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Home My WebLink About2020-11-24 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. PARKS AND RECREATION COMMISSION November 24, 2020 7pm Agenda posted according to PAMC Section 2.04.070. ********BY VIRTUAL CONFERENCE ONLY******* https://zoom.us/join Meeting ID: 929 5175 7803 Phone: 1(669)900-6833 Pursuant to the provisions of California Governor’s Executive Order N-29-20, issued on March 17, 2020, to prevent the spread of Covid-19, this meeting will be held by virtual teleconference only, with no physical location. The meeting will be broadcast on Midpen Media Center at https://midpenmedia.org. Unless otherwise noted on the site. Members of the public who wish to participate by computer or phone can find the instructions at the end of this agenda. To ensure participation in a particular item, we suggest calling in or connecting online 15 minutes before the item you wish to speak on. I. ROLL CALL II. AGENDA CHANGES, REQUESTS, DELETIONS III. ORAL COMMUNICATIONS Members of the publicmay address the Commission on any subject not onthe agenda. A reasonabletime restriction may beimposed at the discretion of the Chair. The Commission reservesthe right tolimit oral communications period to 3 minutes. IV. DEPARTMENT REPORT V. BUSINESS 1.Approval of the Draft October 27, 2020 Parks and Recreation Commission Minutes – Chair – Action (5min) ATTACHMENT 2.Rinconada Park Interpretive Solar System Update – John Aiken - Discussion (30 min) 3. Aquatics Program Annual Report – Sharon Eva/Tim Sheeper – Discussion (60 min) ATTACHMENT 4.Golf Course Annual Report – Lam Do – Discussion (60 min) ATTACHMENT 5.Other Commission Ad Hoc and Liaison Updates – Chair – Discussion (5min) ATTACHMENT VI. TENTATIVE AGENDA FOR December 15, 2020 VII. COMMENTS AND ANNOUNCEMENTS VIII. ADJOURNMENT PUBLIC LETTERS 4 November 24, 2020 Public Comment Instructions Members of the Public may provide public comments to teleconference meetings via email, teleconference, or by phone. 1.Written public comments may be submitted by email to ParkRec.Commission@cityofpaloalto.org 2.Spoken public comments using a computer will be accepted through the teleconference meeting. To address the Commission, click on the link below to access a Zoom-based meeting. Please read the following instructions carefully. A.You may download the Zoom client or connect to the meeting in- B. C. D. E. browser. If using your browser, make sure you are using a current, up-to-date browser: Chrome 30+, Firefox 27+, Microsoft Edge 12+, Safari 7+. Certain functionality may be disabled in older browsers including Internet Explorer. You may be asked to enter an email address and name. We request that you identify yourself by name as this will be visible online and will be used to notify you that it is your turn to speak. When you wish to speak on an Agenda Item, click on “raise hand.” The Staff Assistant will activate and unmute speakers in turn. Speakers will be notified shortly before they are called to speak. When called, please limit your remarks to the time limit allotted. A timer will be shown on the computer to help keep track of your comments. 3.Spoken public comments using a smart phone will be accepted through the teleconference meeting. To address the Commission, download the Zoom application onto your phone from the Apple App Store or Google Play Store and enter the Meeting ID below. Please follow the instructions B-E above. 4.Spoken public comments using a phone use the telephone number listed below. When you wish to speak on an agenda item hit *9 on your phone so we know that you wish to speak. You will be asked to provide your first and last name before addressing the Commission. You will be advised how long you have to speak. When called please limit your remarks to the agenda item and time limit allotted. https://zoom.us/join Meeting ID: 929 5175 7803 Phone:1(669)900-6833 DRAFT Draft Minutes 1 1 2 3 4 MINUTES 5 PARKS & RECREATION COMMISSION 6 REGULAR MEETING 7 October 27, 2020 8 Virtual Conference 9 Palo Alto, California 10 11 Commissioners Present: Anne Cribbs, Jeff Greenfield, Jeff LaMere, David Moss, Jackie 12 Olson, and Keith Reckdahl 13 Commissioners Absent: None 14 Others Present: Council Member Kou 15 Staff Present: Daren Anderson, Catherine Bourquin, Lam Do 16 I. ROLL CALL 17 II. AGENDA CHANGES, REQUESTS, DELETIONS 18 Chair Greenfield: Anyone looking to change anything on the agenda this evening, or re-19 order anything? Thank you. I’ll take that as a no. 20 III. ORAL COMMUNICATIONS 21 Chair Greenfield: It looks like we do not have anyone this evening. 22 IV. DEPARTMENT REPORT 23 Mr. Anderson: Thank you, Chair. I’ll start with just a reminder that we’ve got a joint 24 meeting with the North Ventura Coordinated Area Plan Working Group and the Parks and 25 Recreation Commission scheduled for Thursday, November 5th at 6:00 p.m. At the joint 26 meeting, the City’s consultant will provide a presentation to review the completed 27 Matadero Creek Re-Naturalization Report. There will be an opportunity for both the 28 Working Group and the Parks and Rec members to comment on the details of the report, 29 including the conceptual designs, but due to the time constraints, be forewarned, it will be 30 limited time that we are each allowed, to allow room for everyone to speak, because there 31 are so many. The meeting agenda will be posted on Thursday, October 29th for that joint 32 meeting. Vice Chair Cribbs asked me for a brief update on the condition of the Greer 33 Skatepark. At our previous Commission meeting, there were some concerns raised during 34 DRAFT Draft Minutes 2 the public comment period about some trash and other issues, so I’ll give you just a very 1 brief summary. We do come across trash, broken glass and other debris fairly frequently 2 in the skatepark, especially after a busy weekend. Mondays it’s very common to find 3 sometimes large items dumped there, including things like couches that people have 4 brought over, broken glass, graffiti and vandalism. It’s not all the time, but it does happen 5 periodically, and that might have been the case when that person spoke, that that’s what 6 they found. Our staff cleans it up Monday morning and whenever we find those kind of 7 situations. Regarding the condition of the skate bowl itself, there are periodically cracks 8 and chips in the concrete. This is an older structure. It was built in 1990, and our staff does 9 the repairs to those cracks and chips as they find them. At last night’s Commission meeting 10 there was a discussion on the board, commissions and committees with Council. The 11 Council Ad Hoc Committee had created a handbook aimed at addressing inconsistencies 12 in how various boards and commissions function, and to be better aligned with the 13 Commission’s work with the Council’s directions. There’s a really helpful summary I 14 found of the meeting on Palo Alto Online, so if you’re curious of the outcome of that, it’s 15 got a very succinct and helpful summary. I won’t recap the whole meeting, just to share 16 one, I think, key bit of information that concerns the Commission. There was a discussion 17 point on whether to reduce the number of commissioners on this Commission from seven 18 to five. The majority of Council Members generally agreed that, due to the Commission’s 19 broad scope of work and focus, it justifies remaining at the status quo of seven 20 commissioners. I believe the Council intends to adopt that handbook before the end of this 21 calendar year. An update on some projects. We had the Briones basketball court resurfacing 22 project that was completed on October 9th. The project turned out well. We’ve heard 23 positive reviews from people who have used the court. On the topic on playgrounds, I’ve 24 mentioned before in the past that we had opened our playgrounds – 29 of the 30. The one 25 that hasn’t been opened is the Magical Bridge Playground. We’ve been working with the 26 Magical Bridge Foundation to come up with a plan. We’ve got one now for how to safely 27 reopen it. It has to be handled a little differently from all other playgrounds. This 28 playground has approximately 25,000 visitors per month, pre-COVID. It’s really hard to 29 say what that might look like in terms of the demand during this time, but it’s likely to be 30 very, very high. Hence, what’s working in the other playgrounds, probably wouldn’t 31 transfer here. The Magical Bridge Foundation and our staff agree that it does need to be 32 staffed, at least in the beginning, and we’ll see how it goes. So, we’re going to use a 33 combination of City staff and contractors for the weekends, and volunteers to help monitor 34 that playground and allow us to safely open it. We’re targeting November 17th as our 35 opening date, and it would be open Tuesday through Sunday, 9:00 a.m. to 4:30, is the 36 tentative plan. We’re still working on the details. They’re subject to what I told you, to 37 minor changes here or there. Once we’ve finalized the plan, I’ll be sure to update you. 38 Some updates about recreation programming. Recreation staff has a really fun, special 39 event called the Jack-O’-Jaunt, which is a jack-o’-lantern stroll planned for this Friday 40 night. Community members are invited to pre-register to bring their carved jack-o’-lanterns 41 downtown to one of the strollable Uplift Local streets to display their carved pumpkins 42 DRAFT Draft Minutes 3 alongside many others in our community for one night only. Other community members 1 are invited to take the jaunt through the display and enjoy the seasonal fun. Again, the Jack-2 O’-Jaunt will take place Friday, October 30th, from 5:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. Participants are 3 asked to preregister for the event on the City’s webpage. Several Commissioners have 4 volunteered to serve as judges to pick the scariest, cutest and most creative pumpkins. A 5 big thanks to all those Commissioners who are willing to help out. Again, this event will 6 take place on the 300 block of University Ave., across the street from Bryant, and the 400 7 block of California Ave., in front of the Bank of the West. You can visit the City’s 8 webpage, the one that has this particular item on it, you find along with other Halloween 9 themed events is cityofpaloalto.org/gov/topics/halloween. If it’s helpful, Catherine and I 10 can email this to the Commission. The Public Art Program has put together a fun scavenger 11 hunt for people of all ages to wander downtown to find many whimsical Greg Brown 12 murals. Winners get bragging rights and the opportunity to send us their funny photos in 13 front of the murals, which we’ll then share with our followers on social media. You can 14 download and print the scavenger hunt list on the City’s webpage. The Recreation staff are 15 developing a “Movie in the Park” event. It’s going to be The Nightmare Before Christmas. 16 It’ll be at Mitchell Park on Friday, November 13th. This will be a free community event, 17 starting at 5:30 p.m. Preregistrations are required, and that’s at the City’s webpage, again. 18 Another fun event will be lighting up the holiday tree in Lytton Plaza this year. We’ll start 19 on Friday, November 20th, but we’re not going to have an onsite event like we typically 20 would, due to the COVID restrictions. Instead, we invite the community members to come 21 downtown at their leisure and enjoy the tree. We’ll also invite community members to light 22 up the season with their own holiday light decorating contest. We’re encouraging 23 community members to decorate their homes with as much pizzaz as possible. You can 24 register for the contest and share their address so others can stroll to enjoy it, again, on the 25 City’s webpage. The final three weeks session of the middle school athletics fall fitness 26 classes are starting next week, and we still have dozens of other virtual and in-person 27 activities for children and adults in our Fall Enjoy! Catalog, from the Arts Center, the Junior 28 Museum and Zoo, the Children’s Theater and Recreation Divisions. Again, you can check 29 out the website for more information on that. Lastly, a bit of sad news. Jazmin LeBlanc our 30 CSD’s acting Assistant Director, overseeing Recreation, Arts and Sciences, will be leaving 31 our department on Friday, November 6th. She and her family are relocating to Santa 32 Barbara and will be making some big changes. She will be joining the City of Santa 33 Barbara’s Park and Recreation Department as their new Assistant Director. We’re excited 34 for her. We’re very sad to lose such a talented and dynamic staff person. The obvious 35 question I’m sure some of the Commissioners will ask is, do we have plans to fill that 36 position, and if so, when? I think that’s something we’re still working on. We’ll have to 37 get back to you on timeframes and now that will work. That concludes the Department 38 Report. 39 Chair Greenfield: Thank you, Daren. 40 DRAFT Draft Minutes 4 Commissioner Moss: Can I ask one question? 1 Chair Greenfield: Please. 2 Commissioner Moss: Do you have an update on the JMZ? Are we on schedule for end of 3 the year? 4 Mr. Anderson: I’ll send out an email on that, with the latest information. I think it’s 5 dynamic right now. I’ll send out something. 6 Commissioner Moss: Okay. 7 Chair Greenfield: Any other Commissioners have follow-up questions for Daren? I actually 8 do have just one quick follow-up. Daren, regarding the Magical Bridge, can you talk about 9 what steps are intended to ensure safe distancing at that very popular playground? 10 Mr. Anderson: There’s a couple mechanisms we’re using. First and foremost is controlling 11 the total number of people allowed in the playground. Normally, you’ve probably seen it 12 on a busy weekend, you could have more than 100. The COVID restriction to allow social 13 distancing, we’re reducing that to 55, so that will be the maximum occupancy. At least 14 that’s our starting number. We’re going to try to learn and use adaptive management, so as 15 this progresses, if we find 55 is not the right number, we can adjust as necessary. That's the 16 first step. The second is, as people wait in line to get in – and there’s a 30-minute timeframe 17 for once you enter the playground to use it and then you’re supposed to rotate out if people 18 are waiting – we will be marking with six-foot social distancing square marks on the 19 pavement for where people should line up. Another way to work on the social distancing. 20 The third is that we will have volunteers on the interior of the playground. We call them 21 Kindness Ambassadors, and we are seeking getting some assistance from the Magical 22 Bridge Foundation to get those Kindness Ambassadors, along with other volunteers that 23 we recruit that will help ensure people are social distancing around a given piece of 24 playground equipment or elsewhere within the playground itself. 25 Chair Greenfield: And if people are interested in volunteering or were interested in 26 spreading the word on how people volunteer, what’s the best approach for that? 27 Mr. Anderson: I’ll be sending information on that to the Commission soon. It’s still a work 28 in progress right now. 29 Chair Greenfield: Thank you. Any other Commissioners have questions regarding the 30 Department report or staff related items? 31 Commissioner Cribbs: Chair, I do, about the Magical Bridge. Daren, is the 30-minute limit 32 a COVID limit, or has that always been? 33 DRAFT Draft Minutes 5 Mr. Anderson: No, it’s a state requirement due to COVID. It applies to all playgrounds. 1 Commissioner Cribbs: Okay. So, is that going to be communicated in advance? I think 2 people come from a long way away, so we want to make sure they’re not disappointed, 3 right? 4 Mr. Anderson: Yeah. Seventy percent of our visitors to that particular playground, the 5 Magical Bridge Playground, are from outside our area, according to the Magical Bridge 6 Foundation, so you’re right. That is important. Luckily, we’ve been in great 7 communication, and Magical Bridge Foundation staff has been really helpful, so they’re 8 going to send out messaging to that effect with all the details. We’ll have it, of course, on 9 our signage and everything else there. It’s still going to be a challenge, though. The 30-10 minute limit, whether you’re from across the street or from far away, is a tough one, so 11 we’re reliant on really seeking cooperation from the visitors themselves, the volunteers to 12 help remind them as best we can so that they comply and keep cycling through. 13 Commissioner Cribbs: Are you going to be able to go back and get in line again after 14 you’ve done your 30 minutes? 15 Mr. Anderson: Yes. 16 Commissioner Cribbs: Okay. Thank you so much. I appreciate all that information. I’m 17 glad it’s going to be open. I know it’s a lot of things to think about. 18 Mr. Anderson: Thanks so much. 19 Chair Greenfield: And if no one is line, do you need to leave in 30 minutes? Is the 30-20 minute requirement just to allow people to share the facility, or is there some other safety 21 reason? 22 Mr. Anderson: I believe it’s just to share the facility, so if no one was waiting in line, we 23 would not require them to move through. 24 Commissioner Moss: And that 70 percent figure of outside the city may be reduced when 25 they open up the Redwood City one this month, I think, and then another one is being built 26 in Sunnyvale that’s going to open soon. 27 Mr. Anderson: Yes. We’re hopeful that – 28 Commissioner Moss: It would be nice to have some statistics. 29 Mr. Anderson: Yes. We’ll be tracking some of the data as much as possible. 30 Chair Greenfield: The 30-minute limit applies to all playgrounds in the city? 31 DRAFT Draft Minutes 6 Mr. Anderson: It does. 1 Chair Greenfield: Is that posted clearly at all the playgrounds? 2 Mr. Anderson: It is. 3 Chair Greenfield: Do we have anything back on how that’s going? 4 Mr. Anderson: Yes. We’ve got staff moving around some of the playgrounds. We have 30, 5 and they are coming by and doing sort of drive-by inspections, pulling over to see if people 6 are wearing masks, if they’re social distancing, if they’re complying with the max limit. 7 What they hadn’t seen, interestingly, was people lined up waiting. That hasn’t been 8 something they’ve observed. I guess I should note, though, our staff is there and school is 9 still in session when they’re usually there, so we’re probably far from the max limits, where 10 maybe on a busier weekend, at say like Johnson or Eleanor Pardee playgrounds – popular 11 ones – it’s possible that there are people waiting in line, but we’re seeing general 12 compliance with both the masks and the social distancing. Sometimes it’s hard to tell which 13 family member is part of the same family household, which is a requirement for social 14 distancing and frankly, it’s a big guess in terms of someone stopping by, unless you asked. 15 There’s also some challenges – and we shouldn’t jump to conclusions about kids who may 16 or may not be wearing masks – sometimes there are medical reasons for why they cannot. 17 At the Magical Bridge in particular, that’s a challenge, where we have so many special 18 needs park visitors using that facility, so we’re going to hand out stickers that say, “I cannot 19 wear a mask,” so they can be identified, which is a good suggestion we got from the 20 Magical Bridge Foundation staff. 21 Chair Greenfield: Thank you. Any other Commissioners? 22 Commissioner Moss: What was the date of the movie night in Mitchell Park? Was it the 23 day before Christmas or something? 24 Mr. Anderson: It’s November 13th. 25 Commissioner Reckdahl: Where in Mitchell Park will this be? 26 Mr. Anderson: I don’t know. I’m not positive. That would be on the City webpage. 27 Mr. Adam Howard: It’s generally where the judges tent for the chili cookoff is, if that helps 28 you any. 29 Chair Greenfield: It’s on the grass? 30 Mr. Howard: Yeah, that is correct. 31 DRAFT Draft Minutes 7 Chair Greenfield: So, picnic blankets and chairs are encouraged? 1 Mr. Howard: Correct, and we’re working out the details, but we are hoping to have an on-2 the-ground section where you are on blankets or a further back section where you are on 3 chairs, to prevent people from blocking one another. 4 Chair Greenfield: Okay. Last call for questions regarding the Department report. 5 V. BUSINESS 6 1. Approval of Draft Minutes from the September 22, 2020 Special Parks and 7 Recreation Commission meeting 8 Approval of the draft Minutes was moved by Commissioner Olson and seconded by 9 Commissioner Moss. Passed 6-0. 10 11 2. Palo Alto Soccer Club Lighting Proposal for Cubberley Community Center 12 Field 13 Chair Greenfield: Daren, would you like to introduce our speakers, please? 14 Mr. Anderson: Yeah, thanks very much, Chair. Let me introduce Adam Howard, our Senior 15 Community Services Manager. I’ll let Adam introduce the rest of the presenters. 16 Mr. Howard: Good evening, Commissioners. As Daren said, my name is Adam Howard. 