Welcome to the June 2nd 2025 PROS Commission meeting.
Secretary Vickers, please call the roll.
Commissioner Oler?
Here.
Commissioner Moran?
Here.
Commissioner Garland?
Here.
Vice Chair Pinkstadt?
Here.
Thank you, and let it be noted that Chair Moran is not here
tonight, and Youth Commissioner Cook is not here tonight,
And Youth Commissioner Colson is not here either.
OK, let's go to the public communications
portion of the agenda.
This portion of the meeting is reserved for comment on items
not on the agenda.
Under the Brown Act, the commission
cannot act on items raised during public communications,
but may respond briefly to statements made
or questions posed.
Question clarification or refer the action to staff.
Does any member of the public wish
to speak on item not on the agenda.
At this time, I will ask the secretary
if there are any members of the public
who would like to provide comments.
See none, we'll get to the consent calendar.
Next on the agenda is a consent calendar.
Does any commissioner have question
on the consent calendar item?
Nope.
Okay, does any members of the public wish to provide
public comment on the consent calendar item?
None.
Secretary Vickers, are there any members of the public
who would like to provide comments?
There are not.
OK.
Next on the agenda is?
Just before you all call roll, just
ensure we all approve the consent calendar.
So Commissioner Oler?
Yes.
Commissioner Moran?
Yes.
Commissioner Garland?
Yes.
And Vice-Chair Pinkstaff?
Yes.
Thank you.
All right, next is approve of minutes from the PROS meeting
on April 7, 2025.
I suggest we approve the minutes of the April 7 PROS commission
meeting.
Seconded.
All right.
Thank you.
I was out of order there earlier.
So now I'll call for a whole thank you.
That's why we shouldn't do this every two months.
It'll be a lot easier.
OK, thank you.
Commissioner Oler?
Yes.
Commissioner Moran?
Yes, Commissioner Garland.
Yes.
And Vice Chair Pinkstaff.
Yes.
Thank you.
This is fast.
So next is consideration on the agenda.
There are two items on the agenda.
First is a recommend amendments to 11-1.516 bicycles
and skateboards municipal code.
And the second presentation is the Walnut Creek Parts and Open
Space update by Mr. Vickers.
Good evening, commissioners, for the record.
My name is Mike Vickers, Assistant Public Works Director
for the city of Walnut Creek.
And I know we've been talking about this.
The public had been talking about e-bikes
in the municipal code for many years now,
probably before COVID, when e-bikes really started
hitting the market back in 17 and 18,
and certainly became popular right around COVID
as more people were enjoying the outdoor activities.
So we have a recommended proposed municipal code
that I'm gonna share with you here in just a few minutes.
It was part of your package.
I'll go through the presentation
and we'll open it up for clarifying questions
and then give the community an opportunity
to speak publicly about this
and then we'll bring it back for comments.
So I'll get started.
I wasn't planning on reading this word for word,
but I think it's best just to ensure
that we're all on the same page.
And I'm going to use this monitor
because that one is just a little too far.
So the current municipal code, 11-1,
decimal 1516, bicycles and skateboards, bicycles.
All sections of this code and the state vehicle code
pertaining to the use and maintenance of bicycles
shall be enforced in city parks.
No person shall ride or operate a bicycle within a park
in a negligent, unsafe, reckless manner, or in a,
you know what, I'm gonna actually read from this.
It's gonna be easier, I'm sorry.
It's twisting my neck here.
In a negligent or unsafe, reckless manner,
or in any way that endangers the limb,
sorry, the life limb or property of any persons.
No person shall ride at a speed greater than the reasonable
or prudent having due regard for weather, visibility,
and other trail and road users in the surface and width
of the trail of the road, and in no event at a speed
which endangers the safety of any person's property
or in excess of the post-bicycle speed limits.
No person shall ride on a single track,
hiking or bicycle or sorry or horseback trail
unless specifically posted.
No person shall ride in any open space areas
including but not limited to open space hillsides,
valleys, creeks, creek beds, drainage areas,
ridge tops unless specifically posted
as open for bicycle use.
Bicycles are permitted on paved trails,
paved bicycle trails, unpaved graded roads over eight feet
unless otherwise posted.
Skateboards, no person shall ride a skateboard
within any park except those areas specifically designated
and posted for skateboarding by the director.
Okay, so that is the current, the proposed,
which is quite a bit longer.
I'll go ahead and jump into that.
So this is the proposed amended municipal code for 11-1516, bicycles, e-bicycles, scooters
and skateboards.
Bicycles, this section of the code and the California vehicle code pertaining to the
use and maintenance of bicycles shall be enforced in city parks and open space areas.
For the purpose of this section, bicycle is defined as any two- or three-wheeled vehicle
propelled by the use of human power.
vehicle includes road bikes, mountain bikes, BMX bikes, and other similar devices.
Electric bicycles, known as e-bikes, shall have the definition set forth in the California
vehicle code.
Class 1 e-bicycles are low-speed pedal assist and require pedaling for assistance from an
electric motor.
Class 2 e-bicycles have a low speed throttle and allow for pedal assist but do not require
pedaling for assistance from the electric motor.
Class 1 and 2 e-bicycles are permitted in parks and open space areas as set forth below.
No person shall ride or operate a bicycle within a park in a negligent, unsafe, or reckless
manner or in any way that endangers the life limb or property of persons. No
person shall ride at a speed greater than a reasonable or prudent having due
regard for whether visibility other trail or road uses and other surfaces
with and with sorry and the other and the surface and width of a trail or a
road and in no event at the speed which endangers the safety of persons or
property or in excess of the posted bicycle speed limits. Bicycles may not
exceed the lesser of the posted speed limit or 15 miles per hour in any park or
open space area. No person shall ride on a single track hiking or horseback trail
less specifically posted as open to bicycle use. No person shall ride cross
country in any open space area including but not limited to open space hillsides
valleys creeks creek beds drainage areas and ridgetops unless specifically posted
as open for bicycle use. Bicycles are only permitted on paved roads paved
trails and unpaved graded roads over 8 feet in width and less otherwise posted.
Bicycles must travel in a single file when passing others and in a single file on the
right side of the trail when it turns, when it's at a blind corner, or when being passed.
Class 1 e-bicycles are permitted on all trails where regular bicycles are allowed.
Class two e-bicycles are permitted only on paved trails.
Class three bicycles are not permitted in any park or open space areas except upon public
roads.
Last but not least, skateboards.
No person shall ride a skateboard within any park except in the areas specifically designed
and posted for skateboards by the director.
electrically motorized scooters and electrically motorized boards.
Electrically motorized scooters means any two-wheeled device that has handlebars, has
a floor board that is designed to be stood upon when riding and is powered by an electric
motor.
Electrically motorized boards means a wheeled device with a floor board designed to be stood
upon and is not greater than 60 inches in depth and 18 inches wide as defined in the
municipal code or in the vehicle code.
Electrically motorized scooters and boards are permitted on paved trails only and subject
to all requirements of the California vehicle code governing the use and the operation.
Every person operating an electrically motorized board is required to wear a properly fitted
helmet fastened properly fitted and fastened bicycle helmet. No person shall
ride or operate an electrically motorized scooter or board in a
negligent unsafe or reckless manner or in any way that endangers the life or
limb or property of any person. No person shall ride or operate an electrically
motorized scooter or board at a speed greater than is reasonable or prudent
having due regard for weather, visibility, other trail and road users and the
surface and width of the trail or the road and in no event at a speed which
endangers the safety of persons or property or an excess of posted bicycle
speed limits or 15 miles per hour whichever is lower. Gasoline operated
scooters or boards are not permitted in the open space, parks are open space.
So I put this slide up here because I wanted to let you know that class 3 bikes are regulated
for roads, they're not regulated for trails by any means, and the city's police department
overseas that enforces the California Vehicle Code, which the Class III bikes are enforced
under.
In terms of the parks and open space, it is our rangers that enforce the rules.
And from time to time, we certainly engage with the PD.
We also engage with Fish and Wildlife Wardens, who are strong partners of ours and always
available when the rangers need that assistance.
This is a flyer that P.D. has put together over, I think, over the last year or two just
to help educate people that are out in the roads.
I'm sure many of us have seen youngsters, maybe people that are driving these probably
class three bikes out in the roads at pretty high speeds.
I seen one just the other day, and it was pretty alarming, and so I know that P.D. is
working diligently to educate the community.
