Good evening. I'm Jason Cook and welcome to the Monday, February 2nd, twenty-six regular meeting of the Walnut Creek Park, Rec, and Open Space Commission.
Start with roll call. Secretary Vickers, would you please call roll?
Yes. Commissioner Sasser?
Here.
Commissioner Oler?
Here.
Commissioner Garland?
Here.
Vice Chair Pinkstaff?
Here.
Chair Cook?
here and let the record show that Commissioner Constant is not present tonight.
Next on the agenda is public communication. 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. Written comments submitted have posted to the city's
website for public review and are included in the meeting record but will
not what will be will not be separately read into the record so this is a
portion for items public comment not on the agenda we have a busy schedule
tonight so is there anybody who has not on the agenda yes sir two minutes hey
there folks my name is Jared King born and raised here in Walnut Creek lived
here my entire life, and I am here to voice a desire,
and I think there's a need for this,
a mountain bike pilot project in Lime Ridge.
Most of you guys are probably aware
that we tried to get a trail built in 2021,
didn't really go well, but there is a large group of kids
that ride and race in this area,
and that utilize Lime Ridge as a training ground,
and the trails that they legally can ride
do not necessarily serve what they need them to be,
And I think Lime Ridge would be a great solution
for a pilot project.
I would urge all of you guys to look into the success
of the Briones pilot project that was been running
for the last two years in Briones,
East Bay Regional Park District.
I was largely a part of getting that up and running,
and I would love to help you guys get a pilot project
up and running here in Walnut Creek,
because I think it's desperately needed.
I brought in a bunch of Contra Costa composite risers.
These are all of our kids that race here in the area.
There's a small group of them,
but the team is comprised of over 120 riders
and that's just one team.
There's teams at San Ramon Valley,
teams at Miramonti, teams in Oakland,
and they all come over to Lime Ridge
and to Walnut Creek to ride bikes
and I think we need to build them some trails.
And that's my comment for y'all today.
Thank you.
Great, thank you very much.
Any other public comment before we, okay, yes.
Good evening, I'm Glenn McBee.
I'm the city liaison for the Walnut Creek Racquet Club.
Been for many years.
I missed Chris's welcome party.
I wanted to come down and introduce myself.
And again, get reacquainted with you guys.
Pump up our club a little bit.
We got one need I want to talk about in a little bit.
But just to remind the group, the crowd,
Walnut Creek is a destination for a lot of things.
It is definitely for tennis.
We have over 1,200 members, active members,
in our public club, largest in Northern California,
on probably one of the smaller venues
that we have centrally located at Heather Farm.
Second largest in the state.
Destination, as I said, for tennis players
from many places because we have many teams
that succeed and go on and play at nationals.
We've had, I think, six national champions
from seven different seasons last year that went
and one at nationals.
But the one issue that I think that you've probably
heard, Chris has probably heard it already,
our facilities are wonderful for what we have.
Our lights are an aging infrastructure issue.
They go out.
They're of old technology.
And when they go out, it's not just
about getting a light bulb.
It's a ballast that goes out.
it's bulbs that are done a search nationwide.
We had three lights out on one court for three months.
Not because of lack of effort, but because of lack of supply.
So I know that it's on the table with Lifetime.
That's something they're trying to push.
I think you guys are aware of it.
I just wanted to bring it up from our perspective,
our players.
LEDs are such an upgrade.
Many clubs have them.
And I think that if we can make that push,
that's our number one issue.
So I just wanted to share that with you.
Great, thank you very much.
Other public comments, not on the agenda?
Yes.
Hello, my name is Barbara Guinness.
I've been a resident of Walnut Creek since 1996.
It's the first meeting of pros this year,
so happy new year to all of you.
I sent in a couple written comments
and one of which I attached a couple videos
motorcycles that are being used in the open spaces now. And also, subsequently, I found what I call
a mountain bike or a motorcycle playground. There were jumps, curves, even a swimming hole up there.
I don't know what they use that for, but whatever. Subsequently, city staff has disassembled the jumps
and, you know, taken out the tools, the tarps, and all that from that playground area, and thank them
them for their quick action on that.
However, I wonder, did you know the playground portion
of Lime Ridge is the Lime Ridge Wildlife Preserve,
which is more protected than other areas
in the open spaces?
City staff is planning to convert a social trail
to an official multi-use trail
right below this playground area, right in the cliff area.
By creating a multi-use trail, city staff is officially
inviting more mountain bikes, and possibly even e-bikes
and motorcycles to this area.
And at the end of 2023, I'm not sure if you knew this,
but a mountain biker lost their life there
because it can be dangerous.
In the fall of 2024, there was a big wildfire in that area.
Undetermined origin, didn't come from Ignacio Valley,
so probably was human involved.
Also, residents that had joined the open space
are getting their homeowners insurance canceled
because of the high wildfire risk of living
right near the open space.
So I wanted to mention that it's not the best interest
of the tax-paying residents of Walnut Creek
to open a new multi-use trail, to invite even more people,
to allow motorcycle usage in the open spaces,
and mountain bikes and e-bikes on single-track trails.
Thank you for all you do to conserve
and protect the open spaces.
Thank you.
Any other public comments?
Not on the agenda, yes sir.
Yeah, just a quick follow up on that comment.
I think that some of the concerns that were raised
just by the last speaker just argue even more
for the notion of an organized coordinated pilot project
for the mountain bikes so that they're safe
and responsible use so that there are not people
who are just trying to make their own trails
and do stuff that is dangerous and not coordinated.
And so I think this is a, rather than just shut it down,
is an idea of like, yeah, let's try something organized,
let's try something planned,
let's follow the lead of what we saw out of Briones,
which in my opinion has been quite successful.
So thank you very much.
Yes, next.
So my name is David.
I'm a coach with Contra Costa Composite,
and then also on behalf of the stewards.
So the pilot project that he was talking about
over at Briony's,
we actually just surpassed 4,500 volunteer hours.
And we just had a dig day this last weekend.
And here's a surprising little stat as far as involvement.
It used to be mainly adults.
I would say this last participation volunteer
was about 50-50, where we had kids under,
I call kids, but under 21.
So I just wanted to say that it is working.
And if you guys want to set a precedent for future
generations, they're right here.
And that's how it starts.
I was their age when I grew up here.
And I used to ride these trails.
And it took, I don't want to age myself,
over 40 years before I could actually take my kids
and the kids on the team trails
that were legal for them to ride.
So just consider that.
And these are your, that's the future right there.
So thank you very much.
Sir, could you do me a favor when you get an opportunity
and fill out a speaker card
so we could potentially follow up?
Where's the, they're at the front door there.
Sure.
Thank you.
Great, thank you very much.
Any other public comments before?
Nope, okay.
With that before the consent calendar,
like to introduce the new arts and recreation director,
Chris Farrow.
Chris, would you like to step forward and be recognized?
Not sure I prepared you for this,
so kind of putting you on the spot, sorry.
Thanks for coming forward.
Hi, thanks for the introduction.
Chris Farrow started December 15th, I think,
in Arts and Recreation.
I'm excited to be here most recently
with the city of Stockton,
where I oversaw the San Joaquin County Library system
and the city's recreation division,
and before that with the city of Brentwood.
So I've been in Contra Costa County
and excited to be back in Contra Costa County,
and excited to work with you.
Awesome, thank you, Chris.
You're welcome.
Look forward to seeing you around.
Yep, absolutely.
Well, you have been around, so.
All right, I'd also like to take a moment
to acknowledge that tonight is my last meeting,
as both your chair and on this commission.
My term is coming to an end.
And it is possibly Commissioner Oler's last meeting as well.
His term is expiring, but he has submitted
for renewal for perhaps a third term.
So it's kind of premature to say goodbye.
I mean, but your participation is much appreciated
and we'll cross our fingers and root for you
for the third term.
I know there's a process for that,
but you're certainly been a valuable member
of the volunteer community
in this the year of the volunteer.
So thank you, Art.
Thank you, can I say something?
Absolutely, I have a couple thank yous.
Very quickly, first, the staff and managers
of public works and recreation
that had appeared before our committee
and all the work that your staff does
to keep our parks open space
in first class shape all the time, 24 seven.
and also the incredible range of opportunities
for recreation that are here in Walnut Creek.
We draw people from all around our city to come here.
And I'm sure that many people here tonight
are naive in Walnut Creek residents.
The other thank you is for all of the people
who have come before our commission in the last eight years
and talked about issues that were near and dear to their heart.
I'm particularly impressed when I see a number of young people like tonight.
It's not the first time we've seen mountain bikers here.
Lots of input from you all.
Thank you.
We've seen young people from artistic swimming come and talk to us.
That's been great.