17 I’m a Senior Community Services Manager in the Recreation Department. I also have with 18 me Neal Aronson, who is with the Palo Alto Soccer Club. He will chime in here in just a 19 couple minutes and be available if you have any questions. We are here to talk about the 20 seasonal lighting that takes place on Cubberley turf. A little bit of background for 21 everybody. Daylight savings, when we begin to get darker sooner, we have a really high 22 demand for lit fields. The City of Palo Alto has three lit fields, two at Mayfield Sports 23 Complex, and one turf field at El Camino Field. Those fields are typically booked 24 completely Monday through Friday, 4:00 p.m. to 10:00 p.m. That's really year-round, and 25 then during daylight savings time, they are also completely booked, and there is just more 26 participation on those fields. There are more participants on the field, because we lose other 27 slots that have light. In 2017, Palo Alto Soccer worked with the City of Palo Alto to initiate 28 a temporary winter lighting trial at Cubberley turf. This was to create some additional lit 29 slots to ease some of the pressure on the other turf fields and just to provide some additional 30 playing time during these daylight savings times. With that trial, with neighbor feedback, 31 through staff input, Commission input, that trial was deemed successful, so the seasonal 32 lighting at Cubberley was approved to move forward. This year seasonal lighting looks 33 very similar that it has in years past, but there were a couple requested changes that we felt 34 it was important to get Commission feedback and allow pubic input before we moved 35 DRAFT Draft Minutes 8 forward with that. This year’s seasonal lighting looks similar. They are looking to run 1 November 2nd through December 23rd; January 4th through March 15th. The lights would 2 be used sunset to 8:30 p.m., and this year we’re requesting a Monday through Friday use 3 of the lights. This is where it differs from the previous years. In years past, it was only 4 Monday through Thursday. We’ll go into the request for Friday and why we’re doing that 5 shortly, in a couple slides here. The time will only be used for practice. There won’t be any 6 game play, which will decrease noise, whistles, the need for public to be there. We’re also 7 requesting, like we have in years past, that all of the activity at night go through Cubberley 8 Community Center, so no pickup and drop-offs on the Nelson Avenue section. We will 9 again be looking to use four to six temporary lights. These are better lights that are 10 improved from previous years, so again, the attempt is to do the lighting with only four 11 lights, but to go up to six if we need two additional lights in order to well light the entire 12 field. These lights are solar-powered with a battery, so there are no generators on this year’s 13 lights, which will improve some sound issues we’ve had in the past with malfunctioning 14 generators that won’t turn off. That has been a problem, so these don’t have any generators, 15 we will eliminate that additional noise factor that could take place in that past, but not this 16 year. We will look to place lights in a way that reduces impact to the field, to the track and 17 to public use. What you’ll see on this light is our ideal lighting situation. Palo Alto Soccer 18 does have some concerns about these off-track light locations, so they’re going to have 19 another option that they’d like to discuss as well, and they will give you their concerns for 20 some of the off-track locations. The highlighted changes here – one, we understand it’s a 21 new field and a new track, so we are really going to focus on making sure that the lights 22 are delivered and stored safely. The vehicle that delivers them will drive out on plywood. 23 We’ll have to slowly shift the plywood down so that the vehicle stays on that at all times. 24 The light towers will be placed on plywood when they are left in the right locations. We 25 feel strongly that that will protect our asset and make sure that the track and the field stay 26 protected. Then, there’s the request to add Friday. This is really coming down to guidelines 27 around COVID-19. These youth soccer groups have to stay in smaller groups – 12 or less 28 – and even within those groups, they are required to have six-foot social distancing at all 29 times. So, this has really bumped up their need for additional field space. I think it’s 30 important to note, Fridays were not a contentious thing that we left off during our original 31 request. Friday nights were just never a high need. The reason being, a lot of teens will 32 play their games on Saturday and Sunday, so a late Friday night practice was never ideal, 33 but with COVID-19 and everything changing. One is, there’s currently no games allowed, 34 so we just need some additional night space. The request to add Friday seemed to make 35 some sense to us, but we wanted to make sure we got your feedback and had an opportunity 36 for the public to get involved. At this time, I’m going to ask Neal to speak. What you see 37 now is the picture of their ideal light placement. He will talk a little bit about his concerns 38 about the off-track location, and then we'll also discuss the safety protocol that Palo Alto 39 Soccer is following and their need for the additional night. Neal, if you’re on and able to 40 unmute, you can step up. 41 DRAFT Draft Minutes 9 Mr. Neal Aronson: Members of the Commission, thank you very much for your time. Good 1 to see many of you again. This is the third year we’ve been doing this. As Adam said, it’s 2 been very successful. We’ve been very pleased with the result, and our ability to get out 3 and practice during the winter months. I think most of your probably know of the Palo Alto 4 Soccer Club. We’re one of the oldest clubs, youth organizations, in the city. We’ve been 5 around for about 42 years now. We are primarily focused on practicing at Cubberley, 6 although we do utilize other fields. Cubberley is really our home. We have a clubhouse in 7 the building. I’ll throw this out for good measure – I’m guessing we’re the largest tenant 8 of Cubberley in the city in many respects. We pay about $150,000 a year in field and other 9 rentals, so we’re one if not the largest user of fields in the city, so this an area that’s very 10 important for us to secure additional fields during this time of year. Of course, we’d love 11 additional lighted fields, and this is another project we’ve been working on with the 12 Commission and the City, the Baylands Athletic Development at some point. Today, what 13 I’m focused on particularly is the location of the two middle lights. As Adam mentioned, 14 the lights that we’re using this year are better than the ones we’ve had in the past. As you 15 can imagine, LED technology has come a long way. The bulbs are brighter. They project 16 greater lumens – or lux, I guess is the term they use now – and that allows for greater light 17 penetration across the field. We’re hoping the four lights at the end in yellow that you can 18 see on this map on the end lines will be sufficient for us to light the bulk of the field. What 19 we are holding in reserve and we’d like to get approved today, but we haven’t actually 20 contracted for the lights, are the two middle lights, the ones that are yellow outlined with 21 the white center. In the past we have been six lights. Last year in particular, the Commission 22 asked that we move them off of the track and to the locations that Adam depicted earlier. 23 These were problematic for a couple reasons. The one closest to the far fence line that is 24 adjacent to the residential neighborhood, there wasn’t enough sunlight to charge that 25 battery, so that light actually went dead, and we were unable to use it. Of course, it was an 26 expensive dead battery for us. So that location doesn’t work at all. The other location across 27 the field adjacent to the bleachers is also not ideal because we lose what is 50 or 60 feet of 28 that high density light. It’s great for the joggers and the runners who want to use the track 29 at night, but it really didn’t work for us very well. These particular light structures, if you 30 recall from last year or the year before, these are a lot smaller, the footprint is smaller. The 31 weight is a lot lighter, so we think that they’re more appropriate for the track that we have 32 now. The new track, we know, is being guarded particularly carefully by City staff in order 33 to extend its life so that it doesn’t crack or have any other problems due to vehicles or other 34 trailers being towed on it. We believe we can stick this particular unit off the track on the 35 fields, and I understand the base of the field is the original base, so it’s a stronger base. It’s 36 thicker, so it doesn’t have the weight constraints that the track does. We’re confident we 37 can get these lights off the track, on the field, but outside of the field sidelines, so they’re 38 not actually on the playing field. As Adam mentioned, games are not allowed still. The 39 soccer leagues are not playing. That’s not expected to change probably until spring, so we 40 don’t think there’s any safety risk. That seemed to be the biggest issue in the past is that 41 these devices obviously have sharp edges, and we wouldn’t want somebody running to 42 DRAFT Draft Minutes 10 catch a ball or to kick a ball and run into it. In the past, we’ve put cones and caution tape 1 around and even foam padded a couple of the sharp edges. We’re prepared to do that as 2 well if needed, but our requests, as Adam mentioned, is to have the ability to put the lights 3 on the field as depicted in that second image. With that, I’ll answer any questions you may 4 have. Again, we really appreciate the Commission’s support over these years. It’s been a 5 great program, and we look forward to continuing it. 6 Chair Greenfield: Thank you, Neal, and thank you, Adam. In a moment, if there’s any 7 members of the public who would like to speak to this item, I’ll give you an opportunity if 8 you raise your hand. Before I do so I’ll ask the Commission if there are any clarifying 9 questions regarding the information which we’ve just heard. I’m not seeing any hands go 10 up, so let me just try to frame this first. It sounds like the primary decisions we’re being 11 asked, the primary areas that we’re looking for input are the addition of Fridays and the 12 addition of the lights on the new field, and then the location of the lights, whether it be if 13 they need to go to six lights, would it work having the lights outside the track, or would it 14 be permitted on the sideline of the actual playing field, but on the turf field? And Adam 15 and Daren, one question related to that is, just to clarify, ultimately this is a staff decision, 16 and you’re looking Commission input on this matter. Is this correct? 17 Mr. Anderson: That is correct. 18 Chair Greenfield: Thank you. Okay, it looks like there is no one from the public who is 19 looking to speak on this, so I’ll start off just by saying that I did meet with Adam and Neal 20 out at the field to take a look at the plan, and I’ve been working directly working Palo Alto 21 Soccer Club over the last few years on this plan, and it has been a good working 22 arrangement. I think we’ve all been talking about how we’re looking to support the 23 community during COVID and increase recreation opportunities, so it seems like a 24 reasonable request. I think the bigger question is the details, so I’ll open it up for 25 Commissioners, if anybody wants to raise your hand and talk first, or I’ll pick someone. 26 Jackie, would you like to comment? 27 Commissioner Olson: Sure. I know I saw Anne’s hand up as well, but I’m happy to go first. 28 I’d love to hear what the staff’s viewpoint is on this. If you’re asking for input, I imagine 29 there are some downsides to the proposal, so I’d love to hear what those are. 30 Mr. Howard: Sure. I think with the lights, the most ideal, the very less risk, is to have them 31 on those off-track locations. However, we do feel safe that we can protect the field and the 32 track if they are there. I’ve done some measurements. We can basically keep them about a 33 foot off the track and still three feet from the sideline of the field, where the field play 34 would actually be. I think in current circumstances, I’m okay with that. My one concern 35 would be if games are suddenly allowed, and then we’ve impacted the field a little bit. I 36 mean, three feet is still good on a sideline, because rarely are you running directly sideline 37 to sideline. That would be my only concern. Otherwise, I feel comfortable that we can 38 DRAFT Draft Minutes 11 protect the field, protect the track, limit impact to people wanting to use both and moving 1 forward like that. 2 Chair Greenfield: I’ll interject here real quickly, based on my years of soccer experience, 3 I would say that having the lights three feet off the field is not workable if there are games 4 on the field, because when the ball goes out of play on the sidelines, you’re putting the ball 5 back into play from outside the sideline, so I would say if there were games, the lights 6 certainly could not be on the sidelines. I think that Palo Alto Soccer Club would agree with 7 that. 8 Mr. Aronson: Yes, I would concur with that. 9 Commissioner Olson: Are there any staff concerns with player safety, or are we really 10 mostly concerned with the integrity of the field itself with the extra weight? 11 Mr. Howard: I think player safety is always…I don’t want to say that I’m not concerned 12 about that. I think that that can be controlled by Palo Alto Soccer in terms of how they 13 organize their practice and where they put the players, so I feel comfortable that we can 14 keep the players safe. The risk I’m really most worried about is making sure we don’t 15 damage any of our new field or our new track. 16 Commissioner Olson: Got it. Do these lights get put on at the beginning of the season and 17 they sort of stay there the whole time, or are they coming on and off from week to week? 18 Mr. Howard: No, once they’re placed, they stay there the duration of the time. There is, I 19 think, a three-week window where they’re not being used, but they’re still out there, 20 because the majority of the trouble and the cost comes from getting them there and taking 21 them away. 22 Commissioner Olson: Okay, got it. I don’t have any questions at this time, Jeff. Thanks. 23 Chair Greenfield: Thank you. Commissioner Moss, your hand is up. 24 Commissioner Moss: I live right behind Cubberley. [Distortion] especially the ones on the 25 side it’s very important to make sure it’s [distortion]. 26 Chair Greenfield: We’ve lost Commission Moss. I’m sure he will be back soon. 27 Commissioner LaMere, why don’t you go ahead now? 28 Commissioner LaMere: Thank you. My question is about safety. If we don’t have these 29 padded – or perhaps we will have these padded – what is the City liability if a Palo Alto 30 soccer player runs into it and gets injured, or what if a jogger on the track trips and falls? 31 What is our City liability with the safety of these? And, will we be able to get them padded? 32 DRAFT Draft Minutes 12 Mr. Aronson: I can speak to that, Adam, just with regard to the insurance. The Club carries 1 insurance for the systems for theft and vandalism and injury. That’s something that we’ve 2 done in the past. It was required originally under the first go-through. That would, I assume, 3 be the first line of defense that would be tapped if somebody actually got injured. I will 4 point out, there have been zero injuries in the three years we have been doing this, or two 5 years, or however long it’s been. They’re fairly large structures, so they’re not hard to see, 6 so people have been aware of them. We’ve also been sensitive to that and used cones and 7 caution tape around them, so that there would obviously be some warning, if you will. 8 Regarding padding, these are new units. We haven’t seen them before. We’ve only seen 9 the brochures, kind of the pictures you saw here. We’re prepared to provide padding if we 10 need to. The ones in the past did require some padding. They had some sharp edges on the 11 solar panels that stuck out well beyond the foundation. My sense is these are smaller and 12 they don’t have those kind of dangerous sharp edges that are head-level and not easy to 13 see. We’ll take a look at them as we roll them out, and if we feel like there’s a need, we’ll 14 provide the appropriate padding. These are our players primarily, and of course other 15 people use the track and so forth, but it’s really our players who are most likely the ones 16 who are going to get hurt by them, so we’re very sensitive to this point. 17 Commissioner LaMere: I agree that your players do use the field a lot at night, but there’s 18 a lot of other use by other people throughout the day as well. Daren or Adam, would you 19 be able to speak to any City concerns or liability with these? 20 Mr. Howard: The City ultimately does take the umbrella of liability with these lights. When 21 this originally went, we did talk to our Risk Manager just about if there’s additional concern 22 outside of what our insurance covered and they didn’t have concerns about us placing these 23 out on the shorter term. But you are right, if a jogger gets hit, we may ask for Palo Alto 24 Soccer’s assistance in that, but we are prepared to over that issue if it were to arise. 25 Commissioner LaMere: Adam, do you feel like it impacts joggers at all, with it being only 26 one foot from the track, or other activities, with the lights? 27 Mr. Howard: No. I think it’s actually probably impacted the track more in years past, 28 because the units were much larger and we would actually, to be really cautious, we would 29 bump out into the first runner’s lane, just to make sure. We don’t think we’d even have to 30 do that this year, because they’re so much smaller. But it hasn’t been an issue. It’s just been 31 one bump-out on that first lane to make sure joggers didn’t run into it. That hasn’t been a 32 problem, and like I said, I think we’re going to not even need to do that this year. We will 33 if we think it’s still close. But like we said, these units are almost half the size of the units 34 we’ve used in the past. 35 Commissioner LaMere: Are there any other City-incurred costs that we have with this 36 project? 37 DRAFT Draft Minutes 13 Mr. Howard: None. No. 1 Commissioner LaMere: That’s great. I really think this is a great partnership, and anything 2 we can do to increase field use and allow something like this is great. I appreciate all your 3 work with this. Thank you, Chair. 4 Chair Greenfield: Thank you. Commissioner Moss? 5 Commissioner Moss: Let me try that again. Anyway, thank you for the smaller footprint. 6 Dozens and dozens of people use the track, especially the inner lane, so keeping it off the 7 track is essentially. I’m not worried about joggers injured by these, but I am concerned that 8 sometimes the cones that they put out for the kids get knocked down, and I want to make 9 sure that Neal tells the coaches to put them back when they get knocked down, and the 10 caution tape also so quite frequently they get knocked down and left that way, so if he can 11 make a special effort to let the coaches know. I’m so glad that you have a new vendor from 12 last year. I hope that the reliability of these is going to be better. Thank goodness you don’t 13 have the generators because probably, I don’t know, six or seven times we’ll be walking in 14 the morning, and the generators will be going full blast at 6:00 a.m., so not having the 15 generators is a great thing, but that leads to the idea that maybe, just maybe, some of the 16 lights might not stay on when they’re needed. I guess the coaches will just have to move 17 their kids around, but hopefully that won’t be the case this time. We won’t know until 18 we’re a few weeks in, especially on a dark night in early December. One other 19 improvement – you mentioned to me, Adam, that the LEDs are very bright up to a point 20 and won’t be shining so brightly into the neighbors’ windows. Hopefully it will cover the 21 field, though. Do you have statistics on that. 22 Mr. Howard: Neal might be able to speak to it. The lighting company has shown some 23 diagrams of the fields showing how far the light goes and just staff experience with the 24 LEDs has been that they are much brighter where they are concentrated, but don’t provide 25 as much light pollution, meaning better for the field and better for the neighbors. We’re 26 hopeful to see that trend continue with these newer LEDs. 27 Commissioner Moss: That’s great. I have one last question for Neal that’s not light-related, 28 but it’s the reason you even have the lights. That is that quite often the kids are not wearing 29 masks or they’re not six feet apart. Are you making extra sure this fall that they follow the 30 COVID regulations? 