And we're going to piggyback on their work
that they've already put in and partner with them
on this flyer.
So in terms of safety tips, pretty clear,
wear a helmet, be visible, obey traffic laws,
use proper hand signals.
When you're riding on the trails,
whether it's the paved trails or the unpaved trails,
just trail etiquette, reaching out.
Sometimes people have bells, which are super helpful,
but staying to the far side,
sometimes people walk on the right,
sometimes people walk on the left.
If you're coming up behind that person,
you should be on the opposite side of the trail
as that person, and you should be calling out,
letting people know that you're coming,
and riding at an appropriate speed
for that particular trail, tread,
or that area that you're in.
The bikes are described here,
different types of classes. Class one is low speed pedal assist, not exceeding 20 miles
an hour. Class two is very similar but has a throttle but does not exceed 20 miles an
hour. And then class three has a speedometer and can excel up to 28 miles per hour and
is allowed only on roads not on pathways. And the chart there below describes a little
bit better and then there's obviously the laws and the codes here on the right-hand
side.
So this is about wrapping up my presentation.
So in terms of next steps, I'm here before this body to get your feedback input, give
the community an opportunity to provide some information as well.
I'm going to take your feedback, your questions or comments back to the traffic engineering
team and also back to PD.
If there's anything significant that changes between tonight and when I meet with these
other two departments, I'll certainly come back for a second reading with the Commission
to give you an opportunity to further vet or weigh in on the next step.
So assuming all goes well, we get some good information tonight.
We can take that to both the departments.
We're clear to move forward.
take this on to City Council and ask for their approval and formal adoption. If we
get to that stage, once it's approved, we will start our public outreach plan,
which, like I said, will dovetail on what PD's done in terms of that flyer. We'll
be installing lots of signage at kiosks and trail heads and throughout the paved
trail system informing individuals of the new code. We'll be sharing the
information on all of our social media platforms and then in terms of community
education it's it's what the Rangers part of the biggest responsibility of
the Rangers is to enforce and and educate the community on new rules and
regulations and ensure that people are following following those guidelines and
as I mentioned we'll work with PD to make sure that we're getting out a
unified message so commissioner action for tonight was to hear the first
reading of the amended 11-1 decimal 516 bicycles e-bicycle scooters and
skateboard municipal code and provide feedback and comments and vice chair I
will turn it over to you for questions questions from the commissioners
Commissioner older I have a few questions when this was being developed
did you consider what other open space managers are doing, East Bay Parks? This
seems very similar to what they've done with the class one and two, but state
parks and Mid Peninsula may be a little different. I don't know, can you just
explain kind of how you came up with this recommendation? Yeah, so we worked
very closely with our staff and with the city attorney's office, vetted all three
of the municipal codes that you're referring to,
state parks, Midpen, and East Bay,
and like a lot of our policies in the open space,
we typically lean to some of these other organizations
where their sole focus is open space and parks,
so that we're not reinventing the wheel.
A lot of these things have already been vetted
through several of their board meetings and supervisors,
and we chose, as you pointed out, Commissioner Garland,
we're pretty much in line with the East Bay Regional Parks
bicycle municipal code.
And then kind of a follow-up to that.
But is there ability to modify this in practice?
Once people have this ability out in the open space,
for example, a hawk is nesting, and the bikes are noisy.
are there going to be closures for seasonal issues?
The normal management practices in the water said,
in the open space, still going to be able to be happening,
even though now a code is going to say,
you can come in and do this.
It does say where posted if it's not like a large paved or fire
type road.
So I just want to make sure we have the ability
to continue to manage the open spaces
for some of their other equally important purposes,
like habitat management and things like that.
Yeah, it's a great comment.
And, I mean, e-bikes have been in the open space
and scooters and other electric devices
have been in the open space for a number of years now.
And so does that mean we won't get any more?
Probably we will see more over time.
And it's pretty clear in the municipal code that we do have actually the public works
director has the authority to make modifications and changes on a temporary or more permanent
basis.
And so back to your example, if we found that there was a wildlife den, fox den or coyote
den or something along those lines, and it was potentially being impacted by some of
the uses, whether it's just pedestrian use or vehicle or sorry, bicycle, we absolutely
have the right to reroute those areas and close those areas down when needed.
Thank you, thank you, Mr. Vickers. Question, a couple questions for you. Just as you
were finishing up with the brochure that the police department had distributed, I
was reading, yeah perfect, that the manufacture label, that the e-bikes must
have a manufacturer label with their designated class, top assisted speed and motor wattage
listed. So do we know what that looks like? I mean, is that something that's very obvious
to a park ranger if one of our rangers stops a would stop hypothetically an e-bike or a
scooter or something to check? Have you seen those?
Yes, yeah, and they are very visible very visible. Okay. Good. Good to know
so a
Couple other questions. I liked
Commissioner Garland's questions around other usages. I know that since part of the open space is managed by us
That is in the Concord
City limits then I'm sure we would have to coordinate with them on the lime ridge portion. That's that's in Concord as well
I know you do that. Is that correct? That's correct. Yeah. Yeah. Thank you for bringing that up because they also get a look
We've communicated about this, but they'll also get your feedback
As well. Yeah, okay
Then I wanted to to confirm. I think you started to address it at the at the end of your comments
But I wanted to confirm the formal
process for changing the municipal code in
In which way do you mind that would?
That would change the code relative to the language around e bikes and e scooters and and boards
So what's the process from this point moving forward? Yes. Yeah, and the approval who?
Authority that type of thing. Okay
so like like
many projects and and
Presentations that we we come to the pros Commission. We're asking for you to accept modify provide feedback those types of things. So
I know that there's likely going to be this being the first reading and this being the first time we've had an opportunity
There's probably going to be some good suggestions that are going to come out of this meeting whether it's suggestions from the public
Suggestions from the commissioners and so we'll take that information back as I mentioned
I'll share it with the two different departments. And if there isn't anything of significant change in this standard language
I would take that to the
City Council and do a first reading for the City Council and if the City Council was comfortable with the language
they would approve at that point and City Council has the
the approval
Authority to make that approval commission is the they can accept the document but not officially approve it
Thank you. Just one one other question I had
relates to
Probably one of the biggest concerns
Around safety and my question is whether we have any
data that that discusses either safety of
e bike usage in terms of to
The non riders those that might be passed or
Challenged on a trail or or any other property
and
The safety to the the drivers of the electric
vehicles as well as whether there are any cases of
E bikes
Etc causing fires in
External environments do we do we have any data? So good questions in regards to
Starting fires or the batteries blowing up or whatever we might hear. I have checked in
I haven't done it in the last couple years, but in 23 I checked in with the
the fire protection
Contra Costa fire protection
Coordinator technician and asked this specific question and she was unaware of any
electric bikes
Starting any sort of wildfires in her area. I didn't I didn't reach outside of that. I can certainly do it
there's probably more information now since since 23 so I'll definitely dive
into that in regards to personal injury or causing personal injury or damage so
to speak we have not received the city's City of Walnut Creek staff Oh Park and
Open Space staff my team has not received any complaints or has been
notified of any injuries specifically caused by the operation of an e-bike
whether they were riding on it or somebody else was. In terms of PD I
haven't asked that question I can follow up with PD and I can also reach out to
some of our neighboring agencies to find out if they're seeing an
arise in the number of injuries due to e-bikes. Can I share one more
thing Commissioner Euler had brought up. In terms of visibility with the
stickers that the manufacturers require based on speed and what is it
speed and category, it is visible but it's not as visible if you were to
pass you know this far away on a trail. You can probably identify the sticker
But you couldn't necessarily read it obviously and in the the difference
With the class one and two it's really the throttle the bikes even the even the class three bikes
You can get confused almost looking like class one because they're trying to they're trying to make them
Reduce the weight and so they're the technology is is changing all the time
And so it's it's not that a ranger is going to be able to spot
exactly what an e-bike, a class one and a class two is from a certain distance.
It's until they can see the throttle, if somebody's hand is on the handlebars or covering it up
or something along those lines, it's going to be like a lot of things in the open space.
We're going to ask people to follow the rules, and we're going to remind them and educate
them when we have that personal contact.
I have a question regarding the effective when the revised regulations of municipal
code will become effective. Is it immediately after adoption by the City
Council? Yes. Okay. Yeah. I mean, this is this might think this is only this is
either my first or my second municipal code update so I know that there's a
grace period where we wouldn't be out you know we'd be out educating right away
putting out that public outreach and doing those types of things but I I
I think the enforcement, if needed, wouldn't come for a few months.
