PROS Commission: 10/6/2025 - Walnut Creek Meetings

Transcript

Warning: This transcript is automatically generated by machine and may contain errors, including misheard words, misattributed speakers, and omitted passages. Always listen to the audio or video recording before assuming the transcript correctly reflects what was said. Do not rely on the transcript alone for quotation, reporting, or any other purpose where accuracy matters.

Good evening. Welcome everybody

This is the to October 6th

2025 pros Commission meeting I

Would first like to

Introduce and welcome our newest Commissioner. This is our first meeting

Gloria and Sasser

Welcome. Thank you. Yeah

You want to give us 30 seconds of introducing yourself to everyone a little bit?

Sure. So I'm really pleased to be a commissioner. Thank you and my background is in finance and human resources

And then I've spent a lot of time in the open space in the parks and I've lived in Walnut Creek for about 25 years now

So, thank you. Well, very exciting. Thank you very much and welcome being here

Okay, we'll roll call and Secretary Vickers, please call the roll

Good evening. Commissioner Sasser

here Commissioner Oler here Commissioner Garland

here vice chair pink staff here and

Chair cook here. Thank you. Let the record show that all the commissioners are here minus the youth commissioner

Okay, the public coming communications

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

Request clarification or refer the item to staff

We've allotted 30 minutes for this particular public

Comment period does any member of the public wish to speak on any item not on the agenda. I do have some some cards

I'll call those off here

And with that the secretaries already given me the cards, right? Correct. All right

And mister when I call your name, please approach the podium mr. Burns

Hi members of the Commission

Thanks for having us here

Good evening. My name is Justin Burns. I live in Walnut Creek with my wife and two children

I'm here tonight representing Walnut Creek's Beach tennis community to ask that you request

Staff to consider replacing the net winches at the city sand courts

I have some of the other members here joining me.

Beach tennis is a globally popular sport governed by the International Tennis Federation, the

same organization that governs traditional tennis, except beach tennis is played on a

sand court similar to beach volleyball.

The sport is gaining serious momentum and is under consideration for inclusion in the

2032 Brisbane Olympic Games.

a key difference in our sport is the net height. For beach tennis it's set around five feet seven

inches about two feet lower than a standard women's volleyball net. For almost three years

a growing group of us have been playing beach tennis on the city's sand courts. We're always

extremely careful with the nets and raise them back to the higher volleyball settings after we play.

Our request is to replace the dated net winches

with a proven slider system which is available for less than a thousand

dollars from volleyballusa.com. I actually have an example that I can

give to the to the team after.

The slider system is successfully used locally in Fremont Central Park.

The slider system consists of tracks that attach to each pole

allowing the net to slide up or down to adjust the height for multiple sorts

and various users, men's, women's, and junior's heights.

The slider system can be attached to the city's existing poles

once the winches and collars are removed.

This change will bring many benefits to the city.

First, it will encourage more players of all sports and ages

since a single court can be adapted within seconds for

any use case, including the appropriate net height for children. This will mean more revenue

for the city from court rentals, including from tournaments. The slider system allows for easy,

intuitive height adjustment with the net remaining under full tension. This avoids type of cumbersome

manipulation of the net frequency seen with the current winch system, which can lead to

sagging your damage to the net if the person is inexperienced or careless.

In this way, the slider system will save the city's time and money on maintenance and replacements

of nets.

We ask you please refer to this item to the staff. Thank you for your consideration.

Thank you.

Any comments, Mike?

Yeah, I mean the the commission's not authorized to comment on public comments,

so there's probably not going to be a lot of back and forth.

but I did want to share with the Commission that Jim Carlson and myself have been engaged and we're going to continue to work through

Some of these requests and proposals so and we'll bring it back to the Commission give you an update on where we're at

Great. Thank you

Next up is mr. Shiner

My name is Jonathan Shiner. I live on White Cliff Way in Walnut Creek. I've lived in Walnut Creek again also for about 25 years

I live across the street from various trail heads extending from there, as well as Rock

Spring Place and neighborhoods along the way.

I'm an avid hiker, and I use the open space quite often, and I am rather appalled at the

condition of the trails, including major arteries that have developed over the last, say, three

years.

Back in the day, I do recall that, you know, it was in this room, actually it was a different

room, but, and we were complaining about that, and ranchers were there, and a rather ingenious

solution was developed by Mr. Vickers, and that was to have rotational grazing, and that

worked perfectly.

And let me say first that I, you know, I just need to say that I am a firm proponent of

using cattle to control the fuel that develops in the dry season here.

So this is not about, like, not having cows.

The point is, is that the cows who are pooping all over the trail, they don't need the trails

to access the fuel.

We do, though.

And I put this out in an email I sent on September 10th, so you can have the, you know, all this

language in there.

This is, you know, this problem is pretty, it's disgusting, it's unhealthy, and it begs

the question about whether the open space is really for recreational users or for cattle

grazers.

And lastly, or almost lastly, I do want to say that even before the poop becomes such

a major issue in the spring and early summer, there are deep ruts in the trail that could

break your ankle if you try to use it.

