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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2024-01-23 Parks & Recreation Commission Summary MinutesAPPROVED APPROVED 1 1 2 3 MINUTES 4 PARKS & RECREATION COMMISSION 5 REGULAR MEETING 6 January 23, 2024 7 In-Person & Virtual Conference 8 Palo Alto, California 9 10 Commissioners Present: Chair Greenfield, Vice Chair Brown; Commissioners Anne Cribbs, 11 Nellis Freeman, Shani Kleinhaus, Joy Oche, Bing Wei 12 Commissioners Absent: 13 Others Present: Council Member Veenker 14 Staff Present: Lam Do, Javod Ghods 15 16 CALL TO ORDER & ROLL CALL 17 Chair Greenfield called the meeting to order. A roll call was taken with eight present.18 19 PUBLIC COMMENT 20 None. 21 AGENDA CHANGES, ADDITIONS, AND DELETIONS 22 None. 23 APPROVAL OF MINUTES 24 1. Approval of Draft Minutes from the December 19, 2023, Parks and 25 Recreation Commission Special Meeting 26 Commissioner Oche requested some rewording in line 27 and 28 to read “if it was 27 feedback from the community”. 28 APPROVED APPROVED 2 Vice Chair Brown made a motion to approve the December 29, 2023, minutes. 1 Commissioner Freeman seconded the motion. The motion passed by a 5-0 roll call vote. 2 Commissioners Kleinhaus and Wei abstained. 3 4 CITY OFFICIAL REPORTS 5 3. Department Report 6 Lam Do, Superintendent of Open Space, Parks and Golf in Community Services, filled 7 in for the department head, Kristen O’Kane. He reported two new recruitments. He 8 stated Cubberley Sports Field remained closed as part of the annual renovation process 9 to improve the quality of the turf and would remain closed until February 23 dependent 10 upon the weather. The two Baylands Athletic Fields remained closed for annual turf 11 renovation. The tentative date for completion of these renovations was March 8. The 12 Palo Alto Little League Field process started and is ongoing but had to be pushed back 13 due to weather. He announced that the Commission had previously recommended the 14 Tower Well Site to be dedicated as parkland. It had been pulled from the consent 15 calendar for Council the night before based on the request of three Council Members to 16 be brought back to the Council for discussion. He gave clarification on the consent 17 calendar. 18 Commissioner Freeman asked if the field closure happens on an annual basis and if so 19 had it been communicated to the groups that rely on using that field. 20 Mr. Do confirmed it is an annual process and they work with the organizations each year 21 on the closure times. There is signage and contact information at the site. 22 Commissioner Wei asked if the closure time was similar each year or if the closure had 23 anything to do with the gym at this time. 24 Mr. Do answered the closure was unrelated to the gym and wellness center. 25 Vice Chair Brown asked for a follow-up on a stop work order on Boulware Park. 26 Mr. Do confirmed that the stop work order was related to permits. 27 Commissioner Oche asked if it might be more sustainable to use better materials for the 28 synthetic turf fields that would not require annual maintenance. 29 Mr. Do clarified that it is more of a rejuvenation process of natural grass and described 30 the process. 31 APPROVED APPROVED 3 1 Chair Greenfield questioned the status of the construction materials that had been in a 2 staging area at Arastradero Preserve. 3 Mr. Do countered that Staff would get back to him with an answer to that question. 4 5 BUSINESS 6 4. Election of Chair and Vice Chair – Chair – Action – (20 min) 7 Chair Greenfield explained the general duties, responsibilities, and monthly time 8 commitment of the Chair. He then opened the floor to nominations for the position of 9 Chair. 10 Commissioner Freeman nominated Vice Chair Brown for the position of Chair who 11 accepted the nomination. 12 Commissioner Kleinhaus made a motion to close nominations seconded by 13 Commissioner Cribbs. Motion to close nominations passed unanimously. 14 Vice Chair Brown was elected to the position of Chair by a 7-0 roll call vote. 15 Chair Brown read the role of the Vice Chair and opened the floor to nominations for the 16 position of Vice Chair. 17 Commissioner Cribbs nominated Commissioner Freeman for the position of Vice Chair 18 who accepted the nomination. 19 Commissioner Greenfield made a motion to close nominations seconded by 20 Commissioner Cribbs. Motion to close nominations passed unanimously. 21 Commissioner Freeman was elected to the position of Vice Chair by a 7-0 roll call vote. 22 23 5. Bicycle and Pedestrian Transportation Plan (BPTP) Update – Ozzy Arce – 24 Discussion – (45 min) 25 Ozzy Arce, Senior Transportation Planner, discussed the agenda of the BPTP Update. 