HomeMy WebLinkAbout2022-03-22 Parks & Recreation Summary MinutesAPPROVED
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3 MINUTES 4 PARKS & RECREATION COMMISSION 5 SPECIAL MEETING 6 March 22, 2022 7 Virtual Conference 8 Palo Alto, California 9 10 Commissioners Present: Chair Greenfield; Vice Chair LaMere, Commissioners Nellis 11 Freeman, Shani Kleinhaus, Anne Cribbs and Amanda Brown 12
Commissioners Absent: 13
Others Present: 14
Staff Present: Lam Do, Kristen O’Kane 15
CALL TO ORDER & ROLL CALL 16
BUSINESS 17
1. Adoption of a Resolution Authorizing Use of Teleconferencing for Parks and 18
Recreation Commission Meeting During COVID-19 State of Emergency 19
Motion by Commissioner Brown to approve the Resolution. Seconded by Commissioner 20
Cribbs, the motion passed, 6-0, by roll call vote. 21
PUBLIC COMMENT 22
AGENDA CHANGES, REQUESTS, DELETIONS 23
APPROVAL OF MINUTES 24
2. Approval of Draft Minutes from the February 11, 2022, and February 22, 2022, 25 Parks and Recreation Commission Meetings 26
Motion by Commissioner Brown to approve the minutes of the February 11, 2022, Parks 27 and Recreation Commission meeting, with corrections noted by Commissioner Cribbs. 28 Seconded by Vice Chair LaMere, the motion passed, 5-0-1, by roll call vote. 29
Motion by Chair Greenfield to approve the minutes of the February 22, 2022, Parks and 30 Recreation Commission meeting, with corrections noted by Commissioner Cribbs and 31
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suggestions by Chair Greenfield. Seconded by Commissioner Freeman, the motion passed, 1
4-0-2, by roll call vote. 2
CITY OFFICIAL REPORTS 3
3. Department Report 4
Director O’Kane presented the Department Report. The Clerk’s Office is currently 5
recruiting for the open commission seat on the Parks and Recreation Commission. The 6
deadline for applications is April 4th at 4:30 p.m. If anyone knows someone who might be 7
interested in being on the Commission, she asked them to reach out to their network to 8 find some applicants, and it would be appreciated. Palo Alto residency is required for the 9 Parks and Recreation Commission. Information and how to apply is no the City Clerk’s 10 webpage. This is for a partial term. 11
Regarding Foothills Fire Mitigation and Safety Strategies, at the March 14th City Council 12 meeting there was a presentation by several departments, including Community Services. 13 Daren Anderson was there to present in regard to fire mitigation strategies for not only 14 Foothills, but also Pearson Arastradero Preserve. Ms. O’Kane will send the motion made 15 at on this item to the Commissioners if they would like to see it. Council directed staff to 16
pursue funding for eucalyptus tree removal in the three nature preserves – Foothills, 17
Pearson Arastradero and Esther Clark – as part of the mitigation efforts. Mr. Anderson has 18
already applied for a grant for this work, and they are also looking into state funding 19
through a grant for this work. Staff will update the Commission as any of those funding 20
opportunities move forward. They anticipate it will probably be a multi-year effort. They 21
would go through some community engagement work to let people know when the project 22
occurs. 23
Restrictions on barbecues and campfires at Foothills Nature Preserve has been a topic of 24
discussion over the last year as the fire season gets longer and the drought continues. At 25
the beginning of each year, staff plans to collaborate with the Fire Chief and Fire 26 Department to determine if they should be closing campfires and barbecue pits at Foothills 27 Park, depending on the fire situation. 28
Ms. O’Kane reported that the Rinconada Park Improvement Project is underway and 29 almost done, with expected completion by April 1st. Ms. O’Kane said she works at Lucie 30 Stern, and sees it almost every day. She said it has been fun to watch it develop. It will be 31 a great addition to the area. It includes an adult fitness area next to the new playground. 32
Ms. O’Kane brought attention to a trail re-route at Foothills Nature Preserve. On February 33 17, 2022, the trail maintenance contractor re-routed two portions of the Costanoan Trail 34 without going through the normal approval process. A former Open Space staff person had 35 made arrangements with the trail contractor to perform the work and did not inform Mr. 36
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Anderson of the plans. The re-routed sections are in the same general location as the 1
Costanoan Trail re-route that occurred in 2018, during which Mr. Anderson had worked 2
with the Planning Department and the Public Works, Urban Forestry section, and also 3
hired an environmental consultant to perform survey work to get the necessary approvals. 4
The recent re-route was done to address a steep portion of trail that was created in 2018. 5
They had received many complaints about this area because of the steepness of the new 6
trail. When Mr. Anderson found out about the situation, he did his due diligence and found 7
that no trees were removed as part of the re-route. The former staff person that had been 8 involved has a biology degree and had inspected the route area for sensitive species, 9 including wood rat middens, but did not find any in the vicinity. The lower re-routed area 10 is approximately 300 meters and the upper area is approximately 40 meters. The grade of 11 those sections were reduced from 15 to 20 percent, down to 8 to 10 percent, so hopefully 12 it will be an easier height for park visitors. 13
Mr. Anderson inspected the re-routed sections on March 3rd with the City Arborist, who 14 reported that there were no significant impacts to trees or tree roots, but did recommend 15 some cleanup pruning, which was completed on March 4th. Mr. Anderson also met with 16
Planning, Urban Forestry, the City Attorney’s Office, and Public Works Engineering about 17
the project. He is planning to walk the trail with a Public Works staff person to get their 18
assessment of the safety and stability of the trail. Since it was built by the same contractor 19
who has built all of the trails, and was done in a similar way, they expect it to be fine. Ms. 20
O’Kane said that Mr. Anderson apologizes for this mistake and recognizes that process is 21
important for the work they do. He has discussed this at length with his entire Open Space 22
staff and trail contractor. The new Supervising Ranger will be directly overseeing the 23
contractor moving forward. 24
Ms. O’Kane shared updates on Cubberley. The School District is doing some work at two 25
elementary schools in the coming years. Because of that, they are relocating those schools 26 to the Greendale Cubberley campus on a temporary basis. They will start to prepare the 27 Greendale Cubberley parking lot for those temporary school campuses, including fencing 28 off two areas in the parking lot in order to do the work safely and ensure that there is 29 ingress and egress to the Greendale School and also to the Cubberley Campus. Work on 30 fencing the first area off started the previous day. They will be bringing in a portable 31 restroom area. The second area will be started on April 1st. 32
Ms. O’Kane gave an update on the water damage in the gyms and cardio room at 33 Cubberley. There were two major leaks underneath Gyms A and B, causing significant 34 water damage. Those gyms are now closed, as well as the adjacent cardio room. Public 35 Works Facilities has completed an environmental study to determine if there is any mold 36 or other hazards associated with the water leaks. Until that report is further studied and 37
repairs finished – which, they don’t know the extent or cost of them – Gyms A and B and 38
the adjacent will need to be closed. Staff has worked to relocate the groups who rent the 39
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gyms. Many are able to use the Pavilion, which is also a gym. People are also being 1
referred to other places, such as the YMCA to make sure everyone has a place to continue 2
their activities. She did not have a timeframe for when the work would be completed. 3
Ms. O’Kane reported that the Palo Alto Soccer Club, who installs the seasonal lighting at 4
the Cubberley Turf Field in the wintertime, have removed the lighting because of Daylight 5
Savings until the November timeframe. 6
She announced that the Mid-Pen Regional Open Space District Board will review the 7
Hawthorns Area vision and goals Wednesday at 7:00 p.m. She shared a map of the 8 location, which is amid Foothills, Pearson Arastradero and Windy Hills Open Space 9 Preserve. The space was donated to them in 2011, and they are now meeting to discuss the 10 vision and goals for that area. 11
Ms. O’Kane announced they are hosting a “Walk With a Naturalist” through the Baylands 12 on Saturday from 10:00 to 12:00. They ask that people register for the event. There is a 13 maximum capacity of 25 people, and it meets at the Baylands Nature Interpretive Center. 14
On Saturday, April 12th is the Citizen’s Science Bioblitz at Palo Alto Baylands Nature 15 Preserve. This is a snapshot of the plants and animals found in the Baylands in one day, at 16
a given point in time. Attendees will record all of the living things located, that they see, 17
using a naturalist app. Environmental volunteer educators will be present to help people 18
learn about what they find. Sign up is available at the Environmental Volunteer’s website. 19
There is a Tree Ordinance Community Meeting on Wednesday, April 6th, at 6:00 p.m. 20
More information is available at the City of Palo Alto’s home page on the event calendar. 21
Finally, Ms. O’Kane was excited to share that the May Fete Parade and Fair is back this 22
year, after two years, in its original format, on Saturday, May 7th at 10:00 a.m. The parade 23
will begin in Downtown Palo Alto, ending at Heritage Park with the Fair. This year’s 24
theme is “What Empowers You.” The theme has two meanings – a sustainability focus 25
and also a feeling of empowerment and having kids feels empowered to make a difference 26 in the world, and just to come out of the pandemic with a feeling of resiliency. They are 27 working with Environmental Volunteers to have their “Wake Up to Nature” fundraising 28 breakfast the morning of May 7th at Cogswell Plaza, before the May Fete parade. Breakfast 29 will be there, and then they will join the parade. It will be a nice tie-in, and they look 30 forward to working with them on this event. 31
Chair Greenfield invited questions for staff from the Commissioners. 32
Commissioner Kleinhaus inquired about the trail referred to previously and other trails at 33 Foothills. She has previously walked the trail Ms. O’Kane spoke of. She said large trees 34 may not have been removed, but many of the native trees there are relatively small, and 35
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some of the vegetation that has been trimmed or removed are ancient manzanitas or other 1
native plants, and it is disappointing to her. She inquired as to what corrective measures 2
the City has when there is no CEQA and there is a project that already happened. Ms. 3
O’Kane thought what Mr. Anderson did was go through the process he would have gone 4
through prior to the trail realignment, understanding that is not ideal, but given the 5
situation, he walked the trail with the City Arborist and met with the different departments 6
to review what had happened, what should have happened, and ensured that there were no 7
significant impacts from what he could see. It was discussed at length with other City 8 departments, including the City Attorney and the Planning Department, who usually does 9 the CEQA. They feel they have documented what happened and looked for any potential 10 impacts that might have occurred. 11
Commissioner Kleinhaus noted that the trail does not have a lot of ordinance-sized trees. 12 The trees are small. Even if they are 100 years old, she said they will be small because that 13 is their nature. She was unsure how “significant impact” was defined but thought what 14 happened is going to cause erosion if there are rains again. She was unsure how stable it 15 is. She reiterated that she was disappointed in the process, and also brought up a trail that 16
was surfaced with aggregate along Boronda Lake between the dam and the lake. She felt 17