The last thing I would like to say then is-

You do have, we have two minutes dedicated to this period and you've exceeded that already.

So thank you very much for your comments.

Next up we have Mr. Langner.

Haven't been up here for about 10 years, so it's nice to be back.

My name is Jeff Langner.

I'm a Firewise Community Leader for Summit Road in Lafayette.

I'm not a Walnut Creek citizen.

I'm a wildfire survivor.

We saved the dogs, lost the house.

I'm joined this evening by Lafayette Emergency Preparedness Commissioner Stephanie Bontemps,

my colleague.

So our Summit Road Firewise Community borders Akalani's Ridge and the open space in Walnut

Creek.

Reducing wildfire risk is our top priority.

I represent 38 homes, lived there for 45 years.

Our goal is a, what we say is a fire resilient future, meaning not have to constantly worry

about losing our homes to fire, which I've experienced directly.

So earlier this year we entered into an agreement with Walnut Creek to utilize goats for grazing

on Aquiline's Ridge, and the goal was to reduce the grass fuel load beyond the basic

Contra Costa Fire Protection District minimum weed abatement requirement.

The results were amazing.

My neighbors were ecstatic, and we are a lot safer now as a result.

I just wanted to publicly thank Assistant Public Works Director Mike Vickers and Open

Space Head Ranger Corey Frazier for coming up with and facilitating a very creative solution

to a problem that affects all of us.

So thank you Mike, thanks to Corey, just wanted to say that.

That's it.

Great, thank you.

Next we have Barbara Guiness.

Hello everybody.

everybody. My name is Barbara Guinness. I've been a resident of Walnut Creek since 1996. Today I

wanted to talk about three items. Particularly, I'll start off first with the Ride Safely signs

that are being posted outside the open spaces. In June 2025, the pros commission talked about a

proposal for allowing e-bikes into the open spaces. Then these, I think you've seen them before,

if you're familiar with the open space, these ride safely signs have started appearing at

the open space entrances. If you look at the websites here, it points to, it used to point

to a police website, now it points to a city website, but the information is incorrect.

It says it has class one, two, and three bikes as being allowed in various situations in

open spaces and the current municipal codes do not allow that. Second thing I

wanted to talk to you about was the status of the social trails to official

trails plan. This was talked about in December 2024 and then again in April

2025. City staff said they formally completed trail evaluation checklists

and they have other information but they're only in the draft format so they

won't share that with the public. So I think it's very interesting to withhold

information from the public regarding a public project in the public open spaces

and especially since the public purchased these open space lands. Now the

last thing I want to talk to you about was motorized vehicles in the open

spaces. Just recently there were two motorcyclists that were there and

they were riding around a parking lot in Walnut Creek they said and then they

said a police officer told him don't ride in the parking lot but right up in

the open space or pointed to the open space who knows if it's true it's he's

you know he said he said she said whatever but anyway I just wanted to

bring that to your attention that continues to happen thank you for all

you do to protect the open space thank you very much we appreciate it are there

any other public comments okay with that we will move on to the next item on the

agenda which is the consent calendar we have four items on the consent calendar

do does any of the commissioners have questions on the consent calendar items

I do I would like to I have a couple questions on the tennis annual report

Hi Jim Carlson recreation program manager I can help you with that yes so I

really you know appreciated your update thought it was really really well done it

I did notice, though, that many of the youth programs seem to have lost attendees.

Do you kind of have a sense of why that might be happening?

Are there too many other things going on?

I don't know, I just was curious because it seemed like a big drop.

Yeah, it's a really good question.

Because the tennis contractor who actually helps us with the information from the report,

they're the ones that operate the Tennis Center, and that's lifetime tennis.

So, I would need to go back to them to talk to them specifically about maybe some of the

inner details of why that enrollment might have dropped.

But I'm sure they would be able to get me that answer and I could get back to that.

That would be great.

And do you know whether there's any plans to sort of try to rejuvenate that or?

Well, I know there's always plans to be not, I would say, always to increase their business

and to look at their court space

and how they maximize the use of it.

And I would almost imagine they're

going to say due to we expanded over here,

we reduced over there.

I think the court use is probably very similar.

It's probably the user groups are probably

is what's changed a little bit.

But I don't have the specific answers until I go back

and talk to them.

One more question if you're going

to go talk to them anyway.

So they also made a mention of the fact

that court utilization had actually improved, which it

does.

It looks much better than over the last several years.

particularly better than last year, but it's 63%.

So I guess I don't really know the tennis industry

very well to know, is 63% good?

Does that mean?

Well, I don't know if that's good.

I know that if you look at the hours of utilization,

it starts early in the day and it goes into the evening.

And like most of our programs,

there's what we call peak hours.

And during those peak hours, you could go around the city

and almost all the facilities would be full

during those peak hours.

And those are typically in the afternoon from three to six.

And then after 6 p.m., I'm sure there's a lot of adults out there and in the early morning,

but those hours somewhere between 9 a.m. and 3 p.m. are the hours.

It's kind of a little harder for us to fill on weekdays.

