Good evening. I'm Sharon Pinkstaff, chair of PROS Commission. Welcome to Monday, June 1st,
2026 regular PROS Commission meeting. Commission Secretary Mike Vickers, would you please call roll?
Yes, Student Commissioner Constan.
Here.
Commissioner Oler.
Here.
Commissioner Garland.
Here.
Commissioner Brockhouse.
Here.
Vice Chair Sasser.
Here.
And Chair Pinkstaff.
Here.
Let the record show that everyone is present.
All right.
Next on the agenda is public 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.
comments submitted have been posted to the city's website for public review and
are included in the meeting record. It will not be separately read into the
record. Any public comments? You need to. Yeah you have two minutes to comment on
item and state the name and just city of residence for the record. You can fill
out the card, Barbara afterwards. Hello my name is Barbara Yannis. I've been a
resident of Walnut Creek since 1996. You may or may not know that areas around
the power lines in Lime Ridge were cleared by probably PG&E or PG&E
contractors. This was back in July 2025. When they cleared, they cleared about 20
Mount Diablo Manzanitas down to the ground level and just left stumps and
And Chaparral was totally cleared in another area where there's a California endangered native plant called the Ariastrum.
I wrote an email and gave you some information on the ranking of these plants and shrubs.
Apparently there was a, apparently city staff did not, or has an agreement with PG&E that PG&E would contact them before they do any work within Lime Ridge.
But in early journey July 2025 this did not happen
In late July 2025 city staff met with PG&E representatives and city staff
assured that an agreement email stating the need to communicate more often and
Communication with P and PG&E will continue to improve and this will help prevent future challenges
Then in May 2026 just just happened
Apparently PG&E workers or contractors. I think although I haven't verified this with city as I haven't been contacted
They went up there and did further clearing around the power lines down to the ground level
So there were things that were growing back and took them all down
I
citizens notified staff on 522 was right before Labor Day or Memorial Day and
appears additional clearing except for a small area was was not continued. So, okay. I just
have a remaining question if city staff doesn't have the okay from PG&E that they're going
to contact them before something needs to be done to protect some of the endangered
plants and things. Thank you very much. Sorry for being out of breath. All right. Commissioners
Any questions? The public comments? Any other public comments? All right. We'll
move to the next portion of the agenda consent calendar. Does any commissioner
wish to pull this item for discussion? Okay. Does any member of the staff wish
to pull any item for discussion? No. Okay. Does any member of the public wish to
comment an item on the consent calendar? All right seeing no speakers I'll ask the
Commission if anyone would like to make a motion with regard to the consent
calendar. I move we approve the consent calendar item of minutes of our pros
Commission meeting April 6th, 2026. All right do we have a second? All right let
the record show that we would call vote yeah we have a first and second and I'll
call roll okay okay student commissioner constant yeah if you're in agreement with
the motion that was filed to accept the consent calendar yes okay thank you
Commissioner Oler yes Commissioner Garland yes Commissioner Brockhouse yes
Vice-chair Sasser. Yes. And chair Pinkstaff. Yes. But the motion show that it
passes unanimously. Next item on the agenda is presentation by one of a
nonprofit. As part of the year of the volunteer I invite Bob Simmons of the
Walnut Creek Watership forward to provide the presentation. Okay well good
evening and thank you for allowing me to speak to you tonight. I was by the way
my name is Bob Simmons who was sort of mentioned and I served on the Prose
Commission from 2000 to 2004 so I have had the opportunity to sit in the chairs
that you're sitting in and think about some of the things that you get to think
about to to help the city become better. I was last year in 2021 and I was giving
basically an introductory talk about what the Walnut Creek Watershed Council was and
what it was doing, what we were trying to do. We've had some, I'm going to call them
significant sort of developments and I kind of want to bring you up to date on that as
well as talk about a couple things that we're doing and things that we could be doing in
the city of Walnut Creek. The first slide up there I like to show because it shows somebody
fishing in Walnut Creek, the city, I mean, one more thing, when you hear me say the city
of Walnut Creek, that means the city. When you hear me just say Walnut Creek, it will
be the creek. And if you think I missed that, just raise your hand and I'll sort of do this.
But this was fishing in Walnut Creek in the 1940s before Broadway Plaza was built and
before the concrete channel was built.
And so I will just say, you can still
fish in Walnut Creek, the city of Walnut Creek,
but except for the pond at Heather Farm Park,
you won't catch any fish.
There just aren't there.
But I like this because it provides context.
And I also like the quote that I use up there,
because I think one of the things that happens,
I'm going to use the word we here.
And it's important.
I'm not saying you did this or you did this,
but we as a civilization, from around 1950 to the present,
pretty much buried our creeks.
And to me, took away some of the magic that water provides.
A couple of us are old enough to remember playing in the creek.
And that was really a magical time.
And when you go hiking or anything like that,
a lot of people like to hike along creeks.
So I like that slide.
So the purpose of today's presentation
is really to just update you on what we're doing
and to discuss some restoration opportunities
in the city of Walnut Creek.
But I want to start with what is a watershed,
because I think that's fairly important to understand,
and let me see if I can do this right.
Whoops, there we go.
Some people, when I ask people what is a watershed,
sometimes it takes people a little while
to sort of explain what is a watershed,
And we get all sorts of different explanations.
But this outline really sort of shows what the watershed is.
And basically, every drop of rain that falls
will stay within that watershed.
And some of that rainwater will come out
through the creeks to the bay or to the ocean or whatever.
Not all of the water will, because some of it
is absorbed by plants, some of it is lost to evaporation.
But this really shows the hydrologic process
really to me fits in fairly well with the quote from Lauren Eiseley, who is one of the
early environmental writer who really talked about how important water is in our civilization.
So this shows you the Wallin Creek Watershed, shows three different views of it. The top
one shows where we are in terms of the county. The Wallin Creek Watershed is the largest
watershed in Contra Costa County. This kind of shows it a little better in a little more
detail and I hope I'm not bothering you too much with this thing. And then this basically
shows and you'll see this again in the next slide. I already hit the next slide. Okay,
this is good. So, when we started a number of years ago, there was only one friends group
that existed and that was the Friends of the Creeks, which is a Walnut, City of Walnut
Creek's sort of based organization, presently led by Leslie Hunt, who lives in the city.
The Lafayette Creeks Committee has been in place for a long time. It actually is a committee
of the city of Lafayette, and they meet regularly. They follow the Brown Act and all the other
things that are associated with being a committee of the city.
