HomeMy WebLinkAbout2020-01-28 Parks & Recreation Agenda PacketADA. The City of Palo Alto does not discriminate against individuals with disabilities. To request accommodations, auxiliary aids or services to access City facilities, services or programs, to participate at public meetings, or to learn about the City's compliance with the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) of 1990, may contact 650-329-2550 (voice), or e-mail ada@cityofpaloalto.org This agenda is posted in accordance with government code section 54954.2(a) or section 54956. Members of the public are welcome to attend this public meeting.
AGENDA IS POSTED IN ACCORDANCE
WITH GOVERNMENT CODE SECTION
54954.2(a) OR SECTION 54956 PARKS AND RECREATION COMMISSION January 28, 2020 AGENDA City Hall Chambers 250 Hamilton 7pm *In accordance with SB 343 materials related to an item on this Agenda submitted to the Commission after distribution of the agenda packet are available for public inspection at the Lucie Stern Community Center at 1305 Middlefield Road during normal business hours. Please call 650-463-4912.
Attention Speakers: If you wish to address the Commission during oral communications or on an item on the agenda,
please complete a speaker’s card and give it to City staff. By submitting the speaker’s card, the Chair will recognize you at
the appropriate time.
I. ROLL CALL II. AGENDA CHANGES, REQUESTS, DELETIONS III. ORAL COMMUNICATIONS
Members of the public may address the Commission on any subject not on the agenda. A reasonable time
restriction may be imposed at the discretion of the Chair. The Commission reserves the right to limit oral
communications period to 3 minutes. IV. DEPARTMENT REPORT
V. BUSINESS 1. Election of new Chair and Vice Chair – Vice Chair Jeff Greenfield – Action (15 min) 2. Approval of Draft Minutes from the December 10, 2019 Special Parks and Recreation Commission
Meeting – PRC Chair – Action (5 min) ATTACHMENT
3. Presentation on Pollinator gardens in Palo Alto – Juanita Salisbury – Informational (30 min) ATTACHMENT 4. North Ventura Coordinated Area Plan and Matadero Creek Study Update – Chitra Moitra – Discussion (30 min) ATTACHMENT
5. Boulware Park Renovation Project Update – Peter Jensen – Discussion (30 min) ATTACHMENT
6. Other Ad Hoc Committee and Liaison Updates – Chair – Discussion (15 min) ATTACHMENT VI. TENTATIVE AGENDA FOR FEBRUARY 26, 2020 MEETING
VII. COMMENTS AND ANNOUCEMENTS VIII. ADJOURNMENT
PUBLIC LETTERS
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3 4 MINUTES 5 PARKS & RECREATION COMMISSION 6 SPECIAL MEETING 7 December 10, 2019 8 CITY HALL 9 250 Hamilton Avenue 10 Palo Alto, California 11 12 Commissioners Present: Anne Cribbs, Jeff Greenfield, Jeff LaMere, Ryan McCauley, Don 13 McDougall, David Moss, and Keith Reckdahl 14
Commissioners Absent: None 15
Others Present: Council Member Cormack 16
Staff Present: Daren Anderson, Catherine Bourquin 17
I. ROLL CALL 18
[The Commission heard agenda items in the following order: III, V.1, V.2, II, IV, V.3, 19
V.4, V.5, V.6, V.7, and V.8.] 20
II. AGENDA CHANGES, REQUESTS, and DELETIONS 21
Daren Anderson: Chair, may I revisit the agenda changes? One of the presenters for the 22
aquatics is not here. I'm wondering if we could switch golf before it. 23
Chair McDougall: Yes. 24
III. ORAL COMMUNICATIONS 25
Chair McDougall: With that, we'll do Oral Communications, subjects that are not on the 26
agenda and that people would like to speak to. Amy, I'm going to let you go first. 27
Amy Lauterbach: I'm Amy Lauterbach. I've lived a block from Cubberley for the last 35 28 years. About three years ago, walking to the library I discovered pickleball, and I within 29 15 minutes was completely hooked, and I've been playing nearly every day for the last 30 three years. Yesterday, I joined the Palo Alto Pickleball Club Board of Directors. 31 Today, I'm coming here to thank you for the clarity of two of the following guiding 32 principles in the 2017 Master Plan. First, healthy supports the physical and mental health 33
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and well-being of individuals as well as the connectedness and cohesion of the 1
community. Second, inclusive, responsive to the entire Palo Alto community, all ages, 2
abilities, languages, cultures, and levels of income. I personally and the pickleball club 3
as an organization fully embrace those two guiding principles. We will do our best to 4
continue to make the Mitchell Park pickleball courts a welcoming, friendly gathering 5
place for everybody, where everybody can come and thrive. Recently, we started to offer 6
introductory sessions every Sunday and Tuesday evenings at 6:00. We invite you, your 7
families, your friends to come on over Sunday or Tuesday evening at 6:00 and just learn 8 to play pickleball. Thank you so much for the courts, and thank each of you for your 9 service to the community. We truly, deeply appreciate everything you've done for us. 10 Thank you. 11
Chair McDougall: Amy, thank you. David, would you like to say something? 12
Commissioner Moss: As an avid pickleball player, I have been watching this progress, 13 this community building over the past year and a half. It's truly inspiring. I hope we can 14 do this kind of community building in other areas, not just pickleball. You're a very good 15 example for us to follow. Thank you. 16
Chair McDougall: David Levinson. 17
David Levinson: My name is David Levinson. I'm here to speak about aquatics. I've 18
been a member of the Rinconada Masters for 43 years. As you all know, the Rinconada 19
Masters has been disbanded and is being replaced by another club called the Palo Alto 20
Masters. We've been kept in the dark about who the new coach is going to be and just 21
about everything else. Today, I got some alarming news that our workouts are being 22
reduced, the hours. For example, in the morning we have two workouts of an hour and a 23
half each with a 15-minute overlap. The whole thing lasts for 2 1/2 hours. The problem 24
is if we only have an hour to work, the older swimmers such as myself need more warm-25
up than we used to have when we were younger. It gets unhealthy. I came down with 26 atrial fibrillation 15 years ago and had to stop competing. I was an eight-time national 27 champion and All American thanks to the Rinconada coaching. I know a lot about 28 training. If we lose even 15 minutes of warm-up, that means the workout is going to be 29 shorter. Let me explain this to you because most of you are probably not competitive 30 swimmers. We don't just get in and swim back and forth. We do a warm-up, which is 31 easy swimming and kicking and stuff to get loosened. Then, we do intervals on the 32 clock. Instead of swimming, say, 1,000 yards straight, we'll do, say, ten 100s on a given 33 interval and try to hold a certain time, which is a lot better conditioning than just 34 swimming laps. If you start that cold turkey, it could be dangerous for some of the older 35 people. I'm asking you if there's something you can do to get Tim Sheeper to give us 36 back the same hours we currently have for the next two weeks. Other than that, I wish 37
we would be informed about what's going on with the Masters swimming. Everything 38
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comes up by a surprise. It looks like we're getting squeezed down to the point where a lot 1
of people won't bother showing up because, if you have 15 minutes warm-up, 15 minutes 2
warm-down, and 30 minutes of training, that really doesn't do it. 3
Chair McDougall: David, I don't mean to cut you off. I would say fundamentally your 4
time's up. This is also an item on the agenda tonight, and I would invite you to stay and 5
listen to the presentation and the discussion of those items. We need to move on with the 6
rest of the agenda at this point. Thank you very much. Moving on with the agenda if 7
there's no other Oral Communications or citizen comments for subjects not on the 8
agenda. 9
IV. DEPARTMENT REPORT 10
Mr. Anderson: Daren Anderson, Community Services Department. I have a brief 11 Department Report for you. One of the requests was a briefing on the outcome of the 12 7.7-acre community meeting that we held on November 16. We had 15 members of the 13 public attend the meeting. Some of the key feedback included save a cluster of 14 eucalyptus trees. You might remember the plan calls for removing a lot of them. One 15 request that seemed well supported was to save a cluster of three to four of them. Be 16
cautious about bringing in trees and plants from outside our watershed for fear of 17
introducing pathogens was one bit of feedback. An interesting idea was consider 18
removing a strip of the over-burden—that's the 5 feet of soil that was brought in and 19
layered over the valley floor—so that we can see what the original soil bed was like and 20
try that as a little planting interpretive area, which is an interesting idea and 21
implementable. According to the Lee Family members who attended the meeting, 22
Dorothy Lee was the family member responsible for preserving that land. There was a 23
suggestion that we recognize Dorothy Lee's contribution in some way, by naming 24
something after her in that area. Another suggestion was changing the trail from a loop 25
to a single meandering trail and add some habitat and brush piles to serve as wildlife 26 habitat. Another good idea was considering a shade structure. Lastly, make the pathway 27 from the parking lot through the trail accessible to people with mobility challenges was 28 highlighted by several people as an important idea. The next steps on the process for the 29 7.7 acres will be what we've already started doing: checking with Planning to see what 30 kind of CEQA requirements are necessary and next steps on that process. We're getting a 31 price quote from Grassroots Ecology to see what the restoration implementation would 32 cost. We're checking with Public Works staff with extra accessibility experience 33 regarding ideas on how to make that trail accessible while still making it natural, not 34 paving it, if possible, and yet robust enough for a piece of heavy equipment to come in 35 and remove the sediment when necessary. We can find a happy medium, but we're 36 researching the best way to go about that. We're updating the draft restoration plan to 37
reflect the feedback that we heard at the community meeting. This will come back to the 38
Parks Commission for discussion and perhaps action in February and March. The 39
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Baylands Boardwalk was wrapped up six months ago or a little longer. One part that was 1
never fully completed was where the marsh restoration mats were laid down. This was 2
the access point for the equipment to get to the Boardwalk. It caused a depression, about 3
3-4 inches in the marsh. You may remember we had to pull out all the pickleweed from 4
there, put it off to the side, and then bring it back. This depression had to be remedied 5
per the permit. That work is happening right now. They hope to get this completed by 6
the end of December. It might go into January. The idea is they'll bring in a special kind 7
of soil, reseed, and replant. It should blend in nicely with the adjacent pickleweed. There 8 was a question about the—one of the Commissioners asked about cleaning up at the end 9 of the Baylands Boardwalk. That area looks as though people are pitching trash. It's 10 high tide water bringing in trash from the Bay. The trash settles at the high tide mark. 11 It's bottles and balls and tennis balls, that kind of thing. It used to be low enough before 12 the improvement project that the Rangers could jump over the edge and collect all the 13 litter. Now, it's a 10-foot drop or so. We didn't have a new system in place, but we do 14 now. That's borrowing a boat from Public Works. We come around from the sailing 15 station dock to the Boardwalk and collect that trash. We've done that just a week ago. 16
We will have that done on a quarterly basis. We're also in conversation with Surfrider 17
Foundation to adopt the area to help keep it free of trash. They'll have a volunteer day in 18
January or early February to keep that ball rolling and keep that area looking nice and 19
clean. It's such a beautiful view. The last thing we want is it marred with trash. I've 20
been talking a lot about the Ramos Park project community meeting. Unfortunately, it's 21
one of those that kept getting pushed off. I talked to Public Works recently, and they 22
believe they'll have the community meeting in January. The Highway 101 Pedestrian 23
Bridge project should begin in January or early February. The completion date is 24
approximately mid-2021. The 10.5-acre process, the planning process. Staff and the ad 25
hoc committee met with the environmental stakeholders. You might remember that 26 several weeks before that they met with the athletic community and talked over some 27 ideas. They've done similarly with the environmental community. The next step is to go 28 out to bid for a consultant that would help with continuing the public outreach and the 29 design. An update on the Foothills Park access pilot. The next step was for staff to check 30 in with the Planning Department, the City Attorney's Office to talk about CEQA 31 requirements and what comes next. We've made an initial connection, and I'm planning 32 on having a meeting with them in early January to get the full breadth of what kind of 33 CEQA would be required and what that would look like and what it'll mean for the 34 timeframe to implement. I hope to have more information for you at our January meeting 35 on that. A little update on the Boulware Park community meeting. This was held on 36 Saturday, November 18. It was a good showing. It was a 2-hour meeting, and people 37
could drop in. It was held at the park. They were asked to provide input on park 38
facilities that they'd like at Boulware Park and/or at the newly purchased parkland across 39
the street. While this will come to you in January, just a little bit of information. They 40
worked to prioritize with stickers, so you'll have these ratings. The top rating that 41
received 26 of the voters' stickers was the restroom followed by playgrounds of 25, dog 42
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park with 22, open turf area with 18, basketball court with 18, group picnic area 14, 1
security lighting with 14 stickers, and habitat-native planting area with 13 stickers. 2
Those were the top vote-getters. The game plan is to take the feedback from the 3
community, create a conceptual plan, have another community meeting also in January, 4
and then come to the January Commission meeting and share that feedback and what they 5
had to say about the conceptual plan. There's also an online feedback option. If anyone 6
were to Google "Palo Alto Boulware Park project," it'll pull up the project page. There's 7
an online survey that you can take. That concludes the Department Report. 8
Chair McDougall: Are there any questions? 9
Commissioner Moss: When the 101 bridge is started, do they have to be careful when in 10 the year they do the work on the eastern side due to tides or bird nesting or whatever? 11
Mr. Anderson: I'm confident that there will be elements of the project that will not be 12 able to happen, especially the marsh landing sites, during bird nesting season. I'm sure 13 there will be lots of restrictions built around that time period. I haven't seen the schedule 14 yet to see how it's laid out and what they're going to time. I'll be glad to share that with 15 you when I get it. 16
Commissioner Moss: Do you want to say anything about the Baylands signage meeting 17
that was held two or three days ago, or do you want me to mention it later? 18
Mr. Anderson: If you wouldn't mind, it'd be very helpful if you would. 19
Chair McDougall: Are there any other questions? 20
Vice Chair Greenfield: When the 101 bridge work starts, the underpass will be closed at 21
that time? 22
Mr. Anderson: That's correct. 23
Vice Chair Greenfield: Some time in January or February the underpass will be closed 24
for … 25
Mr. Anderson: If it's not already because of the rainy season. I believe it is. 26
Vice Chair Greenfield: It'll be closed for roughly a year and a half. I had a question 27 regarding the CEQA discussion regarding Foothills Park access. What work does staff 28 need to do before this issue could go to Council for approval to move forward with work? 29
Mr. Anderson: That's one I'd lean on the Planning Department to give me guidance. I 30 should know more soon. I can inform the ad hoc right away. At the November meeting, 31 I'll have a briefing for the whole Commission. 32
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Chair McDougall: If there are no other comments, I'll comment. It sounds like you 1
didn't have a huge turnout, but a decent turnout for the 7.7 acres. I really like the idea 2
that there was real community involvement and lots of ideas. I know we talked about the 3
CEQA access before, but the fact that that's been reinforced and encouraged is great. I'll 4
admit that I was the one complaining about the garbage. Thank you for that. It's great 5
that they went out and cleaned that up. The fact that you're looking at a partnership 6
relationship with the Surf people to adopt that area, just like you adopt a piece of 7
highway or something, is really spectacular. That's the kind of relationship that the City 8 should be interested in. The Boulware Park exercise with all the dots, especially since 9 you allowed people multiple dots, still seemed to be representative of what people were 10 saying. Thank you for that. Thank you for the update and report. Before we do that, 11 unless there are other people here for the golf, I'm going to suggest that we go back to the 12 original order since I've suggested to Mr. Levinson that he should stay and listen to the 13 swimming part since he's here. Would you mind if we went back to the original order? 14
Mr. Anderson: Can I confirm if we have our other presenter real quick? We're missing 15 one of the presenters for the … 16
Chair McDougall: I thought … 17
Mr. Anderson: We can go back to the swimming. 18
Chair McDougall: Let's go back to the swimming presentation first. 19
V. BUSINESS 20
1. Approval of Draft Minutes from the October 22, 2019 Parks and Recreation 21
Commission meeting. 22
Approval of the draft October 22, 2019 Minutes was moved by Commissioner Reckdahl 23
and seconded by Vice Chair Greenfield. Passed 7-0 24
2. Approval of Draft Minutes form the November 12, 2019 Parks and 25 Recreation Commission meeting. 26
Approval of the draft November 12, 2019 Minutes was moved by Commissioner 27 Reckdahl and seconded by Commissioner Cribbs. Passed 7-0 28
3. Aquatics Performance Update 29
Jazmin LeBlanc: Thank you. My name is Jazmin LeBlanc. I'm with the Community 30 Services Department. I'm joined by Tim Sheeper. He leads the group Team Sheeper that 31 we work with for our aquatics programming. I will begin with a presentation, and then 32 Tim actually has a couple of slides that he'll share with you all. We will both be open for 33
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questions. This is a performance update on our aquatics program at Rinconada Pool, 1
looking at this calendar year. In 2017, we entered into a public-private partnership with 2
Team Sheeper to help us manage our aquatics operations at Rinconada Pool. Our 3
program goals were to expand programming, improve customer service, and alleviate 4
long-term staffing shortages at the pool. We feel that we've made a lot of strides in all of 5
these areas. I'll speak to some of the highlights that we've seen over the course of this last 6
calendar year. We've seen in both last year and this year growth in many of our program 7
areas. We have increased lap swim hours pretty dramatically if you compare it to prior to 8 working with Team Sheeper. Even as compared with last year, lap swim hours have 9 grown a little bit over the course of a given week. Because of that probably, we have 10 about 28 percent more lap swim participation and 35 percent more open swim 11 participation over the course of this last year. We have seen dramatic growth in our swim 12 camps, which have been really popular during the summer and even in the spring for 13 spring break camps. In terms of customer service, we're still seeing very high satisfaction 14 rates among lap swimmers with over 90 percent of lap swimmers reporting that they are 15 satisfied or extremely satisfied with how the pool is operating. We still see, I would say, 16
strong satisfaction with the swimming lesson participants but not at the same level as the 17
lap swimmers. There were a lot of specific points of feedback that were given to Team 18
Sheeper's staff through the customer surveys. Palo Alto Swim and Sport has a variety of 19
plans in place for this coming season of swim school to try to get those numbers up and 20
make sure that they're as high as the lap swim. Tim is available to speak to those more in 21
detail if you'd like to find out. Here you can see one of the things that is likely to 22
improve that customer service for swim school participation, expand the season a little bit 23
more so that they can get an even better group of instructors at the pool just to ensure that 24
that consistency is really great day over day for everyone who's coming in for lessons. 25
They'll also be doing more instructor training and make sure there's a lot of oversight on 26 the pool deck and developing an adult learn to swim program because there's definitely 27 demand for that in our community. Additionally, Team Sheeper is hoping to be able to 28 start an in-water exercise program, which we've tried in the past. It's something that 29 would be nice to try again. As you all know, our Rinconada Masters program is changing 30 because our longtime coach, Carole MacPherson, is retiring at the end of this year. Team 31 Sheeper will begin a new Masters program at the pool, which we think is going to uphold 32 the legacy that Carole built over so many years at the pool and continues to grow and 33 expand that program. There will be lots of lap swim hours, and that's growing. There 34 should be even more lap swim hours, which is going to keep that satisfaction rate high. 35 That is the end of my slide deck. 36