I know that, but as far as 63%, that's a golden question.

I don't know if that's a good number or not,

but that's a very good question for me to ask them as well.

That was it.

Thank you.

Okay.

Thank you.

I'll move acceptance of the consent calendar.

I have a question about the aquatics program report.

Thanks for the report.

I just want a little more information

on the scholarship program.

This is the first time I heard about it

and the goes for 2026.

Okay, so Karen Houston Martin,

recreation program manager at

the University of Aquatics and Social Services.

Our scholarship program is both recreation and arts-based.

I don't necessarily handle the actual scholarship program.

That's through Community Arts, the community arts manager,

but we have so much money a year to contribute

to all of our recreation programs.

So our goal is to increase that, especially in aquatics.

It seems like a lot of people are interested in using that

for day camps, things like that on the rec side,

and we're really trying to push more and more people

use that for swim lessons and for fitness swimming.

So our goals are we have about $14,000

that we bring in on the rec side a year

through our Christmas tree lot

that we rent at the parking lot for the Christmas tree lot.

And so we're trying our hardest

to use all that money out every year

for all of our recreation programs.

And how is that awarded?

There's an application that participants fill out online.

Miley, who is the community arts manager,

she goes through those and makes sure

that the criteria is met,

and then there's a percentage that's awarded to each family.

Thank you, welcome.

Any other questions on the consent calendar?

Do we have any members of the public

who wish to provide public comment

on any of the consent calendar items?

Okay, with that, we'll move to approve

the consent calendar items, including the minutes

from the last meeting, correct?

Can we have approval?

I move we approve the consent items.

And a second?

I'll second.

With that, they are approved.

Just call roll real quick.

Commissioner Oler?

Yes.

Chair Pinkstaff?

Here.

Commissioner Sasser?

Yes.

Commissioner Garland?

Commissioner Consen. Yes. And Chair Cook. Yes. Thank you. And please let it be noted

that Commissioner Consen is here in attendance. Thank you. With that, next on

the agenda is an item for the Commission consideration, the staff report. So good

evening commissioners. I have two items on the consent calendar for tonight. The

first one being the drone ordinance and the second one is the playground

renovation we'll get to here just in a few minutes before I jump into the to

the updated drone ordinance it's important to share that I'm not sure I

think commissioner older might have been here in 17 but I could be wrong okay so

this is the first time that this body has heard the drone ordinance and so

what's that? So it's not necessarily an update to you folks but back in 2017

the summer of 17 we presented a an unmanned aircraft ordinance you know

referred to as the drone ordinance and received feedback from the Commission

and the drone ordinance that I'm going to share with you today is almost

identical to the ordinance that was shared back in 17 with exception of the

feedback that we received from this body at that time which had to do with

criteria, in which the director is going to use to other approve or deny a request to

use a drone in these spaces.

So I'll jump into the drone ordinance.

Here I'm going to read the first section.

I've got big print so I can see it.

And then there, so I'll read the first section.

The second two sections are more legalese, so I'll just briefly touch on those.

Those are more for council direction or for council to weigh in, and then we'll move into

questions and potentially questions from the general public. So the unmanned

aircraft, no person shall operate an unmanned aircraft while located with any

park or open space, nor shall any person utilize any park or open space as a

landing or takeoff location for an unmanned aircraft without a valid

permit issued by the director. The director may designate certain areas

within our parks or an open space where the operation of an unmanned aircraft or

or the landing or launching of an unmanned aircraft

may be allowed.

For the purpose of this section, unmanned aircraft

shall mean an aircraft operated without the possibility

of direct human intervention from within or on the aircraft

and includes unmanned aircraft systems,

an unmanned aircraft aerial vehicle,

or remote control aircraft.

The director shall have discretion

to issue for permits for unmanned aircraft for the following, photography or filming,

historical, environmental or scientific surveys, vegetation management or fire risk assessment

or governmental purposes. This section shall not apply to unmanned aircraft operated by

local state or federal law enforcement or emergency response personnel while acting

under their official capacity.

So, phase, or section two, this is really just describes

that councils, if this gets to council and approved,

they're not going to be in, you know,

going to contradict state and federal law.

So, I'm not going to go through this too much.

And this is really about the publication.

Once this goes to council, if it does,

how many days prior does it need

to be notified in those types of things?

So before I get into questions and comments

and the council action,

I did have a little bit of information

I want to share with you.

So back in June or previous meeting this year,

I brought to this body the e-bike ordinance.

And as I mentioned at that meeting,

which is very similar to this ordinance here,

we oftentimes look to our big brother

called East Bay Regional Parks

as most of these, since they're in the park

and open space recreational industry solely,

they've vetted the vast majority of these policies

through their supervisors and through their communities.

And so we look to see what's worked well with them

and what hasn't worked well

and try and learn from that process.

And this policy here is almost identical

to the drone policy within East Bay Regional Parks

with one exception and one critical exception

is East Bay Regional Parks has a zero tolerance

for drones in the open space,

with exception for emergency purposes,

those types of things.