Love to hear from you.
equestrian center young riders. So those are things that I remember that stick
out in my mind but everybody that's here is someone that's here because they
care about something that they want to do here in Walnut Creek and so we thank
you for coming and spending time with us giving us your input and just because we
don't always vote a recommendation that you want doesn't mean we didn't listen
we did. Thank you. I want to take a moment to thank Chair Cook for your service. Jason is a
lifelong Walnut Creek resident and avid cycler and your care about cycling safety in open space
has really contributed to the Commission's deliberation on the safety of cyclists in open
space so thank you for that Jason. Thank you very much it was it's been a honor to be on the
commission here and you know as far as you know some major events we had were
the Pickleball task force and that was a great group spirited conversation that
continues and yeah I'm a lifelong resident just like you guys and was
riding my bike in in Walnut Creek when I was a kid all over the place and but we
were building jumps and all kinds of cool stuff before there were a lot of
how there were a lot fewer houses back then a lot fewer neighborhoods so I know
know we all have to be good neighbors and and that's part of what being here
is about is an opportunity to participate as a good neighbor and have
these conversations in an open forum so I think and and art did a fantastic job
and summarizing a lot of that too so thank you very much all right I know we
have a just just before you move on yes just one second director Payne please
good evening commissioners rich pain public works director for the city
Walnut Creek and I'm here tonight just to thank you for your service, specifically
Art Alder and Commissioner Cook and I appreciate the opportunity to speak with you this evening
on behalf of the City, the City Manager's Office, Public Works, and the Arts and Rec.
I want to thank you for your dedication, your thoughtful questions and your steady commitment
to this community.
Your perspective has helped strengthen projects, improve outcomes, and ensure that we are always
considering the long-term stewardship of our parks and open space.
Your willingness to engage, collaborate with staff, and keep the community at the center
of every discussion has made a real lasting impact.
That kind of service does not go unnoticed and is deeply appreciated.
I know from staff, but also our citizens here.
So on behalf of all the folks I've mentioned,
I want to thank you for your time, energy, and care
you've given in Walnut Creek.
We are better because of your service.
And we wish you the very best in your next adventure.
So thank you very much.
We have some going away gifts.
Oh, thank you.
So I'll go ahead and if you guys want to come out here,
Yeah, right out here in front.
We also have some shirts for you.
Thank you all for hanging in there with us.
I know we've got a lot on our agenda tonight.
Before the consent, okay, next on the agenda is the consent calendar.
Do any commissioners wish to pull any item for discussion?
Does any member of staff wish to pull an item for discussion?
I need to take roll real quick.
Yes.
Yes.
So I'm going to take roll call real quick.
So, Commissioner Sasser, here.
Commissioner Oler, approve.
Commissioner Garland, Vice Chair Pinkstaff, approve.
And Chair Cook, approved.
So let the record show that the consent calendar is approved unanimously.
Thank you.
Okay.
Does any member of the public wish to comment on an item on the consent calendar?
Okay.
Seeing no speakers, I'll ask the commission if anyone would like to make a motion with
regard to the consent calendar.
We have a motion and a second.
Would the secretary please call roll?
So thank you.
I just called roll.
So I'll do it again, just so we're official, I apologize.
That's what happens when you skip a meeting,
you lose structure here.
So Commissioner Sasser?
Yes.
Commissioner Oler?
Yes.
Commissioner Garland?
Yes.
Vice Chair Pinkstaff?
Yes.
And Chair Cook?
Yes.
Thank you.
Okay, next on the agenda are presentations
by six non-profit as part of the year of the volunteer.
We have six presentations as it says,
and after each presentation, which is 15 minutes long,
we're going to have a public comment section
after each one of the presentations.
We decided to do that rather than wait till the end
because we have a few to go through
and we want to make sure everybody has an opportunity
speak on them right after the speaker.
So I will first up, I'm going to invite Jim King and Meg Honey
with the Walnut Creek Aquatic Foundation
to step forward and provide their presentation.
Thank you.
Well, sadly, it doesn't look like Jim King is here,
so I will handle this as best I can.
I'm Meg Honey, and I am really very happy to be here
to talk with you tonight.
I am a long-time aquatic athlete,
aquatic supporter, and aquatic parent here in Walnut Creek.
I am also a board member
of the Walnut Creek Aquatic Foundation.
And I am here to share an update
on the Walnut Creek Aquatic Foundation
and our role in supporting the development
of a modern inclusive aquatic facility
that serves the long-term needs
of the Walnut Creek community.
WCAF was founded to ensure that aquatics
remains a vibrant, accessible, and lasting part
of Walnut Creek's future.
The Walnut Creek Aquatic Foundation
was founded in 2015 as a 501c3 nonprofit organization.
Our all-volunteer board includes representatives
from the community, the Walnut Creek Aquabares Swim Team,
Walnut Creek Aquanaut's Artistic Swimming Team,
and the Walnut Creek Masters Swim Team.
Our mission is to promote and advance aquatic facilities and programs in Walnut Creek.
We support a full spectrum of aquatics, recreational swimming, competitive programs, fitness and
wellness activities, and therapeutic aquatics.
Because water truly serves every age and ability in our community.
At its core, the Walnut Creek Aquatic Foundation exists to support Walnut Creek's long and
proud aquatics tradition.
Our work focuses on ensuring access to safe, modern facilities, spaces that meet today's
needs and tomorrow's expectations.
We focus on protecting critical programs such as swim lessons, youth and adult team programs,
and community events, services that contribute directly to water safety, public health, and
quality of life.
Oh, sure.
Matt, was I not doing it well enough?
Is that what you're trying to say?
Okay I will get refocused yeah okay you did it so well we want to hear it again
sorry everybody so I'm going backwards sorry I should go this way and just so
you know I have the I put the timer up here for 15 minutes you're not held to
15 minutes just so we've invited Meg honey with the Walnut Creek Aquatic
Foundation to come forward and provide a presentation for the seat for us this
evening. Awesome, thank you. Good evening, thank you so much for the opportunity to
speak here tonight. My name is Meg Honey. I am a longtime aquatic athlete, aquatic
supporter, and aquatic parent here in Walnut Creek. I am a board member of the
Walnut Creek Aquatic Foundation and I am here to share tonight an update on our
work in supporting the development of a modern inclusive aquatic facility that
serves the long-term needs of the Walnut Creek community. WCAF was founded to
ensure that aquatics remains a vibrant, accessible, and lasting part of Walnut
Creek's future. The Walnut Creek Aquatic Foundation was founded in 2015 as a 501
c3 nonprofit organization. Our all-volunteer board includes
representatives from the community, the Walnut Creek Aquabares swim team, Walnut
Walnut Creek Aquanaut's Artistic Swimming Team and the Walnut Creek Masters Swim Team.
Our mission is to promote and advance aquatic facilities and programs in Walnut Creek.
We support a full spectrum of aquatics, recreational swimming, competitive programs, fitness and
wellness activities, and therapeutic aquatics, because water truly serves every age and ability
in our community.
At its core, the Walnut Creek Aquatic Foundation exists to support Walnut Creek's long and
proud aquatics tradition.
Our work focuses on ensuring access to safe, modern swim facilities, spaces that meet today's
needs and tomorrow's expectations.
We focus on protecting critical programs such as swim lessons, youth and adult team programs,
and community events, services that contribute directly to water safety, public health, and
quality of life.
Our progress has been built step by step.
In 2015, the Walnut Creek Aquatic Foundation was officially established as a 501c3 nonprofit
organization.
In 2022, the foundation entered into a memorandum of understanding agreement with the City of
Walnut Creek and Walnut Creek voters approved Measure O, a ten-year half cent
transactions and use tax to fund current and future quality of life needs.
Looking ahead, the design and construction of the new Aquatic Center
is planned through 2027, turning years of our advocacy into a physical reality.
The foundation plays a vital role in making this project successful. We are
committed to raising three million dollars to support the Aquatic Center.
Beyond fundraising we advocate for aquatics centered design ensuring that
the facility truly serves swimmers and most importantly we work to make sure
that the final facility reflects the diverse needs of the Walnut Creek
community. The new Heather Farm Aquatic Center will be a comprehensive state of
the art facility. It will include a 50-meter competition pool and a 25-meter short course
recreation pool along with a current channel for play and exercise. The center will also
feature diving boards, shaded areas, bleachers, and welcoming spaces for lounging and relaxation,
making it a place not just to swim, but to gather together.
The project represents a lasting investment in Walnut Creek.
The Aquatic Center will support swim safety and learn to swim programs, preserve competitive
and artistic swimming, and expand inclusive access to aquatic recreation.
It is an investment in public health, youth development, and community connection, and
a legacy that will benefit future generations.