Tim Sheeper: This is our logo for the new Palo Alto Masters. The logo depicts, in my 37
vision, what the pool is about. It is a beautiful facility ringed by beautiful sequoia 38
redwood trees. I wanted to put that into the logo and have it feel like it's relaxing, 39
comfortable, and inviting. That's what the pool feels like to me, so I wanted that to come 40
through in the type of logo that we've designed. The URL is underneath it, and that's 41
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where all the new and detailed information lies on the Palo Alto swim website. There's 1
been some question about what kind of team is it going to be, how is it going to be run, 2
who's going to run it, who is it going to cater to, and just a lot of unknowns from the 3
general community and from the Rinconada Masters community. The easiest way for me 4
to answer that is just going back to our company core values. Those are the five 5
company core values that I base my decisions on and I base my planning on. The new 6
Palo Alto Masters is going to fall right underneath that. We're going to focus on safety, 7
trust, servant heart, warrior spirit, and we're going to be fun and friendly. We're just 8 going to build a team that is both members from the legacy group of the Rinconada 9 Masters and welcome new members. The goals of this new Palo Alto Masters are to 10 welcome everyone in the community onto the team, legacy members and new members. 11 We're going to really work on bridging new swimmers; bridge people who have recently 12 learned to swim into a pre-Masters program and then onto the Masters swimming 13 community. There will be growth organically through word of mouth through the 14 community and some driven growth from our company. These are the steps that we're 15 using to move forward in this project. We are establishing a strong leadership, a lead 16
coach. We've been interviewing candidates, and we are pretty excited because we 17
believe we have found somebody. We put out an offer to them just today. We'll see how 18
that turns out. Once we have that lead coach in position, we'll work with that lead coach 19
as we build a support staff around them. We wanted that lead coach to be involved in 20
that process. We'll do a community outreach and a kickoff and a launch, and we'll see if 21
we can create some sizzle around the new program, just make it a complete community 22
gathering. I'm open to all questions about the report, about the Palo Alto Masters in 23
general or specifics. 24
Chair McDougall: Do we have any questions? 25
Commissioner Moss: What is servant heart and warrior spirit? 26
Mr. Sheeper: The way I explain servant heart to new staff members is it's helping 27 somebody before they need to ask. If somebody's walking into the pool with a stroller 28 and bags and trying to manage that, you go open the door for them before they need to 29 ask. Warrior spirit is a drive to win or succeed and doing all things that are necessary to 30 make that happen in a positive sense. 31
Commissioner Moss: When you talk about bridging new to swimming individuals, 32 you're not talking about only competitors competing but more like exercise or lap 33 swimming. Is that right? 34
Mr. Sheeper: I'm actually talking about people who right now don't know how to swim. 35 Starting with an adult learn to swim program, which is a great need in this community, 36 not just in Palo Alto but in the region as a whole. It's not really addressed. It's not easy, 37
and it's not accessible. Starting with that and really developing that in Palo Alto, and 38
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then giving that new swimmer a place to strive to, to land on. Going from a learn to 1
swim program to a bridge program, which would be a pre-Masters program, and then into 2
a Masters program. One of the misconceptions about Masters programs is that 3
everybody's competitive. It's truly not that. It's just a place for people to come together 4
and share the love of swimming. We just want to open that window up a little bit wider 5
for people in the community. 6
Commissioner Moss: I'm comparing it to the pickleball community of everybody, all 7
ages, trying to get better at playing pickleball and having fun. 8
Mr. Sheeper: That's what it's all about. It's people finding something that is a passion 9 and that they have in common. 10
Commissioner Moss: One of the speakers before was talking about how much time you 11 give the competitive swimmers to warm up and do what they need to do. How does this 12 compare with the amount of time that the Burgess Masters swim program has? Do you 13 give them the same amount of time in the water? 14
Mr. Sheeper: What I think I'm hearing you say is that the Rinconada Masters were 15 scheduled for 90-minute workouts. A majority of the workouts for the Palo Alto Masters 16
are scheduled for 60 minutes. In my experience—I've been doing this for 30 years and 17
more focused on Masters swimming—I have found that most Masters like about 40 18
minutes. That's usually what's really good for a lot of people. The way we have it 19
structured is there's 60-minute workouts, they're focused, and there's a period of time 20
between these 60-minute workouts where they could do two 60-minute workouts if they 21
want to extend their period of time. For instance, in the morning we start at 5:45 and go 22
to 6:45. There's a 15-minute break, and then we start another one at 7:00. There could be 23
two workouts put together if somebody wants to stay for an extended period of time. It's 24
quite often done. 25
Commissioner Moss: Is there time for people to warm-up before the 60 minutes start or 26
is it programmed up to the … 27
Mr. Sheeper: Not at 5:45 because the pool is just opening, and the workout is just 28 starting. At other times, yes, of course. 29
Commissioner Moss: Legacy members versus new members, what percentage have you 30 seen so far? Has there been a smooth transition or are you seeing a mass exodus or are 31 you seeing new people? 32
Mr. Sheeper: There's been no transition yet. This is all conceptual. We're still putting 33 together our pieces. Rinconada Masters is still operating, and they will be operating until 34 the 31st. We'll start up the following week. I don't know the answer to that question yet. 35
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I don't know what they're feeling. I will get more information on Sunday when I go out 1
and meet with the group. All this information has been shared with them or will be 2
shared with them. It's up to Carole to send that out to them. They could ask any and all 3
questions on Sunday. 4
Commissioner Moss: The Rinconada Masters for almost 50 years has a legacy in the 5
competitive world. What will happen this next year when they start competing with a 6
new name? I'm concerned about saving the history and the legacy. 7
Mr. Sheeper: I don't see any change. It's the same community. There will be a lot of the 8 same people with a lot of the same focus. There will be a different name on the swim 9 cap. The Rinconada Masters is owned by Carole MacPherson. That's her business. Palo 10 Alto Masters is just a new name. 11
Commissioner Moss: I didn't know that. 12
Chair McDougall: Does anybody else have any questions? 13
Commissioner Reckdahl: I was looking through the packet … 14
Chair McDougall: Keith, before you start, Mr. Levinson, you're been patient to wait. 15 Tim wasn't here when you made your statement. I'm not going to ask you to make your 16
statement all over again. I'm going to ask you, while Keith's talking, if you have one 17
thing that you would like to mention, I'll allow you to mention one thing. That's outside 18
the way this normally works. In respect for the fact that you've been here, I'll give you a 19
chance to ask one question or say one thing, but not go through the same speech. Thank 20
you. 21
Commissioner Reckdahl: I was looking through the packet. On page 20, the numbers all 22
look good. The lap swim and member visits all are up. The swim school is down. 23
What's the story with that? It's down by 13 percent and 10 percent. 24
Mr. Sheeper: It could be a lot of reasons. I don't know exactly why. One of the reasons 25
is our summer camps doubled. They went up a lot. Within our summer swim camps, we 26 give swim lessons. The way we promote the summer camps is we say, "Sign up your 27 kids for summer camp, and they get a 45-minute swim lesson every day, and they get to 28 be in the water." It's possibly that instead of the parent coming in and bringing their kid 29 in for a 30-minute lesson, they're coming into the camp to get lessons, so they could have 30 diluted that number. That's one possibility. 31
Commissioner Reckdahl: The camps did increase by 350, but the swim school lost about 32 1,000. I don't see that fully explaining that. 33
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Mr. Sheeper: It doesn't because I don't know exactly why. Another possible reason is 1
our satisfaction ratings were a lot lower than I would have liked to have seen. That could 2
be for a lot of different reasons too. One of the reasons is we had a leadership staffing 3
change about two weeks before the season started, two to three weeks. It was a new 4
leader coming in. It took time for them to adjust to a leadership role and a new pool and 5
working with a new team, so on and so forth. Another thing could be the challenges with 6
quality control in a seasonal program. The challenge that we work with is hiring new 7
staff when they're available right after high school or right after college. When they get 8 out of school is the same time that the swim lessons start. It's a very short period to get 9 them up to a high-level quality to give a good lesson. One of the things that we're going 10 to attempt to do this year is expand the season from seven months to ten months to try to 11 get a more sustainable, long-term staff so we have good, solid teachers in the water all the 12 time and we move away from relying a lot on seasonal staff and these short-term, 13 temporary staff. The staff become good, but it does take them four to five weeks to get to 14 that point. We're trying to overcome that. That's something we haven't experienced 15 because we've run year-round programs. We're trying to find the answers because we're 16
not satisfied with that, what we've seen. 17
Commissioner Reckdahl: The swim school is taught by high school students or these 18
college-age … 19
Mr. Sheeper: It's taught by all ranges. We have some high school students, yes. We 20
have some college students. We have some people in their 50s and 60s teaching lessons 21
as well. 22
Commissioner Reckdahl: If these are first-time teachers, do you have some 23
instructional—do you teach the teachers beforehand? 24
Mr. Sheeper: Yeah, absolutely, yeah. They go through our proprietary structure. We 25
teach them how to teach. 26
Commissioner Reckdahl: I was looking through the comments. Overall the comments 27 were good. There were some comments about the swimsuit spinners breaking. Is that 28 your responsibility or is that the City's? Whose job is it to keep that working? 29
Mr. Sheeper: It's all of our responsibilities. It's up to us to find out that they're broken 30 from the users and relay that information to the City. You have to work with a company, 31 which there is only one company out there, which is Suit Made. It's not always quick, so 32 you have to—to get a new one, you have to send them back the old one. It's an exchange 33 process. Suit spinners are great for the user, but for the operator no matter what pool you 34 go to … 35
Commissioner Reckdahl: The pool I go to, it's down quite often. 36
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Mr. Sheeper: They're a thorn in our sides. 1
Commissioner Reckdahl: Can't we buy a spare one and have one in the back closet. If it 2
breaks, we can replace it and ship the broken one? 3
Mr. Sheeper: I love that thinking. 4
Ms. LeBlanc: We can look into what that would take. 5
Commissioner Reckdahl: Some of the comments are saying it's been broken for weeks. I 6
can see people being frustrated. 7
Mr. Sheeper: It does take sometimes three to six weeks. 8
Commissioner Reckdahl: I can see it would be a finicky device because it is spinning 9 very fast. Whose job is it to order that and repair that? Is that the City's or is that yours? 10
Mr. Sheeper: It's Public Works. 11
Commissioner Reckdahl: Whose responsibility would it be to look into getting a spare 12 one? Is that Jazmin's? 13
Ms. LeBlanc: That will be me, yes. 14
Commissioner Reckdahl: Overall things look very good. Revenue is up. Member visits 15 are up. Everything's looking good. The one thing I'm not happy about is the fact that 16
Masters apparently is unhappy again. Every year, it seems to be the Groundhog Day. 17
We come in, everything looks good except Masters is unhappy. Why are the Masters 18
always being shortened? Is it just your guess or did you talk to the Masters? Was there 19
feedback that prompted you to shorten these? 20
Mr. Sheeper: I did not talk to the Rinconada Masters before the decision was made. It 21
was made not just by me but our team. Not the Masters team but the executive team who 22
discusses these things. Like I said, it comes from experience, from being a Masters coach 23
for over 30 years and watching adult swimmers swim. Mr. Levinson is a top-level 24
swimmer and has been for his entire life. I understand his desire for a 90-minute 25
workout. It's something that he's quite used to. That's why I put our core values up there. 26 One of those is trust. What I don't believe the Rinconada Masters have in our operations 27 is the trust yet. Over time and with some ability to operate the program and show what 28 can be done in 60 minutes, our desire to meet all needs, just not the needs of the highest 29 competitor or the beginner level, but to span the range of everybody's needs. If we come 30 to a point where we need to offer more 90-minute workouts, that's on the table, but we 31 have to start somewhere. Most Masters teams and most Masters coaches are around the 32
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60-minute level. That's how we landed on that but keeping the 90 minutes for the 1
weekends. 2
Commissioner Reckdahl: I think it's outside our scope to dictate whether we should be 3
60- or 90-minute workouts. What I want to see is better collaboration, better 4
communication. If the Masters program feels like they're being told what to do without 5
any input, I can see that going over very poorly. If you can work with them and find out 6
what they need and how can you both get your desires, that's a much better way of 7
running the program. 8
Mr. Sheeper: Yes, 100 percent agreed. We're entering in a new relationship with these 9 swimmers where I'll have the opportunity to collaborate with them and to hear the 10 feedback straight from them without any filters. 11
Commissioner Reckdahl: I'm looking forward to that. 12
Mr. Sheeper: Me too. 13
Chair McDougall: Anybody else? Let me give Mr. Levinson the opportunity that I told 14 him I'd give him. I hope that so far you've heard some positive at least intentions. If you 15 could just focus your comments, I'd appreciate it. 16
Mr. Levinson: My main concern is with the reduction of the workouts from one and a 17
half hours to an hour. I'm not a lead swimmer anymore. Fifteen years ago, I got atrial 18
fibrillation, so now I'm in the geriatric ward with good stroke mechanics. The problem is 19
when I was younger I could do those 60-minute workouts and get in 4,000 yards because 20
I didn't need to warm-up much. Now, I have to swim in the 5:45 group. I can't come 21
later because I still work. I'm also speaking for other people my age. By the time I get 22
warmed up, that's the first 15 minutes, and then you do the workout. I understand we 23
now have 15 minutes between 6:45 and 7:00, which I can warm down. If we could give 24
us back at least 15 more minutes to give us time to warm-up because I could go into atrial 25
fibrillation if I start swimming intervals without getting cranked up first. It takes longer 26 than it used to when I was young. We used to do workouts like that too 30 years ago. 27 I'm going to be 70 soon. I need that warm-up and I need the workout that comes after the 28 warm-up. That's all I have. 29
Chair McDougall: Thank you very much. 30
Vice Chair Greenfield: Regarding staffing, the report said you have an annual workforce 31 of 114 people. I was curious how many of these people are full-time versus part-time and 32 how many of the full-time people have been carried over. How much continuous staff do 33 you have? Also, is this staff shared across other facilities? 34
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Mr. Sheeper: I don't have the exact numbers to give you that. I'm going to ballpark it for 1
you. There is some sharing, but not that much. We like to be able to have the staff who's 2
here really get used to the community, the pool, and keep them here. It's only when we 3
have other holes, then we have that ability to cross over. The full-time staff may be 15 or 4
20. The rest are part-time. 5
Vice Chair Greenfield: The part-time are seasonal staff primarily or not necessarily? 6
Mr. Sheeper: There's year-round part-time. You'll have teenagers who are in school, 7
either college or high school, helping out on nights and weekends. 8
Vice Chair Greenfield: Do we have any numbers in terms of retention rate of the part-9 time staff or how many of the seasonal staff return summer after summer, that kind of 10 thing? I know you probably don't have it off the top of your head, but if that's 11 information you could work on compiling (crosstalk). 12
Mr. Sheeper: To add to the next, most definitely. It's a newer staff because it's our 13 second summer. We're still developing our relationship with the workforce in Palo Alto. 14 Right now, we're really pleased with the mixture that we have in our leadership team. 15 We're pretty excited about that. We think there's going to be a much higher return rate 16
for our part-time and seasonal staff, which will make it a lot easier and smoother for us as 17
an operator and the community as the receivers of the service. 18
Vice Chair Greenfield: That sounds great. Perhaps there are going to be some goals or 19
targets to have some sort of retention levels (crosstalk). 20
Mr. Sheeper: It's internal. We have that as goals. 21
Vice Chair Greenfield: I didn't notice any information regarding costs of the services for 22
people entering the pool in the different programs. I don't know if that's something that 23
should be part of the annual report or if that's covered separately. I'm curious what the 24
numbers are from '18 to '19 and projections for '20. 25
Mr. Sheeper: They're staying the same. That wasn't asked for in the report. Maybe that's 26 something that we take note of. There's not going to be any change from '19 to '20. 27 Everything is remaining constant. 28
Vice Chair Greenfield: That's great to hear. Even if there aren't any changes, it would be 29 helpful to remind us what the charges are. You've done a great job with your surveys of 30 your pool users. It seems like it'd be perhaps helpful to survey the Rinconada Masters 31 team as you're working to establish your Palo Alto Masters program and get some direct 32 feedback. Some written feedback could be helpful for people who are shy about 33 speaking in a public meeting as you work to develop (crosstalk). 34
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Mr. Sheeper: Into next year, yeah, very simple. 1
Vice Chair Greenfield: On the suit spinners, maybe we could work to have two installed 2
per locker room and hope that one of them is functional all the time rather than having a 3
spare. 4
Commissioner Cribbs: First of all, thank you very much for all the data in the report and 5
all of that. I appreciate all of the comments. It's really nice to have this. I think this is 6
the first time we've really had a report this extensive. It's really helpful to all of us. I 7
wanted to make a couple of swimming comments. I am so happy that you are looking at 8 adult swimming lessons and expanding adult swimming lessons. It's an incredible need 9 not only in our community but in surrounding communities. That just follows that if 10 parents learn to swim, kids will learn to swim too. It's so very important. I'm sure I'm 11 preaching to the choir. Really very glad about that. I was really concerned in the report 12 about the quality and the condition of the locker rooms. I'm hopeful that everybody will 13 work together to figure out how to engage whoever needs to be engaged to have those be 14 cleaner. Those comments we shouldn't have in a report. It's not appropriate. 15
Mr. Sheeper: Just one little add to that. It's the timing of the report. We got a lot of 16
those surveys right after summer and during summer when it's the busiest. The most 17
people are using the pool during that time. We have a ten-week period where the locker 18
rooms are challenged because there are hundreds and hundreds coming through per day. 19
If you go through the locker rooms the other 42 weeks of the year, they're very 20
satisfactory or above satisfactory. 21
Commissioner Cribbs: You're saying it's the time you're doing the survey. If you 22
surveyed now, it would be not those comments. 23
Mr. Sheeper: It wouldn't be for dirty. They'd want it warmer and comfy-er. 24
Commissioner Cribbs: That is very good to know. Since you talked about safety, maybe 25
this isn't appropriate to bring up here, but I'm going to do it anyhow. The starting blocks 26 for the competitive swimmers at Rinconada are in my opinion very wobbly and need to 27 have a good look. Tim, you and I have talked about that on the phone. I don't know how 28 the players are involved, but I'm really worried that we'll have an accident because they 29 are so wobbly. Anything that we can do to look at those blocks, especially lane 5 and 30 lane 6, but just straight across the board and get some impression of the swimmers if they 31 feel uncomfortable. I would have a hard time getting up on those blocks. They wobble 32 once you're up there. Just a thing I wanted to mention. The other thing that I wanted to 33 mention for the record is if we ever drain the pool at Rinconada, it would be good to 34 shave off less than an inch of one side so that when we have competitive swimming 35 metes we can insert touchpads and the swimmers can break records. Right now, given 36 the rules of FINA, which is the governing body, once we put touchpads in Rinconada we 37