the intent was to prevent people from stepping off the trail, but she said the outcome is 18
ecologically worse than not having done anything. People walking a little bit up and down 19
along the trail to the dam and back will cause some visual impact; however, not like the 20
ecologic impact of bringing in aggregate with its sustainability impacts of emissions 21
associated with it – mining it, grinding it, bringing it to the park, depositing it along the 22
trail and then compacting it. Now it looks as though some of it will eventually end up in 23
the lake. It will become very difficult to weed the invasive species along the trail, because 24
they are partially covered now with the aggregate. 25
Commissioner Kleinhaus said she didn’t understand how and why this kind of project 26 moves forward and why there was no CEQA for this project either. She asked where the 27 checks and balances are and where they check whether a project should actually be 28 implemented at all. She wondered whether they should have a discussion about when 29 CEQA is required, and at what level. She said she has seen projects on CEQAnet that are 30 very small, such as resurfacing a trail, with notice of exemption but at least there is a 31 notification to the public so that someone can ask a question. She emphasized that Foothills 32 is a nature preserve and wondered why this happened at all. 33
Chair Greenfield asked Ms. O’Kane if she could answer the question. He said it may be 34 something for the Foothills stakeholder group to discuss further. It does present a question 35 about the process overall and a question of the role that the Commission should play 36 related to that. Ms. O’Kane said she did not have an answer, but she did take notes and 37
will talk to Mr. Anderson about the best way to provide a response, whether at the next 38
meeting or whether to provide a description of how projects such as this move forward. 39
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Commissioner Kleinhaus added she would like to hear how the project could be improved 1
to include sustainability and the fact that it is a nature preserve, so before bringing in 2
anything from the outside, it needs to have serious consideration. Ms. O’Kane will convey 3
Commissioner Kleinhaus’ comments to Mr. Anderson. 4
Commissioner Cribbs commented that at the last Recreation Foundation meeting, Adam 5
Howard announced about the May Fete Parade, and they are very happy that it is back. He 6
also asked for help and wondered if the Commission could help with judging of the floats. 7
She volunteered to help and to find two other Commissioners. She said it would probably 8 be about an hour-and-a-half of time on the 7th of May. She inquired if there were volunteers 9 from the Commission. Commissioner Brown volunteered to help, and Commissioner 10 Freeman said he would check his schedule and get back to her. Commissioner Cribbs said 11 they could even have more than three if there was interest. 12
Commissioner Freeman inquired about the water damage to the gyms and cardio room and 13 asked if it happened some time ago and, if so, whether the issue has been rectified. He also 14 assumed that there were probably reservations made for summer events and wondered if 15 alternate locations had been found for all of those. Ms. O’Kane responded that the leaks 16
occurred in February, and there was a large volume of water that went under the wood 17
gym floors. One leak consisted of very hot water, which can cause additional problems 18
with humidity. She thought the floors were somewhat warped now. A contractor is coming 19
in to give an estimate for repairs. 20
Also, regarding talking to the School District, who technically owns the gyms, regarding 21
rentals for the summer, she will check on this. She said they do some of their camps there 22
so she assumed they have just been moved to a different location. Commissioner Freeman 23
also assumed the situation had been communicated to the public so they are aware that it 24
is not available. Ms. O’Kane said they have communicated with all of their normal renters. 25
If another renter called, they would get the information at that time. They do not have open 26 gym times, but she said they could certainly add something to the website to inform people 27 of the situation. 28
Vice Chair LaMere asked if Mr. Howard had an accessible list of displaced groups. He 29 would be interested in seeing which groups and events that were displaced. Ms. O’Kane 30 replied that she would reach out to Tyler Stetson to possibly find this information. 31
Chair Greenfield had a question regarding the eucalyptus removal and asked for more 32 information on the complexity, or not, for funding they are pursuing for this, as well as the 33 complexity of the job for the three different preserves. Ms. O’Kane answered that there 34 are over 100 eucalyptus that have been identified for removal among the three preserves. 35 The grant amount applied for by Mr. Anderson would cover the cost of removing the trees, 36 but not any replacement plantings with native trees species and long-term monitoring. 37
They would need to fill that gap in funding. The State funding request was for the full 38
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amount, including re-planting and long-term monitoring, et cetera. As far as the process 1
itself, she assumed that they chip them, but wasn’t sure what it entails. The next step will 2
be to have a contractor come out to give an estimate and identify any types of concerns 3
they might have in accessing these areas. Chair Greenfield asked, given there is partial 4
funding, if they would make plans to prioritize trees first with the existing funding while 5
pursing additional funding to complete the project. Ms. O’Kane clarified that they 6
currently have no funding. Mr. Anderson has applied for a grant with Cal Fire for the work, 7
which would be partial funding, but they have not heard back yet on whether the grant will 8 be awarded. Chair Greenfield wondered, should they got the partial funding, if they would 9 proceed with part of the work. He was wondering if they would be looking to remove and 10 replant trees based on the amount of funding, or if they would plan to remove all of the 11 trees and then look to source the replanting funding. Ms. O’Kane said the Cal Fire grant 12 would not cover the replanting, only the actual removal, so the City would need to find a 13 different funding source for the replanting. They would hold off on removal of the trees 14 until they had funding for replanting. They propose to include this in the fiscal year 2023 15 budget. 16
Chair Greenfield said the City Manager’s report last week mentioned a very exciting 17
contest happening at the JMZ. Ms. O’Kane replied that this was actually on Mr. 18
Anderson’s list, and she apologized for not including it. There is a flamingo-naming 19
contest going on at the Junior Museum and Zoo. People can submit their ideas for naming 20
the different flamingos. They are encouraged to name them after things related to 21
conservation or types of flamingo species, et cetera. The names will be decided on 22
International Flamingo Day. 23
Commissioner Kleinhaus questioned regarding the eucalyptus and said, from the 24
presentation to City Council, it was mentioned that the removal would be in phases, and 25
the planting as well. She wanted to know if they could see the phasing plan, the planting 26 list, et cetera. Ms. O’Kane replied that they would. Commissioner Kleinhaus asked if all 27 of the eucalyptus in the Baylands were to be removed. Ms. O’Kane said the only areas to 28 be covered are the three preserves, mostly in the Foothills. 29
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4. Ad Hoc Reports 31
Chair Greenfield invited Commission reports on Ad Hoc groups and Liaisons. He noted 32 that all of the Ad Hocs had met in preparation for the Workplan they will be finalizing. He 33 said, regarding the Field User Liaison role that Commissioner Freeman and he were to 34 share, he decided it would make more sense not to share it and to have Commissioner 35 Freeman serve as the Liaison, and he would support him in the transition. Secondly, on 36 the Hawthorns project for which he is the Liaison, he attended the virtual committee 37
meeting of the Mid-Pen Regional Open Space on this project. This is the committee that 38
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will be reporting to the full Board of Directors the next evening. The basis of the project 1
is the Hawthorns site is technically part of Windy Hill, although it is not physically 2
connected to it. It is around the intersection of Portola and Alpine, and they are looking to 3
create an 18-month task force composed of community members from different areas and 4
from different ecologic groups. There would be someone representing Palo Alto as well. 5
They are looking at adding a series of trails in the area. It is part of Mid-Pen, which is not 6
currently open to the public, but they are looking at developing a network of trails on it. 7
There are also some buildings on the site. This is a preliminary meeting, and he will have 8
more information to share later. 9
5. Grassroots Ecology Partnership Presentation 10
Ms. Von Feldt, Executive Director, Grassroots Ecology, and Jerry Hearn, President of the 11 Board of Directors, were in attendance to report on Community Stewardship Programs. 12 Their organization is a nonprofit founded in 2016 under the name of Grassroots Ecology, 13 but prior to that it formerly existed under the name of the Acterra Stewardship. Ms. Von 14 Feldt said all of their programs and sites basically came over under the name of Grassroots 15 Ecology. Acterra is still around and doing great work, but more focused on other 16
initiatives. 17
Ms. Von Feldt shared that the mission of Grassroots is to engage and educate the public to 18
restore local ecosystems. They have about 18 fulltime staff, four AmeriCorps members, 19
and ten paid interns. Staff consists of a combination of scientists, educators, and project 20
managers. All are nature enthusiasts as well as community-builders and promoters of 21
equity and inclusion. Their core purpose is habitat restoration but they also do community 22
science – citizen science. They have some urban ecology programs. They do education 23
and also have a native plant nursery. The organization works in San Mateo and Santa Clara 24
counties at habitat restoration sites where they do water quality monitoring and have some 25
demonstration gardens. Several of the habitat restoration sites are in Palo Alto. One 26 happens to be Hawthorns. When Mid-Pen took over ownership of Hawthorns, they 27 contacted Grassroots about four years ago to start work on some of the invasive species 28 they have there. Grassroots brings out volunteers who remove broom. They also have 29 managed yellow star and actually eradicated it from the preserve in about four years’ time. 30 They do ongoing stewardship with volunteers. Under Urban Ecology, the organization 31 does things like water quality monitoring, green stormwater infrastructure as well as 32 demonstration gardens. 33
On the education side of things, Grassroots provides naturalist education, primarily with 34 high school aged youth as well as young adults and other community members. There is a 35 youth stewards programs, internships and certifications, as well as some naturalist walks. 36 They have a number of programs in partnership with the City of Palo Alto. First, and the 37
oldest, is the Enid Pearson Arastradero Preserve. They have worked with the City since 38
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1996 to take care of this 620-acre site. The site was quite degraded when the City took 1
ownership of it, having been grazed for years, with lots of invasive species. It is a challenge 2
to prioritize which invasive species to manage, and where to plant natives. Primarily, they 3
have been working to restore natural watershed functions like daylighting at a creek and 4
repairing and restoration. There are community volunteer days at Arastradero Preserve 5
which are open to the public, as well as their Youth Stewards program for middle school 6
students, and some paid internships. 7
