panels and put pickleball courts underneath? You don't need 21
sun. That's all I have. 22
Mr. Howard: I don't have a good answer for that. The possibility is there. The space is 23
wide enough to add something. It is School District land. 24
Chair McDougall: That's a School District question, not a Commission question. Before 25 I ask the ad hoc members if they'd like to add comments, I do have two cards that came in 26 after the Commission started talking. I'm afraid I can't allow those to speak. There will be 27 lots of other opportunities. I'm sorry that I can't allow them, but I don't think it's appropriate 28
to start changing the rules of when we have public comment. Commissioner Reckdahl, do 29
you have anything you want to add? 30
Commissioner Reckdahl: Nothing more. 31
Chair McDougall: Commissioner Greenfield? 32
Vice Chair Greenfield: There have been some very useful comments from the public both 33
at the public meeting and today. A couple that I'd point out is about adjusting the hours of 34
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pickleball priority versus tennis priority and put a little gap between them so that they didn't 1
bunch into each other. That was a great idea. It would be worthwhile to further clarify 2
how to vacate courts for priority play. For example, if pickleball players are playing and 3
tennis players show up and it's tennis priority time, finish the existing game not to exceed 4
15 minutes or something like that would be worth putting that into policy. 5
Mr. Howard: That's part of the current policy recently developed and shown on the signs 6 that are up. The feedback that I have heard about those signs is they have worked and 7
helped avoid some conflict. It does spell out "finish your game or 20 minutes, whichever 8
comes first" and "be respectful of open courts before you come to full courts." We would 9
continue that. 10
Vice Chair Greenfield: There have been a number of comments regarding illegal use of 11
the court. There have been comments regarding soccer players using the courts for 12
practicing when it's wet out. There have been comments regarding private coaching. I'm 13
not surprised to hear that there's private coaching taking place. I'm wondering what your 14
take is in terms of the current awareness of this issue and what the potential for enforcement 15
of this is. 16
Mr. Howard: That's something that has come up with this and that we've tried to look into 17
a little bit. We do hear about it. There are a couple of issues. One, it's hard to go out as a 18
staff and prove what the relationship is between this individual and the student. It could 19
be a father/son. It could be someone's neighbor teaching. We have to deal with that a little 20
bit. We have got some positive feedback. This goes back to looking at the tennis policy 21
with the tennis community because we want it to be best for the tennis players. One thing 22
we heard is if you do some kind of rule—I'm going to throw out a number—that you're 23
only allowed five tennis balls on the court at a time, that takes away the ability to have a 24
true lesson. Typically, there are hundreds of balls out when that takes place. We want to 25 start getting some of that feedback so that we make sure courts are being utilized the way 26 the tennis community wants them to. Everything they're talking about, the private lessons, 27 it's all tennis, but are we doing it to the best of our ability. Regardless of what happens 28
here, we need to go into that communication with the tennis players to make sure the 29
policies we have are working to the best of their abilities. 30
Vice Chair Greenfield: We all know that Cubberley is in the midst of a redevelopment 31
process. There may be a potential solution for expanding the overall number of lit courts 32
in Palo Alto if the courts end up getting located far enough away from residents so that 33
lighting could be considered. That could be something very useful to consider because we 34
presume that pickleball is going to grow as well, and they're going to request additional lit 35
courts in the future. That's a bit of an ace in the hole that we should keep in mind. We 36
should encourage both the tennis community and the pickleball community to pursue 37
alternate transportation methods for getting to Mitchell Park. I don't foresee that parking 38
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is going to increase at Mitchell Park in the future. It is a popular place for a variety of uses. 1
Any way that we can reduce the parking crunch will benefit everyone. The simplest place 2
to start is carpooling. Thank you. 3
Commissioner Cribbs: I'm really very pleased about the tone and the tenor of the 4
discussion over pickleball and tennis. We've all learned a lot. Some things have come up 5
that I wasn't aware of in terms of private coaching and maybe extending hours. Over the 6 next year as we get these courts going, we'll have time to evaluate and continue working 7
together to make the courts even better for everybody. I'd just like to thank everybody who 8
has participated. 9
Council Member Cormack: I want to echo all of the comments from the Commissioners 10
about the work that staff has done. It's not often in these chambers there are this many 11
compliments. I hope you appreciate them. Adam, it certainly sounds like you deserve 12
them. I'm sorry I wasn't able to attend the outreach meeting. Thank you all for that. Very 13
interesting to surface a few of the issues with tennis situations. It looks like we'll be taking 14
those on. I appreciate that. Full disclosure, former tennis player, and I have played 15
pickleball and absolutely enjoyed it. I want to touch on Cubberley. I am very sensitive to 16
the differences between south and north Palo Alto. I appreciate the member of the public 17
who pointed out the difference in lit courts in north and south. Cubberley is a personal 18
passion project for me. I very much hope that we'll be able to continue to move this 19
forward. I freaked out when you said 20 years. I'm like, "Not on my watch." Whatever I 20
can do to move that forward I will. It had not occurred to me nor had I seen it on the 21
plans—that doesn't mean it hasn't been there—about lighting the courts at Cubberley both 22
for pickleball and tennis. I'll take that back in the event that no one else has connected the 23
dots. I'm sure someone has, but I'll make a note of that. That'd be an opportunity to 24
improve the situation for everyone. What a pleasure for my first meeting with the 25 Commission to see this process working so well. 26
Chair McDougall: I'm not inclined to try and echo what other people have said. I doubt 27 that, Adam, you did this without some help from Stephanie. I'd like to mention Stephanie 28
as part of the work that's been done. Thank you for that, Stephanie. I'm sure other 29
Commissions deal with the issue of scarce and valuable resources. The whole idea this 30
Commission deals with is the scarce and valuable resources of our parks and recreation 31
facilities and open spaces and the fact that what the City wants, what the citizens want is 32
more of everything. They want more lights. They want more courts. They want more 33
bathrooms. They're all right. That puts us in a really interesting, difficult position. I want 34
to thank all of the speakers that we had tonight for the respect they showed one another, 35
for the enthusiasm for the compromise that we have. Some of the things that I learned 36
from the speakers is that we need to manage the rules. The first speaker talked about 37
whether the rules were being followed. Adam, you commented. I don't know how we go 38
about that. It's not just the rules, but it's the etiquette. Both of these sports, if you ask them, 39
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would tell you that they're the epitome of etiquette in sports unlike football or baseball or 1
soccer. We need to call them on the etiquette. Talking with the schools about their courts, 2
making sure that we measure over the next year in some way. We need to ask both 3
communities to help us with that measurement. The whole idea of coaches. I'd like to 4
echo that the Cubberley project is going on. We're continuing to have meetings and input 5
sessions. I would encourage people who want to see pickleball or tennis or lighting or 6 whatever at Cubberley to participate in those meetings. If there are no other real pressing 7
questions, Adam, I'll give you the chance to close. 8
Mr. Howard: I wanted to add one comment that did come up in the public meeting. It 9
seems like a good time to let them know we addressed it. There was an issue that it sounds 10
like the bathrooms were being locked at 9:00 even though the lights were on until 10:00. 11
We have addressed that issue, and it's resolved. Bathrooms will stay open until 10:00. 12
Chair McDougall: Thank you all very much. Adam and Stephanie, thank you very much. 13
When should we expect you back here? 14
Mr. Howard: Ideally and hopefully, we will be back next month. 15
4. Rinconada Park Improvement Project Overview 16
Chair McDougall: The next item on the agenda is Rinconada Park improvement project 17
and Peter Jensen. Welcome, Peter. 18
Peter Jensen: Good evening, Commission. Peter Jensen, Landscape Architect for the City 19
of Palo Alto. I'm going to be reviewing tonight the Rinconada improvement plan. It's been 20
a long time coming. We've gone through an extensive long-range planning process that 21
has contributed the ideas and design concepts that are going to be in the plan presented 22
tonight. I'm going to go through the items and the scope of the project and answer questions 23
from the Commission as well. I don't know if there is any public comment concerning this 24
topic. This is Rinconada Park. One of the most important aspects of Rinconada Park is it 25 acts as a connection to all the public facilities around it, including the JMZ, the Rinconada 26 Library, the park center, the Children's Museum, the theater. Walter Hays school is right 27 next to it. It has the only pool in the City. It is more a complex than a park. The park is 28
the central feature that connects all the pieces. The scope of our project is going to look 29
more towards the end closest to Lucie Stern. We've tried to extend the budget as far as we 30
could to have the most impact for improvements on the park. This is the area we're going 31
to focus on. We decided to look at this end of the park to coincide with construction of the 32
new Junior Museum and Zoo, which is slated to be completed around this time next year 33
and open in June of next year. We are hoping we can get through the design process and 34
start construction so that the park is complete when the Junior Museum and Zoo is ready 35
to open. A few images of existing conditions at Rinconada Park. This one is closest to the 36
Girl Scout House. This is the only rentable, group picnic area in the park that we want to 37
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renovate. The design of the park has two components that use a majority of the budget, 1
the reconstruction of the playground. There is an older kids' playground adjacent to the 2
Girl Scout House, and adjacent to the tennis courts is a tot lot. Those are separated right 3
now. We'll get into how the new design incorporates those two into one. The pathways 4
are another big component of this project. The project was slated to renovate the pathways 5
in 2008, so it's been a while going through the process of the Long Range Plan and the 6 environmental report that linked the JMZ to Rinconada. It's very exciting that we're at this 7
point because it needs it. The condition of the asphalt pathway is deteriorating in most 8
spots. It's an older asphalt pathway with no edge. There are expanses of asphalt in the 9
park that we can reduce to gain more open space. At the back of the school, you can see 10
not the prettiest chain-link fence and the portable buildings. We can address that with some 11
planting along that edge and pulling the pathway off. The turf field is not really 12
programmed, but it is used for group activities and used by Community Services for events 13
like Movies in the Park. We do want to keep that area as expansive as possible. Another 14
exciting aspect of the project is the entryway. If you have visited Rinconada Park and the 15