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would be able to certify the records. I'm not saying that we should drain the pool right 1
now. I'm saying when we do drain the pool, it would be something to put in the books to 2
have somebody look at to make sure. Records are important to people. That leads me to 3
the last thing about Rinconada Masters. The reason we're all talking about it is because 4
we care so much about the program that was developed here, really the forefront for 5
Masters swimming in California and across the country. There is a long, long history of 6
Masters swimming and leadership and legacy and all of that. This is a bittersweet time. I 7
feel like we as Commissioners and as the City and staff and vendors need to do whatever 8 we can do to continue to have the kind of spirit that I saw at Carole's retirement party on 9 Sunday. It was the epitome of community collaboration and friendship. Pickleball hasn't 10 ascended to that height yet, but they will. I just feel it's really important going forward. I 11 know there's good communication starting, and I'm sure it will continue to go on. 12 Certainly, if any of us can do anything to help, we're very happy to do that because this 13 legacy needs to continue whether it's not Rinconada or it's Palo Alto Masters. It means a 14 lot to people in the community. 15
Chair McDougall: Thank you, Anne, well spoken. 16
Commissioner McCauley: Let me piggyback on Anne's comments. I can't make those 17
comments with the same eloquence and knowledge that Anne can. I can compliment you 18
on the report this year, which was quite well done. It had a lot of good information. 19
Thank you for responding to those comments from past years and putting together a 20
report that was really quite helpful. I'm not going to harp on this because a few other 21
people have already spoken about it. You obviously are very cognizant of where there's 22
room for improvement. It sounds like you're moving in the right direction. I look 23
forward to hearing about the solutions to those problems next year. 24
Chair McDougall: I also hesitate to speak after Anne quite eloquently addressed both 25
technical issues like the wobbles and the passion that's associated with it. I can't help 26 myself. We're not your board of directors, but we are responsible for scarce and valuable 27 resources. In this case, the scarce and valuable resource is the pool time. The good thing 28 in this report is the most frequently used word is more. We have more hours, more 29 swimmers, more lessons. That's really important in here. I congratulate you on that. The 30 other scarce and valuable resource is community spirit. In that, we as a Commission 31 should worry. We as your maybe board of directors should encourage you to want to pay 32 attention to that. It's part of what needs to be considered social infrastructure for the City. 33 That should be important to us. That comes back down to trust. I look at your core 34 values, and servant heart and warrior spirit sound more like a Scottish army than a swim 35 team. Trust is the really important one there. You said it yourself, so I know you're 36 aware that you've got to continue to earn and build that trust. We should reinforce the 37
importance of that. I would go so far as to suggest that it's been really good that we've 38
had this kind of report. If we were your board of directors and you were preparing for a 39
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report, you should look at the report yourself and say, "If I was them, what questions 1
would I ask?" The questions of why 66 percent satisfaction in lessons and the question 2
Keith brought up are obvious questions. I would have hoped you would come saying, "I 3
knew they were going to ask that, and I've got this one nailed." I feel uncomfortable that 4
you didn't. I'm not going to be here, but I would encourage a semi-annual report at some 5
point. Waiting another year, considering the trust issue that needs to be monitored and 6
encouraged and enforced, would be effective. If you anticipated the questions that might 7
come up, which are basically about trust, then that might help you as well as helping us in 8 our responsibility with this scarce and valuable resource. On the other hand, I'd like to 9 thank you both very much for the participation and the quality of the report and the fact 10 that we have data. Now, we can do something with it. That's exciting. Thank you. You 11 can rebut if you want or you can say thank you or goodnight. 12
Mr. Sheeper: I knew that question was going to come. I wish I knew the answer to that 13 question because that question is plaguing our other facilities as well. It's not just Palo 14 Alto. The youth lessons are also down at Burgess pool and at Belle Haven. In the past 15 12 years, the lesson numbers have been growing. In the past 1 1/2 years, the lessons have 16
been declining. If I say I know the answer, I wouldn't be completely frank with you. 17
Chair McDougall: I'm not suggesting that you have to have the answer, but it might have 18
been advantageous for you to say, "By the way, I know you're going to ask this question, 19
and I want you to know I've thought about it. I don't know the answer," rather than 20
waiting for us to ask the question that you know is a serious question. 21
Mr. Sheeper: Now, I understand you. 22
Chair McDougall: Thank you very much. Jazmin, thank you. 23
4. Golf Course Performance Update 24
Chair McDougall: We'll go on with the golf course performance. We have Lam here to 25
help us with that. Welcome, Lam. 26
Lam Do: Good evening, Chair McDougall, fellow members of the Commission, and 27 Council Member Cormack. I'm Lam Do, Superintendent in Open Space, Parks and Golf. 28 I want to say thank you for this opportunity to present to you the City's golf course. I 29 believe this is our third discussion on the golf course since it's renovation and reopening. 30 Thank you for continuing the dialog. This is a brief presentation to accompany the staff 31 report. It's intended to supplement the Q&A session afterward as well. Just a brief 32 background on how we got to this point. In 2012, the course redesign considerations 33 were brought forward to accommodate the San Francisquito Creek levee expansion for 34 flood control measures. The course had some issues having to do with poor turf, poor 35 drainage, and most importantly the irrigation system had begun to fail. There were 36
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several considerations on redesigning the golf course. In 2013, the City selected a 1
redesigned course of link style, designed by Forest Richardson. We began the process of 2
shortening and modifying the old course because flood control measures needed to be 3
initiated. To build the new course, we needed to stockpile a lot of dirt to accommodate 4
the link style. That necessitated modifying to a shortened course. In 2016, the course 5
closed for a full 18-hole remodel. Two years later on May 26, 2018, the course reopened 6
as the Baylands Golf Links. Upon reopening, there were some changes to how the golf 7
course operated. Prior, the course operated with multiple course operators. We had a 8 golf pro, we had a pro shop, and we also had a restaurant operator. In the new model, we 9 have one operator who manages all aspects of the course from play to facilities to 10 maintenance and merchandise sales. They also provide food and beverage. The operator 11 is called OB Sports. Since course opening, we've had the privilege of receiving several 12 awards and recognitions. We've received Renovation of the Year from Golf Inc. 13 Magazine, third place in public courses throughout the country. That was one of the first 14 awards we received. Our next award was from the California Parks and Recreation 15 Society, also known as CPRS. This one was focused on environment sustainability that 16
we designed into the course. The most recent one from Golf Week Magazine is probably 17
most recognized, One of the Best Courses to Play. We ranked thirteenth among courses 18
open to the public in California. Six of the top 12 courses host professional tournaments 19
in Monterey and San Diego. Thirteenth is quite prestigious for a public course. That's 20
something we're very proud of. These recognitions have come from a team effort, from 21
our course designer to our Public Works staff to the City envisioning a environmentally 22
sustainable course and building that into the course, from project management and also 23
having a course operator that views the golf course experience first and foremost. As a 24
result, they want to host you from when you come to the course to when you leave the 25
course whether you're there to practice, to dine, or to play. Looking back at how we 26 performed last fiscal year. Our revenues were $3.4 million. As mentioned in the staff 27 report, that was about 6 percent under what we were projecting as our budget. Our 28 expenses were $2.6 million direct expenditures and about $1.1 million indirect 29 expenditures. Much of that shortage in revenue was attributed to challenging 30 merchandise sales, which the course has experienced even leading up to the closure. 31 Since reopening, we're still experiencing difficulties in merchandise sales. Course play 32 met our revenue targets for last year. It's an area of improvement that we want to focus 33 on. In looking at how we want to do in the upcoming fiscal year, we have shifted some 34 of the revenue projections to focus more on golf course play and less on merchandise 35 sales because golf course play was a strong revenue source last year. We've done that. 36 We're now budgeting $3.8 million revenue target. In looking at our current performance, 37
unfortunately we are tracking a little behind that. We'll continue to keep an eye on it. 38
The Office of Management and Budget in Administrative Services is keeping an eye on 39
that as well. We want to look at course play and course utilization. With the course 40
redesign, one of the concerns was how will this be received and perceived by Palo 41
Altans. We wanted to make sure that this was a course for Palo Altans and not just a 42
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regional course. I think we've achieved that. Prior to the closure, for years we were 1
getting about 13 percent Palo Alto residents playing the course. At present, we have 2
increased that to 27 percent Palo Altans playing the course. That's something we've been 3
able to achieve through various promotions, memberships, and also reaching out to the 4
community as well. The rest of the course play has been mostly from the county, 37 5
percent, and 24 percent from San Mateo County and 12 percent from areas outside the 6
two counties. Our course utilization remains high at up to 81 percent on weekends and 7
67 percent on weekdays. We're doing better than other local courses. Our overall 8 utilization is 72 percent weekends and weekdays compared to 56 percent utilization at 9 other courses. However, there is still room for improvement. It's a tough line to manage. 10 We want to get more players on the course, but then we also want to make sure we have 11 the right pace of play. If we can move the needle in regards to weekday play, that likely 12 will not impact pace of play. If we can improve some weekend play but watch the 13 envelope we push because pace of play is just as critical to utilization when you consider 14 that. Another area that we can look at improving is merchandise sales. As golfers have 15 retail, online and at their local golf shop, pro shop, there are quite a lot of opportunities 16
on where to buy your merchandise. That remains a challenge for us. We've moved 17
towards selling merchandise that's more branding of the course, more of an affinity rather 18
than golf merchandise as a whole. We do offer a full slate of merchandise, but it's more 19
branded towards the Baylands course. The course remains well reviewed whether on 20
social media, through comments from players or what I hear from our golf course 21
operator. In general, it's well received. We are a municipal course, not a private course. 22
Thank you. 23
Chair McDougall: I'll start with Jeff, if you have any questions. 24
Commissioner LaMere: Lam, I appreciate the presentation. It is a beautiful course. I 25
hope to get out there and play more. What other uses of that space for merchandise 26 sales—say we reduce merchandise sales in terms of their footprint and only have a 27 certain offering, are there other uses of that space that could be had? 28
Mr. Do: That has been brought up. We've thought a little bit about this. There have 29 been some suggestions of using some of that space for teaching or socialization. In 30 talking to our golf course operator, they would consider a teaching space, but they want 31 to give something else a try first. We recently acquired outdoor teaching equipment. It's 32 a high-end radar-based ball flight monitor. They want to try to push that as a way of 33 bringing in and continuing to foster our current players. You're limited to what type of 34 teaching you can do. Indoor simulators are not as desired as an outdoor simulator. Down 35 the line, it's a possibility. As for making it a socialization space, there is some space 36 already dedicated to that. I sense it's been underutilized. It's more to make the course 37
and the pro shop feel warm. I think we're still challenged by how else we can use that 38
space if we were to consider shrinking the size of the merchandise floor. 39
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Commissioner Reckdahl: You mentioned pace of play. How was it? Do you have to 1
wait at the tee box or can you just keep on playing? 2
Mr. Do: It's a perspective. You're not waiting at the tee box but once you're on the 3
course. The rounds on weekends can appear to be long. The reason I use the word 4
appear to be long is because we were recently re-rated for pace of play by the NCGA. 5
The rating is based on features in the course or the challenges of the course. It's not 6
based on how quickly you can get through the course. It's more the pace of play for the 7
difficulty of the course. They rated it when we first opened. They re-rated it, and the 8 course does change over time. The speed of the greens change over time. As a course 9 matures and grows in, it changes as well. They've actually extended what they 10 recommend to be the required necessary time to play the course. From weekends, some 11 players have said they've had to spend five hours on a round, but that's about what it 12 should play. Tee times are not squeezed as tight as other courses, which allows us not to 13 have a line at the starter. 14
Commissioner Reckdahl: You're saying long play durations. 15
Mr. Do: The interval between tee times, we're not squeezed as much as other courses. 16
Commissioner Reckdahl: When you say it takes five hours, is that because it's a hard 17
course and the wind is doing things or are you waiting for the people in front of you? 18
Mr. Do: It's the former. It's the course features. 19
Commissioner Reckdahl: That's a good thing. If it's easy, anyone can do it. How's the 20
dynamic pricing working? When we look at the numbers, it seems every year the rounds 21
aren't quite as much as we'd hoped, but the revenue is what we'd hoped. It seems like the 22
dynamic pricing must be working. 23
Mr. Do: Yes. When we were looking for operators, this operator was pushing for this. 24
They wanted to switch away from the paradigm of golfers waiting to the last minute and 25
hoping to get on the course for a rock-bottom rate. That makes the course become a 26 discount rate. I'm not criticizing because that is a mechanism for bringing in revenue. 27 Our operator feels that we should look at our course as a whole, not necessarily what 28 does it cost to play. We should look at what the course offers in regards to the golf 29 experience, the challenge, how well the course is maintained and how that should be 30 reflected in the price. They don't always want to keep the price high. That's why they 31 introduced the dynamic pricing. 32
Commissioner Reckdahl: The peak times and the weekends, for example, what's the 33 peak time, like 10:00 a.m. on a Saturday? 34
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Mr. Do: Peak times are from about 7:00 a.m. to 10:00 a.m. all days of the week, not 1
necessarily just on weekends. 2
Commissioner Reckdahl: How much do we charge for those peak times? 3
Mr. Do: Peak times can range between $70 and $110. The fee is based on the 4
availability of the tee sheet and how far in advance one books. The model is not 5
necessarily driven by one factor of how busy the tee times are. There are other factors I 6
would have a hard time explaining to you how the logistics work. 7
Commissioner Reckdahl: Do we think we're leaving money on the table there? If we 8 charged another $20, would they still be paying for it or do we think we're at the limit? 9 The biggest measure is during prime time do we have empty spots at all? 10
Mr. Do: We have very little empty slots. The best way to answer your question is if we 11 were to charge another $20, I think players would second guess whether they want to 12 play. In the $120-$130 range, you can play Half Moon Bay. 13
Commissioner Reckdahl: There's a limit there. 14
Mr. Do: Yeah, there's a limit. 15
Commissioner Reckdahl: What about the restaurant? You mentioned that they have a 16
single operator. You didn't give any data about how many visitors we're having at the 17
restaurant and how much revenue we're getting at the restaurant. 18
Mr. Do: Although we have a single operator offering all aspects of the course, the 19
portion that has to do with food and beverage, they operate that based on a lease from the 20
City. When we went out to look for an operator, the City did not want to be in the 21
restaurant business. We didn't feel we had the expertise and the knowledge to manage a 22
restaurant well. We pay the operator a management fee to operate the golf course, to 23
maintain the golf course, and the … 24
Commissioner Reckdahl: Do you know our—is the restaurant doing well or not? 25
Mr. Do: We don't have their numbers. In general, yes. They're happy and satisfied with 26 the combination of how the two work in the restaurant bringing in golfers and golfers 27 bringing business to the restaurant. 28
Commissioner Reckdahl: I still have not made it down there. That's on my to-do list. 29 We shrunk the fairways. What's the percentage of water that we're using now compared 30 to before? 31
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Mr. Do: If you consider recycled water not water, then we're 100 percent reduced. Our 1
prior course was a mix of potable water with recycled water. It varied from a 60/40 mix 2
to a 70/30 mix. With the golf course now, with the exception of the greens and the 3
practice areas, which makes up 10-15 percent of the course, the rest of the course if 4
watered with recycled water. 5
Commissioner Reckdahl: What about pesticides? In the write up, it said reduced 6
pesticides. That seems to indicate we are using pesticides. What are we using the 7
pesticides for? 8
Mr. Do: The better way to look at it is in totality. In order to maintain a golf course, we 9 do need to apply herbicides and pesticides because you have to keep the turf healthy. If 10 you don't keep a healthy turf, the non-desired grasses and weeds will grow into your turf 11 and out-compete your turf and your greens will not play the same. We follow (crosstalk). 12
Commissioner Reckdahl: Are you talking about herbicides here or pesticides? 13
Mr. Do: I'm talking about herbicides. If I used the word pesticide, I think I meant it in 14 general, collectively. We don't use Round Up. That is not one of the herbicides that 15 we're using. We're using herbicides that target specific, non-desired weeds and/or 16
(crosstalk). 17
Commissioner Reckdahl: Is it a pre-emergent? Are you killing the plants or are you 18
killing the seeds? 19
Mr. Do: We are killing the plants. 20
Commissioner Reckdahl: From a use standpoint, how does it compare to before the 21
remodel? 22
Mr. Do: I don't have percentage numbers; I can get that if needed. The current turf is 23
competing well against all the other grasses that invade the course, which has allowed us 24
to use much less. We were successful in applying broadleaf herbicides. 25
Commissioner McCauley: Lam, thank you very much. I have to say I appreciate how 26 knowledgeable you are about the course, the course history, and how objectively you 27 treat all these questions and subjects. It's excellent. The next time you come before us, is 28 it possible to show some year-over-year progression from when the course reopened? I 29 realize you don't have a lot of data yet, but you'll start to compile that for next year. It'd 30 be helpful to see the year-over-year comparisons of the growth in rounds, etc. 31
Mr. Do: Yes. 32
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Commissioner Cribbs: Thank you very much for the report. It's good to see the 1
numbers. Can you talk a little bit about what we're doing in terms of programming for 2
specifically youth? I know we have the First Tee and the women golf club and the 3
seniors. 4
Mr. Do: We have clubs playing. We have a seniors club, Palo Alto Golf Club, and a 5
ladies club. In addition to that, to promote golf amongst youth, we have a junior rate for 6
golf play. In regards to direct engagement with youth, our First Tee program continues to 7
expand. It's expanded from one day a week to two days a week. They also offer camps. 8 We're in discussions with perhaps even further expanding whether it be through a direct 9 offering through First Tee or perhaps allowing them to have more use of our facilities. 10 It's not the easiest process. We can't simply open up and give them tee times. They need 11 practice facilities to introduce golf to youth. When youth are ready to play golf, they ask 12 for several holes. It's not 18 holes. That's the challenge. When we do allow them to 13 come on the course to play, we've lost those tee times. Mixing programming with tee 14 times is a challenge. They have been a good partner with us. They are more focused on 15 practice facilities. They're very good at letting us know in advance when they need to get 16