In addition to work at Mayfly Creek and Arastradero Creek, they have also been expanding 8 their Gateway Garden, the garden around the Gateway facility. So many people come in 9 to use the restroom, et cetera, that they felt it was an opportunity to educate people on 10 native plants. There has also been the water tank replacement where they have tried to give 11 guidance on where to stage things, and they hope to play an active role in restoring the 12 area after the project is completed. 13
The second oldest project for Grassroots is San Francisquito Creek, which is one that Mr. 14 Hearn has been involved with since the beginning. This is the creek that divides San Mateo 15 and Santa Clara counties. They have been removing invasive plants there for a long time. 16
They also install native plants at certain sites along the creek. One is Palo Alto Park. There 17
is the El Palo Alto Tree as well as many native plants that were installed years ago that 18
they continue to maintain, as well as adding some other ones. They also do creek cleanups, 19
and there are some great neighbor efforts happening in and around that they try to augment 20
and help with. Whether they are wanting to plant some trees, or adopt a certain area, they 21
try to provide some volunteers, some plants and tools to help make it happen. 22
Ms. Von Feldt said they have community volunteer days, Youth Stewards, a monthly 23
water quality monitoring and they have a partnership with AmeriCorps, which is many 24
different programs. One that they have partnered with for about eight years is called the 25
Watershed Stewards Program. This places young adults on projects that help benefit 26
steelhead streams, such as San Francisquito Creek. 27
Ms. Von Feldt explained that Bol Park is actually on Matadero Creek, not San Francisquito 28 Creek. It is a great park that residents around it have adopted and where they have created 29 a native garden. Grassroots has added some effort to that and brought on some volunteers. 30 The Environmental Volunteers just had an event at Bol Park, and there are High School 31 Stewards who investigate and plant at different areas. 32
At Foothills Nature Preserve they took on the stewardship of the project in 2013 when they 33 responded to an RFP for it. The goal of it is to build on all of the great work that Friends 34 of Foothills did for years. When they started they had all the maps where the Friends had 35 worked and they continued to work in their areas and work on the species that the Friends 36 had identified. They have been able to knock back the yellow star thistle in all of those 37
areas and start expanding into new areas. Ms. Von Feldt said Foothills, unlike Arastradero, 38
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has a great intact ecosystem for much of it, so they can just remove the invasive species 1
and allow passive restoration of the native plants there. She said they do install some native 2
species in the more degraded areas, one of which is the huge lawn in the park that the 3
Rangers have said costs so much to mow and water. They have slowly been taking out 4
little chunks and expanding the native plants along the creek and into the lawn a bit. There 5
are volunteer and Youth Stewards, as well as another team of AmeriCorps members 6
helping out at this preserve. 7
In addition to the lawn replacement, there is the native garden around the big A-frame 8 building there which has been getting better over the years and looking quite nice now. 9 There is a High School Youth Stewards group at Foothills right now. This year there are 10 six or eight boys up there planting, weeding, playing wildlife games and doing some water 11 quality monitoring at the lake. 12
Ms. Von Feldt said they have been doing monthly water testing, not only at San 13 Francisquito Creek, but also Matadero and Adobe creeks since 2013. The idea is to get 14 volunteers and people out into the creek, not only to do some of the collection, learning 15 about how pollution affects the creeks, but also to get eyes on the creeks. Sometimes they 16
may see if there’s a spill or something and are able to report it to the City. She said the 17
data she presented is all posted on their site, with content going through the City first to 18
get their seal of approval. Some students have been downloading their data sets for use on 19
projects both in high school and college. 20
Ms. Von Feldt next talked about Green Stormwater Infrastructure – GSI. She said they 21
have probably seen these things popping up around cities over the last five or seven years. 22
These are a way to collect stormwater runoff before it goes down into the storm drains that 23
go directly into the creek and the Bay. It also helps alleviate some localized flooding. 24
When these were first installed, the specs that the State had an interesting soil mixture, 25
almost like sand, so a lot of the plants that were initially installed haven’t been doing well. 26 This was not just a Palo Alto thing. She has seen it occur in Cupertino and Los Altos. They 27 all look similar, either weeds or dirt. They got a grant from Valley Water to help 28 rehabilitate some of the original GSI structures and they have updated the code a bit, so 29 they can use a little more natural soil. They were able to bring in soil, put in native plants 30 with a combination of volunteers and the San Jose Conservation Corp. it was a nice 31 partnership, because the Corp members got to learn about these features, because they are 32 getting their GED and training for some green jobs. They were able to learn about what 33 these things are like and worked side-by-side with City of Palo Alto irrigation folks and 34 helped retrofit the irrigation. The benefit of these green stormwater infrastructures is they 35 are providing nature in little pockets of the city. 36
Ms. Von Feldt described specialized maintenance on some recent GSI installations that 37
the City did on Charleston Road. They had questions about why certain plants weren’t 38
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doing so well, so they provided some targeted advice and maintenance there. The City also 1
installed some native plants at the new Adobe Pedestrian Bridge and asked them to help 2
out with some of the maintenance of it in the first couple of years. This site had standing 3
water for about five months over the winter, so many of the plants installed failed. They 4
have been working with them to adjust and have been talking about putting in some willow 5
cuttings and things that like being in standing water for that long. 6
Grassroots also has some pocket pollinator gardens around the area and had their previous 7
grant to do rain barrels at sites around Palo Alto, so they continue to maintain those. 8 Finally, they have their nursery at Foothills in what was the 7.7-acre site that was fenced 9 off for a while. They grow locally native plants, specific to watershed, for their restoration 10 projects. They also grow rare and endangered species. The nursery is a teaching facility, 11 so they have nursery interns that learn and work there, as well as AmeriCorps members. 12 The nursery director does many talks for neighborhood groups around the area, and they 13 also created a native plant book that talks about locally native plants and pollinators that 14 use them, et cetera. 15
Ms. Von Feldt gave more details on the Youth Stewards Program. They have always 16
worked with youth, but for the past two years they had to adapt their programs. Instead of 17
drop-ins of thousands of volunteers every year, they had to focus on stable cohorts in which 18
the same group came out every time. Given that kids weren’t going to school, they decided 19
to focus on local high school students. They had hundreds of high school students and 20
stable cohorts. There were about eight to ten weeks at a time, with 12 students, at eight 21
different sites around the Bay Area who would come out weekly and work on projects. 22
Some of it was essentially community-building because they weren’t in school and weren’t 23
socializing. They did naturalist journaling, education, pulling weeds and planting plants. 24
Given that restrictions have lightened up, they do have their community workdays once 25
again, so in addition to the youth steward programs they also now have community work 26 days. All of the public volunteer events are on their website, with many available events. 27 People are enjoying getting out there, and they enjoy being with them. In addition they 28 also sometimes have private or school group events arranged with them. The Naturalist 29 Walks are walks for people to come out and see the local preserves. These are free to the 30 public. One is at Byrne Preserve in Los Altos Hills. There is also one coming up at 31 Foothills. 32
In addition to working with high school students, they have also recently found that 33 college-age students represent a big need out there. They have found a nice way to provide 34 some education and on-the-job training and professional advice to local students, or people 35 getting their GED, helping people find a way to learn more about careers in the 36 environmental sector. 37
Ms. Von Feldt prepared some numbers for their events for the City of Palo Alto. In the last 38
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fiscal year they held 234 events. At that time all of their volunteers were youth and young 1
adults. They had 115 volunteers donate almost 3,500 hours. They also were doing a 2
pollution prevention education program with the regional water quality control plant. At 3
the end of COVID they lost a key staff member who was doing that, so they are not 4
continuing that program, but last year they had put all of them online and were doing some 5
Zoom classes, so about 6,750 students received their education program. For all of this, 6
the City of Palo Alto, through a number of different contracts, pays them about $280,000 7
per year. On top of that, they use that as a match to go out and get grants from places like 8 Valley Water, as well as some foundations for education funding. They also do some 9 individual fundraising. Some of the individual donations help underwrite their programs. 10 Probably the biggest over the past two years was receiving the PPP loan, which became a 11 grant two years running, because they had a drop-off in income. They were able to use the 12 money to keep all of their staff and also hire interns, basically for the benefit of the City 13 of Palo Alto so they didn’t have lay people off and could continue offering their 14 educational programs for local youth. 15
Ms. Von Feldt talked about upcoming programs. There is a summer college internship, a 16
little different than some past ones. Usually students come out and spend an education day 17
and then a couple of days in the field. This time they are aligning the program with the 18
California Naturalist Certification so they will pay for the interns to get California 19
Naturalist Certification. They will be running their Summer Stewards program for middle 20
and high school students, the Naturalist Walks and a few community workdays coming up 21
at Foothills and Arastradero. At the nursery, they partner with the California Native Plants 22
Society. They have a fun event called the Native Plant Bouquet Workshop, which the 23
nursery will host on Friday, April 15th. 24
Mr. Hearn was appreciative of Ms. Von Feldt’s presentation. He shared that he has been 25
at this work for over 30 years and for at least 25 years they have had a very strong 26 partnership with staff in Palo Alto that has been immeasurably important to their work, 27 starting with San Francisquito Creek and Arastradero, expanding all over the city. He said 28 probably the more important part of their long-term work is the education they provide, 29 the kind of education that happens when people are on their knees and planting plants, 30 talking about nature and talking about the earth, getting a feel for reconnecting with the 31 earth. Over the years some of their former students and participants and former staff, 32 seeing the kinds of things they are doing now, they have leveraged their investment. They 33 are sending people out who are carrying forth a passion for providing stewardship of the 34 earth. As a former teacher, he said this is the best part of what they do. He was happy to 35 be able to still be engaged in that and wanted to express his appreciation for Palo Alto’s 36 support over the years and was looking forward to much more partnership in the future. 37
