Walnut Creek City Council - Walnut Creek Meetings

Transcript

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Good evening everyone I'm Cindy Silva I have the honor of serving this year as

the mayor of the city of Walnut Creek and I'd like to welcome you to our

Tuesday September 5th 2023 regular meeting of the Walnut Creek City Council

we are conducting this meeting under the rules and regulations from the state of

California we are here in person in the City Council chambers but we are also

broadcasting this meeting on Walnut Creek TV on our YouTube channel and on

Zoom. So there are multiple ways for you to watch the meeting. All of the Council members are here this evening

so we have no need to consider any action to participate remotely, and I will now invite

you all to rise and join us in the Pledge of Allegiance.

I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America, and to the republic for which it stands,

one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

Would the City Clerk please take the roll call? Council Member Darling? Here.

Council Member Francois? Here. Council Member Wilk? Here. Mayor Pro Tem Haskew? Here.

Mayor Silva? Here. We have three special presentations to kick off our meeting

this evening and the first is in celebration of our Contra Costa

certified farmers market, the market that is here on Sundays on downtown

Walnut Creek on Locust Street. The Walnut Creek farmers market was actually

established 40 years ago and for the last four decades it has been true to

its mission to support the development of local sustainable farming, to

celebrate local farmers, food producers and artisans, to make fresh picked

produce accessible through family-friendly events, and to enhance the

community's awareness of the importance of a healthy lifestyle and conscientious

food choices. Our year-round market here in downtown Walnut Creek has been a

community gathering place for decades and a strong community partner for the

city. Therefore it is my great honor this evening on behalf of the city council

to recognize the Walnut Creek farmers market and to tell them happy birthday

for 40 years of great service to the community and of being a great partner

with the city. I'm delighted to introduce Stacey de Schezure. I just know we're

Stacey every time we work at the farmers market and she's the executive

director and I hope you'll say a few words and we could all sing with a crowd

like this somebody who knows how to sing happy birthday. Thank You mayor Silva

City Council I am the executive director of Contra Costa certified farmers

markets we are a 501c5 nonprofit for the mutual benefit of the community as

as well as our members who sell.

All the booths at the farmer's market

are members of our non-profit association.

We currently have 100 stalls

at the year round Sunday farmer's market.

I would say about 80% are farmers,

small local family farmers.

They are all certified producers,

meaning that they grow what they sell.

Everything is grown here in the state of California,

and they proudly display a certificate on their booth,

so you can see that behind their booth

that they grow what they sell.

Contra Costa Certified Farmers Markets

was founded by a group of community-minded individuals,

as well as master gardening students.

And we started at the old library lot.

Before my time, many people remember us at the library.

I meet a lot of customers that meet us at the library as well.

about 15, 16 years ago we relocated to Growers Square

over here on Locust Street, which is a really great area

because I'm told that's where the walnuts

used to be processed.

So that's why they call it Growers Square.

We certainly appreciate the community support

we receive year round, rain or shine

from the Walnut Creek community.

We also really enjoy having the city council

be our neighbors at the market.

So you can come meet your city council member

on a given Sunday at the market.

Thank you so much for this honor.

It's our, Phil, it's our responsibility

and our great pleasure to serve the community

of Walnut Creek and beyond.

Thank you for your support.

And thank you for your 40 years.

♪ Happy birthday to you ♪

♪ Happy birthday, dear Farmer's Market ♪

♪ Happy birthday to you ♪

All right, that's the happiest time we're gonna be tonight.

Thank you very much.

And thank you for hosting the Farmer's Market in 2009.

Agreed to host us, the city council,

at our weekly booth at the Farmer's Market.

We're there 40 Sundays out of the year.

We take 12 Sundays as holidays.

And it is great opportunity for all of us

to be able to meet with members of the community

and talk about issues and get answers

to questions for all of you.

So thank you for hosting us.

We truly appreciated it.

We have another presentation this evening,

and it's sobering but hopeful.

In the last four weeks, we've seen hurricane

in Southern California and disastrous flooding

through the deserts and across Southern California.

We've seen fires in Northern California,

the Pacific Northwest, Canada.

And we've had the ever-present fear of an earthquake.

And this strikes home and makes it just so important

for us to be prepared for emergencies.

So this month, the month of September,

is the emergency preparedness month in the United States,

and it's an ideal opportunity for all of us

to come together to prepare our homes, our businesses,

and our community at large for any type of emergency,

whether it's a natural disaster,

a technological emergency, or a human-caused emergency.

This year's emergency preparedness month theme

is actually very appropriate for Walnut Creek.

And when I look out at this audience,

you're all going to know what I mean.

It's preparing for older adults.

So what many of you may not realize is that more than 60%

of Walnut Creek's population is 65 years of age or older.

And the older adult population has a particular needs

related to emergency preparedness and emergency response

because they face greater risks

when it comes to the multitude of extreme weather events

and emergencies we now face,

especially if they're living alone,

if they are of low income,

if they have a disability or they live in rural areas.

So the key to all of this is planning and to plan ahead

before a disaster.

It's the best way to improve community resiliency

from a disaster.

Both you can plan to prevent certain things from happening.

You can plan what to do immediately in the aftermath,

and all of that together creates greater resiliency

in the likelihood that you rebound faster

over the long haul.

And when residents work together with the government

on preparing their families and their communities,

the chance of survival and rapid return to normalcy

following a disaster is greatly increased.

The city of Walnut Creek has a multiplicity of partners

that we work with to promote public awareness

and educate citizens about preparing their homes,

their businesses, and the community.

We work with the state of California.

We work with the federal government and FEMA.

We work with the County of Contra Costa.

We work with the American Red Cross,

and here at the local level,

we work with our community emergency response teams,

our volunteers in our neighborhoods.

We work with the Rossmoor Emergency Preparedness

organization, nonprofits, and anyone who's willing to help.

If you want to help, we're willing to take it.

We also can tell you that we have more than 370 full-time employees, and all of them are

certified employees as disaster service workers, and they're committed to responding to disasters

day or night, work day or weekend, and all holidays.

So our local emergency preparedness efforts include ongoing training for all of our Emergency

Operations Center staff, the implementation of integrated preparedness plans, an emergency

management plan, and ongoing coordination with the state of California and Contra Costa

County.

So we urge you all to plan ahead.

It reminds me I need to go home and make sure that I have my emergency kit in my car and

also one outside my home.

So with that in mind, you're all going to get up now and go home and pack your emergency

kits.

With that in mind, I, Cindy Silva, on behalf of the Walnut Creek City Council, do hereby

proclaim September as Emergency Preparedness Month and urge all of us to come together

to plan ahead and be prepared.

And I'm delighted to be able to introduce Fran Gibson from the Rossmoor Emergency Preparedness

organization and Travis Laura Irvin and their son Connor who will accept the

proclamation. You don't want to read this I summarized it. Thank you very much

Mayor Silva, city council members, city staff and fellow residents.

Ralsmore Emergency Preparedness Organization has been in service to the

the Rossmoor community for 31 years.

We're celebrating our 31st year.

We're an all-volunteer group.

We have neighborhood groups,

EPO teams across our 1,800 acres.

And I want to mirror what Mayor Silva said.

If you do not have a grab and go bag,

this is a good time to get one.

We have red flag warning days.

When those come, I roll my grab and go bag

and I put it by the front door of my manner in Rossmoor.

I accept this honor not in my stead only.

I accepted in honor of the 31 years

of phenomenal volunteer history,

my tremendous teams at the neighborhood level,

my board of directors and my operations team.

We're very proud to be part of this

and we are very proud to partner with the city.

Your EOP is excellent.

And we follow that as a major guideline

for the work that we do.

And thank you for this honor.

Thank you very much.

My son and I are with CERT,

and that means like when the city says we have an emergency,

they will call us.

We will then get into our specific area groups for the city,

and then we'll be deployed to help you guys in an emergency,

like get out of your home,

Make sure you're safe.

And we've got, I think, about 350 members.

And you can always sign up.

It's a six-week course.

And then you get to wear a shirt.

So thank you.

So what's in your backpack?

Oh, my backpack.

So I've got medical gloves.

I've got a safety helmet,

I've got a whole bunch of medical supplies,

and I've got my vest so that everybody will know who I am

and that I'm here to help.

And I leave that in my back, in my car.

Our Community Emergency Response Team volunteers

are really vital in our neighborhoods across the city

when there is a disaster.

They've also been called into service when the disaster isn't

so much affecting our neighborhoods and our homes

as it is drainage and things like that.

And so if you're interested in volunteering and participating

and going through the training, please check our website

and look it up.

Get involved.

Get prepared.

Thank you very much for all the work

that you do on behalf of our community.

The next is a presentation by the Walnut Creek Bomb

squad about the response to the San Pablo hazardous materials incident and

I think Lieutenant Olson will be explaining it to us so we're gonna start

with the chief though and they'll tell us all what happened a month ago in San

Pablo. Is this on? Oh it is. Good evening Madam Mayor, members of the city council,

members of the public, you may or may not know that Walnut Creek has the county's

only bomb squad. So we respond to any bomb call out throughout the county. We

have a full team of eight bomb technicians. They all serve in a full

time capacity as police officers. Some of them assigned a patrol or detectives or

other bureaus. And we wanted to update your council and the community on a

significant event that we responded to several weeks ago in the city of San

Pablo and our bomb squad I should mention that a majority of our equipment

and all of the training that our bomb technicians receive is funded by the

federal government and our bomb squad is commanded by Lieutenant Drew Olson

who's here with a PowerPoint and a brief update on that significant response.

Thank You chief Madam Mayor, council members thank you for having me today

I wanted to kind of give a brief overview of what we responded to and how we responded

to it and the agencies that assisted us.

This occurred on August 2nd in San Pablo, actually it occurred August 2nd, 3rd and 4th.

As the chief said, we have eight bomb technician positions.

Right now we have six certified bomb technicians.

We have two that are waiting to go to school down in Huntsville, Alabama at the Redstone

Arsenal.

It's the only bomb school in the country that public safety bomb technicians go to, and

it's run by the FBI.

So I've got two guys that are waiting to go.

One will go early 2024, and then one will go middle to late 2024.

Our bomb squad is responsible for all explosive-related incidents in Contra Costa County.

So whether that's a suspicious package, a pickup of powdered explosives, fireworks,

or actual improvised explosive devices, that's our job, is to respond and render them safe.

On August 2nd, Conchacosta County Fire requested our bomb squad, our assistants, they were

working a hazmat scene in San Pablo.

Once they started looking at it, it looked like it was going to involve a very large stockpile of chemicals and a fairly large stockpile of

chemicals that could be explosive based on how old they were and how degraded they were.

The chemicals that they were talking about were located in a shed in the backyard of a residence.

That shed, I'll get to in a second. I'll show some pictures of it, but

That shed was kind of floor to ceiling

Chemicals dating all the way back to the 60s in the 70s

So it it was it was a quite a complex scene

Once we got on scene once the the bomb technicians got on scene we worked with Sam Pablo police department

We worked with Contra Costa fire to kind of determine what a safe evacuation zone was

For us, we're doing the safe evacuation

for if there was an explosion.

They are looking at it from an explosion

plus possible fire type of response.

So we ended up going a little bit bigger

than we had initially talked about just

because the number of chemicals that were in there,

the fire that could have happened,

would have been quite large.

So these are just a few pictures that I took

While we got on the scene initially,

the top left one is from the doorway entering into the shed.

And like I said, floor to ceiling, the only way,

the only thing that, the only spot that you can see the floor

was where the door opened.

Everything else was just boxes and boxes of chemicals.

So for a scene like that, we need

to do an initial assessment.

So we kind of took a look at the scene.

Fairly early on, we realized it was

going to be more than a one-day incident because of just

the size of it.

Once we determined that, we started

calling some of our neighboring agencies.

So because we're federally funded,

because we're overseen by the FBI, we're a regional asset.

So we have 10 or 12 bomb squads in the Bay Area,

the Greater Bay Area.

So I called upon some of our partner agencies.

I called the FBI Special Agent Bomb Techs

and the Alameda County Bomb Squad to assist us.

So day one, we were there pretty late into the night.

And then later, back up a little bit, by about seven or eight

at night, I realized it was going to be at least a two,

if not a three-day incident.

So that's when we started shutting down that first day

gearing up to kind of tackle the scene on the second day. The FBI and Alameda

County were very gracious in helping us and sending out resources for us and

assets to help us kind of go through the scene and and identify chemicals. Once we

kind of had an idea of how we were going to attack it, we started getting in there

and separating and identifying chemicals.

So we don't get a ton of chemical.

We're not chemists, but we do work with the hazmat units

from Contra Costa Fire and from the county health hazmat.

So we worked together with them to start identifying chemicals

and figuring out whether they were explosive in nature

or this posed a different hazard.

So, our goal was to safely destroy all

of the explosive chemicals and remove

and separate all the other chemicals into kind of safe areas.

So, this is what we ended up using as a staging area for all

of the separated chemicals.

So, each room is a different kind of category of chemical

and that's how we separated them.

And then these are some of the ones

that we had deemed to be explosive in nature

and that we needed to destroy them ourselves rather than

ship them off somewhere else.

Through the three days, we ended up

identifying over 500 different types of chemicals.

Overall, I would say we separated more than 1,000

actual bottles of chemicals.

All of the explosive chemicals were removed from the scene

and destroyed by us and the other bomb technicians that

were there.

In talking with the hazmat personnel

and talking with other bomb technicians that

were there with us, I say it's the largest

in WCPD's bomb squads history.

I can say that confidently.

It was the largest scene.

But in talking to everybody that was there,

it's the largest that any of us have ever, ever

seen of that kind of type of explosive scene.

And then I just wanted to take a moment to thank

Contra Costa County Fire, their hazmat team,

the county health hazmat team, the FBI special agent

bomb techs that came out, and the Alameda County Bomb Squad,

and San Pablo Police Department for their assistance

on this very large, very involved call.

So like I said, it ended up being three days for us.

We had at least four bomb technicians there each day.

The second two days, we had five bomb technicians each day.

And then the FBI sent us three, and Alameda County sent us two.

So we had 10 bomb techs on scene the last two days.

The pictures that I've got up there, the top left one,

that's just all the boxes once they were empty.

So you can just kind of get a,

you can kind of see how big this scene was

and how many boxes we had to go through.

Each box had lots and lots of bottles in it.

And then, yeah, that's about it.

If I could just mention one thing.

So this particular two or three day period,

it was very, very warm out.

And our bomb techs have to wear specialized equipment,

which is extremely heavy.

And you can almost get claustrophobic in one of those.

What does one suit weigh now?

Our bomb suits weigh like 75 pounds.

And then we have search vests that we'll

wear that are like 40 pounds, 45 pounds.

So they have to go in and very carefully remove

all that material.

And that's why it took so long.

So thank you, Lieutenant Olson, for that.

Of course.

We're not taking questions from the audience.

For them.

You're right, we'll try to channel what you're thinking.

Council colleagues, do you have any questions?

Council Member Wolk.

First of all, thank you, Lieutenant Olsen.

We see pictures on the news every now and then that

show a house explodes somewhere in the country

and it takes out a whole block.

So thank you for helping to prevent something

like that kind of a tragedy.

Any idea why this person had 1,000 bottles

of hazardous chemicals?

It wasn't for nefarious.

There was no sign that there was any type of bomb

making or anything like that.

I believe he was a chemist by trade back a while back.

Just curiosity would be my guess.

Take his profession seriously.

Thank you.

other questions. What did you do with the bottles? Did you have to take them out

individually and then move them to a different place? So the ones that

we deemed explosive, we had to destroy them off-site

because it was a neighborhood. We didn't want to do anything in

the neighborhood, so we have one and Alameda County brought one. It's

It's called a single vent trailer.

So it's an explosive trailer that's got a hole at the top.

So if something were to explode inside of it,

all of the blast pressure would go up instead of out.

So it's a lot safer way for us to do it.

We had transport.

We had San Pablo PD kind of clearing the roadway for us

as we were going to an off-site area that was provided to us

that could sustain a blast.

And then we countercharged them.

And did you have to define, did you

have to worry about mixing chemicals

to make the bomb worse?

Absolutely, yeah, yeah.

So we separated ones that don't play well together

and transported them in different batches.

Yeah, I mean, this was, like I said,

this was the most complex scene, hazmat type scene

that I've been involved in.

We've had one other one that seemed

like it was gonna be a decent size call out and it ended up being you know half

a day or something like that so three days is a lot. Councilmember Darling

then councilmember Francois. Thank you I'm glad you were wearing these suits

not me. What would you what would you suggest somebody do if they have an

elderly relative that collects odd things like this I mean not letting it

said, is obviously not a good idea. Yeah, we do get a lot of calls for especially

when people are cleaning up a garage or something like that for old unexploded

military ordnance or stuff that looks like it, just because your grandfather or

father said that it was, you know, it was inert. Don't trust that. We work

with Travis Air Force Base.

They have a bomb squad out of Travis Air Force Base

that we would call out for any military unexploded ordnance.

So they would come out and take a look at those.

If you have powdered explosives, like somebody

who makes their own bullets at home or something like that,

call us, we'll come grab them.

If it's chemicals, hazmat's really the one you want to call,

but they'll call us if it's something

that they can't deal with.

Yeah. Thank you. And thank you for your work. Thanks. Council member Francois. Thank you.

Lieutenant Olson, I was just curious, how was law enforcement alerted to this home or residence?

It was a family member kind of cleaning things up and came up across that stuff and realized

it's a little out of their wheelhouse. So they called the fire department.

So fire, anything hazardous materials related, the fire department will respond first.

And then the fire department is there kind of going through it with county

hazmat. So in Contra Costa County, we have two hazardous materials teams.

One is county health hazmat and then one is Contra Costa Fire has Matt. Um, so

they worked together a lot and then they once they determined that it was

there was some type of explosive component they call us. It doesn't

sound like it was a case in this incident, but I imagine something like

that could be associated with some criminal liability or charges. Yeah,

Yeah, it wasn't in this case at all.

But yes, absolutely.

And oftentimes, we'll come across this stuff

when somebody's trying to make homemade explosives,

whether it's just out of curiosity

or for nefarious reasons.

But yeah, that's typically where we're gonna come

across stuff like this.

Okay, and just finally, thank you to you

and all the members of the bomb squad

for the service that you're doing for the city

and for the entire county in keeping us safe.

Thank you.

So on that note, I will extend the thanks of San Pablo

because we had our Contra Costa mayor's conference

meeting in Lafayette on the Thursday evening.

And it was front and center discussion.

And the council member was saying that she was evacuated.

And so it was what, a 10 block radius?

I mean, I don't, I didn't, I kind of extricated myself from that part of it because our mission

was solely to deal with the house.

So I kind of left that stuff up to San Pablo and CFD, but it was several blocks.

Yeah, for sure.

So there were, and these are small neighborhoods, small lot sizes.

Yeah.

They're very, the homes are very close together and there were a lot of people who were evacuated

and living in emergency shelters for a few nights.

So on behalf of the city of San Pablo, we want to thank you.

We want to thank you as councilmember Francois said for all of the work you and the other members of our police department do

To keep the community

Safe as well as all of the communities that surround us because we need to work together to do all of that

So thank you very much. And thank you for bringing us up to date on what happened. Absolutely. Don't play with chemicals

The next item on our agenda is the consent calendar

we have six items on the consent calendar this evening does any city

council member wish to discuss any of the items does any member of the public

here wish to make comment public comment on any of the items that would be our

minutes from a previous meeting our warrant register an authorization of a

continuation of emergency procurement related to Ignacio Valley Road the

annual purchase agreements for patrolling fuel for our public works

trucks and our PD authorization of the city manager to enter into a master

consultant agreement regarding geotechnical work that will be done for

the first step in the design development and build out of the new aquatics and

community center at Heather farm and authorization of the city manager to

submit a response to the 2022 23 grand jury report regarding affordable

housing. Any public comment? Seeing none I will entertain a motion to approve. Oh,

thank you. Yeah, we do have a hand raised on Zoom. Charles Crelling. Thank you. Mr.