Community engagement is central to our work.
We connect with residents through events, ongoing communications, and targeted campaigns.
These events help build awareness, strengthen partnerships, and ensure that our community
knows how they can support the Aquatic Center.
This last year, we have hosted events for community members, tabled at the Diablo Valley
Farmers Market, and engaged our donors via a successful Giving Tuesday campaign and through
our regular news splash email updates.
We have worked closely with the Arts and Rec team to ensure that our one-page overview
and information about contributing to the Aquatics Center project is in every Arts and
Rec catalog.
We are so proud of the progress that we have made so far.
Key naming opportunities have already been claimed, including the recreation pool, changing
rooms, aquatics classroom, and benches.
significant opportunities remain available including naming the Aquatics Center itself,
the competition pool, diving boards and additional benches. To date we have raised $900,000 from 77
donors, a powerful demonstration of community support. Donors who contribute $10,000 or more
will be recognized as lane captains on the donor wall at the Aquatics Center with 18 lanes available
for naming. We are deeply grateful to everyone who has supported this effort, financially,
publicly, and behind the scenes. I want to thank this commission for your time, your support,
and your belief in the power of aquatics to strengthen our community, and we invite the
entire community to learn more, get involved, and to help us bring this vision to life. Thank you
very much. Thank you, that was fantastic. Well now, as I mentioned earlier, we'll
now open the microphone up to the public comment section for specifically for the
Aquatic Foundation. Yes sir, two minutes. Yeah, greetings, my name is Andrew
Turnbull and I was raised in Livermore, California. In 1969 I joined the
the Livermore Aqua Cowboy Swim Team,
and I swam until I was a freshman at Granada High School.
And I remember coming to Walnut Creek as a kid
and swimming against the Aqua Bears.
I believe it was Lark, was it Lark Park
or Larky Park was one of them.
And I want to applaud this organization
for continuing its commitment.
I want to welcome you to Heather Farm Park
where we've been for 55 years.
I'll talk about that in a little bit.
But swimming is a big deal,
and swimming's been a big deal in Walnut Creek
for a long time.
It's how I learned about Walnut Creek
coming up here at eight years old.
And I just wanna say congratulations on the work
that this nonprofit has done.
I run a nonprofit, that's not trivial.
And I love the creativity they've used
around their fundraising.
And on behalf of being a swimmer,
my brother actually led, helped lead
Diablo Valley College to a state championship in swimming,
coming from Livermore as well.
And he came to Walnut Creek in Pleasant Hill to swim.
So on behalf of all you, you're lucky.
Keep it up, support aquatics in Walnut Creek.
Thank you for your respect and attention.
Thank you, I thought for sure you were
with the equestrian group.
Okay, all right.
We'll see you in a little while then.
All right, other public comment specifically
on the Aquatic Foundation?
I think she answered one of the questions already
what I had was about how much money they were gonna raise
and you said $3 million and that's great.
I think I've seen you at the farmer's market
before your group, so that's great.
not a big swimmer, but anyway,
it's great that you're doing that.
The other question I had,
but maybe it's not for your group.
Do you know what the cost of the Heather pool complex
is going to be now?
Is anybody on the parking rack now?
Okay.
Yeah, so the phase two construction,
which is the construction of the new pool,
new rec center, the bids that we received,
which we moved forward with the low bid,
was 51 million.
Okay, so it's about 51 million then?
51 million, correct.
Okay.
And Jason, you said there's public comments
after everybody is speaking.
I thought it was a question and answer.
Is that same thing as public comments then?
Yeah.
Come up and ask your question.
I think, yeah.
Okay, thank you. Thanks.
And the groundbreaking for the pool is on February 18th,
And I believe it's 4 p.m., yeah, 4 p.m.
So you can, if anybody wants autographs
or wants a picture with us,
we'll all be at the February 18th,
and you can probably get one of a picture of Meg,
with Meg, too, so, all right?
All right, questions or comments from our commissioners?
Yep.
I'm just curious on your fundraising,
are you getting a lot of corporate sponsors?
Sorry, yeah, if you don't mind, thanks, Meg.
We have had several meetings and outreach
with some major corporate sponsors,
particularly in like the health and wellness space.
And so those are ongoing and we don't have an update yet,
but it is work that is ongoing.
And the sizable naming opportunities
have been from individuals in the community.
And I have one other question while you're here.
You mentioned several times
to sort of trying to make sure the facility is inclusive
and meets the needs of everyone and things like that.
Can you remind me?
It's been a while since I've seen the plan.
Are there specific elements that are geared to that or?
Yes, just a couple that I can speak to.
We're really excited about the design
around the changing rooms that are inclusive
in terms of gender identity.
So very excited, and that's quite a change
from the current changing situation at Clark Swim Center.
We are also excited about the current channel element
of the recreation pool and the opportunities
for like aqua therapy for people
who might be navigating like injuries.
And then of course the realities around the deep
and shallow elements will help us continue
offering the very robust Learn to Swim programs,
certainly for children,
but we also have several adult Learn to Swim programs too.
So yeah, lots of opportunities for inclusivity
and welcoming at this new Aquatic Center.
Thank you.
Yeah.
Thank you, Meg, for coming tonight
and updating us on not only the fundraising,
but how the Aquatics Foundation views
the new facility that is about to be ground broke.
I had a couple questions for you.
One was on the $900,000 already,
is that both received and pledged?
Yes, that is a combination of pledges and commitment,
fully committed.
Yeah, and those pledges could be multi-year.
They are.
I know I was trying to keep our presentations short,
but on our website there is detailed information
about everything from pledges and how that works out
over years, corporate matching, stocks, annuities,
all of those elements are part of how we are
navigating our fundraising.
Sure, sure.
So I think we're all very excited about it
and we really appreciate you coming tonight
and sharing your update with us.
And thank you Commissioner Oler for being with us
at our farmer's market table,
you were like our celebrity that showed up.
So we thank you for being there
and hanging with all the people
that were stopping by to talk with us.
Thank you.
My pleasure, of course.
Great, thank you so much.
We have one more question on the naming rights.
Is that a lifetime naming right?
Like your name is on the bathroom for the next 50 years.
Yes, yes, and I'm really happy
that both of our changing rooms have been claimed.
So, yes, sir, yes, yes.
Yeah, that's very exciting.
Awesome.
Thank you.
Thank you.
OK, next I invite Board President John Livingood
with the Walnut Creek Soccer Club
to provide a presentation on his club.
Good evening, commissioners and staff.
I'm John Livingood, president of Walnut Creek Surf Soccer Club,
and I've lived here in this area my entire life.
I've been raising my family here in Walnut Creek
for the past 13 years.
I'm here tonight representing 3,000 members
who are deeply invested in the success of the city's parks.
Professionally, I'm a partner at a big four firm
specializing in governance and financial stewardship,
rigor that I bring in my role as board president.
On a personal level, soccer has been my lifelong cornerstone
from playing NCAA Division I to USF here in San Francisco
to watching my three daughters grow
through our recreational and competitive programs today.
So we aren't just a club,
we're a vital part of this city's fabric.
So we wanted to spend a few minutes here
educating you all on our organization
and our mission is very simple.
It's to enrich the community by developing athletes
and teaching life lessons.
Because soccer shaped my own character and career,
I view the pitch as a classroom for life.
And we're teaching 3,000 kids learn how to manage
and handle a tough loss with grace
and how to win with humility.
These are leadership and perseverance skills
that will carry with them long after they hang up
their cleats, whether they become a partner at a firm
for a leader in our local community.
So we aren't just building players,
we're building Walnut Creek's future citizens.
And we have been a community staple since 1971.
Think about that.
We have parents coaching today
who played in this club when they were seven years old.
That multi-generational legacy is extremely rare.
And while our 2018 affiliation with Surf Soccer
brought us world-class training curriculum and technology,
our hearts remain 100% local.
We are a nonprofit driven by the families of this city
rooted in Walnut Creek.
And city manager Dan Buckshi's quote here
is something we take to heart.
Being an important part of the community
means more than just playing games.
It means being a reliable partner for the city.
And when the city has a goal for public health,
youth engagement or park safety,
Walnut Creek Soccer Club is the first organization
ready to help execute that vision.
So we have some stats in regards
to what our program entails here.
And so we take soccer for all literally.
We offer us a full spectrum of play
from recreational for beginners,
select for intermediate players and competitive for those seeking a higher level of challenge.