And we would lean on PD and say, hey, what's the appropriate time before if we have reoccurring
events with certain individuals that we need PD's assistance, that type of thing.
Okay.
That was my second question in terms of enforcement.
So will that be mostly by the PD or by the Rangers?
So enforcement will continue to be done by the Rangers.
Okay.
And if we're at a position or if we're in a position where, you know, the same Rangers
talking to the same two or three, one, two, or three individuals and it's repetitive and
we feel it's reached the level that we need assistance from our PD. We'll reach out to
PD at that time. So is there like a penalty assessed if it's repeated like offense or?
Yeah, so there could be a monetary penalty. You know, we would hope that with PD out there
as a presence that the individual would take it a little bit more seriously if
they're not already taking it seriously we're not out there to penalize the the
users by any means yeah okay thanks thank you Mike could you just maybe for
the benefit of people watching home maybe talk about the outreach plans that
might come to you know in the view if this is if we're you know updating the
code and now there's people talking about e-bikes in the wind and so forth.
Just generally, what's the plan to get the word out?
Yeah, so back in, it's been a while now, so in 16 or 17 we had, we started a safe trail
initiative program and it's evolved, it kind of ebbs and flows as we see different trends
happening and at certain trail heads you'll see we've gone to use different colors to
talk about trail etiquette so it kind of draws your attention and so we'll be
we'll be accused of sign littering because there will be a lot of signs
you know we've got to do our very best to to pass the information along we know
where the most amount of bikes enter and exit we also know the times of the day
especially on our on our trail system because a lot of people are commuting
now to bark and just to work.
So we know where those targeted areas are.
And through social media, the city's website,
our public information officer has a real good handle
on getting all that information out.
But it's going to take some time.
And we're going to have to get creative.
Just putting a standard sign up on a fence near a trailhead
doesn't necessarily do it.
sometimes you got to put them on A-frames or barricades.
That you almost got to go around it,
so it draws your attention.
And we're going to have to be talking about it
at a lot of these meetings.
And I know that the city council and the police department
have been talking about the amount of usage on our roads.
And so this subject is talked about,
if not at every meeting, every other meeting.
And once we get this code,
it'll be one more opportunity
for them to share that information.
Thank you.
Well, I think that's going to be really helpful
going forward, especially if there's, as you say,
possibly more people in the open space now.
Is there, can you give me an example?
I'm just curious, the class two bikes
are allowed on paved trails?
The majority of the trails in the open space are,
you know, the single track or the fire trails, right?
Those are not paved.
Can you, I'm just trying to jog my memory
of where that would even,
where would you ride a class two bike in the parks?
Yeah, mostly on our, we have our Ignacio Canal Trail,
which is about an eight mile loop.
Really starts close to Heather Farm, does a big loop,
ends back up over in North Lime Ridge,
and then you get on the canal trail.
That's the paved trail system.
The class two bicycles are not allowed in the open space.
Mm-hmm, because they're not paved.
Correct.
My last thing that I just wanted to,
I think what's helpful is a lot of the language
in the update speaks to calling out being safe.
There's a speed limit, right?
So there's, we're adding e-bikes to the code
because it simply didn't say e-bikes before,
pretty much, right?
Correct.
But there's also stuff in here that I think is helpful
because to your point, you know,
a lot of this is just going to be
how the community can work together, right?
And if there's a couple bad actors,
then we can deal with them.
But the safety and the rules of the road, so to speak,
I think, will go a long way.
As long as people understand there's a right way to do it
and a wrong way to do it, you know?
Yeah, agreed, and I've probably spent most of my time,
and maybe a lot of the questions have been around
the paved trail system and the open space.
We get a lot of bicycle use in our parks.
And so making sure that we're signing at playgrounds
where kids are coming and parents are coming
so that they can understand the change in municipal code
is gonna be important too.
It's not just in our open space.
We have a lot of trails throughout our park system.
Here with me, I think I had one more question for you.
Are there any, are there any,
well, part of the, there's a line in there
about how the bikes are only allowed on wide trails,
otherwise noted.
Is that kind of an ebb and flow right now,
there's the primary use for the bikes are on the fire trails,
not single track, right?
That's correct.
You just talk about that just for a little bit?
Yeah.
So there's several single-track trails
where bicycles are authorized to be on.
And we typically refer to them as connector trails.
If you know Sugarloaf very well, Sugarloaf
is mostly an eight-foot-wide road.
And then there's these little courts
that come out all the way around it
that have single tracks,
so you can get from the end of the court
out to the main trail system.
And they're named in the map,
but they're really referred to as connector trails.
I mean, the Timberleaf Trail is a trail
that we've all talked a lot about
over the last four or five years.
And that is a connector trail.
It gets you into the park,
it gets you up to a specific area,
it's not very long.
And so there's,
I was gonna throw a number out there, but I'd be wrong.
You know, there's probably a dozen single-track trails
that are multi-use in nature.
The one that we were talking about most recently,
which is kind of unnamed at this point,
but you understand the area, the quarry area
that I was referring to, that is a single-track trail
that's been in existence for 30-plus years.
So there are, that one is not a connector.
And I can't think of too many others that are not connector trails where bikes are authorized doesn't mean that they're not all right
That doesn't mean that they're not being used
But where they're authorized
Well, that's where the public outreach any enforcement comes in. Yes, correct. I'm good with my questions. Thanks
Any other questions from the commissioners none, all right
Does any member of the public wish to provide public comments at this time?
As a reminder you have two minutes to provide your comments
Vice-chair pink staff and commissioners
I'm kind of Smith. I'm the president of the Walnut Creek open space foundation
And I thank Mike and his staff for doing a good job on rewriting the rewriting this organ ordinance
and I
thank the city for
Allowing us to give feedback and I hope that that some of this will be helpful
going forward to the commission and also to Mike and his staff.
In description of electrically motorized scooters and motorized boards we would recommend that
that's made a little bit more generic because we're starting to see other types of vehicles
such as electrical off-road unicycles that travel at high rates of speed.
So we'd recommend that that description either be made more generic, if you could pass that
around, if that description could be made more generic or that type of thing be added
that could be useful going forward.
And we also recommend in section A, number three, concerning bicycles using single file.
That particular provision was a little bit unclear, we felt.
And then finally, and this is something that Mike and his team did not have available,
the results from our 2024 trail survey in which we asked that our users, our
trail users, whether electric vehicles or electric bikes should be permitted in
the open space. I'm sorry, Mike, that I didn't get this to you earlier but I
wasn't aware that this was going to be discussed. However, we found that 49%
21% don't want any bikes anywhere 31% want them only on 6 foot or wider tracks and there's
only 20% where mountain bikes are allowed. So if electric bikes are allowed anywhere
mountain bikes are, if mountain bikes are using single track trails, actually I get
ten don't I cuz I'm I represent the organization
Yeah, yeah, that's correct. Okay, that was my fault. All right. That's sorry we said that too
Well, anyway
so if
If the electric bikes can go anywhere a bicycle can then in the case of the single tracks
80% of the of the users of the open space are going to be
Appointed I mean there's 80% of the people that responded we had almost a thousand people respond
So 80 percent of people would feel like that was not the right thing to do
So I I just wanted to provide that information
In general the foundation would not recommend
Would recommend against mechanized traffic of any kind on single-track trails
to preserve the user experience for everyone and to reduce traffic on trails
which are in areas which have the greatest impact on both flora and fauna
by adding electric bikes to a single-track trail you're adding that much
more traffic which is already pretty is impacting those trails pretty severely
So, boot for thought, yeah, and thank you for your time.
Excuse me, Kaim, could you repeat the survey results?
Sure.
About 40, we had 958 responses, and of the 958 we had 71 people that actually, that answered
particular question so but I think it's you know it's pretty random so I think
it probably represents the whole population however it was 19.72 percent
that said that that electric bikes should be allowed anywhere a mountain
bike is allowed, there were 30.99% that said yes, but only on the wider six to eight foot
wide tracks, which would play well.
For someone who is elderly and has an electric bike, wanted to get out, if they stayed on
the paved roads or the gravel roads, it would certainly satisfy them, and it would also
satisfy that 31%.
Finally, the ones who said that they didn't feel that the electric bikes belonged anywhere,
and the way the question was asked was specific for electric bikes.
It didn't say electric vehicles, but I'm assuming it would also be electric skateboards.