So, as we're suggesting here,

so, sorry, based on some of the criteria

that we heard from the commission back in 2017,

we do have a need and a want and a desire

in our open space and parks for drones.

And so we wanted to be very specific on what guidelines

the director would have so that he had these guard

rails to work within.

So that one person didn't say, you authorized this individual

to go out and take environmental photography

and this person you didn't.

And so we wanted to protect the director,

but also be very clear with the community

on why they were approved or denied a permit

to fly a drone in the open space.

We do have several, or we probably film several movies

out at Borges Ranch, and that's why we have in there

the photography and filming,

because there is a need out there.

We have staff that is out there assessing certain areas

in terms of fire abatement, maintenance, erosion,

Sometimes in the wintertime, we can't get out there

to see what's going on because it's too muddy.

We can fly a drone out there.

And obviously, and it's clearly stated in C,

we do work with PD.

We've had PD out searching for people

that have been lost in the open space.

We've also had PD out looking for individuals

that are not operating within the rules of the open space.

And so we have a number of reasons why.

The other one I want to point out,

and this was a question that came from someone

in the audience earlier today.

There was a comment about why is it

that you can control the launching and landing.

And it's pretty simple, to be honest with you.

The city doesn't own the airspace.

The airspace is controlled by the FAA.

And so the city can dictate within city property

what is being done on city property.

So for example, if I'm out at Heather Farm Park

And I have a permit I can launch from the park,

and I can land in the park.

But if somebody in one of the neighboring homes

launches a drone from their backyard

and lands the drone in their backyard

and flies all over the park area,

the city has no jurisdiction over the airspace.

And so therefore, that person could potentially

do that, assuming they're not breaking any FAA rules,

that the city would not govern, to be honest with you.

So we do have a number of challenges in the open space.

People are using drones for mostly good from what we see,

but we've heard rumors that people are out chasing wildlife

with drones, basically harassing wildlife.

And drones can have an impact if you or I are out there walking

and there's a drone buzzing around.

You don't know nowadays what's going on,

whether you're being filmed or what the case is.

We've had some feedback, not nearly as much as we received back in 15 and 16, hence why

we brought the drone policy in 17, but the issues still do exist.

So with that being said, the action for tonight was to hear and provide feedback on the proposed

drone ordinance, and I will open it up for questions.

I have some questions.

First of all, why, since 2017, nothing's happened.

Council decided not to act in 2017.

It wasn't presented to them?

Yeah, so it never made it to Council.

When we received the feedback from the commission

at that time, we had other issues.

More driving issues come up at that period of time, which then

let us into COVID and this is really sat flat.

It sat more in my area of responsibility,

certainly not with city council.

And so it's just coming back now

because it's raised that level on the priority list.

Yeah, not a good reason, but that's the facts.

Also, I'm just curious,

is the director referred to Parks and Rec

or Public Works or who?

Yeah, that's a good comment

Because the municipal code also calls out

the Arts and Recreation director,

sometimes the Public Works director.

So that's good feedback, we need to be specific.

Or at least list both of them.

Right.

Yeah.

Because I'm thinking Drone and Heather Farm

may be under a different jurisdiction

than a drone flying out in Lime Ridge.

Yeah, no, great feedback, thank you.

And then I'm curious about the permit system.

So things like, I don't know, more logistical things.

Will there be a fee?

Will a commercial venture, like a film for a company making

money off of it, an advertisement or something,

will they be treated differently or charged

more than the guy taking pictures

for educational purposes or anything?

Have you thought about that kind of a structure,

or does it just fill out a form and we say yes or no?

So there's a fee structure in our master fee schedule.

So for example, if there's a filming company that

wants to go do a shoot out at Borges Ranch,

there's a specific fee schedule based on the hours.

If there is a special event, Karen's not here,

but Karen handles special events,

there's a fee schedule for all those.

So if somebody was out there for commercial purposes,

there would be a fee associated with that.

If they're out there, like the Open Space Foundation,

for example, if we were out there doing plant studies,

and we had a licensed drone operator out there helping us,

it would be an internal benefit.

So there would not be a fee charge for that purpose.

Is that just a policy of your department?

Is that written up somewhere?

It's in the master fee schedule.

Oh, OK.

All right.

But Commissioner Garland, what's not specific in the master fee

schedules, it doesn't use the term unmanned aircraft or drone.

And so when we bring that around in a year from now,

a year and a half from now, that's good feedback.

We'll work to work that in so that people understand.

Because you put a camera on your shoulder,

you can put a camera above you.

You're still, for commercial purposes,

you still need to pay that fee.

So thank you.

And then I'm wondering whether there's

A penalty for breaking the rules?

Do you shoot it down?

Just ask whoever the operator is.

Is it more the educated?

We're at the educational phase, assuming this is implemented.

Yeah.

At the educational phase, where we would ask them to stop

and tell them why it's prohibited, et cetera.

Another good question.

The municipal code, and I'm sure there's

language in the code for a penalty for violating the municipal code, I can't quote that right

now, but I'm certain that it's in the municipal code in general, but I'll be sure and clarify

that as we move forward, so great question, thank you.