This ensures that every child in Walnut Creek has a home at our club and I want to specifically
highlight top soccer. This is our outreach program for athletes with physical and cognitive
disabilities. It is one of the most rewarding things we do, and it ensures that every child
in our city has the right to wear a jersey, be a part of the team, and enjoy the high-quality
recreational spaces that you all oversee. In a major way that we serve Walnut Creek is through
economic impact. This is where our value to the city goes beyond the park fences. As we all know,
Although already, Walnut Creek is a world-class destination for shopping and dining, and
Walnut Creek Soccer Club acts as a major, top-of-the-final driver for that economy.
When we host our major tournaments, we aren't just bringing in local kids.
We're hosting teams from across California and even throughout the United States.
That means hundreds of hotel room nights at the Marriott, or the Embassy Suites.
It means hundreds of families heading to Broadway Plaza, or the North Main Area for
lunch in between games and dinner at night.
We're essentially running around a year-round tourism campaign for Walnut Creek.
And we take pride in the fact that our club's success translates directly into sales tax
revenue and support for our local small business owners. As you can see from the slide, our
scale is massive and it's powered by people. We have over 30 professional staff members,
but they're also supported by over 300 volunteer coaches. That's 300 Walnut Creek residents
giving up their weekends, their weeknights to mentor kids. That level of civic engagement
is our secret sauce of the club and a testament to the volunteer spirit of our city. And the data
proves our impact. With nearly 3,000 members and players on over a dozen local fields,
we're one of the largest customers of the city's recreational department.
and we don't just use these fields, we help monitor them, we help report issues,
we help ensure that they're treated with respect by the thousands of families who visit them.
And we're also very committed to investing in our club and the city, and have made massive
investments in infrastructure. I'm very thrilled, all of us at the club are very thrilled,
that are collective capital projects in partnership with the city.
The lights at Tice Valley and the Turf at Heather Farms
are operation complete. And here's some pictures to show
the ribbon cutting that took place in December.
These aren't just soccer fields, these are high performance
public assets that allow more people to stay active
for more hours of the day, year-round, regardless of the weather.
Yes, this was a win for the club, but an even bigger win for the city's infrastructure,
of which the Walnut Creek Soccer Club has committed 1.5 million over the next 10 to 15 years
to help offset the cost of these facilities for the city of Walnut Creek. And here are some of
the partners that we work with, but in closing, we're extremely proud of our 50-year history
and our role as a vital economic and social partner to the city of Walnut Creek.
From our rigorous financial stewardship to our success on the field,
we're focused on driving this club to new levels of excellence, and I am honored to continue
serving as the board president and work alongside this commission to keep our
recreation program thriving. Thank you for your time. I'm happy to answer any questions you may have.
thank you first we have to have public comment it's informal oh it's informal it's informal so
you can start with the commission if you'd like or you can go to public yeah we'll start with
commission to keep it convenient questions comments yeah i do have a question um i've been
monitoring the facebook post about um the access to the soccer field and it seems like um some
Warner Creek residents had questions about how to access the fields some they show a picture where
the door where the gates were locked and so I don't know if it's a question to pose here
or maybe Mike you want to answer. Yeah our arts and recreation director is going to
follow up on that question. I'll let Chris handle that.
Hi, Chris Faro, Arts and Rec Director for those watching at home.
We are still navigating that. So for right now, the fields are closed. However, we have a public
works project where we are finalizing an area where staff can be located out there. One of
our concerns with just opening it up is that it wouldn't be monitored. And as was just mentioned
in the presentation, it is a expensive asset that we want to take care of. So we're working with
with public works to have a permanent shelter out there
for staff to be located.
And so in between that time, we are looking at schedules
to figure out when we could be open.
Our first kind of pilot isn't going to just be open
all the time.
We're looking at some weekend hours,
some hours where when schools are closed,
holiday breaks, things like that.
So it'll be a phased approach.
So we are looking, we will be opening up access.
We just wanna make sure that we're smart
and we have the right security measures in place
before doing so, so it'll be a phased approach.
Thanks for that.
And how is that being communicated
to the Wanna Creek residents?
Is there like a signage there or?
There will be.
We're kind of figuring out the last minute details
as far as what we want the schedule to be
before we post anything.
We don't want to get ahead of ourselves
so that the people are just calling and saying,
what will it be open?
We want to be able to post the full schedule.
So I would anticipate within the next couple weeks
we'll have the full schedule
and we'll be able to do some social media posting
and also have some signage at the site as well.
Great. Thanks for the update.
Sure.
Other questions, comments?
I had a question for John.
Did the, I always ask money questions,
but sorry about that.
The 1.5 million you made reference to at the end
about 10-year commitment,
does that include the amount that you committed to
for the SURF project and the TICE lighting as well?
Yes, that includes the lights at Tice Valley and the turf at Heather Farms. Okay. I
do have a question a different question about the
connection to surf nation
Can you explain a little bit or give us a little background on?
Sure organization. So we have a commitment with surf nation. They are
an organization affiliated with 53 different youth soccer organizations across the United States and
And what it is is a branding opportunity for the club to elevate its status and it provides
resources for our coaches, from an educational perspective, training, etc.
It gives our staff an opportunity to gain insights from other clubs that we wouldn't
have otherwise and it gives us and the players an opportunity to play more so in the tournaments
that they offer specifically for Surf Nation and so we made a conscious decision to to do
business as Walnut Creek Surf but we are and will always be the Walnut Creek Soccer Club.
Thank you that's very helpful and thank you for coming tonight and explain your commitments
to Walnut Creek. Thank you very much John I will now open it up to the public comment section for
the Walnut Creek Soccer Club. And she was fortunate enough to go to Stanford and
then Cornell where she met her husband. She met her husband, Albert Johnson, and
they came back here to manage the house. They managed the house up until the
1940s where they ended up, they hired Edmund Moyer to help manage the ranch, a
role he held until the ranch ceased operations in 1945. At that time Bessie
passed away and Albert established the Gospel Foundation of California. He
established a foundation to keep the farm working and to keep the ranch
running and that foundation eventually took over and they had to start selling
up portions of the property in order to maintain the farm and land. They sold off
almost everything except for 1.5 acres which eventually they sold to the city
of Walnut Creek in 1970. So the foundation sold the house and the acreage to the City
of Walnut Creek. The city agreed to assume responsibility for the exterior of the house
and the surrounding grounds, while the interior, along with the artifacts, furnishings and
everything else, would be managed by the Walnut Creek Women's Club, which eventually became
the Walnut Creek Historical Society. So when the Women's Club was running, they
started the restoration of the house. They called themselves, fondly, the Shady Ladies.
So this is a picture of the Shady Ladies,
and they were responsible for going through
the whole entire house, going through the attic,
the basement, the closets, everything,
organizing everything, making the displays in our museum,
and in the midst of that, they came across these sketches
by Frank Lloyd Wright, and this is the sketch right here.
So Albert Johnson, early on, decided he wanted
Frank Lloyd Wright to build him this beautiful building
in Chicago, but after the Depression hits,
he never came up with the money to finish it.
So the plans were stored in shade lands,
which they were discovered.
And in 1988, we sold them an auction at Christie's
in New York City for $244,000, which is a lot back then.
And some of those funds were used to restore the house
to the way it is today.
Interesting enough too, is the reason that they know
how to restore the house is there was over 1,500 letters
found in the house that written between the sisters
and the mothers, you know, going over all the details
was going to be done down to like the color of the paint in the in the dining
room the blue paint which is the color that we have today the original colors
so that's how we know how to put everything back together and this is how
our house looks today so most of the things in it are the pen and artifacts
and we do take donations of different things from Walnut Creek we have a lot
of Walnut Creek like maps and information things like that if there's
someone's looking for something we have an archive called past perfect so if
there's people come to our house all the time and they say hey can you find the
house I grew up in or something like that. And we can go through our archives
and find things like that. So this is our house right now. This is how it
looks today, the exterior. They found the original paint color, that maroon
paint color there. And of course this is our gazebo. Quickly, the mission of our
society, the mission of the Walnut Creek Historical Society, is to preserve and
interpret the history of Walnut Creek and our local environments to enable our
community and future generations with a better understanding of the Walnut Creek
past, present, and future and to promote and develop community involvement and
community spirit. Our museum is open it's open Sundays and Wednesdays from one to
four. This is one of our that is Ted Dobbs he's on our board he is the
house docent extraordinaire so if you're lucky enough to have him he's amazing
and we also do you can do private group tours by reservation by calling the
office speaking with Jackie and once again I will tell you that if you're not
familiar with our house it's at 2660 Ignatia Valley Road which is like on the
corner via Monte close to Oak Grove Road it's a big turn-of-the-century
house you really can't miss it. Part of our agreement with the city is we are
required to offer educational programs so these are pictures from our third
grade history or sorry we call it the third grade living history program where
we have over 30 different classes from Lomoma Creek
and Mount Douglas school districts.