But 49.3 said that they didn't want any motorized vehicles in the open space at all.
And I could, if the council, if the commissioners wish, I can send you the stats.
I could pass this around now.
Yeah, Kaimi, if you don't mind emailing that to me as well and then you can forward it
on to the commission.
Okay.
That's what I'll do there.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Sure.
Any other questions, okay, thank you for your time
Any other comments from the public
My sure picks big staff commissioners of the evening. I'm Elizabeth Hudson
I am also on the wall of people and space Foundation board. I'm an equestrian and I'm gonna be speaking as an equestrian tonight
The e bikes have done
nothing to help the equestrians. We're seeing more bikes that go faster in
places that they used to have to go up the hill slowly, which kind of gave us
time to judge each other. Now they come up the hills as fast as they go down the
hill. So aside from the fact that that is not really a benefit to the equestrian
and sport, I would ask that in this new wording for the bike policy, there be something included
that the bike should stop and ask the horse, ask the rider what they need to do. The one
that sort of flagged it for me was when it said the bike should stay to the right when
being passed. It depends on the trail. If the trail drops off on the right, it's one
If the trail drops off on the left, you want to put the horse and the bike so that the
horse does not spook and go over the edge.
So if there could be some wording inserted that a bicycle needs to, I mean, right now
they're supposed to yield to the horse, they're supposed to stop and ask, if they could be
reinforced because hard rules don't work with live animals.
The rider will be able to assess if there's a trip hazard,
a drop off that's too steep.
They know their horse better.
And so that rule about stop and ask the rider
has made a lot of people feel safe when they actually do it.
And I'm happy to explain horse behavior, if you would like.
But they are live animals.
And they're wonderful animals.
there was an article in the paper today
about how they are sobering people up in Kentucky.
So they have many, many purposes.
So please keep the equestrian sport
in the forefront with the language
and encourage that they check with the writer.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Hello, I'm Sabine Krober.
I live in the Woodlands neighborhood,
so close to the Lion Ridge Quarry area.
And I'm a hiker, a dog walker.
I also bike.
I biked here.
And my main concern with this whole concept
is, so for now, you're forbidding the bikes
on the single-file trails.
And I'm worried that in the future,
you get the idea to just widen the trails.
So they are allowed there.
And there is this rumor.
I don't know if it's an actual plan
that in the language quarry area, there's a social trail.
And the plan is to change this to a wider multi-purpose trail.
And I think that specific area has a really high level
of biodiversity.
And I don't think that would be a good spot
to have a multi-use trail.
I think it's wonderful as it is.
You could change it, maybe have an educational trail.
But I hike that area a lot.
My husband is a birdwatcher.
And the city of Monet Creek, in their original master plan
for that area, recognized that value
and said it should only be used for passive uses,
like horseback riding, actually, hiking,
picnicking and not biking. That's it. Thank you. Any other public comments that
Secretary Vickers you've received? No. So now we're going to the second
presentation on Warner Creek parks and open space updates. So can we just get
some final comments on this item just so I know what you guys want to see if you
want me to return and kind of summarize what you know what you'd like me to do
moving forward you did agree that you would provide us more information or
updated information on fire issues potential fire issues as well as what
other nearby open space operators have experienced in terms of trail
interactions and safety issues that might be related to that great
additional data. Yeah. Correct. Yeah. And I would just like to say I, if it was just on the,
all the trails other than single track, I would, I, you know, I would be much, I would have many
fewer reservations, but having, you know, just on the wide paved trail, the canal trail, those guys
whiz by, and you're just like, wow. And I'm just concerned that some of those single track, the
the connectors, and I'm talking about in particular,
they're actually very, very narrow, and they're very tight,
and there's not really any place to go.
And bikes are already a problem, and now e-bikes,
which can potentially be going faster,
and I don't know if they're as easy to maneuver and stop
and all that, they probably are.
But I don't know, it just makes me,
more people may want to now decide
they can ride their bike,
because they can bring their e-bike there.
And I don't know, is there a way
to like not allow them at all on the single tracks,
even the connector, I mean, there are multiple ways
into the open space.
The connector trails tend to be more convenient
from certain areas, but I mean, we could potentially
try some additional limitations or something like that.
Yeah, I mean, if you don't mind,
I'll just follow up on that question.
It's difficult, right?
Because as I was demonstrating earlier
with Commissioner Oler, from a certain distance,
you can't tell if it's an e-bike or a regular bike,
if it's a class one, because there is no throttle.
And it is, oftentimes they might have a crank
that's a little bit bigger,
or you might be able to see a battery
along one of the shafts or something along those lines.
But as the technology continues to change and get better,
you're gonna have a hard time telling difference
between a class one bicycle and a traditional bicycle.
it's you're not gonna be able to see someone going by
and saying that person's on a bike,
maybe other than some speed.
Once in a while, they're going fairly fast
and they're barely pedaling.
And so you're gonna be like, oh, okay,
that's a pedal assist type bicycle.
So we can give it some thought.
Appreciate your comment.
No other comments at this time
other than I think it's just appropriate
to follow the process so we can get
all the appropriate income or input, excuse me,
from the various groups that you'll have to engage with
and we'll get further insight in terms of how to proceed.
The only note I have is I'm not a lawyer,
but I take time's point about, you know,
today there's people on the unicycles
and tomorrow who knows what they're gonna be on, right?
So the language may be fine now,
but the possibility that next year's hot new thing
is gonna be something that we're just a little harder
to define, if that makes sense.
Yeah, are you referring to his comment
that he showed the image of like of the unicycle type-
Yeah, I thought about that too.
Different types of devices, yeah.
You see those guys everywhere on the streets,
not necessarily in the open space, but.
Yeah, and I don't, when Kaim shared that,
I don't think you could describe that
as having a floorboard that is intended on staying on.
So there may be a better way to word that
as kind of mentioned, maybe a little bit more general.
Yeah.
I'm interested in seeing more information
on the tiered approach to outreach and enforcement,
like outreach comes first in a little bit more
on the time duration.
So we get the word out.
Especially I see a lot more kids writing these e-bikes now.
They need to know what the rules are first before enforcement comes in.
All right.
Are we ready to move on to the second item of the agenda?
Mona Creek parks and open space update.
So I'm going to roll through this pretty quick.
I hope you weren't I was when we pushed out the staff report I was thinking okay this
commissioners are going to be smiling when they see this because I've given a lot of
updates in the last couple months over several of these projects.
So I'm going to move through those pretty quickly.
There is one that I'm going to spend a little bit more time on, and that is a 10-year trial
improvement plan that was vetted through a subcommittee back in 2017 or 2018.
So I'll spend a little bit more time on that one, but I do want to provide you with a number
of updates.
We've got a lot of things going on in public works as a whole through engineering and also
through operations, and so we're excited about all these things coming together.
is really exciting time for all of us. So this project you know all the details
here the project for the most part not for the most part the project is on time
and on budget and the the project is scheduled to be completed in mid-july
when PG&E comes out to flip the switch we don't have exact control over but
we've had really good communication with PG&E and feel that hopefully by the end
of summer PG&E will be flipping that switch. So the benefit we're in the
summertime right now we're getting the most daylight throughout the year so we
feel really good about this project sorry for the font here and some of the
overlapping but this is an image of Heather farm ball field one we have a
camera up there where this picture was taken a time-lapse camera so at the end
of this project we'll be able to share, you know, what took place over the six or seven
month project. So we're looking forward to seeing that. Matt Bollander had set this up
for us. So the Synthetic Turf project is currently on schedule and it is on budget, looking to
be completed near the first part of November. And the second image, or sorry, the second
picture you see there on the left is a grant entry way that we've been working with the
soccer club on and through engineering and our consultant has designed this
entryway and so we're putting this out right now for for bid you can see it's
got a number of plaques number of opportunities for donors to be able to
get their name up there and show support for the project and then the image there
on the bottom where you see that brown area is basically demonstrating where
donor bricks will potentially be installed in the soccer club is trying
to raise the funding for their commitment of $1.5 million
into this project.
And this is one of the opportunities, fundraising
opportunities that they're providing.
So we're in good shape here at Heather Farm.
Phase one of the new Aquatic and Community Center project.
Exciting times.
The project went out to bid at the beginning of May.
We recently got our bids.
We recently got the bids back at the end of last week.
We still have to vet the bids and discuss next steps.
We do plan on going to council on June 17th
to award or to pass on this project
or to pass on the bids.