31 Mr. Aronson: Yes. It’s a constant challenge, but our coaches and directors and staff are 32 working hard to make sure the kids are staying focused on the mask-wearing and the 33 distancing. Every day the coaches are reminding them all of the time. I think in general 34 we’ve been pretty good about it, but you’re right, there’s always the case where the kid 35 walks off the field without putting on his mask. I appreciate you bringing it to our attention. 36 DRAFT Draft Minutes 14 Commissioner Moss: Also, because you’re the biggest, or one of the biggest, users of 1 fields, you set an example for others, so you have a lot of power. 2 Mr. Aronson: Yes, you’re right. 3 Commissioner Moss: That’s all I have. 4 Mr. Aronson: We will continue our efforts on that through the fall and as long as it’s 5 required by the County. 6 Commissioner Moss: Thank you. That’s all I have. 7 Chair Greenfield: Thank you. Keith. 8 Commissioner Reckdahl: I agree with Commissioner LaMere. We should be doing 9 anything we can to increase field usage, so I’m very excited that you’ll be coming back to 10 us again this year. First, if we aren’t playing any games, the sideline is kind of irrelevant, 11 isn’t it? [Distortion] your drills using the sideline, do they? 12 Mr. Howard: Right. The reality is you have a lot of flexibility to keep your drills away from 13 the sideline, so that’s the ideal situation without having to have games. So yeah, with 14 practices you just move your drills and make sure you’re away from that spot. 15 Commissioner Reckdahl: So, if we’re worried about people running, why wouldn’t you 16 make it two or three away from the track? Do you think that one foot is more than enough? 17 Mr. Howard: I think that one foot is enough, but the further we keep it from the field itself, 18 the better. We don’t think we can damage anything, but if there were to be damage, we 19 certainly wouldn’t want it to be on the playing surface. 20 Commissioner Reckdahl: Okay. I appreciate that, yes. But if the field is 50 yards wide, we 21 shouldn’t dicker about a foot on the edge if you think it’s going to improve track safety. 22 Mr. Howard: Good point, yes. 23 Commissioner Reckdahl: The second thing is community feedback. Last time when you 24 came, the community by and large was happy with it. There was a few isolated complaints 25 about drop-offs on Nelson, I believe. What’s the feedback in the last 12 months about this? 26 Mr. Howard: That tends to be a bigger pressure during daylight savings, when we have 27 more nighttime drop-offs, but I think Palo Alto Soccer has always been really good. Any 28 time I get a complaint I will send it to their field person, and it seems to get corrected really 29 quickly. It sometimes takes a reminder once a year, but I actually have that on my calendar, 30 DRAFT Draft Minutes 15 just to do. But they are very responsive if, like, parents are not picking up in Cubberley, to 1 correct that issue really quickly. 2 Mr. Reckdahl: Okay, and I know in past years we’ve had some problems with people 3 leaving empty bottles and stuff on the field. Any problems last year with that? 4 Mr. Howard: Last year I believe most of the attention was focused on that generator that 5 wouldn’t turn off at times, so that’s why we focused on correcting that. 6 Mr. Reckdahl: Okay, now a question for Neal. How’s the demand this year compared to 7 last year? 8 Mr. Aronson: The demand for fields? 9 Mr. Reckdahl: Yeah. How many kids are you serving this year compared to how many kids 10 were signed up last year? 11 Mr. Aronson: All soccer clubs in the area – and I assume sports in general – are down 12 dramatically. We probably lost 30 percent of our members due to COVID. So, field use is 13 down, but at the same time, because of the requirements and protocols necessary to 14 practice, I’d defer to Adam. Actually, I don’t think Adam keeps his finger on this anymore 15 at that level, but I think our field need is very close to where it was originally. 16 Mr. Howard: Yes, that’s correct. We don’t have fields sitting empty because we have to 17 space groups out so much more. Where a team would put five or six teams on a half a field, 18 we’re seeing two or maybe three, depending on the age, so it’s really reduced the people 19 that are out there, but with the additional spacing, we still have a high demand on the fields. 20 Mr. Reckdahl: So the fact that demand is down 30 percent is probably a blessing. 21 Mr. Howard: Well, yeah. I mean, if we were at full capacity and had the space [crosstalk] 22 Mr. Aronson: Not from a revenue perspective. 23 Mr. Howard: It depends on who you’re talking to. 24 Mr. Reckdahl: From a COVID standpoint, it’s probably a blessing, but from a revenue 25 standpoint it’s not, I would imagine. Okay. I’m very happy. Good luck. Hopefully, these 26 are better than last year, but this is a very program. Thank you. 27 Chair Greenfield: Vice Chair Cribbs. 28 Vice Chair Cribbs: Thank you, Chair. First of all, Neal and Adam, I’m really happy that 29 this program is going forward again this year and you’re asking to add Friday night. I’m 30 DRAFT Draft Minutes 16 so much in favor of giving the kids all the opportunity we can to get them playing in this 1 time of crazy stuff for them. I’m glad Keith asked the question about the demand. If you’re 2 down 30 percent, is that because of fear of COVID in playing, or is it because of finances 3 and people who have lost their jobs? Or do you know? 4 Mr. Aronson: No, specifically it may also be due to the fact that the County basically 5 requires kids to pick which pod they had to be in, so kids who are in tennis or swimming 6 or playing soccer, they were only allowed to be in one pod. So, we lost a lot of the second 7 and third teams, or fourth teams, at a particular age group. The ones that were not so serious 8 about soccer, but it was fun, they played with their friends, but then also did something 9 else, so they had to make a decision as to which sport they were going to play. 10 Vice Chair Cribbs: Thank you for that. That’s really good to know. I’ve been following 11 and telling fellow Commissioners the national stats are saying that youth sports are down 12 across the board at least 40 percent. Some of it is fear, as much of it is the financial situation 13 that families find themselves in, making choices and that kind of thing. That makes a lot 14 of sense. Speaking of COVID, can I ask you – do parents and spectators come in along the 15 sidelines and watch practice, or is that not allowed? 16 Mr. Aronson: No, we’ve basically barred that from happening. Parents are supposed to stay 17 in their cars or just show up at pick-up time, and we’ve actually been pretty good about 18 patrolling, I guess you could say, fields. As I mentioned earlier, most of our practice 19 actually happens at Cubberley, some at Mayfield, some at El Camino, but it’s easy to kind 20 of monitor that. Parents have been very cooperative. Palo Alto, I’d say, is probably one of 21 the more compliant communities in terms of COVID restrictions than we’ve seen around 22 the neighborhoods. MVLA or Mountain View, Los Altos is having bigger problems than 23 we are with this. 24 Vice Chair Cribbs: Well, thanks for that and for all your attention, and Adam, yours too, 25 to detail, and hopefully the new lights work out and everything. It sounds a little bit to me 26 like me should renew our efforts to figure out some more places in Palo Alto for lighted 27 fields. Does anybody remember the history when – David, maybe you do – when 28 Cubberley was a football school? Was that field lit or not? Just asking as a random 29 questions. 30 Mr. Anderson: I don’t believe so, Vice Chair Cribbs. 31 Vice Chair Cribbs: It was not lit? 32 Mr. Anderson: Right. 33 Commissioner Moss: I’ve never seen lights there, and I showed up about two years after 34 they closed, but there were no lights down there. 35 DRAFT Draft Minutes 17 Chair Greenfield: I know that even at Gunn and Paly the lights at the football field are 1 relatively new over the last 20 years or so. 2 [Crosstalk] 3 Commissioner Moss: [Inaudible] love to have lights on Cubberley, but I don’t think 4 Commission Moss and others would like it very much. 5 Vice Chair Cribbs: Just a question looking for a place for lights, because I know you guys 6 are spending a lot of time and energy and placement and all of that. The new lights that are 7 available are so great now, and focus the light where it needs to be and all of that, so just a 8 question. That's all I have, Chair, but thank you guys very much. 9 Chair Greenfield: Thank you, Anne, and thank you, Adam and Neal, for the presentation. 10 Again, I think it’s great that we’re finding creative ways to work to increase our recreational 11 opportunities and extend things further during COVID. I do know in talking to Neal that, 12 definitely, the Palo Alto Soccer Club has incentives to make it work with just four lights. 13 These lights are more expensive than they’ve been in the past, so they’ll definitely go with 14 four lights if they can, if that works for them. The biggest question I have is what the 15 likelihood of damage or compromise to our new playing field is, and even on the sidelines. 16 The sidelines are used as part of the game. I have no concerns about the lights in the 17 endzones. I guess the question, Adam, is in the unlikely event that there is damage or 18 compromise to the field, what happens from there? 19 Mr. Howard: Daren, you probably need to help me out with this. My honest answer is I 20 think it would be very difficult if we damaged the base to replace it, to fix it. But Daren, 21 can you provide any insight into that circumstance? 22 Mr. Anderson: That’s true. It is challenging. Once you’ve created a rut or some sort of 23 impact to the base, you’re now lifting up the turf, which is labor-intensive to say the least, 24 but not impossible. I think that’s why we’re requiring such herculean efforts of anyone who 25 needs to go anywhere on our track or on that field, to make sure that there is plywood down. 26 When we do the surfacing with far heavier equipment and they come out with plywood to 27 replace light bulbs, for example, at Stanford Palo Alto or El Camino Park, these enormous 28 vehicles come out and they use the – because we watch them and make them do it – they 29 use the plywood, and we have not seen any rutting, so as long as you’re diligent about that 30 – and we will be, we’re going to make sure staff are present when this work takes place 31 and the vehicles are both placed on when lights are placed and removed, because that’s 32 how serious it is. Once you do the damage, fixing it is problematic. 33 Chair Greenfield: Thank you. 34 DRAFT Draft Minutes 18 Commissioner Moss: It’s even true off the field. Those ones in the end zone. If you get a 1 hole, a pit, just outside the end zone line and somebody steps into it – so it’s important to 2 have the plywood, even off the field. 3 Chair Greenfield: And that’s also why the lights beyond the end lines will be placed, what 4 Neal? Ten yards back from the line? Five yards? Adam, Neal? The location of the – 5 Mr. Howard: Yeah, in years past I think it’s been seven yards from the end zone line. It’s 6 a distance. We don’t keep it close. 7 Chair Greenfield: Thank you. That’s helpful, Daren, and it’s also encouraging to know that 8 much heavier equipment has been brought out onto the fields and the diligent use of 9 plywood has worked well to protect things. One last comment I have – Adam, it’s really a 10 question for you and for Neal, I suppose – there’s no games being played, so the evening 11 night slots that were previously taken by adult soccer teams, particularly some 7:00 slots, 12 but all of the 8:30 slots at Mayfield and El Camino, are those being used by the youth teams 13 now? 14 Mr. Howard: They are. Any time we…We don’t release everything at once for the adults, 15 just so that if they come back, we still have slots available, but as we release them, they are 16 picked up, so we’re still full until 10:00. 17 Chair Greenfield: Great. Good to know. In summary, if staff is comfortable with the 18 recommendation, I’m comfortable with it. I think it would help to get some clarity in terms 19 of the process that goes on to decide where the lights are going to go. First they’ll start with 20 four lights and see if it works. Then if they need to add two more, will they be testing them 21 out outside the track first and then going on to the sidelines on the turf third if that doesn’t 22 work? What are you looking to recommend? 23 Mr. Howard: That would be my recommendation. I would like a little feedback from Neal 24 as to hard it would be to move them once they’re placed. If it absolutely doesn’t work, can 25 we move them to the sideline? That would be the ideal situation to process this out. 26 Mr. Aronson: I don’t know. We haven’t manipulated these units before. They weigh about 27 2,500 pounds, so they’re not light. Obviously, our preference would be to put them, if we 28 need the two extra units – and we’re going to start without them, we’re starting with just 29 four. They’re very expensive, too. Each one is about $1,200 a month, so it’s not a small 30 expenses the club is incurring to do this. We’re going to start without the two sideline units, 31 and if we just don’t have the lighting coverage that we were hoping for, we’d like to bring 32 them out, and obviously our preference would be to start on the sideline and if it creates a 33 problem, to move them if needed. The one on the far side is the bigger problem, because if 34 we’re asked to move that one, we’re probably just going to send it back, because it’s not 35 going to work where it was in the past, we know that. So, that would be my request is that 36 DRAFT Draft Minutes 19 the Commission approves, if we need them, working with Adam and staff, to put them on 1 the sidelines and then monitor any issues we may have with them for the first week or to, 2 and if we have problems, we can talk about moving them off the sideline. That’s, I guess, 3 what I would request from the Commission. 4 Chair Greenfield: I guess I have a couple questions for staff then. One, is it reasonable to 5 put them on the sideline, and to assess if there’s a problem…I think we’re trying to avoid 6 problems, and if there’s a problem, is this something that’s going to get worse over time, 7 or if there’s a problem, it’s something we have to deal with, and who is financially 8 responsible for taking care of the problem? I guess that’s the second question. The third 9 question is, are you in agreement that the light outside the track, on the neighbor side is not 10 likely to have sufficient solar access for the panels to be charging the unit properly? 11 Mr. Howard: I think I’ll start with the last question first. I do have concerns that it will 12 work. The light last year didn’t last long. Now, here we are, talking about brand new lights 13 that are much more efficient, so part of me wants to know if it’s going to work in that 14 location, but I also understand how it’s going to be to move them. My honest thing is I 15 think the more we move them, that that’s probably where the greatest risk lies, is the 16 adapting and the moving of them. I think I’m pretty…The only way to assure no damage 17 is not to put them on there, but I feel very comfortable that we won’t damage them, so 18 when I think of problems, I’m concerned about are we impacting the track too much and 19 runners are having to go around? Or, are we seeing that the ball is coming over too much, 20 or a game start, and we don’t want them there any more. That’s where I would see we 21 would need to get them moved. But, the only way to guarantee we don’t do damage is to 22 not put them there. That’s the truth of the matter. The safe route is to put them on the off-23 track locations, but I do have pretty heavy concerns that, especially the one closest to the 24 neighbors, probably won’t last very long. 25 Chair Greenfield: And if there is damage, is this the City responsible for this, or does Palo 26 Alto Soccer Club have insurance for this? 27 Mr. Howard: I think it says Palo Alto Soccer would cover it through their insurance. He’s 28 on the line? Could we have a struggle on our hands? Probably. But that would certainly 29 end this lighting moving forward. 30 Chair Greenfield: I’d like to open this up to other Commissioners, because I haven’t really 31 heard comments on the sideline location on-field or outside the track. Any commissioners 32 like to comment on that? 33 Mr. Anderson: Chair, if you wouldn’t mind, Adam, could you pull up the slide where we 34 could see that, the field and the lights, and show them exactly where we’re talking about? 35 DRAFT Draft Minutes 20 Mr. Howard: So, when we talk about off-track locations, we’re talking about these two 1 yellow squares to the left and the right of the picture. These are cement pads currently, so 2 they would be going on a hard surface. This one over here is now a cement pad, too. The 3 concern over here, as you can see, is that it’s tree-lined, so it doesn’t get as much sun as 4 the rest of these will get. It does get sun, so if these are efficient enough, it’s possible that 5 they would work and that the battery would charge enough to keep it running. So, having 6 new lights puts that back into question. When we talk about putting them on the sidelines, 7 we’re talking about these two squares here. Again, just with measurements, they can be 8 about foot off the track and still three feet from what this sideline is. That’s what we’re 9 talking about here currently. 10 Chair Greenfield: Would any Commissioners like to comment? 11 Commissioner LaMere: Is there, when we talk about damage to the field, is there more risk 12 of damage to the field on the sidelines than the corners? Did I miss something about the 13 placement of those? 14 Mr. Anderson: From my perspective, Commissioner LaMere, the damage is not more likely 15 in any one place. The minute you pull onto the track or any part of that field, the chances 16 are equal, from my perspective. 17 Mr. Howard: I would say that, too. I think the sidelines are just a little bit more in play in 18 terms of someone playing a game and running full speed. They’re going to come out there 19 a little bit more frequently, so I think the concern would be if there’s damage there’s a little 20 bit more possibility that that damage could impact a game play there, where that could 21 become a safety concern for our game. 22 Chair Greenfield: That’s my opinion as well. I have very little concern about the impact to 23 the play of the game on the field if there were damage in the areas over the end line. Those 24 areas are really only used for warm-up and even when you’re warming up, you’re not too 25 close to the field, anyway, so kind of a dead area anyway. The areas on the sidelines are 26 regularly used as part of the game. Any other questions or comments from Commissioners? 27 If not, then I will thank Adam and Neal for the presentation. I think you have the support 28 of the Commission that we’re all in favor of adding lights on Fridays and support of the 29 community to increase recreation and play and really trust your judgment on how to handle 30 the agreement moving forward. Thank you very much. 31 Mr. Howard: Thank you everybody. Appreciate it. 32 DRAFT Draft Minutes 21 2. First Tee of Silicon Valley Proposal for Baylands Golf Links. 1 Chair Greenfield: Next up on the agenda is the First Tee of Silicon Valley Proposal for the 2 Baylands Golf Links. I’ll turn it back over to Daren to introduce our speakers. 3 Mr. Anderson: Thank you, Chair. Let me start by introducing our Community Services 4 Superintendent, Lam Do, and then he will introduce our colleagues from Silicon Valley 5 First Tee. 6 Mr. Lam Do: Thank you Daren and thank you to the Commission. This evening I would 7 like to introduce you to representatives from The First Tee of Silicon Valley to present a 8 public/private partnership proposal at the Baylands Golf Links. This evening we have 9 George Maxe, President and CEO of The First Tee of Silicon Valley. We also have Ash 10 Pirayou, advisor to The First Tee of Silicon Valley on partnerships. The City has 11 collaborated with The First Tee since 2009 for youth golf development. This collaboration 12 has led to this evening’s proposal from The First Tee of Silicon Valley for a development 13 partnership and youth partnership proposal. With that, I’d like to turn it over to George 14 Maxe and Ash Pirayou, to be followed with a Q&A as well. 15 Mr. George Maxe: Thank you, Lam. Thank you, Commissioners. It’s a pleasure to be with 16 you and to share a little bit about us, about our vision for Baylands, and why we have this 17 particular vision. So, just a little bit about us, a little bit about our history. I think you all 18 maybe received this attachment as well. We were created in 1997 nationally by some golf 19 entities. There are 150 First Tee chapters around the country. We are primarily about youth 20 development. Golf is the vehicle. It would not be correct to look at us as purely a junior 21 golf program. In 1999, the first San Jose Sports Authority created The Eagles at Rancho 22 junior golf program in East San Jose. In 2005, that became The First Tee of San Jose. 23 Subsequently, we became The First Tee of Silicon Valley in 2012, but as Lam said, in 2009 24 we began programming in Palo Alto. In 2013, we separated from and became independent 25 from The San Jose Sports Authority and continued our expansion. We were early in 26 conversations with Rob de Geus, Forrest Richardson and others around the improvement 27 project that was going on there at Baylands. When the actual project got going, we moved 28 over to Moffett Field, became very acquainted with OB Sports, which was the operator 29 there and were delighted when OB was selected to manage Baylands. In 2018, we returned, 30 that summer, right after the grand opening of Baylands. We ceased our programs there at 31 Moffett. The only reason we were really there was because of the renovation project at 32 Baylands. In 2018, we expanded our service area north to Highway 92, which I think is 33 pretty important for our presence at Baylands. We cover from Highway 92 down to 34 Hollister, and then north through San Jose to Milpitas. A little bit about our programs. As 35 I mentioned, our curriculum is about youth development through golf, so we’re teaching 36 life and golf skills. It’s very similar to Scouts in that there’s different tiers in the program. 