The other four friends groups really were created as a result of our council being created,
And we've had, each of them are doing really interesting things in their area of interest.
And we'll talk about, actually we're going to focus on Walnut Creek, the city of Walnut
Creek today, so we're not going to talk about what Friends of San Ramon Creek has done or
Friends of Concord Creek have done, but, and they're each doing a little different because
of what their, what their membership is, you know, but they're all working on improving
the health of the watershed and educating people on what is the watershed.
The Friends of Concord Creeks, the head of that has some young kids and so there's very
much more family-oriented.
The Friends of San Rone Creek, a number of people in that group are of retirement age
and they just like to go out and do things and they do.
So this shows the creeks in Walnut Creek.
Until I saw the slide, I did not know that there were 20 named creeks and the word name
is important there in the city of Walnut Creek, but there are. Before I saw this slide I could
probably name three or four. I can name a few more now, but it's really interesting
to see, and let me see if I can do this right. This is roughly where we are, and by way of
further explanation, whoops, let me back up. What am I doing wrong? Okay. By way of further
explanation and to show it visually. Las Trumpas Creek comes in from the west
from Lafayette. Tice Creek comes, not Tice Creek, I'm sorry, and Tice Creek
joins it. Tice Creek is in Rossmore. That's why you have the Friends of
Tice Creek because it's a Rossmore organization. San Ramon Creek comes in
from the south, basically along 680 to some extent. They merge. Art, I know you
know the answers. So where do they merge? I won't know that but that's a good
answer. The Las Trumpas Creek and San Ramon Creek merge underneath the
fountain at where Ilfernaya is. That's Liberty Bell Plaza and if you go there
you'll see two different colors of pavers and that was really an artist
attempt to depict the two creeks flowing in and and they actually the start of
Walnut Creek. And so the next time you go down that area to Broadway Plaza, take a look
at the pavers. It's kind of fun. And think what's down 30 feet below you. So why do a
restoration plan?
Bob, can I ask a question?
Sure.
On your list, you showed both the Ignacia Canal and the Contra Costa Canal, which are
man-made features and cemented. I'm curious.
They're waterways.
Okay.
OK.
So anything that is visible on the ground,
where the creeks sort of start and then stop,
that shows a culverted section that you can no longer
see as a creek.
That was a good question.
Thank you.
So I'm going to have to look over here,
because I can't see that far over there.
So why do you do a restoration plan?
You want to create a community supported group,
and that's what we're kind of doing.
a lot of outreach to groups like this but also to groups like East Bay Regional Park
District and East Bay Mudd and then some other groups as well.
It gives us a chance to take a look at the project.
We presently have about 90 restoration projects in the watershed.
The watershed is 146 square miles in size and that basically is just really in the what
I'll call the middle part of the watershed.
We like to support and encourage the efforts of local agencies.
That actually is a little more problematic than it may sound because virtually there
Virtually all of the cities and towns, with a couple exceptions, don't want to have anything
to do with their creeks, because it's a maintenance issue, there's some liability issues, and
so they just, you know, like most of them have fenced the creeks in their area, if we
have as well.
But we really want to, as part of this process, engage them and encourage them to realize
that restoring the creeks to good health is something that's important for the community
to do.
I believe this plan that we're doing is going to guide restoration efforts for the next
20 to 30 years, I believe it's gonna be transformational in that effect. I also
hope that it's gonna be aspirational, that it's going to encourage people to
say yes, I want to be involved and want to support restoration of our creeks. So
what's next? We're going to continue to look for more restoration sites, we'll
talk about that in a minute. We're going to continue to work with groups that we
haven't yet worked with to try and get them to be involved in restoring the
health of our watershed and we're going to prepare and complete prepare by
December of this year I should back up and explain that for a second we got a
$300,000 grant from the Federal Bureau Reclamation to do this plan with the
requirement that first of all we finish it by December of this year and then
we're going to use about half the money to take the three of the ideas that are
restoration ideas that are in the restoration tracker and get them
designed to a point that somebody can come in and say,
hey, this is a good idea.
I want to fund it.
Sometimes it gets funded by different things,
but it really helps to have something designed,
and not a final design.
So where are some of the potential restoration
projects in Wallman Creek?
And this will be a bit of a mix.
This is Heather Farm Park.
And about three, four years ago, the city
contracted to do this study.
There's a lot of restoration opportunities here.
I think what is really, for my perspective,
the most important is that you can
create a nice little one-mile walk and interpretation
by these creeks.
But you, first of all, have to fix the creeks.
Because right now, they're in varying stages
and not very good.
But this would be a major effort by itself.
Or you could separate it into little pieces.
We'll see something a little bit later about one of these.
So one of the other things we want to do
is, this slide is a little bit out of place.
I'm sorry about that, but I'll go through this.
Because these pictures, with one exception,
are all taken from places within the city of Walnut Creek.
On the far left is something called English Ivy.
That is a picture in Rudgier Park.
English Ivy is invasive.
By saying it's invasive means it's non-native,
and it excludes other flora from the habitat.
And it also, which we found out, and we'll see a slide on it
later, by removing some of the English ivy from an area
of Civic Park together with some planting of native plants
that was done by the native plant group in the senior club,
they tell me that they've seen butterflies there
that they've never seen there before, because what they said
is that the English ivy really just prevents the butterflies
from laying their eggs in the oak trees,
because they know that the larva won't survive.
And there's no food there because the English Ivy
doesn't provide food.
The picture in the upper, in the center part,
is from Heather Farm Park.
And that's what's called Himalaya Blackberry.
It is also, you can see, I remember
from about 10 years ago when it was just a small little stand.
And it just keeps growing and growing.
I think the one on the right is also
Himalaya Blackberry, but it's a close up.
And the one in the bottom left is English Ivy Close-Up.
You have a Mexican fan palm, also from Heather Farm Park.
But you've got some really big ones in both Civic Park
and in Heather Farm Park that, from my standpoint,
actually affect the flow of water.
And then what we really got focused on,
let me do it this way, is something
called a Rundo Donax.
It's also known as Giant Reed.
It can grow, whoops, why don't you get to it?
It can grow four inches a day and up to 25 to 30 feet tall.
And it completely excludes anything within it.
It's both a flood risk and a fire risk.
And if you walk along the Creek Walk in Civic Park
and look across the way to the private land,
you will see an abundance of giant reed, is what it's called.