on the course. Our current operator works well with them to make do with what we can 17
offer. Sometimes they play a hole up and down, which helps us reduce their impact on 18
the course. I think both parties are quite happy with where we're going with this. 19
Commissioner Cribbs: Is there any specific outreach to East Palo Alto just because we 20
share the community there? 21
Mr. Do: The outreach in East Palo Alto is through First Tee. First Tee began as an 22
offshoot of the San Jose Sports Authority and then became a 501(c)(3). They then 23
changed to the First Tee Silicon Valley. Their reach and range have gone beyond San 24
Jose. That's why they're now using facilities in Gilroy, Mountain View, and Palo Alto. 25
Their outreach goes as far south as Gilroy to as far north as San Mateo and as far east as 26
East Palo Alto. 27
Commissioner Moss: I'm really excited that you have those prestigious awards. That's 28 really great. Do you have any plans for regional tournaments to attract golfers? 29
Mr. Do: We host what's called a city tournament. Even though it's called a city 30 tournament, it is a regional tournament. In addition to that, we do want to attract more 31 and more tournament play as a whole. There are more organizations that host 32 tournaments at our course. That's been one of the streams of revenue for us, tournament 33 play. 34
Commissioner Moss: Looking at that revenue, are there more rounds being played or is 35 the revenue increase because of the dynamic pricing? 36
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Mr. Do: The dynamic pricing is the key factor in maintaining our revenue stream. 1
Commissioner Moss: The rounds are probably not where you want them to be. Are you 2
intending to get people to play later or play on—what are the days when there are not 3
very many people? 4
Mr. Do: We do want more players on the course. Ideally, we would like more weekday 5
play. It's been a challenge for us to get weekday play. We're on the 101 Corridor. 6
Asking someone to get to the course and spend five hours, maybe six hours, if they want 7
to grab a meal or practice, it could be up to seven hours a day here, which means they're 8 up against commute traffic either coming here or leaving here. That's the challenge of 9 our location. To increase random play on weekends, we're already at 81 percent. We can 10 increase that needle a little bit, but I don't know how much more we want to increase it. I 11 probably would rely on our golf course operator to rely on their knowledge and expertise 12 to push the envelope as opposed to dictating how or where we should be bringing more 13 rounds. 14
Commissioner Moss: That leads me to better use of the course on weekdays and late 15 afternoons. That leads me to the Enjoy! catalog and adult ed classes and PAUSD classes 16
and East Palo Alto classes and kids classes. How much to fill that gap in the weekdays 17
and the afternoons? 18
Mr. Do: We have several approaches to fill those weekday afternoons. We have twilight 19
rates, flash sales. Maybe that's not the best way to describe it. We have other rates that 20
we offer. Where we want to fill are sort of the midday rates. The midday rates tend to be 21
after that 7:00-10:00 hot peak times. By 11:30, noon it's not as desired. Early afternoon 22
around 2:00-3:00 clock, it's not as desired because someone can wait to 3:15 and get the 23
twilight rate. Those are the areas we want to focus on. How we reach out, there are 24
several factors. We continue to host learning events, equipment demos, public 25
extravaganzas at the course. We have one coming up. That's to bring more non-golfers 26 to the course. In regards to participating in the Enjoy! and perhaps PAUSD, I believe we 27 do not have anything with PAUSD right now other than the teams participating at the 28 course. I don't know if we have direct participation with them at this point. I'll look into 29 that and see if there's an avenue or channel for us to promote as well. 30
Commissioner Moss: What we're finding with Black Friday this year is that so many of 31 the brick and mortar stores have their online store and have the option of picking up the 32 equipment in the store. That brings people into the store, and they can upsell them. Do 33 you have that opportunity as well with a robust online … 34
Mr. Do: At present we do not. 35
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Commissioner Moss: That's something to look at. I'm noticing that the restaurant is one 1
of the very few places in the entire area from 101 to the Baylands where you can get 2
food. It might be appropriate to advertise that venue for food to Baylands users and 3
Byxbee Park users and all those businesses, not just golfers. Are you reaching out? 4
Mr. Do: Yes. Our current operator does promote not just to golfers. They have an 5
interest in promoting the restaurant as well being that they do lease the restaurant space. 6
They've partnered with the Audi dealership straight across the way in offering either—for 7
anyone going to the Audi dealership for either maintenance or buying a car, they've 8 partnered with free practice rounds or a meal. It may not be a full meal; I think it's a 9 snack of some sort. The Audi dealership reimburses the City and/or them depending on 10 whether it's a practice round or food and beverage. They've also reached out to the 11 businesses as well. Another thing that we do to promote there is we've gotten 12 sponsorships from the local businesses during the golf tournaments. Those are some 13 areas we are doing the reaching out. I'm sure there are more areas of improvement. 14 You've brought up several. Baylands Park users, stop in, grab a cup of coffee. I think 15 that's what you may be suggesting. That's another area where we can find a way to reach 16
out to the user that's not necessarily a part of any particular business out there. 17
Commissioner Moss: I'm thinking about Shoreline Lake Café, which is booming. They 18
even have corporate events there all the time that have nothing to do with golfing. That's 19
what I was suggesting. Thank you. 20
Vice Chair Greenfield: Thank you, Lam, for this comprehensive report and for your 21
comprehensive oversight of the whole project and all the aspects of it. What are you 22
specifically doing to come up with a lower forecast for your direct and indirect 23
expenditures? Why do we think things will be different next year? 24
Mr. Do: Those are two areas that we—allow me to speak to direct expenditures. That's a 25
difficult area to reduce. Direct expenditures primarily have to do with the management 26 fee for the course. When we opted to go into contract with the management company, we 27 turned over our operating budget to them. On top of that, they include their management 28 fee. 29
Vice Chair Greenfield: Excuse me, sorry. I take that back. I see that the direct 30 expenditure forecast actually is an increase for 2020 of $100,000. The indirect 31 expenditures are forecast to be reduced. 32
Mr. Do: You just helped me explain direct expenditures. It's a difficult area to reduce. 33 Indirect expenditures have to do with several costs. It's our utility costs, which are 34 anywhere from gas and electricity but also our water costs. We probably don't want to 35 reduce our water costs. We've reduced it by switching to recycled water. The remaining 36 potable water use feeds our golf greens. The golf greens bring golfers here. The greens 37
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are also a different type of grass. It's a bent grass and is not salt-tolerant. We need to 1
continue to use potable water on the golf greens. The rest of the water usage is at the 2
practice areas because those are mostly greens, the restaurant as well. It is a challenge 3
where we can do that. Water rates are increasing annually. It's difficult for us to reduce 4
our indirect costs. The area where we could possibly reduce is—there is some staff 5
oversight out there. We could shift some of the staff oversight and rely more on quarterly 6
check-ins with the golf course operator. That's something we'll discuss down the line 7
with the City's Office of Management and Budget. I don't have a strong answer for you. 8 If we want to try to reduce our expenditures, I don't know where it is. The rest of the 9 indirect expenditures have to do with the debt service for the bonds we issued to 10 reconstruct the course. 11
Vice Chair Greenfield: You're not giving me a lot of confidence that we're on target for 12 reducing indirect expenditures by 18 percent or so next year. 13
Mr. Do: I think we're better off trying to focus on ensuring that we reach our revenue 14 targets and, if anything, increase revenue targets. As Commissioner Reckdahl said, 15 maybe test and push the envelope of dynamic pricing. The other way to do would be to 16
bring in more golf rounds. It's more of a focus on the revenue side than the expenditure 17
side. 18
Vice Chair Greenfield: In the bigger picture, maybe this is a question for Daren. Last 19
year, we lost money. How does this impact the City? Is this a General Fund issue? 20
Mr. Anderson: Yes, it is General Fund. When we went into the business of rebuilding 21
this entire golf course, we had double loans at one point. We're just coming out of that 22
experience. We'll be down to just one debt service, which will help. 23
Vice Chair Greenfield: That helps. We can expect some of the indirect expenditures will 24
go down. 25
Mr. Anderson: That and the experts we hired made it clear that you're going to ramp up. 26 We went through multiple iterations of looking at pro formas. All of them showed an 27 increase in revenue, an increase in play as we went through the years, once the reputation 28 is established and spreads, once the course settles in. We were told it would take 2-3 29 years before it really settles in. There are elements that aren't quite there yet, frankly, like 30 the native areas. When we came out of construction, the hope was they would be these 31 lush, beautiful things, and it just wasn't there. It's an area that we're still working on. It 32 affects play and revenue. It does come out of the General Fund, and it is something we're 33 concerned about and want to make sure we're making money. In addition to not just 34 breaking even, the hope was we would generate enough to put money aside for capital 35 expenditures for the golf course. That's something we're targeting and need to plan for 36 and make revenue to address capital needs. 37
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Vice Chair Greenfield: I would be remiss if I didn't say I was happy that you have a bike 1
rack at the golf course now. I know it's a little bit counterintuitive, but we talk about 2
wanting people to go there for lunch. That's how I enjoyed the bike rack and the location. 3
I promised I'd go there for lunch if you put in a bike rack, so I did. It would be great if 4
the bike rack were more easily discoverable for bikers. We've talked about this a little 5
bit. If we could put a little bike symbol on the pavement, it's hidden in a little nook. I 6
was biking around and around until somebody saw me and was like, "Can I help you?" 7
Thank you. 8
Chair McDougall: I'm surprised you didn't explain the over-expenditure on the fact that 9 you had to install a bike rack. I agree with Ryan, year-to-year comparison. I do 10 remember when we had the contractor in here, there was some explanation about how 11 long it would take to get the golfers back that had gone elsewhere and have it become 12 well enough known that we attracted more outside people. I applaud the fact that the 13 revenue is going up, but it is a concern. You both stated that the number of rounds is not 14 going up. I'd like to suggest that whatever numbers were there in the plan, they weren't 15 perfect. I understand that. Whatever we come back with now should be based on that 16
understanding. The reason that that concerns me is—I use this expression of scarce and 17
valuable resource. I'm not sure I'd put the golf course in that category as opposed to 18
somewhat of a luxury. It's not necessarily scarce in that there are lots of rounds available. 19
You don't just close it down and turn it into a cow pasture or something. We do need to 20
be cognizant of what it's costing the City. This year you put up $3.4 million, and here it 21
says $3.6 million. Your costs are $3.7 million. My guess is you're losing probably close 22
to $0.5 million this year. Your budget says you're going to break even, $200,000 next 23
year, but that's based on increased revenue. We should all, including you, be suspicious 24
of that turning a revenue. More attention to that. Daren just answered it, that you are 25
paying attention to that, so I don't need an answer to that. I don't need an answer to my 26 last comment. Amazon has put out of business a lot of businesses that are a heck of a lot 27 bigger than our little shop there. They couldn't survive the "I really like that blue shirt. 28 I'm going to go home and see how much it costs on Amazon and get it delivered to my 29 door." I would worry and watch what others are doing in terms of maintaining business. 30 I know another nonprofit situation where they have said, "To heck with it. We're not 31 going to do that. It's a nice feature for our guests, but it's costing us money." We should 32 be very conscious of that because that revenue could disappear overnight, not just go 33 down. I didn't give Commissioner Cormack an opportunity to address either swimming 34 or golf, if she cares to. 35
Council Member Cormack: I serve on the City/School Liaison Committee, and I heard 36 you mention that the high school teams do use the course. Is that right? 37
Mr. Do: I have spoken a while back with our golf course operator, the general manager, 38
and that's my understanding. 39
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Council Member Cormack: If I see the weekday play in the afternoons is underutilized, I 1
wonder if there's something we could do with the schools beyond the teams that might be 2
an opportunity to introduce people to golf. That's the only thought I have. 3
Chair McDougall: Let me wrap up. I want to echo what everybody has set. The respect 4
we have for your knowledge, passion, and your detailed stewardship of our golf course is 5
impressive. Thank you for that. 6
Mr. Do: Thank you, Chair and fellow Commissioners. 7
Vice Chair Greenfield: Thank you, Council Member Cormack, for mentioning the high 8 schools. It's actually on my list, and I forgot to ask. We used to have the high schools 9 coming to the previous golf course. Could you explain how they were using the course? 10 I seem to recall a conversation that we were hoping to be able to attract them back. 11
Mr. Do: My response will not be firsthand. My understanding of how the high schools 12 participate, because I haven't seen it, is they practice there and host their tournaments 13 there. We become the host site for the local school and the visiting school. I could look 14 into it further, but I don't have the full knowledge on this one in particular. 15
Vice Chair Greenfield: It'd be great to get an understanding of how the high schools used 16
the former course and how they're using the new course. 17
Chair McDougall: I'm reluctant to allow one more comment, but one more comment. 18
Commissioner Moss: Since the golf course is a park, is parkland, I really think a long-19
term vision should be to somehow tie it to the Baylands itself in a way that the whole 20
thing looks like a park. I don't know how to do it because there's an airport in the middle. 21
If there were some way to make it seem like it's all part of the Baylands Park and 22
attracting more than just golfers, I don't know how to do it, but I'm going to think about 23
it. It would be nice to have that as a vision. Right now, it's totally separate and distinct. 24
It's not a destination for anybody except golfers. I would like to see that change. 25
Chair McDougall: On Lam's behalf, I might remind the Commission that there was a 26 very deliberate decision made at one point to not make this a friendly nine-hole putting 27 course or executive golf course. It was a deliberate decision to make this a serious links 28 course, which is difficult to play, and is supposed to be difficult to play. We have to 29 make our comments in the context of what we approved the goal of the course to be in 30 the first place. Thank you. I'm going to let you go. 31
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5. Update on Cubberley items including Draft Cubberley Concept Plan and 1
Lease Agreement with Palo Alto Unified School District. 2
Chair McDougall: We have a very special guest with us this evening. We are honored to 3
have with us Kristen O'Kane. As an introduction to what we've invited Kristen for, the 4
ad hoc has been actively participating or listening—we've tried to be involved and up to 5
date. Kristen has been very generous with her time to meet with the ad hoc. The draft 6
Concept Plan is available for everybody to read. We have not invited Kristen here for us 7
to review and rehash and one more time find out if we could put tennis courts on the roof 8 of the swimming pool and all of that. We have simply a status report than a detailed 9 design review. I hope that the Commission can look at it that way. I'll try and work with 10 Kristen to make sure we're respecting her time and generosity to be here. 11
Kristen O'Kane: Thank you for that introduction. Kristen O'Kane, Community Services. 12 I'm here to briefly talk about the current status of the Cubberley Concept Plan. You'll 13 notice it has a title change. We were calling it Master Plan; we're now calling it Concept 14 Plan. That's related to requirements of the Comprehensive Plan, which is the City's 15 General Plan, and that term Master Plan has a specific meaning in the planning world. 16
That's why we changed it to Concept Plan. I'm going to briefly talk about the status. As 17
Chair McDougall said, there's not much that's changed since the last time we reviewed 18
this. You have the ability to review the Plan and submit comments, as I'll share with you 19
shortly. We'll just stick to the 30,000-foot level today. The draft Concept Plan is 20
completed, and it is available on our project website, which is housed on the School 21
District's website. The link is there. There is an email address for individuals to submit 22
comments or feedback. They come to my inbox. We'll respond to those as we get them. 23
We are doing a bigger push right now to get the word out that this draft Plan is available 24
for people to review. We have a new Chief Communications Officer in the City 25
Manager's Office, who has really been great at promoting different projects in blogs and 26 different types of newsletters. You may have seen there's a new blog for the bridge 27 across 101. What's the official name? 28
Mr. Anderson: Highway 101 Bike and Pedestrian Bridge. 29
Ms. O'Kane: The Highway 101 Bike and Pedestrian Bridge. There'll be one similar to 30 that for the Cubberley Concept Plan as well. I can share that when it's completed. We 31 had originally asked for comments by the end of the calendar year, but we will extend 32 that. We'll continue to accept comments and feedback from people as long as people are 33 responding to our requests. I wanted to share with you something that is a little bit new, 34 and these are the conceptual models that are a result of all the work that the community 35 did. I want to point out that the architectural look on these isn't specific, and that was 36 done to show placement. It's very beige, the colors, but that was intentional to not stir up 37
any comments about what it might look like. You can see the locations of all the 38
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facilities. This is the option that has only housing at 525 San Antonio. It does not have 1
housing on the City's 8 acres. Those options are in the Cubberley Concept Plan, but we 2
only did these conceptual models for this option. These are available on the project 3
website. They don't look as great as they look on a computer on the screen. Every time I 4
look at them, I get very inspired to think what Cubberley could be and how amazing a 5
facility it could be. This would be the entrance from Middlefield. This is the drop-6
off/turnaround. This is looking in that same location here. This is the community center 7
here and the flexible space here. This is looking this way. This is an example piece of 8 public art. This is the turn-out area. We're shifting to the other side of the property. This 9 is Middlefield, and this is what a potential school might look like at Cubberley. What 10 you see here is the School District's administrative offices. Another view from the 11 ground level of the entrance to the school facility. Performing arts center. This is the 12 common area, the pathway from one end of Cubberley to another with the intent that this 13 would be a gathering space for people, a common space for people to meet and to enjoy 14 the space. This is the pool area with one of the gyms in the background and the fields 15 and tennis courts over here. I'm going to stop there because I'm going to transition to 16
talking about the lease with the School District for the 27 acres next. If it's okay with 17
you, Chair, I'll stop here and see if there are any questions. Does that make sense, or do 18
you want me to continue? 19
Chair McDougall: I think that's appropriate. Thank you. 20
Ms. O'Kane: Any comments or questions? 21
Commissioner Cribbs: How long is the pool? 22
Ms. O'Kane: This is a 25. 23
Commissioner Cribbs: Twenty-five the way the lanes are going now? 24
Ms. O'Kane: Yes. 25
Commissioner Cribbs: What about the other length? 26
Ms. O'Kane: I honestly don't know. 27
Chair McDougall: I think it's in the category of we're not here to debate the 28 specifications. 29
Ms. O'Kane: I've heard your comment before, so it's in my mind. I don't know how 30 many lanes we could get if it was the other way and we could make it (crosstalk). 31
Commissioner Cribbs: It just looked like it was 50 x 25, which would be the most 32 fabulous thing in the world. Looks like a good thing right now. 33