26 Amanda Leahy, Kittelson and Associates, presented slides further discussing the agenda, 27 the roles, and responsibilities, BPTP Update objectives, BPTP Update versus Safe 28 Streets For All Action Plan, project overview and timeline, phases of engagement, 29 APPROVED APPROVED 4 engagement tools and activities, phase 1 engagement summary, technical analysis 1 baseline conditions – analysis topics, document review, existing facilities inventory, 2 Bicycle Friendly Community Review and their next steps. 3 Commissioner Oche asked what criteria the gold and platinum status is based on. 4 Ms. Leahy discussed the League of American Bicyclists Application evaluation 5 categories which they used as the framework to help identify opportunities. She 6 described a technical memo that goes into detail regarding the Bicycle Friendly 7 Community criteria. 8 Commissioner Cribbs asked for clarification on what is meant by Stanford University 9 and East Palo Alto and the relationship in the demographic analysis. 10 Ms. Leahy provided MTC’s definition of equity priority communities. 11 Commissioner Wei inquired if there is multilanguage education provided for the 12 residents to understand the safety issues and what percentage of streets would have 13 coverage of bike lanes. 14 Mr. Arce stated they are not teaching in Spanish or Mandarin but have translated some of 15 their Walk and Roll maps and that it is an opportunity area. Bike lane coverage would be 16 increased through planning efforts such as this planning document. 17 Lynn C. discussed safety issues on the Bryant Street to Colorado Connection to 18 Midtown. She wondered if the connection from Bryant to Middlefield to Midtown 19 Commercial on Colorado Avenue would be looked at along with safety issues of the 20 Stanford University students riding at night. 21 Commissioner Wei asked if there is a golden standard how much of the City should have 22 bike lanes. 23 Ms. Leahy said that the Bicycle Friendly Criteria has a target for percentage of bike lane 24 coverage. It is not only about the network coverage but about the quality of the network. 25 She described the goals they have. 26 Commissioner Kleinhaus asked how they identify gaps and how they communicate with 27 the pedestrians. She suggested they look at Grove and see if a bridge could be placed 28 over Adobe Creek to connect to the Greenmeadow Development. She wanted to know 29 what safety concerns were mostly brought up by people. She thought it was important to 30 look at the injuries due to electronic bikes. She was interested to know if they were 31 thinking of reopening what has already been decided regarding the parks in relation to 32 bike parking and electronic bicycles. 33 APPROVED APPROVED 5 Ms. Leahy said they use their technical analysis and described what is looked at to 1 identify gaps and discussed methods they use to communicate with the pedestrians. She 2 stated most safety concern comments were about the speed of vehicle traffic or the lack 3 of visibility at certain locations. She instructed on the ability to click into the interactive 4 map to see comments. 5 Mr. Arce answered that the Commission and City Council recently decided on the E-bike 6 policy and unpaved trails. He did not think they were looking to reopen those 7 conversations again. He said they were looking at revisiting the 2012 plan to make sure 8 the policies, programs, and facilities they selected will carry over and make sense in 9 today’s context. 10 Commissioner Greenfield asked for a definition of path versus trail. He wanted to know 11 if Open Space areas were within the scope of this as well as parks and if it would apply 12 to all hiking trails. He was interested in seeing how they could expand the Safe Routes to 13 Schools Network to be more global to include parks, libraries, etc. He asked if there was 14 any standard symbol used to help identify and lead bicyclists toward bike parking. He 15 was curious where they were looking to add adaptions and details on E-bikes such as 16 policies that require pedaling on E-bikes. 17 Ms. Leahy stated they will be defining path versus trail. She confirmed Open Space areas 18 and hiking trails were within the scope of this. She did not know if there is a standard 19 symbol to identify bike parking, but it was typically included in part of a wayfinding 20 program. 21 Mr. Arce answered they would like to visit the programs and policies regarding the Safe 22 Routes Network. He said that this plan update effort was the opportunity to take into 23 consideration additional facilities in trail areas, access to trails and looking at the 24 programs and policies. This would be done through a selection criterion, and he 25 discussed examples of the criteria. 