37 Participants can be in the program from 2nd grade to 12th grade. We have coaches. We have 38 DRAFT Draft Minutes 22 a staff right now of about 25 coaches who are teaching our classes. You’ll see by my last 1 bullet here, we’re not only at Baylands. We’re also at Rancho del Pueblo and San Jose, and 2 then in Gilroy at Gavilan College Golf Course. We welcome all participants. It doesn’t 3 matter what their background is, and we make a concerted effort through our outreach, 4 which is in-school, after-school, with schools or with YSOs – Youth Serving Organizations 5 – to bring in children who wouldn’t otherwise have access to the game. What we’re really 6 trying to do with the outreach is bring the kids to the golf course and get them acquainted 7 with the game. You can see here by my third to last bullet, under Programs, that most of 8 our classes are after school, between the 3:00 to 6:00 block, Tuesday through Friday, and 9 then Saturdays, as you can imagine, are a very popular day for families. Since 2005, we’ve 10 reached over 81,000 children. This is a mix of outreach and our golf course classes. 11 Diversity, it’s about 40 percent girls in the program, and we’re about 85 percent non-white. 12 We have a very, very diverse participant base. Serving low income participants is very 13 important to us. That number is right around 30 percent right now. Our goal would be 14 ultimately for that to be about 50 percent. Lastly – this is a self-reported number – but our 15 participants and families, when they do their registration, 80 percent say the children get 16 A’s and B’s in school. We don’t take credit for that as causal, but it’s kind of noteworthy 17 that we see that. That’s just a little bit about us. I want to pause right there, if you have any 18 particular questions, if there’s anything I can clarify about what I just said? 19 Chair Greenfield: Any clarifying questions from the Commission? 20 Mr. Reckdahl: I guess I have a question about life skills. Do you have in-classroom training 21 at all? Can you go into more detail about that? 22 Mr. Maxe: Sure. That’s a great question. All of our classes are an hour-and-a-half long. 23 Think of it a little bit like a sandwich. We do a 15-minute warmup and introduction of the 24 life skills of the day. So, we might be talking to them about a core value of judgment and 25 helping them understand what judgment means, and then we do 60 minutes of golf activity. 26 They could be at the range. They could be doing short game work. They could be out on 27 the golf course playing, and we’re trying to help integrate that concept of judgment into 28 what they’re doing. So, judging a putt, for example, how hard to hit it, where to hit it, things 29 like that. Then, the last 15 minutes of the class, we’re wrapping up what they did, 30 reinforcing what they’ve learned, and then we bridge to life. So, we’ll say, “Okay, today 31 you learned about judgment. How can you show good judgment at school? How can you 32 show good judgment at home?” It’s pretty much the sandwich approach of 15 minutes, it’s 33 typically out on the grass there at Baylands. I almost said Palo Alto Muni. It’s right there 34 by the cart wash. We have a cart wash area fairly close to the parking lot. Then they disperse 35 DRAFT Draft Minutes 23 for the golf activities, and then they come back to that area. Any other questions? And I 1 can keep moving here. I'm assuming there will be more questions. 2 Chair Greenfield: Just real quickly, for the last 15 minutes you say they go into the 3 classroom, or they are outside on the grass, or does it depend on weather? 4 Mr. Maxe: It’s almost always outside, Commissioner. The only time that we might be 5 inside is if it’s an inclement weather day, if it’s raining or something. In that case, at 6 Baylands we’d most likely be on the outside patio. There’s just a little bit of covering there. 7 Chair Greenfield: Great, thank you. Please proceed if there’s no other questions. 8 Mr. Maxe: Okay, so our vision is to collaborate with the City, to make some improvements 9 to the range netting and the youth area that was built out in the renovation project but never 10 fully completed. Both for public benefit, but also for First Tee’s use to reach kids. As we 11 have looked at things over time and have had a lot of conversations with Lam and 12 previously with Rob, also with OB Sports, it’s become pretty clear we’re really looking at 13 two potential projects that are decoupled, but I want you to understand that we do think of 14 this larger vision for Baylands. The first project is really our focus of this conversation, or 15 in this presentation. It’s higher netting, and it’s the youth area completion. What we’re 16 initially looking for is a 50-year lease. This is all would be subject to negotiation and once 17 we get your blessing to proceed. The second project would be maybe covering range stalls, 18 adding a training center in this space here along Embarcadero, and some other 19 improvements. But the real focus is this first project, which is right around $4 million, and 20 like I say, it’s to raise the nets around the range. It’s to raise the nets around the Jones-Day 21 parking lot. And then, it’s to at least add a six-foot protective fence along the path where 22 there’s a horse fence right now, which was part of the original approval, I believe, with the 23 renovation project, but better yet, to add netting along that path. Then, to completely finish 24 out the youth area. We can do probably 80 percent of our programming in this area, which 25 is why we’re so interested in this, because then we’re not interfering with the public. We’re 26 not in the public’s way. They’re not in our way, with what we do. There’s still range use. 27 There’s still some use of the short game hole, still some access to holes on the regular golf 28 course, but most of our activity would occur in this youth area. I can stop there if there are 29 any specific questions about this, or I can keep going. 30 Commissioner Olson: For the lease of the space, are you looking for exclusive use of the 31 space or for certain days and hours? 32 Mr. Maxe: I think that’s part of the conversation, part of the negotiation, Commissioner. 33 What we are looking for is a commitment, because a commitment allows us to fundraise. 34 It’s a pretty hefty price tag on this to do this. If we don’t have a commitment, then the 35 dollars won’t flow. When you look at our activity, it is never more than maybe, say, 25 36 percent of the use of the spaces when you consider daylight hours, 365. So, I think there 37 DRAFT Draft Minutes 24 are other opportunities, say, for OB Sports with their private instruction, to use the area. 1 What we just, I think, need to be careful about is, say, what I’ve seen at Oakland Metro 2 Golf Course, where there’s a designated area for short game practice. The public that’s 3 used it has almost completely destroyed it, because what happens is they’ll chip, they’ll 4 make divots, and they don’t get repaired, and the area just gets eaten up. So, primarily our 5 use, but that’s really part of the conversation, part of the negotiation. 6 Commissioner Olson: And then, do you all run any programs with Parks and Rec programs, 7 so for example, is that only…? 8 Chair Greenfield: Excuse me. Before me get too far into questions, I think it would be 9 better if we finish the presentation and then – 10 Commissioner Olson: Oh, sure. 11 Chair Greenfield: And see if anyone in the public would like to speak, and then we can go 12 into a round of questions. 13 Commissioner Olson: Sure. 14 Chair Greenfield: I think we’re just looking for clarifying questions right now. 15 Commissioner Olson: Got it. 16 Mr. Maxe: The third slide is, “Why would we want to do this?” Well, in part, back to 17 Commissioner Olson’s question. Part of it is gives us dedicated space to be able to be in a 18 space where we’re cordoned off from the public is really golden for us, with what we do, 19 but also just that corridor there along 101 has such a high population density, it’s really 20 great for our program to be able to attract children to it, and then there are low income areas 21 right nearby to be able to really serve those children. Like I say, our goal is, right now I 22 should say, we’re right around 30 percent low income, and the goal ultimately would be 23 around 50 percent. Benefits to the kids – we think we can reach 6,000 children with 24 Baylands as a base for us with this type of facility, so it would be 1,000 unique children a 25 year. I say unique, because they tend to take two classes a year across the four seasons. 26 Working with Palo Alto Schools and Ravenswood School District and then other youth 27 serving organizations, we think we can reach another 5,000 children in school and after 28 school, and that becomes a type of a pipeline to the golf course program. Generally 29 speaking, we invest about $500 per unique child, per year. The investment into the 30 community at 1,000 is about a half-million dollars a year, and then through outreach it’s 31 about $200 per child. What’s great about the classes is that they are learning golf skills, 32 they are getting golf-ready. It becomes a type of a pipeline for the high school programs 33 for Gunn and for Palo Alto High School. In terms of public golfers, raising the nets 34 basically makes that short game hole that’s on the golf course side of the range, it makes it 35 DRAFT Draft Minutes 25 useable. It’s never been useable in these two-and-a-half years that the golf course is open, 1 because of range balls going over the nets. Lam, I'm sure, can speak more to that. Lastly, 2 we create a customer base, and I think it’s why OB Sports is so excited about this project 3 is that it allows them to increase the customer base there at the facility. Fundraising to date, 4 I’m not sure if you’re familiar the SAGA Foundation. They’re a local foundation. They’ve 5 made a pledge of a half-million dollars for this. They are very eager to see commitment 6 from the City and some kind of an MOU with us, so that they can help us continue the 7 fundraising. One of the entities that we’re partnering with is Wadsworth Golf Charities. 8 Wadsworth did the construction project to build out Baylands, and this is the foundation 9 side for them. We would also ask them to do the buildout of the youth area, so part of our 10 $4.2 million estimate is the quote from Wadsworth to work on that area. There is a desire 11 to have the City involved financially somehow. In large part, because donors are looking 12 for that, but also because the netting all along that short game hole side really has more 13 public benefit than First Tee benefit, but it might as well all be done at the same time. 14 Lastly, like I say, if we have commitment, then it makes it easier for us to get out and do 15 fundraising. One last comment – I’ve mentioned the nets quite a bit, so the current nets are 16 70 feet high, and Lam and Daren, did you initiate the Tanner study? 17 Mr. Anderson: Yes. 18 Mr. Maxe: There was a Tanner study, a golf ball trajectory study. It was probably two years 19 ago, three years ago, something like that. They do a full analysis of different types of golf 20 clubs and golf balls, and what they determined is for golf balls to not go over the nets and 21 to fully protect the surrounding areas and make this almost completely safe, that the nets 22 starting right around here need to raise to about 100 feet; through here get as high as 135; 23 at the end of the range be 100; and the same thing on this side. It’s kind of a parabola of 24 the nets, and they’re currently 70 feet. With that, that was pretty much my presentation. I 25 really, really welcome your questions and your input, because to us this is a collaborative 26 process. This is one where we want mutual benefit with the City, between the City and 27 public and our program. So really welcome your questions and your input. 28 Chair Greenfield: Thank you, George for your presentation and Lam, for your support on 29 this. 30 Mr. Maxe: You’re welcome. 31 Chair Greenfield: I’ll quickly ask if there are any members of the public who would like to 32 speak on this matter. If so, please raise your hand. Seeing as there is no one who would 33 like to speak, I’ll open it up to Commissioners for comment. Anne, I know that you worked 34 and had a relationship with First Tee for many years. Would you like to start off? 35 Vice Chair Cribbs: I would love to. Thank you very much. I have had a relationship with 36 The First Tee since the early 2000s or before that, as I was a member of the San Jose Sport 37 DRAFT Draft Minutes 26 Authority. We incubated, actually, First Tee. First Tee was part of the Sports Authority 1 until they grew so big and so exciting that it was time to let them spin off and do their own 2 thing and become their own 501(c)(3), but through that time I’ve had an opportunity to 3 watch them. I know a lot about The First Tee nationally and what golf does for kids and 4 what kids can do with golf. I think that it’s a really wonderful organization for the City of 5 Palo Alto to be partnered with. I think it would be good for not only the City, but the golf 6 course and also The First Tee for all the reasons that George has enumerated. I have to 7 mention that I’m particularly pleased that the outreach to girls is about 40 percent, and the 8 40 percent girls participating. That’s really important to me personally as you guys know, 9 and of course, the next really thing after we ask our questions and all of that is really what 10 this lease is going to look like and how long is it going to be, and tell us what needs to be 11 in terms of the exclusivity and the access and all of that, so as they say, the devil is in the 12 details. But, I know that there have been a lot of other successful public/private 13 partnerships, and I have no doubt that the people involved with The First Tee, but also the 14 involved in the City can make this work, really for our community, for our kids and for the 15 future. I’m a huge supporter, but I have to tell you, I’m also prejudiced about it, so thank 16 you, George, for your presentation. I appreciate it, and Lam, thank you for what you’re 17 doing. 18 Mr. Maxe: You’re welcome, and the girls are the best golfers in our program. No doubt 19 about it. 20 Vice Chair Cribbs: It’s unnecessary that they’re the best. It’s just that they have the 21 opportunity. 22 Chair Greenfield: Thank you, Anne. I think it would be helpful before going to the other 23 Commissioner comments, Daren and Lam, if you could help frame this a little bit for us in 24 terms of the process we’re looking at ultimately for approval. What input are you looking 25 for from the Commission this evening, and where do we go from here as far as the CIP 26 planning and Park Improvement Plan, Council approval and overall process. Can you give 27 us some idea of where we’re headed, please? 28 Mr. Anderson: Thanks, Chair. I’ll turn it over to my partner, Lam, in just one second. I 29 think the main thing I can contribute is to your question about what we’re asking of the 30 Commission tonight. It’s to ask thoughtful questions that the Commission always thinks of 31 on how this affects the community and the City, what things we should be taking into 32 account. Your general support or concerns are always of interest. I think those are the key 33 things now. Again, this is not an action item, so we’re just looking for feedback. For next 34 steps, I think I’ll turn it over to Lam, but we’ve got some internal discussions as our next 35 key steps. I’ll let Lam elucidate on that. 36 Mr. Do: Thank you, Daren, Chair Greenfield and Commission. If I could start by saying 37 that in public/private partnerships, none are the same. As you are aware, other ones that the 38 DRAFT Draft Minutes 27 City has done have been modeled differently, whether it be the Junior Museum and Zoo, 1 whether it be the Magical Bridge Playground, how they’re structured are very different, so 2 I think what we have, in addition to what Daren has highlighted, is in addition to your 3 feedback and your thoughts, but we have steps to work out. There are some preliminary 4 discussions with the Planning Department. There are some discussions with Legal. There 5 are stakeholder involvement as well, both I think collaboratively with us and The First Tee, 6 but also maybe independently, some stakeholder outreach. The First Tee may have some 7 stakeholders that are key and central to them that they may want to seek input from 8 separately, and the City may as well, but those are the processes that we need to iron out. 9 Even more importantly, what George brought up is to work towards a Memorandum of 10 Understanding. That is not just sort of like the handshake, I could say, but it also helps, the 11 key, essentially, part is this is to be a fund-raised project with multiple contributors. That's 12 sort of the ultimate goal of the next steps in the work. It doesn’t necessarily have to be that 13 it’s all done before a Memorandum of Understanding. It could be possibly that a 14 Memorandum of Understanding could be put together and some of the details that are 15 worked out. It just depends on what needs to be in the Memorandum of Understanding that 16 both meets the needs of The First Tee and also meets the needs from the City. I think I’ll 17 also give George an opportunity to speak as well. I don’t want to speak purely on behalf of 18 The First Tee, so I think George, if you have more that you’d like to input, please feel free. 19 Mr. Maxe: Well, the one thing you brought up, Lam, that I’m especially interested in, is 20 talking to like the Palo Alto Golf Club there at the golf course and getting their input. My 21 guess is they have a great desire to use the short game hole, for example. That somewhat 22 comes out of their desire to have the bunker that was put in in the one spot, the practice 23 bunker. So, they’re just an example of one particular group that I definitely want to speak 24 with, but I’m in general, eager to hear public input into it, because the whole goal is to 25 serve the kids and the public. I’m very eager to do that. 26 Chair Greenfield: Thank you, so I’m hearing the next step that we’re going towards is the 27 MOU, the Memorandum of Understanding. As Anne put it, the devil’s in the details, so 28 DRAFT Draft Minutes 28 we’re not really clear what the details are, other than the general details that will be 1 acceptable to both First Tee and the City. Is that a fair summary? 2 Mr. Maxe: Correct. 3 Mr. Do: That's correct. 4 Chair Greenfield: Okay, and then once the MOU proposal is in place, this would come 5 back to the Commission as a recommendation action to Council? And Council would have 6 to…? 7 Mr. Anderson: Yeah, the timing or sequencing of a recommendation from the Commission 8 to the Council is yet to be determined exactly when and where that would fall in. We’ll 9 keep you updated on that as we work through that process. 10 Chair Greenfield: So let me ask this – can the MOU be finalized without Council approving 11 it? 12 Mr. Anderson: There’s a chance the City Manager could, but I’m almost certain this would 13 go to Council for approval of the MOU. 14 Chair Greenfield: So, it’s likely that before going to Council for approval, it would go to 15 the Commission for recommendation? 16 Mr. Anderson: Certainly for a Park Improvement Ordinance – and this is park land, so that 17 for sure – and I’m assuming other elements the Council would be interested in the PRC’s 18 thoughts as well. 19 Chair Greenfield: To the extent that the MOU affects Park Improvement Ordinance, it 20 would go to Commission ? 