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Ms. O'Kane: I'm getting my distances messed up. 1
Commissioner McCauley: I agree with you that this is inspiring work. I want to thank 2
you for—this is very cool work that you get to do, but it's also really important work. 3
Thank you to you and to Council Member Cormack because you two are probably the 4
biggest champions for the Cubberley project, and it's much appreciated. 5
Commissioner Reckdahl: It's beautiful. It'd be an asset for the community. There's 6
Greendell there, which my kids went to. There's the adult school. There's something for 7
everybody. I'm looking forward to it. 8
Commissioner LaMere: I want to echo the comments of appreciation. As we move 9 forward with this, do we need to have anything in tandem, any sort of ad hoc that looks at 10 funding or talks about naming rights or talks about some of the budgetary implications or 11 restrictions or anything like that? It's an incredible project as designed, and it's going to 12 go through iterations. It also monetarily will be quite expensive. 13
Ms. O'Kane: You raise a really good point. I think there will be a time where we'll need 14 an ad hoc and the Commission involved in those next steps. When I start sharing the 15 update on the lease, I'll share with you some of the draft lease terms that the School 16
District Board and our City Council agreed to and were the starting points of our 17
negotiations. Those are actually some milestones to try to move this along. The funding 18
piece is going to be a major point or factor in this project. Getting help from the 19
Commission in talking about that would be very helpful. 20
Chair McDougall: Anybody else have comments on that? 21
Vice Chair Greenfield: Overall, the Concept Plan that's been put together is excellent. 22
It's done a great job of channeling and synthesizing the feedback from the community 23
through a lot of meetings and a lot of effort from the community and the consultant and 24
staff. Clearly the community has been very engaged in the process, and it's important to 25
show the community progress, that their effort and their feedback have been listened to. 26 This Concept Plan does that. Moving forward is complicated, much more complicated 27 than we'd like unfortunately. It seems appropriate, if I understand correctly, we're 28 wrapping up the consultant's effort in this Concept Plan, and then we need to figure out 29 how to move forward. That goes to higher powers. It seems like we may at some point 30 need to figure out how to come up with a concept plan for the City to make progress on 31 their side of things. Clearly the infrastructure at Cubberley needs work. We need to sort 32 out how to address the critical near-term issues, and the City is looking to make progress 33 on that. The Plan we have here is more of a joint project. One of the major challenges 34 ahead of us is how to separate things out, if we need to, so that we can make progress on 35 critical, immediate needs. Thank you for all the effort. I look forward to the 36 Commission continuing to play a role in moving this forward. 37
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Chair McDougall: Kristen, are you going to talk about the negotiations status as much as 1
appropriate? 2
Ms. O'Kane: Yes. I'll remind everyone that the main site is 35 acres. The City owns 3
eight, and the City leases 27 from the School District. The City operates the entire 4
property as a community center. Our current lease originally began in 1989 and has had 5
three amendments and expires the end of this month. We have been working with the 6
School District to establish something new that would carry us for the next few years. 7
Initially, the City Manager and District Superintendent met and established some guiding 8 principles to start a conversation. What were the interests of the City? What were the 9 interests of the District? We started to draft some lease terms; that was staff from both 10 agencies working together to develop these draft lease terms that would be the starting 11 point for the negotiations. Some of those have to do with payment and term, and others 12 have to do with the Master Plan itself. These milestones are related to—I'm going to 13 remind myself to say Concept Plan instead of Master Plan. The first one has to do with 14 utilities infrastructure for Cubberley. We know that it needs to be upgraded. As we 15 develop Cubberley, it will need to be upgraded to meet short-term needs, but then also we 16
want to make sure that we're thinking ahead. If and when the day comes that the School 17
District decides to build a school there, we want to make sure that those upgrades that 18
we've done will accommodate that as well. The first one is for the City to complete this 19
infrastructure assessment that looks at what would that take, what would be required, and 20
how could we phase it over time. The next three have to do more with the development 21
piece. The first one is related to the City's 8 acres and the City committing in good faith 22
to complete a conceptual design of the first phase building on the City's 8 acres. We 23
don't know which building that would be right now. It might look different than what 24
we're seeing in the Concept Plan as we start to go deeper and deeper into a conceptual 25
design. That would be the City's first step related to development. That would be by 26 December 2021. Also, by the end of that year, there are two milestones for the District, 27 and those have to do with deciding whether they might want to put housing at 525 San 28 Antonio. The answer could be they don't know. It helps as we move forward with our 29 infrastructure assessment and implementation of that assessment. The same is whether 30 the District would want to build any school-related facilities on Cubberley, trying to be 31 ahead of any improvements that the City would need to do on the site. We would also 32 want to talk about how to cost share those infrastructure improvements. If they would 33 benefit both agencies, how would we share in the cost of that? This one has been brought 34 up before. If we needed to do some sort of lot line adjustment to go around different 35 buildings, we would work together to accomplish that. These are all drafts. As the lease 36 comes out, our attorneys do their thing, and they might look slightly different. They will 37
likely be the same in spirit. One is an ad hoc committee that would consist of two 38
Council Members and two Board Members to represent their respective agencies as it has 39
to do with the previous milestones. There would also likely be staff involved in that 40
committee, but it would be representatives to help move this forward. There's also a 41
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milestone that the City Council and the Board of Education will accept the Concept Plan 1
by June 2020, and that would include the CEQA document. We're still working on 2
CEQA, and a draft should be completed in the spring. I anticipate bringing that to the 3
Commission with the final Concept Plan for your recommendation to Council. Other 4
ones related to term and costs. Again, it's proposed to be a five-year lease. The lease 5
payment will remain at the current rate without an escalator. In the past, we had an 6
escalator similar to the CPI rate of about 3 percent. We will no longer have that. We will 7
continue to invest $1.8 million per year into a Cubberley Infrastructure Fund. That is all I 8
have at the moment. Any other questions? 9
Chair McDougall: Thank you for that. Considering Kristen has given you about a 10-10 percent view of how complicated it really is, who would like to volunteer to be on the 11 Cubberley committee ad hoc for next year? Notwithstanding that, does anybody have 12 any questions relative to the schedule and the negotiating points that Kristen went 13 through? 14
Commissioner Cribbs: This is great, to have this report. Thank you very much. It's great 15 to have all the dates and all of that. Hats off to the people who put it altogether. 16
Commissioner Moss: Can you put the picture up of the whole thing and tell people 17
where the current line is and where you're thinking about doing the lot line adjustments 18
approximately? 19
Ms. O'Kane: The line is around here. It includes the tennis courts. The tennis courts are 20
on City property. Everything over to Piazza's shopping center property line is the City's 21
and then to Middlefield. It sort of jogs around the existing buildings. If you're familiar 22
with the I building, where Avenidas was temporarily and Foothill College was before, 23
that one is not on City property. It sort of jogs around that. Most of the classrooms right 24
now are on the City's 8 acres. The larger facilities like the theater, the gyms, most all of 25
the parking are on School District property. 26
Commissioner Moss: This building B, you're going to try to get it to be on City land? 27
Ms. O'Kane: Right. We wouldn't build something that crossed the property line. This 28 would likely have to be adjusted to go around this building and up around here but 29 maintaining the same area. 30
Commissioner Moss: On this picture, can you show us—I didn't realize there's a major 31 PG&E gas line running through the property. 32
Chair McDougall: David, I'm going to suggest that what we really wanted is to have 33 some understanding. You're on the ad hoc. We can call another ad hoc meeting. We can 34
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get more into this, but I'd rather not continue down the detail line, if you don't mind. I'd 1
really like to move us to the next item on the agenda. 2
6. Recommendation to approve a letter from the Parks and Recreation 3
Commission to recognize completion of the Draft Cubberley Concept Plan 4
Chair McDougall: The reason this was labeled a special meeting is we added this as an 5
action item. I've heard from most people if not everybody appreciation of the work that 6
staff has done, the work that the consultant has done. At least one mention of, if not 7
more, the community involvement. I forget how many hundreds of people there were at 8 these various meetings. Certainly, there was a substantial amount of community 9 involvement. As a Commission, we need to do more than tell ourselves how good this is. 10 I would like to suggest this letter that you have in front of you should be edited if you like 11 and sent to both the City Council and the School Board. The Supervisor and the City 12 Manager made a joint statement. The joint statement applauded the fact that the Concept 13 Plan was in place. The reason that my third paragraph begins with the Master Plan is I 14 copied that line from their document. It shouldn't say Master Plan; it should say Concept 15 Plan. They talked about their partnership, and then they talked about moving at different 16
paces and potentially different directions. We should recognize that. There's no reason 17
for us to get involved in the differences, and particularly the differences with the School 18
Board. I'd like to propose a letter be sent to them that basically says something like we 19
have here. "The Parks and Recreation Commission is pleased that the Palo Alto Council 20
and the Unified School District have as partners jointly shared with the community the 21
draft Cubberley Concept Plan. The PRC would like to thank the hundreds of community 22
members"—I deliberately put that first—"who participated in the open, honest, and 23
enthusiastic conversations in the co-design process. Thanks to staff and Concordia for 24
their leadership of the process. The Cubberley Concept Plan presents a vision of space 25
for community and education needs. Although there may be different paths and different 26 paces, PRC encourages the partners to realize this opportunity to create social and 27 educational spaces envisioned from these community-based concepts." I would be 28 interested in any discussion, agreement, disagreement with the ability to send this letter. 29
MOTION: 30
Chair McDougall: I think it's appropriate that I'll make a motion that we send this letter 31 to the City Council and to the Palo Alto School District Board. I have a motion. We 32 need a second, and then we can have discussion. Do I get a second? If not, we'll … 33 Thank you, Anne. We have a second, so let's have discussion. 34
Vice Chair Greenfield: I'm just wondering if it would be appropriate to include 35 something about the infrastructure needs at Cubberley right now and emphasizing that we 36 consider the immediate needs and drafting some sort of plan to address these in a timely 37
manner. 38
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Chair McDougall: Great idea. Do you have a suggestion where we might put that? In 1
the last paragraph, "encourages the partners to realize this op to create social and 2
educational spaces envisioned and to address the current infrastructure requirements." 3
Vice Chair Greenfield: Sure. Or "immediate or near-term infrastructure requirements." 4
Chair McDougall: Does anybody else have any comment? I like that addition. It's 5
important. If we've got some more clever wording to address the near-term infrastructure 6
requirements of the current Cubberley facility. 7
Commissioner McCauley: Conceptually not an issue, but I'm not sure where it's inserted 8
makes a lot of sense. That sentence kind of loses the prior impetus, which was … 9
Chair McDougall: Where would you suggest? We could put it in the first sentence. We 10 could repeat the concept that the Concept Plan addresses the social and educational 11 requirements of the community as well as provides the opportunity to address near-term 12 infrastructure. 13
Commissioner Reckdahl: Could you take that whole clause and take it out there and put 14 at the very end "community-based concepts, along with addressing the near-term 15 infrastructure needs"? Tack it on the end instead of the middle. 16
Chair McDougall: That's where I was putting it. 17
Commissioner Reckdahl: Move the highlighted text to the very of the third paragraph. 18
After community-based concepts, put a comma, "along with addressing … " 19
Chair McDougall: Yes. 20
Ms. O'Kane: I understand what the intent is. My concern is that people who read this 21
won't know because the lease—I'm assuming you're getting this from the draft lease 22
terms, the infrastructure needs. Because those documents won't be together, to me this 23
almost says, "Let's just maybe repair what we have for now, while we're considering 24
future opportunities." 25
Vice Chair Greenfield: That is not the message we're trying to send. 26
Ms. O'Kane: Exactly. I'm concerned about that. If people don't have the whole picture, 27 that might come across differently than what you intend. 28
Chair McDougall: What you're saying is we don't want to imply that we can repair what 29 we have. 30
Ms. O'Kane: Correct. 31
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Chair McDougall: That's a valid concern. Okay, so we really don't have to do this big, 1
beautiful thing. We just really need to fix everything. That's not consistent with the 2
message we're trying to deliver. The message we're trying to deliver is that the PRC 3
encourages the partners to realize the opportunity to create social and educational spaces 4
envisioned from this … 5
Vice Chair Greenfield: Somehow, we're also looking to convey the urgency of 6
addressing infrastructure needs at Cubberley, but we don't want that to take away from 7
the overall big picture of moving forward with new development. 8
Chair McDougall: I'm inclined to think that Kristen's got a really good point. Let's leave 9 it as we've got this incredible vision, and we hope that you guys as partners can figure out 10 how to realize that vision and leave out—we'll write a letter next month that says, "and if 11 you can't come up with a vision, then we need to fix something." 12
Commissioner Cribbs: I would definitely agree with that. We are selling two things in 13 one letter, and we should concentrate on this great vision. In another month or in two 14 weeks, say "Cubberley's falling apart right now. We need to do something about it on a 15 temporary basis." Maybe we don't want to say it quite like that. 16
Vice Chair Greenfield: Given all this discussion, I'm fine with not including the 17
infrastructure in this. 18
Chair McDougall: Probably a little strange to ask a recipient of the letter if she has an 19
opinion or would offer an opinion. She's shaking her head wisely. Let's leave it as a 20
strong message and not say, "and by the way." I'm going to see if I can get a vote on the 21
motion to send the letter as written. 22
Commissioner McCauley: May I ask a couple of questions? 23
Chair McDougall: Absolutely. I'm looking for conversation, improvement, or whatever. 24
Commissioner McCauley: Council Member Cormack and Kristen, appreciate that you 25
may be reluctant to weigh in. Your feedback would be helpful to help us understand if 26 this is going to be something that either will cause people to say, "What in the world is 27 the PRC doing?" Are we somehow injecting ourselves into something that's already 28 resolved and taken care of or are we being helpful and additive? 29
Ms. O'Kane: I'm going to take 10 seconds to read the letter one more time before I 30 answer that. 31
Chair McDougall: I do want to respond to that question. Part of the audience for this 32 letter are the hundreds of people that have participated in this. The Commission would 33 be remiss not to carry forward their commitment and passion and enthusiasm for doing 34
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something and support that. That doesn't mean we're trying to get this absolute thing 1
done. We're not trying to get either party to do something. It was Gennady's article in 2
the paper. When I read it, I felt that reflecting on the community involvement, we needed 3
to be seen as recognizing that community involvement. That's my major message here. 4
Commissioner McCauley: I totally appreciate that. I'm inclined to say that this is 5
something great to send and, to me, more or less noncontroversial. I'm just wondering 6
whether we're in any way stepping into something that at some level we don't need to 7
step into. 8
Commissioner Reckdahl: Does the third paragraph—is that essential? If we stopped 9 after the second, then we certainly are not controversial. 10
Vice Chair Greenfield: I think the third paragraph is essential as a statement of what 11 we're advocating moving forward. We're not ready to stop with what we have. We want 12 to encourage continuing motion and progress as opposed to another piece where we do a 13 bunch of work on Cubberley and everything grinds to a halt. 14
Chair McDougall: Kristen, did you have a comment? 15
Ms. O'Kane: I don't think the letter does any harm. It's very appreciative, especially to 16
the community. Because we will be coming to the Commission asking for a 17
recommendation to either have Council accept or not accept the Concept Plan and the 18
CEQA document, that does seem like a more appropriate time. I understand also Chair 19
McDougall's point that then more time has passed. I think his intent here was to thank 20
the community members who participated. The letter is fine. I don't think it would do 21
any harm. 22
Chair McDougall: I happen to think it's timely. The Concept Plan has just been 23
published. It was published and presented to the community jointly by the partners. In 24
the third paragraph, I repeat PRC encourages the partners. They called themselves 25
partners in the letter. Why not? 26
Vice Chair Greenfield: I support sending something. We're really trying to play nice 27 here. We're lauding the effort. 28
Chair McDougall: And providing encouragement. 29
Vice Chair Greenfield: We're providing a positive message. 30
Chair McDougall: The alternative is to be silent. I don't think the Commission should be 31 silent. 32
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Ms. O'Kane: You could even in the next step, which is making your recommendation to 1
Council, if you chose to have stronger—the letter is encouraging but it's not really a call 2
to action letter. That might be more appropriate in the next step. 3
Chair McDougall: This almost establishes the fact that the Commission believes it has 4
the right to speak up on this. Once you've been through the next level, you can speak up 5
more aggressively. This reinforces you want to remind them that we're a player here. 6
We've been involved from the start. I don't think this is a time to hide. 7
Commissioner McCauley: That's a perfect segue for one other comment. I realize it's not 8 exactly germane to this. Kristen and Council Member Cormack, it'd be very helpful for 9 the Commission as a whole and probably the ad hoc on Cubberley in particular to get 10 some candid direction as to what level and when we should be involved versus the City 11 Council, who's obviously handling this much more directly at the moment. Perhaps it 12 should be a significant topic for the next study session between the Council and the 13 Commission, to talk about where we can help in this entire process. I know you have 14 something in mind in terms of bringing back a proposal and having a recommendation 15 and a CEQA consideration, etc. It sounds like that's definitely part of the process. If 16
there are interim steps that we should either be helping or not because frankly sometimes 17
we can send mixed signals when we have different bodies of city government doing 18
different things. Your candid feedback through that whole process will be helpful to 19
make this as efficient and … 20
Chair McDougall: I'm going to comment on that. First off, we can't keep asking Council 21
Member Cormack to comment because it's inappropriate to ask her in the first place. 22
Let's not do that. I did tell Kristen that I was going to suggest this, and it was allowed. It 23
wasn't shut down. The thing that you have suggested, maybe we should just simply say, 24
"… concepts. The PRC looks forward to helping the partners in any way we can" or "the 25
PRC looks forward to continuing to support the progress of the partners" or whatever you 26
want to say. 27
Commissioner McCauley: Forgive me. This comment, I didn't mean to be with respect 28 to the letter. 29