Chair Greenfield thanked Ms. Von Feldt and Mr. Hearn for the presentation and all of the 38
work they do in the community. He invited comments from the public. Hearing none, he 39
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invited questions or comments from the Commissioners. 1
Commissioner Freeman commended the excellent presentation. He imagined, reaching out 2
to both high school and college students for internships, that they have quite a wait list. He 3
wondered if they partnered with some of the colleges and universities as well as the high 4
schools. Ms. Von Feldt replied that they do. They have done internships pre-COVID on a 5
certain scale but ramped it up during the first year of COVID. Through a lot of the work 6
they’ve been doing on equity and inclusion they wanted to make sure they were allowing 7
anybody that wanted to participate in the youth internships the ability to do so, not just 8 those that could afford to volunteer. They then did use part of their funding to pay for 9 internships. They also looked to not only recruit but select interns, looking for students 10 who lived or were part of a community. They had partnerships with Foothill-De Anza and 11 Cañada and San Jose State and wanted to make sure they were bringing opportunities to 12 all students. 13
Commissioner Cribbs loved the presentation and thought Grassroots does a fabulous job. 14 She had the pleasure of working with Ms. Von Feldt on the Foothills stakeholder’s 15 program and was excited to learn all of the things they have planned for the future. She 16
thought it would be wonderful to have a copy of her presentation. She appreciated all that 17
they do, especially the emphasis on colleges and youth and the future. 18
Commissioner Brown said it was amazing how many larger priorities Grassroots touches, 19
from removal of the lawn to be more drought-tolerant, the broom removal and the GSI 20
rehabilitation. Not only are they fulfilling the mission of their own organization, but also 21
the missions of many other organizations in the community. She hoped they would keep 22
up their great work. 23
Commissioner Kleinhaus thanked the guests for their wonderful work. She was familiar 24
with many of their sites, not only in Palo Alto. She thought their terraforming in Cupertino, 25
Arastradero and other places is wonderful. She had a few questions. From an educational 26 and social perspective what they do is unparalleled and amazing, but she wondered when 27 they talk about removal of invasive species and doing the actual stewardship how far they 28 get into Arastradero or Foothills. She wondered if they actually work where people can 29 get to within five or ten minutes, or if they go back into the trails where she has seen a lot 30 of degradation over time and not a lot of attention. Ms. Von Feldt said this was a good 31 point and there is a combination when doing community-based stewardship of prioritizing 32 which invasive species are doing the most harm to the environment and also how they can 33 physically get people there to do the work. Also, there are certain things that can’t be most 34 efficiently done with volunteers. For example, the yellow star thistle she referred to at 35 Hawthorns, they were able to knock down with a timed mowing regime. They were able 36 to use those learnings and do the same thing at Arastradero and Foothills in partnership 37
with the Rangers, mowing it at two different times. It was a nice, larger-scale restoration, 38
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with yellow star thistle being one of the top worst species. 1
She said there are also things like stinkwort (Dittrichia). When they first came in, it was 2
in Arastradero and Foothills, but is pretty much gone from those preserves. In this case, 3
they take the summer interns on a long hike, making sure they get those spots because it 4
is another very targeted species. With broom removal, the Friends of Foothills have done 5
a great job on the far locations on Los Trancos Trail at Foothills, and they try to do that as 6
well. Things like planting, though, are hard to do that far away. If it is a rainy year it’s 7
possible, but they haven’t had those in a while, so when it comes to planting it has to be 8 close in and near a water source in order for it to survive. So many times when they have 9 helped the City with mitigation on tree plantings, instead of planting new trees which 10 would require bringing water out, they have started protecting saplings from predation and 11 they are able to grow up without a lot of additional water. 12
Commissioner Kleinhaus hoped they would be able to get back there a little more, even 13 though it’s hard to get people there. There are the brooms and other species that are taking 14 over areas that were very beautiful on Los Trancos in the back. She commented about 15 Adobe Creek bridge. She said some planting died because of the flooding, and some of 16
what was planted there, the Elymus triticoides [phonetic], a grass which is hard to control, 17
will be taking over the site, but already they are getting Arundo invading at the edges, so 18
there are two types of grasses that are going to compete with each other. She said the 19
Arundo is likely to win and that she would go in there and start over if there was a way to 20
do that. Regarding Ms. Von Feldt’s suggestion of planting some willow sticks, if they need 21
a volunteer, she said she would be happy to do that. What was planted is not working and 22
will cause a problem in the future rather than creating habitat for wildlife. It is not a of 23
huge habitat value and is a problematic plant. She has seen this planted in other areas such 24
as Cupertino, Mountain View or other areas, and the plant takes over and provides very 25
little habitat value, whereas willows would bring the butterflies back. 26
Ms. Von Feldt noted that they had no involvement in the decision. They grew some of the 27 plants but were only brought on afterwards for the maintenance. Even the City also 28 struggled, because they wanted to do more but there were cost restrictions, but everyone 29 realized it was not the ideal solution. They were out recently with the City, and it was like 30 putting their finger in the dam with all of the Arundo right there, but they are working 31 together and is why they sent willow sticks for right now, which is probably the best way 32 to go right now because it won’t cost that much and will provide a lot of great habitat. 33 Commissioner Kleinhaus thought the Water District might pay for it because it is next to 34 the creek, so trying to get willows there may be something they could get a grant for. Ms. 35 Von Feldt said willow staking is something they do all the time and is a fun activity for 36 people. She elaborated that the California Willow tree, flops down and can resprout and 37
flop down, so it is very adaptable species and great for habitat. They can take cuttings of 38
a willow tree and branches and basically pound it into the ground at the right time of year. 39
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It sprouts and can become an eight-foot tree within two years. There are some willow 1
groves nearby so they can do that with volunteers, and it is a great, cost-effective way to 2
create habitat. 3
Vice Chair LaMere was impressed with the amount of work Grassroots does. He especially 4
enjoyed the comment regarding creating stewards and exposing youth to the environment 5
so they can become the next generation looking out for nature and the environment. He 6
asked how they are able to get involved with the school if there are children or youth that 7
want to get involved. He wondered if they have to find them or if there are liaisons to 8 different schools. He saw where they did a presentation to over 6,000 students, and was 9 curious how elementary, middle and high school children can find out about them and get 10 involved. Ms. Von Feldt said it was a specific curriculum, like Next Generation science 11 standards, science classes. Regarding how they get the word out, she said they are focused 12 on middle school and up, and do presentations, especially with Paly and Gunn High 13 Schools. They have long-term relationships with those and will go and speak to their 14 environmental clubs and things like that. They also have field trips, and many of the 15 students have community service requirements, so that is usually how they first find out 16
about Grassroots, is to come to a community workday, which includes education and a 17
way that they can get on their mailing list. They then get weekly emails about different 18
volunteer opportunities. They also do specific events for service groups, like Boy Scouts, 19
Girl Scouts, the National Charity League, Young Serviceman’s Association and different 20
faith-based organizations. She added that they just started doing Tic Tok videos as well. 21
Chair Greenfield asked how many AmeriCorps interns they have and what percentage of 22
their workforce that includes. Ms. Von Feldt said they have four AmeriCorps members 23
this year. In the past year they’ve had about eight different AmeriCorps members. 24
AmeriCorps is a large national and statewide program that basically provides young adults 25
opportunities to work with a local organization or a local government. They get paid a 26 modest rate from the federal government or the state, and Grassroots contributes as well. 27 At the end of their term they also get an education stipend which can help pay off student 28 loans or grad school. There are many different AmeriCorps programs happening right 29 now, so they might be hearing about California Volunteers, which is a great statewide 30 model for it. They also have different focus areas. Some might be focused on climate 31 change, or electrifying cities, or flood, or wildfire resilience. It might be about habitat 32 restoration. A lot of those sorts of AmeriCorps align very well with the organization. The 33 one they have had the longest partnership with is called the Watershed Stewards program. 34 They have about 30 members throughout the state, and they can only work on streams that 35 support steelhead trout, so San Francisquito is one of them. Most places get just a couple 36 members, but they actually they give Grassroots four because of how engaged they can be 37
with the community, which is rather unprecedented. They engage with hundreds of people, 38
wearing their uniform, so it’s a good partnership and also gets people to understand what 39
AmeriCorps is. She said it’s an amazing how many people come and get excited because 40
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they had an AmeriCorps experience themselves. Chair Greenfield commented that he had 1
not heard of AmeriCorps until his daughter was a Climate Corps fellow a few years ago, 2
which is a similar program. He said for his generation saying Peace Corps for local projects 3
it clicks for many. 4
Chair Greenfield asked how they decide where and how many trees to plant with the large 5
amount of open space at Arastradero Preserve and what percentage of the land there is 6
appropriate for canopy cover. Ms. Von Feldt noted that they were having this conversation 7
that morning, because there is a very eager donor who wants to donate money to plant a 8 number of trees. They were discussing and talking about how Arastradero in certain places 9 does support trees, but there is a lot of good canopy there already. What they see is actually 10 protecting the young saplings from being over-grazed by the deer is the best strategy for 11 those areas. Also, along the creek they do a lot of the willow staking and do some other 12 planting of some more diverse species that might not be seen around there as much, like 13 maples. The “back 70,” the hillside that’s behind the Gateway facility and the bathrooms 14 there, just does not really support trees. They have tried over the years and gotten a few 15 established in some of the swales, but it is a different kind of soil and with the lack of 16