So I kind of wanted to show this to say, hey,
you know what native plants do is they provide habitat
for native species.
talked earlier about the butterflies, and that's my little crescent butterfly.
You can see a willow fly catcher.
The other two photos are not from Walnut Creek, but the interesting thing in part about the
beaver picture at Grayson Creek is we have a picture of a beaver in Walnut Creek from
about a month ago, and it's really kind of neat to see.
I'm not sure that everybody enjoys that fact,
but it is true.
All right, we've got some restoration opportunities
that are coming forward.
Hazard Pond, Hazard Pond is at the very south end
of Shell Ridge, very close to Lavoina Road.
The easiest way to access this is probably
going to the Lavoina Road staging area.
The left shows a pre-grazing summer picture of Hazard Pond.
You can see from the green that this is done
on the, let's just say the end of July.
There's water there.
There's moisture there.
The plants are doing okay.
If you look closely, you can see the cattle
on the right side and see what impact the cattle had
on the vegetation and basically stripped it out.
So we were contacted by a company that needed some off,
what's called offsite mitigation.
In other words, what the regulatory agencies like
is for any company that's impacting a part
of a riparian area.
They want them to do all of the restoration onsite.
And the city had this experience recently
with the aquatic center as well.
In this case, the company couldn't do all of the restoration
on site.
And so they came to us and said, can you find something?
And we worked with the city, with Mike and with Corey.
We found a spot at Hazard Pond.
Hazard Pond has some flow of water into it, not quite year
round, but there's a little flow underground.
So we're going to go in there.
We've got a chunk of money.
going to go in there, we're giving some money to the city to build about an
acre of fencing to protect that from grazing and then we're going to be
planting 30 trees, 50 shrubs and over a thousand grass or four plugs this year
so if you go back there next year this will look completely different and it'll
be something that'll be really valuable and attractive for wildlife that might
be using the area. This is called a seasonal wetland area and the county has
determined that seasonal wetlands are scarce in central Contra Costa County.
This is Tice Creek in Rossmoor. We have here today Don McGregor, who's the
leads the Friends of Tice Creek, and we're trying to persuade what is called
Rossmoor-Wallace Creek to take more of a holistic view of what happens here.
Literally what happens here is that there's a bridge or something like that
that constrict the flow and then really immediately downstream it pooches out and it causes the
erosion that you see there. There's significant amount, there's about five of these and it's
a major effort to try and persuade the powers that be that this is something that really
kind of needs to be done. And we hope we're successful. Let me see.
This is, if you go on to Rudger Road and you look immediately to the north, you see that's
where the concrete channel, the San Ramon Bypass, begins.
What those two grates represent is an opportunity for water to flow into the historic channel
of San Ramon Creek and then into, underneath Broadway Plaza, and into Walnut Creek.
This has been phenomenally successful at dealing with high flows and reducing flooding in
downtown Wall and Creek.
What it wasn't designed to do very well was handle the low summer flows.
And so what you see here, what we try to do here is create a coffer dam to cause the water
to go into the historic channel, but it's not working.
And the flood control district would like to see a permanent solution.
Apparently there may even be some city land right there, and they'd kind of like to work
with the city and see if they can't figure out a permit solution, because what happens
with the water going down the concrete channel is it gets, it warms up. It's bad for fish.
It's bad for just about everything. It gets more algae. If you can direct that water into
the shaded natural creek concourse, you can actually have some significant benefits for
wildlife. I feel a long time before it would be any benefit for fish, but it and then it would flow
out of Civic Park just east of the, what I call the Civic Park Bridge, some people call the Orange
Bridge. This is drop structure number two. Now the next two slides are not in the city of Walnut Creek,
but they are on Walnut Creek. This particular structure, if you're driving north on Bancroft
road, you cross over a bridge, that's where the structure is.
This is also where the two young men died about 10, 12 years ago because you just can't
survive there.
And this is one of the structures that we're going to have to figure a way to deal to provide
for both fish passage and fish survival.
This is drop structure number one.
I want to particularly focus on that little critter.
Most people don't realize that actually salmon used to migrate up Walnut Creek.
And this and drop two completely barred that upward migration.
Working with the flood control district at our request, they've sent a letter to the
U.S. Army Corps of Engineers asking them to study alternatives for fish passage at this
particular site.
So we're hopeful we'll see something, but it's really important from my perspective
to highlight that this barrier is actually preventing fish
from continuing to pursue their migration upstream
and their lifelong, soon to be very short life journey.
Are there other opportunities?
Yes, I'm not showing them, but there are some
that we don't know about.
And so one of the purposes of coming to groups like this
and knowing that some of this is being watched
is to see if people can say, hey, I know of this area.
There's a fair number of sites on private land,
and that's a whole other category.
It's been really great working with the city
on some sites in Shell Ridge and in Civic Park,
but it's much more challenging to work with private landers.
So this particular site is Shell Ridge.
It's a photo of Deer Lake, and it's
one of my favorite photos of Deer Lake,
but there are certainly going to be other opportunities to do
this. So, this photo was taken by a member of the Friends of Pleasant Hill Creek, but
it's taken in what's called a natural pond in Heather Farm Park. And I like to kind of
close with this one because, you know, we're just taking off and just join us on that flight
and it's an upward aspirational objective that we have. So, thank you so much for letting
me talk to you and show you a few slides and show you a little bit of what we're trying
to do with the Walnut Creek Watershed
and restoring our watershed.
Commissioners, any comments, questions for the speaker?
I have a couple questions.
Please return to the podium.
Yeah.
Hi.
So one of them, as you mentioned,
that you've partnered with entities that need mitigation.
And you sort of said, as an aside,
Walnut that you know the Heather farm project for the
Aquatic Center in the community center and they definitely need mitigation
And I don't know either you or Mike could remind us
Are we doing Creek projects as part of the mitigation for that obviously we're replacing trees and things like that
But are we doing any restoration of the creek or the natural pond?
My understanding is most of the mitigation that was required by the water agencies was to replace
I'm going to say 30,000 square feet of surface water, which the city did do by expanding
the natural pond in a way that was pretty nice.
From my perspective, I wish they had dredged it too so that it would be cooler water, better
for fish and all of that.
Mike can go into detail about how it is to work with the regulatory agencies on things
like that.
money gets in the way.
But this provides another opportunity.
The city has, I think, two bridges it's going to be trying to replace over the next number
of years.