Crelling, what item do you wish to speak to? Hello, can you hear me now? Yes, could

you just identify which item you want to speak to because I'll have you come, I'll

come back to it and then I'll have you and you need to turn your speaker down

because I'm hearing myself the audience is tired enough of my voice we don't

need to hear it twice the which item do you want to speak to the last item the

grand jury report alright so hold on I will entertain a motion for items a

through e I move to accept consent calendar items a through e second we

have a motion in a second for consent calendar items a through e can we have a

roll call vote please Mayor Pro Tem Hask you all right thank you for waiting mr.

Krelling you may speak you have up to two minutes to speak on the item all

right thank you mayor council members I read the grand jury report I read the

draft letter of response I did find it interesting that our county resorted to

using a grand jury for an affordable housing issue. I just wanted to commend

the city. I thought the response letter was very well written and I think firm

enough in its position and just basically wanted to thank you for the

response that you're putting forward and that was it. Thank you. Thank you very

much. So I'm gonna bring it back to council but before we vote to on this

item perhaps you can explain how the Civil Grand Jury works and that this is

not directed by the county I believe it's the grand jurors themselves that

decide to take up topics. Yeah that's correct and Buckshi City Manager the

process just to clarify roles the Civil Grand Jury is a group of volunteers

usually those that join have a topic in mind and the topics that are reviewed by

the grand jury are ultimately determined by the the pool of grand jury members

usually there's around 20 members on a grand jury, give or take. The county's

role is they're legally obligated to provide some staff support in terms of

supply as a place to meet, any type of facilitation, and then the reports are

sent to the grand jury as well as to the presiding judge for receipt and file to

be formally filed. But yes, you're correct. The county government itself does not

select the topics. It is an independent group of folks who serve as the civil

grand jury members. Thank you. I'll enter any questions or comments from council

members. Entertain a motion. Move to accept item 2f. Second. We have a motion and a

second on item 2f of the consent calendar. Would you please take the roll

call vote. Mayor Pro Tem Pask you. Aye. Councilmember Francois. Aye. Councilmember

Darley. Aye. Councilmember Will. Aye. Mayor Silva. Aye. Motion carries unanimously. Thank you all

very much. The next item our agenda is public communications on items that are

not on the agenda this evening. This portion of the meeting is reserved for

those items and we have one other consideration item tonight which is

pickleball. So if you're here to provide comments on pickleball you still need to

wait. We will take public comments both from those who are on items not on the

agenda both from those who are here in the council chambers and those who are

joining us virtually. If you are here in person you need to submit your

speaker card now so if you're here and still in the council chambers and intend

to speak on an item not on the agenda and you haven't turned in your speaker

card hand it now to the clerk. Okay so then hand them down to me please. You can

you don't need to decide on your order because I will decide your order. Nope

I'm going to call you individually. I just need your cards. All right. If you're

joining virtually, please, and you wish to speak to us, please be sure to log in

to Zoom and use the raised hand feature to put yourself in the queue. Log in

details for this meeting are the web ID is 830-6980-9220 and the

passcode is 7 5 5 7 1 9 while those who want to speak or submitting their cards

we have a few other reminders under California's Brown Act the council cannot

act on items raised during this portion of the meeting because these items are

not on our noticed agenda tonight however we may respond briefly to

statements made or questions posed we may request clarification or we may

refer an item to staff. This will occur after the comment period has concluded.

Since we will have speakers who are both here in the council chambers and those

who are joining us virtually, I will be alternating calling on speakers from

both venues. Per our City Council Handbook, each speaker will have up to two

minutes to make your remarks. In addition, we will allocate up to 30 minutes at

this time for public communications for items not on the agenda. If needed we

will continue this portion of the meeting at the end of our business

meeting to ensure that everyone has an opportunity to speak to us. It is now 6

40 and we will take public comments on items not on the agenda up to 7 10

that's 10 minutes after 7. Our first speakers will be here in the room Brett

Kawakami, Margaret Martinez Franks and Leslie Hunt in that order.

Good evening. Good evening. And your timer is up here just so you know it's it's

not as good as a red card yellow card system in soccer but keep an eye on it.

Thank you very much. All right good evening Mayor Silva and city council

members my name is Brett Kawakami and I'm the president of the Walnut Creek

Aquinas, and I'm here just to give you an update on our 2020-2023 season.

So we've been in Wanacreek for over 50 years, and we basically provide opportunities to

local youth to learn and compete really at the highest levels in the sport of artistic

swimming.

And over our time we've won 18 national championships, we've produced 17 Olympians.

Our current head coach is Kim Probst who is herself a 2008 Olympian.

And so I'm happy to report that we did have a successful and active competition season.

We participated in a number of meets across the United States.

We won a national championship and our athletes brought over 100 medals home including 66

gold medals.

And we have some swimmers who are on the national team, the U.S. national team, and we actually

sent our junior team to Croatia to participate

in an international competition where they did very well.

And we're proud that one of our coaches, Tammy McGregor,

was actually selected as coach of the year for this season.

And we always wrap up our season with our fabulous fall show

down at Heather Farms.

And we had over 3,000 members from the community come

and enjoy the show.

And it's always a chance for athletes

to really showcase their hardworking skills

in a fun and festive setting.

And then we do try and get back to the community where we can,

we participated in the community service day,

we offer free try it days for

beginners and we have our training session during the summer,

as well as a week-long day camp that we

offer to artistic swimmers seeking to improve their skills.

So we are very thankful for the ongoing support of the council,

city staff, and the community,

And we are very proud to represent Walnut Creek, and we hope the community is proud of us.

So thank you very much for your, for the time. Thank you. Thank you very much. Just in case,

Mr. Kalakami, just in case someone wants some information for aspiring...

Aquanaut. Aquanaut. Well, I want to say Aquanaut, but it's no longer synchronized swimming.

Artistic swimmer. Artistic swimmer. What's your web address? Oh, um, you know, you can Google

Walnut Creek Aquinets and it should show up so I don't have the the web address memorized but if you look up Walnut Creek Aquinets

He'll take you to it and there's all sorts of information and yeah

We're we gladly welcome anyone who wants to just even try and try the sport and so yeah

Always always welcome and it was a great show this weekend. Thank you for hosting it. Thank you

Next speaker is Margaret Franks

Good evening mayor Silva and members of the city council. My name is Margaret Martinez Franks

I'm the senior government relations officer at Planned Parenthood Northern California.

As you know, our team has been in communication with you and the Walnut Creek Police Department

regarding the increased protester activity outside our health center on Oakland Avenue.

Excuse me, Oakland Boulevard.

These protesters pose a serious public safety threat to those in the vicinity, including

residential neighbors and surrounding business owners.

Using microphones and speakers, protesters harass patients and staff, and just today

there were 11 protesters occupying the sidewalk and blocking patients' access to the health

center.

In many instances, these protesters have yelled derogatory slurs.

Walnut Creek is not alone.

The FBI has warned Planned Parenthood affiliates that threats of violence are on the rise from

anti-reproductive healthcare protesters.

Police like Sacramento have taken steps to revisit their buffer zone ordinance to include

provisions for amplified sound.

Immediately after the passage of the Sacramento ordinance, the use of amplified sound decreased.

Now is the time to discuss ways to improve the existing buffer zone ordinance and prevent

violent attacks and acts of aggression.

We look forward to being a collaborative partner and finding solutions to keep us all safe.

Thank you.

Thank you very much.

Police chief is here and I'm sure that you've been having conversations with him

But if you want to speak to him this evening, I'm sure he'd be happy to join you in the lobby

Thank you so much. Next speaker is Leslie hunt

Good evening, Mayor Silva and council members

I'm here as president of Friends of the Creeks tonight. I

Bring you an annual report about what we've been up to but I will also tell you a little about the organization

In 1990, the council decided to make a Creek plan, a Creek master plan for Walnut Creek,

which they did.

I sat on that committee, and when it was all said and done, those of us who were there

at the end decided to form Friends of the Creeks so that we could keep an eye on how

this ordinance or this plan was going to get implemented and help get it done.

So we turned our attention not only to political things but to hands-on restoration work like

creek cleanups.

The creek cleanups lasted until the increase in homeless presence and finally the pandemic

pretty well killed them downtown.

It was too bad but it lasted 30 years.

In 2011, several of us joined together and created the Walnut Creek Watershed Council.

This gave us a greater voice in what was going on and also allowed us more financial resources

which largely come from mitigations from other people's environmental problems.

Some of it also comes from not real problems, but they want to put a development somewhere.

For instance, we had an inquiry from someone at the airport.

You cannot have wetlands at an airport

because they attract birds.

And birds and propellers do not, jet engines,

do not go well together.

So they looked for a place on city land in the open space,

actually.

But at any rate, we're talking to them.

We're expecting to see a new wetland as a result.

And what we.

I'm going to give you one more minute since you represent

an entire group, because I don't think anyone else

from your group is here this evening.

No, they aren't here.

Thank you, let me see.

Where was I?

So we are in the process of fulfilling our latest contract

with one of the county organizations

and the Regional Water Quality Control Board

to the effect that we're looking for wetlands,

or for sites for wetlands to restore.

It requires some agreement on the part of the property owner

because if we create a wetland, then it

has to be there for a while.

So you can't just do it because you

I think it'd be nice to have a pond in the backyard.

We have done a lot of things.

I have brought you an annual report, which you can add

to your copious reading lists.

Great.

And if we want more information, is there a website?

Yes, friendsofthecreeks.org.

Also, we will have two projects at the community service

day on October 14.

So look us up on that site, which

is prominent on the city's website.

and we hope to see you there.

Thank you very much.

Thank you.

So I appreciate everybody's clapping,

because these seem like nice reports.

But when we get into the regular portion of the meeting,

we're not going to do that.

So we can practice that now.

Not doing it?

Practice not doing it.

Practice.

We don't need to clap for people.

The next three speakers I will take from the virtual environment

will bring in first Andrea Baljocci.

And be sure to turn on your microphone

after Andrea will be Diane Young and then Donna Labriola.

Can you hear me now?

Yes, we can hear you.

Oh, okay, sorry.

I'm sorry about that.

I don't know what was going on.

So thank you for having me.

Good evening, Walnut Creek, I'm Andrea Baldacci.

I'm currently the president

of the Walnut Creek Historical Society.

Thank you for inviting me this evening

to share some of the amazing events we have coming up

at the Shadelands Ranch.

For those of you who are not familiar

with the Shadelands Ranch,

Our museum is located at 2660 Ignatius Valley Road

near the Shadelands Business Park.

Our beautiful terms of centuries pediment home

was built in 1903.

It's a focal point on the ranch property

and it houses the Wollin Creek Historical Society's museum

and our artifact collection.

And it's open for tours every Wednesday and Sunday.

Dozen led tours from one to four.

In addition to the many weddings and private events

celebrated at our venue,

the Wollin Creek Historical Society

hosts several annual signature events

that are open to the public.

We love to see our Womcomi community coming together,

enjoy our venue and our fabulous festivities.

We are kicking off our 2023 fall calendar

with our third annual Shadelands Oktoberfest,

Saturday, September 30th from 5 p.m. to 9 p.m.

Our beautiful oak studded grotto

provides the perfect ambiance

for a two Oktoberfest experience.

The $60 ticket price includes

a seat at our Shadelands Bear Garden,

authentic German bratwurst dinner,

live music by the Zickety Zach, Polka and Pop Band,

dancing and games, costume and Stein holding contests,

and tickets to enjoy pretzels, desserts and beer

in our pop-up Bavarian Village.

Invite your friends and purchase your tickets early.

Matter of fact, purchase the entire table.

Table for eight, go for a discounted $450,

and tickets are available directly through Eventbrite

and via the link on our Historical Society website,

which is www.wollycreekhistory.org.

This event is for guests 21 and older.

So think date night.

Get your sitters, you know, get dressed up,

get your jungles and your leader hose in

and come out and have a good old adult fun time.

While our adult guests are still digesting their rats

and beer, little ones can begin

faulking to the Shailin's pumpkin patch

beginning Sunday, October 1st through Halloween night.

Pumpkins, train rides-

Thank you very much, Andrea.

What's that?

Your two minutes is over.

Oh, all right, well, thank you so much.

Hope to see you there.

Thank you.

The next speaker will be Diane Young.

Hello.

Good evening, Mayor Silva and members of the city council.

I'm Diane Young and I'm still the co-chair

of Walnut Creek Community Service Day,

which will take place on October 14th, 2023.

As you know, in 2011,

Mayor Silva created Community Service Day.

It's 2023 and we're still going strong.

Did I mention it's on October 14th?

I'm happy to announce that registration is now open

for all projects at www.wanted-creek.org slash service.

Though a few projects have already filled up,

there's still plenty of options available

for all ages indoors and out.

Last month I outlined a list of opportunities,

but I didn't mention a really important one.

Two minutes isn't all that long when you have a lot to cover.

The Contra Costa Food Bank has always been part of Community Service Day, and there are

ways for everyone to help again this year.

First, you can sign up to conduct a neighborhood food drive.

They're simple.

You select a neighborhood via the website.

The week before the event, you distribute donation bags and flyers, which we provide,

in your designated neighborhood.

On October 14, you collect the bags and deliver them to Heather Farm Park Community Center.

The second option is to make a food or cash donation at any of our four Walnut Creek safe

way stores on October 14 from about 9 o'clock until noon.

There will be a Walnut Creek Rotarian at each location to assist you.

By the way, I love that at least three organizations that have already spoken are participating

in Community Service Day and I'm sure there will be a lot more after me.

There's more information in the current issue of the nutshell which has just dropped and

by visiting the website.

If you forget all of that,

just Google Walnut Creek Community Service Day.

If you go with Google, scroll down to see the YouTube video

from Community Service Day 2022.

It's really interesting.

Just don't get the dates mixed up.

We look forward to seeing you all on October 14th.

Thank you.

The next speaker is Donna Labriola.

We can't hear you.

Turn your microphone up.

We see your mouth moving, we hear nothing.

So while you work on the technical details,

do you think you're going to,

don't you love technology?

All right, I'm gonna take two more from here in the room.

Donna will come back to you unless,

because we still can't hear you.

Two more from the room.

Mariana Ford and Pete Bennett, if you come on up.

I'm here tonight on behalf of homeowners

on Westwood and Clifton Courts to address

and unhealthy hazardous conditions at 1541 Westwood Court.

Two years ago, an elderly homeowner went into hospice.

She's since passed on, and her stepson is presumably

the property owner.

He and his wife have been soliciting donations

for a nonexistent nonprofit to aid the homeless.

We've seen cars and truckloads of items,

often daily, being brought in and dropped off.

The lot is now littered with piles of debris, trash,

and firewood.

There are between six and eight people living in tents

and makeshift shelters in the backyard.

Here's a partial list of our concerns.

Gun shots have been heard.

Multiple violent fights have been observed over the fence

and on the street.

There has been screaming, profanity, and death threats.

One time, a man was swinging a shovel.

Another time, a neighbor was asked

to call police because someone had drawn a knife.

By the time the police come, it's always over.

There are children, five and eight years old,

who from the top of their play structure

have seen people with guns on the other side of the fence,

as well as witnessed yelling fights.

A six-year-old was pounced on by a loose pit bull.

Sisters 12 and 10 had their bedroom filled with smoke

that set off a fire carbon monoxide alarm.

The court has unknown people sitting in or passed out

in their cars when children should feel safe walking

to and from school.

There are mounds of trash all over the property,

and the stench is overpowering.

Some days you cannot open windows.

The smell is so terrible.

Periodically, a putrid chemical toxic burning smell

is flowing into yards and homes.

People are using air purifiers to keep their families safe.

Additionally, there are backyard fires,

even in the dry heat of summer.

We've called the fire department an air quality control,

but they cannot do anything unless it's a spare the air day

or a fire is out of control.

There's been notable increase in rats and mice in yards

and invading homes.

Many of us have spent large amounts of time and money

to battle this problem, which is being made worse

by the presence of an open landfill.

Go ahead and finish.

Most cities and counties in California

have laws against backyard camping.

Within Walnut Creek's guiding principles

to create legislation, it is stated

that we seek to promote safety, livability, sustainable

development, and environmental protection.

The city is failing us in this regard.

It's our hope that the city council and police department

can open an investigation and use their resources

to resolve this difficult problem.

Thank you for your attention to this matter.

Thank you, Ms. Ford.

The police chief is here as our community development director.

I saw her here.

She may be in the lobby.

If you step outside of the lobby,

they'll give you an update.

And also, I'll ask the city manager

to give an update at the conclusion

of public communications because we are very aware.

And as you know, I live in the same neighborhood, and so does Council Member Francois.

Thank you.

So we're very disturbed.

Thank you.

Mr. Bennett?

Greetings.

My name is Pete Bennett.

I have been a resident of Contra Costa for 45 years.

I have been attacked.

I have been beaten.

I have been arrested.

I've had family murdered.

I've had a girlfriend murdered with her daughter.

Another one of my girlfriends turned up dead just a few months ago.

There is a lot going on around me, very much so

the Antioch police and Pittsburgh police story

is very much part of my story, and I know it is.

I've been going through this story for decades.

I believe the murder that happened next to my house in 1979 in Pleasant Hill

is the beginning of a very long, racial-driven county.

My Black employee was killed in 1982.

My Hispanic employee killed in 2009.

It's too much.

I spoke to the officers here, and you know who I am.

You've heard me speak.

I've actually spoken here 50 times.

My name's all over the documents.

I'm deep in debt.

I live on Social Security in the back of my van.

You have a homeless services.

I spoke in front of them.

Nobody has done a thing except punch me, beat me, poison me, run me off the road, arrest

me, jail me, and kill my family.

This is a great opportunity for the city to learn what I've been through.

My main blog is PeteBennett.net and the other one is Walnut Creek Police dot com.

Why am I blogging?

I want to live.

Thank you very much.

We'll now go back to our virtual attendees and let's bring in Tina Neuhausel and then

Natalie Inouye.

Good evening Mayor Silva and council members and my fellow Walnut Creek residents.

I am Tina Neuhausel, president of Sustainable Contra Costa which started right here in Walnut

Creek back in 2008 and I'm here to invite you all to the 15th annual Leadership in Sustainability

awards gala coming up on September 19th. It's a really fun and inspiring event that celebrates

local individuals and organizations that are really doing outstanding work to contribute to

a healthier economy environment and society here in Contra Costa County. You can find all the

information and registration at sustainable cocoa dot org we have

supervisor john joya will be our master of ceremonies um i am so bummed that it

conflicts with the walnut creek city council meeting this month

unfortunately we've never had it on a tuesday as far as i can remember so i'm

sorry maybe you can make it after because one of our award recipients our

Rising Star Youth Award is actually from the City of Walnut Creek so it would be

wonderful to have you all there. And also we have a really fun auction and

wine pool and fun activities. There's great food from Cindy Gershon and our

very own Cali Craft and a couple of local wineries. Let's see how much time

do I have quick update about 30 seconds okay really quickly also want to let

everybody know that we're doing really great progress with the cleaner

Contra Costa challenge so far since we launched this online platform in with

the city of Walnut Creek we now have just in the last couple years we now have

780 households participating it's where you can find all the solutions and

resources to save energy, save water, reduce waste, build community and save

money and together just in Wanna Creek alone we saved over seventy four

thousand dollars since we launched and over four hundred gallons of water. Thank you

very much. Next speaker is Natalie Inouye. Hello can you hear me? Yes. Okay I'm

sorry I don't see a video but I'm here. Do you want me to try to turn on my

video. Oh, go ahead and speak. There it goes. Good evening City Council. I'm Natalie Inouye,

president of Walnut Creek Civic Pride Foundation. I would like to announce that on September 1st,

our FAW community grant program opened for application submissions. Since 1992, the Walnut

Creek Civic Pride Foundation has awarded over $700,000 to Walnut Creek organizations and programs.