water it doesn’t make sense to do a large-scale tree planting at this point at Arastradero. 17
Nurturing the existing forested areas and letting them expand naturally is probably the best 18
approach to resilience to what is coming, climate-wise. 19
Chair Greenfield asked if Ms. Von Feldt would like to speak about fundraising activities 20
and how people can help the organization. Ms. Von Feldt said with every one of their 21
programs, including all of the Palo Alto programs, the City portion still leaves them with 22
a deficit, so they have to fundraise to pay for that. Part of it is to help with things like the 23
the paid internships or to help pay their staff. It is extremely expensive to live in this area 24
on a nonprofit salary, and most of their contracts with cities, including Palo Alto, have not 25
gone up in five years, so every increase given to their staff, they have to fundraise for. 26 They do not have an annual fundraiser, per se, but any donation whether restricted to a site 27 or a program, they would be happy to accommodate. People can visit their site, 28 grassrootsecology.org/donate, to learn more about how to donate. 29
Chair Greenfield invited any further questions. Hearing none, he thanked Ms. Von Feldt 30 and Mr. Hearn for the information conveyed and they looked forward to having them visit 31 again. 32
6. Parks and Recreation Commission Workplan – Attachment 33
Chair Greenfield noted that the Commissioners have been working hard at submitting draft 34 workplans for the Commission to consider for each of their principal projects this year, 35 tied primarily to the Ad Hoc committees. Part of the task is to report on the status, progress 36 and accomplishments of the previous workplan. It is still a relatively new process for the 37
City and the Commission. Last year was the first set of workplans, and he felt they did an 38
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excellent job developing their workplans with minimal guidance, moving forward with 1
what seemed to be most appropriate. This year there was a little more guidance on how to 2
format and what information to focus on. It will continue to be an iterative process and 3
will improve as they go along. 4
Mr. Do presented a list of prior year accomplishments. Chair Greenfield invited comments 5
or suggestions from the Commissioners. The Commission discussed formatting for the 6
workplan, the content, the level of detail to include in the document. Chair Greenfield 7
noted that it is an opportunity to build a record of their accomplishments. Vice Chair 8 LaMere asked if the document will be the main document of record which the public and 9 City Council refers to, or more of an overview. In terms of detail, he wondered how it will 10 be used and how much to drill down. Mr. Do conveyed that the document will become a 11 public document once finalized. It will be presented through the Clerk’s Office to the City 12 Council on behalf of all Boards and Commissions presenting all workplans for each 13 commission or board as a whole. The timeline for this is before the second quarter of the 14 calendar year, so the Clerk’s Office is asking each Commission to provide her with an 15 update of where they are at this point, so that she can formulate an appropriate date to 16
present all of the boards and commission workplans. Vice Chair LaMere asked, if it is the 17
main document of record, how much detail they need. Mr. Do felt that, although it is a 18
record, they probably don’t want to go to a very detailed level. They need to keep in mind 19
the scale of how many workplans the Council will be going through for review. He thought 20
they should provide them adequate information on what the Commission is working on, 21
and if they have questions on details, they can respond back. Chair Greenfield said in 22
response to the question of whether this is their main document of record that he thinks it 23
is one of their only documents of record, really their only summary document of record. 24
The other would be their monthly minutes. 25
Commissioner Kleinhaus wondered if they should add hyperlinks perhaps to help readers 26 figure of what the items in the document are. Mr. Do said they can do that in the editing 27 process. Commissioner Kleinhaus said they could provide the link to the actual document, 28 the minutes, or some detailed documentation. Chair Greenfield thought this seemed useful 29 and sounded like a more general recommendation for the use of the workplans. He said in 30 past year’s workplan there’s a link to it on the main page of the Parks and Rec website, so 31 he assumed that link will continue to be there, and will include another link to their new 32 workplan, which should enumerate the historical work of the Commission. Ms. O’Kane 33 inquired of Mr. Do whether this is the document that is going into the Council packet for 34 their review. Mr. Do said it will be a finalized version of this document that goes to 35 Council. 36
Commissioner Freeman liked the idea of using hyperlinks but wondered if was possible to 37
put the information in table form to make it more readable. Mr. Do said this is actually the 38
first year that all boards and commissions are trying to submit via one template, so it is a 39
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“first run” and the Clerk’s Office is asking for feedback if they find the template to be 1
useful or if they have suggestions for future improvements. However, at present this is the 2
template they are being asked to use. Chair Greenfield added that it is a new template this 3
year, and different from the one they had last and invariably different from the template 4
they will have next year. 5
Commissioner Brown said currently it was linked on their website, but if they wanted to 6
create a stand-alone slide of accomplishments and edit that, they could probably do that 7
through the website refresh process moving forward, including links. 8
Chair Greenfield outlined some accomplishments that could be included in the report, 9 including the recommendation from the Commission regarding the Foothills Nature 10 preserve policies. Their recommendation on March 23rd was actually before their workplan 11 was created, but he felt it was appropriate to include it since it relates to accomplishments 12 during the year on Foothills. The March 21st recommendation was recommended policy 13 updates regarding entrance fees for large vehicles over nine-person capacity and free entry 14 for the public on designated days, for student groups with a reservation, for fourth grade 15 students and with passes at the City libraries. They also made the recommendation for the 16
removal of nine hillside barbecues for fire safety. He asked Mr. Do to add a concise version 17
of that to add to the document. The December 21 recommendation consisted of policy 18
updates regarding visitor limits, infrastructure improvements, entrance fees and passes, 19
reservation system, bicycle access at Gate D, dogs at Towle Campground, and wildfire 20
safety. There was the additional Parks and Open space Film and Video Policy 21
recommendation encompassing Foothills Nature Preserve along with other city parks and 22
open space areas. 23
Commissioner Cribbs wondered what the thought was to the order that the items are listed 24
in. Chair Greenfield said he did not know, but he had wondered about it as well. The order 25
of the workplans was alphabetical order. He wondered if the items should be in 26 alphabetical order or more of a prioritized order. Commissioner Cribbs said it depends on 27 the perspective, but much of the work the Commission did was about Foothills Park last 28 year and the year before, so it felt to her like that should have a higher rank. Chair 29 Greenfield thought they should go through and decide what they want the order of 30 accomplishments to be, starting with Foothills. Commissioner Cribbs advocated placing 31 Rec Opportunities second on the list, followed by fund development. Commissioner 32 Brown agreed and there was no opposition to this. Commissioner Cribbs thought CIP 33 should go after Fund Development but she thought Baylands Tidegate, the Sidewalk 34 Vendor, with Racquet Court Policy at the bottom, in her opinion Chair Greenfield 35 preferred to leave CIP where it is, saying in terms of time spent maybe Sidewalk Vendors 36 next and then Baylands Tidegate in terms of significance. Mr. Do said he will follow up 37
and add hyperlinks and also update the Foothills accomplishments. 38
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The Commission next examined their purpose statement which was taken from the City 1
Municipal Code. Commissioner Kleinhaus noted that there was nothing about nature in 2
the bullet, and she had hoped there would be, in the last bullet, “Receiving community 3
input concerning Open Space and Parks/Recreation activities.” She suggested, “…Open 4
Space, Nature; and Parks and Recreation activities.” Chair Greenfield said he thought they 5
had aimed more for activities tied to recreation than to open space and parks, so he 6
suggested under Open Space and Parks that it could be more something related to 7
environmental stewardship – perhaps “…activities and environmental stewardship”. 8 Commissioner Kleinhaus advocated for the term biodiversity somewhere. They had 9 discussed previously that this is something that is almost never represented and needs to 10 be, because they are losing biodiversity with it the planet. Chair Greenfield thought they 11 were constrained at a certain level by what their specific responsibilities are, as opposed 12 to what they would like their focus to be. It might be important to refer back to the 13 Municipal Code and not go too far astray from it. 14
Commissioner Kleinhaus said all the plans they look at include nature, whether the natural 15 element of the Comprehensive Plan, Parks, natural open space, trails and recreation plans. 16
All of the plans have nature, yet it is not included in their purpose statement. Commissioner 17
Brown suggested that this gets captured within the workplan itself and that they adhere to 18
the Municipal Code, which should be consistent in the Code and in the budget document 19
so that they are not having small changes to keep track of, but making sure that it is 20
captured in the individual project/ goal language and rises to the top for their Commission 21
and what they can have edits on. Chair Greenfield suggested that it would not be 22
unreasonable to look at the specific Municipal Code for the Parks and Recreation 23
Commission, and if there is something that they feel is appropriate to change in that, then 24
they could go to City Council with a recommendation to do so. 25
To that end, Chair Greenfield said they will also be looking at returning to Council with 26 language regarding the Parks and Recreation Commission’s purpose relating to becoming 27 the official community forum for the Urban Forestry section, as it is not specifically called 28 out in the responsibilities of the Commission to date. It would currently fall under one of 29 the guidelines where they can basically do things at City Council’s directive, so there is 30 no problem with them specifically working on that, but there is an action ahead for the 31 staff to return to Council with language that would make it more specific. Chair Greenfield 32 said that would be an opportunity to recommend further changes to the Parks and 33 Recreation Commission Municipal Code Purpose and Duties. 34
Commissioner Kleinhaus said for receiving community input, they don’t really want to 35 limit what people can provide input on. Chair Greenfield said he was not suggesting that 36 they are limited and unable to focus on biodiversity. He thought that was very much related 37
and a key issue for their open space and parks. He though Commissioner Kleinhaus had 38
done well to highlight it to the Commission and influence the Commission, and that is 39
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included as part of the annual goals but as far as the statement of their specific 1
responsibilities, he thought it was more objective than subjective. Commissioner 2
Kleinhaus said if they are going to receive community input they don’t want to restrict 3
what people feel they need to provide input about, so she advocated just saying, “Receiving 4