And that's actually part of the purpose of this, so that people who, like the projects
that we've done in the city of Wall and Creek and Civic Park, have been the result of off-site
mitigation money from the city of Concord for a bridge replacement project and from
the county for our Marsh Drive bridge replacement project.
And so, you know, we are likely to see more funds there in the city.
My perspective now knows it has some restoration sites that it can go to and suggest, and would
actually improve the restoration sites in the city of Walling Creek.
Okay.
Thank you for the question.
And I just add to that?
Of course.
So there was a study that Bob referenced earlier where he showed an image of the five different
drainage channels that we decided to name.
our official names, we just decided for communication's sake.
That study came out of this body.
One of the commissioners recommended that we spend $50,000,
didn't cost that much, but put some money aside
to do an analysis, do a riparian study,
which was further approved by council.
And that's how we got to this study.
Is there several opportunities in Heather Farm?
Absolutely, and when we go through the capital budget,
for this upcoming January, February, March,
that'll certainly be projects that we discuss.
There's further opportunities in Civic Park
and Red Gear Park and maybe a couple other places
that I don't know about.
Thank you for the question.
I have another question as well.
So the county, I believe, was leading it,
maybe flood control, was doing a pretty,
had a pretty major planning effort for the park,
where it actually drains into the bay, or the river,
I guess it's the San Joaquin River there.
What is the status of that?
Are you talking about their watershed plan?
Yeah.
Just as a technical matter, I don't use the word drain.
I use the word flow.
And when you think about it to me,
a drain is something I put Drano in.
And I think there's a category of specialists
that like to describe these as drainages and drains,
Because from my perspective, my words, it de-emphasizes it,
makes it seem like it's not really a creek.
It's not really flowing.
And yet, if you bring kids over there,
they don't know whether it's a creek
or they just see the flowing water.
And they certainly don't want to teach them to start
using the word drain.
But that's me.
You can continue to use the word drain.
I know Mike will continue to use the word drain,
because he works with engineers, and that's how they think,
and that's fine.
The County Flood Control District is preparing a,
is doing a large process to create a watershed plan
for the entire Wallin Creek watershed.
They started that partly because of what we were doing,
that we wanted to do a restoration plan,
and so they decided they needed to do it,
and there'd be the community support to do it,
and I think there will be.
Their plan is gonna be a bit different in a couple respects.
Right now, they've entered into a contract
to do what's called a historical ecology study,
but that's a three-year study.
And they're going to be doing a couple of things on their plan,
but that plan is probably five to eight years out.
And some may say it's longer than that.
Ours is a restoration plan.
It's not going to be anti-science,
but there's not going to be scientific studies
under each one of them.
It's going to be more aspirational.
It's going to say, hey, we have these opportunities.
We really do wanna restore our community health,
our watershed health, and this is how we do it.
We are, we have a coordinating committee
that we meet every, about two months, every two months
with the flood control district
to make sure that we're sort of understanding
what each is doing.
We're a little bit different.
I mean, they've written a letter on,
using drop one as an example,
they've written a letter to the Corps of Engineers.
We have more of an advocacy role with regard to that.
We really want to be in a position
where that structure is no longer a barrier to fish
passage and fish migration for the salmon growing up soon.
And their watershed plan is probably
going to focus a bit more on their facilities,
because they've got a lot of facilities.
And there's a lot of concrete structures in our,
in all of our crease in this watershed.
And they're going to look at the ones that are theirs,
but not at some like, there's some like were built like SES
before it became natural resources conservation,
back in the 40s and 50s before.
So there's a connection because it's both the Walnut Creek
watershed, but they're really quite different in terms
of their function, in terms of how long it will take
for the flood control just to complete its plan.
But they're making progress.
Thank you.
I don't give a short answer to the question.
Sorry about that.
And thank you.
Thank you again.
Bob, thank you very much for coming back to us
again and talking about watershed.
And I would encourage you to share with us
when your project is done,
that you're working towards the plan
that is aspirational for a good 20 or 30 years,
because there's so much work to be done.
And if at all possible,
we can hear you before we go into the capital process
and see if we can put some dollars
towards some of those projects.
You know, I don't know when you're, I remember when we used to do it historically,
and so the capital budget for this next cycle I think is
for beginning the fiscal year in July is done.
So you're kind of talking about the capital budget cycle for the next cycle.
And we'll be done in December.
And as you know, I just don't like to talk about watersheds, but I'll be glad to come back.
And thank you for that.
I will talk with Mike about coming back and, because we actually,
we believe that there's a lot of opportunity.
And so we'd love it to see some money allocated to it.
So thank you.
Oh, I have a question about all the organizations,
Friends of the Creek and Lafayette Creek Committee.
Yeah, Creek Committee.
I'm interested in if there's any kind of youth involvement
in these efforts, learning about the watershed,
learning about our local ecology environment, that piece?
The short answer is yes.
But it varies a little bit.
Friends of San Ramon Creek tend to be involved more people
that are 50 plus.
Friends of Concord Creeks involves a lot
of people who are very young.
And they go out and do things.
In the city of Walnut Creek, we have done three or four
projects, not just watershed restoration,
but in Deer Lake as a project that I kind of lead in.
It's a habitat, a tree planting project, for the most part.
And we regularly involve and include youth groups.
And I had one come out a couple weeks ago to do what I call,
not now what I call, to water the young oak and buckeye
trees because for the first couple of years,
they need some of that supplemental water.
So we do try to engage them.
It's always a challenge because they've got sports on Saturdays.
They're busy Monday through Friday.
And you've got to have a parent come along with them.
But I like to work with youth groups
even if they just come out once because I
think they learn something from that.
Even if I never want to go out there again,
they still learn something.
And they learn something about what we're doing
and what we're trying to do.
And maybe for some of these trees,
and some of them have planted acorns and buckeye seeds,
and they now see, they can come back 10 years later
and see that the tree is 10, 15 feet tall
and say, hey, I have something to do with that,
which is a really neat feeling.
So thank you for the question.
Thank you.
All right, I now open the item for public comment.
Please step forward to the podium
and complete a speaker card available
in the corner of the entrance doorway.
Any public comments?
Okay, having none, we will move to the,
and any additional discussion?
Okay, and we don't have a motion for this.
All right, thanks, Bob.
All right, the next item on the agenda is presentation.
By boundary Oak Golf Course, I invite Tim Roberts
with the city of Walnut Creek forward
to present the presentation.
Good evening commissioners, Tim Roberts,
Arts and Recreation.