Our mission is to help enrich the cultural recreational and educational opportunities

for people in Walnut Creek. For the past several years we have awarded community grants to local

non-profit organizations that fit within the purview of our mission. Last fall we awarded nine

Civic Pride grant awards. One of the recipients was Ruth Bancroft Garden who used our grant for a

Spanish version of its self-guided garden tour booklet. We also helped fund the Community Arts

Foundation for their creative writing program for low-income seniors and under-housed clients

at Trinity Center. Another recipient was the Walnut Creek Education Foundation. Our grant helped

1500 high schoolers have access to mental health, wellness and prevention services at the Las Lomas

Wellness Center. Our grant awards will range from $500,000 to $3,000. To apply for the grant,

go to our website at www.wcsidicpride.org. The deadline to apply is October 13th.

We will announce the recipients some time of late October. Thank you. Thank you very much.

the next speaker is Kathy Hemingway and then Barbara Guinness and I will give each of you

60 seconds having the same technical difficulty. Good evening. Good evening.

I'm Kathy Hemingway, Executive Director with Walnut Creek downtown. Good evening Mayor

Silver and City Council members. I wanted to share just a brief review of Arts Around August

which just completed its third annual run

a couple of days ago.

I wanted to first of all, thank our program partners,

the Ballet School of Performing Arts,

Bedford Gallery, Broadway Plaza, California Symphony,

the Diablo Regional Arts Association, Festival Opera,

Blusher Center for the Arts,

the Mountain Shadow Film Society,

Ballet Arts Gallery, our organization,

Walnut Creek Downtown and of course,

City of Walnut Creek. It was a month-long celebration of the arts that included outdoor

concerts and gallery exhibits and films and a whole almost 20 to 30 programs that was

a celebration enjoyed by all ages. So we'll be bringing a full recap by our coordinator

Chelsea Navolio to the October 3rd City Council meeting. So we appreciate everyone's support

and look forward to next year.

Great, thank you.

The last speaker, before we conclude public communications,

is Barbara Guinness.

You'll have a minute, otherwise I have to make you wait

till the end of the meeting.

Hello, thank you for the minute.

My name is Barbara Guinness.

I've been a resident of Walling Creek since 1996.

The Parks, Recreation, and Open Space Commission,

or the PROS committee, is comprised of citizens

of Walling Creek and the Advised City Council

on the general direction of the parks

open space in the advise city council

on various programs and things.

The mayor, city council members

must be citizens of Walnut Creek.

They represent the issues of the community.

City council has the power in the name of the city

to do and perform all acts and things appropriate

to the municipal corporation

and the welfare of the inhabitants.

On 814, a city staffer in a pros meeting said,

we will build the flow trail.

We will not need approval from pros.

you will not need approval from city council.

This is a staff decision.

No public hearing will be held, no enforcement.

Many citizens of Walnut Creek would like a description

review of the policies or the process that allows

a city staffer to have this authority to move forward

with the bike flow trail to determine park.

Thank you very much.

Thank you.

So this concludes our public communications tonight

for items that are not on the agenda.

Our next item on the agenda is council member.

I would like to bring up a comment

based upon comment that we heard.

I'm thinking we're gonna ask the city manager to do that,

but is, sure.

Okay, thank you.

This is the right time.

I just wanna make sure we don't have agenda item.

Okay.

I wanna bring up the item that was addressed

by the government relations person from Planned Parenthood

regarding noise and amplified noise of Planned Parenthood.

When we talked about this and made the ordinance

for a buffer zone a year and a half ago,

talked about bringing or to keeping an eye on amplified noise there to hear if

there was anything that was going on that we should address in addition to

the ordinance that we've had. Sounds like there has been issues we've seen some

instances heard from Planned Parenthood in the last year, heard from the police

department and I would like to I would like to see about this getting on the

agenda as soon as we have an opening for this item and to have this as a report

come back from staff so we can discuss. So what I'm going to do is ask for the

city manager to give us and the city attorney to give us an update right

coming next and see if how we work that out okay great I'm teaching up there

next item on the agenda is councilmember and staff announcements reports on

activities or requests I don't believe that we've had any closed sessions so

with there should be no announcements for that is correct thank you and on

break for five weeks I'm city manager there are a number of items that popped

up in public comment as well as some things that have been transpiring over

the last few weeks can you give us your update? I'm sure let me address the couple

here and if there are others I could speak to that but regarding public

comment the item that councilmember Wilk just noted regarding amplified

noise at Planned Parenthood if that is something your council is interested in

having an update on if you want to give us that direction this evening we could

do so it could come in two forms depending how specific you want to give

direction we could provide just a general update and receive direction or

if your counsel is interested in pursuing this we could bring forward a

potential ordinance change to address the amplified music we would need some

more time to do the latter as compared to the former in either event I think

we're looking at a couple months out at least given the council calendar and

what would be involved in order to pull this together if you want to get more

specific beyond that I might defer to the city attorney for additional detail.

So to give us even an update on what is trans... what we have seen transpiring in

front of the Planned Parenthood location would take a couple of months to give us

an update? Yes I believe so looking at the calendars fairly full the next

couple of months and we'd want a little bit of time to make sure we can be

thorough in our update. And accurate. Correct. Now this is the point in time

when we're rolling into the 40 days or is that isn't that in the fall when

we're coming up on the fall so we're going to see amplification of the

amplification yes to some extent so maybe it is a good time to see what

transpires since there could be no ordinance adopted in the meantime what

I'd like to do then is to make a motion to bring this to as an agenda item with

an update as well as a potential ordinance for you know if it if it's

going to be January then so be it but at least start the ball rolling on that. We

could do that but you know at the next meeting we're looking at all of our

priorities and where we are on the workload it might be easier to have just

on the 19th put that in our queue for what we how we want to fit it in because

there may be other things on the 19th that we want to talk about. Would that be

right? I understand that but I'd like to make a motion to being bringing this

forward as an agenda item so that we at least have that on the docket.

And I'll second that.

When we looked at this, we were ready at the time to move forward with a part of the ordinance

dealing with amplification.

We postponed it, hoping that our buffer zone ordinance would provide a safe environment

and it sounds like it's not.

And the laws may have changed once again, so we need to be very mindful of that as well.

So we have, and are we allowed to make a motion at this point in time?

You can to provide direction to staff.

All right.

So we have a motion and a second to bring forward a report on this and what our options

are in, I heard, January, February, January is a little hard because sometimes the first

meeting is on the 1st of January, I believe.

No that's understood and at least if we have an opportunity to look at it

whether it's a second meeting in January and February at least at least

it's out there. Okay and that also gives us time to work through this fall and

see what happens and transpires. If I could Mayor just to add so we'd bring an

update including a potential ordinance for your council's consideration and as

we get the intent in terms of time frame if I could ask for a little latitude we

can discuss during council priorities as the mayor noted look at the council

calendar and come back we understand the intent would be probably no later than

the early part of the of the next year. So I think we have consensus on this.

Yes I'm in favor. Yeah I don't think anyone's disagreeing with you but I

think staff needs a little bit of latitude but we at the next meeting we

have an opportunity to look at this in a more holistic as well. Okay. Mayor there's

a there's a motion a second on the floor though so is the council I don't know if

the council wants to take a voice vote on the motion. Do you want us to take a

voice vote? Sure, let's take a voice vote. Well, I'll ask the clerk. Yeah, consensus.

Councilmember Walts? Aye. Councilmember Darling? Aye. Councilmember Francois? Aye. Mayor Pro Tem

Haskew? Aye. Mayor Silva? Aye. Motion carries unanimously. All right, the next item. Yes, the

other item I believe that came up during public comment was related to the

residents on Westwood Court area of the city.

Obviously, some of the examples that the speaker referenced

are very concerning, particularly if there

are things such as fights and or gunshots

or other very serious public safety concerns.

I would encourage anyone to call the police

if there is something to that effect.

And obviously, the police will respond quickly.

I do know they have been out to the residents in the past.

Regarding the other issues such as an abundance of items in the backyard and or front yard,

potential smells, potential inhabitants, those are related to code enforcement related matters.

Do you want the folks who live in that area and who are aware of this issue to know that

not only is our code enforcement and our police department, but our city attorney's office

working through what can be done.

There have been citations issued to the occupants of that residence.

But as folks may appreciate, there's considerable due process involved for government to enter

a property and potentially usurp private property rights, and that legal process is being followed

as it stands now.

We are seeking to receive cooperation to voluntarily enter the property for an inspection of the

exterior and we will be prepared if that doesn't play out for some reason to

pursue other matters but some patients will be involved because of the legal

the high legal standards that are required with respect to private

property rights on this matter okay thank you other things to report since

we've been off for a month I'm sure there's all kinds of things you know how

While we are here, I would just add in terms of a public safety announcement building on

disaster preparedness month that at our city's website, at the police department, there is

an emergency preparedness portion.

I would encourage you if you have not signed up for WC Alerts to do so.

You can text WC Alert to receive regular updates, and there is also a link to the Contra Costa

County community warning system that's a mouthful so that would come from the

county for more regional matters I would encourage everybody to sign up for those

in addition to the individual home preparation that the mayor spoke to of

having emergency kits and be prepared so again that's at walnut hyphen creek

org go to emergency services is planning and sign up for WC alerts I think that's

it this meeting thank you so I will turn to my council colleagues we've since so

many members of the public announced all of the things that are happening in the

future. Yay, we don't have to do it too. So, but I would like to couple start with

Mayor Pro Tem. And yes we've all, if we have been on a break and so have many

many of our public, fellow public agencies, so not many meetings going on

for the last month. And and that will make my report gracefully short. The

The most exciting part was when I was in Alaska,

I attended on the tour bus,

a emergency meeting to allow the AB 361 approvals

for Contra Costa Transportation Authority.

And I have never been put on silent so fast

because the tour director was telling us

what we should be looking at.

And so I probably embarrassed us in the city and CCTA.

Councilmember Darling, you too were in Alaska,

but I don't think you attended an emergency meeting

at the

No, no emergencies.

The Walnut Creek Homeless Task Force did meet,

and they have been trying to pull together a lot of the data

that comes out of the core team that operates in Walnut Creek,

along with our HOP team and the Trinity Center numbers.

And they're starting to try to pull out of that some stories.

attended the Ross Moore Golden Rain Foundation Board and MCE and MCE

basically the bottom line there is power is continuing to be uncharacteristically

expensive for a number of reasons and lastly I attended along with council

member Wilk and the mayor Cindy Silva the Jewish Community Relations Council

had an event at Temple Isaiah which was really powerful it was a chance for many

local electeds here in the county to speak strongly against anti-Semitism and

I think we were all glad that we were there to support our fellow council

members who might be experiencing something that is quite beyond the pale

as far as I concerned and we heard some very powerful words especially from

Assemblymember Rebecca Bauer-Cahan talking about her grandmother and the

Holocaust and Senator Glazier and his family's experience with the Holocaust

And it was a very moving experience. I'm sure councilmember Wilk and the mayor will have more to say

But I just want to say it was a good chance to stand up and say this is not who we are. So

councilmember Wilk

Thank thank you and thank you councilmember Darling and mayor silve for attending that this this was a big deal and I don't it got

Press as well, but over 40 elected officials from Contra Costa County showed up a temple Isaiah in support from our Congress

Mark Desolnier, Senator Glazer, two assembly members, a county supervisor, and three dozen

mayors and council members from the county.

It was really an outpouring of support for the Jewish community and against hate in general.

And I was honored to speak at that.

And I don't think any of us, certainly that we've come across in our city council meetings

here, would have any patience whatsoever for anybody to express any kind of hatred.

unfortunately we've been experienced out some of that that's come from zoom and

unfortunately we're not the only city that's also experienced that these

people aren't from Walnut Creek and and actually aren't even from the county

they're calling in from outside the county and even outside the state so

thank you very much for the support on that I know that if if council members

have Francois and Mayor Pro Tem Husky were in the state you would have come so

So again, thank you for all of that support.

All right, moving on.

I want to thank the Chief of Police as well as the Walnut Creek PD for having the town

hall on crime in the business community.

That was a few weeks ago, and it was great to hear what was happening in the latest and

what are some of the updates there.

We heard from the community as well, and just great to see that we're able to see that kind

of transparency where anybody could ask questions and the police department was there.

We must have had a dozen police departments there being able to talk about certain issues

that were coming up.

And some of the crime that we've heard downtown, including basically a one-person crime wave

that broke into a bunch of businesses, created his own crime wave.

We saw the Moveable Feast, which is a big part of Arts Around August, and I was able

to host that going to a variety of different restaurants downtown, and that's always fun.

And lastly, we have the final, I believe the final location for Crate and Barrel that's

now open.

opening was a couple of weeks ago, directly across from where the original

Crate and Barrel was two places ago, but it is a great venue if you when you walk

in you're able to see the entire store now. I encourage everybody in the

community to check it out and and that was just great to see that's my report.

Thank you. Thank you. Councilmember Francois. Thank you mayor I thought you

forgot about me. No I didn't. I was thinking and writing at the same time

and it wasn't working.

No problem.

Well, I enjoyed the August recess that we had.

I did manage to stay fairly busy during that time,

not in terms of government-related meetings,

but visiting some of our critical business partners.

And I had the honor of attending the 50th anniversary

of the Diablo Hills Golf Course and Greenery Bar and Grill

here in Walnut Creek.

As many of you know, it's a treasure.

It's one of the top-rated nine-hole golf courses

in the Bay Area.

And Debbie Singh and her family have been running that golf

course in the greenery restaurant for 50 years.

They reinvested in the greenery restaurant just a few years ago.

It was very well-received.

Assemblymember Tim Grayson was there as well.

I wanted to thank former councilmember Kish Rajan

for extending the invitation.

and certainly to Assistant City Clerk Amy Hevener

for getting me so prepared for that.

They were very grateful and I appreciate your help.

I also was able to attend a re-grand opening

of one of our four Safeway stores here

in Walnut Creek on Bancroft.

Safeway has four stores, they've reinvested really

in all of these stores and remodeled them quite extensively

including the Bancroft store.

And so there was a nice showing there with a check given to White Pony Express and it

was the employees and everyone, it was a nice event and they were very well received.

I also had the opportunity to not attend the official grand opening of Crate and Barrel

but the pre-grand opening and I concur with Councilmember Wilk that it's a lovely store

and they've managed to take up three vacancies that we had and fill them at the same time.

old giant store, the old lawyer store and the the former Talbot store location

Talbot's is still here in Walnut Creek just down the street but it's a lovely

store and they've done a really nice job and haven't and I hope they're very

successful there so we're glad to have them here and that is my report for the

month. Thank you very much. In early August the chairs and vice chairs of our

five commissions and other county commission representatives met with the

mayor and the mayor pro tem and our city manager it's a quarterly meeting and

each of the commission representatives report on their what they're working on

and a few highlights to let you know about the transportation Commission

talked about crosswalk improvements and we note that at South Main Street at

Los Lomas there was a lot of work the last few weeks those of you who live on

the south side of Walnut Creek and Lancaster are the lilac south main

intersection reopened and it has a scramble crosswalk and I was walking

across it at a diagonal the other morning on my morning walk and this

woman was walking across the street at the same time looking and going what are

you doing in the middle of the road and I'm like isn't this fabulous so if you

know what a scramble is it means that crosswalks are only you can cross in all

directions at the same time including diagonally while all the cars wait and

it's a more efficient way to work traffic and now in front of the high

school it's going to be great but the Transportation Commission was talking

about those improvements the Planning Commission reported on the upcoming

hearing that we will have on the adoption of our permanent SB 9 ordinance

as well as some improvements they approved for Cali Craft Brewing and the

Design Review Commission talked about their objective design standards the

Chick-fil-A that is proposed out near the Woodlands which is not going to be a

drive-through it is going to be a dine-in or take out drive-away restaurant

and they also talked about Model Bakery which is from Napa that is going into

the space that is where the old La Figata is but for those of you who are

wondering what that building is it is the oldest commercial building in

Walnut Creek that is the original Sherburne store from the 1880s and the

design that they have bringing to that store and that building is base pays

homage to the original Sherburne store so we're really looking forward to when

that opens and I will mention that the Contra Costa Library our commission

representative to that commission reports that the county library is

during a diversity audit of their collection, which I know we will appreciate because of

our DEI work.

And finally, I will mention that there are a lot of business openings.

You've heard about Crate and Barrel and the grand reopening of Safeway Stores.

For those of you that have been watching, the building that's coming up out of the ground

across from the Macy's, that's Lifetime Fitness, and it is slated to open.

Ready?

Grand opening is slated for September 21st.

We're about to be done with a many,

many year process unless something

goes awry in the next few weeks.

I will close with a mention that the city

takes positions on both

federal and state legislation at times.

We have recently taken a position of support

on what is called ACA 13.

That is a proposed ballot measure

for a constitutional amendment.

It is a simple measure. It is really designed for fair and common sense elections.

What it is designed to do is basically that it amends the Constitution so that any constitutional amendment that goes before the voters in the state of California,

if it would require an increase in the voter threshold to approve future measures,

In the recent weeks we've seen a lot of

different measures, it would require that voters that want to

approve that measure and that change do so at the same

percentage voter threshold. So some of that was happening in

Ohio in recent weeks where there was a bit of a kerfuffle at the

ballot box across Ohio, but this is interesting. I suggest you

Kayhan this morning about it and her support for that.

Thank you very much to my colleagues

for all the work that you do.

We have a busy September ahead of us

and I will now turn to the primary item on the agenda

that everybody has been waiting for.

If you have an open seat next to you,

why don't you raise your hand because we have some people.

There are some seats here in the room now,

why don't you all come in

and see if you can find an open seat.

few people might be leaving the building. This item is a consideration item on the

selection of a preferred pickleball site and an operational update and as our

staff will explain during this presentation, not all items come to the

City Council for approval. We do not get into operational day-to-day matters that

we have a city manager who is hired to lead the staff of 370 plus employees to

lead us on the day-to-day efforts what we're doing is getting an update tonight

on the potential for a future pickleball facility and what we might think of

that and then also just to hear an update on operational issues and I will

now turn to director Kevin Safin. Thank You mayor members of the council for

the record Kevin Safin director of arts and recreation this is a culmination of

about a year and a half worth of discussions meetings more meetings more

discussion about looking for a better pickleball sites and so I want to thank

those who've been involved in this process to date, the Walnut Creek

Pickleball Club, the Dapple Gray and Stewart neighbors, lifetime activities,

and the Walnut Creek Racquet Club. So all have been involved in this process for

about 18 months so much appreciated all the work and effort they've done this as

volunteers. So why are we here? Specifically as the mayor said we're

recommending that the council select a preferred location for new

pickleball courts in Walnut Creek and then direct staff to implement the steps

necessary to develop those new courts. Barely straightforward, there's in your

packet a fair amount of background here so I will go over that in some detail.

Sometimes I talk too fast so if I'm talking too fast raise your hand, let me

slow down. So process for tonight, yeah, that'll work, whatever you like. For tonight

staff will do the presentation. We'll take questions from the Council first.