It's entirely volunteer run.
Each field trip requires about 12 volunteers.
As you can see, the kids really enjoy pretending
they're living in the early 1900s.
They actually have a lot of fun washing clothes,
making ice cream.
They're beating rugs and they crack walnuts
and all kinds of activities like that.
They enjoy that.
We also provide the Downtown History Tours.
So these classes, the kids will come,
if they come in the fall to do the Living History Days,
they'll come, in the spring,
we'll take them downtown and do our history tours.
We also partner with the Moline Creek Libraries,
both Ignatia Valley and our downtown library.
We have cases there where we do displays.
This is currently what's on display right now
in the downtown library.
This is a history of tees, right?
It's still there.
How long will it be there?
Till the end of the month.
Till the end of the month.
So it's right across the street.
pop on in there. It's on the second floor by the fireplace, and this has the history
of the teas. There's some cute little anecdotes about teas and things like that. In addition
to our third-grade history walks, we also offer adult walks on Saturdays. You can register
online. We also offer... We partnered with the city back in 2014. That was a centennial
when we created the Heritage Walk. So there's over 100 stops. There's, I think, six different
walks you can go around with your phone you can call a number I think they'd send
you a text back you click on it or and then it will give you information we
always joke we say if these third graders start having phones we're gonna
be out of a job or volunteer job working so we also hold several different kinds
of events fundraisers we have the summer market the holiday tees this is our car
show we're on our fifth year of our car show it's become very very popular last
we had over 250 cars. We have great food, live music, raffles, trophies. It's a fun
filled day. There's Kevin Welk, he's back our mayor again, so he's already
contacted me about giving out the Mayor's Choice Award. It's a favorite.
These are awards are handmade in Michigan out of car parts, so they're
really desirable. This is a picture from our summer market, so that will
take place August 23rd. It's always on a Sunday, and there's over like 50
different vendors, local vendors. That's Joy Bound, which used to be ours, so there
There were some animals for adoption.
This is our Santa at Shadelands.
We always do this the Saturday after Thanksgiving.
Santa Claus comes, that's our first day of our teas,
it's the first day that the fair's open.
This year, we had over 400 families
sign up to see Santa Claus.
It's only, it's like $5 for the whole entire family.
That just covers our costs.
And this is the picture of our holiday activities.
This is the tea.
We do, let's see, there are, what?
16 days of tea, there's two seatings per day,
and then there's two champagne teas.
There's Saturdays, two different services,
special champagne teas.
Over 1200 people are served, and let's see,
we also offer, it takes 75 different volunteers
to put this on, so it's very labor intensive,
and we're always looking for volunteers to help.
Each year we also host over 20 private events
and weddings on our beautiful grounds.
We've hosted weddings, bar mitzvahs, fundraisers, and more.
We can host up to 250 people outside.
The rides used to really love to be in the gazebo,
but as you can see, our grow is becoming very popular
for the actual ceremonies underneath the beautiful oak tree.
This is our staff.
This is Jackie Byrd.
She's our museum manager.
Christine Valtzli, she is our event manager.
We have a new archivist, Samantha Chen, she's amazing.
And these are our board members.
So we're a volunteer board, but we're also a working board.
Each board member kind of has something that they focus on.
For instance, like I do the downtown history tours.
Some people are into the teas.
Some are focused on, you know, house-dosinging.
And of course, we've got an amazing financial group.
We are welcoming two more board members this month,
Donna Lundeen and Steve Woodhead
and our historian, Lee Culver.
So we're really grateful for our relationship
with the city of Walnut Creek,
namely Mike Vickers, Public Works.
And we're also the proud recipients of four grants
from the Walnut Creek Civic Pride Foundation.
And we've used those grants to fund the printing
of our third grade walking tour booklets,
our weekend adult tour booklets,
and also the restoration maintenance of our herb gardens
that we use for educational purposes
during our living history days.
So thank you so much for having us.
If anyone has any questions.
Wow, thank you very much.
Questions from either public comment
or from the commissioners?
Art?
Can't help myself.
you a 501c3 yes thank you yes and thanks for thanks for coming tonight and
talking about historical say oh fantastic so booklets in the back of the
room for those public comments regard to the Walnut Creek Historical Society I
just I just have one question for you you know you mentioned educational
programs and it's basically the city that asks you to do some of those things
Do you do anything with Borges Ranch, or is that considered?
Okay, so you don't do anything with that, okay, thank you.
Other comments or questions for the Historical Society?
Thank you so very much.
It was a wonderful presentation, and I think we all feel like we need to go back and see
it again.
Some great stories.
Do you know where the designs ended up the, where are those designs today on the
playwright? Okay, yeah, just curious. Okay, next I invite Joan LeCasey with the Gardens
at Heather Farm Park forward to provide our next presentation. Hi, Joan LeCasey,
Executive Director, Heather Farm Garden Center Association, Inc., which is a mouthful, so we
our DBA, the gardens at Heather Farm. We are a 54-year partner of the city and I'd like to take
a few minutes to tell you about the history of the garden and why our non-profit was originally
formed. This picture was taken in 1959 and these two boys on their questionable looking watercraft
are floating on the lake in the north end of what is now Heather Farm Park. About five years
after this picture was taken, the city bought approximately 100 acres of this property to
build Heather Farm Park. And they set about making a master plan and there is a hillside
underneath that oak tree that is particularly steep that they decided would not be appropriate
use for parkland. So they set that property aside for a public garden. The only problem
was the city didn't have it in their budget to pay for a botanical garden which is very
expensive to build and very expensive to maintain. So in 1968 the director of park and recreation
made a very strategic move by contacting some local members of the Diablo men's garden club
and solicited their help in fundraising to build the garden.
It included the Moors, more dry dock in Oakland,
the Howard's, Howard terminal in Oakland,
Jack Cunningham, who was a C-suite executive with PG&E.
All of these people had wide spheres of influence
in the community, lots of contacts,
and they turned out to be very, very efficient fundraisers.
These are three of the original founders. The gentleman on the right is Robert Cowden and he was a nationally recognized
Rosarian and he's responding board members and
This is when the Rose Garden was first laid out
And when the roses were put in
There are 32 different demonstration gardens. I'm not going to go through all of them
So to save us some time, we're going to fast-forward 44 years
This is the Rose Garden
This was this last summer it features over a thousand rose bushes
The American Horticulture Society's guidebook considers this a must-see rose garden on the west coast
This is the new children's garden that was put in about five years ago, which was funded by Redney Associates
We have several pieces of public art in the garden. This is joie, which is a
metal sculpture by an artist Ron Moore in Lafayette
The Diablo Ascent Garden features a large bronze eagle.
This garden is interesting.
It was sponsored by a family.
The three children grew up on a ranch on the side of Mount Diablo.
And when their parents passed, they made this gift to the garden in their parents' memory.
And if you sit on that bench and look toward Mount Diablo,
you can actually see where they grew up.
So it was a nice gift in honor of their parents.
This is the Shade Garden in L.A.
The garden, of course, makes us a very popular wedding venue.
It's a really important source of revenue for the gardens.
We don't charge admission, so the founders knew that for a free garden,
to be able to exist into the future, it had to have a revenue source.
So that's one of the reasons they started with the building first,
so there was a vehicle for income coming in to be able to continue to support this work.
In 2003, the garden caught the eye of a production person who
was looking for a site to do a filming for American Idol.
So this is Alanis Morissette.
You can't really tell, but it happened to be pouring rain
that day.
But they filmed their final episode
for that season in the garden.
It was a really interesting experience.
The garden is maintained by volunteers.
So we have approximately 50 volunteers that come each week that maintain the garden and another
25 that come twice a week that work in our greenhouse, propagating plants. And then we
host 15 to 20 corporate volunteer events every year, which is a great way to get things done.
If you have 30 people showing up for three hours, you can spread a lot of mulch.
And I will say that most of our garden volunteers have been volunteering with us for more than
15 years. In 2018, we moved our greenhouse and lath house out of the
corporation yard and moved it on site, which has been such a blessing. The city
helped us with grade the pad for the greenhouses in return for moving our
operation out of their corporation yard. And in 2019, we finished the installation
of the garden and we use the greenhouses and we grow plants there not only to maintain
the garden but to sell at plant sales.
In 2019 we completed the installation of a new community garden that provides 82 garden
plots for local families to grow organic food and garden with their children.
The garden was built entirely by volunteers.
The LDS helping hands, six different Boy Scout troops,
several corporate volunteer groups,
our board of directors, and other garden volunteers.
Education is central to our mission.
The Natural Science Classroom Program was started in 1987.
We have a staff of 20.
11 of those are teachers.