I am your on staff on property liaison
for the city of Walnut Creek with our operator Korsko.
Korsko runs, owns, leases, operates about,
almost about 50 courses up and down
the western United States out of Petaluma.
I've been here since 2019, fall of 2019.
I sent over a little bit of commentary,
so if anything, if there's a question,
I'll keep my eyes up, just go ahead and interrupt me,
but jump into it.
We'll go over some of the financial stuff,
not really deep diving into numbers,
but more just an overview of how we're doing
and how healthy the operation is.
Around the clubhouse, some of the changes,
golf operations, lots of exciting stuff going on up there
with our new driving range and practice facility.
Our food and beverage team is really, really solid right now.
And then of course we've got a living, breathing,
160 acre property up there
that butts up against the open space.
So we've got a lot of responsibility.
In no particular order is guest experience
being good stewards of the property
and running a viable business for the city of Walnut Creek.
I'm kind of doing this as a fiscal year 24, 25, 25, 26
kind of wrap up.
The years kind of mirror each other,
but I didn't get a chance to come here last year.
So we did outperform our budget.
again this year, which includes taking care
of any debt servicing and salaries,
public work costs up there,
and still contributing to our reserves.
So we've got two reserve accounts.
One is operations, and the other one is equipment.
You know, we've got, as you know,
equipment around here is very expensive.
So we've got two very healthy asset accounts,
reserve accounts.
Around the Clubhouse, this is Brad,
Brad's our director of golf.
He's also a PGA pro.
We got Brad a couple of years ago,
and as you can see in the background,
really been a transformative last few years
with the Clubhouse.
Brad was awarded the NCPGA Merchandise for the year.
It's kind of a big deal in the industry.
So we moved to a real-time survey on the guest experience,
so people can come right up.
We've got sandwich boards located around the property.
They can come up, hit a QR code,
give us a real-time feedback.
We do survey guests and events,
and anybody who comes to the property for anything official,
whether it's a Thursday night dinner,
we do do a lot of surveys.
Surveys right now are really strong.
I think I'll touch base with that in a little bit.
And then part of what we do up there is we also,
we support the community.
We've got a lot of nonprofits through there.
Every year we usually pick a charity in the Bay Area,
locally, that we can support.
This year was the East Bay Crisis Nursery.
So for about a month we did a diaper and wipes
and baby supplies in exchange for gift cards
for the driving range.
And then our holiday gala this year
was fully benefiting them.
And that's something on staff
that I collectively do with them as well.
We go out, we get sponsors, we sell tickets.
I think we had 200 people there this year
and we raised about $30,000
that goes to the Bay Area Crisis Nursery.
Again, shows a good partnership
between us and our operator, Corsco,
they're into what we're into,
and they help us facilitate it.
Golf operations.
So what you see there is an airfication machine,
and that's one of our fairways.
I believe that's number seven.
We're one of the few courses that in,
from our enterprise fund,
part of our job is to reinvest into the property,
which obviously takes care of the property,
good stewards, guests experience.
What you're seeing there is a sand application
to the fairway that we do twice a year,
once in the fall, once in the spring.
To my knowledge, I don't know of another muni course
that does that around here.
It keeps the turf healthy.
It keeps the dirt really healthy.
It avoids diseases, levels out the playing field,
and just really, when you dig up our dirt out there,
it's some really good-looking dirt.
Surveys that we pulled last week,
we pulled our most recent.
Little over 500 surveys.
Guest experience overall.
Four and a half stars out of five,
that does include our new practice facility
with the driving range and 7,000 square foot putting green.
One of the programs that we're really proud
that we have up there is the PGA HOPE program,
which is with the VA and we have local veterans come out
and we do golf clinics once a week for seven week sessions.
We end with a nine hole on course experience
and then we have a dinner for them
and they don't pay for anything.
We get the coaches, we set it up for them.
They love it, it's getting more and more popular.
We've seen people come back two and three times,
and then we're seeing those veterans come out to the course
and be participants in the course as well.
Tree management, we've got, you know, on 160 acres,
I've got just over still about 1,300 trees.
So tree mitigation, having a three-year tree plan,
five-year tree plan, winter comes, this falls down.
So that is an ongoing process
of managing the trees in good health.
Obviously, again, being good stewards of the property,
mitigating any fuel on the ground.
We've got a lot of eucalyptus up there,
so we do a pretty good job,
but we've got a lot of trees out there.
The agronomy program, so collectively,
Corsico has a head agronomist,
so anything that we're having trouble with environmentally,
whether it's a snow mold or a black mold on the greens,
anything that we're having trouble with,
we can go to Gary, and he's the head agronomist
with the Corsico, and he comes out and says,
will do this treatment we'll do that treatment so again good stewards of the
property. Future of going green I know you guys have probably heard with the
the backpack blowers and the line trimmers we've already eliminated the
backpack blowers we did get a whole new set of backpack blowers they are quieter
yes they don't have emissions obviously that technology is getting better and
better but we're on board with that and have hung up all our backpack blowers
Food and beverage we've got a full service retail food and beverage program
tap house downstairs it's got a full bar great breakfast great lunch we get a
lot of non golfer engagement up there we've got obviously plenty of parking
upstairs weddings funeral above mitzvahs celebrations of life so we've got a
really great sales team up there we use a lot of social media use Salesforce for
our tracking so it's about 60 40 on the revenue 60 of it being golf operations
and merchandise, but we do a lot of weddings and a lot of events up there all year round.
Again, part of what our strategy is is not just golf.
This is a community property.
So we have a lot of events throughout the year that we want the non-golfer to come up.
We want the non-golfer to come up and experience the property, whether that's third Thursday
night dinners, lunch specials, the gala, things like that.
you look at our Yelp and survey we use right now, really strong. Outdoors, again,
160 acres and we've got every bit of wildlife you can think about there. So
right here is Tom and Bernadette or Tom and Bernadette. Georgia, thank you. There
are bluebird box advocates, so those two collectively either rebuilt or we
reinstalled about 14 bluebird boxes on the property and I have Becky
Rebecca Valdez out every Friday, we call her Becky Birds. She comes and we both
check the bluebird boxes, we're tracking eggs, we're tracking hatches, we had a
PhD candidate out about a month ago doing blood samples on the birds
checking their health, so we are an Autobahn property. The Raptor Relocation
program, so we work with a few of the airports, so your raptors are your Birds
of Prey, your big eagles and whatnot. They relocate them from a couple of
different airports and we release them on our property. So again we open up to
the open space and that's for a bird of prey up there that's like a smorgasbord.