parking lot, there was no entry into the park. It was the back-of-house area for the zoo, and 16
dumpsters are located there. Now, we're going to make a clean connection from Lucie 17
Stern across the park. This project coincides with the Rinconada Long Range Plan, which 18
was adopted by Council in 2017. These are the goals of that plan and putting it together. 19
The main thing that came from the community process was the community would like to 20
keep the character of Rinconada Park. It's a beautiful park, and the layout is very 21
advantageous to the community. We talked about all the amenities and facilities around 22
there. That's a major aspect of the Long Range Plan. Of course, we want to update the 23
resources and amenities out there. The group picnic area needs new amenities like 24
barbecues, benches, tables. Rinconada Park is used a lot, and the neighborhood bears the 25 brunt of parking for Rinconada Park. We want to make sure what we're planning fits with 26 the environment and the parking facilities. We can never have enough parking and 27 restrooms, so we want to be aware of those things. We're always working on accessibility 28
and infrastructure improvements, especially with the ADA requirements. A major part of 29
the Long Range Plan is to get all the user groups together and discuss what they envision 30
for the park. This is the concept plan proposed by the Long Range Plan, and it is 31
development of the entire park. We're going to focus on this area down here and the 32
recommendations from the Long Range Plan for this project. This slide shows all the 33
connections and pathways of the park. I included this because the main aspect is this 34
yellow path that cuts through the park and connects the facilities on both ends. We are 35
going to focus on enhancing that pathway up to a certain point, as far as the money will 36
take us, which is in the middle where the existing restroom is. The new Junior Museum 37
and Zoo project is well underway, and the building is framed. The development of the 38
parking lot and better flow of the parking was an aspect of the Long Range Plan. The 39
exciting part of this is the connection into the park from the surrounding neighborhood. 40
Kellogg is designated as a bike lane. The driveway entering Lucie Stern is going to be 41
reduced and will be dedicated for bike and pedestrian traffic to bring you into the main 42
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entry of the park. Right now, this does not exist, and you have to weave your way through 1
the old parking lot. This is a great amenity that is not part of our improvement project but 2
coincides with the Long Range Plan and the connection to the park. The budget for the 3
CIP is $1.7 million. That sounds like a lot of money, but it goes very quickly for a big 4
piece of land like this. The things we want to focus on are the playground improvements. 5
That's the tot lot and the older kids' playground. An aspect that came out of the Long Range 6 Plan is it's better to put both playgrounds together than have them separate. It was very 7
difficult for caregivers to watch the younger kids so far away from the older kids. The 8
design joins the two playgrounds. There is a hierarchy of pathways. The main pathway 9
through the park is going to be wider and enhanced with some integral color to denote the 10
linking. Eventually, that pathway will extend all the way to the Newell side. Like I said, 11
it will stop at the bathroom area in this project. The hierarchy of the pathways is to control 12
some of the maintenance traffic through the park. Right now, it's a free-for-all out there 13
with driving all over the place. We want to make one main connection for them to service 14
the park without traveling through the park. Site furnishings include tables, benches. We 15
want to replace all of those. They're older and outdated. We want to improve the group 16
picnic area and make it better for the community. It is the only rentable group picnic area 17
in the park. The expansion of the turf area will include new irrigation and some drainage. 18
That seems to be an issue with the turf area. That's something the community keeps 19
bringing up, to resolve that issue and make it a little bit more usable. The renovation of 20
planting is mostly reducing turf areas and small unusable pieces of turf area and 21
transforming them into native/habitat planting or pollinator landscapes. All of those things 22
will be part of the different landscape areas we'll propose for the park. There are a few bid 23
alternate items that we're going to include in the project's bid scope. I'm not overly hopeful 24
that we'll be able to afford these things, but we will be adding them in future projects. We 25 looked at a restroom for that end of the park. The original Junior Museum and Zoo plan 26 had a restroom facility in the structure that would be accessed from the park, but it went 27 away during the design process because the zoo encroached into the park. The plan does 28
call for a restroom to be located there. There's a decomposed granite pathway that follows 29
the pathway loop. From our renovation of Eleanor Pardee Park, we heard a lot of feedback 30
that people who use the pathway for walking would like to work on a softer surface than 31
concrete. That will be in the plan. These are all bid alternate items that depend on having 32
the budget to make them happen. The ramp at Wilson Street is skewed from the sidewalk, 33
so it would be nice to straighten it. The design of the playground includes a playhouse, 34
which is a bid alternate because of the cost. Conversations with the tennis community 35
during the Long Range Plan included interest in a covered pavilion or field house that could 36
be used by the tennis community or for picnics. I have contacted them, and they were 37
interested in funding such a thing. They are discussing the funding process and how much 38
they can contribute. The next time I bring the plan back, I will discuss that more and see 39
if we can make it happen. This is a vision of the proposed improvements for the park. 40
We'll start at the Lucie Stern end of the park. You can see the zoo and how it encroaches 41
into the park more than before. That has a direct relationship to the alignment of the 42
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pathways and how they move around. The existing pathway goes through the zoo. Of 1
course, we've had to reconfigure that. We'll start at the parking lot. We're going to make 2
a new entry, add more bike parking in this location, build another group picnic area closer 3
to the zoo. This would be the main walkway around. It's colored concrete that marks the 4
hierarchy of the pathways. The playground is designed in the Magical Bridge style, where 5
it's fully inclusive and breaks the area into play zones. Number 5 is the swing zone. 6 Number 6 is an adult fitness area incorporated into the playground. Number 7 is the tot 7
area. Eight represents the slide mound, which is not an actual mound but a platform-and-8
post structure. A spin zone also makes up the playground. The playground will have all 9
resilient surfacing. There is no proposal to replace the sand. Sand is difficult to make 10
accessible to everyone. It's also tough to maintain, especially with the rubber surfacing of 11
the playground. The playground equipment and rubber surfacing make up half the budget 12
amount for the park. Replacing that all the time is difficult and burdensome on our funding 13
resources. Maintaining the sand away from it as much as possible is a good idea. The 14
playground will be fenced. Just like Magical Bridge, it will have a defined area with gates. 15
Number 10 is the group picnic area. Number 12 is one of the existing large redwood trees. 16
We're proposing this space become either a pollinator or native/habitat garden, as well as 17
along the back of the school to soften the edge. We're in conversation with the Junior 18
Museum and Zoo about what we'd like to plant along the back of the wall. Unfortunately, 19
that wall is not the prettiest wall; it is a cinder block wall. We're going to screen and soften 20
it a lot with plant materials. I'm not sure yet what it's going to be. It's going to be either a 21
native California garden or a pollinator/butterfly garden. They're also looking to see if they 22
have funding to do some type of mural on the wall. I'll bring that back to you next time 23
with what's been decided. Thirteen is the back of the Girl Scout House where we'll renovate 24
the landscape planting and change out the irrigation. From day one of the Long Range 25 Plan, the community has asked for a direct route to the back of the schools. School access 26 is in area Number 14. Most kids, biking or walking, cut across the turf area, which is 27 sometimes soggy and not the nicest situation. We are proposing a walkway immediately 28
to the back of the school and that sets up nicely with the other walkways. Fifteen is the 29
expanded turf area. The purple colors are the bid items. The restroom is proposed in this 30
location by the group picnic area due to its close proximity to the street. It's easier to build 31
it closer to the street and the sewer line. The playhouse is this structure. Most likely the 32
playground will not have a playhouse. The decomposed granite runs around the perimeter 33
of the turf area. We did try to make the concrete loop a full lap. The current pathway cuts 34
diagonally through here and makes a mishmash of different sized turf areas, so we pushed 35
the walkway out further to gain some space and make the pathway a little bit longer. It's 36
pretty close to an exact lap around the park. Towards the tennis court end, our main 37
pathway comes through and ends here. Eventually, this will be a full circle in the middle 38
of the park, and the pathway will continue. This is the existing restroom facility that will 39
remain in the location. Eleven is the secondary pathway through here. This one is 8 feet 40
wide and defines the hierarchy of the pathways. You can see the decomposed granite 41
pathway follows itself around here. Twelve is some type of native planting along the back 42
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of the school and Hopkins. Sixteen in this area is where the tot lot used to be. It's sitting 1
currently underneath a heritage oak. Having the compaction and sand underneath that tree 2
has probably diminished its life by a good 20, 30 years. It is a grand tree, and we want to 3
protect it as much as possible. We're going to take out the play equipment and mulch the 4
area and let it be for a little while. Eventually, we will develop next to it Number 5, which 5
shows where the tennis/picnic pavilion will be built either this time with help from the 6 tennis group or in another phase. Seventeen is enhanced paving of some sort where our 7
paving project is going to end that eventually will be a full circle. I do anticipate that we'll 8
have another CIP for Rinconada Park. We didn't discuss that this year in our CIP process, 9
but we'll bring it up next year to get it on the books for funding to complete the rest of the 10
park renovation, especially the pathway that goes down there. These are some images to 11
convey the ideas of what we're trying to achieve in our playground. One of the most 12
difficult parts of the playground is providing ADA access to a higher point such as the 13
slides. ADA requires a transfer deck. No law requires a specific means of access for a 14
person to reach the highest point once he has transferred from a wheelchair. We would 15
like to go further and ensure that everyone can enjoy the slides and reach the top of slides. 16
This would be a larger ramp structure. No other play equipment has this long ramp to 17
access the top, so it is unique in that respect. The other nice part is the structure can provide 18
shade. The terminus of the ramp would be the top of the slide mound and would be a post-19
and-platform structure. It'll be very similar. We're anticipating this playground will cost 20
$600,000-$700,000, where the Magical Bridge was about $4 million. You can see the 21
economic value of trying to get the same thing by using prefabricated equipment. Since 22
we're constantly replacing our playgrounds, I've been looking at making them more 23
inclusive and keeping them in a price zone that we don't have to raise funds from outside 24