21 Mr. Anderson: Yes. And any substantive change on parkland like this would require a Park 22 Improvement Ordinance. 23 Chair Greenfield: Okay. 24 Mr. Anderson: And George, just for the clarification, I’m sure I mentioned this to you 25 before, but a Park Improvement Ordinance is a simple process of just saying, “We’re going 26 to make these following changes to a park,” in this case the golf course area, and staff 27 would help shepherd this through. It goes to our Parks and Rec Commission. They would 28 review it, and then they make a recommendation to Council and Council would adopt it. 29 DRAFT Draft Minutes 29 It’s part of almost all of our capital improvement projects on parkland that’s some element 1 of a Park Improvement Ordinance. 2 Mr. Maxe: Got you. Great. Thank you. 3 Chair Greenfield: And then once an MOU is in place at a later date a specific plan proposal 4 would come back that would require an amended Park Improvement Ordinance? 5 Mr. Anderson: I think the Park Improvement Ordinance wouldn’t come until we’ve got a 6 developed plan. I believe it would be the MOU first and the Park Improvement Ordinance 7 later. 8 Chair Greenfield: So the PRC may not necessarily be asked to recommend the MOU? 9 Mr. Anderson: Yet to be determined on that part. We so seldomly do these kind of things 10 – at least for Lam and I – and every one, as he pointed out, is a little bit different. So we’ll 11 be working closely with our Planning Department to understand all of the nuances of 12 different reviews that this would necessitate and certainly keep the PRC involved. I think, 13 to George’s credit and The First Tee, they wanted to do the community outreach, and this 14 is such a good avenue to do that. It just makes sense. 15 Chair Greenfield: Anne. 16 Vice Chair Cribbs: Just listening to all of this, and because it’s a little different than some 17 of the other ones that the City has done, is it possible, Daren and Lam, at some point that 18 you can – and not to be cast in stone – but kind of lay out the things that have to be done 19 and the departments that have to be talked to, and kind of a timeline, so that we can 20 understand all of the boxes that need to be checked? 21 Mr. Anderson: Yes. We’re not there yet, so we don’t have those answers, but yes we can. 22 Vice Chair Cribbs: I understand, and it’s a lot to be asking right now, but just at some point, 23 so that The First Tee and other people can kind of understand, because this is a really 24 exciting project for our community and our kids, and I think we just want to make sure that 25 we don’t raise expectations too much, but we also create a lot of excitement about what 26 can be done. I just go back to seeing the golfers and the kids who are playing golf. They 27 are so polite and so lovely and so enjoying the game, and it’s what we want for kids all 28 over the place. So, if we have the opportunity to do something like that, it would be great 29 DRAFT Draft Minutes 30 to kind of know what the path is to do that, especially because we don’t want it to take ten 1 years, because the kids grow up, right? 2 Mr. Maxe: Yeah. 3 Chair Greenfield: Thanks, Anne. I want to echo that I think this is an exiting opportunity. 4 Don’t want to spend too much more time getting stuck into the weeds of understanding the 5 process, but I think it’s important to understand where the road is leading. I’ll now open it 6 up to discussion among the Commissioners. David, I see your hand is up. Would you like 7 to speak? 8 Commissioner Moss: The Highway 92 to Hollister to Milpitas is a huge, huge area. Are 9 you intending that you’re going to draw youth from all of those areas, or do you have 10 several other facilities that are going to serve those areas, and we are going to concentrate 11 only on a certain portion? 12 Mr. Maxe: That’s a great question, Commissioner. We have three facilities that we are 13 investing in. One is Baylands. The other is Rancho del Pueblo in East San Jose. It’s right 14 where 280 and 101 intersect. Then, Gavilan College Golf Course in Gilroy. They really are 15 three separate regions. We don’t really see a lot of crossover. I would say that for Baylands 16 you would certainly see a participant base coming from, say, Redwood City from the north. 17 You might see a little bit of San Jose. It would only be because of a scheduling, an inability 18 to be in a class in San Jose, but you really wouldn’t see, I don’t think, much participation 19 beyond, say, Sunnyvale. Part of it is the constraints of 101. This is pre-COVID, right? 20 Commissioner Moss: Right. Exactly. 21 Mr. Maxe: And how difficult it is to drive around. 22 Commissioner Moss: Do you have competition, say, Redwood City north, where if you’re 23 doing a 50-year lease, do you foresee other people drawing from your base soon? 24 Mr. Maxe: Another great question. Part of the reason that we extended to 92 was because 25 there’s a First Tee in San Francisco. The First Tee network is highly, highly collaborative. 26 We’ve been working on extending our service area north and their service area south for 27 many, many years. We basically drew that line. It was an obvious line of Highway 92, 28 where we would not do any kind of facility effort north of Baylands, and they would not 29 do any facility effort, really, that close to 92, in part so that there’s a buffer. In terms of 30 other competition, there’s a certain amount of competition that we get from youth golf 31 programs, but we’re really different. Our particular approach of youth development 32 DRAFT Draft Minutes 31 through golf pretty much sets us apart. We don’t really have competition in that particular 1 space. 2 Commissioner Moss: That’s really great. One of your life skills or life values, talking about 3 nutrition and cardio, because do you do calisthenics or do you talk about nutrition as some 4 of our values? 5 Mr. Maxe: Yes. We have nine core values that are part of our curriculum. We also have 6 nine healthy habits. The nine healthy habits, there are three that are related to physical 7 habits, and nutrition is definitely part of that. You may have heard of a local nonprofit 8 called Fit Kids, and we partner with Fit Kids specifically for the warmup portion of that 9 first 15 minutes that I was mentioning earlier, so definitely physical health is a big part of 10 things, as is emotional as well. 11 Commissioner Moss: That’s terrific. I noticed that on the golf course you have the short 12 game hole currently. Is that what you use currently? 13 Mr. Maxe: No, it’s not. Lam, I can’t remember the number of golf balls that are going the 14 nets. 15 Mr. Do: It varies depending on the wind pattern of the day, so it could be anywhere from 16 a dozen to 25 and perhaps even 30 or 40, but it’s dependent upon the wind pattern of the 17 day. 18 Mr. Maxe: Generally speaking – I don’t know what the population is percentage right-hand 19 and left-hand – but my impression is that 90 percent of any balls that do go over the nets 20 go over here, and the other ten percent are kind of in this area. But Commissioner, your 21 particular question was the spaces that we’re using. Right here where the number 3 is, is 22 where we gather the children, where they check in and check out, just off the parking lot, 23 and then we’re using a portion of this green. Sometimes we’ll use a portion of this putting 24 green. We’re typically using the last few range stalls here, and then we’ll have some tee 25 times out on the golf course, which we’re coordinating with the GM. Gunn and Palo Alto 26 High School golf teams have some priority over us to make sure they have their tee times, 27 but we do not go into this area, the short game area or the youth area because of the safety 28 issue of the golf balls over the nets. 29 Commissioner Moss: Okay. Is most of your classes weekdays after school, or are they 30 weekends? What is that situation? 31 Mr. Maxe: Sure. That's this bullet point right here. Our classes are pretty much after school. 32 We don’t program at all on Sundays or Mondays. We haven’t traditionally but Saturdays 33 are the big demand day, so that’s what’s so ideal about this particular youth area and I why 34 DRAFT Draft Minutes 32 highlight that it’s cordoned off from the public. It allows us to do the Saturday and after 1 school programs and not interfere with public play. 2 Commissioner Moss: Okay, great. This $4 million price tag, I guess is that why we go to 3 the City Council, because they’re going to have to come up with some of that money, 4 Daren? 5 Mr. Do: I think, if I could answer on behalf of Daren, multiple reasons. There is a financial 6 commitment but also the level of the partnership commitment dictates that we won’t likely 7 need…Our initial thoughts are that we do likely need City Council approval. There could 8 be a possibility that it’s at the City Manager level, but we’ll need to see. We don’t know 9 for sure yet. But a big part of it, you are correct, is based on what the financial ask is. I 10 think that that will have a budgetary impact. As the Commissioners are aware, significant 11 budgetary impacts do need to be approved by the City Council at minimum for the 12 budgetary impact, if not also for the partnership impact or agreement. 13 Commissioner Moss: All right. That’s all the questions I have. Thank you so much. 14 Mr. Maxe: Thank you, Commissioner. You’re welcome. 15 Chair Greenfield: Commission Reckdahl. 16 Commissioner Reckdahl: I was not aware of The First Tee. It sounds like a very good 17 program. Golf is a very hard sport. Two things I really like about it. One, you can have 18 diverse skill sets and play with them. You can go with a foursome with people of varying 19 abilities and still have a very good time. The second thing is that when you make a bad 20 shot it’s all your fault. There’s no one to point the finger at, so if you’re talking about 21 fostering responsibility, I think it’s very good. Yeah, again, like we were talking last time 22 – anything we do to increase the field use, or in this case, increase the use of the golf course, 23 that would be very good. Daren and Lam, we talked about, or George mentioned, the issue 24 about if we open this area up, would we have to worry about maintenance? How much 25 maintenance do we do on the putting green and the [distortion] area right now? 26 Mr. Anderson: Commission Reckdahl, because the area is closed, it’s not heavily 27 maintained. We haven’t been able to use it, as George pointed out, since the course opened, 28 because the golf range balls were going over the nets. Yes, we do pay our contractor to 29 maintain the area to keep it functional and that we could use it at some point in the future. 30 DRAFT Draft Minutes 33 We’re not going to let it go, but they are not maintaining it like they would the active 1 course. 2 Commissioner Reckdahl: We don’t have a chipping area? 3 Mr. Anderson: We’ve got a de facto one that we’ve created recently. Lam, do you want to 4 tell them just a little bit about the one we added six months to a year ago? 5 Mr. Do: That’s correct. Thank you, George. George is pulling the description there. Where 6 George is circling there, we have a created a bunker there and also a short chipping area 7 for that. In addition to that, where existing green number one is, by the parking lot, that is 8 also a chipping green, where someone can chip from the edge of the driving range and also 9 from the edge of the parking lot onto that green. Those are the designated chipping areas 10 at present, the tee that was always there, plus the additional bunker that we added to the 11 youth area. The youth area, though, is cordoned off, and it’s limited use. It’s not always 12 open. We did open it for some time. We did have a few issues there, so right now it’s 13 limited use, however. 14 Mr. Reckdahl: Okay, and how much maintenance do we have to do on that? Over by the 15 parking lot there? 16 Mr. Do: The existing putting green, which is labeled green number two, and the existing 17 chipping green labeled green number one, those are maintained on a regular basis as if they 18 were on-course greens. It’s intended for any golfer to come and practice putting or 19 chipping, so the quality of the green, we want it to mimic how our greens on-course play, 20 so the maintenance level is commensurate. 21 Mr. Maxe: Commissioner Reckdahl, this area here, it’s irrigated, and there’s kind of a 22 foundation for a green here in this chipping area and in here, but it’s rough. It’s not like 23 these greens right now. In my conversation with the general manager at Baylands, he just 24 roughly, back-of-the-envelope, thought $1,500 a month, or $18,000 a year, is probably 25 what it would cost to maintain this area if the greens were like this. There would be a green 26 here and a green over here. 27 Commissioner Reckdahl: What I’m trying to get at is, to me the perfect situation is you 28 make a very good facility that you can use during your hours, and then the public can use 29 that, either with private lessons or just the general public, when you’re not using it. The 30 only danger with that is, does it get so much use that it’s not useable? What I wanted to get 31 at is, is this feasible for us to open it up and have all these people using the same area 32 without degrading the quality of that? I'm not sure who the question is for. Is this for Lam? 33 Mr. Do: Well, George brought up an experience – or an observation, I should say – that he 34 has observed over at the Oakland Metropolitan Golf Course, where there is an area that’s 35 DRAFT Draft Minutes 34 designated for short game practice that’s open to the public. As a result, it was fully built, 1 but it deteriorated over time, and it remains deteriorated. George had expressed that that’s 2 probably not the vision for our youth practice area would be. But I think you’ve brought 3 up a good point. Who else can use it, other than The First Tee? Would it be solely for public 4 use through lessons, or would it be open for public use as a practice area as well? I think 5 that is part of the devil’s in the details that need to be worked out on what The First Tee 6 needs and what the City needs to make use of that area. We want to be able to discuss that 7 with The First Tee as well. 8 Mr. Anderson: Just to quick chime in on that, Commissioner Reckdahl, to complete that 9 answer for you is the other piece – how do we determine what’s too much? Well certainly, 10 First Tee would be a huge contributor to that conversation, but so would our golf contractor. 11 So we’ve got OB Sports, who are experts in this, and they would help guide the 12 conversation and the options in such a way that we don’t put that area at risk for what you 13 heard described earlier as overused and ruined, essentially, so they would be helping us 14 with their expertise. 15 Commissioner Reckdahl: Okay, and also I’d want to know, is it just a matter of 16 maintenance? If we can have a high level of maintenance, maybe we can have all that 17 traffic and still have it maintained. That would take more investigation. For the netting, 18 would we be using the existing netting and then just adding to that, or would we be 19 replacing the netting altogether? 20 Mr. Maxe: Lam, do you want me to address that? 21 Mr. Do: Yes, please, George. 22 Mr. Maxe: The quote that we got is to replace all of it. The primary reason is that – I should 23 say, almost all of it. Anything that would need to be over the 70 feet that currently exists, 24 but that 70 feet is really only in this area and in this area. Part of the reason is the height of 25 the new nets, you can’t use the wooden telephone poles that exist there now. They have to 26 be metal poles, which aesthetically they can be a narrower diameter and further apart, 27 because they’re so much stronger. Then, one thought is to, if it’s okay to put netting along 28 DRAFT Draft Minutes 35 the sidewalk path here to actually reuse some of the poles, to cut down the cost. Reuse 1 some of the telephone poles along here. 2 Commissioner Reckdahl: Okay. Daren, how would this impact wildlife, particularly birds? 3 We have a very tall net now. Do we have to worry about that? 4 Mr. Anderson: It would probably be part of our analysis, our environmental analysis when 5 we go through Planning to at least look at that. It’s difficult to say. 6 Commissioner Reckdahl: How about susceptibility to high winds? If we have net that’s 7 much taller now, if it gets really windy, is there any concern about the net ripping or causing 8 a safety problem? 9 Mr. Anderson: I don’t believe so. I think they’re engineered to withstand those wind forces 10 and that height. And I should note that the study we had done that George referenced earlier 11 mirrored everything he said about the inability of the wooden poles to be raised. They 12 would have to be swapped out to metal. It’s the same message we had heard from our 13 contractor/consultant. 14 Commissioner Reckdahl: I could see the metal might be more attractive, but also it’s a 15 taller net, so do you think there will be aesthetic issues? Will some people not like this, or 16 is this just going to be, to the naked eye, just look like it does right now? 17 Mr. Anderson: The fewer nets, in my perspective, would be more attractive. You’ll be able 18 to see, I guess, a little bit more, unobstructed from the poles to a small degree. The height, 19 I don’t know. I couldn’t tell you. 20 Commissioner Reckdahl: Okay. This is an improvement. I think it would be very good if 21 we could make it work. But there’s a lot of devils in a lot of details. Okay, thank you. 22 Mr. Maxe: You’re welcome, Commissioner. Thank you. 23 Chair Greenfield: Commissioner LaMere. 24 Commissioner LaMere: I’m very excited about his project. I think anything to increase 25 youth activity and outdoor activity, but also the use of the existing facilities that we do have 26 is a very exciting project. What’s your current relationship? You do classes currently – or 27 maybe not now because of COVID – but what’s your current relationship with the golf 28 course? 29 Mr. Maxe: Great question, and I appreciated the earlier conversation with Neal about their 30 safety protocols and how they’re dealing with things right now. We cancelled all of our 31 classes in the springtime, in the summertime with all the uncertainty of when can we open? 32 What’s this virus doing and all of that? We didn’t quite know what to do. We played it safe 33 DRAFT Draft Minutes 36 at Baylands and held no summer classes, but we’ve re-engaged this fall. We have one day 1 where we have a footprint, and that’s Tuesdays. Then, this winter we’ll be adding in 2 Wednesdays, and we’re following all of the safety protocols. The nice thing about golf, 3 because of swinging golf clubs, there’s some already built in reasons to stay away from 4 each other. 5 Commissioner LaMere: And then, prior to the golf course renovation, how many kids were 6 involved in your classes per year prior to that? 7 Mr. Maxe: Sure, great question. It had peaked probably at a little over 150, but then when 8 we moved to Moffett it grew even further. It peaked as we came back to Baylands and 9 began to work with Police Activities League and some of the local schools, etc. It peaked 10 right around 290, almost reached 300. Again, those are unique participants, so they could 11 be taking two classes over the course of the year. 12 Commissioner LaMere: What do you charge? What’s the normal charge for someone to 13 participate in a class? 14 Mr. Maxe: Our standard highest price for the eight-week class is $180. If you are free 15 reduced lunch, low income, etc., it can be as low as $20. We want a little bit of skin in the 16 game. What tends to happen is we tend to count on about $105, $110 on average from the 17 participants. Basically, what’s happening is you have three or four out of eight. We think 18 in terms of fours and eights. A class of 16, let’s say – it’s maybe a better way of putting it 19 – which is the maximum capacity – not right now during COVID, it’s 12 because of the 20 cohort rules – but we’ll maybe have six or seven participants who are paying $180, and 21 then you see a little bit of in between, and then probably four or five who are down closer 22 to $20. 23 Commissioner LaMere: Do use pay a use fee, or a facility fee currently to OB Sports? 24 Mr. Maxe: Sure. It’s pretty nominal. We pay $1.50 per child, per class day, so if it’s an 25 eight-week class – we meet once a week for eight weeks – it’s $12, and that’s for range 26 balls, a little bit of facilities, etc. If we’re going out and doing anything substantially, a 27 substantial number of holes on the course, then there’s also a green fee. But, typically when 28 we’re out there we only have 60 minutes. We’re only using three to four holes, max. We 29 coordinate that with the GM to help him still continue to serve the Gunn and the Palo Alto 30 DRAFT Draft Minutes 37 High School golf teams, which are typically going out at the same time on the weekdays, 1 but also, obviously, the public. 