26 Commissioner Oche asked about the interactive map. She asked if the survey were just 27 for three months and how they would have ongoing correspondence with the community. 28 She thought an app was important to be environmentally friendly and avoid printouts. 29 She felt like local bike shops have a major role to play in terms of putting the word out. 30 She asked for more details about the next popup or walkabout. She talked about the 31 principles of good network design discussed in the document and wondered if the 32 principles are the complete solution for the high-quality infrastructure that was 33 mentioned and, if not, what did high-quality infrastructure require. She asked for them to 34 speak about the misrepresented class II instead of class III that was reviewed in one 35 document and the plans for addressing bike theft. She asked what criteria was used in 36 measuring the collisions. 37 APPROVED APPROVED 6 Mr. Arce stated they have a project webpage that contains both the survey link and the 1 interactive map. The survey closed on December 31 of last year and they are in the 2 process of reviewing and analyzing that data. Regarding the engagement piece, the 3 interactive map and survey were part of the first phase of engagement but there will be 4 other opportunities for the public to help shape the planning effort. Staff capacity would 5 not allow them to continuously look at the interactive map for recommendations. He 6 referenced the existing 311 methods in which the public can address problems and 7 concerns that the City’s website directs the public to. 8 Sylvia Star-Lack, Transportation Planning Manager, talked about the Safe Systems For 9 All Safety Action plan. She discussed their community engagement resources and a plan 10 to have an interactive map available for people to report issues. 11 Ms. Leahy discussed the next phase of engagement to include some concentration of 12 activities the week of April 15 to 18. They will also likely participate in the Earth Day 13 event on Sunday, April 21. There may be a bike ride in partnership with Silicon Valley 14 Bicycle Coalition in the month of May to look at some housing sites likely on San 15 Antonio. She stated if they implement the principles, they should get the high quality. 16 She described high-quality bicycle infrastructure as something that will get a low level of 17 traffic stress and provided examples. She clarified the use of class II versus class III on 18 the slide looking at the existing facilities map. They will be working with local bike 19 shops and community partners to help get the word out on the project. Regarding bike 20 theft, she believed more secure bicycle parking would increase rates of cycling in 21 general. 22 Mr. Arce added they are looking at the May Fete event, as well. He stated they are 23 shifting to more in-person events for future phases. 24 Commissioner Wei questioned if the separated bike lane was more recommended. 25 Ms. Leahy answered that it would depend on the context. 26 Commissioner Kleinhaus wondered if there was any chance of removing East Meadow 27 Circle. 28 Mr. Arce stated that through the planning effort, all facility types are being monitored to 29 determine needed improvements. 30 Commissioner Greenfield wanted clarification on El Camino in terms of what is under 31 City versus county purview in the Grand Boulevard plans. He asked what information 32 they have in terms of timing to understand what Caltrans’ vision for the local portion of 33 El Camino Real will be. He asked how they could help with the process in terms of 34 helping identify paths forward. 35 APPROVED APPROVED 7 Mr. Arce stated El Camino Real is owned by Caltrans. He discussed the role the BPTP 1 Update can play to align with their vision. He talked about a letter the City was 2 expecting to receive regarding Caltrans’ response to the City Manager’s questions 3 regarding their plans. Regarding helping identify paths forward, he asked that they share 4 with their networks the opportunities for them to engage and share their input on where 5 they would like those enhanced or new facility types. 6 Ms. Leahy added they would be using high-level access to transit access to schools and 7 Open Space but if there are specific parks or trailheads that get more activity and are 8 likely to attract more people who bike and walk, that would warrant more focus and 9 attention and earlier implementation of recommendations would be helpful. 