groups. This is a highly feasible way to move forward with a lot of our playgrounds. I'm 25 going to bring back Bowden Park pretty soon to talk about how this can be incorporated 26 into that. This is the color we're proposing for the main walkway, a tan or sandy brown 27 color. This is the resilient surfacing in the playground. We're looking at incorporating tiles 28
in the high-use area. Rubberized surfacing has a high price tag and doesn't last very long. 29
After 7-9 years, it needs to be replaced. In the areas that do not have high traffic, we can 30
use the rubberized surfacing. We can also use a tile that we can replace, which is much 31
more economical and prolongs the life. The fencing around the playground will not be as 32
ornate as Magical Bridge. Mostly, it's there to blend in with the background. This is an 33
idea of what our native or butterfly gardens will look like. Last Thursday, we had a 34
community meeting and received good feedback from the community. Unfortunately, 35
there were only five members of the community present, so it carries some weight but not 36
like 100 people expressed their views on the park renovation. Most of the people that had 37
been part of the Long Range Plan reviewed the project and were mostly satisfied with it. 38
Most of the five members present lived across the street on Hopkins and supported the 39
bathroom. We've talked a few times before about how it's difficult to add a bathroom to a 40
park. It's always nice to hear that there's support for it, especially in close proximity to the 41
playground. The community using the playground at that end of the park was using the 42
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Junior Museum and Zoo's bathroom. Because the Junior Museum and Zoo is going to be 1
a paid facility, that is not going to be an option. You will have to walk to the center of the 2
park to use the bathroom. Children's Library or Lucie Stern will be ad hoc bathrooms for 3
the facility as well. In the future, we will add it if we can't get it this time. That's what I 4
have as far as the renovation goes. I'll turn it over to you, Commissioner McDougall, and 5
see if there are any questions or comments. 6
Chair McDougall: Peter, thank you very much. In the next revision of the plan, if you 7
suggested converting some of the tennis courts to pickleball courts, you'd have a lot more 8
people show up at your meetings. Just a little advice. 9
Mr. Jensen: No renovation of the tennis courts is planned for this project. 10
Chair McDougall: Did any of ad hocs participate in any of these discussions? 11
Mr. Jensen: We did have a conversation with the restroom ad hoc, which was very 12
constructive, about using the funding we have for the current CIP restroom to construct 13
this restroom. I will let the ad hoc discuss their thoughts about that. The ad hoc felt it 14
would be nice to have a restroom there. The current CIP and the way it's set up is to 15
construct restrooms in parks that don't have any facility. Rinconada does have a facility. 16
We're going to leave it in the construction documents and see how the bidding goes. It's 17
probably not going to make it. We're not going to use the CIP money for it. 18
Chair McDougall: People will appreciate you trying. Is there anybody who participated 19
and would like to speak first or can I go left to right? 20
Commissioner McCauley: Peter captured perfectly the conversation with the ad hoc about 21
the restroom and whether to use the restroom CIP for this purpose. You've done the right 22
thing in seeing how this plays out with the bids that come back. This is an excellent plan. 23
If there is one thing that seems slightly redundant, it is the decomposed granite pathway. 24
You're going to be taking away from part of the beauty of the park if you expand that 25 pathway. Almost the entire route of it is going to run side-by-side with concrete pathway. 26 While I appreciate the idea of a decomposed granite pathway, that would perhaps be a low 27 priority in terms of the bid alternatives. That's it for me. 28
Commissioner Moss: I want to put my vote for the restroom being a higher priority if 29
there's any way we can do that. Otherwise, can we piggyback on the Girl Scout House 30
bathroom or the Lucie Stern bathroom? The Junior Museum bathroom in the lobby, do 31
you have to pay to use the bathroom? 32
Mr. Jensen: You're going to have to pay to go into the facility. It's going to stop most 33
people that aren't paying from using that bathroom. 34
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Commissioner Moss: If you bring up the picture of the map, at one time we were going to 1
have a small amphitheater behind the zoo where you could bring an animal or a bird out 2
and show it to park residents. Because they were taking some land away from the park, 3
we could get some benefit from the zoo. Is that still a possibility? Somewhere along that 4
wall. 5
Mr. Jensen: I am meeting with John Aiken and the zoo staff to discuss the space behind 6 the zoo wall. Mostly it is about screening the wall, but we can talk about having an area 7
back there for joint purposes. That was one of the ideas of putting the picnic area there, 8
that it would serve a dual function. It would provide a space where people could gather for 9
JMZ events, such as flying the eagle around. When it wasn't used for JMZ events, it could 10
be used as a picnic area, which would be the majority of time. That's how that developed. 11
If there is a desire to develop a space that is more like an amphitheater, we can look at that. 12
Commissioner Moss: Are those tennis courts lighted? 13
Mr. Jensen: The Rinconada courts are lit, yeah. 14
Commissioner Moss: The ones behind the redwood grove, are those lighted? 15
Mr. Jensen: No, those are not. 16
Commissioner Moss: I was wondering why the tennis community would prefer to put 17
money towards a field house rather than perhaps lighting a couple more courts. 18
Mr. Jensen: My conversation with them is that a long time ago they brought up lighting 19
those courts. Because of their close proximity to the neighbors, the neighbors pushed back 20
on light pollution in their houses and yards. That wasn't seen as feasible. 21
Commissioner Moss: If you bring up the map of the playground, Number 6 is the adult 22
fitness area. Is it possible to move that outside the center of the children's area? Could it 23
be moved, for instance, near the Wilson loop? I prefer the adult fitness on the outside 24
somewhere rather than in the very center, unless you're expecting the adults who are 25 watching the tots to use it. What was your idea? 26
Mr. Jensen: That is the idea of setting it in the middle. A caregiver in the playground 27 watching kids could use the equipment while observing them in the playground. It's not a 28
large area. There is an opportunity for another area of workout equipment somewhere 29
outside the playground. We looked at a location down here as another space for another 30
grouping of equipment. That's something we can look for. 31
Commissioner Moss: Thanks for thinking about that. I'm so glad that you are taking 32
features from the Magical Bridge where possible. I encourage you to put as many of those 33
features as we can afford. I notice the spin area is pretty sparse. There might be room in 34
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the future to add an additional feature from the Magical Bridge. We're supposed to have 1
Magical Bridge come to speak to the Commission. I hope that'll happen in the next month 2
or two. I'd like to see Magical Bridge features in all the parks when you're renovating 3
playgrounds. This is a big playground. 4
Mr. Jensen: We would agree with you. We want to make all playgrounds more inclusive 5
than they are right now. That's definitely not just part of the Long Range Plan for 6 Rinconada but one of the goals of the Parks Master Plan. 7
Commissioner Reckdahl: Talking about the back wall of the JMZ, at one time the design 8
had some windows that you could look into where the animals were kept. Has that been 9
phased out? In the bottom left is the zoo portion, and on the right is where they keep the 10
animals. 11
Mr. Jensen: I don't believe that's an aspect of the zoo design any longer, from what I've 12
seen. 13
Commissioner Reckdahl: I applaud the bike access. Crossing Middlefield is not trivial. 14
Are there going to be lights there? We were talking at one time at Kellogg having those 15
lights that are in the roadway, so it wouldn't be a traffic light. If people are crossing, they 16
could give some cover. 17
Mr. Jensen: That's something I can discuss with Transportation. Not that I've heard that 18
they're going to put anything there. They did work on making the little bulb-outs there, so 19
the distance of crossing isn't as far. Kellogg is designated a bike route, but it'll stay the 20
same way as it is now unless Transportation wants to put a light there. With a stop sign, 21
you have to stop and then ride your bike across Middlefield to get to the park. 22
Commissioner Reckdahl: Down by Heritage Park, we put one of those in with the lights 23
on it, and it had very good feedback. With all the kids crossing at that point because of the 24
school, if Transportation wants to do it, it'd be a very good idea. Have we talked to teens 25 at all? What do teens want in parks? Are there any features? 26
Mr. Jensen: That was an aspect of the Long Range Plan. I can't say that a lot of teens 27 participated. Their feedback was mostly concerning the skating bowl and trying to 28
modernize that a little bit. For this current plan, we haven't solicited specifically teen 29
feedback. Most of the playground design is not built for them to use. The loop path is 30
more adult exercise. The amenities that we're proposing out there don't quite fit that 31
demographic group, and we haven't done direct outreach to them to find out if there's 32
anything else that they'd like to do. If that's a wish of the Commission, we can reach out 33
to them. 34
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Commissioner Reckdahl: Doesn't Adam have some regular meetings with the teens, 1
Daren? 2
Mr. Anderson: We could find a way to check in with the Youth Council. 3
Commissioner Reckdahl: It'd be good for them to take a look at this and see what we 4
should change. Now we can change it. Once we build it, it's going to be very expensive 5
to make any changes. We really do want the kids in the park, so we should keep them in 6 the loop. I was happy to see the shade canopies. Being stuck inside on rainy days with 7
kids, I really want those shade canopies as big as possible. If they can be usable during the 8
rainy season, that would be really good. You can only do so many art projects before your 9
head wants to explode. It'd be really good to have at least one park in Palo Alto where you 10
can still take your kids on rainy days. 11
Vice Chair Greenfield: Peter, thank you for all the detailed work that's gone into this. It's 12
very much appreciated. It's pretty clear what's going on, which is a challenge. A lot to like 13
in this. I really like the pollinator gardens, the bike parking. The turf rearrangement is 14
great, consolidating contiguous turf area for activity. Otherwise, focusing on planting 15
natives is a great approach. I had some similar questions regarding the adult fitness area. 16
Could you explain what equipment is going to be in that area? 17
Mr. Jensen: We're still working with the playground manufacturer to determine that. They 18
have a broad array of equipment. From my experience, the resistance equipment seems to 19
be the best. They have a stationary bike that's pretty good. They have a lifting this way 20
that is pretty good. They also have this one that's not too bad. The next time I come back 21
I'll show more of what that adult equipment is, and we can look at it. 22
Vice Chair Greenfield: Is there any potential for hazard for children or youth using this 23
equipment? 24
Mr. Jensen: The fitness equipment is treated just like playground equipment. It's got a fall 25 zone. It's all under rubberized material. There is adult fitness equipment in Magical Bridge 26 that the kids use and climb on. It's built for everyone to go on. We don't anticipate a 27 problem with that. 28
Vice Chair Greenfield: There's not concerns about locating this in proximity to the kids' 29