I'm gonna break that up into two sections. First question will be, first

questions will be about the site location and then I'll talk about some

operational changes and we'll take questions, turn over to public comment,

come back to the Council for comments and then take direction from Council at

that point. That's the plan for tonight. So how do we get here? Pickleball. As many

Many have said, and will probably say tonight, the fastest growing sport in the country.

It is great physical activity.

If you've seen it, either on TV lately, it is being televised, you've seen it in person.

It's accessible, it's inclusive, it builds community for all demographics.

So a tremendous sport, and you can see that in the number of courts, public courts that

have opened up in Contra Costa and Alameda Counties.

On our count, it's about 160, maybe more, maybe less.

That's about the number of public courts that are available that does not include places

like Rossmore, right, which is private and they have at least three courts outdoors and

probably more indoors.

So with that, I think most will acknowledge the pickleball is also noisy and it does affect

neighbors and neighborhoods, sometimes positively and sometimes negatively.

And so what we've seen with that popularity and growth, not just in Walnut Creek but throughout

the Bay Area, throughout the state, throughout the country, there are impacts.

And so since last year, as I said, we've been trying to find a solution to that.

And so that's why we're here this evening.

So a little bit of history about Pickleball and Walnut Creek.

Back in 2010, some of those folks were here who started playing indoors at Tice Valley

Gym.

There are about 70 members at that point when we expanded to outdoors at San Miguel Park.

Sorry, 70 members in the Pickleball Club.

2013 San Miguel Park 2014, we started having shared lines with tennis courts at Red Gear Park.

2016 we converted one of those tennis courts to four pickleball courts at Apple grade lane. One tennis court equals four pickleball courts.

And then 2018 we did the same thing with the other single tennis court.

And so we now have eight pickleball courts at that site in Walnut Creek and thanks to the Pickleball Club,

They contributed $30,000 to help us repaint and resurface those courts so they could be

set up for pickleball.

And at that time, 2018, there were 700 people in the club.

Based on what I've heard from the club president, about 40% of those are Walnut Creek residents.

The others live outside of Walnut Creek.

So with that growth, with activity, there are challenges.

You can see in that red circle, those are the pickleball courts today.

You can also see the proximity of the homes, you can't quite see, maybe you can, just above

that red oval is one home, and then to the right you see four or five other homes that

are very close to the pickleball courts, and so there have been challenges related to parking,

have been challenges related to noise, and then the frequency activity throughout the

day has been another challenge that the council heard back in September.

And so neighbors came to you and said we need to find some solutions.

Staff helped to look into this issue.

And so working in partnership with the neighbors in the club, we did identify some solutions

to help address those concerns, including what you see on this list, helping address

parking with red paint to curbs, moved the start time back for tournaments an hour to

nine o'clock, added more signs to promote people parking and using restrooms at the

Stewart Court, I'm sorry, Stewart Avenue lot, and then encourage the club to help us manage

those issues, encourage them to explore softer paddles and balls, and then we looked into

some padded and acoustical fencing for the site. Despite that, there were still noise

issues. There were still frequency play issues and still parking issues, and so the council

heard this again in October and gave us some direction to address these, and so short term,

the direction was to have a facilitated meeting between the neighborhood and the club, and

and long-term to work with the pros commission,

the park recreation open space commission to identify a new location through the

creation of a task force. So I'll start with the facilitated meeting,

which took place in November of last year.

So agreements were reached between the club and the neighbors to, uh,

adjust hours. Um, it had been Monday through Sunday,

8 AM till sunset. And so effective December one, 2022, uh,

agreement was reached to have the hours 8 AM to 1 PM Mondays.

Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday 8 till sunset and then Thursday the agreement was to

close the courts and then Saturday and Sunday 10 a.m. to sunset those are the

hours they're agreed to back in December. In addition the city created some signs

to encourage people not to park on the side of the street where the homes are.

The club is also helpful in getting people to park on either the side of

the street adjacent to the courts or at the Stewart Avenue lot and then we all

agreed to you know long term let's find another location and the Stewart Avenue

tennis courts was a site that we had identified as a possibility. So at that

same time you know we went to the pros commission in December and we sought the

creation of a task force the purpose was to identify new location or locations for

pickleball that balance the interests of players, neighbors, tennis, the city and

the community. And so the task force met between December and March with the

following criteria, and these are standards that we use to evaluate the

sites today. I won't read them all. Noise, parking, restrooms, displacement of existing

activities. Is it suitable? How much does it cost, and how long would it take to implement?

So I'll come back to those criteria later in the presentation. So again, we,

the task force met from December 22 through 20, March of 23. Members included,

pros, commissioners, pickleball club members, racquet club members, neighbors of

of the park lifetime activities and then city staff. So it considered sites throughout the

city and then initially we landed again on that Stewart Avenue tennis court site. So in March and

April we performed or contracted a noise expert to do a sound study in March installed acoustical

fencing on those tennis courts late March early April and actually had a trial where we could

to have people playing pickleball on those courts for two days.

I think it was a Sunday to Monday. Uh, and then, uh, the following Monday,

uh, the 10th came back to the pros commission side feedback from the commission

side feedback back from the community. Uh, if you watch that meeting,

or if you attended that meeting, uh, there's a fair amount of feedback. Um,

most of it was not positive from the neighborhood, um,

positive from the, the, uh, pickleball players,

but the neighbors were not supportive both in terms of the level of activity,

parking, other impacts, and the noise.

And so the task force regrouped and said, all right,

that didn't quite work out.

I'm happy to talk more about that if you'd like.

That location didn't work out, even though we're really

hopeful that it would because those were existing tennis

courts, that would be easier, cheaper to convert.

So we looked at whether alternatives are

out there for the courts.

And so that's why we're here tonight.

The PROS Commission is recommending to you

three locations for your consideration.

The primary recommendation is the Heather Farm Park ball fields, sports field parking

lot, which is right on Ignatia Valley Road.

I'll show you the map.

The second is an alternative, which is the Heather Farm Park basketball courts.

And the third, alternative two, is Tice Valley Park.

So I'll talk about each of those in some detail here.

As you can see from this image, this is Heather Farm Park.

Both those circles represent the two locations in Heather, with the current tennis courts,

the Heather Farm Tennis Center, which includes pickle courts right in the middle there.

And so on the right is the Ball Field 1 parking lot, and on the left is the basketball court.

Starting with the Ball Field parking lot, it's a little bit closer view there.

The plan would be, if this is council's direction, to not use the entire parking lot there, but

the portion that's to the east there, as you see in the circle.

So pros that we see, pros meaning positive, not pros commissioned.

Yes.

Slow down.

Got it.

Ball field one pros include, you know, you saw the list of criteria that were there,

which was noise, parking, restroom, and suitability of location.

And then a couple other criteria too, existing activities, displays, and then time to implement.

Can you go back and cover it?

Because this is where we're supposed to make a decision.

So let's cover.

Yeah, I was going to go through each each assessment covering the criteria first. Great. Thank you. Thank you

So I listed the criteria. So within each of these is a specific assessment

And you'll see this for all field one. You'll see this for the basketball court. You'll see this for ties

so one noise

those

parking lot that parking lot site is right on Ignatius Valley Road, so it's already

fairly noisy, the busiest street in Walnut Creek, 75 or so thousand cars going up and down every day.

So that may diminish sound from those courts. In addition, many other communities have

acoustical fencing that further limit impacted noise on neighborhoods. So could be explored here.

We did it for a little bit as a trial at Stewart. So that's one. Two, parking availability. While

said the courts could be located on the east side of that lot. There's still a

fair amount of parking on the west side of that lot and then certainly

throughout the park. There is plenty of parking. Restrooms, yes, easy. They're

right there, right at the ball field. And then suitability of play. We've asked a

contractor to look at that site. They determined that you could install with

the north-south alignment, standard size courts, eight at least, if not more. And

And then the other benefit of this site is that there is proximity to the other farm

tenant center, which is where Lifetime Activities is located, who'd likely be managing this

site as well.

So those are the pros that we see for this location.

Cons in terms of displacement of existing activities.

There are some fairly well-established groups that use this site, the Walnut Festival Association

being one, even though this year they're not doing their event, but we expect they will

be coming back next year.

So they have Ferris wheel, they have rides,

they have lots of other things that happen at that location.

For the same reason that Pickleball

has a desire to be there, it's visible.

The Walnut Pestle likes using that site,

because it is visible when you've got lots of activities

and rides there.

Similarly, there's a Christmas tree lot

that takes place there on that site.

And then if you're familiar with lots of special events,

including tournaments for soccer and walkathons

and other things, they tend to stage there

as they start on their treks.

And then lastly, in terms of criteria, the time to implement,

it's likely that this project, if council gives us

this direction, that parking lot would

be part of a larger project that's

taking place in the park, which is

the conversion of the ball fields.

There, I'll go back real quick.

The ball field to the north of that, that's ball field one.

And then you can't quite see it, but ball field two.

So those two fields are going to be converted

to all weather turf with a design taking place in 2024

and construction taking place in 2025.

So if this project were to move forward,

it would likely be part of that larger construction project.

And so we're looking at probably two years,

give or take to include this in that project.

That's ball field one.

There's a corollary to this option,

which was presented to city staff about two weeks ago,

which is another new sport called Padel.

There's an image of that there.

This is a popular and growing sports internationally

in Latin America and Sweden of all places,

and also in Southern California.

And so there's a couple of sites in Southern California

that are large, one of which is the Barnes Tennis Center,

which is run, the Padel courts are run

by a company called Tactica Padel.

They have reached out to lifetime activities

and said, we would like to bring Padel

to Northern California.

Lifetime has partnerships with other cities in the Bay Area.

Cupertino, Santa Clara, Pleasanton, Walnut Creek.

And so they've reached out and said,

if Lifetime is willing to partner with the city,

we are willing to contribute money

to this of at least $500,000 to build four pedal courts as well

as eight pickleball courts together at the same location.

Their preferred location is ball field one at Heather Farm

because of the visibility there.

So there is a financial contribution.

And again, there would be time that

would take to develop that, probably adding more time

to the project in addition to the ball field conversion

to artificial turf.

And so this is just another variable

here in the mix for you to consider.

I'm happy to talk more about that in detail if you'd like.

So that leads us to option two, which are the basketball courts

at Heather Farm.

So a little bit smaller sites.

You see the oval there kind of extends the basketball courts

if you've been to that parking lot,

and then a little to the left into the volleyball courts.

We'll talk about that in a second.

So noise impact criteria.

The pool, the playground, the large picnic area

are already fairly loud.

And so, the noise effects may be somewhat smaller than they would be otherwise.

However, and I'll talk about this at the end, there would be a need for environmental study

to determine what the impact would be of any of these sites.

So, because there may be potential impact on the homes up on March Banks, as well as

the gardens at Heather Farm.

But there are a fair amount of other noisy activities there.

Restroom proximity, there is a restroom at the Clark Swim Center.

to implement, while I say it's not directly affected by the other projects happening at

Heather Farm, which is the new community center and aquatic facility, that, however, is a

priority for the council, for the community, for Measure O. And so, while it could move

ahead more quickly than perhaps Ball Field 1, it's no guarantee that that's going to

move quicker than a year or more. But it still could be done. In terms of the cons, there

is very limited parking there. If you've been to that parking lot, between the

ball or between the swim center and the playground, it is a very busy lot. And if

we're adding more activity, there could be other impacts. Suitability for pickle

ball standards, the existing basketball courts can probably hold four courts

based on what our contractor has said. If we wanted to add eight courts, which is

how many we have at Dapplegrath, we would need to expand into the sand volleyball

volleyball courts or into the aquatic staff parking lot or another part of the park.

So again, though, it does have proximity to the tennis center, so there would be value

there with that synergy.

Displacement other activities in terms of expanding basketball, you know, built on the

basketball courts that would have to be addressed.

And then if there's other displacement volleyball courts or staff parking, so that's the basketball

courts.

The third option is Tice Valley Park, and so this is the only one that actually have

images of pickleball courts, but this is where they might be located, there are eight courts

there.

This is the far corner of Tice Park.

The top of that is the parking lot, to the right is the gym, and then the ball field

is in the middle, of course.

And then immediately to the left is St. Anne's Catholic Church, and just to the top left

is the fire station.

So while they're, and I'll talk about this in a second, talk about who the neighbors

are.

noise impact. No homes are immediately adjacent to the site so that's a

positive that's a positive compared to some other locations however with a

fire station and the church there may be some impact that we have to study

firefighters live there they sleep there so there is an impact that we'd have to

look at. Parking it's a positive there's plenty parking in that lot however it

does require a bit of a walk from the parking lot which is on the top there

They're down to where the courts may be located, but it's fairly close.

Restrooms are near the park entrance, about 500 feet from the Pickleball site.

Suitability could hold eight courts there.

And that said, this is not near the Hetherstrom Tenant Center.

So depending on what role lifetime activities has with regard to oversights of this, that

might be a concern, is how does that work.

And then time, this is a positive.

likely that could be done more quickly than the projects at Heather Farm because it's

not impacted by other construction projects. However, depending on council's direction,

depending on staff workload, it still could be a year, depending on how long this would

take. Displacement is the con here. There is a baseball diamond that is right now in

that image, oops, covered by the courts. That's used by Walnut Creek Little League primarily

for their T-ball programs with little kids, and they use it about 500 hours a year.

So we would have to identify another location for their practices, primarily, which would

just take place there, to occur.

So those are your three sites or three options as recommended by pros.

In terms of cost, we're starting with a baseline, which is because this is essentially new construction,

this is not conversion of existing tennis courts, which is easier to do.

This is new construction, so we're estimating this at about 65,000 per court.

So multiply that by eight, we're at about 520,000.

And that includes staff cost, soft costs, design, et cetera.

And so this is right now a fairly comprehensive, inclusive cost.

Things always go up from there, but that's the starting point just so we have a place

to compare to.

So we're saying that's the base cost.

With regard to the Pedel option at ball field one, to construct those four courts would

be about $325,000, making the total $520,000 plus $325,000, about $845,000.

And then if we deduct the $500,000 contribution from lifetime activities, the net costs would

be about $345,000.

That's a lot of numbers.

The savings net would be about $175,000 to the city.

less than the 520.

So that's just another variable in the conversation about pickleball, specifically at Heather

Farm.

Lifetime, I asked the question, did they have interest in one of the other locations?

They did not.

They wanted the visibility, as did their partner of the ball field one site.

So this is a summary of what those different pros and cons are, and I can pull this up

again when we're done.

So in red are the cons, of course.

So if you're just doing the math, there's a couple of cons

with the Heather Farm parking lot sites.

There's about three with the basketball site.

And then I said one and a half for the Tice site, the half

being the pro is it's suitable.

You can build eight courts there.

But the con is who's going to manage that site for the city.

I'll come back to this if you'd like.

Next steps, and then I'm going to wrap up

with questions in a second.

So what happens next?

There will be environmental review

that we require as part of this project going forward

for each of those three sites.

We would then establish a design and construction schedule.

We'd bring back to you in terms of a budget for that,

get direction to move forward with design and construction,

talk to the Pickleball Club and the neighbors

about the transition plan.

We would be implementing a fee structure for this

as we recognize the city would be contributing

a significant amount of money for this.

Other groups that use city facilities,

whether individual or groups using it,

either on a reserve basis or drop-in,

pay to use those facilities.

The club has not been paying to use the dapple gray courts

in recognition of the $30,000 that they contributed

back in 2016, 2018.

Going forward, there would be a fee attached to this.

We would then relocate the pickle courts

and then convert the dapple gray courts to tennis,

to basketball, to something else besides pickleball.

So that concludes this part of the presentation.

I'm happy to go back to any of the slides if you'd like,

take questions, and then we'll go to the next step,

which is the operational changes.

Let's do that.

So I'm going to turn to my council colleagues.

Councilmember Darling, do you have any questions?

Just a couple quick ones.

So it sounds like the padding at Stewart,

did you actually measure a difference in sound

associated with the padding or was that a wash?

Yeah, it wasn't measured per se.

It was done on a model basis.

So the consultant that we used, because we were trying

to not spend too much money on this, so the consultant looked

at the proximity of courts to homes,

looked at the elevation of the courts to homes,

did a sample of what would it be without padding, which

was, I think, 60 to 70 decibels, something like that.

And then what would it be with padding?

And so the model showed that it was reduced.

That said, there were plenty of people in the neighborhood

who felt like, OK, it may be reduced from what it could be.

But they were feeling it.

Still unacceptable.

They were feeling it, especially it's a Kenton court

that's right across the street from the Stewart Tennis courts.

That's a little bit higher up elevation

compared to the courts.

So they were hearing it directly in their homes.

OK.

And then the Padel ball.

Is that something that's been on our radar?

is that something that's just not even been introduced

to the Bay Area yet?

That was not on our radar until about two weeks ago.

OK.

It may be, again, pickleball wasn't on our radar either

before that started and look at it now.

So it may be the next big thing.

And I think there's a couple other courts in the Bay Area,

but I've not seen them in person.

OK.

I guess if it has only been on our radar for a couple of weeks,

I assume it's not noisy or is it noisy?

It's less noisy than pickleball, but noisier than tennis.

Noisy, OK.

And then if we did a fee structure,

would it likely be something like Boundary Oak,

where you have a resident rate and a non-resident rate?

Or would it have started to be?

No, Boundary Oak, thanks for the question.

Boundary Oak's the only place in this department

that has resident and non-resident rates because

of the Enterprise Fund nature of it.

Everything else, I charge the same rate, the Arts and Direct

Department, whether you're a resident or a non-resident.

So it would likely be the same.

Okay, thank you.

Can I build on the last question about fee structures?

We talked, you and I talked a little bit more in depth

earlier in the afternoon.

Can you elaborate a bit as to how it might be modeled

because you've got a club involved,

you have people who might just wanna reserve a court

for a while with a friend, what structure are you thinking

about, no promises here?

So a couple of models, one, lifetime activities

manages the tennis program and pickleball program

at Heather Farm for the city.

They are a concessionaire.

We have an agreement with them to run programs for us

to maintain the facilities and to return the investment.

They pay the city a fee every year.

Right now it's about 63, 64,000 to run the program

on our behalf.

That includes lessons, tournaments, drop and play.

And so if they were to manage that facility,

they currently charge $7 per 90 minutes

to have individuals reserve and play on the pickleball courts

and tennis courts at Heather Farm.

So if that's one model on an individual basis,

that's how it would work.

They also work closely with the racquet club

to have events, tournaments, socials,

where the racquet club pays a fee to Lifetime

for that's a group fee.

And then another option, potentially, potentially,

is if the city were to do this, how we manage the aquatic

facility may be similar in that if someone wants to swim,

there's a daily rate.

There's a per drop-in rate if they choose to.

Similarly, there's rentals we do for Masters.

So Masters has workouts throughout the day.

And so we charge a fee to the Masters team

to reserve those lanes, regardless

of how many people come.

And then the master's manages that participation.

There could be 20 people in an hour.

There could be two people an hour.

We still charge the same,

because we're providing that exclusive use.

And so those are a couple of different options,

whether it's lifetime or the city that we can pursue.

So it would be a little bit of a menu approach,

not a one size fits all.

Likely, because our relationship would,

or whoever relationship would be at the club,

which is an organized nonprofit group.

we have many relationships with such groups

where we're renting that group,

soccer club, little league, masters, et cetera.

And so it may be something like that.

And then they can manage who attends and who participates.

And then we could charge the pickleball club a fee.

Again, very comparable to how we do most groups.

Okay, thank you.

Council member Francois.

That's helpful.

Thank you for the very thorough staff report.

And all the time and energy you and everyone in the room

has put into this so far.

In terms of the time to implement,

just trying to fact check some of the things that I saw,

that it appears the basketball courts would potentially

be the fastest option.