We did have a golden eagle here a couple months ago that stuck around for a few
months. Plenty of wildlife. Turkey, ducks, mud hens, pigs, cats, everything you can
coyotes. So we've got a lot of activity up there. Pigs this year I think across
Town and all the way down into San Ramon was a big year for pig damage. They're
coming down to a very wet and well manicured property searching for food. So
we're constantly fixing the fence line and we do have a service that comes out
and helps us with our mitigating the pig problem, but this was an especially bad
year. Golf trends, golf and food and beverage trends, golf trends are up. Golf
trends, our numbers are up. We keep pumping bigger numbers every year. We're
We're probably the second busiest golf course in the Bay Area.
We do about 76, 78,000 rounds a year.
Up on the range, I think by the end of June, we'll probably be in the neighborhood of selling
about 90,000 buckets of balls.
Not to mention the people that just come up and practice their putting, their chipping,
come up, have a cocktail or a soda, and just enjoy the view.
If you haven't been up to the new driving range, we just celebrated our one-year anniversary.
beautiful plazas lights all the all the the softscape has grown in now so it's a great place
to just come up get a sandwich you can go to the tap house i do have a food trailer up there
we'll be working towards some permanent food and beverage in the future but we get again that's a
lot of our non golfer engagement up there future improvement of reserves again our reserves are
healthy we'll continue to contribute to both reserves we have a little bit of debt service
the debt service from the tap house that we did five years ago, six years ago. I think I believe
we've got three payments left that'll phase out in February of 2028, which is a pretty healthy
chunk of money that will be able to go towards reserves again or buying down our other debt
service. One of the things we're looking towards in the future for the driving range is phase 3A,
3B which we want to get a permanent food container up there, a ConEx box that is commercially licensed
so we can do cooking and cleaning up there. As part of the construction from the driving range,
we did plumb sewage because we don't have any restrooms up there although I am using a nicer
porta potty up there just temporarily. So we did plumb for the sewage from the new driving range
to the upper parking lot and then in the future we're looking to propose a permanent box and
and connecting that sewer all the way down to Valley Vista
so we don't have people going back to the clubhouse
or down the hill to the tap house.
Some of our older guests, it's a little bit of a walk
down the hill and back up the hill.
So I think everyone's really looking forward to that.
We're in the process of getting the shade structure done,
which is gonna cover about 18 stalls of the 36.
So that's basically phase two B.
And we are really busy up there.
It's in the weekends, it's tough to get a stall.
We're doing programming now for corporate events,
birthday events, Public Works has been up there,
few other companies have come, rent five stalls,
we'll do a food and beverage package for them.
So now that we've kind of hit our stride,
we're looking to do more programming like that.
And I think that's...
Any questions, comments from the commissioners?
You mentioned 1300 Trees, but you also said
you had a lot of eucalyptus up there,
So water being a concern and eucalyptus being a really high
fire kind of tree.
Is part of your program to replant trees
with kind of more native species?
It depends on where the tree is on the property
as far as aesthetics or playability from the course.
If you're familiar with the western side of our property,
we're just going to continue, as the budget allows,
to just mitigate those trees.
I have an arborist come out at least once or twice a year.
I've had Contra Costa Fire Department out there
giving me advice on anything that he might see issues with
offering his services with potential crews.
But yes, if we replant, it's not gonna be,
I guarantee it's not gonna be a eucalyptus.
But yeah, depending on where the tree is that we took out,
the golf trend now, you can look at a lot of courses.
A lot of people are spending a lot of money
to take a lot of trees out
and make their courses more playable and more open.
Richmond Country Club, for example,
just did a three million dollar tree removal
and it really opened up the playability of the course,
the health of the course.
You know, when you get around, you know,
you've got a hundred eucalyptus trees,
the composition of that soil is really different
than what the composition of the soil
is on the other side of the course.
So it's hard to grow, but yeah,
I have replaced with sycamores and other, you know,
other native stuff.
Thank you.
Sure.
Any other comments?
Yeah, I have a few questions for you.
Thanks, Tim, for coming tonight.
And six months ago, if I'd heard, if you'd been here,
I think we would have gotten maybe a little bit different
story about what was going on in Boundary Oak.
Not the new driving range,
but the condition of the course.
And some of that was the pig damage.
And some of it was just a general downturn
in the quality of maintenance there on the course.
But seems to have turned around from what I hear.
And I have a number of golfing friends.
But there are some issues that still resonate with them.
And I'm curious about the types of comments
you might get that would be considered
constructive comments where, you know,
you talked about the instant surveys and stuff.
What are some of the criticisms that you get
from some of the golfers?
Depending on the time of the year, you know,
I've come to learn in the last five years
that this is a living, breathing organism
that may look one way after a rainstorm
and two weeks of heat.
And the thing that really drives us out is wind.
And we're right up that hill, you know,
that wind comes whipping up and really dries us out.
So I would say probably the most common is water.
It looks dry, it looks dry.
Well, we're plugging away.
We put a lot of water out there.
We're putting up sometimes up to half a million gallons
a night out there.
So we pull from the canal at a grandfathered rate
into the number one pond.
That's mostly it.
Constructive criticism.
Sometimes the greens can be fast.
the greens are 55 years old.
And depending on the way the ground has settled
on a few of the greens, they can be tougher.
So they want us to slow the greens down and we'll do that
depending on if we roll or mow or not roll
and not mow or one of the other.
Vertica, adding sand, top dressing.
But that's usually it is,
the greens are great, but they're really fast.
It is the defense of the course though,
it's a pretty wide open course,
but the greens from a golfer's perspective
are the defense of the course.
What about common things of just operational type stuff
and not the course per se.
Any comments about lack of marshals, things like that?
I have had conversations with our operator
that having the marshals more vocal.
And we do retrain the marshals,
whoever it might be, about every six months.
And they do have to go out there,
They do have to keep the kids moving,
this time of year up until school's out,
these last two months from three o'clock to 4.30,
we've got a ton of students out there
from the junior highs and the high schools.
So kind of keeping them wrangled and on point
sometimes can be a challenge to our retail golfers.
But yeah, marshaling the course is something
that needs reminding everyone once in a while.
Also wanted to ask a little bit about the debt
that you have, you said the TAP House final payments
in the next couple of years complete that.
But you didn't specifically say anything about,
I think, the debt on the driving range.