play area? 30
Mr. Jensen: No. They'll definitely play on it. It's going to be another piece of play 31
equipment out there. Adults won't feel that way about it, but kids will. 32
Vice Chair Greenfield: I appreciate the idea of having the adult recreation area in the 33
middle of the kids' play area. That would be very appealing to some adults, but far less 34
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appealing to other adults, depends on whether you're going there with your children or not. 1
You mentioned there was another area you might use for adult equipment. Would it be 2
appropriate to have two different areas perhaps with complementary equipment? One's a 3
quieter area for adults. 4
Mr. Jensen: I don't see why not. I've also seen it laid out in parks where the equipment 5
doesn't sit together in a little group. There's a thing over there, and something over here. 6 We could disperse them around a little bit. They're easier to incorporate into the fabric of 7
the park than play equipment because they aren't as big and don't have the fall zones. That's 8
something we can look at. 9
Vice Chair Greenfield: Regarding the bid alternate items, is there a prioritization list for 10
these? If we had budget for one or two of the items but not the other, would you be coming 11
to the Commission or park amenities ad hoc for feedback? It sounds like a restroom would 12
be at the top of the list. 13
Mr. Jensen: The way it's numbered on the list of restroom, playhouse, decomposed granite 14
loop set up the priority. I made the list, so that's my priority. That could be not what the 15
Commission feels. That would be the things we'd want to focus on with the picnic area 16
covered as the final one because that is going to require more funding that hopefully the 17
tennis group will be involved in. 18
Vice Chair Greenfield: Could you go to page 9? I was very interested and excited to hear 19
about the ideas of trying to focus bike traffic out of the parking lot. For people who are 20
coming from Middlefield and Embarcadero, when they get to the parking lot entrance, are 21
they going to be compelled to—is that going to look like the shortest path to get to the main 22
park or is it going to be close enough that people might consider biking to the true bike 23
path? What can we do to encourage bike traffic to use the bike path as opposed to winding 24
in the midst of cars? 25
Mr. Jensen: That's a great question. The biggest factor is Kellogg is designated a bike 26 street for that connection. People coming up Middlefield do have the opportunity to turn 27 on this pathway that goes in front of the Junior Museum and Zoo to get you there. I can't 28
say that will be the best place to ride a bike because of the number of people walking on it. 29
Are people going to turn into the driveway and go up the parking lot? Probably so. We 30
can look at some type of signage directing people to the bike path they should use. At first, 31
it won't be as successful as it will be in the future when people learn that direction and 32
connection. 33
Vice Chair Greenfield: One of the solutions might be the bike signage within the 34
neighboring community guiding people to not go down Middlefield but to go on a side 35
street to end up following Kellogg. I really like Commissioner Reckdahl's idea of the 36
flashing lights on Kellogg. That would be a great part of the solution. 37
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Commissioner Moss: Before you go on, Mitchell Park has a very similar situation. A 1
tremendous number of kids bike from JLS past the library to get to the neighborhood on 2
the other side of Middlefield. There's no bike path or anything like that, so they ride on the 3
sidewalk. If you look at that, you might want to look at Mitchell Park first. 4
Mr. Jensen: We did a little improvement at Mitchell Park when we did the Adobe Bridge 5
and added a ramp by the tennis courts, so you could get on the sidewalk. There was no 6 area to go from that parking lot. The other thing to note is, just like the Mitchell Park 7
Library, in the morning hours the JMZ and the library probably will not be open, which is 8
fine. The parking lot is wide open and will probably be used for access points. At least 9
for some of the high-commute hours for kids, that parking lot will be less used. In the 10
afternoon, it will be used. As they're coming through the park, they'll be channeled to go 11
on that bike path and around instead of cutting through the parking lot. The way it's laid 12
out will enhance people, especially kids, using that bike lane. We'll also work with Safe 13
Routes to School to make sure kids understand clearly that is a new connection point. 14
Vice Chair Greenfield: Is there any transit going down Middlefield right now? Does the 15
shuttle go down Middlefield that far? Where is the transit stop on … 16
Mr. Jensen: The shuttle stop is down from the Junior Museum in front of Walter Hays. 17
Vice Chair Greenfield: It may not be in the purview of this group, but maybe we should 18
be considering how to funnel the transit stop closer to Rinconada Park at least on weekends. 19
Maybe it makes sense to have it in front of the school on weekdays. 20
Mr. Jensen: We can take a look at that. I'm not sure how it was sited in the first place. 21
There's nothing special about it as far as it doesn't pop in right there. You are correct that 22
it would be nicer to get it down to the main connection into the park. We can look at that. 23
Vice Chair Greenfield: As you're looking at redesigning the driveways and the bike 24
entrances, we should make plans for a transit stop. We all understand we're going to hear 25 the same thing about the Rinconada Park parking lot as we're hearing about Mitchell Park. 26 There're not enough parking spaces. We've added what we can, but it's not going to grow. 27 What is the lap distance? It wasn't clear. 28
Mr. Jensen: It's a quarter mile. 29
Commissioner Cribbs: I wanted to talk about the bathroom, but I'm pretty intrigued with 30
the idea of the adult exercise area in the middle of the park. I wondered if you'd seen it 31
someplace in another community. Thinking back to when I used to take my kids to the 32
park when they were little, I don't know that I would have exercised while I was watching 33
them at the park. I also don't know if I would go to a park to exercise in the middle of a 34
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kids' playground. I wanted to exercise by myself without my kids. I'm intrigued if you've 1
seen it someplace before. 2
Mr. Jensen: Usually they are grouped in close proximity to the playground because of the 3
rubberized surfacing. Usually they are on the perimeter of the playground and defined in 4
their own space. It's not as integrated into the playground as this design is. 5
Commissioner Cribbs: It's interesting. 6
Mr. Jensen: It's mostly taking the idea that the playground is not just for children but is 7
inclusive to everyone. From our learning of Magical Bridge, some adults operate on a 8
child's level. We want to build that playground so everyone can play on it no matter what 9
your ability or cognizant development is. Incorporating it is a new idea of trying to get it 10
inside and right in the middle. 11
Commissioner Cribbs: When we had the ad hoc, I was pretty interested when we started 12
the conversation in utilizing the money to put the bathroom in Rinconada Park because 13
people get exasperated when you start a park and say you're going to finish it, and all of a 14
sudden, you're digging it up again to start something else. It seemed like it was great to 15
have it be altogether. Commissioner McCauley was persuasive about the other parks in 16
Palo Alto that have no bathrooms at all. I'm thinking about how much this park bathroom 17
slated for Rinconada is going to cost. What's the price tag for that? Just so we know. 18
Mr. Jensen: The CIP for the restrooms is a pretty standard price, about $350,000 to install 19
a restroom. The restroom itself is about $250,000. It's a prefabricated structure. It's craned 20
into place. It's built offsite and set into place. The rest of the money goes to utilities and 21
getting it set up for that. I have positioned the bathroom in a location so that if we had to 22
do it in the future, it wouldn't have a big impact on that end of the park. We wouldn't have 23
to shut down the playground or close pathways to get it in there. It could be added fairly 24
seamlessly. The Long Range Plan, I can't remember the length of time that we planned for 25 Rinconada, but it was 15-20 years. There's going to be a project in Rinconada every four 26 or five years for the next couple of decades as we get it all built. There is a future 27 opportunity to get it in there. 28
Commissioner Cribbs: A really good solution would be to find $350,000 someplace else, 29
put one in the park that doesn't have one in south Palo Alto, and put the other one in 30
Rinconada when you're doing the plan. If you could go back to the playground material, 31
the blue area in the swing or the spin zone, what is that blue? 32
Mr. Jensen: That's all rubberized surfacing, attenuated surfacing. 33
Commissioner Cribbs: This is a great plan. Thank you very much for your explanation. 34
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Chair McDougall: Council Member Cormack, do you have any questions or comments? 1
Council Member Cormack: Bravo indeed. All of my questions were answered. The fact 2
that it's inclusive is spectacular. Shade is certainly important, the natural environment. It's 3
incredibly thoughtful. The time you've put into this absolutely shows. Initially, I was yes 4
on the restroom, but I was absolutely persuaded by places that we don't have restrooms. 5
While I'm torn on that, the priority should be parks where we don't have restrooms. Does 6 anyone know how many of our parks don't have restrooms? 7
Mr. Anderson: We identified parks by size. I think it was 2 acres and above, there are 8
seven that need restrooms. 9
Council Member Cormack: I should probably not weigh in, but if I were to weigh in, I'd 10
be supportive of doing the ones that we don't have yet. I might or might not know a mother 11
who once had difficulty at this park with two children of different ages and some migration 12
that was not observed based on it. Well done for putting everyone in the same place. 13
Mr. Jensen: About the restroom, the Commission worked very hard on the Master Plan to 14
identify those locations that need restrooms. There are a few of those locations that it's 15
going to be a struggle to get them in. We will need the full support of the Council to make 16
that happen. It was in the Master Plan from the general community an overwhelming yes 17
that people want bathrooms. Once we embark on putting a restroom there, there will be 18
discussion on it. 19
Council Member Cormack: Can you give me a list of those seven parks? 20
Mr. Jensen: Yes. 21
Council Member Cormack: One of my fondest memories was when Seale Park opened 22
and Mayor Kleinberg and many other people were down there. They added a bathroom, 23
which made a very big difference to me and my family and many others. I know some 24
people think it sounds trivial, and I understand it's expensive, but it changes it from we can 25 go for a little bit of time, whether it's a younger child or an older parent or grandparent, to 26 something that really is accessible for everyone. Again, bravo. 27
Chair McDougall: How many phases? You were talking a minute ago about every three 28
or four years over a couple of decades. How many phases are currently defined? 29
Mr. Jensen: Five phases are defined. This one incorporates a phase and a half. The original 30
phase was the playground end, not the turf area. We are trying to stretch our funding as 31
far as we can to make those phases progress faster. The fifth phase is focused on the pool, 32
which is a more ambitious phase, and the expansion of the pool area and building a 50-33
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meter lap pool, which will be a large-scale project one day. Really, it's four phases to do 1
the park. 2
Chair McDougall: I remember that. If you looked at it maybe not as phases but there's 3
three areas to all of Rinconada. There's the family area, the athletic area, and then the 4