Did you see any material difference in timing

between Heather Farm 1 and Tice?

Oh, and Tice.

It may be that the Tice option in Heather Farm basketball

courts are similar, in that Tice doesn't

have that same limitations of the construction at Heather Farm.

but that's to be determined.

I think it's a given that if this were a Heather Farm

ball field one, it would take two years

because folded into the project we planned

for the conversion of the turf there,

for CEQA and other reasons, we would do them as one project.

And if you have specific questions about CEQA,

I'm gonna call the City Engineer to help me

because that's as much as I know.

But that would be, again, designed in 2024,

Construction 25 with an opening of about a year from now,

roughly fall of 25 for those new turf fields.

So for sure, that one we know would take about two years.

The other ones, Heather Farm basketball courts

and Ties may be a year plus.

I just don't know the exact differential.

And then was, you know, in terms of Heather Farm one,

what were with consideration or thought given to,

we haven't done CEQA yet,

But in terms of Padel being just as explosively popular

as pickleball is, and I know it's only been two weeks

on that, but kind of a new turf field's going in next door

of what potential parking traffic impacts there

could be with that added on to eight pickleball quarters.

That's a concern because if it's going to be as popular

as pickleball is, one, you know people

are going to come to play pickleball on those sites.

You know people are going to come there to play soccer.

there, especially with the new turf fields.

So yes, we'd have to look at this

from an environmental standpoint.

But it would be pretty busy in the park, an already busy park.

And then in terms of noise impacts, that one is not,

there are neighbors not immediately adjacent.

But are we relatively comfortable we

wouldn't be creating a new situation at that location?

Whoops, relatively is a...

Relative term.

Yeah, it's gonna save.

I was gonna say subjective, but that works too.

If you look to the kind of the rights there,

there are homes there in that, is that Stratton Circle?

Can't remember the name of that street.

Across the fence from Ball Field One.

So, there are homes there, and I'm sure those who live there

would want their thoughts to be heard

as we go through this process,

so they're not faced with the same situation

the neighbors are today. But can I? Yeah. But we have the ability to plan ahead.

Correct. So either a put some kind of sound baffling up close to those homes

and in that group of trees and the city engineer I can't see his face I can just

see him he's glaring at me and or on the fencing itself on the east end of it.

correct thank you and then in terms of the the fee structure obviously that

that's it's it's an interesting concept is is it if lifetime were to manage the

courts then currently they only managed the tennis and pickleball courts at

Heather's all right they manage the tennis courts at rud gear when there's a

ust match there but and they do lessons at outline courts like Larky but

essentially head of arm is that the place for them correct and you and you

were this is what you're alluding to when you said a potential that they they

could still potentially be the manager of these new facilities but that a club

the Pickleball Club could potentially have a relationship with them similar to

the way the Masters Club has a relationship with the city for the pool

correct and similar to the way the Walnut Creek racquet Club has a

relationship with lifetime today okay and that's the tennis club that has over

thousand members and they do events throughout the year. That's helpful and

then and finally were the alternatives pros recommended other farm one as my

understanding were the alternatives ranked by the pros committee? They were

in essence I'll say they were ranked so ball field one was the recommended one

the basketball courts had a split vote I think it was 3-2 and then Tice was

either 4-1 or 5-0. And so if you want to look at it that way,

ball field 1, Tice, and then basketball courts.

Okay. Thank you. Mayor, if I could, I just want to follow up on one comment maybe

before we move on to other questions. I want to just clarify timing and how long

some of this may take to build on what Director Safeen noted. You know, we're

looking at at least two years at the at the ball field 1 parking lot and he

referenced at least a year for Tice and or the basketball courts at Heather

And I really want to underscore the words at least because we're looking at at least

a year in a vacuum if nothing else was going on.

And as your council is aware and many others, we have some of the largest public works projects

in the history of the city that are underway right now that are a extremely high priority

and a very intensive effort.

And therefore any of these efforts related to pickleball would need to be slotted in

within that work.

So realistically, I think we're looking closer to two years

as opposed to a year for any of these options,

likely a best case.

Council Member Wilk.

Thank you, Kevin.

And most of the questions I had

were actually answered already.

And I asked you a couple of questions

over the last few days.

So just to reiterate on that,

you mentioned that there's about 700 pickle ballers

in the pickle ball club, 40% of whom are in,

who live or residents in Walnut Creek.

So we're talking 280, 300 people

that live in Walnut Creek that are part of the Pickleball Club

versus 400 odd or so that are outside Walnut Creek.

That's my understanding from the club president, yes.

OK, OK, that's helpful.

I'd understand the acoustical fencing didn't do everything

that we were hoping that it would.

Is it possible that in the interim,

while we are deciding upon where this permanent location is

going to be, during the current period that there's still going to be pickleball happening,

can we use that accustable fencing in the current location until the permanent is built?

I mean, is there-has that been thought about?

Conceivably, you can.

We've not studied what the impact would be.

It's a cost.

Right?

There's a cost to that.

And there's also at least one home that's up above the courts, which the accust-accustal

fencing would likely not mitigate. So you could you could explore that. Certainly. It's

something that we haven't pursued just because we're trying to move forward with the sure.

But yes, we short answer. Yes, we can. Okay. Because obviously we're looking at something

that is going to give some kind of relief with some kind of compromise. I think this

is something that we potentially. Okay, great. Thank you. Thank you. Mayor pro tem. So I'm

going to ask a little bit the same question that councilmember Wilks said

which is that this we're looking at a future decision tonight not what we're

gonna do in the meantime to make everybody happy is that a fair

assessment well making everybody happy is not probably unlikely in this case we

are going to talk about ours a little bit and so those are some changes that

are being planned right now to mitigate

some of the impact there.

OK, we're going to nip this in the bud.

We're going to be respectful, and we're not

going to snipe from the audience, OK?

Thank you.

Oh, gosh.

So I actually had a bunch of questions

that relate to sort of the current situation, many of which

are kind of to give me a better sense of what's going on.

Sure.

Why are Thursdays the dates we close?

So is that the operational hours which is in the next part

of the presentation?

OK, I'll hold that one for one.

And let me see.

I have a whole bunch of those kinds of questions.

Well, that's a comment.

So I can't use that one.

Has anybody done a data analysis about how much more usage is available if we choose

eight courts somewhere?

Does that even address the problem?

The problem meaning to me being there is a room full of people and I'm sure this is representative

of 700 people.

Is eight more courts going to fulfill the needs of the?

being contemplated is not eight more. It's relocating those eight courts to another location.

Okay. And then we will convert those courts to another use. That's what we've been talking

about for a while. Okay. So there are, and I'll talk about this at the other section,

there are other courts being planned that I'll speak to separately. Okay. When we were

looking when we, when you sent out the contrast between what we have in Walnut Creek versus

what happens in the whole thing. I was pretty impressed. I think Walnut Creek already has

more courts than anybody else. Concord may have, I know Concord for sure has 14 courts.

Other than Concord, right. There may be others with more however. Right. It's relative. Right.

And I can tell from the groans of the audience this next question is going to get a new set

of groans. There seems to be, that was my warning not to do it, there seems to be a

resistance to indoor courts versus outdoor courts. And we're going to have more indoor

courts. We're going to reopen ties, etcetera. Is that an absolute, and I don't know who

I'm asking and I'm certainly not asking the whole crowd, I don't want to know, but.

So we did start pickleball indoors at TICE, one.

Two, we've had requests from pickleball players to reopen TICE, not just during the times

that it's raining or when it's really hot or smoky, but throughout the year.

So there is demand for indoor pickleball for sure, because I've got a petition with a bunch

of names on there that says we want to open those courts.

So is there as much demand as outdoors?

I don't think so.

Tice isn't ideal because it does share lines

with volleyball and basketball.

The lighting isn't perfect.

But there are courts there, and we'll

talk about this in a little bit, that we could accommodate.

And this is almost a comment.

But it's a really serious question in my mind.

How do we know that pickleball isn't really

the new racquetball, which was incredibly popular

and grew and grew and grew for 10 years,

and then fell out of fashion.

And all of the racquetball courts

that we have in Walnut Creek now are essentially

gym and exercise rooms because aerobics came in

and physical fitness took over.

I mean, I need to be confident that what we're doing

And what we're choosing to do isn't just a small term.

It's a real fad now.

And we're going to invest hundreds of thousands

of dollars for something that might go to Patel or whatever.

Do we have?

I can't answer that question.

We can look at the trend of the growth of play.

We can look at the trend of growth

of people purchasing pickleball paddles.

We can look at ball purchases.

We can look at investments that people, like Tom Brady,

and pickleball. So it seems like at the moment it is going to continue to grow.

None of us has a crystal ball. You'll probably hear from folks tonight that it

is here to stay. So that's, that's the, I wouldn't be spending time with you

talking about something that we've been working on for a year and a half if it

wasn't believed that this is something that's going to continue to grow. So

that's my belief, my understanding, but racquetball is maybe a cautionary tale.

OK.

And if we choose the basketball courts at Tice,

are we going to have another stream of people blow back

from the basketball people?

Are they heavily used?

Do people?

Of all the basketball courts in the city,

the least heavily used.

There isn't organized play there at all.

That happens more at Arbalotto, at Larky, and at Walden.

So it's more people play there.

It's more drop-in parents, kids, people

who are there for picnics, other things.

So it's used.

But one option could be we find another place in Heather Farm

Park to build basketball courts either short term or long term.

You know, there's lots of people who

have ideas about what we should do at the current swim center.

But I'm not going there.

OK, and just as an aside, the sand volleyball courts

were open since I've been on council.

So they're relatively new.

They're new.

They're popular.

They're used by lots of groups.

We would likely if this is a directional council push that a little bit farther toward the

lake there.

Oops.

Okay.

So we wouldn't do them in essentially.

We would move them?

I would.

Yeah.

I would move them.

That's a talk about sports.

That's a sport that's also I think here to stay.

Okay.

It's a college sport now and other things.

So sand volleyball, beach volleyball is very popular.

Okay.

All right.

That's I think all that qualify to be asked at this moment.

A couple of questions.

Parking availability.

I mean, you're on the perfect slide for me here.

Parking availability at the Head of the Farm Basketball Court.

Your comments seem to focus on the current configuration with the swim center there,

but the swim center is moving.

So really, in my mind, the parking is changing.

And both, by the way, while we're moving and building a new swim center, it's a little

more difficult.

It's not as fast to build new pickleball courts in the in that center of Heather farm because it is in the middle of the

Okay

suitability of location for pickleball standards of play

What do you what is meant by standards of play and why is one of them got a pro and a con right?

Well standards of play is things like what's the configuration is the East West is it north-south?

Okay, is it flat? Are there enough for eight courts, etc?

So some of that I've deferred to the club to say yes, this site would work or no

You can put five courts there

But those are the wrong direction the four courts works better if it's if it's this way and so okay

It's really based on them and then where I just had to find a place to slot this in with a Tice Park the con

There are half a con is the lack of proximity to the existing tennis center

And if the lifetime is going to manage that it means they have to manage two very disparate locations. So that's that's it

and

I mean one of the issues is not the biggest issue that's driving. This is noise and so

We can take a guess

It's pretty logical that the first the primary alternative is going to be a in it's in a noisier environment

The middle one. I'm not so sure how do you test the difference between what the sound would be like in those two environments?

If we wanted to figure that out

I may have to have the city engineer come up and help me with that analysis because this would be a CEQA process

It would be something that's way above my head as far as technical capabilities. So is he walking up this way?

He's not he should be sure usually I say it's way above my pay grade, but everybody's above my pay grade

Good evening mayor members of the council. I'm Steve Waymeyer. I'm the city engineer

So the question was about testing for noise at the different locations, right?

How would we compare two locations alternatives in Heather Farm Park?

We can do it intuitively, but that's usually not considered a good scientific approach. Yeah

So there's professionals that are noise professionals and what they would do is they'd model it so they could set up

locations and where the houses are relative and trees and everything else that's in the way and they could model the sound

get each location and then say a hundred feet away, they can test the level of the sound at that point.

It's modeled, it's not actual, but they can do the testing that's why.

Can they put on a recording like, you know, the Rolling Stones and see who can hear it and who can't? I mean,

how do they do that? It's really done on a computer.

Modeling is actually done it within a computer. Right, but they take the environment of the two

Different locations in the same park and then put them the new constraints or conditions on it to see what would happen

That's correct. Okay. Thank you. I have a Steve question since he's up here. Oh one more see you shouldn't have walked down

so I'm thinking about

The synergy with constructing the ball field and the courts at the Heather farm one location

Would that likely result in any cost savings doing having those construction projects go simultaneously or is that a

false economy I

Don't think there'd be a lot of cost savings because there's kind of two different things going on there

You know the paving the tennis court works kind of a separate bid versus the the synthetic turf

So it's not like it's one big paper. It's disparate construction. So you're not gonna get there's gonna be some asphalt work

But this is specialized work. So I don't think there'll be a lot of savings there

There'll be some in the staffing of it and the you know some of the soft costs there might be some savings that way

But we're not going to get like a better bid because they're just different and I wouldn't bank on that big of a difference

And those cost that he was giving you. Thanks

Thank you. I have one more question

Mr. Saffine

so we talked about the

Fee schedule, but that's once it's built. Why don't we talk about?

contributions from community groups in order to build facilities and what we do as a practice.

So there are examples recently and then years passed where community groups such as nonprofits

have contributed to construction projects that may not otherwise have happened without

their contribution.

And so I received this question earlier today so I'll give you some examples.

So the library, the downtown library across the street was built at about $40 million

total.

I'm just giving around numbers.

The library foundation, the Walnut Creek Library Foundation gave about 5 million of that.

So percentage, that's about 12 and a half percent toward the construction.

The DRAA, the Diable Regional Arts Association, helped to contribute to the expansion of the

plaza at the Lesher Center.

That was about a $2.6 million project.

They contributed $800,000.

So that's a lot of 30% of that cost.

The Wanna Creek Aquanauts helped to deepen the pool at Larky

to allow for the artistic swimming to take place there.

And that was about $200,000 to make it deeper.

They paid for that whole amount over time.

There are other examples.

The Wanna Creek Aquatic Foundation, the Wanna Creek

Sock Club have both committed to paying money

for the conversion to synthetic turf, one soccer club.

That's about a $1.5 million contribution

out of a $7 to $8 million project.

So that's about 15% to 20%.

And then the Aquatic Foundation has agreed

to contribute $3 million to about a $20 million project.

And there's a complicated calculation

to get to that $3 million, but that's also about 15%.

And so some of those projects deepening the pool at Larky

would not have happened had it not been for the Aquanauts.

We would not.

There's also the civic pride foundation contributed to this the spray ground

So those things happen because we had community groups who wanted this for not just their use but for the community

And so in partnership with the city we created agreements and construction in those cases took place. I

Think more completely because we had their participation. So those are just some examples

Thank you

Any other questions before?

Mr. Safin continues into the operational aspects. I assume that's what you wanted to do here, correct?

This has fewer slides

Pardon me fewer slides this time. You're in luck

Can you speak a little bit more directly into the microphone talk about the operational changes?

one at Apple Gray

To at the Tice Valley gym then three at the Heather Farm Tennis Center. So starting with Apple Gray

This is a change that is planned. So the let me let me take a step back

The mayor pro tem was asking about how do we make everyone happy? I know you meant that facetiously

This next conversation is how do we make people perhaps less unhappy?

Collectively, I'm recognizing that we can't make everybody happy with the situation that we've been in for the past year and a half

And so, it means there's compromise, it means there's give and there's take, and there's

feelings and there's all those things that go into this.

And so, I'm going to talk about what those changes that are planned to help achieve some

of that, recognizing that some people will still not be happy.

So operational change at Apple Grey Courts, the current hours I talked about already.

So Mondays 8 to 1, Tuesdays and Wednesdays 8 till sunset, Thursdays were closed, Friday

8 till sunset and then Saturday and Sunday 10 a.m. till sunset.

What's being planned as a change effective in about two weeks on the 18th is everything

stays the same except for Tuesday and Wednesday and so the change there is from 8 a.m. to

sunset to 8 a.m. to 1 p.m.

So why is that?

This provides additional noise relief to the neighbors.

It does not solve all of their concerns about noise, but it provides some.

It maintains the Walnut Creek Pickleball Club's organized schedule, which is 8 a.m. until

1 p.m., Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday, without a change.

So even though we're changing the hours Tuesday and Wednesday afternoon, the Pickleball Club's

schedule will remain the same.

we get asked about how will this reduce, you know, if we're changing, reducing, providing

less of something, what's the impact on our revenue? There is none because we're not getting

revenue at this point. And then so let me make sure we're not collecting revenue, so

it doesn't change. Correct. So nothing to nothing. Yes, yes, nothing minus nothing

is nothing. But I just want to make the point that sometimes people say if you're doing

less of something, I must be paying less, right? But that's not happening here. And

And then the other rationale is that the city is planning on adding additional pickleball

hours at two other locations, one being the Tice Gym and two being the Heather Farm Center

at Tice.

Going back to where we were years ago, even up to the pandemic, we had up to nine pickleball

courts there, three per what we call bays, three per basketball court there, which is

indoors.

So parking is plentiful, the elements outdoors, heat, rain, cold, et cetera, don't affect

the play there.

We are seeing demand for those courts to be reopened.

Like I said, I've got a petition that shows that people want to play there.

It would allow for drop-in play, which is what we did before, at the schedule which

is posted here, which is shown here, which is Monday through Thursday, from roughly 10

3 p.m. I'm in the process of hiring a new staff member to manage this activity.

That's why I'm saying it's tentative because I don't have that person on board yet, but I

underline Thursday because what this would also do is provide a Thursday

option, whereas we don't have Thursday play right now and I'll answer your

question in your pro tem right now, which is why Thursday? Because that's what we

agreed to between the club and the neighbors when we had a facilitated

meeting back in November. So it was a proposal. Both sides felt like, okay,

that's workable. So there wasn't any specific, oh Thursday's is less national

pickleball demand. It was just felt like that would be a reasonable compromise on

both sides. So that's Tice. And then lastly is Heather Farm. So we are in the

process right now. If you've been to the Heather Farm Tennis Center, we're under

construction. So we are going to make permanent on one of the courts there

shared dual-use pickleball and tennis court lines, right now it's taped for pickleball.

We're going to make those permanent.

There's also a half court, if you're familiar with the tennis center site that has a wall

that's used by people hitting against the wall, tennis, we're going to convert that

to a dedicated pickleball court.

And then what that would result in is we already have two courts there for pickleball.

It would increase that total from two to five courts there at Heather.

by lifetime, I talk about the fee structure, the hours are Monday through Friday, 8 a.m.

till 10 p.m., which is when the tenant center is open, and then Saturday and Sunday 8 to

8 because there are lights there. That's why it's open later. I'll stop there. That's my

last slide for now, and I'll take any questions that you have about operations.

I'm going to Mayor Pro Tem first because she, I made her not ask those questions earlier.

I've had one of them answered.

I could've sneak more in and gotten more answers on the way.

So, are there any particular times when the noise, I mean have the people who are affected

by the noise said that there were particular times when it is more annoying, i.e., when

they're eating dinner, or was all of this adjusted when you adjusted the time schedule?

I think you'll hear from some of the neighbors tonight.

You'll get their perspective on the times.

I don't know.

There's any particular time that's more.

I think it's probably a function of the number

people are playing at one time rather than a particular time

of day and the level of activity at that time.

And in this conversation, I've heard

that the Pickleball Club does manage some time.

And what does that mean?

And what's the difference between the time

they manage in the time when it's laissez-faire.

So again, folks here, I think the club president is online.