community input concerning the Commission’s work.” Or just, “Receiving community 5
input.” Chair Greenfield said the way it reads now is, “receiving community input 6
concerning open space and parks,” which is quite broad and he didn’t feel that it limited 7
discussions on biodiversity in any way. Commissioner Kleinhaus thought that “nature” 8 could be included, because it is in all the different documents that they look at, but said 9 she deferred to the Chair’s opinion. Vice Chair LaMere felt it could be changed to make it 10 more clear in terms of receiving community input concerning open space, parks, and 11 recreation activities.” It wouldn’t call out nature specifically but would separate out the 12 Open Space as separate from the Parks and Recreation activities. Commissioner 13 Kleinhaus responded that they have at least four nature preserves, and asked if nature 14 preserves are parks. Chair Greenfield said nature preserves are open space areas. He added 15 that he liked Vice Chair LaMere’s idea, and it would be good to make it “Open Space, 16
Parks and Recreation activities and stewardship.” 17
Commissioner Freeman said that would work for him. He thought open space pretty much 18
covers the broad category of things that could be included there. Adding additional 19
wording to it doesn’t change the meaning in his opinion, but added it might make it a little 20
clearer. Chair Greenfield wondered if it would add clarity to say, “Input concerning open 21
space, parks and recreation,” and take out “activities.” Commissioner Cribbs was okay 22
with that, but liked what Commissioner Brown said about including some words in the 23
workplan itself that would be appropriate about biodiversity or sustainability or climate 24
change since they are starting to talk about those things. She said, for her, this just needed 25
to be stated the way it came from the Municipal Code. She thought they all assume when 26 they talk about open space that they talk about protecting the environment and all of that. 27 However, it is an assumption that’s silent, so it should be called out, just not here. Chair 28 Greenfield said under the current Municipal Code, under Purpose and Duties, E.5., it says 29 “Receive community input concerning open space, parks and recreation activities.” Ms. 30 O’Kane said, reading from the Municipal Code, “Receive community input concerning 31 parks, open space and recreation.” 32
Chair Greenfield said the next item in the Municipal Code might be more applicable than 33 the previous one. That is, “Review and comment on fundraising efforts on behalf of the 34 Open Space, Parks and Golf Division and Recreation Division of the Community Services 35 Department.” Commissioner Cribbs said she liked that. Chair Greenfield asked Mr. Do to 36 add a note to the last bullet item to reference Municipal Code Provision 2.25.050 E.6. 37
Chair Greenfield asked if they wanted to include, “reviewing state legislative proposals.” 38
However, they are not intending to state what all of their responsibilities are, but are 39
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highlighting some of their responsibilities, and that doesn’t feel like something they spend 1
a lot of time on. Commissioner Kleinhaus asked what they have done in the past in that 2
regard. Chair Greenfield said not much comes to mind. Commissioner Kleinhaus said she 3
could think of a couple of current legislation efforts that could be relevant, but she wasn’t 4
sure if they want to get into those. It was agreed to keep it in, but move it to the bottom, 5
the 5th item. 6
Chair Greenfield said item four in the Purpose Statement is “provide advice upon such 7
other matters as the City Council may from time to time assign.” He said that is where 8 their work serving as the Urban Forestry Community forum is covered in the Municipal 9 Code. 10
Moving on to the workplan, Commissioner Cribbs wondered if it would be good to note 11 at the beginning that the priorities are currently listed in alphabetical order, and wondered 12 whether it matters. Chair Greenfield said they could re-order them if the group preferred. 13 Commissioner Cribbs was okay putting it in alphabetical order but thought they should 14 state that so that people reading it with no context don’t assume that their first priority is 15 the CIP. Chair Greenfield wasn’t sure where they would make that statement and that it 16
might be more clear to just re-order them in the order of priority they see fit. 17
Chair Greenfield noted that there are seven Ad Hocs and each of them prepared a 18
workplan, except for the Website Update Ad Hoc, as it didn’t seem appropriate to do a 19
workplan for that. In addition to that, they created a workplan for Urban Forestry because 20
it felt like they had a specific mandate to do some things. It is somewhat limited at this 21
point, but it may grow in the future. 22
The Commission proceeded with discussing the CIP Review for which the Commission 23
provides input on the five-year CIP plan that will be reviewed in the fourth quarter of 2022. 24
The timeline is Fiscal Year, Quarter two, which is this calendar year, quarter four – 25
October through December. He said the Ad Hoc specifically noted that they want to work 26 to get input at the right time, early in the process, because it is always a crunch at the end 27 of the year, with staff having other competing priorities. He said they want to get in the 28 pipeline to make sure that the review comes to the Commission in time for their input to 29 be impactful. 30
Commissioner Kleinhaus asked if this item includes community centers. Chair Greenfield 31 asked Ms. O’Kane to comment on that and whether it comes under CIP, or under their 32 purview. Ms. O’Kane thought it was a good comment if there was a CIP. For example, 33 Cubberley Community Center has come to the Commission and certainly would in the 34 future, so they could include “recreational facilities” because the pool, even though in a 35 park, is still a recreation facility, so it might be a better term to cover everything else. Chair 36 Greenfield said in past CIP reviews they have looked at items related to Cubberley, such 37
as adding a restroom. He said in the past the funding for Cubberley comes from a separate 38
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fund than the primary CIP, at least in terms of what the School District is contributing. Ms. 1
O’Kane said there is a separate Cubberley infrastructure fund that they put $1.8 million in 2
every year, for maintenance of the facility. 3
Chair Greenfield then wondered if there was any need for recreation facilities to be 4
referenced here in the workplan. Mr. Do suggested, to encompass recreation facilities, that 5
the project/goal be changed to “CIP Review for PRC for Fiscal Years 2024 to 2028 Capital 6
Plan for the Division of Parks, Open Space and Golf.” So it would be anything that would 7
impact the Division. Chair Greenfield thought that sounded great. Ms. O’Kane asked how 8 that would include the recreation facilities. Mr. Do said should there be a CIP that involved 9 for a recreation facility. Whether a community or a pool, it would be a plan that’s part of 10 the Division. The Commission ideally reviews all of the CIPs that come through. 11 Commissioner Kleinhaus questioned in regard to the Baylands Comprehensive 12 Conservation Plan in which the Plan’s area includes things that are not part of the parks 13 but are in that plan area. For example, she wondered if a project on the airport would be 14 included, at least for commenting, or another project that is not their plan but is adjacent 15 or in the same context. Mr. Do felt that the purview of the Commission encompasses what 16
would be the parkland, and all the other adjacent lands would be something the 17
Commission could comment on through the Planning Commission. So the Commission is 18
not restricted through that type of communication to provide input in that manner. Chair 19
Greenfield said this particular Ad Hoc is restricted to the CIP budget that is part of the 20
Parks Open Space and Golf, and that is the specific purview of the Commission that is 21
outlined in the Municipal Code as well. It is the budget of the department that the 22
Commission works with. 23
Chair Greenfield invited any further comments. He felt that the CIP workplan did have all 24
of the impacts and timeline and all of the items clearly spelled out. He said everything they 25
discuss will be approved in a motion at the end of the item. 26
The Commission discussed the workplan for the new eBike/Mobility Device Ad Hoc. The 27 project goal was “To review and recommend a usage policy for electric-powered bicycles 28 and other mobility devices in parks and open space areas.” Chair Greenfield said when the 29 Ad Hoc met, he said they thought it was important to highlight the electric bicycles first, 30 but also to encompass all mobility devices. Under “Beneficial Impacts” they went into 31 further detail, listing other types that are included. It was a compromise to be concise in 32 the project goal and also to offer an appropriate amount of detail within the workplan. 33 Commissioner Freeman thought the fact that it is covering electric-powered bicycles, 34 which seem to be growing as much in popularity as pickleball, breaking it out makes that 35 understood, but also adding “mobility devices” takes into account the other types of 36 devices seen on the road – the scooters, the hoverboards and other personal transportation 37
device, of which there are new ones all the time. He said some can get up to a pretty high 38
speed, so having something that covers pretty much everything is needed, but breaking out 39
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bicycles is a good point. 1
Commissioner Brown said “funding for updated signage” is not necessarily tied to the 2
recommendation for a usage policy, but it sort of jumps ahead to implementation of the 3
policy, assuming whatever recommendations that are developed include signage and are 4
approved by City Council. She recommended striking that phrase or putting it as a note 5
for the budget process rather than tying it to development of the policy itself. Chair 6
Greenfield wondered if it would be sufficient to say, “Funding for updated signage will 7
eventually be required.” Commissioner Brown thought “may eventually be required,” 8 because it all depends on City Council’s direction ends up being. She said it could even 9 read, “Funding for implementation of policy may be required.” It doesn’t necessarily need 10 to be signage, or it could say “e.g., signage.” She just didn’t want to dictate what the policy 11 would need to be at this point and tie up the resources specifically. The Commissioners 12 agreed on, “Funding for policy implementation, such as signage, may be required.” 13 Commissioner Kleinhaus felt it was a good point, and they might need other things besides 14 signage, such as fences, gates, maybe even a Ranger. Chair Greenfield thought it might be 15 helpful to point out that no policy currently exists at the end of the goal. Ms. O’Kane 16
thought a scooter prohibition was called out in the Municipal Code, so a policy does exit 17
but is not all-encompassing. Chair Greenfield thought clarifying the usage policy was 18
sufficient as written. 19
Next, the Commission examined the Funding Ad Hoc’s plan. Chair Greenfield wondered 20
about being more concise in the project goal and moving some of the verbiage to the 21
“beneficial impacts” section. Commissioner Brown liked the language in the project goals 22
statement, but suggested moving the second and third sentences to the beneficial impacts 23
section and keeping the first sentence alone as the goal statement. The timeline was 24
discussed, and it was agreed to use Fiscal Years 2022 and 2023. 25