nature area. Maybe those aren't exactly three phases. The thing that allows me to do in 5
terms of thinking about it is to say the things you've got in here, the butterfly zone, maybe 6 aren't particularly expensive. This is the family area, maybe that money could be spent 7
later in the nature phase even if it's not specifically in the nature area. The same thing with 8
the exercise. The second set or even the first set of exercise equipment, maybe we don't 9
spend the exercise money in this phase. Maybe we spend the exercise money in the 10
recreation phase when you're doing the tennis and the pool. Maybe that allows us to move 11
money back and forth between phases, and you don't have a CIP allocated for some of 12
those future phases. Maybe that would get you—then you say, "What's the bathroom all 13
about? The bathroom's all about the family phase." Maybe that makes sense. You want 14
Council's support, and they've said, "Climate change is a big deal, and you're putting 15
concrete all over the place." We all know, because Bill Gates told us, concrete and cows 16
are the biggest contribution to climate change, and we're putting concrete in. Rather than 17
not doing the DG path—because there's concrete there, how about not doing the concrete 18
path because DG's there? That would be in the direction of what Council's looking for. I 19
don't know if DG is more expensive than concrete. I don't even know if the middle path 20
that goes through the whole thing is going to have so much truck traffic on it that it needs 21
to be concrete. DG these days is, number one, permeable, and, number two, a maintenance 22
issue. Maybe that would be a win in terms of what we're trying to accomplish. I appreciate 23
you thinking about parking. I really appreciate the fact that you've got the goals up here. 24
What we still don't have is what the audience is. People are asking can we get the teens 25 out, but we haven't necessarily said who are the users and defined the groups of users. 26 When Monique wanted to look at what was happening in the library, what they identified 27 was all the different kinds of users. The fact that she identified 48 different kinds of users 28
was probably over-identifying. It's been particularly useful in terms of looking at the 29
libraries. There's been no mention of whether there was any art planned for here. There 30
was that art project in the Baylands where the art was contributing to the environment. I 31
would hate to think that we could have made some part of the playground or something 32
else in here into a piece of art that could have been paid for by the Arts Commission instead 33
of later on saying we're going to put a piece of art in the middle of the field so it can't be 34
used for anything. We know what that's done to some of our parks. Holistically, at least 35
we should anticipate that now if there's the possibility that they could be contributing to 36
the oak tree by turning it into a piece of art. I totally agree with all the comment about 37
connections to the whole thing. We need to pursue more kinds of funding support for what 38
you're doing. Maybe we need to start a new 501(c)(3), Friends of the Bathrooms. We do 39
need to really pursue that. What you've done is really good. Rinconada is a gem in the 40
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whole system. In the field, you're not trying to turn that into a playing field or anything 1
because it's not today, right? 2
Mr. Jensen: No. We just want to maintain the open space. Grass is easier to take care of 3
when it's one large area. Right now, there are a lot of pathways dividing it up, especially 4
close to Hopkins. 5
Commissioner Reckdahl: It does get a lot of AYSO use. 6
Chair McDougall: The question is what's the purpose of it. Some of our parks have—not 7
necessarily too many of our parks, but parks today end up with little hills in them. What 8
you're trying to do is turn it into something that's a little more aesthetically interesting than 9
a flat area. Some of the good remembrances that I have of Rinconada is the concerts in the 10
park. I don't see anything here that's specifically an accommodation. Maybe this should 11
have a place where the power cable comes up through the turf in a particular spot because 12
that's where we're anticipating putting all the wiring for the concerts. That should be 13
anticipated in this. Once again, it's in the family area of what we're trying to do, if that 14
makes any sense. What you've done is great. 15
Mr. Jensen: I will address the art question. Unfortunately, the Art Commission doesn't 16
have any funding or do any funding of art. We will be contributing our 1 percent to art for 17
this project. We will be taking something to them to review. I have been in conversation 18
with the JMZ. There is a very interesting thing we've been talking about, an art piece that 19
will link the entryway of—it's starting right here. It's a scale model—I don't know what 20
the scale is—of the solar system. I can't tell you if Pluto is in there anymore because I don't 21
know if it's a planet. It actually extends out to the opposite side of Rinconada closer to the 22
garden. We would use that as a connection to the whole area. You would come across 23
these things, and it would tell you about the planet. It's on a stand, and the Earth is about 24
that big on this little stand. It is an actual scale model. We are looking at things like that 25 to use art as a way to connect one end of the park to the other. They also have a sundial 26 that they would like to use, but there isn't a good place in front of the JMZ right now 27 because of the building and the trees that are planned. We could bring that into the park. 28
Those are some of the discussions we will be having. I've also touched a little bit on a 29
mural on the back of the zoo wall that would face into the park. There are a few options 30
that we can explore. 31
Chair McDougall: Thanks for addressing that. Does anybody else have a burning question 32
or should we Peter go and thank him? 33
Vice Chair Greenfield: Is the GSI team reviewing this plan for potential mitigations like 34
could pavers be used instead of paths? 35
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Mr. Jensen: I haven't reviewed it specifically with Pam and her group. It's something we 1
can do. I do assist them a lot on the development of their plan because it is a landscape 2
architect thing that they're working on. We talked about the concrete before. We're 3
actually eliminating about 5,000 square feet of asphalt. We're going to use concrete, which 4
is a harder material, but it's a lot less of nonpermeable paving. That paving will have 5
landscape on either side that it will drain to. There won't be any runoff in the park. If there 6 is the opportunity to build a larger—we looked at that for the JMZ parking lot, some type 7
of infiltration pond. Unfortunately, that end of the park has so many large trees that it's 8
hard to incorporate that aspect. No matter what the project is, that is from my standpoint 9
always incorporated into the project. 10
Chair McDougall: Peter, thank you very, very much. Appreciate it. Did you put up 11
something about next steps? When would we expect to see you back? 12
Mr. Jensen: We'll be having another community meeting in March and April. We tried 13
very hard to get people to come to community meetings. I was hoping more of the 14
community would come. We did a flyer to 600 residents around the park. It was posted 15
on the webpage, the home page, the Community Services page, and the Public Works 16
webpage. We reached out to all the liaisons of all the neighborhood groups around there 17
to send email blasts to all the residents. Unfortunately, only five people showed up. 18
Hopefully, there will be more people at the next meeting. We will have another community 19
meeting to address some of the comments here and from the meeting we had. We're 20
coming back to the Commission with a revised plan. We'll come back a third time with a 21
Park Improvement Ordinance for the final design that will go to Council. After the project 22
is bid, they'll approve the Park Improvement Ordinance and the construction contract. We 23
hope to start construction in the fall and end around this time next year. 24
Chair McDougall: Please let us know the date of that community meeting as soon as you 25 can. One of our roles should be to make sure we're attending, if we possibly can, and to 26 help the community know about it. Council Member Cormack. 27
Council Member Cormack: Did you mention the Walter Hays PTA in that long list of 28
things? 29
Mr. Jensen: I did not send it to them. That's a good one. 30
Council Member Cormack: The other one to think about would be the Palo Alto/Menlo 31
Park Parents Club. That's the two easy ways to access lots of people. 32
Commissioner McCauley: Because Addison school is right around the corner, Addison 33
PTA is another one. 34
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Vice Chair Greenfield: I know Cubberley's across town, but it's a big group that's diverse 1
across the community. It might be worth reaching out to them. 2
Mr. Jensen: The project has a webpage. The webpage is on the screen now, 3
cityofpaloalto.org/rinconadapark. It has a link to the Long Range Plan. They were called 4
the same webpage at some point earlier today. We separated those things, and now it's 5
working there. We will be posting all the presentations on there, so there will be transparent 6 lineage of what has transpired as far as planning. Anytime you want to see any of this 7
information, that information will be there. 8
Commissioner Cribbs: I was just going to add extra people or extra groups. All of the user 9
groups who use the park, like the Girl Scouts, you probably did all that. 10
Mr. Jensen: I have a list of all those people from the Long Range Plan that I did email. I 11
had an email list of about 65 people. They were all in one email, but I emailed them 12
individually to come to the meeting. 13
Commissioner Reckdahl: I have one request. If you blast out to the neighbors of a park, 14
it'd be really good if you would carbon copy our group so that we're always in the loop. 15
5. Review Parks and Open Space 5-Year Capital Improvement Plan 16
Chair McDougall: Daren, would you like to introduce the next session, which is a brief 17
review of the CIP. 18
Mr. Anderson: Thank you very much, Chair McDougall. I'd like to introduce my 19
colleague, Lam Do. He's the Superintendent of Open Space, Parks, and Golf. He'll be 20
presenting tonight on the capital program and our five-year program related to Community 21
Services. 22
Lam Do: Good evening, Chair McDougall, members of the Commission, and Council 23
Member Cormack. Thank you for this opportunity to discuss with you the capital 24
improvement projects of the Community Services Department. This presentation is brief, 25 but it's intended to supplement the staff report. Hopefully, the remaining time would be 26 for our discussion. If I could introduce you and go over the definition of a capital 27 improvement project and how it morphs from a proposal to a proposed project. There are 28
minimum thresholds that a project has to meet in order to be considered a capital 29
improvement project. They have to have a useful life of at least five years or it needs to 30
extend an existing asset for an additional five years. It has to be a minimum cost of $50,000 31
in order to be funded through the capital improvement project plan. When there is a need 32
that is under $50,000, departments are asked to see if they can fund it through the operating 33
budget. That's where the $50,000 threshold comes into play, so it can be considered for 34
funding through the capital improvement plan instead of the operating budget. Aside from 35
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these criteria, there are other aspects of a capital improvement project that come into play. 1
There are new and emerging needs that come about, so we submit those as capital 2
improvement projects. We also take a look at maintenance projects or what are known as 3
catch-up and keep-up projects of existing facilities. These are projects that were identified 4
in 2011 through the Infrastructure Blue Ribbon Commission, which assessed infrastructure 5