Chair McDougall: I don't think we're going to get either Kristen or Council Member 30 Cormack to … 31
Commissioner McCauley: It's not to have them provide feedback right now. I'm saying 32 when the time comes, guidance on that issue would be helpful. 33
Ms. O'Kane: Moving forward, we can (crosstalk). 34
Commissioner McCauley: Exactly. Sorry. 35
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Chair McDougall: I think I can speak for the ad hoc that Kristen has been incredibly 1
candid and useful to our understanding and our participation. 2
Vice Chair Greenfield: I'd also add that the ad hoc went in with an approach of asking 3
Kristen what can we do to help, how can we be helpful, which is exactly what you're 4
suggesting that we do. 5
Commissioner McCauley: I didn't mean to suggest that that wasn't the case by any 6
means. Who are we addressing this to? The City Council, the School District? 7
Chair McDougall: That's it. Send it to the City Council as a whole and send it to the 8 School Board and copy both the City Manager, I suspect, and the School Supervisor. 9 They were the ones that wrote the joint thing. They should recognize their wording in it 10 because it's copy and paste. 11
Commissioner Reckdahl: I do have some wordsmithing here. The term realize can be 12 taken two ways. One is meaning you're ignorant. The other is to execute or accomplish. 13
Chair McDougall: You understand why I used that word then. 14
Commissioner Reckdahl: If we're trying not to get ourselves in trouble, do we want to 15 replace that with execute or accomplish or some other word or are we not worried about 16
that? 17
Chair McDougall: I had accomplish, execute, all those words you're thinking of, and 18
realize had both meanings. I think it's a useful word there. 19
Chair McDougall: If there are no other comments, we have lights on. Anne, do you have 20
a comment? Jeff? 21
Vice Chair Greenfield: I'm in favor of moving forward with voting on what we have in 22
front of us. 23
Chair McDougall: That's without adding the thing about we're looking forward to 24
helping. I would like to call for a vote on sending this letter as we've discussed to the 25
School Board, the City Council and their management. All in favor? Anyone opposed? 26 In that case, this is passed. I thank you for your cooperation and support on this. I'm 27 coming to the conclusion that it's a really useful thing to do. 28
Motion passed unanimously. 29
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7. Review of the Proposed Fiscal Year 2021-2025 Capital Improvement 1
Program Plan 2
Chair McDougall: This brings us to the Capital Improvement Plan. Would you like a 3
formal introduction or would you like to launch into it? Welcome back. We look 4
forward to a CIP presentation. Thank you for being here. 5
Mr. Do: For this presentation on the Capital Improvement Plan for fiscal years 2021-6
2025, I'll be presenting with my colleague, Daren Anderson, and my supervisor by the 7
way. To start with, what I'll be talking about is the Department's proposed Capital 8 Improvement Program. What we're proposing are projects that impact the Community 9 Services Department, both projects that are managed by the Department and some 10 projects within our parks system that are managed by the Public Works Department. 11 Which projects are managed by which department is a collaboration between the two 12 departments based on the scope and scale of the project and also the staffing capability of 13 who can manage which project in which fiscal year. Things do change. Sometimes we 14 push one project from one department to another. Anything that I present here, please 15 keep in mind it's only what we're currently proposing within the Department. This is not 16
the Citywide proposed CIPs. The project scope and budget are subject to change as well. 17
Thank you. For starters, a quick recap of what a capital improvement project consists of 18
and how it makes it into the five-year plan. Capital improvement projects all need to 19
have a minimum $50,000 cost. What's the useful life of the project? It's a minimum of 20
five years or it's got to extend an existing asset or provide a new functionality of an asset 21
that we have currently. Any projects that don't fall under that criteria, essentially projects 22
that are less than $50,000, are considered rehab projects, which the City has the 23
Department try to address through our Operating Budget. If the threshold is $50,000 or 24
more, we are asked to submit a capital project instead of trying to absorb it in our 25
Operating Budget as a rehabilitation project. As we collaborate and work with our 26 facilities managers and ask them what projects they envision having a need to improve, 27 we also weigh that against several other factors. The key to that is what are the Council's 28 current Priorities or recent Priorities. We also follow and address catch-up and keep-up 29 projects that were identified by the City's prior Infrastructure Blue Ribbon Commission. 30 We look at needs in our facilities that have health and safety issues to address. We also 31 look at the City's financial standing in regards to its ability to fund projects, keeping in 32 mind that most of the projects that are within Community Services are General Fund 33 sourced. We also have to take that into consideration. We've been reaching out in prior 34 years and this year to an ad hoc committee of Commissioners as well for input. That's 35 how we gathered and sourced what projects we proceed with. We'll take a look at a 36 sample page to review the development of a capital project and what it consists of. In 37
this sample project, your hard copy might be a better read. We identify a funding source. 38
It's in the upper right corner. We also identify which department will manage the project. 39
In our case, it's either Community Services or Public Works. We also entail when the 40
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project dates are, when we plan on starting the project and when we plan on completing 1
the project. Keep in mind it's because we're looking at a five-year window here. All 2
projects need to have a description, a justification. If timelines change, if budgets 3
change, or if scope changes, we also call that out in the process for the capital 4
improvement book. Other key areas to look at come down to what is the funding source 5
and timing we expect for the funding to be provided. In this example, the funding year is 6
fiscal year 2023. It's a General Fund project. As such, the funding schedule and the 7
expenditure schedule are concurrent years. In addition to that, we correlate the project 8 and how it meets the City's Comprehensive Plan, which we mentioned in our prior 9 discussions today. What policies and goals does it meet? We identify which boards or 10 commissions have a review of the project. That's a recap of how and what makes a CIP. 11 Moving onto discussions that Community Services staff have had with the ad hoc 12 committee. We formulated what we will be proposing to be our Department's projects 13 for fiscal year '21. The grand total funding ask that we're going forward with is asking 14 for $7.9 million, of which $4.6 million would be coming from the General Fund. The 15 difference between those two numbers is the funding source for the Byxbee Park 16
completion, and that's $2.4 million from park development impact fees. That's not a 17
burden on the General Fund. In addition to that, we have park restrooms that are being 18
funded every other year. Because the park restrooms expand the use of a location, we are 19
able to use park impact development fees for that. Should you have any questions in 20
particular about a project, Daren and I can answer that through the Q&A session. In 21
addition to the five-year CIP projects that we look at, we also have some projects that we 22
know we need, but we haven't put in the plan yet. There are several reasons why we've 23
identified numerous plans but not placed them in the five-year window. It could be 24
because the time that we anticipate needing the capital improvement project is beyond the 25
five-year window. Not until it falls in that five-year window can we propose it. In some 26 plans, the scope has not been fully developed yet. A good example is the Baylands 27 Athletic Center expansion. Right now, we're in the process of developing the scope. We 28 don't know how large the expansion plan can be or what design are we looking at. We 29 don't have an ability to determine a proposal without knowing what the scope will be and 30 what a good estimated cost will be. We've also been asked by the City's Office of 31 Management and Budget to not propose any CIPs where we don't have a firm number on 32 what the cost will be. There are various reasons why some of these projects you see on 33 here are not in the plan. Another thing I want to remind the Commission and anyone who 34 reads our reports is that Citywide all departments propose a five-year Capital 35 Improvement Project proposal. However, when we go forward and ask for budget 36 approval, City Council is only approving the most upcoming fiscal year. The remaining 37
four fiscal years are for planning and scheduling. They're not necessarily approved 38
projects. It's only the most immediate fiscal year that Council will approve the budget 39
for. However, they will review all five years. That's a key point to make in regards to 40
the five-year plan. The five -year plan only has one-year budget approval. In relation to 41
the makeup of a CIP, CIPs have a process that we all go through as we develop them. 42
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That's what I have up here as your CIP timeline. When you look at the timeline, we start 1
the budget season for an upcoming fiscal year in the prior October. As staff, we reach 2
out to stakeholders whether they be the Commission or our facilities managers. We also 3
reach out to Public Works that supports a lot of our infrastructure within a department. 4
From there, we cull what we think we'll need and want to propose. In the timeline around 5
December or January, we start submitting our projects to the Office of Management and 6
Budget. That goes back to the sample page that I showed you earlier. That's the 7
document that we propose to the City's Office of Management and Budget. In February 8 and March, the Office of Management and Budget will review across the City, all 9 departments, and start making the recommendations. From there, the City Manager will 10 package and propose a five-year plan to City Council for review. City Council then has 11 two recommending arms, one of which is the Planning and Transportation Commission, 12 which reviews all Citywide CIPs for compliance with the City's Comprehensive Plan. 13 City Council also asks the Finance Committee to review the plan as a whole and make 14 recommendations to the full Council. From there, in June the full Council will hold their 15 review. We anticipate and ask for budget adoption upon that time. That's the CIP 16
projects in a nutshell. Much of our discussion this evening will be a specific CIP. I want 17
to ask Daren to join in this discussion as well. We'll take your questions in regards to 18
CIPs in general or specific projects. Thank you. 19
Mr. Anderson: Thank you for that, Lam. This is just to acknowledge and thank the ad 20
hoc committee for participating in those meetings with staff. It was very helpful. 21
Appreciate the feedback. Anticipating one question that might come, Commissioner 22
Moss had noted when we talked about some of the Buckeye Creek temporary moves. 23
Part of that is some funding in a Foothills Park improvement project. The question 24
Commissioner Moss asked, "Is part of that funding to do design work to fix the 25
pedestrian bridge?" This is across from the Interpretive Center at Foothills Park. The 26 footings have been compromised because the water in Buckeye Creek erodes those areas. 27 His question was should we move funding up a year since that's not funded until FY '23 28 or '22. That's a very good question. I went to Public Works Engineering and asked them, 29 "What are your thoughts on this?" They said, "Let's go." They sent two engineers to do 30 an inspection of the bridge to see if they thought the needs were immediate and we 31 needed to move the money up. They thought it would be best to bring in a structural 32 engineer, a specialist with bridges. We're going to do that and try to get remedial 33 recommendations for maintenance of the bridge. I'll come back to the Commission with 34 information on that one. We didn't change the CIP. We left that where it is. We're going 35 to handle it via Operating Budget and with a bridge specialist rather than go straight to 36 replacement. 37
Mr. Do: There was one other inquiry during our staff meetings with the ad hoc. It had to 38
do with Cubberley. Since we just discussed Cubberley, I'd like to bring that up as well. 39
One of the questions was, "What is the City spending in regards to specifically Cubberley 40
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roof replacement? Should we be weighing that against the future Cubberley Concept 1
Plan? Should we be investing the money in the roof replacements?" I checked with our 2
Public Works facilities manager, and each wing at Cubberley varies based on size. The 3
cost to replace one wing's roof can be anywhere from $250,000 to $350,000 and maybe a 4
little bit higher. In regards to is now the time to replace them, should we take another 5
look, do we want to invest further into Cubberley, the response was that we do need to 6
replace these roofs now. Over the past 5-7 years, the City's delayed replacing these roofs. 7
With the future of Cubberley and how the City wants to use it and now the Concept Plan, 8 it's been further and further delayed to the point where we're not able to push and delay 9 these projects anymore. There are multiple wings that are being replaced. When we did 10 go recently to replace the roofs, we were finding more and more damage. From the 11 Public Works facilities manager's perspective, we should not or are not able to delay or 12 perhaps defer it any further. Even thought it is a costly item, we need to do this. 13
Chair McDougall: Does anybody have any questions? 14
Commissioner LaMere: I really appreciate this presentation. It's very informative. I 15 appreciate you taking the time. On the Magical Bridge Playground surfacing, what is that 16
and how often does that have to be done seeing it's fairly new construction? 17
Mr. Do: Magical Bridge surfacing consists of a soft rubberized surface and in some areas 18
artificial turf. In general, the lifespan is about 7-10 years. Magical Bridge at this point is 19
reaching its fifth year. Next year would be the sixth year. We're seeing, based on the 20
number of repairs we've had to do, whether it be the high use or the materials, we're 21
spending a lot of money doing patch repairs. We do not expect it to last its full 7-10 22
years. In working with Public Works Engineering, the recommendation is to put in for a 23
CIP now, granted it is a year or two years earlier than we initially thought, but it is 24
essential. Otherwise, we would just continue to be doing patches. The patches aren't 25
great. As you may have observed, the patches all need to be patched again because they 26
don't hold up. 27
Mr. Anderson: This is the exception rather than the rule. There are 25,000 people per 28 month using this playground. Relative to almost every other playground in the City, 29 there's exponentially more use. We had trees adjacent to this play area, and you see uplift 30 from the roots of those trees despite best efforts by project managers to prevent that. 31 Roots will go where roots want to go. It is lifting up a little bit there. That's another 32 reason why it's got to be done. 33
Commissioner Reckdahl: Looking at the chart for this year's CIP, it really is an 34 impressive list. It's such a variety, everything from playgrounds to the Arts Center to the 35 Community Theatre. It really does show you what a broad spectrum of work we do here. 36 When I first looked at this, I'm a little nervous. Do we have the manpower to do the 2021 37
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CIPs? I see three PIOs, Boulware, Johnson, and Seale. Do we think we can execute on 1
this or is some of them going to roll to next year? 2
Mr. Anderson: That's always a very fair question. We put it forward with the best intent 3
that we will get it completed within this timeframe. I have some increased optimism 4
based on Public Works' hiring a new person. It's not a new person, but they were down a 5
person for a while. We've got a little bit of backlog of projects not moving as fast as they 6
normally would. With this new replacement in Public Works as a project manager, it'll 7
help get things through quicker. They'll help us make a dent. I think we can do it. 8
Commissioner Reckdahl: Byxbee Park, is that the same, just filling in the holes, the 9 depressions? 10
Mr. Anderson: No. This is to finish making it a park. We did the interim plan in 2015, 11 which added park amenities like seating. We've added a few native planting islands. 12 This is built upon that. During the Baylands Comprehensive Conservation Plan, part of 13 that plan was a concept plan for Byxbee. This would realize that and carry it through to 14 fruition. 15
Commissioner Reckdahl: Including signage? 16
Mr. Anderson: Including signage, expanded parking lot. 17
Commissioner Reckdahl: On the next page, the CIP needs identified but not currently in 18
the CIP Plan, medians are on that. We're responsible for the medians? 19
Mr. Do: Yes. The road medians are managed through the Community Services. 20
Mr. Anderson: Our role is maintaining the vegetation and irrigation in those medians. 21
The construction of those is typically done by Transportation. A different department. 22
Commissioner Reckdahl: If I see any vegetation on medians, the Parks Department is 23
responsible for (crosstalk)? 24
Mr. Anderson: Not every spot. Some of it's Caltrans, and some of it ends up being 25
private. We have a significant amount that we care for. 26
Commissioner Reckdahl: On the actual list, there's a whole bunch in red text, new 27 proposal. This is not in the PowerPoint. This is in the attachment. Are these things that 28 cut in line, that change from a five-year plan to … 29
Mr. Do: New proposals, some of them do cut in line, and some of them are plans that 30 came off the identified but not in the list yet. Some of them are plans that we anticipated 31 last year. In this year, we're (inaudible). For example, one of the plans that's in red 32
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highlight, new proposal, that's the rigging system for Community Theatre. The theatre 1
has let us know that they do feel not only is it an (inaudible), but it's also a necessary 2
mechanical need at this point. 3
Commissioner Reckdahl: Is this unusual? I don't remember in the past having this many 4
new proposals that came in on the immediate year. 5
Mr. Do: Are you referring to just fiscal year '21 or the five years? 6
Commissioner Reckdahl: Just looking at the list for fiscal year '21. About half of them 7
are new proposals. 8
Mr. Anderson: It is rare that we have quite so many in the first fiscal year. They're 9 usually more spread out. It just so happened that a lot of them were very high priority. 10
Commissioner Reckdahl: What used to be in '21, some of those rolled to '22 to make 11 room for the new ones? 12
Mr. Anderson: We moved some out independent of the submittal of the new ones. If we 13 had a year that was heavily burdened with lots of projects—like you said, "Am I going to 14 get it done?"—we looked at ones that could be deferred and moved out to a less 15 populated year, FY '23, '24 or '25, and tried to do so, if we thought the amenity could last 16
via other maintenance practices. Oftentimes, that's the case and we can extend the 17
lifespan of an asset. It's still perfectly usable and safe; we just use maintenance dollars 18
from Operating Budget to extend a little bit. I should note again the comment about 19
those new ones. They may not stay in that fiscal year, once we go through the review 20
process and they look at funding availability for the entire capital plan. This is our 21
proposal. 22
Commissioner Reckdahl: These have not been awarded yet. 23
Mr. Anderson: That's right. This is just a proposal. What you're seeing is what we're 24
asking for. It goes through a multitude of different views by different folks. We'll see 25
what we get. 26
Commissioner McCauley: Thanks very much for all the thought on this thus far. Good 27 luck as the rest of the process plays out. 28
Commissioner Cribbs: The Rinconada Park family changing room, that's not new. It's a 29 readjustment of the—is it a new building? 30
Mr. Anderson: It is new. It was last minute of how can we make this happen. It had 31 been an interest. We wanted to get it in the capital plan. Luckily, Public Works was very 32 supportive. The day they were due for submittals, they were looking through plans 33
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saying, "I think we can do an add-on onto the original building." They looked at 1
repurposing a storage room, and I wouldn't rule that out. I believe this is the 2
understanding of Public Works Engineering that it would be cheaper to put on the new 3
room rather than reuse that one. 4
Commissioner Cribbs: It's not part at all of the Rinconada Park, anything there? It's just 5
all by itself. 6
Mr. Anderson: Yes. 7
Commissioner Moss: The Bay Trail section in East Palo Alto becomes higher priority 8 when in the end of January the section from Palo Alto north to Ravenswood is completed 9 by Menlo Park. This will become higher priority than we originally thought. I'm 10 wondering if there's something we can do for less than $50,000 with maintenance dollars 11 to smooth that section out, knowing that we can't widen it, which is what we really need 12 to do. There's a section that we can't touch because the owner won't let us. Is there a 13 chance that we can do something but keep it less than $50,000? The same thing is true 14 with the medians. Is there anything we can do that's less than $50,000? 15