Thank you, that was it.

Thank you, Mike.

I wanted to make sure I understood one of the last things you said about the code if

you could go back to that for a moment.

If I understand correctly, the code really applies to a person or a drone that is physically

in a park or open space.

Correct.

And so there's a loophole here in terms of Walnut Creek's code that if an individual

in their private residence launches a drone that goes out over the open space and doesn't

land there, we don't have any enforcement capability on – we, Walnut Creek, don't

have any enforcement capability in terms of our municipal code.

Is that correct?

That's correct.

only dictate where it is launched, where it's launched and landed. Yeah so it is a fairly large

loophole. I would you know it appears to be a huge loophole once people look at that very carefully

but it's controlling what we can control because we can't control the airspace but there may be

rules from the FAA that govern it that could be enforced by other other than

Walnut Creek that's correct correct okay yes all right yeah and that's

typically height yeah the the larger drones they can only think it's 400 feet

or less or 400 feet or more and don't quote me on that but it's something

around that height that the FAA gets more involved in okay yeah thank you

Thanks Mike. How would how does somebody know that a permit would how would

somebody know that a permit is required? Is there gonna be an advertisement, a

public notice? Yeah we'll push the you know anytime we update the municipal

code what we push it out through social media will also advertise it in our

parks and open space whether it's through a one of our sandwich boards or

through one of our kiosks we'll do our best to get the the word out. And you

You know, that's oftentimes why we start with the educational side of things.

If we see somebody out there, we just let them know what the rules are and if they become

a repeat offender, then we address it, you know, if we need to get PD involved or something

along those lines we do.

Does the John Muir Hospital helipad have any restrictions that they place being given its

proximity to Shell Ridge Open Space?

are there any restrictions in the SAWC?

Because I know there's, we spoke earlier,

my daughter for a bit was playing around with the drone

and there was some limitations as to this,

that was built into the software as to blocking access,

like the drone wouldn't go near an air,

so many, a mile within, a mile of an airport

or something like that.

Any, are you aware of any limitations

with the telepad there?

I'm not, no, would make sense, right?

That airspace above John Muir's we use pretty frequently.

Yeah.

Does the FAA provide any height limitations

on how high a drone can go?

I vaguely remember 400 feet.

But that seems awfully high now that I think about it.

If you just took John Muir as an example,

John Muir's probably four stories, five stories.

40, 50 feet, not 400 feet.

So I don't I don't actually know the answer to that question. Yeah. Yeah. Okay

Any other questions for Mike on this topic?

Okay, I think we're ready to move on to the the next is there any other public comment. Oh, I'm sorry public comment on this topic Oh

Barbara miss Guinness you'd like to

I'm in the open space a lot and I think in the last few years

I've probably seen drones up there around six times one time

Mike mentioned this, but it was search and he didn't mention search and rescue

But it was a search and rescue and they were doing training. So that would be considered

legitimate

another one was a

guy had a

Control around his neck and he was mountain pikey and was really it was really not very high at all

It was just buzz right above my head

So I knew I knew that was not correct and saw a man with a drone one time too by one of the kiosks

And he was taking some pictures or something.

But probably more of the ones I've seen probably

are not legitimate.

And I don't know where they were launched.

Thank you, Mike, for mentioning the airspace,

because I didn't know about that.

I thought, well, if it's above the open spaces,

you should be able to control it.

But yes, it makes sense about the airspace.

So I just want to comment.

I've seen quite a few in the past few years.

Thank you.

Thanks, thank you.

So just before we are we ready to move on, potentially?

Or any other public comments?

So just before we move on, based on some of the comments

that were made here tonight from Commissioner Garland,

where I do need to go back and maybe touch this up

just a little bit, are taking those comments in consideration.

Can I get a thumbs up from the commission

on whether you're comfortable moving this forward

to city council, or would you like me to come back,

make those amendments to this ordinance,

and come back for a second reading?

How would you like me to proceed?

Actually, did have one more comment on the permit.

Is it for a period of time, or is it like a one-year permit,

or is it a one-day permit,

or how's the timing work on that?

Yeah, it's another good question.

not clear in here, but it would be based on a day.

So you'd need a permit every day you wanted to do it?

Correct.

If you wanted to get like a seven day permit for a film, for example, we would take that

in consideration based on what the need or what the use is and also what tied into our

fee master schedule.

So I can be more clear.

We can clear that language up as well in terms of the duration of the permit.

So Mike you're looking for a thumbs up that we can continue or you can continue without

having to continue based on the comments you've received today without having to amend the

existing document.

Yeah, so I'm comfortable amending the document based on the feedback I received and bring

it back to this body so that you can get a second reading and make sure that you're comfortable

before accepting this and then giving me a recommendation to move to council or I can

take your comments as they are and add them to the amended city ordinance and then take

that straight to council in the future.