assets Citywide. Within their report is the need to identify and plan for catch-up and keep-6 up needs as well. We also take that into consideration when we look at what CIPs we want 7
to propose. This commission has also been referred to as IBRC. As projects are 8
considered, they go through a prioritization process. With the prioritization process, we 9
take a look at how it fits in with City Council priorities. Keep in mind the priorities change 10
with Council, so that does influence a project and what we consider. Also, we look at how 11
it aligns with the City's IBRC report. We look at health and safety needs of our assets. We 12
look at the certainty and the feasibility of funding and the scope and what resources are 13
required and whether or not that's realistic and we can bring the project to fruition. In 14
addition, we also have to consider things such as unanticipated aging of existing assets that 15
may not have been previously identified. Some assets don't last as long as we intended 16
them to last. That's something that is not in any catch-up or keep-up plan; however, it 17
becomes a need. Thus, we consider those as CIP requests as well. We also consider 18
projects that have outside funding sources. The reason is the outside funding source 19
alleviates the burden on the general fund, which is by default the funding source for capital 20
improvement projects. We then take projects that have been identified by Community 21
Services Department staff and managing supervisors and vet them in the department. We 22
also vet those against Citywide projects that other departments have recommended. There 23
is a Citywide committee that reviews proposed projects, formulates them all, and then 24
formulating them leads to a submittal to the City Manager's Office for approval. Upon 25 approval, it becomes a part of the City Manager's budget proposal. At this point, projects 26 start a review process with the Planning and Transportation Commission, and their purpose 27 in the review of the proposed CIP is to ensure they meet the City's Comprehensive Plan, 28
meaning the goals and the policies that are set aside in the Comprehensive Plan. After the 29
Planning and Transportation Commission review, they move on to the City's Finance 30
Committee for review. The Finance Committee makes a recommendation to the full 31
Council for their review and their budget adoption. A couple of things to keep in mind 32
with how CIPs work and how they're packaged. The staff and the City present them as a 33
five-year plan. It's a five-year CIP plan. However, when City Council approves the budget, 34
the Council is only approving the first year of the five-year plan. The remaining four years 35
are used for planning and forecasting purposes. We operate on a fiscal year for the CIPs, 36
just like the operating budget, with the fiscal year starting July 1. Our current fiscal year 37
started July 1, 2018 and runs through June 30, 2019. With all proposed CIPs, there is a 38
project page. Within the project page, we provide a description of the project, a 39
justification. We provide a timeline of when we think the project will start, when it will 40
complete. Because we present projects in a five-year window, during that five-year 41
window projects change, whether it be budgetary needs or the life cycle of the project could 42
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be extended. We also identify what changes we have over the year. In this example of a 1
project in Ramos Park, we made several changes over the years. We originally proposed 2
a project in the 2016-2020 CIP. In the 2017-2021 CIP, we received direction from the 3
Finance Committee and City Council to push out the project, which we did. Most recently, 4
we had to shift this project further from fiscal year 2018-2020 due to reprioritization as we 5
weighed it against other City needs. Being in a five-year cycle, projects are looked at for 6 planning purposes as well. Here's an example of what can occur to a project during its life 7
cycle. In addition to that, the project page will identify a funding source. In this case, it's 8
the capital improvement fund, which is underwritten mostly by the general fund. It could 9
be development impact fees depending on what type of project it is, or it could be outside 10
funding as you discussed earlier in some of your discussions today. A friends group may 11
come forward with funding as well. What year it has been slated for most recently during 12
the five-year window is identified here as well. We also identify which policies and 13
programs and goals that the CIP meets in regard to the City's Comprehensive Plan. That's 14
the makeup of a project page. We have project pages for new proposed CIPs and for 15
existing CIPs that are ongoing and recurring. In the Community Services Department for 16
example, we have about six CIPs that occur every year, so the CIP page repeats each year. 17
Generally, Council has funded these projects annually. These tend to be non-general. For 18
example, the CIP for benches, signage, fencing, walkways, and perimeter landscaping is 19
funded at $160,000. We use that CIP throughout the park system, so we don't identify 20
specifically a park or location. We use those funds as these needs come up. In total, there's 21
about $810,000 to cover trail maintenance, lake and pond maintenance, and tennis and 22
basketball court surfacing. These are maintenance-based CIPs, and we ask for funding for 23
them annually. Aside from that, we also ask for funding for specific projects. In the past, 24
we've presented to you the fiscal year 2019 CIPs. I have here a status update on where the 25 fiscal year '19 CIPs stand. Some of the projects are complete. We have initiated others or 26 will start them this summer. I'll be able to speak to a specific question you may have in 27 regard to any of these projects towards the end of the presentation during our discussion. 28
For fiscal year 2020, we are proposing these CIPs. All of these have not been funded yet. 29
These will go through the vetting process internally, the Finance Committee, and the full 30
Council. Fiscal year 2020 is part of the fiscal year 2020-2024 CIP plan. This is year 1 of 31
the plan, which is what we will be asking Council to fund. For the full list of the five-year 32
plan, I did include that as Attachment A in your staff report. Although we have a five-year 33
CIP plan, it's not really inclusive of everything we're looking at. We do have some CIP 34
needs that we have identified; however, we have not been able to put it in the plan for 35
proposal at this time. Here's a list of them. For various reasons, they have not made it to 36
the level of an actual plan proposal. Some of them need further scope development. Some 37
of them may need an identified funding source. They may need more direction from a 38
conservation plan to be completed. They may need more public outreach, or they may 39
need support from other departments. We within Community Services work with the 40
Public Works Engineering Division in particular on many of our projects. They support 41
us for many of our larger projects, anywhere from construction of the Baylands Golf Links. 42
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Although the project was highlighted through Community Services, it was actually a Public 1
Works Engineering project. For various reasons, we have not formulated these projects 2
into a CIP proposal, but we do plan on doing it in the future once we are able to complete 3
a scope or find a funding source. In regard to how CIPs work and how they make it through 4
the review process, I want to go over a timeline with you. In October and November, staff 5
begins to collectively discuss our emerging needs and plan for what we want to submit. 6 We also discuss them with an ad hoc committee of this Commission. This year we had 7
several discussions with Chair McDougall and Commissioner McCauley and Vice Chair 8
Greenfield. Thank you for your participation in helping us formulate this. In December 9
and January, we vet it internally with the Citywide CIP committee. This committee 10
consists of mostly department heads and/or assistant directors who weigh one department's 11
needs versus another department's needs. Ultimately, it's formulated into a proposal for 12
the City Manager's Office. We submit that through the Office of Management and Budget 13
because they're also a key stakeholder in all this. In April and May, the Planning and 14
Transportation Commission will take a look at this to ensure it adheres to the City's 15
Comprehensive Plan. In May, the Finance Committee holds a public hearing. From there, 16
the Finance Committee will make a recommendation on projects to the full Council. 17
Generally, the full Council holds a further Citywide public hearing for the operating 18
budget, CIP budget, and goes through a budget adoption process in June. Once projects 19
are approved, it establishes a budget in the coming fiscal year. From there, departments 20
access funds for which projects are approved. That wraps up in a brief nutshell how capital 21
improvement projects are developed within our department. At this time, I'm sure you 22
have questions about specific projects. I'd be happy to answer questions for you. Thank 23
you. 24
Chair McDougall: Thank you for going through the presentation. I'm going to use the 25 procedure that says the ad hoc members should speak first. Since I was on the ad hoc, I'm 26 going to be preemptive and speak first. I see these numbers all the time, and I've been in 27 meetings with you. I'm not going to say anything that I didn't say in ad hoc meetings about 28
whether this helps me or frustrates me. I'm really reluctant to open up discussion to the 29
Commission to go through and say, "What about this turf management plan?" There's 30
some amount of control that you have over all of this. There's visibility that we have. It's 31
a very complicated process. Even though it's laid out in five years, it's only one year. It's 32
made even worse by the fact that you're talking about the fiscal year when we don't operate 33
on a fiscal year. We operate on a calendar year. Projects are planned to come before us, 34
like Ramos, that are in '20 but were in '19. I look at it slightly differently. I appreciate 35
your comment that the money comes from the general fund. On the slide that said $22 36
million, it's not $22 million. The general fund is accounting for, I'm guessing, $10 million 37
because I don't know how much of the bridge we're paying for versus we're getting grants. 38
I'm guessing that's $10 million, and $0.5 million is the Cubberley fund, and $2.8 million 39
out of the impact fees, and $1.8 million in donations and $6 million in grants. We're not 40
getting to play with the $21 million. It's the $10 million. I'm not sure that told me anything 41
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useful, but I did the math. Then I said I'd look at 2019 and where and how we're spending 1
the money. I showed it to Jeff at lunch today, and he reminded me of this fiscal year versus 2
calendar year thing. I combined them in 2019 and 2020 and started to look at how much 3
of this money is being spent on the Baylands and Foothills, how much is being spent on 4
parks, how much is being spent on design for either one of them, and how much money is 5
just major projects that really don't fall in either. If I do it that way, now I've got $27 6 million in there, ignoring where the funding comes from. $1.3 million of that is being spent 7
in the Baylands and Foothills, and $6.1 million is being spent in the parks, or $1.4 million 8
is being spent on design. We're spending as much on design as we are in the Baylands and 9
the Foothills. I'm not sure if I'm talking to you or if I'm talking to our Council representative 10
to say it's not clear to me in all of this. In the process you explained, you find this project 11
or somebody identifies a project. In the grand scheme of things, over the next two years 12
we're spending $1.3 million on the Baylands and the Foothills, which is an incredibly 13
valuable resource. That's not enough. On the other hand, we're spending a total of $27 14
million and $14 million for the bridge and $3 million or $4 million is the zoo. Those are 15
good things. I'm not saying that money shouldn't be spent. Including that in the total here 16