10 Commissioner Cribbs asked if the City would have pursued something like this if they 11 had not received the grant. She requested attempting to convince all the people who bike, 12 especially at night, to wear something that can be seen by everybody driving and 13 walking. 14 Mr. Arce deferred to Ms. Star-Lack for that answer but stated that most cities do bicycle 15 and pedestrian transportation plans, and they are updated about every five to eight years. 16 Ms. Star-Lack confirmed Mr. Arce’s comments adding that they must have a bike plan if 17 they want to secure certain kinds of funding so they likely would have done it anyway. 18 Commissioner Greenfield asked what more secure bike parking meant and looked like. 19 Ms. Leahy answered secure or long-term bike parking would be covered and enclosed. 20 She described different ways it could be operated for security purposes. 21 Chair Brown shared an idea of reaching out to the police department for anecdotal 22 information from patrol or dispatch or the school district and crossing guards for any 23 meaningful information. She asked how they envisioned this plan being utilized by Staff 24 on daily operations down the road. She wanted to know if there is a way to subscribe to 25 project updates on the website. 26 Mr. Arce said they traditionally looked to implement these as part of the budget process, 27 so it is a matter of the Staff going through the priority projects and shifting to implement 28 them. Day to day, they look to this as a guiding document on what the priority tasks will 29 be for that year and described how that would work. He described a transportation 30 newsletter that could be subscribed to where updates on all the transportation projects, 31 including the bike and ped plan update, would be included. 32 Ms. Star-Lack described how the bike plan is helpful for project planning for other 33 departments. 34 APPROVED APPROVED 8 Commissioner Kleinhaus wondered how they could incorporate trees into the plan, how 1 they treat them and whether there is conflict between Urban Forest and the plan as it is 2 being developed. She commented that planting native trees would be good where 3 possible and that shade was important for pedestrians, as well. She requested they bring 4 that discussion back next time if they have more information. 5 Mr. Arce described possible conflicts between goals of bicycle facilities and Urban 6 Forestry at high level. He thought they would be looking at a tree canopy, but he did not 7 know if it drilled down to specific sites that try to clear Urban Forestry for bicycle 8 facilities. Urban Canopy could come into play providing shade opportunities for more 9 pleasant rides encouraging bicycle trips. 10 Commissioner Greenfield asked if natural elements are included as part of the 11 infrastructure discussion and inventory. 12 Mr. Arce believed the canopy would be included if they have a mapping layer for it. 13 Council Member Veenker asked when she could expect the discussion of Open Space 14 and E-bikes to come back to Council. 15 Commissioner Greenfield answered they have an active ad-hoc working on reviewing 16 the E-bike policy. He estimated they are looking to come back to the Commission with 17 recommendations after meeting with Transportation Staff in the spring. 18 19 6. Golf Annual Report – Lam Do – Discussion – (45 min) 20 Lam Do, Community Services Department, provided a slide presentation on the golf 21 course discussing the course re-design, renovation and re-opening, the financial 22 performance and course play, golfer residency, golf clubs and youth programs, details on 23 the First Tee program, issues and challenges of the golf course and current and prior 24 awards and recognitions. 25 Commissioner Kleinhaus asked for clarification as to why the expansion of the Wetlands 26 is on track, but mitigation is not and what needs to be done for monitoring to happen. 27 She wanted to schedule a discussion of the prioritization of the mitigation issue to 28 possibly include the City Attorney. 29 Lynn C. wanted to know when the five-year period of monitoring would begin and how 30 the mitigation was going to happen. She thought the cut-throughs could be addressed 31 with something like a stairwell. She wondered what caused the decline in finances that 32 was presented in the budget. 33 APPROVED APPROVED 9 Mr. Do answered that one of the mitigation requirements for the golf course was to 1 expand the size of Wetlands onsite and that did occur. A monitoring program of the 2 Wetlands is required, and the golf course has not completed that. As a result, they are in 3 discussions with the State Water Board regarding getting the monitoring going. They are 4 working with ecology consultants, as well. One key step would be establishing a current 5 baseline to where they should be to understand what needs to be done to meet the 6 requirements. The mitigation was expected to start when the golf course was completed. 