So I can come back or I can move forward to city council, it's up to this body.

commissioners I was gonna say perhaps can you I'm not sure your your your

actual process on this but could you just make your edits and send it to us

and say here are edits in you know related to the comments and then you

know before you actually you know hit the send button to the council or

whatever you know I don't know is that legit or would it be better I'm not sure

I can do that because I have to the public would have to see those changes what I'm sending you I

Think it was mostly clarification. I am actually okay if we don't see it again

I didn't raise anything. I don't think that would you know is a different approach or policy. It's really more clarification. Yeah, so I

Think the way we have typically handled it in terms of things like budgets and fee schedules and everything else where we have an input

But it's going to go to the City Council

We're comfortable with you taking our comments and making a making a final version that you take to City Council without

Recycling it to us. I'd suggest we go with that try to approve that route

And you're looking more than for a thumbs up rather than a fit. Yeah

Just just to hear from each of the commissioners that they're acceptable of that recommendation

Yep

Yes, yes

Yes, and yes, it's a mr. Constance. Yes. Yes. Thank you. And next item on the agenda mic

I think is also yours

Yes, please

Okay, so Mike Vickers for the record city of Walnut Creek. I brought this item

In the spring, I think it was at the April meeting our park playground renovation update

we've done a fair amount of

public outreach and so this was an opportunity to bring it back and let you guys let this body know where we're at in the

process and

Hopefully get a recommendation to move this forward

So the agenda for tonight we'll talk a little bit about the background

The public outreach results and then we'll get into the next steps here just in a minute

So as I mentioned in 23 this body recommended to the City Council that five hundred thousand dollars be appropriated

to improve the playground or completely renovate the playground at Civic Park and Walden Park.

In 2024, I came back to this body and talked about our approach and how we would get that

information and what would be the next steps in the draft design. Earlier this spring, as I just

mentioned, I brought a number of designs to this body and then shared with you that we were going

going to take this out on kind of a road show and what we did through our

public outreach process. So just backing up for a minute and just just so

everybody's clear, in terms of public outreach we did put it on the city's

website, we put up banners at Civic Park, Walden Park, and Heather Farm Park to

try and draw interest, had a QR code on each of those which gave you an

opportunity to go to those city's website and identify which amenities and

and which options you would like.

We did get over 600 participants of the survey,

which is a really successful public outreach campaign.

And we also were, some of you may know

that the Walnut Creek downtown hosts a Wednesday,

I think it starts, it's June, July, August, September,

it's four of them, and we attended two of them,

which is on Locust Street, one Wednesday a month.

It's a public outreach process

where people have tents out there and sharing information,

what's taking place in the city,

sometimes selling crafts and things along those lines.

So the design options,

so here's the feedback that we received,

I'll get to this slide in just a minute,

but what we did is the design options

that I brought to you in the spring,

we put on posters, took them out to the public,

they were also on the city website,

And we asked which option of the two to five at Civic

and so on through the process.

And so based on the participants that voted option A

at Civic Park, the two to five,

and for the audience who may not know,

two to five is years of age.

Playgrounds have to be broken up in two to five,

five to 12 by state law.

And so at Civic Park, they selected option A

for two to five, five to 12 was option C.

And then Walden Park was the five to 12.

What's not up here, and I'll show you the slide in a minute.

We did not share with the public the amenities

for the two to five at Walden

because the sand area is so small.

It can only house two or three items in there.

And so we just made an assumption

based on the regular use that's out there

that they would be comfortable with it.

So these were the playgrounds.

This is the 2 to 5 at Civic.

This is the original design that I shared with you

in the spring.

This is the 5 to 12.

And this was the dollar amount for the combination

of the two of them, which includes the,

you see the resilient surface, that blue trail.

That's the resurfacing of that resilient surface,

the painting of the swings,

and the amenities that you see.

So keep that number in mind, 450 basically.

So at Walden, this was the sand area

that we're gonna make a staff decision

with the support of the commission.

And one thing that's not on here,

one of the amenities that we are bringing

is a jug filler, which is those small,

basically if you think of an igloo jug

that you would stick under a fountain

where the kids can hit a button

and fill up their water bucket or whatever,

we're gonna add one of those over there

because the kids seem to love the water experience so much.

So we are adding that to this, to the two to five,

assuming you guys recommend we move forward.

And then this was the one that was selected

for Walden Park, the five to 12.

Keep in mind, what's interesting about Walden Park,

if you haven't spent a lot of time over there,

it is almost 100% two to five-year-olds.

You don't get very many kids, school-age kids

at that park using that equipment.

You might get a few more school-age kids

using the disc golf course in the back,

but they're really not geared towards this playground

because it's so small.

Typically, they're at one of the other parks.

And so this here was 245.

So we had 455 and 245.

We were in the 700 range, right?

We got appropriated for $500,000 from city council.

And so I'll share some more options here with you

in a minute, but to break these out,

just so you know moving forward, the two to five upgrades

are about $20,000 of that 250.

So keep that in mind as we talk about options moving forward.

So this is a breakout of the feedback we received.

Some of you remember from the meeting in the spring,

if you go back to the options that I shared earlier,

they may have a playground panel,

which could be tic-tac-toe,

or they could have a teeter-totter.