And then if we do move forward with the award
of the project, it's currently scheduled to start in July.
And phase one, just so everybody's understanding
is really that the left side of the screen,
The areas that you're seeing in green there, the top
is the expansion of the Nature Lake.
That soil from the expansion of the Nature Lake
will go to that green area to the left of that, which
is basically an open field.
And there'll be three or four feet lift there
to use up the remainder of the soil.
And then, as you can kind of see there in the concrete pond,
it's going to be reduced to a figure eight.
We're losing about 16,000 square feet.
and that 16,000 square feet is the portion
that is in yellow, shown in yellow.
That's what it's, that's the area we're losing
and you can kind of see the new green shoreline
that identifies what the shape of the pond
will be in the future.
And then obviously the new buildings and facilities
there are highlighted in blue,
which is what we're calling phase two,
which is scheduled to go out to bid later this year
and start construction January, February of 26.
So right around the corner.
I can't believe it's already beginning to jim.
Time moves fast as my hair continues to grow.
Bram Hall desilting project, Corey shared this project
with you in the past.
There's a few things going on out in the open space.
One of the projects we just completed,
Corey and his team completed, which
was the expansion of the Indian Creek Trail, which
is a fantastic project.
And then this is a little bit more detail
the Bram Hall project. Bram Hall, for those of you who don't know, Audrey Bram Hall was
one of the founding members of the committee that put the R8 bond together back in 72 and
this pond was named after her. So the picture on the right-hand side, which Zentner, planning
and ecology designed for us, you can see the body of water. We're looking to de-silt this
pond down to three or four feet. We don't know exactly where the original clay or the
original basis, so we'll have to do some testing once we get
authorization from Fish and Wildlife, which we've already
applied for. So you see the body of water, and just to the left,
you see this kind of blue pathway almost looks like a stream.
It's not. That's a hardened crossing. There's not a culvert
there. And so when the pond fills up and overflows, it'll go
through what we've started developing is these hardened
crossings, which is basically the water running over, you know,
rock, a rock trail system, so that it no longer erodes the trail out.
So you guys have seen some of this, but we're in the final stages of getting the permits
from Fish and Wildlife.
I met with Fish and Wildlife representatives out there.
They think this is a great project.
They were very complimentary about the fact that we're doing all we can to preserve or
conserve as much water as we can, so we get a little bit later in the year, provides more
water source for the critters and also for wildlife. Civic and Walden playground, we've
got our first upcoming public outreach, which is an event that Walnut Creek downtown puts
on. It used to be called First Wednesdays. It's not First Wednesdays anymore, but it's
in a Wednesday this month. I think it's in the middle of the month. We'll be out there
toting our signs and asking for feedback, and then we'll be scheduled to show up at
a farmer's market here in the near future. And then this summer, we will be reaching
out and actually staged out at the parks during the daytime when we know they're most active
with the parents and kids out there at both Walden Civic, start getting that feedback
from the community. The Urban Forest Grant, which is a project
that was really excited about, I'm still partially excited about it. We were awarded the funding
back in November with the transition in the federal government that that funding was put
on pause they reached out to us about a week and a half ago two weeks ago and they said
hey you're still awarded the project but there's some things have changed you're now required
to match the grant at a hundred percent which was a zero percent when we went into it.
So a little challenging we we have a hundred thousand dollar project which is why we requested
$100,000 to do an Urban Forest Master Plan, which is a long-term, you know, 30 to 50-year
plan.
And so we have some questions back into the USDA about modifying the overall dollar amount,
maybe reducing the dollar amount so we wouldn't have to match as much.
And they're checking with the grant writers to see if that's going to be acceptable.
So we're still kind of in this flux period.
We don't know where it's going to go at this point.
And in Sutherland, everybody's familiar with the Sutherland
pilot program that we put on for some traffic mitigations
for those neighbors there at Sutherland in Virginia Court.
The pilot program started on the 8th.
For the city's part of it, we met with the county.
The neighbors, the Open Space Foundation
contributed a lot of time to finding some benefits
and some mitigation opportunities.
And so the city closed the parking lot
at the east end of Sutherland.
The county provided A-frames.
We provided some signage for those A-frames
along with placards.
And so we closed everything down for the most part
on March 8th.
The city opened up the parking lot on May 3rd
because we wanted to see what impact it might have
if just that the small parking lot was open.
And then the county just recently directed the neighbors
to pull the barricades just after Memorial Day
in which the county will pick those barricades up
and house them.
We have not debriefed yet.
We will debrief with the city and the county
and then we'll debrief with the whole committee
sometime this summer.
And we'll follow up on next steps with the commission.
But overall, successful program.
We was successful program for the residents
of Sutherland and Virginia.
We had a lot of feedback from the community,
both the county and the city did.
There's some frustrated individuals out there,
as you can imagine, right?
It's like with most things.
But the impact was pretty heavy through the 23 and 24 season,
the blooming seasons out there.
And some of the feedback you get is, you know,
you don't think about it until you're actually listening.
But we heard from a number of individuals
that live in community pool areas.
As many of you know, Walnut Creek has a lot of neighborhood
pools, community pools, and people were basically
raising their hand and saying, hey, wait a minute, you know,
they have pool meets at these community pools
10 to 15 times a year, and our neighborhoods
are completely overwhelmed with noise from the speakers,
people driving and parking all over the place.
Where's our relief?
When do we get our barricades?
And when do we get our placards?
And so it's things that we didn't think about or discuss
going into this process.
But whether you're going out because you
want to see the flowers, you're going out and hike,
or you're going out and doing a recreational activity
I mean, these things have impacts in lots of different ways.
And so we're going to have to vet this and work to figure out
what the next steps are.
So it's no easy fix.
OK, so moving into the 10-year trail improvement plan.
This was a program that took place back in 17, 18.
And it included two commissioners.
Two park and recreation commissioners
included one transportation commissioner, Bob Simmons,
former council member and mayor was on the subcommittee.
And then we had staff and we had some members
of the Open Space Foundation
and some others that participated.
And we identified there's about 125 miles of trails,
no, sorry, trails in total throughout the city.
And that includes the Iron Horse Trail
and some other trails that the city
doesn't necessarily oversee.
but we wanted to survey all the areas
and come back as a committee
and identify potential opportunities for improvement.
And there's this list here
and then there's some other lists
I'll get into in just a second.
But this was the list that has not got a lot of steam.
And so I wanted to bring it back to this commission
and chat with you a little bit about this
and see if there's two or three items,
maybe more than that, maybe less than that.
that we can have a discussion about and maybe we can,
maybe the Commission can help reset some of these priorities.
As you can see, they're high, medium, and low.
If there's some low-hanging fruit,
we'd like to discuss that and maybe give some more direction
to the Park and Open Space staff on moving forward.
So I'll touch base real quick on all these
so you have an understanding.
Orlando, can you pull up Google Earth as needed?
I don't need it right now, but I might if the Commissioners
have a question on where some of these areas are. So Pine Creek, the very first one there,
let me make sure I got my bearings right. Yeah. So okay. So I know where I'm at. So
for those of you who know where Diablo Shadows is, Pine Creek is that creek that runs right
along side, right along through there. And if you were standing there looking at it,
There's a service road on either side of the creek.
And the goal here was to open up access, one of those service roads, one side or the other,
to open it up for public access.
And so kids that are riding their bike, for example, if they live in the woodlands and
they're trying to get over to Northgate, right now they're riding along the sidewalk.
Is there an opportunity to open up some of these service roads along Pine Creek, their
gravel roads, but to get them away from traffic and give them a better, maybe potentially
a safer area or for individuals who are just out walking and don't want to listen to the
noise from Oak Grove or from YVR, there is some opportunity here to work with flood
control and help get some of these areas opened up.