7 They will report back to the Commission when they have the exact timeline. 8 Chair Brown suggested the mitigation prioritization issue could be a regular department 9 report so the Commission is apprised of the status, and they could look to agendize 10 further discussions as necessary. 11 Commissioner Greenfield shared Commissioner Kleinhaus’ concern and wondered if the 12 Commission should consider agendizing an action to send a direct message to City 13 Council out of concern for the damage that is being done. 14 Commissioner Kleinhaus added that one of the goals of the project was to enhance the 15 habitat in that area. That was supposed to happen by the expansion of the Wetlands 16 which was a required mitigation but there was also a goal and a statement that the 17 canopy would be restored within 15 years. She did not believe that the canopy would 18 ever be fully restored and thought they should look at potentially planting more trees. 19 Mr. Do stated he would bring that suggestion up with his colleagues. 20 Commissioner Cribbs expressed concern about the communication with the Water 21 Board, the future and if there is a deadline or penalty. She suggested putting a date on the 22 calendar to get something understood. She wanted to know when the First Tee plans 23 would go to Council and how many girls would be participating. 24 Mr. Do answered 41% of 300 would be girls participating. He stated the discussion of 25 First Tee currently focuses on an interim agreement to be shared with the representative 26 at the end of the current week and once that is formalized, they will work on a long-term 27 agreement. He provided a brief overview of the First Tee program. 28 Commissioner Wei wanted to know the criteria for the decreasing ranking and how the 29 Stanford Golf Course compares to the municipal ones. 30 Mr. Do commented that they are up against newly remodeled and redeveloped courses 31 and the voting has been given opportunity to recognize other courses which downplays 32 their course. They are also being ranked against private courses, as well. He did not think 33 sustainability was a factor in the rankings. 34 APPROVED APPROVED 10 Commissioner Oche was curious to know about sustainability goals. She wondered if 1 they could explore more opportunities to partner with Community Partners serving 2 seniors, what ages are covered in the Summer Golf Camp and what the corresponding 3 fees would be. For the sake of equity, she wondered what PA schools are covered in the 4 First Tee program and what criteria was used to choose which ones to partner with. 5 Mr. Do said one key feature of the design of the course was the ability to use more 6 recycled water. There is some discussion of seeing if the golf course can further use 7 more recycled water based on the potential of having a higher quality of recycled water 8 in the future. There has been a focus on youth programming, but he stated he would 9 work with his colleagues and the golf course operator to see if there are opportunities to 10 expand in programs to reach out to senior organizations. The First Tee’s outreach at local 11 schools is a voluntary program of the schools. The determination to participate is 12 whether the curriculum First Tee proposes fits the need of the school. Eight schools 13 participate at this time, and they hope for more to come on board but there is a limitation 14 in that there is only so much on-course teaching they can do. 15 Matt Molloy, VP of Operations, provided a description of the golf camps. He provided a 16 link on the Baylands website for application information. 17 Commissioner Kleinhaus wanted to know the proportion of the debt service and if it was 18 influenced by recent changes in interest rates. 19 Mr. Do said the proportion of the debt service was not influenced by recent changes in 20 interest rates. They are locked in unless the debt is refinanced. Of the $3.8M, 21 approximately $371K or $375K of that was debt service. The payment plan fluctuates 22 according to a payment schedule. It is currently about 10 percent of the overall 23 expenditures. The future payment schedule will increase based on a payment plan that is 24 structured. 25 Chair Brown suggested exploring what Staff would need to get an estimate on what 26 would be needed to execute the plan on a future agenda. 