He'll be able to speak to the specifics of it.

But 8 AM to 1 PM is the time that the Pickleball Club is

there primarily.

And they manage the play there through the use of boards.

And people have a plan for their day when they're there.

They're not there the entire time.

They're not thinking about the entire five hours.

But while they're there, there's a schedule they play.

And so that's through under the auspices of the club

to manage that.

And then after that 1 PM time, it slows down a little bit,

partially because the weather gets warmer.

But it's really drop in and not managed by the club from 1 PM

until sunset or whatever the actual time is.

Stopping at 1 o'clock on Mondays means that's it for the day,

and people go home until the next day.

Is there more usage during the managed time

or the drop-in time, or does anybody measure?

I think there's more usage in the morning.

Partially because the weather partially cuts the club.

It's a social activity, and they do a really good job

of getting people together for that community.

Okay, wait a minute.

Now let me.

Okay.

How much do people play elsewhere besides at our courts?

Is there any kind of measurement for that?

I don't know specifically.

I know on Thursdays there are other courts that they do play

on.

You saw in the staff report the list of the other courts

locally, Lafayette, Danville, Sandra Mone, I think.

I'm sure you'll hear from folks about where else they play.

If you want to ask that question, please.

I already got a complaint from Lafayette about the fact

that our people are going there.

Maybe they're Lafayette's going back.

Yeah, well, you know and I I wrote and said I'm sorry and that's the end of it. Okay. I think that's the end of my questions

Councilmember welcome any questions

So let me make sure I I'm understood. I'm understanding here. So we are

Moving to change the hours on the 18th. This is

An operational decision that you've been talking with different people about so we're changing

we're reducing some hours at the red gear courts but adding going from two to

five courts at Heather farm when is that slated to happen I'm saying the fall

could be October the fall so it could be October could be November don't exactly

what and reopening the Tice gym four days a week for 10 to 3 p.m. for indoor

10 a.m. to 3 p.m. for indoor play with attendant with restrooms okay that's

also in the fall. Any other questions? What else in your presentation? Just the

recommendation. So just a reminder what staff is asking, which is to select a

preferred location for the new pickleball courts and direct staff to

implement the steps necessary to develop them. And I talked about those next steps

previously. Happy to come back to that again when you deliberate. All right.

That's all. Thank you. So I believe we're, what I think we're going to do is take a

ten minute break. So you you all may sit here but right after this break is we

will take public comment on this so prepare yourselves and I have lots of

cards and we have some hands raised remotely and we will be allowing for up

to two minutes of comments so be sure because we're gonna be rigorous about it.

Thank you. This is the 32nd call 29 28 27 26 25 24.

Good evening again and welcome back to the September 5th, 2023 regular meeting

of the Walnut Creek City Council. We are in the consideration item regarding the

site selection for a potential future pickleball facility and some operational

updates. We are now about ready to begin public communication. We have numerous

yellow cards. I'm going to use them like this if you're getting out of hand. If I

find a red card you're going into the lobby. All right. We also have some

members of the public who have raised their hands on Zoom. If you are on the

public on the zoom joining us virtually please use the raised hand feature to

let us know if you would like to speak we will take about a dozen people here

in the council chambers then we will do some people who are joining us

virtually then we'll come back to the council chambers I am going to call the

first six people for here in the council chambers you will have up to two minutes

you can have ten minutes if you are representing a group and that means the

rest of the group is not going to speak because that's the privilege. Now, so if

you step up and you say you're representing a group that means we're

going to ask for everybody else to raise their hands and tell us who's not

speaking, okay? All right. So Karen means David Shaftan, Phil Winslow, Derek Haney,

Kathy Sosterich, Russell Agawa, Chris Hunter, John Crooks, please line up over

here. First person can come to the microphone, line up behind them. You don't

have to be in any particular order. And again, it's up to two minutes. Welcome.

And I'm going to give the audience a reminder. Remember, you'd be really, really

nervous if you were standing there. This is not about clapping because that would

make her feel better, but alternatively if you shouted out or even whispered

under your breath that you didn't appreciate her comments, that's going to

make her feel nervous. We want everyone to feel welcome. This is an equal

opportunity to make public comment, okay? So we're just going to be silent when

people are speaking. Welcome. Thank you. And please introduce yourself first. I

I will. My name's Karen Means. And so thank you for hosting this and listening to us,

Mayor Silva and the City Council. And thanks for considering our pickleball community.

I would like to say that we strongly support the TICE option. So we like the idea of having

the courts, outdoor courts there and then indoor courts together. So it's kind of like a nice

all weather indoor outdoor kind of facility. We strongly oppose any changes to the hours operating

hours. I mean we it was told in the staff report that we already reduced operating hours once.

Now we're proposing it again. I guess the question is how many more times are we going to reduce the

operating hours because as long as we're there playing I don't think the residents are going to

be happy. So you know unless you reduce it to zero that's it's not they're not going to be happy.

So, we would like to play and actually every single thing we've been asked to do, we've done.

We really have taken care of the parking. I don't think that people can point out where

we're parked on the residential side of the street anymore and people are using the parking lot at

the park. Walnut Creek has many, many beautiful assets, the leisure, the farmer's market,

the beautiful downtown with lovely shops and outstanding restaurants and has a very vibrant

lovely pickleball community we're just asking that you let us play and don't don't wreck our

community like heather farms is not going to be great for this group um tice valley would be

great for this group we really enjoy our drop-in play um how we meet how we play so please let us

continue that way. Next speaker please. Hello my name is David Shaftan, thank you

all for having us comment today. I've been a Walnut Creek resident for 13

years. I started playing pickleball every week this year so I'm a little new to

the sport and new to this whole year and a half process. However I will say that I

absolutely love playing pickleball. I played racquetball about 20 years or 25

years and can say that I love it significantly more than racquetball. It's

a much more social sport. You frequently have four people playing instead of just

two and it's outdoors in fresh air. I love playing on dedicated pickleball

courts in addition, so thank you for investing in our sport. I also will say

that today I know that expansion is in process, but it is extremely difficult to

get a reserved court at the current Heather Farms lifetime activities court

reservations. I'm sure there are tons of people here who go to the walk-on, rotate

on courts. I use the reservable courts because I like playing with a group of

friends that I already have and I know I have a dedicated court to myself for

one and a half hours. I firmly believe it's not a passing fad. I have tons of

friends who are playing pickleball and absolutely loving it. Everyone who I know

who tries it loves it and I personally believe it's here to stay because it

It combines all the benefits of tennis, ping pong, racquetball, and there's cons to each

of those.

I'm not going to talk about those, but I think it's really an incredible sport.

I would like to ask that you please build eight new courts.

I personally would prefer them to be reservable seven days a week, 12 to 13 hours a day.

And the parking in the Heather Farms pool parking lot is a nightmare in the summer.

And I will stop there.

Thank you.

Mr. Shafton. Next speaker please. Mayor Silver, council members. Good evening, my name is John

Crooks. My wife and I live on Dapple Grey, a few doors up from Stewart. The noise and the traffic

generated by the Walnut Creek Pickleball Club is of great concern to us and we're very glad when

you've moved to a different area. In addition, we're finding that pickleball players are starting

Park in front of houses on Dapple Gray with great frequency. I'm asking the

council to authorize another no pickleball playing sign at the corner of

Dapple Gray and Stewart. Thank you very much. Thank you Mr. Crooks. Next speaker

please. My name is Kathy Cisteric. I am a Danville resident and a member of the

Walnut Creek Pickleball Club. In good faith we have abided by all the changes

that were agreed upon by the task force with respect to hours of play, parking, and use

of court number two.

Just because something is popular doesn't make it a bad thing.

What becomes a bad thing is when you take something away from the voting and sales tax

paying public.

I do not support a further reduction in hours of play at Red Gear.

I do support the proposed installation of courts at Tice Valley in order to expeditiously

move us from Red Gear to a new venue.

ball. It's a good thing. Thank you very much. Next speaker please. Hi, I'm Derek

Haney, a Walnut Creek resident living just a hundred yards from Red Gear Park

pickleball courts. I'm here again speaking for myself and my family

specifically to tell you why it is so important to me that you keep pickleball

at Red Gear. Preferably open daily and in the afternoons after school and work so

that I can teach my son how to play, which most people are working or going

school and it is recommended for daily exercise.

As you've heard from me before, being able to walk over and play pickleball

daily at Rudgier Park has been transformative for me.

I've lost weight, kicked bad habits, and found a community that supports me

emotionally. These benefits ripple out, making our

community healthier, happier, and more engaged.

The fact that the city is continuing to entertain a disgruntled minority of

proximal neighbors and upend the most successful activity

activity at Rudgier Park concerns me. The complaining minority believe that

that the quote, noise parking and public nuisance,

that they so arrogantly complained about on the flyer

they left on my door today, is actually a problem,

when in fact, this is exactly what we want

with a thriving park.

These aren't genuine gripes.

They don't want a thriving park, they want an empty one.

They want to silence the laughter, the competition,

and the community spirit.

And worse still, they know what they are asking you to do

is bad for the community.

They know that they are quite literally

the only ones that will benefit.

They know that their benefit is actually quite menial,

whereas it comes at a detrimental cost to me

and hundreds of others.

They know that the noise levels at Red Gear Park

are not enough to qualify as detrimental to their health,

yet they continue to attack the courts

because they believe they can win their argument.

They're not entitled to a quiet, empty park

just because it is used more

and it used to be quiet and empty.

These complaining neighbors, through their actions,

are actively working to hurt me and my family,

which is why I'm here today, and worse yet, it is working.

You're supporting them, Kevin.

You're now supporting me, thank you.

Next speaker please.

Good evening, thank you Council for trying to help us

with this situation, oh sorry.

And thank you for making Walnut Creek a great place to live.

I've enjoyed living here all these many years.

I've been a resident for 30 years.

I've been using Ruggier Park since moving

to the neighborhood 20 years ago with my family.

I've been playing pickleball here for 10 years,

eight of which with very few issues.

Excuse me.

In all my many years of experience

of using and helping manage the red gear pickleball courts

as a member and a past president,

I don't believe cutting the hours

gets the 80% of the problem fixed.

The problem is organized managed play every morning,

basically from 9 to 12 or a little bit longer,

which brings more players, more credit courts,

and a lot of noise and a lot of fun laughter.

During the afternoons and evenings,

Before winter comes, the courts are not even half full.

I took pictures today.

If you want to see videos of how few people were on the courts,

there were maybe four people there all afternoon.

Stopping the play, during the afternoons and evenings

before winter comes, the courts are not even half full,

with many families and teens dropping into play, many days.

I don't play tennis anymore.

I play pickleball.

I want to play pickleball at my local park.

Please don't remove the pickleball courts

all of the residents of Walnut Creek. And there are many who love this sport. These

are our only courts in Walnut Creek. Tennis players have multiple options. We do not.

Walnut Creek should build new courts. Add to what they have at Tice Gym. It's a great

location. There's lots of parking. The city needs to add more courts with the growth of

this sport. Please, don't remove the most successful location to play at Red Gear Park.

do add more courts to the city.

Let's stop and think and fix the actual problem.

Cutting ours cuts out our local families.

Don't do it.

Fix managed play.

Thank you.

Next speaker, please.

Good afternoon.

My name is Russell Ogawa.

Nice to meet you, Cindy Silver.

I wrote your letter on June 17, and I

hope you had a chance to read it.

At that point, I was making the argument

that we should open both the ice gym

and the outdoor courts have both,

because there's so many pickleball players

and there are all different levels of players.

When I started, I was young, not anymore.

But, you know, I live in Rossville,

I belong to the Rossville Pickleball Club

as well as the Walnut Creek Pickleball Club.

This Roswell pickleball shirt is older than about 15 years old,

you know?

And I've been playing for that long.

And I play in Seattle, too.

Ross, just to give you an update,

Ross was finally going ahead with a pickleball outdoors.

But this outdoor facility will be covered.

We'll have sound attenuation around the walls.

Stan is fairly close to houses, so the noise is a big concern.

The criteria that's mentioned on page four are real,

but the first three are the most important, the noise,

the parking.

And for guys like me, we like restroom facilities

that are close.

The one that is there now doesn't have any clothes,

and it's very convenient to walk far away.

Thai spark is ideal because it has outdoor bathroom facilities right close by, plus the

gym has a locker room, and I hope that we can use a locker room also.

Okay, just going back to the console action, I would say select a Thai spark as a preferred

location, period.

That's my preferred location, and—

Thank you very much, Mr. Ogala.

So, Tice Valley Park is your perfumed location, thank you.

I'm going to take another group of speakers, Judy Woblesky, Sue, is it, is it Mellie or

Nellie?

I'm not sure.

Jill Schinkel, Janet Rogers, Jason Morris, Cindy Gershon, Matco Nunez, no, they made

to check if they left so you you can submit a card and speak for yourself okay

good thank you thank you so much for your thank you so much my name is Jason

Morris thank you your silver and counsel and I've started playing pickleball in

February I'm damble resident and a week after I started playing I got diagnosed

with throat cancer and I'd have to say that it's saving my life man. It's it's

not just the exercise and being out with that with you know being active but just

the community around it and and I don't know just like everyone said or people

I heard you know all the laughter and everything and just everybody around has

made the biggest difference on my healing and the community itself has

just changed my life. So thank you for your time. Thank you for being here. Next

speaker please. Hi I'm Sue Mellie, 33 year resident of Walnut Creek. Not

representing the Pickleball Club but I belong to the Pickleball Club. So I don't

want ten minutes or to take anybody else's two minutes. Nope you get your two

minutes. Okay. So I live in Southern Walnut Creek on our lean lane in between

the two sites, Rudgier and Tice. I'm holding up a Tice sign because that's

our preferred location for an indoor outdoor solution. I have had to go to

Ultimate Fieldhouse, you know, for indoor pickleball when it's raining. But I think

having them together is going to be much better. I also wanted to just give you

some observations about playing at Road Gear. It's not just about retirees, which

I am, and about morning play. There are generations, you know, like Derek

mentioned. There are kids out there, they're learning pickleball in school

and they're coming and playing. There are people that work that can't play in the

morning and there are retirees like myself that like to play at two basic

times nine thirty and four or five. So cutting out all those afternoon hours

and evening hours is just not tenable you know for the large group of folks

that play and I think it was a little bit misleading saying that the play is

just from 8 to 1. That's when we have a formal board up there. But the group is so cohesive

that the same drop-in, next four up rules apply. We just hang our paddles on the fence.

We don't have a formal board. So it really is 8 to 8 or 8 to Sunset. It's not 8 to 1.

very much. Next speaker please. Hello, my name is Jill Shinkle. I wanted to make one point as a

reminder that it was during COVID that this controversy first got started. It was a really

crazy time that led to parks and open spaces across the country being completely inundated.

I saw the numbers surge when the Red Gear courts finally reopened and I've definitely seen numbers

drop off. I wish you would all go to the park in the middle of the day or the afternoon to see how

quiet, how civilized, how not a nuisance the courts really are. I also think the

value of what we currently have hasn't been fully appreciated or defended. You

have beautiful, highly functional facility. It's universally admired. It serves

the populations you want to serve. And big cuts have already been made. Over a

quarter of court hours have been taken away and the new proposed cuts would be

that almost half of the recreation hours that you used to provide at Red Gear

will no longer be there. Those cuts will hurt afternoon park users completely.

Think about them, working professionals, teenagers, family groups, newcomers to the

sport. And it isn't only the Pickleball, Walnut Creek Pickleball Club members who

play in the mornings, it's the entire community. We're just kind of a Facebook

group that organizes things. We're not like the Racquet Club. Everybody is

welcome. I also support the Tice location and I think you should maintain the

hours until we move to that location. I also think there's a very good argument

for retaining some pickleball in neighborhood parks as I've heard other

city official state. As far as Heather Farm and the new focus on Padel, it's

really confusing. It seems like it's a commercial endeavor that in no way

is responsive to community needs. Final points, tonight the Piedmont City Council

is also meeting. Up for vote is a recommendation to expand pickleball and

and to create new permanent courts there.

Like here they had to navigate all the same issues,

sound studies, tennis players, neighbors,

sorry, that's what I'll say.

Thank you very much.

And you're expected to, yes, vote,

and the hours they're proposing, I'm sorry,

I have to say it, is 9 a.m.

No, actually, I'm going to say thank you.

Thank you.

Hello, good evening, my name is Matteo Nunez Ruiz,

and I have lived in Creekside Drive.

I live currently in Creekside Drive.

I'm also a junior at Los Lomas,

and my friend Kevin introduced me to Pickleball a few months ago, and I ended up really liking

not only the sport, but the community as well. Everybody's open and loves to help each other

out, especially me, since I'm relatively new to the game. Some players taught me the basics

of the game, which was exceptionally helpful in my Pickleball development. I would hate

for this to stop, since the community is very helpful and generous. Apart from this, Pickleball

is also one of the only pastime things that I have available to do and

preventing this in the afternoon only encouraged me to join Kevin in

obnoxious activities. So who on earth is Kevin? All right and in the morning I'm

in school so really the only time for me to play is in the afternoons which you

guys are considering to restrict and if I can't be able to play I'll go back to

playing video games and scrolling through social media. Pickleball is one

of the only forms of exercise that I have after school. Well, when it comes to

working my cardiovascular system I actually do list of some weights right

now. I just started and I really like it. So I got to work my cardio though. And in

conclusion I would be devastated to see the courts at rug gear close. I would like

the time times to be restored and to be able to play. Thank you. Thank you very

much. We know we all want to clap for him, but we're gonna be respectful. There you go.

We don't want to want to clap for Kevin.

Hi, I'm Janet Rogers. I've been a resident of Walnut Creek for 40 years. I've raised

our children here, just had a fabulous life. I love, love this community. And I love the

the community that is represented here, pickleball.

Just fabulous people coming together

to play such a fun game, to commune, to laugh.

It's what everybody's been saying.

It's absolutely true.

And I love the suggestion for you guys

to go up and visit those courts Monday through Friday

from 12 noon to 4 PM, 5 PM.

Super laid back, super quiet.

I've been there at those times and that's the case.

I am a full-time working pickleball player,

which means I'm gonna be cut out of play

now Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday.

That's a hardship.

I really, really enjoy this game

and I'm not gonna be able to play.

Heather Farms, it's an alternative.

You mentioned $7, it's $7 per person.

And if you play three or four times a week,

that's a sizable amount of money every week

to play pickleball.

You also mentioned going back inside

to the Tice courts inside.

I was here a year ago when you asked the question about,

and we were all sitting here and you said,

how many of you wanna go play inside at Tice?

No one raised their hand.

How many of you don't wanna play?

Everybody raised their hand.

Nobody wants to go back and play inside at Tice

as an alternative playing at red gear.

If you choose to take the pickleball courts at red gear

and do something else with them,

they're gonna be underutilized,

just like the tennis courts are now.

Please don't change those hours.

Please don't do that.

You're hurting people like me,

you're hurting people like these guys.

Please don't.

We've compromised.

I might've missed something.

I haven't heard where they've compromised at all.

Thank you so much. Thank you.

we're gonna turn to those who are joining us virtually

and the sequence will be Carmen, then David, then Tony.

Hello, can you hear me?

Yes, we can.

Okay, good evening.

My name is Carmen Sands.

I'm a professional coach and a professional pickable player.

Over the past five years,

I've been at the forefront of the pickable's growth

in our area.

I can certainly tell you that pickable

is not just the passing train.

It's here to stay and it's driving.

The sport is experiencing an unprecedented surge

and this momentum is set to continue.

By 2030, we are expecting to have 50 million

active players nationwide.

Communities, cities, and clubs

are all eagerly preparing for this,

investing in new courts

and converting tennis courts into pickable courts.