2 Commissioner LaMere: Right, and I take it there are many volunteer opportunities for local 3 youth to help out. 4 Mr. Maxe: Yes. We actually see a lot of activity from Palo Alto High School and Gunn. 5 With high school students they aren’t necessarily even golfers, but they want to get their 6 service hours for high school by working with us. Kind of the word’s out that it’s a great 7 way to be outside and work with kids and rack up those hours. 8 Commissioner LaMere: That’s great. Thank you so much for your time and your 9 presentation and obviously anything we can do to get more youth involved is outstanding, 10 and also for our golf course to be seen and used. It’s such a beautiful area, so thank you 11 very much for what you do. 12 Mr. Maxe: You’re welcome. Thank you. 13 Chair Greenfield: Commissioner Olson. 14 Commissioner Olson: Thank you so much. I’m very enthusiastic about taking what is 15 essentially wasted area right now and really putting it to such great use. I went by here with 16 my kids not that long ago, and they were begging me to come back and play in this area. I 17 had to say, “Well, I’m sorry, it’s closed.” It is such a shame to see such a beautiful space 18 going to waste. If we dedicate the space, allow the improvements, etc., is there any reason 19 – and I don’t know if this is for Daren or Lam – is there any reason we couldn’t have golf 20 be part of the recreation programs we offer to our community through the Enjoy! Online, 21 or how does that work with other programs like soccer, where there’s a different entity 22 that’s actually running the soccer classes, etc.? 23 Mr. Anderson: Lam, would you mind answering this one? 24 Mr. Do: Sure. The City has different levels of golf involvement through the Recreation 25 division and Recreation programs, such as what you’re referring to through the Enjoy! 26 program. It’s varied between introduction to golf course for both youth and adults to often 27 a summer camp for youth at the course. I think how Recreation program perceived it is also 28 dependent upon what resources we have or what funding we have. Recreation also has to 29 balance their budget versus how many participants they can reach through their channels 30 and their avenues. Sometimes they opt for their other programs, whether it be other sports 31 or other youth special interest classes. That doesn’t necessarily mean that we drop golf. 32 Our other avenue is through the First Tee program. We also, with our prior golf course 33 operator, contracted with that operator to offer summer camps as well when we were not 34 able to offer it through the Recreation division. Our current operator does something 35 DRAFT Draft Minutes 38 similar. Unfortunately, actually our current operator does it at a slightly higher level. Now, 1 it didn’t happen this summer because of COVID, but our prior summer we actually had 2 sort of a Junior PGA camp offering as opposed to just a private camp offering through an 3 operator. That got us a little bit more support, so it varies throughout the time. I don’t have 4 an exact, consistent program response for you, but we do manage to get youth involved on 5 a regular basis. 6 Commissioner Olson: If this program were to come into play here, do you see this as being 7 sort of competitive to programs that we have, or is it sort of complementary? 8 Mr. Do: I think it is complementary. The ultimate goal is, I think, twofold. What George 9 brought up is life skills through learning golf. That always parlays to a lifelong in the 10 participation in the sport of golf, so I think that’s where everyone benefits. But, we would 11 not be in competition. The structure that George offers is a particular life skills. That's a 12 key approach to The First Tee. The programs that our Recreation program offers is 13 particular to those who are there for leisure learning of golf, so I think we are not in 14 competition with each other. We’re reaching audiences that have different desires. George, 15 I think you’d probably agree with that? 16 Mr. Maxe: Yeah, I’d love to add a little bit, and this gets back to Commissioner Moss, 17 your question about competition as well. There are different groups in the junior golf space. 18 Lam just mentioned, for example, the PGA Junior League. That's administered and run by 19 PGA teaching professionals, and those folks, for example, work for OB Sports, your 20 operator. That’s about competitive junior golf. It’s helping kids learn how to play in a 21 competitive way. It’s a great primer for high school golf, and it’s for children in their early 22 teens. That’s a complete complement to what we do, as Lam was saying. We also don’t 23 look at ourselves as golf instructors. When we have children who really want to refine their 24 golf skills, we want them to go to OB Sports. We want them to go to those instructors. 25 We’d love those instructors to teach our way and help us with our classes as well, so it is 26 very complementary. There are some other groups in the space, but we’re kind of each 27 doing a different thing. There’s a program – I’ll just say this one other – called Youth on 28 Course, which is part of the Northern California Golf Association. Their whole purpose is 29 DRAFT Draft Minutes 39 discounted golf for children, golf rounds, so that they offer a subsidy to golf courses for 1 children to go play at a discount, so we kind of all work in concert. 2 Commissioner Olson: Interesting. Lam, one more question for you, just as a clarifying one. 3 When we offer a program through the Recreation Department, does the City actually have 4 to subsidize a portion of the cost? Is that something that we would take into account? 5 Mr. Do: That’s correct. In general, most Recreation programs for youth are not full cost 6 recovery, and that’s by established policy that has been presented to the City Council that 7 the City subsidizes youth programming. 8 Commissioner Olson: Got it. Okay. 9 Chair Greenfield: Has that changed of late with the financial COVID-related issues? 10 Mr. Do: I can’t exactly speak for Recreation, but from a policy procedure, the cost recovery 11 policy has not changed. Now, how many courses we’re offering, that’s the Recreation 12 division, so I don’t have the understanding of their revenue stream at this point. But from 13 a policy perspective, our City Council has not changed the cost recovery policy. [Inaudible] 14 subsidized youth programming. 15 Chair Greenfield: Am I misunderstanding that some of the Recreation programs and the 16 summer camps were changed to full cost recovery this year when they hadn’t been in the 17 past? 18 Mr. Do: No, I think that’s probably incorrect. I understand that these were increased, both 19 fees citywide, not just in Recreation, but fees in other…parking fees, development fees. 20 That is a citywide increase to address the budget shortfall, but as for Recreation going to a 21 full 100 percent cost recovery, that did not occur. 22 Chair Greenfield: Thank you. 23 Commissioner Olson: A hope in my mind, I guess, is that if we do this partnership and 24 really are bound by 50 years with somewhat exclusive use, I would love to see the 25 Recreation programs also benefit in some way, whether it was maybe a program that could 26 be offered to Palo Alto through Enjoy! if there’s a way to sort of marry that with what 27 happens, George, in your programs, because I think all those values are ones that are great 28 DRAFT Draft Minutes 40 for anyone and also that introductory to golf is great, and then people can move on to other 1 programs as possible. I know there are lots of in’s and out’s there. 2 Chair Greenfield: I think that’s probably something we can explore offline with staff, as 3 far as the applicability of it, I’m not sure if it’s there or not, but that’s my sense. 4 Commissioner Olson: Yes. Thank you for your work. It’s very important work, and I’m 5 just grateful that you're thinking of this, and hopefully we’ll find a way to turn that land 6 into something really great. 7 Mr. Maxe: You’re welcome. What’s very interesting about this is back when Rob was 8 working this, Rob de Geus, in 2010 and 2011, and we were beginning to look at that area, 9 we uncovered some of the original blueprints, some of the original vision for that area, and 10 it was originally thought of as a youth area. 11 Commissioner Olson: Oh, wow. 12 Mr. Maxe: It’s amazing that nothing’s ever really happened with it, but that’s going back, 13 what? Sixty-four years? 14 Chair Greenfield: I have a few questions and comments, but before that, Anne, do you have 15 some follow-up comments or questions? Okay, I’ll take that as a no. Thank you very much 16 for the presentation. It’s been very enlightening to me, as well as many other 17 Commissioners. Anne has made sure that we’ve heard about First Tee in the past for quite 18 some time, but it’s good to get a deeper understanding of what it’s all about. It’s a little bit 19 difficult to grasp in a shorter conversation. My questions are, looking at the Project 1 and 20 2 and considering the MOU, what is the linkage in terms of the MOU that you were looking 21 for? Is this based simply on Project 1 and Project 2? Is it something to consider for the 22 future, or is there, with the idea if things worked out we’ll talk about it, but how specific 23 an understanding of the details of project 2 would be linked with the MOU? 24 Mr. Do: I think I’ll attempt to give an answer at this, and then George, correct me if I’m 25 misspeaking, please. The Project 1 and Project 2 from The First Tee’s perspective are two 26 distinct projects. However, the success of Project 1…Excuse me, Project 2 will be 27 dependent on the success of Project 1, so I see that the MOU that we work towards is for 28 Project 1, and perhaps we complete Project 1 and then move on, assess, evaluate, best case 29 scenario everything is successful, then we work towards Project 2 separately. George, I’m 30 glad to see you're nodding. If it’s any different, please step in. 31 Mr. Maxe: No, I see it very similarly. One of the reasons we decided to look at this as two 32 separate projects is as we started to dig into the weeds a little bit, we realized that the length 33 of time, especially as Lam shared, JMZ and Magical Bridge, etc. and some of the other 3P 34 models with the City, we began to see this timeline for Project 2 and building some kind 35 DRAFT Draft Minutes 41 of a structure and just saying whoa, whoa, whoa. We don’t want it to take that long. We 1 just think if we separate this, it’s probably a lot wiser. We kind of have the low-hanging 2 fruit of being able to build on the renovation project, piggyback on that, and just complete 3 this work so that the short game hole is useable, the youth area is useable, all of that. Then 4 we begin to build up our program and then it paves the way for Project 2. 5 Chair Greenfield: Great, thank you. I understand the rationale for looking for funding in 6 partnership with the City for raising the fence. Really, the City needs it for its own success 7 and well being. My question is, is to staff, or to both parties, what is the timeframe we’re 8 looking at, and do we think that funding is realistic? Right now is really a bad time to be 9 talking about adding funding, as we know, and capital projects are going to be under 10 pressure in the next year and perhaps more, with the financial situation that the City is in, 11 so I’m concerned about what kind of commitment would be required from the City within 12 the MOU, in terms of the cost sharing? 13 Mr. Anderson: My perspective is that that is still to be negotiated, Chair. You’re right. We 14 have to look at our finances. You’re right that our capital budget is in dire straits right now, 15 but we also have to look at the existing infrastructure that we’ve got at that course, and that 16 we have an obligation to make sure that that driving range is safe and functioning, and right 17 now there are elements that are not. The existing turf was scheduled to be replaced years 18 ago, and it kept on getting deferred, for example. I know we haven’t talked about that, but 19 that’s an element of the driving range that needs to be redone. The netting being too short 20 is a problem for the existing course, independent of this project. It’s something we had 21 looked at, as I mentioned, with that study in advance of the proposal from First Tee. So, 22 it’s something the City had been looking into. For the timing of when and how we’d make 23 the commitment, we’re not ready to answer that. 24 Chair Greenfield: That’s helpful. That clears it up. In trying to understand better the youth 25 area sharing, I understand, First Tee’s, ideally it would be private, exclusively for First Tee 26 use. Is this going to be fenced off and locked and not open to the public on a walk up basis? 27 If it were shared, are you envisioning that it would be shared more with golf clubs or with 28 the high school teams, or would there be a provision for general public use? One concern 29 is this area is right next to the road. It’s clearly visible, and if it’s an open area it looks 30 attractive, yet it’s fenced off and not accessible, that’s a concern. 31 Mr. Do: I think George expressed the desires of First Tee primary usage very well earlier. 32 You’re absolutely right, Chair. Where does the City see it and where does the public see 33 it? I think that’s still to be negotiated. We don’t have the details of how that shared area 34 will be used. I’ve also spoken with OB Sports, and they have just as much of a desire to 35 use that area as well, and for them it would be not just teaching, but also for public use. So, 36 I think there is still a lot to work out and discuss and negotiate between use and The First 37 DRAFT Draft Minutes 42 Tee, with stakeholder engagement. We don’t have an answer right now. We’ll work 1 towards that. 2 Chair Greenfield: Great, thank you. Appreciate that. I’m sure we could all come up with 3 lots more questions to continue with, but we have another item we want to get to this 4 evening. I’ll just ask quickly, Council Member Kou, do you have any question or 5 comments? 6 Council Member Kou: It’s all very interesting listening to all your questions and answers. 7 Thank you. No questions from me. 8 Chair Greenfield: Any final comments from the Commission? Well, George, I want to 9 thank you for the presentation, and Lam and Daren, for all of your work. Ash, thank you 10 for joining us as well. This is very interesting and exciting, and I’m sure the Commission 11 looks forward to hearing more about this in the future, moving forward. Thank you very 12 much. 13 Mr. Maxe: You’re welcome. Thank you so much for having me. 14 Mr. Ash Pirayou: Thank you. Take care. Bye. 15 4. Safe Routes, Shared Streets, Summer Streets during COVID Update 16 Chair Greenfield: Without further delay, let’s move on to Safe Routes, Shared Streets and 17 Summer Streets during COVID. Daren, would you like to introduce our speaker, please? 18 Mr. Anderson: Yes, my pleasure to introduce Sylvia Star-Lack, Transportation Manager. 19 Sylvia, thanks so much for coming to talk to the Commission tonight. We appreciate it 20 greatly. 21 Ms. Sylvia Star-Lack: Thank you for having me. Good evening, Commissioners and 22 members of the public. Thank you, Chair Greenfield, for inviting me to speak to you 23 tonight. I’ll be sharing some pandemic-related updates about our Safe Routes to School 24 program, our Shared Streets treatments and the Summer Streets program, which is now 25 known as Uplift Local. First, our Safe Routes to School program. This program is a 26 partnership between the City, Palo Alto Unified School District, and the PTA Council, 27 including PTAs at each school. These photos are from our recent Walk and Chalk Welcome 28 Days. You’ll see a few more like this sprinkled through the presentation. The mission of 29 the program is to enhance the partnership, reduce risk to students commuting to school, 30 encourage more families to choose sustainable alternatives to driving and to strengthen 31 community support for the Safe Routes model. Our bike rack counts are the most solid data 32 we have regarding program efficacy for biking. We are multi-model. We don’t just do 33 bikes, but we love bikes. These graphs show the bike counts at the high school and middle 34 DRAFT Draft Minutes 43 school level since the late 90s. We have a data point in there from 1985, but it’s really the 1 late 90s, early 2000s. As you can see, the program has been working to make biking a norm 2 amongst students. We started last year – so a year ago, in 2019 – with a bang. Our bike 3 rack counts showed increases in biking at both the middle and high school levels, with 4 approximately 1,000 students biking to each of the high schools. That is a thing of beauty 5 to watch 1,000 students bike to school. It doesn’t happen in many places in the United 6 States, but it happens here. Our high school average for the first time exceeded 50 percent. 7 The pandemic threw a wrench into the program as we took on never-before-experienced 8 challenges. Like everyone else, we had budget cuts. We realized we would have cohorts of 9 students who would not receive in-school bicycle safety training, and we lost our PAUSD 10 partner, our Co-Chair of our City School Traffic Safety Committee meeting. We turned 11 some of these obstacles into opportunities, recognizing that throughout the world and in 12 Palo Alto, less vehicle traffic was leading to increases in walking and biking. This 13 translated into us developing more online content and outreach methods. We intensified 14 our relationship with PAUSD as we worked together to figure out how to best support them 15 in this pandemic. Thankfully, we have a new Co-Chair from PAUSD, who is a great 16 partner. I’ll go through the adjustments we’ve made in our education programs, 17 engineering efforts and engagement and equity initiatives. To reach students now in 18 distance learning, the Safe Routes team converted four in-person safety courses to online 19 modules and added a new grade level class, expanding their offerings to more students than 20 before. We didn’t used to have this Lego Bike Safety offering, which I encourage all of 21 you to look at. If you go to our website and you look at our PAUSD curricula, the top right 22 picture is from our Lego-based course. The picture on the lower right is from a digital 23 download storybook for our youngest students. It’s also available in Spanish. We were very 24 pleased that even with distance learning, School Superintendent, Don Austin, confirmed 25 the ongoing presence of our compulsory K-8 Safe Routes to School education 26 programming. We are delivering it all online now to the schools. Additionally, our staff 27 offered one-on-one summer bike safety consultations via Zoom that reached approximately 28 50 families. One nut we have yet to crack is how best to support a physically distanced 29 third grade bike rodeo option for students this coming spring. We’re playing around with 30 the idea of Pedal Playgrounds, where individual families can learn and practice bike skills 31 in a safe space and physically distanced. We would be interested in your ideas on where 32 we might be able to do such a thing. Alongside education, we’re also looking at supporting 33 inclusive transportation infrastructure so that families won’t necessarily, because of the 34 pandemic, equate cars with personal protective equipment. We work closely with PAUSD 35 partners and with the School Re-Opening Subcommittee developing presentations and 36 conducting school site visits to enhance physical distancing accommodations along school 37 routes and on school campuses. This picture shows our recommendation for moving bike 38 racks at Briones to support students entering school entry points. Fifty-eight percent of 39 PAUSD walk or bike to school. Safe Routes staff supported PAUSD in creating inclusive 40 transportation guidelines and language around physically distanced bike parking, meals or 41 materials pickups once the school year began. We first collaborated with regional Safe 42 DRAFT Draft Minutes 44 Routes partners to enhance active transportation school re-opening guidance at the county 1 level, because county guidance really was silent on walking and biking to school. Palo Alto 2 led the charge in developing these guidelines, which were then adopted by PAUSD. We’ve 3 seen a number of schools generate more active transportation guidance, as well as 4 encouragement energy, I’ll call it, as exemplified by this photo from Escondido during this 5 year’s Walk and Chalk Welcome Days. PAPD, who are also a partner with us in our Safe 6 Routes efforts, worked with our crossing guard provider to fulfill the 29 regular crossing 7 guard positions that we normally staff. They filled those positions in record time this year, 8 and also regarding equity, our eyes remain on the prize of ensuring that all students have 9 access to low-stress active transportation school commutes. We are in continued 10 conversation with the School District’s Office of Transportation as well as their School and 11 Family Engagement Specialist to set up a pilot program to support student pedestrian and 12 bicycle commutes by providing access to bicycles, bicycle accessories, helmets, bike 13 repair, and we’re potentially looking into volunteer chaperones to support physically 14 distanced school bus commutes and also to provide VTP students with the same access to 15 healthy and active transportation as enjoyed by their Palo Alto peers. Switching gears, I’m 16 going to turn now to our Shared Streets program, which was also a response to the COVID 17 pandemic. The Shared Streets program was initiated to support physical activity by giving 18 more space to those who wanted to practice physical distancing when they were outside. 