We did take a loan for, so the TAP House loan
will phase out in three more payments.
We make three annual, or bi-annual payments.
I believe it's 382, 382,000.
So that'll cycle off in 2028.
We did take a loan from the general fund.
We did take a loan from the general fund
for the driving range.
It's a 15 year loan, 2.75%
and depending on phase three, reserves, big year, bad year,
you know, we could get aggressive on that
depending on how, you know,
leadership wants us to deal with it.
What was the amount on that?
I think it was about four.
Okay, thank you very much.
Sure.
So, you mentioned water, and that's a heck of a lot of water.
So you get all of it from the Ignacio Canal?
We do.
Really?
We pull it on the 14th hole.
We have a holding tank down there.
We pump it in to a holding tank.
That tank goes all the way through the course
up to the number one pond.
So the pond you see outside the building with the fountain,
that's our main irrigation pond.
Our other ponds are purely aesthetics.
so we can let them come and go as seasonally as we like,
depending on water usage.
The canal is shut off from December 1 until April 1st.
Not a heavy watering season, but if we do need water,
then we usually do at some point.
We have a hydrant on property
that Contra Costa Water District gives us a meter.
We run that directly from the hydrant by the driving range
underground into the number one pond.
And then the new driving range took water conservation into account, as I recall from
earlier discussions, was it the species of grass, like is it a less water?
Yeah, it's a warm weather grass, it's a South American Bermuda grass, so it's a lot more
water friendly than your bent and your cool season grasses, so it's the, you know, not
quite cuckooia, but it's a longer, stringier, hardier, more durable grass that takes way
less water than a Bermuda cold season grass that you might have in your lawn.
Right.
Well, I remember that discussion when you or someone was here discussing that project.
Yeah.
I'm glad you were able to do that.
And then finally, I really want to commend you for like the veterans program.
I think that's wonderful.
Do you do it with a specific veteran support group?
Or?
There's a VA office out of Benicia that we work with.
And then it's also where they communicate to their database,
but it's through the Professional Golfers Association.
So it's through the PGA of America.
And so we work with the local one.
And it's a lot of fun.
And these, we have- It sounds really great.
Yeah, men and women of all ages, from all ages, come out.
And they're really into it.
And it's a lot of fun.
And we shut the putt and green down for them.
We shut six stalls down for them.
And they have their own area that they
can be comfortable from beginners
to some pretty good golfers.
So we break them up, usually, in three groups based on skill.
And it's Brad, it's me, it's Mike,
it's Coach Dave DeLong who runs our golf academy up there.
And we have a few other volunteers
that come out as well.
Oh, thank you very much.
Sure.
So I also appreciate hearing about the Veterans Golf Program.
my two children learn how to play golf
at the first tee program at Boundary Oak.
Now they're both playing, they're college students,
they're continuing to play.
So really appreciate the programs that you run there.
So is the youth program still programming, continuing?
Yeah, we have multiple programs for the youth.
Obviously we have first tee, we're one of their home courses
and we do have a regular group out there
and that's really very, very strong.
We have Dave DeLong's Golf Academy
where he does some youth programs,
a lot of first-time golf programs.
And we also, he contracts with us
through Arts and Recreation.
So we run our golf camps through Dave
and contract with him.
And we get a lot of kids up there.
That's wonderful. Yeah.
Yeah. So my other question is,
when is the phase 2B, the shade structure,
is gonna complete?
I'm sorry. Yeah.
We're in the process of that right now.
It's been a little bit of back and forth on design
and, you know, how we want to approach this.
And, you know, we're getting pretty close.
like completion or construction?
Design approval, a lot of the legwork
and the engineering has already been done
that I've been doing for months and months.
We just decided to take just a little different look at it.
So once we come up with a defined material,
we got an RFP, the general contractor,
and then depending on their timing,
it's gonna be about a two-week install,
but it's gonna be a little bit.
We're just, we hit a few snags
we just kind of went back to the drawing board.
Like summer, you think, or summer?
I think it'd be probably close to the end of 2026.
Okay, all right, great.
My last question is about the two reserve accounts.
Yes.
What's the balance for the operation and equipment?
Operations about high 800,000s
and equipment is in about low 900s.
So I've got about 1.75 between both the accounts,
very healthy.
Thank you.
Any other questions from the commissioners and comments?
Okay, hearing none,
we're gonna open for the public comment.
Please step forward to the podium.
Please also complete a speaker card,
cards available on the counter near the entry doorway.
Once at the podium, please introduce yourself
and city of residence for the record.
Consistent with city policies related to public comments,
each speaker will have two minutes to make your remarks.
Written comments submitted, if any,
have been posted to the city website for public review
and are included in the meeting record,
but will not be separately read into record.
Public comments.
Hi, everybody.
I'm Bob Wiedemma, resident of Walnut Creek,
and I didn't plan to say this,
but I met with Tim Roberts up at Boundary Oaks
on this issue that I'm gonna talk about,
and Tim is a great guy.
He's extremely knowledgeable.
And I think our golf course is in great hands.
I grew up playing golf and working at the driving
range at Boundary Oaks.
And personally, I think to the question
about the kind of shape it's in, I think it's in great shape.
The greens are fast, but I think they're fair.
And everybody has kind of their own view about it.
But the only thing I do wish Tim could do, addressed for me,
is my slice off the tee.
It's just wicked.
Okay, so I've eaten into too much of my time.
So since the reopening of the driving range itself,
there's been significant light spill
into the Lime Ridge open space from the lights
that are designed to facilitate the top tracer range system.
I can't find in the record that that was evaluated
for its environmental impacts by our city.
Other cities who have similar projects
like Burlingame and San Diego did so by way of example.
There are well-documented effects on the wild ecosystem.
Several decades of research shows that artificial light
at night interrupts the daily and seasonal rhythms
that govern the timing of breeding, nesting, migration,
hunting, forging, and even pollination.
The impacts are overwhelmingly negative,
which is kind of intuitive when you think about it.
Dr. Travis Longcore, Professor of Environmental Science
at UCLA has studied this for decades,
and he says ecosystems are very complex
when artificial light alters light-dark cycles and in turn circadian rhythms, the whole choreography
of biological life is jeopardized.
So I'm making two requests.
One is that we do a photometric study similar to what we did for the Tice Valley light project
and number two that we do a biological assessment of the impacts on the open space wildlife
up in Lime Ridge that's adjacent to it.
So I'm a golfer, as I said.