We host over 175 school field trips to the gardens each year
and our teachers do classroom presentations
in over 150 schools across Contra Costa County each year.
Our reach is about 20,000 students every year.
Our home school program started during COVID virtually
for nine students.
In 2025, we had 275 students divided into two age groups.
They come to the garden every other Tuesday,
and it's a really fun group to watch.
We have several education collaborations.
We teach the in-classroom composting classes
and summer camp classes for Recycle Smart.
We manage and lead the wetlands field trips
to McNabney and Morin Marshes in Martinez.
We manage and lead the field trips
to the Las Vicaras Reservoir
and the John Muir Interpretive Center out in Brentwood.
And if you've never been there,
that is really a trip worth taking.
It is so beautiful, especially in the spring.
And then we also manage and teach the in-classroom
clean water and pollution prevention education program
for central sand.
Whoop, sorry.
So anyway we won't go any farther. So we're really grateful to our support
for the city of Walnut Creek and the support of the community. Our fundraising
continues. I mean we are a nonprofit and we rely on the generosity of our
community for us to continue our programming and we would love to have
you come if you've never been to the garden. We'd love for you to come and
take a personal tour and that goes for anyone here. If you haven't been to the
gardens, please come we'd love to have you. Thank you so much we may have some
questions for you hold on just one. Commissioners, questions or comments? Hi
I'm curious about your where you work in partnership the educational things kind
of the last slide you had where you work with Central's and you work with Contra Costa
water etc so but and you're nonprofit but obviously they must pay you for your
time. They do. It's an important income stream for us. Okay. And it's also part of
our mission. Okay. And so these are the, you said you had teachers on your, among
amongst your volunteers, are they traditionally? They're paid staff. Our
teachers are paid staff. So we have 20 paid staff, 11 of those are credential
teachers who work in our education program. Okay, great. Thank you. How many
weddings are you hosting a year? We do about between 60 and 75 weddings and
then another 50 or 60. along at your art and wine festival and participating
and then in the slide next to it where I'm holding up the tickets that's a
former mayor Cindy Silva and she and I were handing out water that day it's a
pleasure to be a part of that group because we get to know the people of
Walnut Creek. This is our 2025 list of events. You see the word CSHA there. I
know it's it's it's hard to read and that's okay but CSHA, that's the
California State Horsemen Association. Some of these groups are pony club, some
of these groups are equine assisted therapy, some of these are professional
organizations that bring their horse riders here.
Adventure Day Camp is a big one.
That happens from June to August.
So we're pretty proud of this, and we
raise our money from the fees that these organizations pay
to be there.
This is a couple that we're really proud of.
There's equine-assisted therapy,
and I want to talk about equine-assisted therapy for a minute.
Horses help humans.
I serve on the board of directors
of the International Horsemanship Foundation,
and we have a medical doctor down in Florida on our board.
He's a retired Army colonel, a medical doctor
who jumped out of planes with special forces
as their flight surgeon.
You think you might have faced a little PTSD?
Well, he went and studied it, and he now
says that for some cases of PTSD,
equine assisted therapy is the only modality that works.
We're watching spectacular things happen,
like children with autism who haven't spoke 45 minutes
with a horse, and they begin to speak to the horse.
Next thing they're talking to their mom,
and they continue to speak.
It's spectacular.
And so every time the equestrian center of Walnut Creek
gets to welcome one of these awesome places
that is doing this kind of work,
where riders caters to the veterans,
we like to reduce that suicide rate
in soldiers and veterans,
and we were convinced that the horse
is gonna play a major role in the mental health crisis.
Right here in equestrian center of Walnut Creek,
We're welcoming those organizations at our facility.
Next.
You can see the young lady up in the corner.
She's going real fast.
She's a very talented young lady, a teenager.
And then down below the young girl in the helmet
is my granddaughter.
She was going really fast on that bouncy horse.
And then up above, you see kind of the big and the short.
That's a draft horse and a mini horse.
And it turns out a mini horse is a horse,
unlike a pony, which is slightly different.
Doggies and mules are different.
Those are both horses, but those are kind of the big
and the short.
And that was a spectacular photo to capture at one of our events.
We're making some beautiful progress over there.
That drawing up above was a concept of three 33 arts,
which gave money to have this young, talented artist come
and paint a mural on our snack shack.
One of the problems with having a snack shack out in the back,
out where people don't see us very often,
unless they come all the way back to the school,
is that that's a target for the taggers.
But it turns out the taggers tend
to respect something beautiful like this.
And thanks to this organization, 333Arts,
and the great work of this young lady,
there's now a material that goes over
address obstacles that are quite contrary
to a half-ton bunny rabbit on a string prey animal.
And we show that they can be a quantumist,
they can be calm, and they can follow our lead.
Up above, that's a show that's shown.
I mean, a horse show where a lot of people are there seeing.
And then young lady Hannah Wright is presenting
an award to a gentleman with the local veterans.
She puts on a wonderful event.
The future.
The future of the equestrian Walnut Creek.
We're proud to be in Heather Farm Park.
We're proud to have been there for 55 years
and we're intending to be there for the next 55
and that young rider will be able to enjoy.
The equestrian center of Walnut Creek
in the heart of Heather Farm Park.
Thank you for your respect and attention.
Thank you very much.
That was wonderful.
Comments, questions from our commissioners?
When I've been out there I don't really see many horses
so you're not having to admit
known boards there, or they do? Yeah, no horses do not live there. It's... I don't
know where that, when that history started, but we maintain the facility for events,
and the horses come and they go. I attended a mini horse event there a few
years ago. It was Angels, right? Oh yeah, that are angels, right? Oh, angels for minis.
Okay, angels for minis. Yeah that she still hosts. She does. Okay. Yeah
Yes, and hosts charitable events at the equestrian center there. Yeah, I rented a mini horse and a competition in one third place
You can go to my Instagram page and see me in the mini horse
My daughter got a kick out of it. Oh, that's fun. What's always good to horse around? Yes
Good one
Walked into that
comments questions
Two minute comment portion for the our president. Oh fantastic gail jackson
I just want to make a comment about the
Adventure day camp that goes there and I believe I think Jane to talk to him and got the count
But they serve in the summer months. There are about
700, 6 to 700 kids that come in from Adventure Day camp in the summer from all around here
and they get the experience of learning about horses, riding horses.
It's just phenomenal.
If you go there in the summer in the morning and that you'll see they bus kids in, they
bring the horses in from Walnut Creek barn and I can't think of the name of Nancy DuPont.
to do Ponce Ranch. Anyway, so these kids bring them in and I mean they have the best time.
They're having so much fun out there. They really love it and I mean just the impact of the summer
kids plus all the events we have. Sorry to interrupt. Do you do you mind coming up here
if so we can so people at home can hear you. Yeah, thank you. By the way raise your hand if
you're with the equestrian center of Walnut Creek. Thank you. Excuse me, I'm Sue Howell. I do membership
for the equestrian center of Walnut Creek, and the adventure day camp is such a fun thing for all
kinds of kids. Both my grandchildren worked the horses facet for the venture day camp during the
summer when, oh gosh, I think they were starting at 10, 11, 12, and with the minis that were there.
So their job was to show the kids how to interact
with the minis.
And it was such a great character-building thing
for my grandchildren, as well as the kids
that they were teaching.
And it was just the most fun little thing to watch.
And so now, excuse me, my granddaughter
is going off to college.
So it really, the horse stuff that she
did through that type of thing, and all the other things
involved.
It just made her personality so much more compassionate
and giving.
And she's just a wonderful kid, and I'm so proud of her.
And the equestrian spirit was part of that.
So thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Other comments?
Hi, I'm Valerie Sterling, and I'm
leader of the Clayton Canyon Pony Club, which is the local chapter of the United States Pony Club,
which is like scouting, but for the horse people, horse kids. And so I just wanted to invite you to
come Saturday. We're having our meeting at the equestrian center. There'll be about 20 horses
there and kids sharing these horses. And now adults are part of that program too. The United
States Pony Club has invited not only the kids but adults to participate in
the the learning and the teaching that happens with this organization. So we're
gonna enjoy your beautiful facilities this Saturday and we have a series of
these meetings set up for this year. So I invite you. Thank you. We are proud of our customers.
Other comments? I didn't even know there's an equestrian center in Heather
farm so I'm happy to hear that and I'd like to get a copy of your presentation
if possible because we have we're involved with horses. One thing
you probably answered already with the question was do any horses they're not
boarded there at all. Okay, so, and so I was, my question was gonna be, do you do trail rides, you
know, up in like the open spaces and things, but I guess, you don't really do that.