19 We are currently temporarily limiting vehicle access to local traffic only, on certain streets 20 on the current bicycle network. Those streets are Park, Bryant and Ross Road. This 21 program created more space for residents to walk, bike and run while complying with 22 physical distance requirements. For the most part, the streets chosen already had traffic 23 calming features applied to them, so “No Through Traffic” signage was all that was needed 24 to start the program. The only movements that we restricted were turns onto northbound 25 Bryant at Embarcadero. Otherwise, there was basically full access, but signage that said, 26 “No Through Traffic.” At the start of the pandemic, you may remember that masking was 27 not yet normalized, restaurants and parks were closed, and there were no provisions for 28 gyms to operate outside. Today, masking, outdoor dining, open parks and outdoor gym 29 activities have been accepted or sanctioned. The pressure to use the streets only for physical 30 activity has abated somewhat. We moved very quickly to implement this program. There 31 was inadequate time to seek community feedback as we rushed to make space for people 32 to recreate safely. While some residents welcomed the signage, others were confused and 33 annoyed by it. To gauge community reaction, staff distributed a survey via Survey Monkey. 34 While there was some positive feedback from those who had used the treated streets, this 35 non-scientific survey provided mixed results regarding an improved perception of safety 36 or speeding on those already low traffic streets. It was really kind of evenly distributed. On 37 the open-ended questions, however, residents did request more of this treatment, but did 38 not limit themselves to streets on the bicycle network, which was one of our criteria for 39 choosing streets for this treatment. Looking towards the future, we do not have any plans 40 to remove the signs at present. As I’ve been conducting my own surveillance, I’m noting 41 that people are still walking in the middle of Ross Road, for example, to recreate. People 42 DRAFT Draft Minutes 45 are still getting off the sidewalk, so we don’t have plans to remove the signs at present. We 1 will likely keep a shared streets treatment as a tool in our toolbox for other uses. For 2 example, for school re-opening, as there might be limited locations where more space for 3 biking or walking is needed near a school to keep student distanced. If we needed extra 4 space, we might use this in some locations, but we have not made any determinations about 5 what those locations would be. Next, I’ll go over Summer Streets/Uplift Local program, 6 which was a more complex response to the pandemic to repurpose public space. This is a 7 picture of Cal Ave. I’m sure you all have seen it. Hope you have enjoyed it. In 8 transportation lingo, the Uplift Local treatments on University and Cal Ave. are known as 9 open streets treatments – opening the streets to people. Our open streets efforts required 10 greatly improved inter-departmental coordination, frequent communication with 11 businesses in the community, a sensitivity to street design and context, and now more 12 complex work to support local businesses. Regarding inter-departmental coordination, 13 there are now weekly coordination meetings between Public Works, Transportation, 14 Planning, Building, Police, Fire and other departments regarding our Open Streets 15 program. This work is led by our Assistant Planning Director, Rachael Tanner. Under her 16 leadership we moved very quickly to develop permitting for businesses to move into public 17 rights-of-way with Parklets and to convert private parking lots for outdoor activity. We 18 recently developed weatherization guidelines to help businesses adapt these outdoor spaces 19 for winter weather. In addition, there are weekly meetings with businesses in these Open 20 Streets areas. We have, I guess I could call them, ambassadors from the County Manager’s 21 Office who are regularly out on the streets talking to businesses. There have been five 22 community check-ins regarding the program – community check-in meetings online 23 regarding the program. Our ongoing surveillance of the Open Streets program includes 24 online surveys, as well as patron counts, mostly handled by the Office of Transportation. 25 The Open Streets program is widely popular amongst residents, from what we gather from 26 the feedback that we’re getting, and we’re observing increasing activity in these spaces 27 when the air quality allows. We needed to be sensitive to the difference between the two 28 business districts when we opened the streets to people, as they’re each designed very 29 differently. The design of California Avenue seemed to be ready-made for COVID. This 30 recent streetscape project has plentiful landscaping, bulb-outs, sidewalks wide enough for 31 social distancing and outdoor dining, so it didn’t require Parklets. It also has a 32 concentration of restaurants that brought a unified voice to Council and made it a relatively 33 easy political choice to convert to an open street. University Avenue has a different design, 34 is bigger in area, has a larger number of non-restaurant businesses. Narrower sidewalks 35 necessitate parklets there. We’ve had to adjust the boundaries of this application of Open 36 Streets a few times to get it right. However, our collaborative mechanisms now allow us to 37 move more quickly, and City staff continues to learn and iterate on this new street treatment 38 as we go. California Avenue and University Avenue demonstrate that context and design 39 impact and open street treatment. More recently, Council has asked staff to look into zoning 40 or other changes to support local businesses further, and Rachael Tanner is leading us in 41 that effort as well as in this effort to help support our businesses and help people get outside. 42 DRAFT Draft Minutes 46 That's all I have for you. I just wanted to say thank you for your attention and for your 1 service to the community. I’m happy to answer any questions. 2 Chair Greenfield: Thank you for your presentation, Sylvia. It’s nice to have you back, 3 speaking to the Commission We have been kind of doing this environmental series the last 4 few months. Last month was Urban Forestry, and the Transportation connection is a very 5 interesting extension of that as well. I think we’re all very appreciative of the work that’s 6 been done by the City and on a quick basis, to respond to our needs in COVID, so thank 7 you for your efforts and all of the staff’s efforts. Especially, it’s encouraging to hear the 8 interdepartmental communication improvements that have occurred as a result of this, and 9 I know when listening to the Green Transportation Summit over the past month-and-a-half 10 or so, that was one of the biggest take-aways for me personally, was understanding the 11 significance of the siloing and the issues that happen within city departments. Anything 12 that we can do to get improvement there is important, and so hopefully this learning 13 exercise will be lasting and have many benefits for the community and for the city. I’ll 14 open things up to Commissioners who would like to comment. Anybody like to go first? 15 Jeff LaMere. 16 Commissioner LaMere: I just want to applaud your efforts. I think it’s wonderful what 17 you’re doing. I think the more that we can get our young people especially walking and 18 biking places that are even if it’s more than a mile, then all of a sudden they get in that 19 habit. It’s great for our community. It’s certainly great for our environment, and certainly 20 compliment you on the Open Streets and trying to help our businesses. I just think it’s great 21 to see. I am a little bit biased towards walking and biking, as that’s how I get around most, 22 but I think anything that we can continue to do with that is just such an enhancement for 23 our community, so thank you very much. 24 Chair Greenfield: David. 25 Commissioner Moss: Jeff, I’m biased toward the biking, and my wife manned the Gunn 26 bike cage for about 10 years, ending in around 2005 or 2006. She is absolutely amazed at 27 the huge increase in the number of kids riding their bikes and that you’re getting greater 28 than 50 percent. It’s just fantastic, so I applaud your outreach and hope it continues. This 29 is fantastic. You mentioned that you’re looking for pedal playgrounds. I live behind 30 Cubberley, and the Cubberley parking lots are just gigantic and unused. The Fry’s parking 31 lot is gigantic and unused, and every elementary school has a playground, and if they could 32 turn it over to the bikes for an hour after school, one section of these asphalt playgrounds 33 or parking lots, especially since the Cubberley parking lot is so close to the fields, that 34 would be terrific. Also, I have the distinct opportunity to visit a guide dog training center. 35 They have all of these amazing props for crosswalks and stoplights and stop signs, and 36 other barriers, that would be fantastic if we could invest in some and use those to train kids 37 DRAFT Draft Minutes 47 to stop, and stop signs and things like that. So, I applaud your efforts, and I think it’s just 1 great. Keep it up. Thanks. 2 Ms. Star-Lock: Thanks for the suggestions of the location. These are things that exist in 3 Europe. They have places like this where kids can go practice their bike skills. 4 Chair Greenfield: Were you looking for something that’s just a temporary setup, or what 5 kind of a duration? 6 Ms. Star-Lock: Yeah, I think it would have to be something where we could put down 7 some striping. It could be temporary, yes. I think we would think it would be temporary, 8 but it couldn’t be for just an afternoon. I think we’d want it to be up so that we could give 9 parents, families, the opportunity to have several weeks to go and…so that everyone would 10 get a chance to go through it. Because I don’t think we’re going to be able to do a bike 11 rodeo anywhere, so it’s going to be on families. It’ll be on us to maybe create the 12 opportunity for families to go. 13 Chair Greenfield: What about an opportunity during Spring Break at one of the school 14 yards? 15 Ms. Star-Lock: That's a good…yeah, if we can find a campus that’s willing that’s a great 16 idea. 17 Chair Greenfield: Who would like to speak next? Keith. 18 Mr. Reckdahl: Okay. I’ve noticed recently that there’s been a lot of young bikers. It think 19 with COVID, along Bol Park Bike Path. There’s just a lot of small bikes going down there. 20 I have two questions for you about post COVID. The first thing is the Shared Streets. 21 During the Parks Master Plan, we kept coming across the fact that the public in Golden 22 Gate Park just loves the Sunday street closure. We thought, is there some way to do that in 23 Palo Alto for this type of thing, so families, especially with kids, could go and bike together, 24 or people could try to rollerblade and things like that, where cars don’t get in the way. Have 25 we done any work of identifying locations where this might be possible? 26 Ms. Star-Lock: No. We have a Comp Plan policy that says that we should explore an open 27 streets situation, and that was well before COVID. We’re learning now what it takes to do 28 open streets, but I don’t believe we’ve really just thought about doing it as a once-a-week 29 kind of a situation. Maybe we have. It’s an interesting idea, and now that we kind of know 30 what it takes, we can talk about that. I think there’s going to be a lot of conversations about 31 what happens to these areas once…if we’re able to get back to busines as usual. 32 DRAFT Draft Minutes 48 Commissioner Reckdahl: Okay, and a similar thing – both Cal Ave and University, I love 1 the outdoor seating and having less cars going through, or no cars. Is that going to survive 2 post COVID, or is that just too hard on the non-restaurant businesses? 3 Ms. Star-Lock: I don’t know. I haven’t been in on any of those conversations. I’m not sure 4 that those conversations are happening yet, number one. We’re still just kind of trying to 5 get ready for the winter. 6 Commissioner Reckdahl: Yeah, we may be in for COVID for quite a while, yes. 7 Ms. Star-Lock: Yeah. But it’s definitely something that people are talking about. They want 8 to talk about what happens. Can we keep this? It’s definitely something that I’m hearing 9 amongst residents, wanting to keep it this way. 10 Commissioner Reckdahl: At least among some residents, right? 11 Ms. Star-Lock: Right. 12 Commissioner Reckdahl: A lot of people I’ve talked to really love it, but I don’t think 13 everybody loves it. That’s the tradeoff. If you own a hardware store, you probably don’t 14 want the cars to be three blocks away from your hardware store, but if you have a restaurant 15 and people can walk to the restaurant and dine outside it’s a big win, even without COVID. 16 It’s just so pleasant to be spread out and be outside. 17 Ms. Star-Lock: It’s definitely a future conversation that this community is going to need to 18 have. 19 Commissioner Reckdahl: Both David and Jeff mention that they are biased towards 20 walking and biking, and not surprising, so am I. We have a friendly crowd here at the Parks 21 and Rec department. But yes, both those things, if we can evaluate those after COVID I’d 22 be very happy then. 23 Ms. Star-Lock: So you’re talking specifically, permanent…? 24 Commissioner Reckdahl: Something like shared streets once a week, have identified 25 someplace, whether it be areas near parks or areas that during the week are used more for 26 commute but could be used for no cars on the weekend. 27 Ms. Star-Lock: More as a purely recreational space, is what you’re saying? 28 Commissioner Reckdahl: Exactly. 29 Ms. Star-Lock: Not necessarily combined with outdoor dining or anything else. 30 DRAFT Draft Minutes 49 Commissioner Reckdahl: Exactly, purely for recreation. 1 Ms. Star-Lock: Okay. 2 Commissioner Reckdahl: The Sunday streets up in San Francisco, they close it off and you 3 see people who are really bad rollerbladers that probably endanger themselves if they were 4 in traffic. And then the second thing being the open streets for restaurants. Okay, thank 5 you. 6 Chair Greenfield: Council Member Kou, has there been any discussion at a Council level 7 about continuing the closed streets on University or Cal Ave? 8 Council Member Kou: There is some discussion with Uplift Local when we’re talking to 9 the stakeholders, and I believe this might be coming to Council on the 9th, when we have 10 our COVID-19 update, so there might be more discussions about that, about extending it, 11 so just a discussion, but it’ll be interesting to hear what happens on the 9th. 12 Chair Greenfield: So, I guess the discussion right now is of immediacy in terms of will we 13 continue to keep this as it is, but as far as considering anything on a permanent basis, has 14 that been considered yet, or we’re busy with other things right now? 15 Council Member Kou: I don’t think permanency is there yet. They have to evaluate. But 16 definitely there is a conversation about California Avenue. They have to evaluate it a little 17 bit more about University, since it goes straight to Stanford University and it’s used a lot. 18 There is also a survey that the City is pushing forward to have a lot of the business 19 community fill out to see what are some of the things that they would like to see. I think 20 it’s also going out to the rest of the community also, but it was expressed today at the 21 meeting with the California Avenue merchants. 22 Chair Greenfield: Thank you very much for the update. Helpful. Jackie. 23 Commissioner Olson: Hi Sylvia. Thank you for coming. I don’t have any questions. I just 24 want to applaud all of your efforts and your ability to pivot and really make things work 25 during this pandemic. Thank you. 26 Ms. Star-Lock: Thanks. I just want to be clear that Uplift Local was not me. That was a 27 huge team of people, so I am not taking credit for that. That was Rachael. We were all led 28 by Rachael, so kudos to Rachael. 29 Chair Greenfield: But you’re here now, so we’ll thank you for it. You can pass the word 30 along. 31 Ms. Star-Lock: I’ll take it. 32 DRAFT Draft Minutes 50 Chair Greenfield: Anne. 1 Vice Chair Cribbs: Just to say thanks, Sylvia. Great stuff. Any time we can get all those 2 youth biking to school, that really is reason for applause, so thanks for your presentation. 3 I’d love to see something like Sunday Streets that San Francisco does after we get out of 4 the COVID situation so hopefully we can put that on the list and maybe take a look at it. 5 Maybe, Keith, not every Sunday, but maybe once a month, or something like that. Thanks 6 again, Sylvia. 7 Ms. Star-Lock: Thank you. 8 Chair Greenfield: I want to thank you, Sylvia, as well, for everything you’ve done for the 9 city in getting the bike ridership where it is. It’s a great success. The numbers you’re 10 presenting are fantastic. I’ve worked with you over the years, helping out at Gunn, but the 11 Safe Routes program that you’ve been guiding has really matured into something that lots 12 of people are envious of in terms of the success, and I guess one of the natural lead-ins of 13 that is we have Safe Routes to School now, and we’ve talked about extending this to Safe 14 Routes to Parks and Libraries and things like that. Could you talk about what City plans 15 might be for that? I know budget constraints are weighing heavily on that that right now, 16 what is the vision for this? 17 Ms. Star-Lock: It’s like you’re my plant. You’re asking exactly the right questions. The 18 PABAC, our Pedestrian & Bicycle Advisory Committee, is about to begin some 19 conversations about what our future bike and pedestrian plan will look like. They’re going 20 to be considering…you can go to the PABAC page and look at the memo, their packet for 21 this coming November meeting. It is on election night, but you can read the packet, and I 22 think for the next several months they’ll be discussing what that next bike plan will look 23 like. And we’re not sure what it’s going to look like right now. It could have the Safe 24 Routes to School element. It could have Safe Routes to Parks in there. It could have Safe 25 Routes for Older Adults. It could have a Vision Zero component. It could have Green 26 Stormwater Infrastructure, like more complete streets element. There are a lot of things 27 that it could contain, and PABAC is the location where we’re going to be having that 28 discussion, so I encourage interested folks to get involved. 29 Chair Greenfield: PABAC stands for what? 30 Ms. Star-Lock: Pedestrian & Bicycle Advisory Committee. 31 Chair Greenfield: Another comment I have is – other Commissioners probably felt the 32 same way – when we hear the word “parklets” our ears perk up, as the Park and Rec 33 Commission, and it doesn’t seem to be a direct tie-in to the PRC. I’m wondering if we’re 34 missing anything, or is there some way that we can be helping with this? 35 DRAFT Draft Minutes 51 Ms. Star-Lock: You know, it’s interesting. I don’t know if you know the history of parklets, 1 but they evolved out of parking day, where people take over a parking space and turn it 2 into a park. It’s a little bit, it’s a play on words. It’s parking, and it’s a park. Some cities 3 have…I think the way it’s done in San Francisco there’s more of an emphasis on the public 4 nature of the parklets, that anyone can sit there, that it’s not just a commercialized space, 5 so if your ears perk up because of park, it’s both. It’s both parking and it’s a park, it could 6 be a park. 7 Chair Greenfield: But I think that kind of ties in some ways into Keith’s question about 8 closing down streets for general recreation use on a one-day-a-week basis, or something 9 like that. I don’t know if there would be more playing with the parklet term, or you haven’t 10 come up with another name for that, or for what it is, but there do seem to be some synergies 11 there. 12 Ms. Star-Lock: Yeah, I’m interested in the Commission’s thoughts on what route you think 13 would make sense for that. As Lydia mentioned, the University actually is a connector. 