The Ignacio Canal Trail, let me see, install amenities, yeah, and so like I mentioned earlier,
the Ignacio Canal Trail is about a seven or eight mile loop.
was some conversations about these are the next two, is putting out some signage and
some distance markers. We actually developed a map and I don't know so much about the Iron
Horse Trail around here but where I live in the Dublin-San Ramon area, as you come up
to each road crossing there is a map, it sounds like maybe you've seen them before and it
tells you the distance to get to the next spot and it tells you what those roads are
coming back and forth. And so we thought, hey, you know, maybe there's an opportunity
to do that. We actually put together a pretty detailed map. It's probably due to detailed
for the whole eight miles. We might need to break it down into sections, and that's something
I could bring back and vet with the commission so you guys could get an understanding of
what I'm talking about. But so with signage, distance markers, maybe putting out some additional
benches and possibly even shade structures in some of these areas, I know that East Bay
starting to do a lot more of that. One of the reasons you're probably scratching
your head and saying well you don't have a lot of benches and shade structures
out there now why wouldn't you just do it and one of the challenges we have is
graffiti these these this it creates more maintenance right and it's not like
our staff is is getting any larger but maybe there's four or five areas that we
target that are really close to roads that are easy to service and we test the
waters we see if these if these benches are actually going to be impacted through
graffiti or whatever the case is. So, South Lime Ridge, the Paraiso Trail. Okay,
so if you're headed up Valley Vista to the golf course, there's the...there's a
Paraiso Trail just past...oh I think Crondollette bought that new...you know
where Crondollette bought that new swimming and soccer field area? So just
past there, there's a row of homes behind there, there's a trail. And if you're
coming out of that trail you're either walking up Valley Vista headed up
towards the golf course which is east or you're gonna have to walk down and it's
a ways before you get to a sidewalk and so there was a suggestion at the time to
build almost like a crosswalk there so that you get on the golf course side and
maybe run a fence there's about an eight foot strip between the curb and the
fence that separates the golf course property line there and maybe build a
a trail along there so that people were safe
and they weren't walking in the roads whatsoever.
So hopefully you guys can picture that.
If not, I can pull some of these images up
and give you a better idea.
Shell Ridge, same thing.
We've received feedback over the years
that people aren't using the open space
as much as they would like to.
They're afraid to get lost.
They don't wanna go too far, those types of things.
Is there an opportunity to put trail markers out there?
And so you can identify on the kiosk
that the yellow trail is three and a half miles.
And if you follow the yellow trail,
it'll take you from the kiosk all the way back to the kiosk.
Is there an opportunity to do that?
Interpretive signage, we've started installing
interpretive signage.
We have about six signs installed in Shell Ridge today.
And we're going to continue to expand that program.
It's not cheap.
There are about $3,500 a sign.
So we're pacing ourselves with the funding that's available.
Shearloaf, for those of you who have been there,
near the parking lot, there's a fair amount
of older amenities, or historical amenities.
And there might be an opportunity
to put some more interpretive signage at those areas,
and then Shell Ridge at Rock Springs.
there was an idea about adding a water fountain
to add a water fountain to get a meter
from, what would that be, East Bay Regional?
No, East Bay MUD, I believe,
is somewhere in the 150 to 200,000 range
to get a service over there.
So it's not something that we've moved forward with
for funding purposes, so.
So the second part of this is cross agency collaboration.
These are pretty big lifts.
These are many projects have been talked up.
Many of these projects have been talked about in the Transportation Commission,
as you can imagine, trying to find connectors from BART to the Iron Horse
Trail.
The second one here is at grade pedestrian crossings,
which I've checked in with our traffic engineering
and it would be very difficult to get this pass through
if you can envision the Broadway extension.
If you go down the Broadway extension,
there's two pedestrian bridges basically for,
it's mostly for students getting to Las Lomas.
There was, during this process,
there was a suggestion of opening up the sound wall
and having at-grade crossings
so that if somebody's with a stroller on a bike
or something, they could get from one side to the other
instead of climbing up over the hills,
or sorry, climbing up the stairs
and going over the bridge and coming down the other side.
At the speeds that roll through there,
there's a pretty big curve.
It'd be very difficult to make that a safe crossing.
But that was one of the items that was listed.
Walden Road to WCI.
So if those of you are familiar with Walden Road,
just before you get to Walden Park there,
Civic turns into Jones which eventually you can take a right there. No. Sorry turns into oak you can take a right on Walden
There's the iron horse trail. There's it was a suggestion to make an additional trail next to it for bikes
So that when the youngsters are walking to WCI, they're not competing with the people that are on bicycles
That's what this that's what this was about. And then this is an interesting one. So
Lost Junkus to Bancroft. I'm not sure how many of you know where Lost Junkus is, but if you are
What road is that? So that's Jones Road. Okay, so you're you you go you're on civic
Civic turns into oak
Eventually you come to treat if you pass treat and you take a right it kind of puts you into the
Pleasant Hill Bart area at Lost Junkus Road is there and there was the thought that
We could work with Bart to run a trail along
Not beside the bar tracks, but at the at the toe of the slope just inside the fence
That would take you from Los Junkus all the way up to Bancroft
We've checked in with Bart on that
We can't do that
Barts Bart's not interested in having anybody any closer to tracks than even if it was fenced off
They're that's just not gonna it's not gonna work in their eyes
Finding better access, bicycle access to Pleasant Hill Bart,
to the Walnut, from Walnut Creek to Concord.
Challenging, just based on property.
Lafayette to Walnut Creek, that regional trail connector.
People have been talking about that for years.
It just comes down to getting the property
and getting the funding organized
in order to do that, heavy, heavy lift.
Probably something that Transportation Commission
traffic engineering would be better dealt with. The Ignacio Canal Trail, the
paved portion, the tunnel, the suggestion was to double the width of that and bore
in a new tunnel so that people could walk side by side. That's about a ten
million dollar project. Heavy lift, the detention basin, this project's
possible. Out in front of Northgate High School there is a paved trail that takes
you around to a road called Trails Ending and it's kind of a cut-through
for the kids which eventually gets around to Northgate Road. There's a
detention basin out there and there's an opportunity to take that detention
basin or make a trail through that detention basin up through the open
space areas that are owned by East Bay Regional or City Walnut Creek. They're
by agencies that get you right to the Rangers gate off of Northgate Road going into Mount
Diablo.
So there's a possibility of getting a trail through that area to get people quicker to
Mount Diablo and get them off the main road as they go up Northgate.
Walden, if you were to go out the- let me see, make sure I've got that right, yeah,
If you were to go out the back of Walden Park
and hit the Iron Horse Trail,
you would notice both to the right and to the left,
there is a lot of undeveloped land.
There's an opportunity to make a more impactful
lineal park in that area,
like they've done on the other side of Treat.
And then,
Red Gear, oh, the Red Gear Park and Ride.
Not sure how many of you are familiar
with the Red Gear Park and Ride,
but as you come off the 680,
the Rud Gear exit, if you make an immediate right,
it puts you in the park and ride right there.
There was a thought about working with Caltrans
to develop a trail that'll take you from the park and ride,
several switchbacks to get you up into Sugarloaf open space,
get you over to the Sugarloaf to Shell Ridge Trail,
which eventually gets you to the Mount Diablo Trail.
We met with East Bay Regional in this area
because they have more experience
building these challenging trail systems. It's an expensive project and would require
a big lift from Caltrans in terms of authorizing the use and authorizing people to use the
property in a way that isn't currently authorized. It's a big lift. I think it's a good project
at the end of the day. It's just expensive and a lot of work, a lot of coordination.
Okay, so I'm going to move through this pretty quickly. As many of the items, as many of
the previous items were identified, all of these areas were brought to our attention
in the different zones. I'm going to touch on every one of them. You'll see we at the
very bottom, all of these areas have been addressed unless we specifically state that
that they haven't. So parking at Occalani's, North Occalani's, let me see here, recommend
removing and clarifying the signage. So this was done. We worked with the HOAs out there
to add some public parking in that area. We've clarified the confusion on these trails here
so that the signage is better. Beacon Ridge Trail, that is the trail that takes you up
to the property that was purchased back in 2010. At the very top of the ridge there,
there was four agencies that purchased that property. It's not even on the map, actually,
and it's not ideal to hike, but the signage needed to be better. It needed to be promoted
a little bit more.
It was really driven by John Muir Land Trust.
South Akalani's there's, if you drive up,
I think it's Bacon Way, which is in Pleasant Hill,
takes you to the top of South Akalani's,
there's two empty spots just in front of the gate
that is East Bay Mudd's property.
We've asked them about signing that property
and they said we'd love you to sign it,
but therefore you're responsible to maintain it
in the entry portion into that area.
so we'd have to go out and repave it
and add some new fencing, remove some shrubs
and things along those lines.
So we just, we haven't got there yet.
That's one of the items which I didn't list
has not been completed, but we have reached out
to East Bay Mudd.
We're just not willing to take on the infrastructure impacts
to allow people to park there.
People park there now.
You can get two cars in there.
It's not an issue.
It's just not identified specifically for that trail.
Civic Park enhanced the proposed landscaping
along the Iron Horse.