Chair Greenfield turned the discussion to the “Resources Needed” section, including 26 whether a grant writer would be required to be successful in fundraising. Commissioner 27 Cribbs said it was one of the things that they don’t want to lose track of – having a grant 28 writer at some point. Since it is something they’ve always agreed on, she thought it was 29 good to keep it in there. Chair Greenfield’s interpretation was that “resources needed” is 30 what City Council would look at in terms of what the costs would be if they approved the 31 workplan. The current reading is that a grant writer is required. Commissioner Cribbs 32 responded that it is referring to a tactic about how to achieve this. One tactic might be if 33 this gets talked about, someone might volunteer to be a grant writer. She said that people 34 have done that in the past for nonprofits. Chair Greenfield thought maybe one of the 35 priorities should be identifying grant writing resources. Ms. O’Kane thought it was 36 important to leave grant writer in, but the paragraph could be worded, “Utilize professional 37
expertise in our community on a pro bono basis, such as grant writers.” 38
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Ms. O’Kane felt that “limited staff time” is not a resource needed. It is the issue that is 1
causing this. Vice Chair LaMere clarified that they think they will need limited staff time. 2
Chair Greenfield thought definitely limited staff time and access to City infrastructure 3
resources/printing office was good. Commissioner Kleinhaus said that grant writing takes 4
a lot of staff resources and they will have to work closely with staff. She wanted to hear 5
what Ms. O’Kane thought about how much work it is, because in her past experience it 6
was a tremendous amount of work, but perhaps not necessarily as much for other sources. 7
Ms. O’Kane said when they see a grant opportunity they question whether they have the 8 staff to even apply for the grant, but then if they get the grant, to manage the grant. She 9 said Commissioner Kleinhaus is correct that it takes a significant amount of staff time to 10 work through the entire grant process, and the subsequent reporting, sometimes for years. 11 It is a lot. She said she liked where this topic was going because it calls out that they 12 currently do not have the resources they need, but maybe it should even be elevated to 13 some extent. [Commissioner Kleinhaus, inaudible response] 14
Chair Greenfield said looking back to the project goal, it is identifying the need for funding 15 and increasing publicity to receive funding. He thought the grant writer is not a resource 16
needed for that goal and is beyond the scope of this project goal and this Ad Hoc. He 17
thought it could be added as a lower priority, to identify grant writing resources. He didn’t 18
think having a grant writer is a critical path resource for the approval of this project goal. 19
Commissioner Kleinhaus said Public Works applies for a lot of grants. She thought there 20
was an idea to apply for a grant for restoration of the creek at Foothills, but she wondered 21
if the PRC applies for many grants. Ms. O’Kane said they apply for some grants. Many of 22
the ones they find related to parks are geared towards communities that are lacking what 23
Palo Alto has, so they don’t feel they are a contender and don’t spend the staff time to 24
apply for things they don’t feel confident in getting awarded. She said other sections of 25
the Department, such as Arts and Sciences, the Junior Museum and Zoo, apply for grants 26 all the time and are awarded them all the time. It is a big part of what those groups do, and 27 the Foundation does a lot of it for them. In that way, they benefit from having a solid 28 nonprofit partner to help with the grant process. She said there are not as many 29 opportunities for parks in their area as one might think, because many are for 30 disadvantaged communities. 31
Chair Greenfield said that the Commission recommends on a regular basis pursuing a grant 32 writer for the Department with the thought that the grant writer will pay for themselves, 33 and it becomes an issue that there are not staff resources to support the grant writer, even 34 if the priority to fund a grant writer could be identified. Commissioner Cribbs responded 35 that she thought the Ad Hoc was interested in not losing the idea of a grant writer, so they 36 clearly put in it the wrong box. She suggested putting it in a different box, and go back to 37
the idea of “limited staff resources” and “access to City resources” that they have right 38
now that the Fund Development Ad Hoc could use, such as printing signs. It was agreed 39
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that the “Resources Needed” box would read “Limited staff resources, augmented by 1
professional expertise in our community on a pro rata basis.” 2
Under High Priority, for this project/goal Chair Greenfield suggested “Develop processes 3
and opportunities for community funding.” Discussion include whether or not to include 4
specific examples. Vice Chair LaMere and Commissioner Cribbs said their intent was to 5
communicate how community funding can enhance Parks and Recreation’s work, but they 6
agreed that the workplan may not be the place to do this. Ms. O’Kane wasn’t sure if 7
mattered that much, but thought it wouldn’t hurt, so that when Council looks at it, they 8 understand the thought process and what types of projects the Commission was thinking 9 of. Commissioner Cribbs felt describing projects may get too wordy for the document, so 10 examples were deleted. 11
Commissioner Kleinhaus asked a question about how fundraising works through Friends 12 of the Park. Commissioner Cribbs explained that the money goes through staff, who uses 13 the money to execute the project. Commissioner Kleinhaus then asked, if money is 14 donated for a specific project but not enough is raised what happens to it. Chair Greenfield 15 acknowledged it was a good question for future discussion but wanted to focus back on 16
the workplan. 17
Having reached agreement on project/goal 3, Chair Greenfield moved the discussion to 18
project/goal 4. The Park Dedication Ad Hoc’s goal was to “identify, review and 19
recommend potential sites within the community to dedicate as parkland.” Chair 20
Greenfield explained that the goal was stated generally so that the Ad Hoc and 21
Commission are open to identifying and considering any potential area to dedicate as 22
parkland within the community. The specific goal ahead of them is to make a 23
recommendation regarding potential rededication of the 10-acre Measure E site at Byxbee 24
Park, but was not limited to that in this goal. He and Commissioner Kleinhaus met to 25
review this and discussed it with Mr. Anderson. The timeline would be to complete the 26 recommendation on the ten acres in calendar year 2022. Staff time would be the resource 27 needed in order for various departments to review such a recommendation. The measure 28 of success would be that the Commission reviews and makes a recommendation on the 29 10-acre site and possibly other sites in the community. The high priority piece will be the 30 review and recommendation on the 10-acre site, a lower priority would be assessment of 31 other potential sites. 32
Commissioner Freeman suggested perhaps adding input from each stakeholder. Chair 33 Greenfield felt this was implied as a piece of the recommendation process and thought 34 simpler is better, although it was a good thought. Commissioner Kleinhaus commented 35 this is based on previous work which has had a lot of outreach, including on the Parks 36 Master Plan and Comprehensive Plan, in which thousands participated. Also, looking for 37
additional parkland as part of the Quimby Act goals for city parks has been discussed for 38
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a long time. The measure E site recommendation would have to be approved by Council, 1
so they will have high public exposure and interest. 2
Project/Goal 5 was stated as “Review and recommend tennis and pickleball court use 3
rules and policies”. Under Beneficial Impacts, Commissioner Kleinhaus suggested taking 4
the word “more” out because it implies that currently there is not balanced and efficient 5
utilization. Chair Greenfield pointed out that maybe they’ve determined that utilization is 6
currently not balanced, but he generally agreed. Commissioner Freeman suggested coming 7
up with more balanced utilization for both pickleball and tennis usage. Chair Greenfield 8 thought the focus should be the need to review if there’s a problem and, if so, to address it 9 He said “more balanced” presupposes a problem. Commissioner Kleinhaus noted that 10 taking “more” out doesn’t change the benefit, but just eliminates the presupposition. Chair 11 Greenfield thought “across users” seemed a little confusing. Commissioner Freeman noted 12 that they don’t want to imply any more weight on one group over another. It has to be 13 clearly defined at this point, although he acknowledged it is a moving target. Chair 14 Greenfield suggested, “Balanced and efficient use of courts for pickleball and tennis.” 15 Commissioner Freeman and Commissioner Kleinhaus agreed. 16
Commissioner Cribbs noted the intent is also for the pickleball and tennis people to get 17
along and maximize use of the resources they have, and then identify areas where they 18
could do some things to increase the availability of the resources, such as temporary 19
lighting until courts can be redone. Chair Greenfield thought under High Priority they 20
could add “optimize usage of court resources.” Commissioner Brown suggested “harmony 21
within tennis and pickleball communities could fall under Measure of Success. Chair 22
Greenfield agreed. 23
Commissioner Cribbs commented on the timeline, that the policy change would occur and 24
there would also be a survey in the fall. It was agreed to state Calendar Year 2022 to cover 25
all it and provide more flexibility. Commissioner Brown agreed and said the survey was 26 meant to inform the policy update, if necessary. The “expanded court use analysis” under 27 Lower Priority was for the purpose of exploring/fundraising for other items such as court 28 lighting, striping, et cetera. She said the policy itself and the survey data going into its 29 development would happen in spring/early summer 2022. Commissioner Brown said 30 worked with Adam Howard to develop that timeline. Commissioner Brown thought 31 calendar year 2022 was sufficient to encompass both aspects of the priorities. This change 32 was agreed upon. Commissioner Cribbs noted it will be ongoing but the usage policy needs 33 to be resolved sooner rather than later. 34
The Resources Needed section was rewritten as “Staff time (survey and analysis of courts, 35 writing the policy update, and cost analysis). Commissioner Cribbs suggested retaining 36 staff to work with the Ad Hoc on a fundraising campaign to fund new court attributes. 37
Commissioner Kleinhaus commented that lighting could potentially require CEQA, which 38
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could take more time. Any expansion of uses with places that don’t currently have use 1
now could potentially have CEQA implications, not that they would necessarily need a lot 2
of public input. She said she had asked Mr. Anderson to send everyone an article from the 3
L.A. Times about the lawsuits regarding noise. She thought they should keep in mind, if 4
expanding use, they will need outreach to the community and potentially CEQA as well. 5
Commissioner Brown thought that would come out of the evaluation and feasibility rather 6
than be put in the workplan itself, but agreed with eliminating the second paragraph under 7
Resources Needed referring to the specific projects and keeping only the first paragraph, 8 “Staff time (survey and analysis of court usage, policy update and cost analysis).” Lower 9 Priority would include Evaluation and Feasibility of expanded court use (lights, striping). 10
Under Project/Goal 6, Vice Chair LaMere said the Ad Hoc’s initial suggestions included, 11 “Work with City staff to ensure capital projects continue to move forward with community 12 resource commitment, engagement and presentations.” He suggested moving the capital 13 projects they want to focus on to High Priority, including City Gym, 10.5 acres, First Tee 14 partnership at Baylands Golf Links and Skatepark. Resources Needed could read, “Utilize 15 professional expertise existing in the community, stakeholder engagement, staff and 16
consultant time, Palo Alto Recreation Foundation and Friends of Palo Alto Parks.” 17
Commissioner Cribbs noted a reference to doing something about the recreational fields. 18