14 California Avenue just goes to the train station. It would be interesting to think about, if it 15 wasn’t one of those locations, where could we put it that it would tie into a park location 16 or a big trail, or something like that. 17 Chair Greenfield: I think that would be something interesting to consider, and the 18 Commission may have some thoughts and we can get back to you on that. My last question 19 area is regarding bike racks. You showed something where you had specific 20 recommendations to the schools on where to move bike racks. How does that apply to how 21 the bike racks are set up in the city right now? A lot of the Commission members are bike 22 enthusiasts, and I think we can all appreciate that bike racks aren’t always where we’re 23 looking for them to be, or they aren’t in sufficient quantity. How is City Planning looking 24 to change the nature of how bike racks are used 25 Ms. Star-Lock: We try to place the racks where we think they’re going to be, where people 26 will need them. If they’re not where you want them, you can let me know, and we can try 27 to place racks. We do place racks in the public right-of-way when we have budget and 28 when people ask us to, if there isn’t something nearby. We have been, as part of our…I 29 don’t know exactly where you're saying there aren’t enough racks. I’ve done surveys of 30 the Cal Ave area. We’ve been monitoring the University Avenue area, including doing bike 31 rack counts every time we’re out there, and there are always racks available. They might 32 not be exactly where you're going, but they’re usually on your block somewhere. I'm really 33 interested to know where you're not finding then. Then, one other thing that I heard this 34 week is that new garage in the Cal Ave area is going to have a lot of bike racks in it as well. 35 Chair Greenfield: It was really more of a question of expanding the bike parking 36 opportunities as we’re looking to increase ridership and opportunities and how we’re 37 growing the infrastructure within the city. 38 DRAFT Draft Minutes 52 Ms. Star-Lock: Yes, yes, and recently we also changed part of our parking code, where I 1 believe that you could convert a car parking space into bike spaces, so that’s another thing 2 that, if you're going to be building something here, that we would allow. 3 Chair Greenfield: That’s great, and I guess if the order of the presentations were different, 4 I could have asked George if he knew where the bike parking was at the golf course, but 5 that’s another issue we won’t get into. 6 Ms. Star-Lock: Yeah, I mean, if he’s going to have Gunn and Paly students, he’s going to 7 have to have some bike parking, because that’s how they’re going to get there. 8 Chair Greenfield: There is a small bike rack there. 9 Mr. Reckdahl: But you have to work to find it. 10 Ms. Star-Lock: We can work on that. 11 Chair Greenfield: That’s all I have. Is there anything else that the Commission can do for 12 you and the Transportation Department at this point in time? I know it’s great to keep the 13 channel of communication open, but we are very supportive of the great success you’re 14 having and want to help be a part of it in any way we can. 15 Ms. Star-Lock: Thanks. I think you’ve given me great feedback already tonight. Thanks to 16 Commissioner Moss for his ideas for where to put a pedal playground. I’ll be talking to 17 you, Daren, about Cubberley pretty soon. 18 Chair Greenfield: Any other Commissioners? Final comments, follow-up questions? 19 Thank you very much, Sylvia, for hanging out with us late this evening. Keep up the good 20 work. 21 Ms. Star-Lock: Thank you so much. Thank you for inviting me. 22 5. Other Commission Ad Hoc and Liaison Updates 23 Chair Greenfield: Next up on our agenda is the Ad Hoc and Liaison Updates. Does anyone 24 have any comments or updates they’d like to discuss? 25 Commissioner LaMere: I have a quick one. I had a conversation with Sam Kaplinsky, the 26 young man who spoke about the skate park, and then after a conversation with Chair 27 Greenfield, we will move that into the Recreational Opportunities Ad Hoc, but I will 28 continue to follow up with him and gather different ideas and so forth, but wanted to give 29 you an update about that. 30 Vice Chair Cribbs: Good, that’s good. 31 DRAFT Draft Minutes 53 Chair Greenfield: Thank you, Jeff. We were all excited to hear so much enthusiasm about 1 the project. I know there’s a lot of challenges, and it’s a big path to go between talking 2 about the idea and actually having something happen and turn into fruition, but it’s got to 3 start somewhere, and I think starting with the opportunities at Ad Hoc is great. Lots of 4 ideas. The plans need to be developed further and certainly financial considerations will 5 weigh heavily, but thank you. Anyone else with Ad Hoc updates? 6 Vice Chair Cribbs: Jeff, just a quick fundraising, fund development update. I wanted to 7 thank, through Daren, sent a note out after our last presentation to all the Commissioners 8 asking for particular projects to put on the small, medium, large list for fundraising, and 9 I’ve heard through the Commissioners from everybody, so I appreciate getting the 10 information. Daren, I will send it all to you so that you can do with it what you need to do. 11 Mr. Anderson: Thanks, Vice Chair. 12 Vice Chair Cribbs: We will have it for the upcoming meeting with your staff, okay? 13 Mr. Anderson: Great. 14 Vice Chair Cribbs: Thank you. 15 Chair Greenfield: I’ll also comment that the parking facility use policy Ad Hoc met today 16 with Daren to talk about the Magical Bridge Playground opening and how the Commission 17 can be of assistance there. It sounds like things are still in the planning stages, as Daren 18 mentioned, looking for volunteer support. We’ll be hearing more later on that, but the Ad 19 Hoc will continue to work with staff on that and be helpful in any way we can. I’ll also 20 mention, on the Baylands Tide Gate, there was talk of potentially having them come to 21 present to the PRC to request a PIO for the tide gate maintenance work. It’s significant 22 work that will result in a closure for a considerable amount of time. Staff has determined 23 that a CEQA analysis is required before we can issue a PIO, so that’s pushed that item out 24 to the January or February timeframe. Did I miss anything there, Daren? 25 Mr. Anderson: That's correct. 26 Commissioner Moss: One other point about the trail closure is you’re going to put some 27 signage up when we decide the date that the trail is going to be closed, you want to give 28 people a heads up, so they know that it’s going to be closed for a significant amount of 29 time. 30 Chair Greenfield: I think we’re looking to get the signage up just to let them know that 31 there are plans in place and discussion, so that they can be engaged and have an opportunity 32 to speak at the Commission meeting, and they can use a QR code to get a link to the Valley 33 Water site to learn more about the project. Daren, will there be some sort of a notification 34 DRAFT Draft Minutes 54 list that people will be able to sign up for with the City, so they can get updated information 1 about meetings on this? 2 Mr. Anderson: It’s a good question, Chair. We don’t have that right now. Right now we’re 3 having everything go through Valley Water, the project lead. Let me talk to Robert 4 Yamane, the project lead on that, and get his take. 5 Chair Greenfield: Perhaps if he can just forward the contact list that he gets and share it 6 with the City, would that be sufficient? 7 Mr. Anderson: Potentially, yeah. 8 Commissioner Moss: One more comment, and that is that under the GSI section, I met just 9 last week with Pam Boyle Rodriguez, who came to speak with us, and we spent an hour 10 going over all of the items that we talked about in our meeting. She came away with a lot 11 of really good ideas, and she definitely would like people to give feedback on their rebate 12 program for green stormwater to the home. If people can go to their website and comment 13 on the rebate program, that would be great. That’s it. 14 Chair Greenfield: Thank you, David. Anyone else? 15 IV. TENTATIVE AGENDA FOR NOVEMBER 24, 2020 MEETING 16 Chair Greenfield: We’ll now to move to talk about the tentative agenda for the November 17 24th Commission meeting. Daren? 18 Mr. Anderson: We’ve got one for sure and two potentials for November lined up. The solar 19 system interpretive project at Rinconada, John Aikin is available to come and give us a 20 brief update on that interpretive project. We had talked before about could we link that up 21 with the Baylands interpretive update. Unfortunately, not. On the November meeting it 22 would just be the solar system and in December or a future date, he could do the Baylands 23 interpretive one. The two other ones that are potentials still need a little more outreaches. 24 Ramos Park Improvement Ordinance, and the dog off-leash pilot project conversation. 25 Both of those are pending a little more outreach. We’re planning a community meeting on 26 the dog park pilot and still working out how linked the dog park pilot would be to the 27 DRAFT Draft Minutes 55 Ramos improvement project. There are ties there. I need to iron out if we can separate them 1 and bring one forward while the other continues the community outreach process. 2 Commissioner Moss: Is the community meeting ready for people to be told when the date 3 is? 4 Mr. Anderson: It’s not set yet. I’ll notify you as soon as it is. 5 Commissioner Moss: Okay. When we’re talking about agendas, when is the December 6 meeting? Are we still going to have it on the couple of days before Christmas, the 22nd? 7 Mr. Anderson: Catherine, can you clarify the dates we selected for the December meeting? 8 The date? 9 Ms. Bourquin: Yes. Hold on one second. 10 Mr. Anderson: Thanks. 11 Commissioner Moss: The November one is still November – 12 Mr. Anderson: 24th. 13 Chair Greenfield: Two days before Thanksgiving. 14 Commissioner Moss: Yeah, the 24th. 15 Mr. Anderson: And I think we chose December 15th for our – 16 Ms. Bourquin: The 15th. 17 Mr. Anderson: December 15th for the December meeting. 18 Mr. Do: That's correct. 19 Chair Greenfield: Probably much more popular than December 22nd. Any other questions 20 or suggestions for future agenda items from Commissioners? Thank you. We will continue 21 working to crystalize what we’ll be talking about next month. 22 VII. COMMENTS AND ANNOUNCEMENTS 23 Chair Greenfield: Now is the opportunity for any comments or announcements from any 24 Commissioners as desired, or Council Members. 25 26 DRAFT Draft Minutes 56 VIII. ADJOURNMENT 1 Chair Greenfield: Thank you, everyone, for sticking it out this evening. We had some good 2 conversations, and I’ll look for a motion to adjourn. 3 Meeting adjourned by motion by Vice Chair Cribbs and second by Commissioner 4 Reckdahl at 10:11p.m. 5 TO: PARKS AND RECREATION COMMISSION FROM: SHARON EVA, COMMUNITY SERVICES DEPARTMENT DATE: NOVEMBER 24, 2020 SUBJECT: AQUATICS PERFORMANCE UPDATE RECOMMENDATION Palo Alto Swim and Sport has submitted an annual report for review by the Parks and Recreation Commission (PRC), as required by their contract. Staff will provide an overview of the report for discussion only. No action will be taken by the Parks and Recreation Commission. BACKGROUND The City of Palo Alto’s (City’s) agreement with Team Sheeper (operating as Palo Alto Swim and Sport) requires an annual presentation in the fall of each year to the PRC reporting on: • Total program hours by program area • Participation statistics by program area including resident and non-resident percentages • Customer satisfaction survey results • User group feedback by program area or rental • Gross revenues and revenue shares between Palo Alto Swim and Sport and the City • Risk management documentation • Training certifications listed by staff members DISCUSSION Palo Alto Swim and Sport entered into a full-service public/private partnership with the City in 2017 as a way for the City to provide expanded, high-quality aquatics programming to Palo Alto residents and to alleviate long-term staffing shortages. Over the course of Palo Alto Swim and Sport’s tenure with the City, they have expanded pool hours and programming significantly, while maintaining overall high satisfaction with the pool operations from our swimming community. Performance highlights include: o Reactivated Rinconada Pool immediately upon receiving clearance from County o 25,000 lap swim visits so far during the pandemic o 72% of the visits are Palo Alto residents o 10,000 of those lap swim visits are seniors o 3,700 family swim visits-a rare service at aquatic facilities this past summer o 210 summer campers enjoyed 3-week long sessions in small pods o The new Palo Alto Masters has grown to 41 swimmers o An unprecedented 30% of respondents used the Annual Survey to express gratitude and joy for aquatic services City and Palo Alto Swim and Sport staff meet regularly to ensure that we continue to improve and enhance aquatics programming. Together we are looking forward to growing in a variety of ways in 2021 while adhering to COVID guidelines. For additional reporting information, please review the attached Palo Alto Swim and Sport Annual Report. ATTACHMENTS: Palo Alto Swim and Sport Annual Report 2020 TO: PARKS AND RECREATION COMMISSION FROM: LAM DO SUPERINTENDENT OPEN SPACE, PARKS, AND GOLF DEPARTMENT: COMMUNITY SERVICES DATE: NOVEMBER 24, 2020 SUBJECT: GOLF COURSE PERFORMANCE UPDATE RECOMMENDATION This is an informational report. No action is recommended. BACKGROUND In October 2012, City Council awarded a contract to Golf Group, Ltd. (Forrest Richardson & Associates) to design a reconfigured Palo Alto Municipal Golf Course and modified practice facilities. In accordance with the renovation plan, Forrest Richardson designed an 18-hole course layout to conform to a Baylands setting. The reconfigured Golf Course design incorporated or modified existing low-lying areas, raised other areas to provide contours and course views, reduced the area of managed irrigated turf, and introduced areas for native vegetation and wetland habitat. The project design was developed to achieve the following objectives:  Creation of a golf course providing a more interesting layout for golfers of all levels, with enhanced wildlife habitat, improved wetland areas, and reduced usage of potable water, pesticides, and maintenance labor for turf and landscaping;  Integration of a Baylands theme into the Golf Course with a links style course;  Improvement of Golf Course playing conditions – turf, drainage, and irrigation;  Mitigation for impacts on the Golf Course resulting from the adjacent San Francisquito Creek Joint Powers Authority’s flood control expansion project; and  Expansion of adjacent areas for future recreation needs. After several delays in securing regulatory environmental permits, the Golf Course closed on July 1, 2016 for a full course renovation. During construction, the driving range, practice facilities, golf shop, and restaurant remained open for business under three different operators. Prior to re-opening, the City issued a Request for Proposal to golf management companies and restaurants. After a review and interview process, OB Sports was selected to operate the course entirely, inclusive of golf course play, course maintenance, practice facilities, merchandise sales, and food and beverage services. Upon City Council approval of operating agreements with OB Sports, they began renovation projects to clubhouse facilities including the golf shop, restaurant, and patio. With course construction and facility renovations complete, the golf course re-opened on May 26, 2018 as the Baylands Golf Links. DISCUSSION The selection of OB Sports to manage the golf course on the City’s behalf included assessment of their management operations as well as financial performance projections. The City reviewed OB Sports’ projections, compared them to pro-formas prepared by the National Golf Foundation, and asked for an assessment by an established industry consultant. When the golf course re-opened, green fees were established with a range to accommodate dynamic pricing, where green fees fluctuate based on time of day, day of week, and demand. Green fees are also tiered with Palo Alto residency, Bay Area residency, and visitor rates. The combination of dynamic pricing and tiered residency pricing has resulted in strong green fee revenue to support operating costs. In Fiscal Year 2019, green fee revenue from course play and tournaments overachieved its financial pro-forma projection and budget. However, revenue from merchandise sales underachieved sales targets. Numerous retail and online vendors competing for golf related merchandise sales remains an alternative for players. Overall revenue from golf operations ended FY 2019 at 6% under target. For Fiscal Year 2020, the overall revenue target was increased in alignment with prior pro-formas. As the prior fiscal year resulted in strong green fee revenue, this revenue category was increased while the revenue target for merchandise sales was decreased. However, in Fiscal Year 2020 the golf course underperformed financially by 26% less than target. Revenue was $2.8M with a target revenue budget of $3.8M. During part of the first 8 months of the fiscal year, the course was impacted by poor air quality from the 2019 fire season and was performing on par in comparison to the prior Fiscal Year 2019. But the course closed in March 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic and remained closed during most of the key Spring season. Upon re-opening at the end of Spring, the course operated at drastically less than capacity in accordance with the State and County Health Orders. Initial re-opening was singles play only and as the Health Orders further changed, the course allowed doubles play with members of the same household. The fire season and COVID-19 pandemic impacts to financial performance can also be viewed from the perspective of golf rounds played at 42,429 rounds where the target was 58,449 rounds. This reflects 27% fewer rounds of golf played than targeted rounds. Similarly, overall revenue was 26% less than targeted budget. In the current Fiscal Year 2021, the outlook and fiscal year to date (through the first four months of July – October 2020) has been positive in both revenue and rounds of golf. Although still in a COVID-19 pandemic, the State and County Health Orders now allow for group foursome play resulting in a higher capacity for golf rounds. Player demand in the Summer and early Fall has been strong. During the four months, revenue is at $1.7M where the same period in prior Fiscal Year 2020 yielded $1.3M. However, with the arrival of the rain season and cold weather, the strong player demand is anticipated to decline as golf is primarily a warm weather sport. As OB Sports operates the Baylands Café under a lease, food and beverage revenue and expenses are not factored in the golf course’s operating budget. The following table reflects golf rounds played and player residency for the current FY 2020. The course is drawing more players from Palo Alto and Santa Clara County during the COVID-19 pandemic, indicating less travel and players choosing to play locally. This is reflected in 73% of players thus far residing in Santa Clara County, including 29% from Palo Alto. RESOURCE IMPACT Funding for golf operations is budgeted in the Community Services Department’s General Fund budget. PREPARED BY: __________________________________________________________ LAM DO Superintendent Open Space, Parks, and Golf Division Community Services Department PALO ALTO PARKS AND RECREATION COMMISSION AD HOC COMMITTEE MEMBERS STAFF LIAISON November Update Meeting date Baylands 10.5 Acres LaMere Reckdahl Olson Daren Anderson Cubberley Cribbs Greenfield Olson Kristen O'Kane Projects & Fund Development Cribbs Greenfield Moss Daren Anderson Continuing meetings. Creating protocol for determining contributions. Collecting information about successful funding partnerships in the City, meeting with Palo Alto Recreation Foundation and Friends of Parks, researching costs of large projects outlined in Master Plan. Foothills Park LaMere Olson Cribbs Daren Anderson Park & Facility Use Policy Greenfield Moss Reckdahl Adam Howard Ad hoc reviewed staff's complex plans for re-opening the last city playground, the Magical Bridge Playground, in spite of "purple tier" warning. Park Improvements Cribbs Moss Daren Anderson Ad hoc reviewed Ramos Park off-leash dog area presentation prior to scheduling a final community meeting. Special attention to metrics for determining success, and also who should do the monitoring during the trial period. Recreation Opportunities LaMere Olson Reckdahl Kristen O'Kane LIAISON MEMBER(S) STAFF / CONTACT Aquatics Cribbs Sharon Eva BCCP Moss Daren Anderson Community Gardens Olson Catherine Bourquin GSI Moss Pam Boyle Rodriguez? PAUSD / City Reckdahl Kristen O'Kane Safe Routes Greenfield Rosie Mesterhazy Sustainability Olson Christine Luong Field Users Greenfield Daren Anderson Urban Forestry Greenfield Reckdahl Daren Anderson Ventura Coordinated Area Plan Reckdahl n/a Youth Council Cribbs n/a Golf Reckdahl La Mere Lam Do