And we came up with a whole list of items

that are popular in playgrounds around us

that we got from our consultant.

And we listed those and gave the community members

an opportunity to select which ones they were in favor of

in the parks as opposed to what was currently out there.

And so we took everything that exceeded more than 250 votes

and that was these six amenities.

And then we selected these three based on the feedback.

And there's a challenge, right?

So obviously, the climbing wall is the one on the top left.

The blue one in the middle also spins.

And then the one on the bottom right corner, obviously,

is a spinner.

It's something we probably all used many years ago

that they banned for a long time.

And they figured out I'd bring it back.

The fun stuff they're finally bringing back.

Some of the climbers, like the climber on the bottom left

corner or the swing in the top right corner,

because the playground at Civic Park is so tight,

they have a buffer zone that has to go around each structure.

And for example, if you're up on a swing,

there's a buffer zone based on your height.

So it might be six feet.

You've got a complete buffer zone around six feet.

you get up where you're at Heather Farm,

and you're up on that second tier,

obviously your buffer zone is bigger.

And so that is why these three were selected

was because of the buffer zone.

So each of these amenities,

the total for these three amenities

is about 30 to $32,000.

So if you look at each one of these amenities,

about $10,000 installed,

that's kind of a good reference

as we continue to move forward,

and we're gonna get to a financial conversation

here in a few minutes.

and I'll be happy to circle back

when we're getting into questions here.

So what do those amenities look like?

This is where they're currently designed at Heather Farm.

So pretty self-explanatory.

They're in these locations based on the buffer zones.

Okay, so this is where the project costs have increased.

So as I mentioned, we had over 600 people participate,

207 of those people provided comments, 95%.

So 195 comments had the word shade in them.

Which isn't, it's not a surprise, right?

The temperatures or the summers are getting hotter.

We all want our kids in shade.

We want to be in shade.

And so we went back to the designer and said,

as I shared earlier, went to the designer and said, hey,

put these amenities in the playground

where they would best fit.

They did that.

We got the shade comments.

We went back to the designer and said, OK,

how are you going to implement shade?

And what is going to be the financial impact?

And so these are the shade structures over the playgrounds.

So in total, I think I get to the number right here.

So this number, if you remember, was 245.

So, with about $30,000 in amenities,

and then it's, I did the math earlier,

and it's probably another 50, 55,000

or something like that for the shade.

And so, you've got a better idea now

what Civic Park would look like

based on the comments that we received

and the three options of design that the community picked.

So, important to note, right, $500,000 was appropriated.

This is $540,000 project.

If you were to throw the 2 to 5 in there over at Walden,

you're talking $560,000.

There's a bit of a contingency that would need to be added.

There's some permitting in regards to permitting.

Our building inspectors need to inspect this,

so there's a little bit of money in there.

And so that being said, well, I jumped ahead of myself.

Sorry, a little bit there.

So there's a number of options, right?

And I jumped to number three there.

But option number one is to accept the original designs,

which was the 445 for Civic and the 245

or whatever the number was for Walden

and suggest to staff, hey,

this is the direction we wanna go in.

Please move forward and go seek additional funding

from council and see where we end up with that.

Option number two is accept the original design

and defer one of the parks.

And so if we have 500,000 and Civic is 455,

in theory, you could give a recommendation that says,

hey, staff, we wanna move forward with the original design.

We don't want you to ask for any additional funding.

We think the comments were great,

but we don't necessarily think we have the funding.

Move forward with Civic Park at the 455 range

or defer Civic Park and go to Walden Park

and build that out for the 245.

Option number three is what I shared.

I jumped ahead a little bit.

We can kind of do a little bit of mix and matching,

accept the amended design, recommended staff

to seek the additional funding for Civic and or Walden.

So we'll get into questions.

I was gonna ask if that made sense,

but I'll ask that when I get into questions.

So your action for tonight is to provide feedback

on the data and the comments received by the community

during the public outreach process and the amended designs.

And to be more specific, I'm really

looking for some pretty detailed direction

from the commission so that I know where

to go in terms of next steps.

And if it has to do with funding,

it'd be great to get that recommendation

from the PROS commission because I'll

have to take that to council.

So with that being said, Chair Cook,

open it up for questions. Questions from the commissioners? I have a question, Mike.

So if we were to go with option 3, how much additional that are we asking if

we want to take the public's recommendation? I really think we should

because we, you know, 600 participants, we can't ignore their input and I think the

shades is a really good recommendation. So that would be like 540 for Civic plus 245

for Walden, is that right? Correct. If you want to do all of Walden.

Okay. Yup. I mean through the option three. For the both parks, complete renovation of

both, excuse me, of both parks, okay. From a procedural situation, I think we ask

questions now, get public comment, then we'll get our own comment. So I'm not trying to

take it away from you, but I do have a question. So do we have usage data on Walden and Civic

Park?

I can tell you from 15 years of experience that Heather Farm is our number one most used

playground that we have and then civic is second and civic is heavily heavily

impacted Walden Park not so much we do have the youth that you know the two to

five-year-olds there the younger kids every day same groups of you know

dozens and dozens show up but the older kids are not participating that often and

Did the comments indicate who used which, who uses which, or were they just generic?