We were gonna address this as part
of the Civic Park Master Plan, which we haven't got to,
that hopefully will come back in the near future,
another one that I didn't mark correctly.
Number two, the Lime Ridge Forgotten Trail.
This is the trail that is at the far north end
of North Lime Ridge.
there's a trail that starts basically down
right at the intersection of the Ignacio Canal Trail
and the Canal Trail, and it is part of the California
hiking trail that takes you up over Lime Ridge,
north Lime Ridge, and dumps you into Concord.
That trail comes up periodically.
Chime actually sends me some updates once in a while
about some potential improvements.
They've been talking about paving that trail
through the open space,
And it kind of ebbs and flows with funding opportunities,
I believe.
There were some metal structures out there.
I haven't dialed in whether or not
they're talking about an old trough or not.
But there was also some other metal in this area
that was cleaned up.
It was used as part of our restoration projects.
And then there was just some rutting
and things along those lines.
And I think it was pointed out to me
that it might not be Cowell Trail.
It might be a name of a different trail.
I can't remember.
What was the name of that kind?
It might be the Cottonwood Trail.
I may have that word incorrectly.
Area number three, South Lime Ridge.
This is an interesting one that I'd
like to pull up on Google, just to kind of show.
For those of you who have been using the open space,
yeah, I know.
Give us about 35.
So we were temporarily, we shut the system down
when I got online, so I'm not gonna do that again.
Welcome back, everybody.
I'll just explain this to you,
and hopefully you can get an idea of where I'm referring to.
But at the very top of the Manzanita Trail in Lime Ridge,
which is the highest point,
there used to be a cell tower up there that was fenced off.
And behind the fenced off area,
The biking community created this trail
that had been in existence for much longer than 20 years.
And they named it the Mach 5 Trail.
And it was a trail that kind of took you down the spine
at the back of the hill there.
And so when we removed the cell tower, we removed the fencing.
We increased the fencing to shut this trail down.
And it was really successful.
As far as I know, it's not used at all anymore.
there's been a fair amount of restoration
and just natural regrowth in that particular area.
So, we were happy, that was a big lift for us
a number of years ago.
And that was a pretty successful project.
And so anyways, that was kinda to share
what was there at South Lime Ridge.
The Crystal Ranch area, there's a sign,
Crystal Ranch is a gated community.
And there is one trailhead,
I can't remember which road, Oak Knoll Road
or something along those lines,
that when you pull up or you walk up
to that particular area, there's a vehicle access gate
that says no trespassing,
and then we have a pedestrian gate
with a regulatory sign that allows that neighborhood
in and access in and out.
And people have talked, or the suggestion was,
take off the no trespassing signs.
Well, it's really no trespassing for vehicles,
and we don't have any authority
over what East Bay MUD does or if I think it might be
Cal Fire, what signage they put,
but we wanna keep it on the map because it's important
that emergency services know that this is accessible trail.
So Manzanita Trail was similar to some of the other trails
that that particular year, it really got beat up
and was pretty, it was pretty damaged with ruts
and those types of things.
And at the very top of the Manzanita Trail, there was a set of, if you remember in the
past, if you went off to the right, there was a set of stairs that took you down and
took you back up again through the help of the, oh, there's a nonprofit trail group.
It starts with a V. I can't remember the name of the group, but they came out and helped
us rebuild a new trail around that area, a vocal group, yeah, might have been, thank
you, Kaim.
Shell Ridge, for those of you who are familiar with the La Casa Villa trailhead, it really
kicks you into the top of the spine there, across the ridge trail.
It's just gorgeous views up there, and there's a number of benches.
We will get some interpretive signs up there.
In the future, the Sulfur Creek, Casa Noen Trail, there is some difficult sections down
there, but we have improved the signage.
taking care of that. General maintenance is just some more erosion and rutting on
and some of the areas throughout Shell Ridge. So there's an unnamed trail at the
very top of Wigget that would be the west end. Yeah I think the west end of
Wigget is it south end of Wigget that that stops you there at the gated
community off off to your left there's a four to six inch paved trail that takes
you down to a bridge and we've had to make some repairs to those stairs and
just make that area safer. And then the Deer Lake Trail which is a single track
trail that takes you down along the Deer Lake itself. It gets a fair amount of
unauthorized bike use. There's been a push to authorize bicycles in that area
because it connects you to the Costa Nuuen Trail,
connects you to one of the fire roads that are in that area.
And as we all know at this point,
bicycles are not authorized in single tracks
unless otherwise posted, and that trail's remained in that way.
That trail's remained unauthorized for bikes
since we went through this survey.
The last one here, zone number five,
maintenance and erosion issues. They've been addressed. Sugarloaf to Shell Ridge Trail
asphalt improvements. They were actually conducted by PG&E, Sunburst and Transfieldsides. More
maintenance issues due to the heavy rains. The Franco, this is at the end of Benham Court,
I believe we've since added a new drinking fountain and that faucet and drinking fountain
works perfectly fine now and there was some erosion on those trails.
The foothills and Joaquin Ranch trails, same thing, just more maintenance that has already
been completed.
Verones to Mount Diablo, severe erosion, same thing, Ginder Gap loop, sections of the trail
We've made some recent improvements at the top of Ginder Gap.
If you get a chance, go up there and look.
You've heard some feedback from community members in the past about these bike ramps
that we've installed, and so we have a bike ramp down near the Borges Trail.
We now have one at the top of Ginder Gap, and then we have another one near Deer Lake,
and we've been moving some of the fencing around,
actually with the funding help from East Bay,
or sorry, from our Onla Creek Open Space partners.
We've added some fencing, moved some fencing around Deer Lake
in order to protect one of their restoration projects.
And we've added a bike trail,
or sorry, a bike ramp there as well.
And keep in mind, these bike ramps are put in areas
where we cattle graze.
Because what happens traditionally is,
typically is a pedestrian gate will be tied open so that the bicycles don't have to stop
or the runners don't have to stop when they're moving through the area and if they tie the
gate open then the cattle get out.
And so we put in these bike ramps that act almost like cattle guards and so a bike can
just flow over this ramp and the cattle won't go through the ramp because they won't step
in these bars. So this is an idea and a product that they've been doing in East
Bay Regional for some time now and now we're exploring that and using
that more frequently here in Shell Ridge. And you know it works fine.
There's people that are concerned that these are all fire roads. Bikes
have access to these fire roads but people are frustrated sometimes when
they see more access for bicycles and benefits for bicycles. So you might hear
more about that. The hazard trails is poor signage. We've worked through this with East
Bay Regional Twin Pond Loops Trail. There's a drinking fountain on private property and
the property owners. That property switched hands a couple times. I haven't met the new
property owner but the previous one wasn't interested in providing water. I should check
with the new property owner there and see if they are. We can fix that up. And then
spring. The spring is at the bottom of Sugarloaf. So at the bottom end of Sugarloaf, which is
closest to La Vorna, there's a really wet, soggy area down there that we tried to make
some drainage improvements on and we just, it's going to impact the neighborhood that's
there if we make these drainage improvements. So we've been instructed to leave the area
just kind of soggy through the winter months. We don't get a lot of, typically if the open
space is that soggy you're not getting much use out there anyway so this this
area has not yet been improved it's been discussed but not improved and that's
it for the update for the 10-year trail improvement plan this is my last slide
the Heather farm new aquatic and community center I talked about phase one
which potentially could start this July phase two is gonna start next year early
next year, and then phase three is the removal of Clark Swim Center and repurposing or reimagining
what could go in that space. So I'm sharing this with you because Council has identified
this as a project that they want to vet as they go through the budget process and look
to approve the capital budget near the end of this month. And right now there's been
And $250,000 identified to help move this project forward.
The timing for this project, there's
been drive to get started right away.
Realistically, this project wouldn't start until 16,
maybe even as early as 17, depending on bandwidth.
I say 16.
Sorry.
I'm dating myself.
sorry, 26th or spring of 27 sometime in there.
It may start sooner, I'll look for direction
and come back to the commission.
But really, really fun project to be able to take
that three acres and reimagine what that space
might look like.
So we don't get a lot of opportunities to take
that size of a space and kind of reinvent it.
We're losing a fair amount of green space
with the addition of the new pool and the community center.
And so to get three acres to repurpose
It would be a lot of fun, and it would be great to see the Park Commission kind of leading
that drive as you guys have led a lot of these projects.
So that's about it, and thank you for listening.