Mr. Anderson: Let me answer the first part about the trail. We can't go on and do any 16
improvements because it's not our property and we don't have an easement from that 17
property owner. This is a little segment of unimproved trail surrounded by Bay Trail. 18
The adjacent property owner owns this section of land that abuts those, and he's not 19
willing to give the City an easement and not willing to let us come on and make 20
improvements. No, we couldn't come in and do that. It's not ours to do so. I approached 21
him, I want to say, in 2010, and the answer was no. We approached him again recently, 22
about 6-8 months ago, and the answer was no. Perhaps, as you pointed out, when the 23
Ravenswood connection comes to fruition, he may be approached by multiple agencies. 24
I've talked to our City Attorney and real estate staff about it. It's on their radar. It makes 25
good sense to revisit that again perhaps with the support of those surrounding 26 municipalities and agencies and see if there's another way. Your second question about 27 the medians. It depends on what we're looking at. If it was an irrigation thing, aside 28 from repairs, no. We couldn't come in and replace large sections of irrigation for under 29 $50,000. We do maintenance for the irrigation. What those really need is whole new 30 systems and whole new planting schemes. If we had a specific area that was fairly small 31 in scope and we just wanted to beautify that little area, we could. Staff could come in and 32 plant it, if there was a working irrigation system there. Right now, we're stretched taking 33 care of the multitude of other medians and landscaping that we've got. 34
Vice Chair Greenfield: Thank you for the comprehensive report and for providing 35 answers to some anticipated questions. There are lots of new proposals, and they are 36 proposals that are not approved. Have other items been dropped to make room for this? 37
We're just adding and hoping. 38
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Mr. Anderson: Yeah. 1
Vice Chair Greenfield: Similar to the Cubberley roof replacement discussion, I'm curious 2
about the Cubberley tennis courts. There's $400,000 proposed for resurfacing these 3
courts. Are these in dire need of immediate work? 4
Mr. Anderson: Yes. If we deferred it another year, it would have to be closed for safety 5
measures. Unfortunately, it certainly begs the question, and staff absolutely looked into 6
it. Is there something between full repair that you see in the capital budget and can we do 7
minor repairs? I was convinced there had to be something, and there isn't. I tell you that 8 because we've made the mistake before. A $30,000 per court treatment is essentially a 9 paint job. All the underlying, subsurface cracks and fissures resurface literally within 10 weeks. They're all still there, all the same safety hazards. You just have a new paint job 11 on top of that for $30,000. It wasn't worth doing at all. When I said, "Is there anything 12 else," the answer from our Public Works folks that do asphalt said, "No, you're going to 13 have to do this treatment." When we looked at the lifespan, I can't guess when we're 14 going to implement the Cubberley Master Plan. That would put a parking garage 15 underneath those tennis courts. Before you had to come back, it's about 7 years. Staff 16
was thinking it would be a good and appropriate use of that money to have the use of 17
these courts in the interim rather than close it down. If we have new information before 18
we move on this to indicate that the parking garage would come much sooner, we 19
certainly could reevaluate and discuss it with the Commission and others to figure out if 20
there was a more appropriate way to go about it. 21
Vice Chair Greenfield: Is there any type of permeable pavement that's appropriate for 22
use on tennis courts? 23
Mr. Anderson: We'd have to look into that. It's a fair and good question. 24
Vice Chair Greenfield: I'm guessing the issue may be finding something that's smooth 25
enough, but people don't like to have water on tennis courts. It could be a potential 26 solution. It's just something to think about. Regarding the Stanford/Palo Alto playing 27 fields netting on the to be planned list, when do we project that these need to be replaced? 28 This is the netting that's above the fencing. 29
Mr. Anderson: That's correct. Staff has done inspections, and it seems to be holding 30 together well. We just know at the 15-20 year mark of netting, it needs to be inspected. 31 We'll see how it does. I think it's highly variable depending on the quality of the netting 32 that you bought and how UV-resistant it is. What we want to do is keep that kind of 33 thing on our radar, note that staff needs to be looking at it regularly to see if it changes, 34 and make sure we plan accordingly. 35
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Vice Chair Greenfield: I can confirm that the netting is used on occasion. I haven't 1
observed any issues with the netting. Regarding the Buckeye Creek improvements on the 2
CIPs not planned list, was that previously on a CIP list? 3
Mr. Anderson: No. 4
Vice Chair Greenfield: We never got that in. 5
Mr. Anderson: The only element that we have in is design, and that was added to an 6
existing CIP. We threw additional money in to make sure we do design work for the 7
grade control structures and this pedestrian bridge. 8
Vice Chair Greenfield: We know the grade control structures are failing, and we need to 9 do something at some point if a bigger project isn't approved. That is not yet detailed 10 enough to be put in the CIP. 11
Mr. Anderson: That's correct. 12
Chair McDougall: I'm going to add my thanks to the work that went on to staff and to the 13 ad hoc for participating with all of us. My only comment is the aesthetics. I think I've 14 said before, it always bothers me that we look at this and say, "The City's going to spend 15 $8 million on parks," but that's not really true. There are only $4.5 million that comes out 16
of the General Fund. The other $3 million comes from somewhere else. I still would 17
encourage that there be a subtotal for General Fund and a couple of line items for the 18
impact fee funds and then a total so that the perception is the City's spending $4.5 million 19
out of the General Fund. Maybe everybody's not as easily fooled as I am. I get stuck 20
with the $8 million in my head, and that's not the right number. We don't do ourselves a 21
service to lump them altogether. It would be easy to put them as separate line items. I'll 22
echo what Ryan said, good luck, and what Keith said. It's diversity itself. It covers all 23
the bases, bathrooms and bridges and parks. Very good. Thank you. 24
8. Other Ad Hoc Committee and Liaison Updates 25
Chair McDougall: The last item on the agenda is ad hoc and liaison updates. I assume 26 we can do this quickly. We have a pretty good document in front of us. I would 27 encourage that the only items that people bring up right now are items that are not in the 28 document and are particularly relevant. Jeff, do you have anything you want to add to the 29 ad hoc or liaison report? Keith? 30
Commissioner Reckdahl: I talked to Daren about the NVCAP. Ventura is looking at un-31 concreting, naturalizing the stream, Matadero Creek. They presented it last week to the 32 NVCAP, and it's potentially beautiful. They're going to be coming in January, giving us 33
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a view of what it could be. It's just a design. There's no money associated with building 1
it. It has a lot of potential. 2
Commissioner Moss: There was a meeting about Baylands signage for the newly named 3
Friendship Trail between East Palo Alto and Palo Alto. There were probably 25 people 4
in the room representing both East Palo Alto and Palo Alto. It was very enlightening 5
how they wanted to make this a community event, not just signs. I did recommend to the 6
staff that they look at fixing some of the signage in Arastradero Preserve, which has 7
become out of date since they moved some trails about a year, year and a half, ago. 8
That's all I have. 9
Chair McDougall: You need to think in terms of they weren't just looking at the physical 10 infrastructure of the signs, they were looking at creating social infrastructure using the 11 signs. 12
Commissioner Cribbs: The park amenities, we should add that Commissioner McCauley 13 and I met with Animal Services and with Daren to talk about the pilot project off-leash. I 14 was pleased about the reception we had from Animal Services. Cody was great. We 15 have some things to do. 16
Chair McDougall: That'll be incredibly exciting. It would save money so you could 17
spend the money on bathrooms. 18
Commissioner Cribbs: We may do that in two parts, the pilot project first and add the 19
green part. A lot of things to think about to make sure it works the first time. 20
VI. TENTATIVE AGENDA FOR JANUARY 28, 2020 MEETING 21
Chair McDougall: The next item on the agenda is tentative agenda for January 28. I 22
would say January 28 is a long way away. From what I remember, it looks like January 23
was already pretty full anyway. I'll leave that with Jeff and Daren to work out for the 24
next meeting. 25
VII. COMMENTS AND ANNOUNCEMENTS 26
Chair McDougall: I am going to ask your tolerance for five more minutes if I can say a 27 thank you. I know there are others whose terms are up, but I don't know if I'm the only 28 one who's leaving. I want to say thank you to everybody. I want to say thank you to 29 staff, everybody on staff, Daren, Kristin, Jazmin, Lam, everybody that I've worked with. 30 It's been so great to work with them. They're a real asset to the City. My fellow 31 Commissioners, the City is incredibly lucky to have this particular set of people with the 32 kind of passion and care that you have for the parks and the open space and the recreation 33 and the depth and breadth of thought that you guys put into this. When I started to make 34
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a list of "what do you think about," it's the trees. Somebody focuses on the trees. 1
Somebody focuses on the paths. Somebody focuses on the swimming pool. There are 2
the fields and open space. It's more than that because it's the intersection between all of 3
that infrastructure and the constituents. Everybody on the Commission at one time or 4
another has defended the teenagers, defended the young, defended the disabled, defended 5
the elderly or in fact advocated for the healthy. It's just a great intersection between the 6
people and the infrastructure. In spite of having to tolerate my rants and my mistakes, the 7
amount of civility and the quality that this Commission has had in terms of the way we 8 conduct ourselves together has made this a real pleasure. I'm going to miss everybody. 9 You're probably not going to miss me for the next couple of months because I'm not 10 leaving the City yet. I'm going to take a little pad of those comment cards and start 11 tomorrow filling them out. When you plan the January meeting, have a lot of time in 12 there for public comment because I'll be back. I really would like to thank you and tell 13 you how much I've enjoyed this and have a feeling that, as a group, we've had a 14 tremendous amount of accomplishment from pickleball to—it just goes on and on. 15 Again, thank you all very much. 16
Council Member Cormack: Chair McDougall, on behalf of the City Council and the City 17
of Palo Alto, I want to thank you for your service on this and on the Library Advisory 18
Commission. It's much appreciated, and we will certainly miss you. 19
Chair McDougall: I want to thank you for us having Council support. It's been a real 20
pleasure this year. All of us have enjoyed and appreciated your participation. Thank 21
you. 22
Commissioner Cribbs: Chair, you have been an incredible leader for us. This has been a 23
lot of fun. It's a bittersweet moment. It's kind of like Rinconada. I'm certainly going to 24
miss you and miss your leadership and miss your comments and even miss your rants. I 25
wish you well and very happiest of holidays. We'll look forward to all the writings and 26 the speaking that you're going to do in the next couple of months. Thank you for 27 everything. 28
Commissioner Moss: A lot of the civility that you mentioned is you. Your leadership in 29 keeping things civil and moving and allowing everybody to participate is something we 30 will take moving forward. 31
Vice Chair Greenfield: I've seen a lot going on behind the scenes in terms of the 32 planning and the preparation that you do for the meetings. I really appreciate that. I 33 appreciate being brought into the process. Your guidance and the tone you've set in the 34 meetings have been great. We all appreciate it. We're going to miss it. I wish you well. 35 Maybe we'll wish you'll go further away eventually, but probably not so soon. 36
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Chair McDougall: You've been a great partner with me in all of that preparation. You've 1
put the details into the preparation that has been really important. 2
Commissioner Reckdahl: I did really enjoy serving with you. I'm going to miss you a 3
lot. Your intelligence, your enthusiasm, your humor or more often attempted humor. 4
Thank you for serving. 5
Chair McDougall: I appreciate the fact that the very first time I had to get Keith to tell 6
me how to operate everything up here. I still remember that. Thank you. 7
Mr. Anderson: Chair, Director O'Kane would like to say a few words on behalf of staff. 8
Ms. O'Kane: Just one more thing to say. It really has been a pleasure working with you. 9 You've always been very respectful of staff, of your fellow Commissioners, of the 10 community, fair and sometimes firm but always would default to my opinion. I really 11 appreciate that. Just teasing. We'll really miss you. Your leadership has been great on 12 this Commission, and your dedication and hard work to the whole City has been great. 13 We wish you well, and we hope you don't go too far away. It would be great to have you 14 pop in once in a while and say hi and have some comments on one of Daren's items. 15 Thank you so much for your service. 16
Mr. Anderson: Chair, I'd like to reiterate the same on behalf of staff. It's just sincerely 17
thank you. I admire you greatly, and I appreciate your leadership, your dedication, and 18
your passion to parks and recreation. It means a lot. It means a lot that you roll up your 19
sleeves and go out into the parks and pull weeds for 5-6 hours, and you offered to help 20
staff with editing documents. It goes noticed, and me and my team really appreciate you. 21
Thanks so much. 22
Chair McDougall: You guys have been such a pleasure to want to support. You make 23
people want to help you. That's such an asset for the City. The City should be proud of 24
all of this. Thank you. 25
VIII. ADJOURNMENT 26
Meeting adjourned on motion by Chair McDougall and second by Commissioner 27 Reckdahl at 10:30 p.m. 28
Primrose Way
Pollinator Gardens
Presented by
Juanita Salisbury, PhD.CA Landscape Architect #5161
January 28, 2020
Follow us onFacebook and InstagramPrimrose Way
Pollinator Garden
The gardens are always open:
1.Primrose Way Pollinator Garden
2.Arcadia Place Pollinator Garden
3.Island Drive Pollinator Garden
4.Guinda Street Pollinator Garden
5.Hopkins Avenue Pollinator Garden
Google: “pollinator garden Palo Alto” for locations and
virtual tours.
5. Hopkins Avenue
Palo Alto, 2016
The Primrose Way site before:
Grass, cherry and camphor trees and over 4,000
square feet.
Next to busy Embarcadero Road, the site
provided an opportunity close by to where I live.
I approached Open Space and Parks to see if I
could design and install a pollinator garden with
California native plants.
I offered to do everything: Design, site
preparation, fund-raising, volunteer coordination,
installation and maintenance.
“Show us your plan” was the response, so I did.
Approval followed after a couple of changes.
A “Go Fund Me” site and a Palo Alto “Know Your Neighbor” grant provided funds, along with donated
mulch and logs from the city. Boulders were also donated from a local building supply company.
The neighborhood came out to help plant over 300 plants over several weekends in December, 2016.
Later, the city of Palo Alto created
signage for the garden.
Information about the garden and
links for more information are
included.
The Primrose Way Pollinator Garden
“After” Spring 2019
Over 50 California native plant species and counting.
The Primrose Way Pollinator Garden
“After” Spring 2019
The Primrose Way Pollinator Garden
Spring 2019
Not only brought neighbors together
but also featured in the
California Native Plant Society’s
2019 Going Native Garden Tour
About 150 people attended.
December 2016
The Arcadia Place Garden “Before”
A 255 square foot cul-de-sac island.
The City of Palo Alto supplied the plants from my
design. Installed and maintained by volunteers.
Outreach flyers were distributed to
all the houses on the street for
input beforehand.
Arcadia Place Pollinator Garden
Spring 2019
Over a dozen California native
plant species and counting.
Island Drive
2017
Another opportunity:
About 4,000 square feet.
The city of Palo Alto removed the non-native
ivy and added mulch.
A “Progress for Pollinators” grant from the
Happy Hollow Foundation provided
funds for acquiring plants.
Island Drive 2017
Again, outreach flyers were distributed to the
surrounding homes for feedback and input.
Installed and maintained by volunteers.
Island Drive 2019
Maintained by volunteers.
Over 72 California native plant species
and counting.
Island Drive 2019
Guinda Street 2018
“Before”
About 2,000 square feet.
The city of Palo Alto removed the non-native
ivy, added mulch and repaired existing
irrigation.
Another “Progress for Pollinators” grant from the
Happy Hollow Foundation provided
funds for acquiring plants.
Over 20 plant species and counting.
Guinda Street Pollinator Garden Spring 2019
Hopkins Avenue
“Before”
About 1,000 square feet.
The city of Palo Alto enhanced the existing
irrigation and supplied mulch.
Another “Progress for Pollinators” grant from the
Happy Hollow Foundation provided
funds for acquiring plants.
Lots of volunteers came out to plant.
Hopkins Avenue
After, December 2019
About 175 plants,
Over 20 species
Why California Native Plants?
California is a Biodiversity Hotspot
•Almost 8,000 species of plants, some
found no where else on the planet—
more than any other state in the US
•Approximately 1,600 species of native
bees (4,000 species across the U.S.;
honeybees are not native)—more than
any other state in the US
•We have such a huge number of native
plant species largely because of:
a. Our unique ecosystems in California
AND
b. Our 1,600 species of native bees.
Insect species including pollinators
are declining world-wide.
In some areas of the world,
insect species have declined 70%.
Energy from the sun...
...is converted by plants (first trophic level) into food that is
eaten by insects and other animals (second trophic level).
PLANTS ARE THE BEGINNING OF EVERYTHING
(plants are the primary producers of food
and the basis of the food chain)
Insects provide food for baby birds and other animals.
Gardens with at least 70% native plant species are needed
to sustain populations of birds because native insects will
generally only eat native plants.
37% of animal species are plant-eating insects.
Many other animals rely on insects as food to access the sun's energy stored in plants.
Floral
and
vegetative
resources
Native Plant Gardens Optimally Solve Many Issues
Create community
Communicate care
Strengthen ecosystem resilience
Health benefits
Provide opportunities
Enhance neighborhoods
Education
Engagement
And more
In progress:
Partnering with the First Congregational Church and Grass Roots Ecology, across from the
Primrose Way Garden, the parkway strip along Embarcadero Road in Palo Alto.
Inspired by the Primrose Way Garden, the church also installed its own pollinator garden.
Each garden installed helps to fulfill the Pollinator Pathways vision outlined in the Master Plan.
Palo Alto: A City of Abundance
City of Palo Alto Page 1
TO: Parks and Recreation Commission
FROM: Planning and Development Services Department
DATE: January 28, 2020
SUBJECT: North Ventura Coordinated Area Plan, and Matadero Creek Study Update
RECOMMENDATION
This report provides the Parks and Recreation Commission an update on the North Ventura Coordinated
Area Plan (NVCAP) and the Matadero Creek Improvement Study. The staff report includes (1) high level
plans for open space throughout the NVCAP project area and (2) draft proposals to naturalize the
Matadero Creek. Staff recommends that the Parks and Recreation Commission (PRC) review the staff
report and provide input to the Matadero Creek Study and the draft planning alternatives. No action will
be taken.
BACKGROUND
The City Council initiated the North Ventura Coordinated Area Plan (NVCAP) process on November 6,
2017. The NVCAP was a direct outcome of the Comprehensive Plan Update Program L4.10.1. The
purpose of the NVCAP is to capture the City’s vision for this neighborhood into a regulatory document
that will guide future development and will include land use policies, development standards, and
design guidelines. The NVCAP is intended to strengthen the neighborhood fabric and consider
infrastructure needs, providing for a mix of land uses that take advantage of the proximity of the
Caltrain station, the California Avenue area, and El Camino Real.
The NVCAP project area is approximately 60-acre site roughly bounded by Page Mill Road, El Camino
Real, Lambert Avenue, and the Caltrain tracks. The existing plan area has a mix of small and large
businesses and single family residences. The site represents a rare opportunity within the city to plan
proactively for a transit-oriented, mixed-use neighborhood. The project area includes one of the largest
housing opportunity sites in Palo Alto, at 340 Portage Avenue (previously occupied by Fry’s Electronics).
The City was awarded a $638,000 federal Priority Development Area grant for the preparation of the
plan in September 2018 by the Santa Clara Valley Transportation Authority, the Association of Bay Area
Governments, the Metropolitan Transportation Commission, and the State of California Department of
Transportation (Caltrans).