says we're running a pretty small shop in terms of the amount of discretionary money that 17
that you have to spend. I'm not sure where I'm going with this. I do know that the work 18
I—we sat, and I showed you this. If I do the same thing for all five years, not just that, it's 19
the same story. You end up saying we're $40 million short of what we might need. That 20
was probably more of a rant than either questions or answers. I'll turn it over to my other 21
two ad hoc members, Commissioner McCauley and Vice Chair Greenfield. I have other 22
comments. I'm sorry, I'm not through my rant. For example, on the chart, one of the things 23
I would have appreciated is a column on the left that said which one of the Comprehensive 24
Plan or Parks Master Plan projects that have been identified calls that out. In the one you 25 had before, that was frequently buried in the description, but it would be useful to be able 26 to reference back to where we started. 27
Commissioner McCauley: I tortured Daren during a very long phone call going line by 28
line through all this. I won't do that again here. To build on Don's comments, something 29
that strikes me, having gone through this with you in some depth, is how little discretion 30
there is. This is Don's point, how much of this is really just maintenance as opposed to 31
new facilities or new parks being brought online. There are some exceptions. The big ones 32
in my mind are the dog park improvements, which are every other year; and the park 33
restroom installations, which are scheduled for every other year. There are some other big 34
ones as well that stand out as you look at this. By and large, it's really about maintenance, 35
which is interesting. The other thing that strikes me and is interesting is the fluidity of the 36
process. It's a necessary component, but how much things move from one year to the next. 37
Obviously, as urgent needs come up, that has to happen. If you look at our calendar for 38
fiscal year 2019, a number of these things are going to be done in fiscal year 2020 if we're 39
lucky. That's part of the process. I'd be interested to hear from you if you think there are 40
ways we as a Commission could help to highlight things that are not getting into the CIP 41
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as it makes its way through the bureaucratic process at the City, if there is some political 1
pressure we can bring to bear to make sure CSD is getting its fair share and relatedly if 2
there are things we can do to help make sure we stay on schedule. Obviously, Public Works 3
is trying to fulfill all of these CIPs, and they have limited resources and competing 4
demands. If there's something we can do that would be helpful, I'd be interested to hear it. 5
Mr. Anderson: I appreciate that. It's something the ad hoc and staff have discussed at great 6 length. The challenge, as you say in 2019—ideally, what we're saying is these projects 7
will be done in 2019. Yet, you see a number didn't get there, and why is that? It's not 8
because the funding was lacking. It's because there wasn't enough staff to implement it or 9
we have a backlog of projects and other things that were dedicated. I'm proud of what our 10
team has accomplished, especially with our partnership with Public Works. The list of 11
what we did do is really good. It is a stretch to get what we got, and still we didn't reach 12
our target. We think about that consciously as we propose the next budgets. If you look 13
at FY '20, it's still ambitious. Ultimately, the onus is on staff to make it happen. I'll have 14
to ruminate more on the ways the Commission can be of support. What helps me a lot is 15
when I meet with the ad hoc we go through line item by line item. That kind of stuff is a 16
big help to make sure we're prioritizing things that need to be done first. How to get them 17
all done is a tough one. I feel like we're up against a rock because the resources aren't 18
there. There doesn't seem to be a lot of avenues to request more. If I did, would that be an 19
extra staff person to help manage this; another landscape architect? My personal wish list 20
would be yes. I realize the City has a lot of challenges that make that very difficult. The 21
place Lam and I are at, as well as Peter and the Public Works team, is to do the best with 22
what we've got. I'll have to get back to you with more ideas on what we can do. 23
Chair McDougall: Daren, I want to make sure that my comments and, I believe, 24
Commissioner McCauley's comments—I'll let him speak for himself. We're not at all 25 complaining about or suggesting that you're not putting in the effort or doing the things. 26 We're saying we need to help you get more money to get the resources to do this. There's 27 an advocacy role that any commission needs to have. What Commissioner McCauley is 28
calling out is how do we do that advocacy to help. We think you're doing spectacular with 29
what you've got. 30
Commissioner McCauley: I echo that entirely. I'd also say your response is incredibly 31
diplomatic given all the different complex moving parts within the City. I appreciate the 32
response. If there are things we can do, don't hesitate to let us know. 33
Mr. Anderson: I'll discuss it with our department head and see what we can come up with. 34
Vice Chair Greenfield: Between Don's grilling and Ryan's phone call, I wasn't sure if I 35
was left in the role of being the nice guy in the process. I'm not sure I'm comfortable with 36
that or that's a good thing. We'll go from here. A couple of observations. The rollover 37
CIPs that are renewed each year, a lot of tremendous good things come out of those. That's 38
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great that those are in place. The IBRC process in identifying the catch-up and the keep-1
up project is also extremely important. An example of what could have been is the 2
Baylands Boardwalk replacement project that cost $1 million. If the proper maintenance 3
were done at the allotted time, we would have saved a lot of money. It probably would 4
have cost $150,000 or so. That's the kind of thing to keep in mind. It's hard to do preventive 5
maintenance when there are other more glamorous projects that can take the dollars, but 6 we need to keep the focus. We need to hear from staff the reminders that it may not sound 7
glamorous or critical at this time, but this is the important path to embark on. Related to 8
that, I thought the Buckeye Creek Tier 1 basic critical maintenance project, replacing the 9
aging gabions and deteriorating structures, had been in the CIP plan down the road for '22 10
or '23. I'm not seeing that there now. 11
Mr. Anderson: Inside the Foothills Park improvement project, there's money for design 12
for the gabions and the pedestrian bridge. That's in fiscal year 2021. 13
Mr. Do: That's fiscal year 2021 and $455,000. 14
Vice Chair Greenfield: That's the improvement project. 15
Mr. Anderson: We added the design money to the existing CIP. 16
Vice Chair Greenfield: I didn't recognize it as that listing. That's great to see. The Buckeye 17
Creek hydrology study was post-IBRC, so that wouldn't have necessarily been identified 18
as a maintenance project or whatever the designation is that came out of the IBRC. I'm 19
curious how that may apply. 20
Mr. Anderson: Buckeye Creek was identified in IBRC. It's been a very longstanding issue, 21
back to the '70s. 22
Vice Chair Greenfield: It was identified, and the hydrology study confirmed the … 23
Mr. Anderson: And gave us a path forward to resolve it. 24
Vice Chair Greenfield: The other thing I'm struck by is in the annual plans. The last table 25 summarizes the dollars spend for '22, '23, and '24. The line items for Baylands, Foothill, 26 and Pearson-Arastradero are all blank, the last page of the presentation. 27
Mr. Do: Are you referring to the table in Attachment A? 28
Vice Chair Greenfield: Yeah, it must be the attachment. That last page of the … 29
Chair McDougall: Staff report. 30
Mr. Do: Let me find a copy of that. 31
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Vice Chair Greenfield: Maybe it's more productive to comment later. 1
Chair McDougall: An answer to that to the whole Commission would probably be the 2
appropriate way rather than looking for it now. 3
Vice Chair Greenfield: Looking at the sample CIP items, we can see where the 4
Comprehensive Plan goals, policies, and programs are listed. Is there any effort to include 5
other Comprehensive Plans, in this case I'm obviously referencing the Parks, Trails, Open 6 Space, and Recreation Plan, for the similar goal, policy, and program listings, or is this too 7
much overheard because there's too many different overlapping Comprehensive Plans? It's 8
something they apply to, whether it's the Urban Forest Master Plan or whatever. 9
Mr. Anderson: It is germane. It's incumbent on staff to incorporate that and the 10
justifications for CIPs. As you look at that individual page for Ramos Park, in there it's an 11
element tied to the Parks Master Plan. It's relevant and doable for us to add a sentence to 12
say this correlates to Goal 2 to increase pollinator pathways or something to that effect to 13
show the community, the Council, and the Commission that we're tying in all the work we 14
did on the Master Plan to our capital plan. That's doable. We could probably go in before 15
the submittal and make some adjustments to add some of those. I'm looking at Lam to see 16
if that's true. 17
Mr. Do: Correct. We're still in the draft stage for the preparation of the budget document. 18
It has not made it to print form yet. We can still make edits. 19
Chair McDougall: Would it be worth adding one more column that was simply a checkbox, 20
is this something that is useful relative to climate change or not? 21
Mr. Anderson: If I can chime in, Lam. There's another document that we maintain 22
internally and use to convey the capital plan with the Commission. That's an Excel 23
spreadsheet that Chair McDougall helped revise and convey in different ways. It's very 24
helpful as a tool both to staff and perhaps the Commission for us to add that column to that 25 document. It'd be very useful, but it might not make it onto the Council book because I'm 26 not sure there's space for it in there. We could see if that's an option. We definitely could 27 add it to our Excel spreadsheet that we share and work with the Commission. 28
Chair McDougall: Particularly considering they've now made it their number one priority, 29
you may want to tell them you're aware of it. 30
Mr. Anderson: Good point. I think we can do that. 31
Vice Chair Greenfield: I echo the appreciation from the Commission to the staff for all the 32
detailed effort that goes into the CIP and the general frustration that we have minimal 33
discretionary dollars at our disposal. 34
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Mr. Anderson: If I could tie into one thing you mentioned earlier about the Baylands 1
Boardwalk about had we invested money into regular maintenance, we did invest money 2
but not enough and not with enough regularity. You'll see in the capital plan—maybe it's 3
not readily apparent—that a park emergency fund, which is one of our ongoing CIPs, 4
originally funded $50,000. It's so often used for those things. We don't have another pot 5
of money to maintain the Baylands Sailing Station dock, for example. What are we going 6 to do there? If you let it go the same way as the Boardwalk, it's a lot more than $1 million 7
to replace that. It's probably on the order of $5 million. With the right maintenance—for 8
example, we got $30,000 from the park emergency CIP two years ago to fix the lower 9
dock, and another $30,000 to do the upper dock this year. That dock is going to go another 10
decade and potentially even longer if we're prudent. We asked for more money to that 11
particular CIP to catch those kinds of things and to have funds to avoid those mistakes and 12
need to fully replace them. We're trying to take action to remedy what happened on the 13
Boardwalk for the rest of our assets. 14
Commissioner Cribbs: What is the Esther Clark Park project? What are you doing? 15
Mr. Do: It's in combination with Foothills Park and Pearson-Arastradero Preserve. It's 16
also to develop a comprehensive conservation plan. We've done that for the Baylands. 17
Daren is wrapping that one up. Once that's wrapped up, we'll focus on the three other 18