Sorry. Can you, can you respond into the microphone just so people at home can
hear it? Yeah, thank you. Well we do a lot of, the California State Horsemen Association does a lot of
trail riding. We do get out on the trail just outside of the arena for some of
our events there within Heather Farm but most of our events are in the arena.
It's a little safer for most horses. Horses are prey animals with their mind
of their own and but getting them out on the trail that's a very high order for a
horse and yes we do move around outside there in Heather Farm Park. The reason
why I was mentioning the trails is because there are trails in the open
space that are marked equestrian or pedestrian only but they're not they're
heavily used by mountain bikers now and e-bikes and all kinds of other things so
I was just wondering about your experience if you used any of the trails
you know, what's your experience with that? Because like you said, horses are, you know,
you can't have a bike come around a corner, you know, with the horse,
because it can be very dangerous. Okay, and then the other thing I just wanted to mention,
my husband and I were involved in the Rose Parade, and they had those mini therapy,
many therapy horses there, and I guess they even take them, I think they take
them into hospitals and stuff, and I saw a mini horse up south southeast Lime
Ridge, but that's where they wanted to put the flow trail, but now it's not
there, but the equestrians are starting to come back, because there's some
equestrian, you know, right down there on what is that Walnut Avenue or whatever,
And so then they come up, you know, by the golf course and then walk up to the open space.
But they're kind of staying around in that area of, you know, southeast lime ridge.
So they don't go where the trails are that are supposed to be for the horses, but they
don't dare go there.
Okay, so I just wanted to mention those.
two things were the minis and then the other one was about trails. Oh, sharing the trail.
Yeah, I want to make sure I answered because I've heard two questions, but I do want to talk about
trails. We are at the top of the pyramid when it comes to yielding, so if you're on a trail,
Some people wonder, why is a horse at the top?
I mean, did somebody just pick that and said,
maybe they were their first?
Well, it turns out that when you have a,
I keep referring to him as a half ton buddy rabbit
on a string, prey animal who for a million years
has run away from predators.
It's quite a high order to be able to get a horse
to be successful and be a trail horse.
Often our demographic, our largest demographic
are women who are beyond childbearing years.
They finally have dreamed of having a horse for years.
They finally get a horse.
My wife was, you know, I bought her a horse
when our younger son finished high school.
That's our biggest demographic.
And one of the things that I'd like you to consider is
when we talk about sharing of the trails,
a mountain bike flying around a corner
or someone not respecting what they have
could create a lot of danger.
And that danger could be the horse,
the person on top, or the rider, I mean the bicyclist.
And so we wanna share the trails where appropriate,
we wanna keep separate where appropriate,
but I would be happy to come back to you at any time
and explain to you in more detail,
I did a 10-minute presentation
before a Walnut Creek group on why the horse
does get yielded to.
But it's really partly because he's got a mind of his own.
And we're talking about somebody
who finally got that opportunity to ride their horse.
And if they're getting scared
and they're not feeling protected,
they're not feeling like they can go without worry,
they're just not going to go.
And to me, that's one of the saddest things
that somebody who could look so forward
to having that horse and going through the process
and learning and getting their horse to be to a point,
let's help there be places in Walnut Creek
where they can ride their horses safely.
Your other question, did I?
No, that's why I just wondered if you used the open space trails because, you know,
there are some that say pedestrian in the question.
Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Well, and so the thing is, absolutely, maybe you don't see very many of us.
And by the way, we're very proud of the fact that horse people have learned to,
they tell us don't leave anything behind.
The only thing we might leave behind is horse poop.
And by the way, prey animal poop is no big deal.
I walk through it all the time,
I probably have some on my foot now.
But you know what, it's natural, it's just processed grass.
But other than that, you really don't see us
and we like it that way, to leave the trails beautiful
the way they were when we got on them.
Anything else?
No, thank you.
Thank you, anything else?
Thank you very much, Andrew.
Thank you.
Next, lastly, I invite Kyme Smith
with the Walnut Creek Open Space Foundation
to come forward and provide a presentation.
Kyme?
Okay, good evening, Chair and other commissioners.
Kyme, so I've got you.
And other commissioners.
I'm Kyme Smith, President of the Walnut Creek Foundation,
and thank you for the opportunity to come here
to tell you a little bit about our organization.
I'm sure many of you are familiar with it.
It's a 501c and c3, and we've been a nonprofit
for the 47 years of our existence,
and we have no fundraisers.
We rely on either donations from the public
or membership fees from our members.
So let's see, let's go to the next one.
As you all know, the city owns an extensive amount of acreage.
And as a matter of fact, it puts Walnut Creek somewhere
in the top 10% or 15% in the country.
And Walnut Creek was the first city
that had its own ranger in the history of our country.
So those are a couple of things to keep in mind.
So it's a pretty special place.
Stewardship needs to go beyond core services,
and that's one of the things I'll be talking about.
And the community interest in helping
with that stewardship, active care of the open space,
is very high.
And you can see here's a volunteer event
that happens quite frequently on Saturdays,
More so during the spring and in the fall.
But there's a lot of community interest.
The foundation exists because there's
a gap between what the city reasonably provides.
We have no qualm there.
But the community is eager to provide
even more for the open space.
there's 2,700 acres, which is larger than Central Park.
So does anybody have an idea of how many times bigger
the open space is?
It's about 2 and 1 half times bigger than Central Park.
So that's pretty impressive.
It's also larger than the country
that I listed up there, Vatican City.
And this is all maintained by an operating staff of about six.
So keep that in mind.
So not only is it big, but it's kind of
spread out across Shell Ridge, Lime Ridge, Akalani's Ridge.
And there's a small piece in Sugarloaf.
OK, what are some of the things that the foundation does?
We coordinate the volunteers that want to work out
in the open space and contribute.
We do education and outreach.
For example, you see women there looking at a display
that we have had in one of the public libraries.
And we plan to have lectures in public libraries.
And we also do stewardship support.
In the lower left, there's a picture of the staff
and foundation volunteers working together to clear some brush from a fallen tree and
make use of it to build a wildlife brush pile.
But there are clear boundaries.
The foundation owns no land.
We don't have any authority for 450 compared to their 250 per person.
So any leverage that can be provided to the city is a good thing, and that's what we're
trying to do. In addition to supplying manpower and so forth, another good
example is we're able to provide funding for projects that are often hard to
prioritize in municipal budgets. So here's a picture of the relocation of a
trail in Shell Ridge and that rock that you see there was bought by the
foundation. So it's another positive civic partnership that the foundation and the city
have been able to conduct. To the community, it's an opportunity to give back for something
that they feel they've received. When they volunteered their time, they get fresh air
and exercise, and there are a lot of educational opportunities that are provided to the wider
community.
So the city and the people in the community both benefit from the foundation's work.
We have a community-led board.
We have partnerships with city staff and we focus on practical outcomes.
We also formalize and we're in the process of formalizing policies and procedures.
For example, the memo of understanding and we've instituted the use of waivers.
And so we're working hard to do what's right.
What are our next steps?
Well, we want to have increased volunteer engagement.
And one way for us that we're considering doing is having more Saturday volunteer activities.
Right now we have activities during the week, but unfortunately there's not that many people
that are either independently wealthy or retired.
So our Saturday events tend to be very popular, so we're going to try to add more of those.
We're also going to look at targeting our projects.
So we have a more strategic plan.
plan, for example, well, right now the projects tend to be location-based, so there's a project
at Deer Lake, there's a project at Bayberry Pond, et cetera, but we're trying to think
at a more strategic level.
So we're going to have themes like water for wildlife, so we can anticipate the projects
that we could initiate, that would tie together for a bigger goal and then that way we could
plan for our volunteering, the kinds of people we want to get on board to carry out some
of those things.
Here you see one of our activities that we had this year and that was an education event
in horse safety with a Girl Scout troop.
These girls donated $400 to the foundation
from their cookie money,
and we wanted to do something special for them.
So we set this up with one of our officers at the time,
Elizabeth Hudson,
and the San Ramon Valley Horseman's Association.
So we're definitely going to have another one this year.
And we hope to have more things like that, where
we can collaborate with other groups
and have events for younger people.
And the bottom there, dressed in orange,
is our research grant student for this year.
And we've had this on our books for probably six or eight
years and this year we finally were able to recruit someone for this research grant.
So we fund them and it's almost like a summer job for them but in return this young woman
who's an honor student at Oregon State, she's in her senior year and her senior thesis
will sort out the results of samples that she took
from all the ponds in the open space
and her area's microplastics.
And what this does for us is it leverages
that university's equipment and laboratories
and we learned something.
So that's a really good program.
And we have had someone in our membership step forward
and offer to sponsor a second grantee.
If we wanted to do two a year, we could do two a year.
So we're looking forward to expand
the educational aspect of the foundation
through those two kinds of things.