Following the initial Council direction, a Working Group of 14 members was appointed and a planning
consultant, Perkins+Will, was selected by the City Council to work with staff on the development of the
draft plan. Eleven Working Group meetings have been held since project initiation on November 6,
2017. A community workshop was held on February 5, 2019 at the Mitchell Park Community Center.
Several stakeholder meetings and public hearings took place throughout 2019, including a joint City
Council and Working Group Town Hall meeting in March 2019.
City of Palo Alto Page 2
Public outreach is an important component of the NVCAP project. Staff has worked with the Working
Group, the Ventura Neighborhood Association, and other groups to publicize meetings and solicit input.
A project website has been established https://www.paloaltonvcap.org/, which is serving as one of the
primary outreach tools. The website provides background information, meeting materials and all other
related resources.
DISCUSSION
Matadero Creek
In the March 11, 2019, at a joint Town Hall meeting of the City Council and the Working Group, the City
Council directed staff to explore design options that integrate Matadero Creek as an open space feature
into the NVCAP plan and enhance its connection to Boulware Park (Meeting Minutes). This type of
analysis requires specialized expertise in hydrological processes, engineering and design, as well as an
understanding of the regulatory process involving multiple regional entities. To implement this action,
City hired consulting firm Wetlands Research Associates WRA to evaluate the feasibility of three levels
of naturalization and improvements to the creek and to develop three conceptual designs of the
improvements. The naturalization scenarios include (1) full naturalization of Matadero creek, (2) partial
naturalization of the creek, (3) partial naturalization within the boundaries of the creek easement. The
design of the scenarios is informed by hydrologic and hydraulic models to ensure decreased flood risks
and identify all mitigation measures required to be incorporated into the design options.
Currently the existing portion of the Matadero Creek in the plan area has no public access, no
geomorphic functions, poor habitat, and poor aesthetic conditions. Additional constraints such as the
existing groundwater contamination plume, Santa Clara Valley Water District requirements, and
regulations for maintenance and access to the creek, and high cost of the land of the area can act as
impediments to full and functional development of the Creek options. Following are brief descriptions of
the draft three alternatives proposed. An unaddressed Alternative “0” is a no change scenario.
Alternative One includes work within the boundaries of the existing Valley Water easement from
Lambert Avenue to Park Boulevard, about 60 feet in width. This alternative proposes new vertical walls
and replacement of the existing concrete channel with an earthen channel bottom. The creek banks
would either be made of driven steel piles or concrete walls which could be beautified. The earthen
channel bottom could have riparian plantings, willows and trees growing. The flood risks would be
mitigated by the construction of flood walls along the top of the corridor. There would be allowances for
public access to reach into the creek channel. This option proposes to expand into the Valley Water
easement property only.
Alternative Two proposes to add more aesthetics and amenities to the creek site by laying back the left
bank facing downstream through the 340 Portage parcel, and creating some nice opportunities for
ornamental plantings, aesthetically pleasing landscape architecture, walking paths, public access,
benches etc. The bottom width of the channel would be the same as Alternative One and would have
the same flood wall requirements to manage flood risks. The overall corridor width proposed is about 85
City of Palo Alto Page 3
feet, additional 25 feet wider than the Valley Water easement. The additional space on the left bank can
be utilized for a path and more plantings to beautify the creek area. The concept of Alternative Two can
be expanded to 2A to include additional walking path to Boulware Park upstream to connect two
sections. The meandering channel bottom would provide natural stream morphology and in-stream
habitat features.
Alternative Three proposes greater width for the creek; a living creek to maximize ecological functions
and transform the corridor as a public amenity. This option will have vertical walls that are similar to
Alternative One but spaced even further apart, allowing for the creek to meander from wall to wall not
to be constrained or confined. This alternative will have the same features of maintenance access
ramps, public access with walking trails and other beautification measures. The really wide corridor
approximately 100 feet would replace Lambert Bridge and Park Boulevard Bridge, with features not to
constrain the flow and the whole natural corridor with hydraulic structures. This option would require
acquisition of significant real estate properties along the corridor. This proposes further expansion than
Alternative 2A, allowing the channel to meander much further, much more riparian planting, replacing
Lambert Bridge and actually creating allowing for flow all the way through.
These proposals require further refinement. Information from the hydraulic modeling will be added to
the final proposals along with suggestions and feedback from the Santa Clara Valley Water District
Office.
Open Space within NVCAP
Apart from seeking feedback from the Commission on the Matadero Creek study, planning staff also
seeks input from the Commission on the open space components of the plan. At present, the plan area
is served by two parks; Boulware Park and Sarah Wallis Park. The City’s recent purchase of the 27,829
square feet property on 3350 Birch Street in May 2019 is proposed for expansion of the Boulware Park.
This expansion would bring total Boulware Park area to 2.1 acres.
City staff along with the NVCAP Working Group is developing three draft alternatives for the plan area.
The proposed drafts take into consideration an appropriate mix of housing, retail and office uses along
with proper circulation and open space requirements to create a livable neighborhood. Each draft
alternative proposes a range of creative open spaces. Addition of creative open spaces and expansion of
Boulware Park, proposal will allow the City to meet the standards set forth by Policy C4.61 of the
1 Policy C-4.6 Use the National Recreation and Park Association Standards as guidelines for locating and developing new parks. These guidelines
are as follows:
• Neighborhood parks should be at least two (2) acres in size, although sites as small as ½-acre may be needed as supplementary
facilities. The maximum service area radius should be ½-mile. Two acres of neighborhood park land should be provided for each
1,000 people.
• District parks should be at least five (5) acres in size. The maximum service area radius should be one (1) mile. Two acres of district
park land should be provided for each 1,000 people.
• A park should be provided within walking distance of all residential neighborhoods and employment areas. The National Recreation
and Park Association define walking distance as ½-mile.
City of Palo Alto Page 4
Community Services and Facilities Element of the Comprehensive Plan adopted in December 2017. The
guidelines established by the National Recreation and Park Association require that neighborhood parks
should be at least two acres in size, although sites as small as ½-acre may be needed as supplementary
facilities. Two acres of neighborhood park land should be provided for each 1,000 people and the
maximum service area radius for these parks should be ½-mile. The standards also require that a park
should be provided within walking distance (half mile) of all residential neighborhoods and employment
areas.
On January 21, 2020, the City, through its consultant Perkins and Will, presented the latest iteration of
the draft alternatives. This includes open space components. The alternatives are attached. Open space
is proposed to be provided in three categories: (1) centralized open spaces like parks, (2) greenways, (3)
courtyards and green roofs.
In addition, the total acreage of the Matadero Creek easement measures 1.4 acres and would be a part
of a centralized open space along the creek. The creek open space can also offer connectivity to and
through Boulware Park, allowing park users to cross Lambert Avenue and enter the NVCAP area and
likewise allows persons to travel from the NVCAP area into the park by foot or bicycle.
NEXT STEPS
The NVAP Working Group, city staff, and the consultants plan to hold monthly working meetings to
further refine the plan through the spring of 2020. The second community workshop on the plan
alternatives is scheduled to take place on February 27, 2020. The draft plan alternatives will also be
reviewed by the Planning and Transportation Commission, Architectural Review Board, and Council in
late spring.
POLICY IMPLICATIONS
As the Parks and Recreation Commission considers the open space proposals and the draft plan
alternatives, City staff hope special discussion and consideration will be given to:
(1) Reflections on the types of open spaces being proposed, including the advantages,
disadvantages, and appropriateness of their location;
(2) Trade-offs between pursuing varying levels of creek naturalization while also providing space for
active and passive recreation both within the boundaries of the NVCAP and as the creek winds
through Boulware Park.
The draft plan alternatives are consistent with the policies of the Community Services and Facilities
Element and the Land Use Element of the Comprehensive Plan. The Policy C-3.3 of the Community
Services and Facilities Element encourages maintenance of existing park facilities as safe and healthy
community assets; Policies C-4.2 and C-4.3 encourages locating and prioritizing potential park sites to
serve all residents when preparing coordinated area plans. The proposed NVCAP project alternatives are
also consistent with Policy C4.6 in following the National Recreation and Park Association requirements
City of Palo Alto Page 5
of neighborhood parks. Program L4.10.1 of the Land use Element requires preparation of a coordinated
area plan for the North Ventura neighborhood with walkable neighborhood with multi-family housing,
ground floor retail, a public park, creek improvements and an interconnected street grid.
ATTACHMENTS
Attachment A. Matadero Creek Improvement Alternatives
(These Matadero Creek Study alternatives were presented to the NVCAP Working Group Members on December 5,
2019. Updated alternatives will be presented to the PRC on January 28th)
Attachment B. NVCAP Working Group Meeting presentation on the proposed draft alternatives and
open space
PREPARED BY
Chitra Moitra
Planner
Planning and Development Services Department
TO: Parks and Recreation Commission
FROM: Public Works
DATE: 1/28/2020 SUBJECT: Boulware Park Renovation Project (PE-17005)
RECOMMENDATION No action to be taken. This report provides an update on the Boulware Park Renovation Project (PE- 17005) to obtain input from the Parks and Recreation Commission (PRC) on
future park facilities. BACKGROUND Capital improvement funding of $495,000 was approved by the City Council in 2017 to
address park maintenance needs in Fiscal Year 2018. The renovation included infrastructure, accessibility and maintenance improvements. The project was postponed to Fiscal Year 2019 due to budget constraints. During that period the Birch Street property, adjacent to the existing Boulware Park and owned by AT&T was put up for sale. In fall 2019, the City finalized the purchase of the Birch Street property and began a community-
based design process to determine how the existing Boulware Park and the Birch Street property would be developed as one park. The first community meeting was held on November 9, 2019. The goal of this meeting was to allow the community the opportunity to provide input on what park amenities should be
considered in the renovation and expansion of Boulware Park, and to gage the community on the removal of a portion of Ash Street and the schedule to implement the renovation. The community was requested to provide feedback on park facility ranking them on preference and priority. The facilities presented were drawn from existing facilities in
Boulware Park and facilities that were highlighted in the Parks Master Plan to be considered as part of all park renovation projects. Attendees at the community meeting were asked to place sticker dots next to their desired facility and to prioritize the choices. These facilities included:
Existing Facilities at Boulware Park
• Playground
• Basketball Court
• Group Picnic Area
• Open Turf Area
Master Plan Park Facilities
• Restroom
• Dog Park
• Community Garden
• Loop Walking Path
• Adult Fitness
• Pickle Ball
• Shaded Seating Areas
• Habitat/Native Planting
• Security Lighting Upon the completion of the first community meeting an online facility survey was released
for those who could not attend. As part of the meeting survey the community was allowed
to write in other facilities that were not found on the list provided. As a result, the following additional facilities were added on to the online survey: Facilities Added After the Community Meeting
• Creek Lookout
• Bocce Ball
• Horseshoes
As of January 21, 2020, the survey received the following information: Community Meeting Survey (26 Meeting Attendees):
Facility Selection Question
• Playground: 25 stickers
• Open Turf Area: 17 stickers
• Restroom: 33 stickers
• Basketball Court: 16 stickers
• Group Picnic Area:
• Community Garden: 12 stickers
• Loop Walking Path: 13 stickers
• Dog Park: 17 stickers
• Adult Fitness Area: 9 stickers
• Pickle Ball Court: 11 stickers
• Shaded Seating Area: 16 stickers
• Habitat/Native Planting: 17 stickers
• Security Lighting: 16 stickers
Facility Priority Question
• Playground: 25 stickers
• Open Turf Area: 18 stickers
• Restroom: 26 stickers
• Basketball Court: 18 stickers
• Group Picnic Area: 14 stickers
• Community Garden: 10 stickers
• Loop Walking Path: 10 stickers
• Dog Park: 22 stickers
• Adult Fitness Area: 8 stickers
• Pickle Ball Court: 1 sticker
• Shaded Seating Area: 10 stickers
• Habitat/Native Planting: 12 stickers
• Security Lighting: 14 stickers
On-line Survey results (55 Participants): Facility Selection Question
• Playground: 38 votes
• Open Turf Area: 28 votes
• Restroom: 27 votes
• Basketball Court: 16 votes
• Group Picnic Areas: 22 votes
• Community Garden: 12 votes
• Loop Walking Path: 25 votes
• Dog Park: 12 votes
• Adult Fitness Area: 8 votes
• Pickle Ball Court: 4 votes
• Shaded Seating Area: 30 votes
• Habitat/Native Planting: 18 votes
• Security Lighting: 31 votes
• Creek Lookout: 20 votes
• Bocce Ball: 4 votes
• Horse Shoes: 4 votes
Facility Priority Question
• High Priority: Playground, Open Turf Area, Restroom
• Medium Priority: Shaded Seating Areas, Basketball Court, Group Picnic Area, Loop
Walking Path, Security Lighting, Community Garden, Habitat/Native Planting
• Low Priority: Dog Park, Adult Fitness, Creek Lookout, Bocce Ball, Pickle Ball & Horseshoes
Three additional questions were included in the on-line survey including: a question
concerning the communities’ interest to close a portion of Ash Street that would connect the two properties into one park, and two questions on timing of the renovation. Question 1
Would you be in favor of renovating the full park site in phases (over multiple years), as opposed of doing the full renovation at one time?
Survey Response: 43% of those surveyed are supportive of doing the project in phases.
Question 2 Would you be in favor of renovating the full park site at one time, dependent upon city funding to complete a large park renovation project (funding of project in 3-8 years)?
Survey Response: 67% of those surveyed are supportive of doing the project all at once
even if having to wait a few years for funding to become available. Question 3
Would you be in favor of eliminating Ash Street and making Chestnut Avenue a Cul De Sac to connect the two parcels together into one park? Survey Response: 88% of those surveyed are supportive of removing a portion of Ash Street.
DISCUSSION Staff requests input from the Commission on the potential facilities for the park, and the preliminary draft park plan included in Attachment ‘A’. Information gathered from the
community meeting, online survey and Parks and Recreation Commission meeting will guide which facilities would be included in the draft park layout plan, which will be reviewed by the community at the second phase of outreach. NEXT STEPS
Tentative schedule is presented below. • Community Meeting #2 Preliminary Plan Review: February • Community Meeting #3 Finalize Park Layout Plan Design: Spring 2020 • Parks & Recreation Commission Meeting #2 Review Final: Summer 2020
• PRC Meeting #3 – Adoption of Park Improvement Ordinance (PIO): Summer 2020 • Bid Document Preparation: Fall/Winter 2020/2021 • Council to Adopt (PIO) and Approve Contract: Spring 2021 • Project Bidding: Spring 2021 • Construction Begins: July 2021 (start of FY 2022)
POLICY IMPLICATIONS The proposed recommendations are consistent with Policy C-26 of the Community Services element of the Comprehensive Plan that encourages maintaining park facilities as
safe and healthy community assets; and Policy C-22 that encourages new community facilities to have flexible functions to ensure adaptability to the changing needs of the community.
ATTACHMENTS Attachment A: Draft Preliminary Park Plan
Attachment B: Community Comments from Community Meeting
Attachment C: Presentation PREPARED BY Peter Jensen
Landscape Architect
City of Palo Alto
AD HOC COMMITTEE MEMBERS STAFF
LIAISON 1/2020 STATUS UPDATE
Baylands 10.5 Acres Cribbs
LaMere
Reckdahl
Daren
Anderson
Baylands Comprehensive Conservation Plan (BCCP)Moss
Reckdahl
Daren
Anderson Horizontal Levee project was discussed with the Baylands subcommittee and several recommendations were
made as to how to move forward: The next phase of the project is expected to start in February, after the
Coastal Conservancy Board approves a $500,000 grant for this project. The next phase will incude: 1. a
relocation of the pilot project in response to permitting challenges identified in the PDR. 2. community
workshop on balancing the goals of social infrastructure with habitat enhancement, 3. community workshop to
identify ways to involve disadvantaged communities in the project, 4. 60% design, and initial permitting, 5.
continuing to monitor SAFER project and San Francisqito Phase II. The Horizontal Levee Project will come to the
Commission as discussion topic in February.
CIP Input Moss
McCauley
Daren
Anderson
Cubberley Master Plan Moss
Greenfield
Kristen
O'Kane
Foothills Park Greenfield
LaMere
McCauley
Daren
Anderson
Park & Facility Use Policy Cribbs
Greenfield
Reckdahl
Adam
Howard 1) Pickleball courts are a "smashing" success, with a big ceremony at the annual club meeting on the
courts in December, and with a surprise park bench dedication to founder Monica Williams.
a. Pickleball Membership Announcement - See attachment
Park Amenities Cribbs
McCauley
Daren
Anderson
Park Dedication Greenfield
McCauley
Kristen
O'Kane
Park Rules & Regulations Greenfield
McCauley
Daren
Anderson
Recreation Opportunities Cribbs
LaMere
Reckdahl
Kristen
O'Kane
Urban Forestry Reckdahl
Greenfield
Daren
Anderson
A very productive meeting was held CSD & UF staff working to clarify gudelines for our new working
relationship for review by departments.
2019/2020 LIAISON & OUTREACH – PARKS
AND RECREATION COMMISSION
LIAISON & OUTREACH MEMBERS STAFF / CONTACT 1/2020 STATUS UPDATE
Aquatics Cribbs Jazmin
LeBlanc
Community Gardens Greenfield Catherine
Bourquin
Arastradero Garden is open and new gardeners are moving in. assigned plots. Lack of sun on part of the garden
limits the interest in those plots with less sun. Continuing with the beautification needs, such as continuing
spreading woodchips, fence installation, gopher control. Contiuing to work with staff to clarify new Garden
Guidelines.
Friends of Foothills Park
Friends of PA Parks
Funding Kristen
O'Kane
GSI Moss
Health and Wellness McCauley
PA Recreation Foundation Jack Morton
PAUSD / City Reckdahl Kristen
O'Kane
PAUSD Projects Greenfield Miguel
Chacon
Safe Routes Greenfield Rosie
Mesterhazy
Stanford LaMere
McCauley
Turf Management Greenfield Daren
Anderson
Continuing to work with staff, Palo Alto Little League and Commissioner Reckdahl to find a solution to
support a 54/80 baseball field. Initial Pall Little League ideas have been moved forward and now a new
proposal is under review.
Ventura Coordinated Area Plan Reckdahl
Youth Council Cribbs
2019/2020 AD HOC COMMITTEES – PARKS AND RECREATION COMMISSION