27 Mr. Do thought communication through the golf liaison would be appropriate and would 28 be more of a near-term update. Regarding the timeline to go back to the full 29 Commission, he imagined it could be two to three months, but they could be in 30 communication during the process to determine future agendas. 31 Council Member Veenker felt it would be helpful to know what is needed in terms of 32 timing and resources to move forward with the plan. 33 Mr. Do responded the necessary resources are being identified from a budget 34 perspective. They are currently working with consultants, as well. He reiterated that it is 35 APPROVED APPROVED 11 a priority, but progress has been slow because they have not nailed down the ideal 1 appropriate steps to get there. The prior requirements that could be modified or replaced 2 are being addressed to meet the same end goal. 3 4 7. Ad Hoc Committees and Liaison Updates – Chair – Discussion – (15 min) 5 Commissioner Kleinhaus spoke about the electronic bicycle ad-hoc. She and Vice Chair 6 Freeman have spoken to people using bicycles in the Baylands and Arastradero trying to 7 identify where additional bike parking would be helpful. There had been direction from 8 Council to look at trails in Arastradero and Baylands to see whether some additional 9 prohibitions should be implemented on bicycles or horses. They did not find a need for a 10 lot of changes. They looked at places where some bike parking infrastructure could be 11 added. As soon as they have had the opportunity to speak to B/PAC they will bring their 12 presentation to the Commission. 13 Commissioner Cribbs announced that the principal at Fletcher says pickleball is doing 14 very well indoors and they are content to have it continue that way. The Palo Alto 15 Recreation Foundation contributed some funds to the Martin Luther King Day event. 16 The Friends of Palo Alto Park are ready to open a bucket for funding for the skatepark 17 but are awaiting the result of the traffic study. They are also interested in seeing if the 18 restrooms at the Magical Bridge at Mitchell Park can be moved up in the CIP planning. 19 They hope for arrangements to bring in Porta Potties until the Magical Bridge restrooms 20 are updated or fixed. The Aquatics report was that there are now bike racks at the 21 entrance to Rinconada Pool. She announced the Wellness Center had a community 22 meeting the previous Wednesday. Vice Chair Freeman, Commissioner Oche and she 23 were able to make comments about the presentation before it was used and felt they 24 provided a lot of value. There would be a tape available. The issue for now is where the 25 site will go. Fundraising will begin when they have more information on that, hopefully 26 the following month. 27 Commissioner Greenfield spoke in detail about changes to the Title 8 Tree Ordinance 28 approved by City Council the previous Tuesday. He shared updates from a meeting of 29 the Foothills Stakeholder Group earlier in the month. 30 Commissioner Oche stated she had minimal updates for Sustainability and Age Friendly 31 but hoped to have more at the next meeting. She said they are having ongoing 32 correspondence regarding recreation programs to meet the workplan goal that was set at 33 their team discussion the prior year and she hoped there would be more progress in the 34 coming weeks. 35 APPROVED APPROVED 12 Commissioner Wei talked about the Youth Council liaison and discussed ideas they had 1 for engaging the teens with recreation activities. She spoke about engaging the Silicon 2 Valley Community Foundation regarding the grounds required for the Mitchell Park 3 Magical Bridge bathroom, Foothills Interpretive Center redo and the Buckeye Creek 4 restoration. 5 Commissioner Greenfield talked about a webinar entitled “Creating and Sustaining 6 Denser Greener Cities” put on by Canopy. He offered to get a video link to share it with 7 the Commission. 8 9 COMMISSIONER/BOARD MEMBER QUESTIONS, COMMENTS, 10 ANNOUNCEMENTS, OR FUTURE AGENDA ITEMS 11 12 Chair Brown talked about adding the Recreation Wellness Center update for February. 13 14 Commissioner Kleinhaus suggested having a CEQA training for all Boards, 15 Commissions, Committees, and Council that work on land use. 16 17 Chair Brown stated they would have the Bicycle and Pedestrian Transportation Plan 18 Group back in March or April. 19 20 Commissioner Greenfield discussed adding discussion of the timing of the election of the 21 Chair and Vice Chair for the Commission as a potential agenda item. 22 23 Council Member Veenker thought the timing of the election would be an issue for Policy 24 and Services. 25 26 27 ADJOURNMENT 28 29 Meeting adjourned at 10:30 P.M. 30