Our pickle community in Walnut Creek is solid and dynamic.

We firmly believe that the city of Walnut Creek

is committed to supporting the sports development

by offering ample opportunities for players

of all ages to play, especially kids

who are future athletes that can only train their youth.

Pickle is a great sport that offers inclusivity,

health benefits, and social opportunities for all.

Expanding the popularity of pickle

without about the only way forward. I humbly urge you to consider not reducing any more hours

at Bradbury airports. Such a decision will not only impact the local community but also affect

the future of pickable inner region. I strongly feel that our pickable community is in urgent need

of a new home. I strongly endorse the idea of constructing new course at Christ Valley.

This location offers the advantage of quicker completion compared to other potential sites

along with being next to the indoor force and reducing the traffic in the busy street

of Walnut Creek, Ignatia Valley Road. My last petition as an ambassador of the school will be

to keep pickable play accessible and free on city course. Thank you very much.

have a great one. Thank you. David Brown. Hi, just checking to make sure you can hear me.

Yes, we can. Yeah, thank you. Thanks for your patience, uh, going this, uh, through this again

and again. I, this is my second meeting. I think you've had more. I kind of feel like this is that,

uh, Groundhog Day movie. It's just kind of over and over. Just in, in, I think some of the people

brought up some good ideas. I want to touch on those more than anything. I think that reducing

the hours further is really a bad idea. I think it's going to hurt the city residents.

I think it's going to put a ton of pressure on other communities, not that that's your concern,

but I think Lafayette will be badly affected by the hour reduction. I just encourage you to think

long and hard on that hour reduction the further since we've already done this once

in December of last year. At least let's postpone that until the end of the year

when we've got a better feel on what these other courts are going to do.

But I just feel if you listen to the kids and the workers, reducing the hours just doesn't make

sense. I really feel I live about a half mile from the park. I ride my bike up there all the time.

I looked, there's really eight houses that are somewhat contiguous with the park on the on the

east side. You know, as Kevin Safin's uh graphic showed, the entire west side and the entire south

side of the court is you know bordered by parkland. So I just think a novel concept maybe for us is to

maybe stay with what we got. Maybe we ought to try the acoustical ceiling, acoustical fencing because

Honestly, it wasn't proven that it didn't work. No one ever proved that. I rode my bike down there

that day and I didn't even know they were playing on those courts, you know, testing them. So that

fencing was really quiet. So I think we should save money and reconsider. Red gear in conjunction

with something else over the next couple of years. I don't think we should restrict. I don't think we

we should let eight neighbors bully the city

at the expense of 280.

Thank you very much.

Thank you so much.

Tony Parisi.

Hi there, are you able to hear me now?

Yes, we can hear you.

Okay, great, thank you.

Good evening, my name's Tony Parisi

and I am the current president

of Walnut Creek Pickleball Club.

I was a member of the Pickleball Task Force

and wanna thank Jason Cook

for his thoughtful and effective leadership of this team.

Today on behalf of the Pickleball Club,

which comprises over 1500 past and current members,

I stand here or speak here to strongly advocate

for the construction of 10 lighted pickleball courts

at Tice Valley Park.

We're excited to say we are 100% in alignment

with our neighbors on this recommendation.

The key advantage of Tice Valley option

is the potential for courts to be constructed

within the next 12 months.

Courts at Heather Farms will not be available

until late 2025 at best.

Tice Valley offers the quickest relief to the neighbors

while providing for the fastest return

full-time play for our players, a community that continues to grow. When it comes to parking,

Tice Valley offers a more favorable situation compared to Heather Farm,

keeping added cars off the already busy Ignacio Valley. Lastly, with the city's plan

to open Tice Valley Gym for indoor pickleball play later this year, it makes sense to centralize

play at Tice Valley Park and establish this location as a new home of pickleball and Walnut

Creek. The Tice Valley location represents the best choices to replicate the culture

of Rudyard Park, which was recently named one of the top 20 places to play pickleball in America.

As it stands, lights are planned to be added to the soccer field at Tice Valley. Incorporating

lights into the pickleball courts would significantly extend the available playtime and provide

additional capacity to support this growing sport. In our neighboring communities, there are over 40

courts all free to play and managed as drop-in. The club is willing to partner with the city to

establish a compensation plan that allows for reserve court time for our

club while continuing to provide free drop and play at other times and we are

happy to continue to manage the courts as we have done since the courts were

created managing cleaning maintenance and play. In conclusion we advocate for a

vision that embraces the growth of pickleball addresses the concerns of

neighbors and enriches the lives of our community. We believe the construction of

10 lighted pickleball courts at Tice Valley Park is the most sensible and

a timely solution for all stakeholders.

Thank you very much. We hope to work together.

Coming back to those of you here in the room,

Reid Powell, Bridget Cox, Stuart Mangini,

Dawn Means, Derek Minow, and Kevin Mora.

Good evening, Mayor and City Council.

My name is Bridget Cox.

I wanna tell you my personal story is

I belong to club sport in San Ramon.

And I pay money to go there to play pickleball.

But I don't go there.

I go to Rudger because they're better players.

And I want to get better.

I started in October.

My husband plays now.

My two kids just started playing now.

And when I go to Rudger, I eat at God's.

And then I shop at sports basement.

And then I come over to Walnut Creek and spend money.

We now travel with our pickleball paddles.

And when we go, we stay at hotels.

We eat at the restaurants.

I played in Annapolis, I played in Nevada,

I played in Portland, I played in Oregon.

I'm not as good as these guys, but I'm trying to be,

which is why I come.

And everybody knows the best players are over at Rugger,

and I could play up in Martinez.

I went up to Martinez and ate at Troy with my girlfriend,

but I came back to Rugger because they're the best.

And I want to play with them, and I like playing with them,

and I eat there and I spend my money there every time I go.

So what you're missing out is a venue that attracts visitors.

There's tournaments at these places,

which bring in people that stay at your hotels,

eat at your restaurants, go to your Starbucks,

and shop at your sports stores.

If you don't open pickleball courts,

we're going someplace else.

On Thursday, guess where I go?

Mira Woods, you know why?

The Rutgers players are down at Mira Woods.

That's what's gonna happen,

is you're gonna lose all that revenue.

So don't open pickleball courts,

and your city won't function,

it won't have a good economy, and it won't do well.

I'll go down to Walnut Creek someplace else.

have a good day. Thank you. Next speaker, please. Good evening, my name is Reed Powell. I've

lived just a few blocks away from the Rudgier Park in Walla Creek for 37 years. I want to thank you

all, especially Kevin Safin, for all your efforts and working on that great report and listening to

both sides and really trying to make this work. Please protect the hours of play we've already

compromised on. If for some reason hours of play have to be reduced further, then I'm glad to see

the proposal protects the early morning hours starting at 8 a.m. In my opinion, the early

start time best serves Walnut Creek neighborhood residents, many of us who walk or ride our

bikes there, which also helps minimize cars and noise. But please, no more reductions.

We are now down to only four days a week that we can start at 8 a.m., and shorter hours

in the afternoon will only put more pressure on the early hours. I encourage any new court

location, hopefully Tice Valley, to be set up like Rud Gear is now. Open play

without a need for paid reservations. And when we do get new courts, please don't

waste time and money tearing out the old pickleball nets and poles on dapple

gray and converting those back to tennis or basketball or anything. There's

actually alternate tennis-like options that are quiet and can be played on the

existing pickleball courts with no modifications needed. One alternative is

called Spec Tennis, if you Google it, which

is like a mini tennis game, pickleball game,

played with slightly oversized, low-pressure tennis balls

that are quiet along with quiet paddles.

And it's great for teaching kids tennis and pickleball skills.

Please check it out.

It's possibly the second best use of pickleball courts

and a solution to the noise issue.

Some pickleball players might even

like it more, which would take some pressure off the demand

on new courts, and best of all, it's quiet,

and it costs nothing to do to keep that.

Thank you.

Thank you very much.

Next speaker, please.

Hello, all.

Stuart Mangini.

I live near Heather Farms.

I live on La Casa Villa, very convenient to Heather Farms,

but I don't want to go play at Heather Farms.

It's already over-impacted with all the other stuff

that you guys have put in there over the years.

So I'd like to see Tice as our main place to play.

I'd like to see 12 or 14 courts, not 10 courts,

because I agree with the young lady that came up and said,

there are tournaments to be played, more money

to be brought into the city.

That's a good thing.

So I'd also like the hours not reduced, too.

So it all comes down to Tice, more courts, more hours.

Thank you.

Next speaker, please.

Oh, the infamous.

Finally found you, Kevin.

Yep.

Hi, my name is Kevin Mora.

I live on Kevin Court.

No.

Sorry, Providence Court.

And I'm a junior at Los Lomas.

Earlier this year, my dad introduced me

to a game called Pickleball.

When I started to become a pickler,

I invited my high school friends to play.

since the courts are nearby and it was convenient for them to go to.

There's even a pickleball club at Las Lomas,

so there's more people my age who like the game.

I understand that you guys limited our hours of play.

First it started with no Monday afternoons, then no Thursdays,

then no, and finally playing starts at 10 a.m. on weekends.

During the summer, the weather gets hot around 10, so I'm out of there soon after.

at eight in the morning that it's the perfect temperature

for pickleball.

You start when the weather's cool

and leave once it gets too hot.

It defeats the whole purpose once you start at 10.

We high school students can only play in the afternoons

and I understand that you're considering shutting us down

in the afternoons on Tuesday and Wednesday.

I couldn't believe it.

I was shocked to hear that you're considering this.

I hope you take high school students' needs

when you consider restricting the hours further.

If we cannot play when we want to,

we may have to resort to other teenage activities

like teeping houses.

All in all, I would like to be able to play every day

like we used to, from 8 a.m. till sunset,

and stay at the courts by Red Gear Park

since they're local and they're already built.

As my friends and I are getting into the game,

we like to go in the afternoons.

Having these restrictions

gives us fewer opportunities to play.

We need more pickleball, not less, thank you.

Thank you very much.

Next speaker, please.

Thank you.

Madam Mayor, members of council.

My name's Don Means,

and I'm a member of the Walla Creek pickleball community.

I guess I'm part of an organized group of two with my wife,

but I don't think that counts.

Fundamentally, I'd like to see Rudger stay open.

It would be my preferred choice,

but if a decision is made to move the courts

that I would support the TICE option, it just-and even looking

at the presentation, just the other two options seem way more complicated to me

with all the other-integrating all the other projects that go into that.

I've personally been involved with the number of EIRs,

and I think that would be an extremely complicated project to do.

So TICE seems easier, quicker.

I think it solves a lot of the problems the neighbors have

with quite frankly getting rid of us quicker than they'd like to.

There's adequate parking and the enclosed facility

with the open courts really makes a lot more sense.

So that would be my position on the alternatives

that you're looking at.

The other item I'd like to talk about is the operational issues.

I was a little alarmed by the idea of reducing the hours.

As was mentioned, there were a number of meetings held,

lots of discussions, testing, Stuart, all kinds of different options were looked

at and I don't believe in any of those when the when the club agreed to reduce

the hours someone said oh by the way there might be a further reduction so it

seems like the city's taking another bite of the apple where I come from that

looks like bad faith to me. People left the meeting you know gifts for exchange

exchange, everyone left happy, and now we're hit with this, oh, here's another reduction.

And I just don't think that's fair, I don't think that's right, and I think it shows,

you know, kind of a lack of an ethical behavior in some ways to come back and-

Let's keep it civil.

That is civil.

OK.

Thanks.

Thank you.

Next speaker, please, was Derek Minna?

Derek?

Yes.

Yes?

I was gonna save you one more speaker.

Everybody said good things.

And I'm new to Pickleball.

I'm a Walnut Creek resident.

And I'll just say it's a great community

and it's a real asset to Walnut Creek

and the drop-in schedule and rut gear is a wonderful facility.

And I guess I would suggest keeping the rut gear facility.

Thank you.

Thank you very much.

We'll go back to those who are joining us virtually

then come back to the remaining in the room.

phone number 925-323-6150 last four digits 6150. Please remember to unmute yourself.

Can you hear me? Yes thank you. Can you hear me? Yes. Good evening. My name is Todd Scheid. I've

been a resident of Walnut Creek for over 20 years and I also am employed in the city of

have owned a creek for over 23 years.

I'm a first generation East Bay native

and I'm a five-year pickleball player.

I guess the only thing I'd like to drive home here

is that I'm in support of all the other comments

from the pickleball players

and I appreciate the lost moments teams

that are involved in the sport.

My history is that I started playing five years ago

when my kids were 15 and 13.

They're now both in college and when they come home,

Our family activity, my wife and I and my two children

is to go to Red Gear and bond and play pickleball

and have fun with the community.

We do go there for the competition.

We started on tennis courts with rubber corners for boundaries.

And when we found the Red Gear Long Creek Pickleball Club

at Red Gear several years later, it

made the sport blossom and created a family activity.

I strongly oppose the reduction in operating hours.

And I guess I also wanted to say that as well as Los Omos,

my children went to North Cape High School.

They do have pickleball in PE.

And with the lack of pickleball courts available,

my children have gone and played indoors at the Mormon Church.

And basically, the point is that this

is a multi-generational sport where 14-year-olds can

play with 7-year-olds and get beat by 7-year-olds.

and I've seen it happen and it's amazing

to see the bond among those generations.

So anything you could do to expedite

the increased number of courts

and the enjoyment for all generations

would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Scheid.

Next would be, and the last speaker virtually

is Valerie Gardner.

Can you hear me?

Yes, thank you.

Okay, thank you.

I just wanted to comment on what has been said this evening.

The Pickleball Club of Walnut Creek,

as per what the city said, was 700 members.

And 40% of them were Walnut Creek residents,

which meant 280 people were actual taxpayers

in the city of Walnut Creek.

These courts were given to the Pickleball Club

with no community representation, no CEQA process,

and overarching thoughts about how that would impact

a neighborhood.

How was a recreational activity a driving force

for taxpayer dollars based on 280 taxpayers?

How are private clubs able to gain access

and privilege at public facilities?

Where was any public survey done

within the city of Walnut Creek

before any of this was decided?

Our city is now addressing using tax funds

for numerous fastest growing sports, which are numerous,

where, where does it stop?

What, what fastest growing sport is the most important?

How do we discern which one is the one we spend

our taxpayer dollars on?

What is our city's obligation versus private clubs?

The pickleball club is a private club.

They have the ability to raise funds,

to buy their own facility and use their own monies

for whatever facility they want.

Why are we as a city spending our tax dollars on a club that has at best 280 members within

our own city?

I would say we close the double grade courts because the impact to the actual citizens

of Walnut Creek is substantial and no one calculated that at the time these courts were

allocated.

And I think the most important thing our city should be looking at is the actual members

of our community, not all the outlying people that are coming here to use facilities that

they do not pay for. Thank you.

That concludes public comment for those who are joining us virtually. I'll now come back

to those of you who are still with us. Shiva Sundaram, I think I pronounced it right. Lisa

legal, Louise Mora, Kristin Lanham, Teke Houdron, and Aistha Shiva.

Hi, good evening. My name is Shiva Sundaram, and I'm a resident of Walnut Creek, Radge

Park area. I was also a member of the Pickleball task force and represent many of the Radge

Park residents who were not able to come here today. First, I want to thank the council

for listening to our problems, as well as to thank Mr. Kevin

Safin for his leadership, and also Jason Cook for all

the work on the task force.

Let me say this again.

Nobody's against pickleball.

Nobody's against you guys playing pickleball.

He's just against you playing at Radge Park, which is just

50 feet away from our homes.

You don't know what we've gone through

for these last five years.

It's completely destroyed our neighborhood.

the noise, the parking, and other nuisances continue

despite the city's best efforts to control them.

We've had threats to get out of our homes

just because we don't like pickleball.

We've had racist comments.

We've had garbage cans blocked.

And even public changing of clothes and urination.

Thankfully, that doesn't happen anymore.

So over the last one year, over 180 residents in the neighborhood

have signed a petition against pickleball.

It's amazing that some of the speakers here

try to suppress the minority.

Yes, we'll never outnumber them because they're

like 700 or 1400.

We're just a bunch of maybe 100 homes, but we live there.

And you can ask anybody, there's not

a single pickleball player who's 100 feet of these courts.

And to actually listen to this noise for 13 hours a day,

it is torture, actually.

The players say it's good for their health

and social enjoyment, great, but what about us?

We are like still living in COVID era.

We are imprisoned on our own homes

and not able to step outside,

having to deal with severe anxiety, sleeplessness

and other health concerns.

No matter how many players mob the city council meetings

and twist the truth, the facts are indisputable.

Radhia courts were built without notifying residents

and they failed CEQA.

Thank you very much.

Thank you.

I'm T. Cawdrin, and I am a member of the Walnut Creek Pickleball Club, but I don't play in

the mornings. And I wanted to clear up just a fundamental misconception that I think people

hold, which is the club is like a volunteer organization. They basically just put out

a whiteboard. They don't prevent anyone who's not a member from playing. Anyone can play.

So they're basically just their facilitating play, helping people get on and off the courts

and raising the competition level basically.

So it draws people to come to play at Red Gear

during the mornings because the play is so well managed.

So we don't need a lifetime activities managing play

at the new courts.

We actually have a really good community based organization

that can do that the same way we've been doing it.

But the reason they don't pay for courts

is they're not reserving them.

Like anyone can show up and play from eight to one

when the Walnut Creek Pickleball Club is managing that play and play, so it's not at all something

where you have to be a member of the court of the club to be able to play. Now that said,

the Walnut Creek Pickleball Club has gotten a lot of benefits out of this negotiation

since now the people who play in the afternoon and evenings are really the ones taking the brunt of

the of the compromise, which isn't fair. I love these kids so much who are up here talking about

it. I love, I work, so I play in the afternoons and evenings when the kids are

there and the families are there, and it is pretty quiet, like compared to the

mornings when that club, which I'm a

member of, but it draws people from all over to come play in the mornings,

afternoon and evening is completely different. So why punish afternoon and

evening? It's so unfair. When I first heard that you guys were gonna close

Tuesday and Wednesday, I literally, Tony is my boyfriend who manages the club and

And I was screaming at him, I was like, that is so unfair.

I'm like stomping around the house.

How could you do that to afternoon, evening players?

It's totally discriminatory.

Tice Valley is not gonna be open afternoon, evening either.

So that's it, thank you.

Thank you very much.

Next speaker, please.

Hi, my name's Lisa Riegel and I am a Walnut Creek resident.

And there is an old story about how to cook a frog.

You put him in boiling water and he jumps out

to save his life and runs away.

but the way to do it is you put it in warm water

and keep turning up the heat until he's cooked.

We feel like frogs.

We feel like we're being cooked

because every time we agree to one of the things you say

that we agree to, do we have an option not to?

When you all said you're gonna close this on Thursdays,

did we have the option to say, nope, we don't like that?

Would that have been okay?

So we're not really agreeing to all these things,

we're saying, okay, we'll follow what you recommended

and we're doing it nicely.

We don't park where we're not supposed to park

Despite being public streets, and we've already talked about the closures, 27% of time is

gone.

So then we say, okay, let's move to the other side of the park.

And we did do a study, and they did say the decibels were not where they were bad.

It was fine.

So then they talked about parking, and we said, we will never park in front of your

house.

And they said, well, what about everybody else?

We're not responsible for every person that visits Red Gear.

So we have done everything we can.

It keeps talking about compromise.

It's like both sides happy.

What have the neighbors compromised?

I've seen nothing, no compromise from them.

We don't park in front of their house.

I don't know why that hurt, but it did.

They didn't want us to do that.