Generic.

Okay.

The age of Walden's playground equipment versus the age of civic?

Yeah, they were both put in in 97, I believe.

But there were some additional things done in civic since then.

There was.

So, back in 2014, we used some park and loo money.

We also got some grant money

to make the necessary ADA improvements at that time.

And also some renovations to some of the slides

that weren't in great condition.

Some of the play panels,

you've probably seen the bubbles,

the glass bubbles that the kids looked through.

Some of them have fogged up and those types of things.

And we made improvements back in 2015.

But that was the last time we made improvements

either park. Okay and do we see any opportunity to utilize some of the

grants we've had in the past on certain types of equipment that can go whether

it's shade or otherwise is there any opportunity there? We can seek that that

that we do as part of this package here through game time we did receive a grant

which reduced the cost down to what this is including the grant funding that we

received which I think was in somewhere around the eighty thousand dollar range

but we could potentially seek additional grants that is going to slow things down

a little bit we could find out whether or not we could use some Recycle Smart

Money and pose that question to council if if if that's the direction we want to

Mike, can I ask another question, follow-up question for Walden Park?

So if the usage for 5-12 is relatively low compared to the other Pacific Park and the

2-5 at Walden Park, what does deferment look like if we were to defer that piece of the

Walden Park in terms of timeline and secure and future funding?

Yeah, great question.

So if we were to defer Walden, we would put it on our CIP, our 10-year CIP, and we would

continually have that conversation every two-year cycle with the Prose Commission.

As we come in the spring of every other year to talk about what our two-year capital budget

is going to look like, all of those projects that are on our CIP are listed and an opportunity

for the Prose Commission to weigh in on what their priorities are.

So potentially the five to 12 at Walden could come back at the next cycle.

And if there's an influx in developer fees, which is what pays into the park and loo fund,

maybe there's an opportunity at that point.

Yeah.

Thank you.

And actually, that brings me to a point I forgot to mention.

There's currently somewhere between $600,000 and $700,000 in reserves in the park and loo

fund.

That is unappropriated at this time.

That was actually going to be my question was, when does that look like?

But I just want to clarify, so number three, accept amended designs, the amended part are

the three additional standalone, merry-go-round like things, right?

Yep.

And the shade.

Correct.

Okay.

So, but so number three really is accept those amended designs, but only, and then it says

And or wall the civic and or Walden so there's still an option to say yeah

let's do all of what's been recommended at Civic Park for now and

We'll work on the other Walden Park later in the CIP and in table Walden Park for a future

Yeah, discussion. That's essentially number three. Yes, that's correct

But we the funding which it would all still be dependent on funding

Yes, okay. And then about the funding so the company that you have in a

Contract with right now for design. Are they also acquiring the equipment? Yes. Okay, you don't have to go out for bid for any of this

No, okay. So this price is real. Yes

Maybe a side question, but how is measure is measure Oh eligible for

Providing some of the benefit here without dipping into reserves for in the parking loop

that that could be a

That would be a question for City Council

Yeah, and it could be part of the staff report assuming that we get the recommendation. It could be seek funding

From other sources such as recycle smart park and Lou measure. Oh those types of thing could be part of the staff report

Yes, and the the shade is specifically for civic not Heather

Or Walden I think you mean or Walden. Yeah

That's correct. We we only added the shade at this point. We could go back and add shade at

Walden

But there wasn't a there wasn't in the proposal any any nobody in the surveys was or that wasn't part of the survey

Is she know it was part of the survey?

But civic was the focus is what you're saying. I have to think yeah, just for a second

yeah, I'd be I don't I don't recall exactly if the vast majority of the comments were specific shade at Civic I

Don't think they were though

I think they were specific to the playgrounds need to have shade and we just did not bring back that option to have shade at

Walden yeah

are there any

Don't know how to phrase this right, but

If the if the use isn't there at Walden

Could we just do something smaller? I know it would be more design money probably

Because there is currently a playground for that age group there, correct?

Yeah, and that is it safe it meets safety and ADA requirements as it stands. So the five to twelve meets

Meets all the local and state laws there all of our playgrounds do be quite honest with you

It's the it's the two to five this the the amenities that are in the sand

That are about twenty thousand dollars to replace those amenities

Which are the ones that are most frequently used because the kids like the sand and they're smaller

But those amenities get worn out quicker because of the sand the impact that the sand has

Both on the plastic and some of the wood framing

And so those those amenities are the two to five the twenty thousand dollar amenities are looking pretty tired

So those but but that's another option then is to go ahead and do the two to five. Yes, and and defer

Five five. Yes

just feedback based on my friend group, but

The younger kids Walden, but then if the old the older kids are more interested in going to Heather

Yeah, yeah, and that's

That's what I've seen as well. Yeah, and if they're not with their parents just through the trail system, you know

It's the trails right there. It's a quarter mile to to one. Yeah. Yeah

Did I see as well?

Okay