Also, a survey of gender equity and access were lost in their programs. She would like to 19
see those references someplace where they will stay in the workplan, because they are very 20
important. “Gender equity and access to facilities and programs” was added to Lower 21
Priorities. Ms. O’Kane questioned that the goal is specific to capital projects, so the goal 22
may need to change. 23
Commissioner Kleinhaus commented on the 10.5 acres, stating that more than half of 24
residents surveyed a few years ago wanted to see other recreational things done there, and 25
a lot wanted to look at alternatives, so she worried about including it for recreation. Things 26
like birding could be seen as passive recreation versus active recreation. She didn’t know 27
if they necessarily needed to change it, but wondered about what it might lead to. She said 28
data from past surveys on what should be done with the 10.5 acres, whether looking at 29
South versus North Palo Alto, per ethnicity, per ages, every way it was looked at, more 30 than half of the residents wanted to see the place be a natural space. Many thought it could 31 be both, but there was a huge demand for the area to become a natural facility rather than 32 a very active recreation facility, or a balance of the two. Commissioner Cribbs offered 33 context for the way the Ad Hoc identified the City gym, the skatepark, the First Tee Golf 34 and the 10.5 acres sharing that, in the course of sitting on the Parks and Recreation 35 Commission, from the Master Plan and discussions, they knew that those conversations 36 existed, but because of COVID and the City budget and staff resources, they felt if they 37 could help move those things along and get some decisions made or at least keep them in 38
the forefront that it would be a help to the staff. She felt it was important to have a 39
discussion about the four items to see what the community wants to do to help move them 40
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forward. If it comes up that people want the 10.5 acres to be natural and revert to its former 1
state, so be it. But when it sits there and people have hopes and expectations that don’t get 2
resolved, from her perspective that is frustrating. She said she thought this is what their 3
Ad Hoc arrived at. 4
Chair Greenfield commented that the mandate for the four projects identified is not equal 5
for each, and that is noted in the Council-directed policy update. Council has directed the 6
Commission to look into a skatepark and a city gym, so the mandate is clear on those. The 7
First Tee project is ongoing and underway with staff and the Commission, so it has a rather 8 high degree of acceptance and a mandate. But the 10.5 acres has been sitting out there for 9 a long time. As far as the probability of something happening, he thought the probability 10 on the 10.5 acres is the lowest of the four and has the least clear direction right now. He 11 thought it appropriate to have it on the list for discussion purposes, but there is not a clear 12 direction identified for it, which leaves open the possibility that community feedback 13 would lead them to the conclusion it might be best not to develop it or to do something 14 else. 15
Commissioner Kleinhaus asked what sustainable recreation means. Chair Greenfield 16
thought it was creating sustainable infrastructure. Commissioner Brown thought it would 17
touch on the programming aspect of it, not just the gym, for example, but the staffing and 18
programs to support the gym to generate revenue moving forward. Commissioner 19
Kleinhaus pursued whether that meant economically sustainable. Commissioner Brown 20
replied that was just what it meant to her when she read it. Commissioner Cribbs said it 21
meant that they will continue to fund programs into the future. Chair Greenfield thought 22
rather than “sustainable” the beneficial impact is “high quality recreation and park 23
facilities.” Commissioner Cribbs said what they were trying to get at was that programs 24
need to be able to be sustained into the future. They need to be built and supported by 25
operating budgets. Chair Greenfield said that sounded more like a priority than a benefit. 26
The benefit is creating the facility. The priority is making it sustainable. 27
Vice Chair LaMere suggested Beneficial Impacts could be recreational opportunities and 28 park facilities for current and future generations. Commissioner Kleinhaus advocated 29 using passive and active recreation. Commissioner Freeman wondered if she felt the 10.5 30 acres should fall under the Beneficial Impacts. Commissioner Kleinhaus thought the way 31 the Chair expressed the Beneficial Impacts was fine but the implication is usually the very 32 active and high-use types of recreation. With some of the more natural facilities is that 33 they have constant use, but at lower levels, instead of the very high use within short periods 34 of time. She thought the previous outreach identified passive recreation, habitat, birding, 35 et cetera, as a use for the 10.5 acres, so if that is included here, she wanted to see the way 36 for that to happen. Chair Greenfield suggested going with “Recreation and park facilities 37
for current and future generations” as the Beneficial Impact and maybe get into the active 38
and passive under the priorities. 39
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Commissioner Freeman wondered about using “health and welfare,” stating “Sustainable 1
recreation and park facilities for the health and welfare of current and future generations.” 2
Commissioner Cribbs concurred with this. There was discussion about removal of the 3
word sustainable. It was suggested that “sustainable” could be one of the priorities. There 4
was discussion of “future generations.” Commissioner Kleinhaus liked having “health and 5
welfare,” but was not sure about “future generations.” Commissioner Cribbs thought both 6
were good. Regarding “future generations,” she said there is a long track record in the 7
community of people planning for future generations to use as a model. Further discussion 8 included whether they can complete four projects in one year and a need to be more 9 realistic on the focus for this year. It was suggested to say “work to develop recreation 10 projects” rather than “ensure…” because the Commission is not capable of ensuring 11 projects move forward, so “support/facilitate progress on recreation projects” was 12 discussed. On “community commitment and engagement,” a suggestion was “work with 13 staff to facilitate progress on recreation funding,” putting community engagement and 14 commitment somewhere under Resources Needed, or perhaps a priority. The first part of 15 the sentence “without immediate process and support for opportunities” was taken out. 16
Commissioner Cribbs asked for a reference to city gym/wellness center. Vice Chair 17
LaMere advocated having “city gym/wellness center, skatepark, First Tee partnership at 18
Baylands and 10.5 acres.” In priorities section. Chair Greenfield thought under “Lower 19
Priority,” they could put “consider active and passive recreation needs of the community.” 20
Commissioner Kleinhaus liked that. 21
Chair Greenfield wondered where “accessibility, gender equity and access” would be 22
placed. Vice Chair LaMere thought it should read “gender equity and access survey to 23
assess the needs of the community” Vice Chair LaMere thought the Measure of Success 24
would be far into the future. Chair Greenfield thought they needed to be realistic of their 25
goals a year from now. Commissioner Cribbs suggested their goal is progress in that area. 26 Commissioner Kleinhaus thought they should have at least one project with plans ready to 27 implement by yearend. Chair Greenfield agreed that they should make recommendation to 28 City Council on at least one project within next year. Commissioner Freeman agreed it 29 should not necessarily be all four, but one or more. Commissioner Freeman thought that a 30 Measure of Success could be funding for any of the projects, from donors and others. Chair 31 Greenfield suggested that community engagement on some of the goals could be a 32 Measure of Success. Vice Chair LaMere agreed that community engagement is very 33 tangible and identifies different priorities. Commissioner Freeman suggested community 34 engagement could be in both places, a measure of success and priority. Vice Chair LaMere 35 added that the timeline would be FY 2022-23. 36
The Commission discussed Project/Goal 7, “…recommendations on urban forestry 37
matters” Chair Greenfield advocated, under Beneficial Impacts changing the wording to 38
“our urban forest” Commissioner Cribbs asked if the “community forum” would be the 39
PRC or if they were creating a forum. Chair Greenfield replied it would be the Parks and 40
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Recreation Commission, through agenda items at commission meetings. Commissioner 1
Cribbs wondered if it was necessary to mention partners that the City would have for this 2
initiative, such as Canopy? Chair Greenfield said that Canopy is the urban forestry partner 3
for the community. Commissioner Kleinhaus added that this is a topic of interest to many 4
other groups, not just Canopy, including the Native Plant Society, Audubon, and Sierra 5
Club. If looking at community input, Canopy is not the only stakeholder. Commissioner 6
Cribbs suggested adding something about stakeholders and if it was appropriate to reach 7
out to East Palo Alto, since they are working on the same kind of tree canopies. 8 Commissioner Kleinhaus said a lot of cities are working on urban forestry at this time. In 9 immediate area both East Palo Alto and Mountain View, Cupertino and to some extent 10 San Jose. She wondered about reaching out to other cities to see what they are doing. In 11 Mountain View, they are in beginnings of an Urban Forest Master Plan now. They call it 12 Community Forest. Chair Greenfield said the focus and purview of their relationship is 13 with Public Works Urban Forestry section, which is focused on Palo Alto. Canopy and 14 other non-profit partner organizations work with neighbors in East Palo Alto and the City 15 contributes some resources to work done in East Palo Alto but that is beyond scope of 16
PRC’s relationship. Discussion on wording of the Beneficial Impacts section resulted in 17
agreement on “ Foster community and stakeholder communication and collaboration on 18
our urban forest.” 19
Chair Greenfield invited comments from the public. 20
Mr. Do offered a reminder to sort the order of the project/goals. The order ultimately 21
agreed upon was, 1-Tennis and Pickleball; 2-Recreation Project; 3-Fundraising; 4-Ebikes; 22
5-Urban Forestry; 6-Park Dedication; 7-CIP. 23
MOTION 24
Vice Chair LaMere recommended adoption of the workplan as defined in the discussion 25
and recorded by Mr. Do. Seconded by Commissioner Brown, the motion carried (6-0) by 26
roll call vote. 27
COMMISSIONER/BOARD MEMBER QUESTIONS, COMMENTS, 28 ANNOUNCEMENTS OR FUTURE AGENDA ITEMS 29
Chair Greenfield said at the next meeting they will have review of the recommendations 30 to the Tree Ordinance. Ms. O’Kane said the agenda will include the Tree Ordinance 31 Review; Baylands Comprehensive Conservation Plan, refresher on the project status; and 32 CEQA in May. Chair Greenfield advised the Commission to email him anytime with 33 suggestions for future agenda items. Commissioner Kleinhaus hoped to discuss CEQA at 34 some point, and when something needs to go to CEQA. Ms. O’Kane said this was a CEQA 35 discussion a couple years ago for the PRC that was quite beneficial, and they could bring 36 that back. She mentioned other future items included the skatepark and the Tree Annual 37
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Report by City Arborist. Chair Greenfield advised to wait on the CEQA discussion until 1
they get their new Commission member added. 2
Commissioner Kleinhaus commented that someone had tried to speak on items not on the 3
agenda, but barely had time to raise their hand and missed it, but they will come back. She 4
suggested that they need to give more time to people. Chair Greenfield agreed with 5
apologies to the speaker. 6
ADJOURNMENT 7
Meeting adjourned at 11:05 p.m. 8