And of course, we're gonna continue coordination
with the city in order to get access
to some of these ponds.
We had to make sure that the gate could be unlocked
and that kind of thing and get the city's approval
before any vehicles were driven and that sort of thing. So what is the
foundation asking for? Well not very much. It's pretty modest. We want continued
recognition as a as a partner of the city. We want a continuation of the
ongoing community communication with staff and the opportunity to support
city priorities as well. The city has priorities in the open space we'd like
to be on board and see what we could do to find volunteers to help out that kind
of thing. So the open space is a long term. And I think we maybe we need I
don't know if it's in the schools or whatever but setting up some tours so
kids really know what's up there and maybe educational presentations but
But again, like I said, you had that in your looking forward slide.
Another thing is the service that the Walnut Creek Open Space Foundation, the members and
board members, you know, like your president and stuff, I mean, they have a wealth of information.
I just wanted to say that you should use some of that expertise, and I'm sure you do, to
educate the open space and public works and that type of thing about the types
of things like the native plants that are up there the rare plants and the
wildlife and how important it is to preserve it. Now I know there was a
mountain biking group here tonight that wants to build a mountain bike you know
I have some facility in Lime Ridge.
It's a two minute limit there.
Yeah, but Lime Ridge is really a preserve.
There's a preserve area.
I think the Open Space Foundation,
perhaps you can speak to your acceptance of all user groups
in the open space.
Yes, were it's appropriate and legal.
And were there at the legal speed limits?
Yeah.
Of course.
But to address the use of experts,
we do plan to have nature hikes.
And of course, Fossil Hill is basically
closed to the public now, but there
are a lot of people that like to be up among the flowers.
So there's a plan in place to have docent-led tours
of Fossil Hill.
So we'll let in a few people at a time
and show them the diversity that's available to see there.
There's also, and I believe that Barbara has been
on the scorpion hike.
We have an annual hike after dark.
We like to schedule it the last full moon before Halloween,
and we haven't missed yet, knock on wood.
We've had, I think, five years,
And we've always seen at least three scorpions.
So that's another thing that we plan to keep rolling.
Fantastic.
I coached a CYO cross-country running team for eight years.
We had hundreds of kids through our program.
And all our practices were in Shell Ridge.
And the number of kids and parents
and the difference that it made in their lives was, of course,
the hardcore runners, they run.
And that's their thing.
But it was the kids who were not great runners
that actually made the biggest difference,
just learning to appreciate being in the open space
and getting exercise and chasing butterflies
and tarantulas and everything else they saw out there.
So thank you very much, Kyle.
Really appreciate it.
OK, with that, I ask for staff if there are any updates.
So I have a couple of reports on a couple of projects.
And then we'll get into staff updates.
and I believe Karen has a couple or one or two as well.
So just for the commission's sake,
we have made it completely through the contracting process
for the renovation of the Civic Park playground,
and we're currently scheduled,
we're targeting the April 1st start date.
It's about a six-week project,
and so we're hoping that the new playground
will be complete by mid-May, just in time for summer.
So I'll be back here in front of you in April,
and I'll be sure and give you a further update at that time.
And then secondly, is just a quick update
on the pool and rec center project.
As Chair Cook brought up earlier,
the groundbreaking event,
which all of you are invited to
along with the entire community is April 18th at four o'clock.
We're gonna be meeting there at the current
or the existing recreation center.
As many of you have probably seen,
we started the demo, which included the removal of 80 trees.
We've also removed some shade structures out there,
which we plan to relocate to different areas.
In phase one, we removed about 40 trees,
so about 120 in total,
and we've already planted over 100, well over 100,
with the goal of planting 200 trees to replace the 120
that had been removed.
The abatement of the facility should start here
in a couple of weeks.
And Commissioner Oler, I know that you have a grandson
that likes construction activity.
So we're hoping to start demolishing the building
near the end of this month.
And then we'll get into the excavation stage
and the next steps after that.
So that's my project update.
I'm sorry, yeah, if I misspoke,
the events on the groundbreaking is on February 18th, yes.
Good evening, commissioners, Karen Houston Martin,
recreation program manager,
overseeing aquatics and social services.
I'm putting on my social services hat tonight
just to invite you out to our second annual
intellectual and developmental disabilities resource fair
that'll take place on March 7th from 10 to one
at the Shadelands Arts Center.
It was very well attended last year.
We have more vendors this year,
so we're excited to put that on.
And then our second event that we are hosting
with the Sensational Seniors Workshop Team
is the Walnut Creek Seniors Resource Fair.
It'll be held Thursday, March 12th from nine to noon
at St. Matthew's Church in Walnut Creek.
Thank you.
Thanks, Karen.
I have just two brief updates or sorry, announcements.
Most of you probably know
that we have a new chief of police
and they are doing a meet and greet this Wednesday
from five to 6.30 over at the Lesher Center.
Get an opportunity to go meet the new chief.
The second one is it's based on a comment
that I shared with you back in October at our last meeting
where we were gonna be,
The plan was to be focused on a 10-year park plan,
and I've received some emails from a few of you.
The decision was made to,
and we may dive into a few of the parks,
but as a whole, the City's Planning Department
is working through the update of our 2025 General Plan,
and a deeper look into the commissioner's feedback on,
and the community's feedback along with the Arts Commission
and the other commissions,
they're gonna be coming,
the planning department is gonna be coming
to this commission and having a deeper dive,
deeper conversation into what the commission recommendations
would be for the next period of time,
which is actually, I think the general plan
that we're focused on is a 2050 general plan.
So you'll have to put your thinking caps on
and think for everybody for the next 25 years,
because we're gonna hold you to it each year moving forward.
So just kidding.
But there'll be a deeper dive in the parks later this year
as we start moving forward with the general plan.
And the last thing, well, two more things
before I turn it over for commissioner announcements
is I wanted to just take a second to thank
all of the nonprofits and speakers that came here tonight.
The value that you bring to the city,
the partnership that Public Works and Arts and Rec
have established with all of the non-profits is exceptional.
I've been to most of the programs.
I know everybody here that spoke in tonight
and showed up to support their groups.
And the gift that you give the community is a real treasure.
So thanks for taking the time tonight,
and thank you for all you do.
There are literally thousands of hours per year
that go from the volunteers and these non-profits
back into the community, and it's really incredible.
I think it was a past mayor, Mayor Carlson,
who was also a chair, commissioner chair at one time,
said that Walnut Creek is really,
truly a city of volunteers.
And that's what tonight was about.
We're hoping as we move forward
for the rest of the meetings,
commission meetings this year,
we'll get another one or two nonprofits
to come in and be able to provide the community input
and the gift that you guys share tonight
so that we have a full understanding
by the end of the year of all of our partners
and everything that's brought to Walnut Creek.
And then lastly, I wanted to thank Commissioner Oehler
and Commissioner Cook for your service
over the last several years, Art.
It's been eight years with you.
You've always come prepared.
You've always had great questions.
We've had a lot of great conversations and walks
outside of the commission.
And I appreciate working with you and I appreciate your friendship and what you've done for the
community.
So thank you.
Thank you, Mike.
Yeah.
And Commissioner Cook, thank you very much.
As Vice Chair Pinkstaff mentioned, you are a true cyclist and outdoorsman.
And I know that we've talked in the last couple months and you really want to focus some of
efforts on riding safety and and just improving safety from that aspect in the community. So
thanks for all you've done. Appreciate it. Thank you Mike. You are an incredible resource
for the city and I know it sometimes is maybe a little frustrating going up against, you know,
different forces competing forces that having to navigate and negotiate were appropriate. But in
in terms of providing us information,
all of us to the best of your ability
to take an honest approach on everything you look at.
I speak highly to you, about you,
to everybody that I come in contact with
and thank you so much for everything you do for the city.
It is super valuable and it's our staff
that allow all these great things to happen
in terms of the organization
and then it's the volunteers
that allow these things to thrive.
Thank you very much. Do we have any commissioner updates that anyone would
like to share this evening? Anything else Mike? All right, and with that I'm going
to it's my last meeting so I'm passing the gavel over to Vice Chair Pinkstaff
who will soon be Chair Pinkstaff and I'll also like to close by
recognizing my mother who's in the audience in the blue and she's a
special person and of resident of Walnut Creek since 1973 or 4 right? I think
1973. I don't quite remember but thank you mother for moving us to this
wonderful city and allowing all the great stuff we've been able to be
exposed to and what a great last meeting for me just all the volunteer groups
we should capture some of the videos here
and just six different segments
and anybody who wants an introduction to Walnut Creek
and what we have to offer,
just each one of these sections was just truly amazing.
So thank you very much.
And with that, meeting is closed.