So despite doing everything you have asked us to do,

we followed your guidelines.

You said, do this.

And we said, okay.

And now you're saying, oh, by the way,

we're still kicking you out.

And until you are kicked out,

we're gonna reduce your hours even more.

So it's even gonna be worse than it's been

after every time we've done everything we can

to be agreeable to everybody.

And we're always nice to the neighbors.

I can guarantee you that.

I don't know about any of these other things

that we've been told about.

So how about this?

Neighbors stop complaining for a year until we can move.

Leave us alone, let us play for a year.

You're already kicking us out of the place we all wanna be.

So since we're gonna get kicked out anyway,

just leave us alone, leave our hours alone,

let us play there, let us take care of it.

We even clean the courts, public court, public city park.

We clean it, y'all don't even have to pay for it.

Thank you.

Good evening, my name is Luis Mora.

I'm Kevin's father.

We should cheer for that, okay, ready.

I live about a mile from the courts,

and I want to paint two scenarios

before I come to my point.

Imagine I lived next to Ignacio Valley Road,

and all of a sudden I'm working from home,

and I say, oh my God, this is a busy street.

And I come here and I say, it's too loud.

Can you please close Ignacio Valley Road

on Monday afternoons and Thursday all day?

You would not take me seriously.

And you would remind me, you live next to a busy street.

I'm about if I live next to a school.

And all of a sudden, I'm working from home.

And I say, this is ridiculous.

Parents dropping kids, kids yelling and screaming all day,

and then parents picking them up.

This is unacceptable.

Can you please close the school Monday afternoons

and Thursday all day?

You wouldn't take me seriously either.

My point, here we are.

A few neighbors, eight, 10, 12, whatever number is close by,

is complaining to you because they live next to a park

and they're complaining about park-related noises.

And you're taking them seriously.

You already reduced our time.

We can't play Monday afternoons all day Thursday

and weekends before 10.

And now you want even more.

What kind of message are you sending to these kids?

We don't want you to play in the afternoons.

Is that the message what you want them to see

from their city officials?

You should actually be looking at bringing us back

to every day from 8 a.m. to sunset

and remind the neighbors, you live next to a park.

Thank you.

Next speaker please.

Hi, I'm Kristin Lanham.

I'm a Walnut Creek resident.

It's been agreed that nobody's happy at all.

Congratulations.

I understand that we negotiated

and worked with everyone to get a solution

until we had a place to go to.

So I'm not understanding why we're changing the hours

Again, I thought it was for us to get a new place,

which we're trying to work on.

So I'd really like to see us move forward

in getting the place as quickly as possible.

And hopefully that's Tice.

It looks like it's the one that will be quicker.

You mentioned about having Walnut Creek pickle hours,

ball hours going back to that and changing it until one.

Well then why aren't we changing it back

to eight o'clock on the weekends?

I work on the weekends.

I do open houses and I can't get in,

go to work and shower and do all the things.

I'd like to see it go back to eight.

So changing the hours,

we're not getting anything out of that either.

So it's just reducing the clubs.

I'm also not understanding why lifetime's being considered

as an issue because it's at Tice Valley

and they can't manage them both.

They're not managing it now.

So why are they being considered?

I would be happy as a pickleball player club

of paying my dues and having some of that money

to go to the city to reimburse for whatever the things.

But I'm a taxpayer.

I'm paying you, you get tax money from people coming here.

And then I've heard people say 10 courts,

but I saw it as eight courts for that any of them,

there was no solution for more courts.

And I'm not sure why that's not being a consideration

of where to expand, or it's probably more financially

incentive to do more at one time versus you know only eight for this. We are

ready or tight and have a lot of play and then as far as the reduction on the

hours we're hitting into daylight saving times going away they're gonna have

reduced hours because it's dark there's no lights. Thank you very much. Hi my

name is Arthi Shivakumar. I'm a resident of double grade. Thank you for giving us this

opportunity and also thank you to Kevin, Safeen and the task force who's worked

really hard. They've worked really hard to get us this far, right? We've been

waiting for a decision for over a year and a half and we're asking that you

please make a decision today for the location that can be constructed the

fastest and if that's Ties, please do vote to move forward with that location.

I also want to say we do need the reduced hours. I was at the mediated

session again with Kevin and Tony over a year ago. The understanding we walked

away with was we would revisit the temporary measures depending on the

amount of time it will take to get to a more permanent resolution.

So if this is going to take at least another year, if not more, my request is to the City

Council is to move forward with a meaningful reduction in the hours that have been proposed

by Kevin.

Please remember that none of the CEQA or noise studies or environmental studies were conducted

before these were installed in practically our front yards.

So these courts shouldn't even be here in the first place.

apart. I appreciate it's a fast-growing sport but the Pickleball Club has

outgrown this location. The sport has outgrown this location. It's a

residential place and it's just too loud. Cities nationwide are acting for their

residents shutting down courts that are too close to homes and you should do it

too quickly. Please do not be intimidated by the mobbing of your city council

meeting. I do want to play, I have 30 seconds I might fit one of these in but

I want to play this for you.

This is from the backyard of Judy,

who had to leave a little bit earlier.

And this one is from our frontiers.

Let me know if you'd be OK with that kind of noise

for 10 to 12 hours a day.

Thank you.

Thank you very much.

I'm going to see no other members of the public who

wish to speak.

I'm going to close public comment.

I'm going to thank all of you.

You were incredibly patient, respectful,

And it makes it easier for everyone when you are like this

and everyone feels welcome to speak.

So thank you very much.

I'm going to bring it back to council.

We're gonna start with Mr. Safin.

Maybe you can, if you wouldn't mind going back to the,

it's not dangerous.

It's Kevin and Matteo in the front row.

They're nice kids.

My son also goes to Los Alamos,

so I appreciate that it's not easy to stand up

in front of a crowd, a city council meeting.

So, thank you both for doing that, appreciate it.

Very brave.

Yes, I'm here for you.

Questions for staff regarding, we'll start,

we heard a lot about courts, not so much about,

we heard about the preference of a court,

but so let's talk about courts, but any questions also

that we might have about operational issues,

even though this is a staff-directed activity,

but we might have some questions.

Council Member Darling.

All right, so focusing on the courts.

If we go with TICE, is there physically room

for more than eight courts

if we're also continuing with the soccer field?

I can't answer it just by looking at the map.

Can you turn the microphone head a little higher there?

I bet your voice.

So potentially you could add two more courts there.

it's going to be tight with both fencing and additional courts

as you look at the infield, dirt infield there.

You can kind of sort of see where

the outline of the field is.

So my preference would not be to make it so close,

because then you've got balls and you've got interaction

there that's not super safe.

Conceivably, you could.

We would have to work with a designer, professionals

who are much more knowledgeable about that than I.

So potentially, maybe you could fit one on the end there.

I don't know.

OK, and then I know the north-south versus east-west

orientation.

Where's your north arrow on this diagram?

Is this?

Oh my god.

I don't know.

You are not an engineer, my friend, I could tell.

So yeah, I don't know.

Well, Mount Diablo is slightly to the top right.

I'll look at Google while we're thinking.

Anyway, I know we're talking about adding lights

to the soccer field here.

Would lights at the pickleball courts be a potential,

or is that?

Anything is a potential.

It's just money.

It's a cost, correct.

It also adds hours, and depending

on the environmental impact on those two adjacent properties,

there may be a concern, either from the church

or from the fire station.

So I'd say yes, it's possible with those caveats.

OK.

And I think a lot of people that we heard from tonight

are interested in TICE because of the potential for it

to move quicker.

And I know nobody has a silver crystal ball.

I knew that Bell was made out of something.

Nobody has a crystal ball in this.

But do you think that's a real potential?

I mean, if we're going to, it sounds

like a lot of the people are hoping the decision rests on you know six months to a year faster.

Well, repeating what the city manager indicate yeah between the two of us will probably give

the same answer but I'll defer to my boss. Go ahead Kevin answer and I'll just add something.

So there are many projects the city is taking on right now. Wall fields, there's a bridge we gotta

build community center pool, those all take not just money but time and staff resources.

So council could conceivably say this is a priority.

We want to do this before X, Y, and Z. You could do that.

What the city manager said earlier is we're probably looking at well over a year between

now and the time we open the court.

So while this might be the one we could do soonest, it still isn't going to be immediate.

Yeah, I just want to add to that I would recommend the councils were thinking about this, you know, I'm a fairly impatient person and like to get things done quickly as well but we're talking about the long game here as well and I think I would recommend, you know, right now, whether it's

six months or a year quicker might seem like a lot,

but 10 years from now, it's not going to seem like much,

and I think we want to make sure

we're not in the same position down the road.

So I would recommend your council keep in mind

the shorter run with the longer term

and what's the longer term solution,

because that's really what we're bringing to your council

as a longer term solution tonight.

Okay, thanks.

Council Member Francois,

see if we can focus on the facility itself

as opposed to the operational questions,

and maybe that'll help us get a little further faster.

So was there any discussion of anything more than eight courts

during the task force deliberations?

Or was it mostly just a one-to-one replacement?

The Pickleball Club wants more courts.

I think that's a given.

We've seen the demand, which is why we're also

talking about Tice indoors, and Tice outdoors,

and Heather Farms.

So there was talk about it, but just as a baseline to say,

okay, how can we compare apples to apples?

What's that transition look like?

So there's likely more demand for more courts

as we look into the future, as the city manager said,

but we just looked initially at eight as a baseline.

Each court comes at a cost of,

we're estimating $65,000 a court,

and the potential proposal from lifetime

would result in a net savings to the city of 175, 200,000.

I heard the president of the pickleball club said that they were opening to a

Partnering with the city on a funding plan, but was that the first you had heard of it?

Have there been any further discussions about that? I've had previous discussions with the club president and one of his associates

I don't support member at when we walked the Heather farm site

And I did explain that there would be fees associated with playing in new courts

Just like every other group who does that so there was an understanding on at that time

We did not talk specifics about what that looked like and so I'm excited and interested to hear what that concept is

Okay, and then what about the lights because my understanding is the lights were for the soccer field that where they envisioned to be for

They weren't envisioned to be for a new pickleball courts, right?

I would not recommend that lights that are built just for the soccer field then be oh now we can play pickleball

There that would not be safe or up to code or other things

So, while there may be ambient lights,

it would not be something that would be recommended.

Can I interrupt and say potentially,

could we save if we've got to put in wiring for lighting

for the soccer things?

Might we get a little cost break for doing them

at the same time for the pickleball court?

We could if we moved really quickly,

because we're putting those lights in ASAP.

So we just need to get through some PG&E stuff.

So we're moving ahead with that relatively quickly.

That'll be the first project we do.

So I doubt that we could do both design, construction

of new courts, and then I don't wanna wait

on the lights for the field.

And just two more, order of magnitude kind of noise

baffling like at TICE, if you had to put that up

between the church and the fire station,

how much does that add to the cost of a project?

I don't recall.

I think it was somewhere between 15 to 20,000

to do that wrapping the entire court.

And so maybe a little bit less than that

because I wouldn't suggest that we do it on all sides here.

I could get you that number later, Councilmember.

Okay. Well, that's helpful for now.

We're not talking about operations.

Right. Councilmember Wilk?

Well, I guess will we be talking about operations at all?

I just had one question on that.

I don't have any questions on it.

We'll come back on our way onto it.

that I'm fine right now.

All right, Mayor Pro Tem.

Yeah.

Of all the choices,

which one is the most likely to have expansion space

if Pickleball lives up to everybody's expectations?

Or another way.

None of them.

Frankly, because I think we're trying to maximize

the space that we have today,

rather than saying, here, we can build these.

The ball field parking lot is the one that has the most space,

but you have a cost when you add more

and you take away parking.

I think at this point, I'd say that's the only way

conceivably could do it because you have the land.

OK.

But alternatively, if we build one set of courts and ties

and we need some more, we can look back to Heather Farm.

The choice doesn't go away.

it's always a potential in the future.

That's right.

Okay.

My next question is,

people are playing pickleball in Walnut Creek

for essentially nothing.

How much are there,

do other places where pickleball is played charge?

And on average, how much they are,

I think somebody said $7 for the Heather Farm.

That's what I said.

So and is this an operational question? Do we think?

No, because I'm looking for where we get money to build the rest of the

We get them in a contribution first and foremost. All right. Well, it was related to how we're gonna pay for this

So let's yeah, I'm not familiar enough to know

which communities charge

And which ones don't and so let's um, I okay. This is the

Excuse me. Thank you. If you would like to write us a letter, this is not an open forum where we're debating it

We're asking our staff member a question. Thank you, and I could follow up with you with that detail

Why is staff support? Okay, why?

the Heather Farm parking lot

Versus Tice. Can you do the pros and cons again and and as a sec corollary question

Is it because of speed of delivery a perceived speed of delivery that might

be better at Tice Valley is that what's really driving this preference include

from the pickleball club so staff didn't make a specific recommendation what we

carried to you was the pros recommendation based on the task force so

there are probably the one biggest issue here is noise.

Throughout this whole discussion it's been noise.

And so if being on Ignatia Valley Road,

as we heard, very loud street,

if that will mitigate the sound enough

so that it's less of an issue, then we're in.

I'm concerned a bit about the noise impact

on the fire station and the church,

even though it seems like it might be small.

I don't want firefighters in here saying,

those pickleball courts because I can't sleep.

I'm not sure there'd be the same issue

with those homes on Stratton Circle.

We'd have to study that.

But if the noise issue can be addressed by any of these,

I'd say that's the priority for staff more than speed

because we don't wanna go through this again.

So there's no specific recommendation

that staff brought to you about one, two, and three.

I hear what people are saying about Tice.

I don't disagree.

Doing this quicker will be great

because then I can spend less time on this

and so can the neighbors and so can the club.

And we can focus on what we do best,

which is have a good time and play with each other.

So if the priority is greater for the council to do speed,

then perhaps TICE makes more sense.

If it's noise between ball field one and TICE,

that's something we'd have to explore, if that makes sense.

And which one is easier to manage?

Because when we build courts like this,

it's no different than building the pool or building

a tennis center or a dog park.

We're managing it to some extent or more.

Which one's easier to manage?

If we're going to, if the city's going to invest

hundreds of thousands of dollars in this,

you wanna get a return on it, right?

And if there isn't, despite what I've heard from the club,

which is great, if there's ability to manage themselves,

that might be beneficial.

However, I wanna make sure that we're getting a return

that and through managing it whether it's staff or lifetime having some

oversights whether it's maintenance whether it's play programming etc that

makes sense from a staff perspective because every other program that we run

in this department has a cost recovery goal and I try to reach those goals for

the council for the community so the taxpayers don't pay more to provide

these services and so there's opportunity I think to tell the club the

city is going to contribute acts of this project. Maybe the club will contribute

some as well and there's also a fee to be paid to use those public assets that

the taxpayers are paying for, which is what we do across the board for every

other program. Including the soccer field that's sitting right there. The

soccer club will contribute 1.5 million to the new new fields and they will pay

to use those fields because there's a cost to managing those and there's a

cost replace them. So even if it wasn't lifetime we would have to put somebody

in on staff in the TICE gym to presumably manage it. That's what I do

today for that what it that's what I have done in the past that's what I'll

do in the future for drop-in so likely managing if it's a TICE the outside

court yes. All right. Any other questions about the options? Yes council member

Darling. I just want to explore the management side for the cost

recovery part of things. So it sounds like between the two sites you have an

operator with lifetime tennis that is very court focused over there over at

Heather Farm. Here you have staff at Tice you could have staff you we will have

staff for drop-in to manage drop-in play there. Is there much how big of is the

difference between those two management possibilities. If that difference in

terms of the amount of work necessary or? And any pros or cons to those. I'm just

thinking of Tice versus Heather Farm. They're not theirs. Having lifetime

managed tennis for the city is a benefit to the city because that's a program like

golf that I don't want to be in the business of running. Typically in this

department, we partner, whether it's soccer club, adult softball, creekers, some

cities run those programs for the community, which is a choice. We don't do

that here, we partner with groups to do that, and so having a lifetime here to do

that for us at the tennis courts makes sense because they run the programming,

they do the lessons, they pay us a fee, and we just take care of the

infrastructure, so it works. If we were to look at TICE, if they're able to manage

that that might work however having staff on site with that close proximity

and the synergy there it could work for city staff as well depending on our

relationship and agreement with the club which is what I would lean on as well if

we if we could get to a point where we had a relationship with the club and

they managed it in the nine to one hours that they do now and the city staff

managed it afterwards is that coming closer to the model that I usually use I

liken that to aquatics. Again, having the master swim team that we rent to, we

don't manage their program. We don't manage the numbers that come in. We say

you have these lanes from this time to this time and here's your fee, you have a

contract. They bring the folks and then after they're gone, you know they're

several times a day. When they're not there, people come to swim. Not part of

the masters, but because they want to swim on their own. So we manage that.

Just to be clear, when we partner with the master swim program, they are renting so many

lanes for so many hours a day, for so many months, and they charge a fee to their swimmers,

their players, to participate in their program and use the lanes they've reserved and they're

paying for.

And it's reasonably priced.

I believe so, yes.

They continue to use those lanes several times a day.

And whether people show up or not,

they're still paying that fee.

So we don't just say,

oh, you had less people come,

therefore you're paying less.

Because it's kind of like, I don't like the salad,

let me send it back and pay less, right?

So it works pretty well,

and it's worked for a long time with that group.

Mayor Pro Tem.

Is it likely that over a period of time,

even if we just stay at red gear,

we would work out that kind of relationship?

Perhaps.

What's involved?

What would be involved in?

Could we do that easily?

Well, so for example, when we have the soccer club

or wanna quick little league use some of the fields

that we're not there to manage,

we're trusting that they're gonna fulfill their obligation

which is not have more people than they need to

on those fields because they get beat up.

not play later than they're supposed to

because we're not there to check it.

So it has worked with those organizations

for a long time field allocation.

We trust that they do what they are supposed to do

and they trust that we're gonna provide them

the field for their use and not to somebody else.

So yes.

Can I add one more comment?

Not that you asked this but I thought you would.

For Tice, I mentioned the Little League.

That ball field I can say is used about 500 hours

for practices for T-ball, which is again, the little kids.

So they don't need a lot of space.

I've started the conversation with the Little League

just to say, hey, this may be a change that's coming.

They're aware of that.

I'm trying not to have a lineup of kids in uniform saying,

don't take my ball field.

So I'm engaged in that dialogue already, just so you know.

And they understand it means finding another place

to put T-ball in Walnut Creek.

Maybe it's at a school.

maybe it's a public park, so there are options out there.

It's not a whole lot of space we need,

but just so you know, I'm trying to make sure

that that group is taken care of too,

so we're not in the same bind.

Let me ask a quick question, having been responsible

for the soccer club and negotiating field hours

when fields were being closed and rebuilt.

The 500 hours, over how many weeks or months is that?

That's not per month or per week.

Yeah, that was during the year.

So T-ball is very seasonal based, so that's spring.

That's spring into early summer.

So March, April, May?

March, April, May.

March, April, May, maybe a little bit of June, yeah.

So let's assume it's three months.

It's 90 days, 500 hours is about five to six hours a week.

Maybe.

Well, I look at the accounts.

Don't look at me.

Yeah, it's not a lot.

It's not a lot if you look at it that way, but yeah.

because I looked at it that way to try to figure out how big is this problem in

moving to another field and is it is that are they using it for I know I'm

getting a little bit into the weeds but I want to understand the problem before

we jump one way or the other and is that they're only t-ball location are there

other ones there others so a kid who lives at near arbalado park is coming

all the way across town for t-ball there are other locations for t-ball oh there

All right, thank you for the clarification on the issue.