It was a little long-winded there.
Your action for tonight was just to hear the report and ask questions, provide some feedback.
Any questions from the commissioners?
I have a couple of just general comments willing to listen, thank you that was
thorough and I learned a lot just kind of taking it all in but I might if we're
just looking for just general thoughts here I think one of the things we could
focus on and also make it maybe a little more cost-effective than a huge project
like tunneling under YVR for the that would be great but I don't know if
that's in the cards, you know, budgetary. But I do think that there's a lot of
opportunity to make smaller improvements like on the canal trails, you know, and
coming and going from Northgate to the downtown area, which a lot of people
commute on as well. And if there's opportunities for signage, mileage,
shades and just gussing up the trails to make them even more
opportunistic for people to commute by to get to our downtown or what have you I
think that's good something to focus on and I appreciate that you've already
done some of the interpretive work and new signage and maps and things like
But I actually really appreciate that when I'm particularly trying a new trial, I haven't tried before
It's really nice. It is nice to know like where you are in relation to things other things and that would be really useful
You can do that
and I also thought it's also the kind of thing that might get some Eagle Scouts to help you with or
Other civic groups that might be interested in that kind of thing. I mean, that's a you know
Yeah, there's some thoughts
Thanks might a lot of a lot of information there and good to hear that a lot of these
if not project lists the
the
summary list that you just went through of various kind of action items have
over time gotten
Completed by staff
Within I guess the maintenance budget and those types of things. So that's that's all good news
I did have a question about the canal trail in terms of
Who is who what governing body is responsible for?
What hearts of it?
And what I mean by that is there's a paved path
there's a v-ditch where
Water I think it's Contra Costa water
Flows through and then there's usually another side
unpaved
Yeah, it's good question
the Bureau of Land
owns the entire
Trail system or that easement through there and they have a contract with Contra Costa water
To oversee that area and we have an agreement with Contra Costa water to maintain the paved trail side
of the irrigation ditch.
So if the irrigation ditch is down the middle,
we're on the paved side and then they maintain the ditch
and the service road side.
Does that make sense?
So the bottom of the V is where the line is drawn?
Is that what you're saying?
So on the drainage ditch?
It's not quite the bottom.
They're responsible for the whole drainage ditch
in about two feet up from that
because that's kind of where their concrete
for that V ditch ties into.
So we would do the pave trail down about two feet.
They'd pick up the other two feet,
the ditch and then the service road.
All right.
And the types of improvements you're talking about
in terms of bench and shade, that type of thing
are all within that area
that the city is responsible for.
Yeah, we would certainly check in as partners
and make sure that it was,
I know it's within the agreement
or wouldn't have brought it to your attention.
Just make sure I check in with them,
let them know in advance of what we're going to be doing,
potentially installing some signage and some benches
and I think shade and certain opportunities
would be beneficial.
You know, we often call our trail system like a lineo park
and we've made such great progress in the open space
in terms of the maintenance,
a lot of the maintenance challenges being,
not being as intensive they were in the past.
And so we're getting a little bit more time
to maybe make some improvements
in some of these other areas.
And that's kind of the push behind this recommendation.
Okay.
The Canal Path seems to be an area where
the use of electronic bikes, bicycles,
traffic safety at the crossings all come to a head,
so to speak.
Just, I've noticed, because I live in an area
where the canal goes through,
that drivers take different approaches
to the trail crossings.
And there are a lot of blind spots for drivers
as they approach the trail crossings.
And some drivers slow down, others just speed through
as if there's nothing there.
and bicycles and can get caught in the crunch.
So can people too, for that matter.
Runners, for instance, where there's a little bit more speed
than a walker where you have a little bit
better reaction time.
But a lot of challenges through the neighborhood,
more so with the speed of e-bikes and things
going through there as well.
So not sure what our role is in that,
but I just wanted to note it.
Yeah, I appreciate that.
And it all falls within public works,
not necessarily in the parks and open space,
but I can talk to the traffic engineering team
and have them take a look at some of these areas
as they're doing throughout the city,
make sure we're focused maybe,
or ask them to focus a little bit more
on some of these trail crossings.
Mike, thanks for the update, I'm sorry, are you, okay.
Thanks for the update on the 10-year plan.
It's a lot of information.
And I'm wondering if we could have an opportunity
to kind of walk some of the sites.
And I know these projects are kind of funding dependent.
And if we could think about opportunities
to leverage funding and prioritize
the needs of these projects.
So this 10-year plan carries through 2028.
So we're about three more years.
So if we could, yeah, kind of look at the sites
and look at the funding and leverage
with NGOs on the funding and resources,
I think that would be great.
A field trip, always fun.
Yeah, and I'll reach opportunity, too.
Yeah.
All right.
Any other comments from the commissioners?
Does any member of the public
wish to provide public comments at this time?
The presentation?
Okay, all right.
Hearing none, anything else?
Nope, that's it.
I think your feedback is pretty clear and appreciate it.
I'll come back in the future with a better update.
I think the focus right now will probably be improvements
the canal trail and maybe the additions of some interpretive signage and then we'll organize
a field trip and maybe we can help reprioritize some of the other opportunities.
Sounds great. Thank you. Thank you.
Next item is pros commissioners report. Any commissioners report?
I have a report. So I'm the liaison with the senior club for
And at the last meeting I raised the information about the Civic Park and Walden Park upgrades
that are being planned and as I predicted and had already gotten some feedback from
Mike they're very concerned about how long this project will take and kind of where is
the staging going to be and even though their back parking lot might be free they all you
know that that is not enough parking for many many many of the events there
right so I mean they do use the other areas for parking so I'm just wondering
if you really I mean it was usually up to the contractor to stage what you know
but I don't know you designate some areas for them and so yeah I mean
potentially the what would be the parking lot closest to Park Place so I
I guess that would be the Northwest side,
basically behind the Studio H building.
We could potentially use that as a lay down area,
but it's a great comment from the senior group.
There's, with the impact coming to Heather Farm,
the vast majority of those events
are gonna now start taking place at civic park.
And so we're gonna have to do a really good job
coordinating, because they don't do these playground projects
in a, you know, in a couple weeks.
They're typically a couple months.
So it's good feedback and it's something
we're gonna have to coordinate with the seniors
but also coordinate with the park users
and the event holders as well.
And another comment I've heard a couple times from them,
the current chair actually, President Fred,
he's mentioned a couple times that he's,
they're interested in once the new community center
is built in moving many of their activities there
because the parking is a lot of concern.
Plus, of course, it'll be a really nice facility.
But anyway, so I know that just it
may be that parking is sort of an issue in general,
it seems like, from what I've picked up.
And I don't know if you agree with that, but yeah.
It can definitely be a challenge.
When they put in the library, the underground library,
underground garage at the library. The idea was that maybe more of them would use it. It's just
not convenient, right? They did ask about that, and you know they're aware that that's available,
but you're right. It's just you have to pay, I think. You do, yeah. It's just different, yeah.
And then the ones who are involved in the Kreekers were very interested in when the
new fields are going to be done. Oh early November is the plan yes. I was able to
tell them you're given that update that you'd given us which is everything's on
schedule probably in the fall. You can always give them Commissioner Oler's
phone number and you have them yes. Maybe we could convert to a sandlot league
where we're just playing the dirt. So I'm the liaison with the Walnut Creek open
space foundation. I've had the pleasure of joining their monthly board meetings
and learning a lot about the activities at the foundation. I happen to join on
one of their projects in May, is it May? Last month, yeah, where we did the oak
seedling project off of Sutherland Drive and it was great. We were joined by
two high school seniors from Northgate, the chair, chairman from the board, board
members and volunteers. So I just want to put it out there if you're a water
water creek resident or you don't even have to be a water creek resident if
you're interested in working in open space reach out. It's we had a lot of fun
And then we saw these bird houses built by local eagle scouts.
We saw the bird, we opened it and saw the bird nest, so it's really seeing, you know,
how the communities or, you know, different facets of communities, youth, you know, volunteers,
senior volunteers, and all coming together to protect the open space in Warner Creek.
So that was very enjoyable for me.
Next is staff reports.
Do we have any staff reports?
I have no reports.
I'm talked out for the evening.
Yes.
All right.
So there comes the conclusion of the meeting.
This concludes the June 2nd, 2025 PROS Commission meeting.
We're adjourned to the August 4th, 2025 scheduled meeting.
Meeting is adjourned.
And.
Ooh.