preserves. 19
Commissioner Cribbs: What is the golf course turf replacement project? 20
Mr. Do: The driving range is made of artificial turf instead of natural turf. That turf is way 21
beyond its life cycle. Those that have been out there or you may see our balls get scuffed 22
up faster because the turf has thinned out. We're looking at replacing the artificial turf 23
within the driving range. 24
Commissioner Cribbs: Is part of the agreement with the vendor that we pay for that? 25
Mr. Do: That's correct. The agreement with the vendor is based on the preface that it 26 remains a City property. They are not leasing the property; they are managing and 27 operating the property on behalf of the City. That would be on us. 28
Commissioner Moss: When we have the Council/PRC working session in four weeks, this 29
is going to come up. Our most important thing is help you prioritize our stuff. We're not 30
going to get a bigger piece of the pie. For the piece of pie we get, we have to make sure 31
that the priorities are right. We've had a tremendous relationship with staff on an ongoing 32
basis to hone that list. This is not a surprise, these priorities. I want to make sure that—I 33
love the fact that it's a well-greased ongoing process of honing this list. When we have the 34
Council meeting, they're going to ask us if we're happy with the priorities for our little 35
piece of the pie. Asking for a bigger piece of the pie may not happen, but at least they 36
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should know what we're working on. There was a tremendous amount of interest early last 1
year when we came up with the Parks Master Plan. The first thing Council Members 2
Scharff and Kniss asked us was how much the whole thing would cost and can we get a 3
bond measure tomorrow to do it all. This 20-year plan is going to take 20 years, but you 4
can't wait until the 19th year to start some of this stuff. You've got to be working on it 5
piecemeal. The best thing we can do is try to prioritize within the limits of our budget. If 6 there's any way that—if the Council has some high-priority items and they want to shuffle 7
the priorities that we've come up with, by all means let us know. They've been pretty happy 8
with the input we've given them for the past couple of years. I'm not expecting big 9
surprises. Isn't that what we're going to talk about in that Council/PRC working session? 10
Mr. Anderson: It's an opportunity for both the Commission and the Council to 11
communicate and figure out what they want to discuss. It's up to you, the Commission, 12
and what Council wants to hear. 13
Commissioner Moss: Earlier in the meeting, there are some of these items here that you're 14
only going to get money from the CIP process, but other areas really should have a public-15
private partnership. Our chairperson is the point person for outside funding, but I can't 16
emphasize enough that the pickleballers and the tennis players should help pay for some of 17
the things they want and that are not in the CIP, for instance, lighting the tennis courts. 18
You talk about in the next four years we're going touch about 13 different community 19
parks. We're not talking about open space. Some of them have tennis courts, and if you're 20
doing improvements in those parks, would you want to light some of those tennis courts? 21
Maybe we could get some money from the tennis community to help get more benefit out 22
of the CIP dollars. 23
Commissioner Reckdahl: I'm happy to see Boulware Park on here. It's been on the list 24
ever since I've been on the Commission. Either things cut in front or, in some cases, the 25 Council doesn't have enough money, so we squeeze down the list. That said, looking at 26 the list for 2020 projects, if you look in your crystal ball, are we going to get fully funded 27 for that or is the Council not going to have money to fund everything? 28
Mr. Anderson: Our indication is it will be funded. 29
Council Member Cormack: The good news is your liaison happens to be on the Finance 30
Committee. The bad news is climate change was not the number one thing. Traffic and 31
transportation was at the top followed closely by fiscal and budget sustainability. It's not 32
news to anyone that we are actively looking as a City to reduce our operating budget on a 33
structural basis. There's your good news and bad news. Having observed pretty carefully 34
the budget process last year, probably some members of the Finance Committee feel about 35
the budget the way you feel about this, like not as much. That's just the reality of it. The 36
staff are the professionals, and they're the ones in charge of helping us. We take a look at 37
that and provide input as appropriate. It looks like FY 2019 was an extraordinary year with 38
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more than $1.3 million in seven plans—that's unusual—and more than $18 million in three 1
projects, most of which is what I keep calling the mythical bike bridge. I know it's coming, 2
and I'm very excited when it will no longer be mythical. I echo the Boulware Park. As 3
Commissioner Cribbs knows, when I did my tour of all the parks, it was the one that jumped 4
at me that one of these things is not like the others. I know we have a tree trimming cycle. 5
Are parks the same way? Is there an appropriate number of years after which we need to 6 touch each park or is it different? 7
Mr. Anderson: The IBRC report did have them on cycles based on the lifespan of the 8
particular asset, not necessarily to come back and do a whole park. For example, the 9
playground at a given park was given, let's say, 15 years lifespan, the park bench 25 years, 10
drinking fountains 10, lights 30, something like that. What we usually do is look at that 11
IBRC report, and group together what's near one another. If the lights are coming two 12
years later and the playground is due now, can we lump them in? That's how we typically 13
do it. It's not so cyclical for each park. It's more the amenity inside it. 14
Council Member Cormack: It looks like we get to do one restroom next year—no, one 15
restroom this year. If there's a list of seven, sometimes it helps to say we're going to do 16
one every year. It's just a thought as you think about what would be a structured way to 17
move through the process. Obviously, I leave that to your discretion. 18
Chair McDougall: The current structure basically has one restroom every other year, right? 19
Mr. Anderson: Yes, that's correct. 20
Chair McDougall: And a dog park every other year. 21
Mr. Do: That's correct as well. 22
Chair McDougall: If there are no other questions, I want to thank Lam again for the 23
attention he's given to this, for all the effort behind it, and for his tolerance of us and these 24
questions. 25
6. Other Ad Hoc Committee and Liaison Updates 26
Chair McDougall: Going on to Item Number 6, I'm not going to spend a lot of time on this 27 right now. I will ask if there's any pressing ad hoc comments. Through Natalie, I will send 28
out a new—what I'd like to do is a new process. I would like to make sure—Vice Chair 29
Greenfield and I have talked about this. He's initiated the thought that we need to do a 30
better job relative to the ad hocs. I'm going to ask that we submit a written report ahead of 31
every meeting so that we don't have to at 10:30 at night say we don't have time to talk about 32
the ad hocs and that we have information ahead of time and have the opportunity to do that. 33
I'm not going to ask that for the liaisons; the liaison can be verbal unless you think you've 34
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got substantial interesting information, then you should submit it. I'm going to try and 1
write that up in a way that you can understand. I'm sure everybody understood what we're 2
talking about right now. I'm going to write that up a little bit and through Natalie will get 3
it distributed. In the meantime, if I go through the ad hoc list from the retreat, do we have 4
any comments from the Foothills Park ad hoc? 5
Vice Chair Greenfield: No status right now. 6
Chair McDougall: Any status from the BCCP, the Bay plan? 7
Commissioner Reckdahl: No. 8
Chair McDougall: CIP, we just went through that. The 10.5 acres? 9
Commissioner Reckdahl: Nothing on that. 10
Chair McDougall: Cubberley Master Plan? 11
Vice Chair Greenfield: Kristen is going to be organizing a meeting with the ad hoc to 12
review input to date and talk about how we can contribute in the near term. That's coming 13
in the next week or so. 14
Chair McDougall: The park and facility policy? 15
Vice Chair Greenfield: The pickleball discussion covered that. 16
Chair McDougall: Park amenities? I would say no. Recreation opportunities? 17
Commissioner Reckdahl: No, we haven't done anything on that. 18
Chair McDougall: Park rules and regulations, I don't think we've had any updates. 19
Vice Chair Greenfield: We're waiting to get that rolling again. 20
Chair McDougall: I'm not going to go through the liaison list. I'm just going to do it from 21
the back. Commissioner Cribbs, do you have anything to add on yours? 22
Commissioner Cribbs: No. 23
Chair McDougall: Commissioner Moss? 24
Commissioner Moss: No. 25
Chair McDougall: Commissioner Reckdahl? 26
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Commissioner Reckdahl: No. 1
Chair McDougall: Commissioner McCauley? 2
Commissioner McCauley: No. 3
Chair McDougall: Vice Chair Greenfield? 4
Vice Chair Greenfield: In an effort to end on some very positive news, yes. Word on the 5
community gardens is—we've been talking about working towards opening a new garden. 6 The new garden agreement is now in the signature process, and there's hope of having a 7
start date of April 1 to begin work on the garden cleanup and make it ready for new 8
gardeners. Hopefully, it'll open to the public for the summer season. That's really exciting 9
news and certainly ties in with the sustainability and climate change goal. It's a low-cost 10
fiscal item for us as well. 11
Chair McDougall: From my perspective, the funding. I did talk to Roger Smith, Friends 12
of the Palo Alto Parks today. He has been actively working with the team relative to the 13
signs. They set up a go fund me, I think it was. I don't believe they made any progress 14
with that. In the meantime, they realized that maybe they could ask for some grants. They 15
actually have two grant applications that they're very optimistic about. I can't say anything 16
more than that. He also mentioned that they've now come to the conclusion that the 17
proposal I made, that there should be a Friends of the Baylands—they may, instead of 18
making it separate or just putting it under theirs without name, make it a separate part of 19
their organization. Maybe we've made some real progress there. I'm excited about that. 20
VI. TENTATIVE AGENDA FOR MARCH 26, 2019 MEETING 21
Chair McDougall: The last item is future agenda items. I'm not going to, unless Daren has 22
comments on that, spend time on that now. We'll do that via email. 23
Commissioner Moss: I just want to make sure that we have that Magical Bridge 24
somewhere. 25
Mr. Anderson: We've got a partnership presentation from Walter Passmore, the City 26 Arborist. He'll be at the March meeting. 27
Chair McDougall: We have that. Anything else? 28
Vice Chair Greenfield: On the ad hoc and liaison roles, the field and facility use policy 29
should probably revert to the name we were using before, which was park and facility use 30
policy. Park covers fields and courts. I'd like to request we change the name of that ad 31
hoc. It was basically a typo from our retreat. Park dedication was an ad hoc. At the retreat, 32
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we talked about moving that to a liaison role, which I'd like to continue pushing. I want to 1
add park dedication to the liaison list. 2
Chair McDougall: Both of those, we'll make sure that happens. 3
Commissioner McCauley: I was going to ask if I could be added to the CIP committee. 4
I'm a glutton for punishment. 5
Chair McDougall: You'd like to be added? 6
Commissioner McCauley: If I could. 7
Chair McDougall: Yes, you could be. 8
VII. COMMENTS AND ANNOUNCEMENTS 9
None 10
VIII. ADJOURNMENT 11
Meeting adjourned on motion by Commissioner Reckdahl and second by Commissioner 12
Moss at 10:20 p.m. Passed 6-0, LaMere absent 13