I'm not here to try to advocate for shutting down the lights, but I am proposing that we
make a collaborative effort among all the stakeholders to ensure that we find harmony
between protecting and preserving our critical open space and also using it in a way that's
responsible.
So thank you.
Thank you.
Hello.
I'm Elizabeth Hudson and I just want to support the last speaker.
I think Walnut Creek Open Space and Lime Ridge were set aside to preserve the natural environment
with minimal low impact from human activity.
The idea was that nature could thrive and as our population has grown and our recreational
desires increased, we are making it harder and harder for nature to thrive and in some
cases harder to even survive.
So science is pointing out and quantifying how much we need nature for a whole lot of
reasons and so I'm just asking you to please find a solution to the lights that are chiming
and lime ridge that is not disruptive to the wildlife and even the plants that depend
on the night.
Thank you.
Any other public commenters?
So if you would like to take two minutes and share your public comment, now would be the
time.
There's not a question and answer period, but we do have a two-minute comment period.
I'll take my two minutes.
Thank you, Tim, for the presentation on Boundary Oak Golf Course, it's great.
I also know Tim.
I wanted to ask about the auto bond, you're part of the auto bond cooperative sanctuary
certification, which is great.
And a lot of people are interested in the open space and the environment since it's
right there.
In the sense you mentioned a lot of wildlife is there, birds, those types of things.
Do you have a written inventory of the birds or the mammals that, you know, that—
Barbara, can you speak to Mike?
Oh, that use of property?
Yeah.
Should I ask all my questions and then let him answer, because I have two more.
Please make your comments then.
Okay.
Yeah.
All right.
So just ask all the questions.
Okay.
Then the other thing was—there is an environmental document.
and it's called, you know, like I said,
it's being certified as part of the cooperative,
Audubon Cooperative Sanctuary Certification.
And they state in there that 80% of the trees, shrubs,
and flowers should be used that are indigenous
to the native plant community on other areas of the property
other than the turf, you know, it can't be done on the turf.
So I have a question about that with all the new landscaping
that was put in for the driving range was any of that native plants.
And then the last question I had is, from the documentation I could see it looks like
the driving range was only open until about 7.30 prior to the renovation and now it's
open until 9 p.m.
So I just wanted to ask, I've asked that question before, but just confirm that it hasn't been
and extended for the new driving range.
That's it.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Tim, would you like to respond to, yeah.
Just off the top, Barbara, you had a question
about inventory of wildlife.
I wouldn't say I have a written inventory of wildlife.
I mean, I could run down everything,
different wildlife that we have on property,
but if you're talking numerically or?
Excuse me, just for a second.
So we don't have a question and answer period.
Okay.
If, Barbara, if you'd like,
if you wanna get more specific
and you need additional information, Tim,
Barbara can send you an email.
Absolutely. And we can do that offline.
Yeah. Yeah. Thank you.
So no more additional public comments,
discussion among the commissioners?
Do we have any recommendation?
Follow-up action.
So there's there's no this is just basically a report out. So there's no action that needs to be taken
But you could if you have additional comments you're more than welcome to share those
alright, I have a question I think for you Mike which is
The sequel that was done for that did not do a light study. That's an accurate statement
That's correct. The the lights that what was the rationale for not doing that? Yeah, so the the lights
so the facilities always had lights lights have been within the range for
At least 20 plus years
I'm sure longer than that and so this was more of a replacement like for like and it was considered maintenance
It was not considered as part of the project and was not evaluated through CEQA
Okay, and the lights are similar enough that
That that's the case or it sounds like I'm not really independently knowledgeable about this
But it sounds like maybe they're a different style of light or a different type of light.
The previous lights were more, and I'm not a light expert either,
I would refer to them as more stadium, older stadium lights.
The high pressure sodium lights that were pretty large, round, so, you know,
light going in all different directions.
I think the luminaire count was 12, and it could have that number wrong.
But the luminaire count between the high pressure sodium
in the new LEDs are almost the same.
And these lights are a little bit more directional
because they have basically covers, directional covers
on top of those as opposed to the older stadium lights.
So this was considered a maintenance.
The high-pressure sodium, as we all know,
are challenging to get and being phased out.
And this was an opportunity to make
that maintenance improvement.
And then sort of in a related way, is there, is there an opportunity to do some sort of study
of potential wildlife effects in the perimeter area? Could our staff, our our open space staff
take something on like that on or what your thoughts are on that? So we'll we'll evaluate
that at a staff level and follow up with Mr. Weed and then I can bring back and update
during staff updates at our next meeting.
That would be great.
Thank you.
OK, yeah, I just want to make sure
that we have the two, the photometric study
and the biological assessment, if we can bring back
for an update at the next meeting, that would be great.
Yeah, we'll decide.
I mean, these are obviously recommendations
from the public.
These are staff decisions.
We'll talk to Tim and I will talk to upper management or Tim will talk to upper management and we'll follow up on our decision
Great at the next meeting
Mike can you comment about the hours of the driving range and did they change when the new with the new when the new lights came?
Yeah, probably be best that mr. Robert responds to that. Yeah, historically the range has been open till now
It's keeping my seasonal, you know in the middle of winter whatnot
the range has been open to nine o'clock before.
It has opened from historical context as a resident
and growing up really close by
and being around for the last 30, 40, 100 years.
The range did used to be open until 10 o'clock.
So we didn't increase the hours or lengthen any hours.
In all honesty, if you were up there before
in the old driving range and the lights,
it's a lot more attractive now
and we are getting more play up there.
But no, we did not extend the hours.
We've been approved going back in the historical data
that we found that we're fully approved
to be open until nine o'clock at night.
Okay, so what are that?
Because you had said it was till 10,
and now it's been already now.
I just, as a historical point,
at certain points growing up,
I know they were open till 10,
because I would go up there.
We are open till nine right now,
as per our historic approval
of being open till nine o'clock this time of year.
And then what was it before the new LED lights went in?
Nine o'clock.
What were the hours?
It was open till nine?
Oh yeah.
Yeah, we didn't change anything.
The lights were not new to the property.
To Mike's point, these are,
when you're replacing anything nowadays,
you're going to the LEDs,
these were just new lights,
then the old ones were terribly inefficient.
I would be interested in ways
that we could have less light pollution out there.
So if there are ways to do that,
I would like to hear what those ways are.
Let's move to the next item on the agenda
presentation of summer program updates.
I invite Chris Farrell with the City of Warner Creek forward
to provide that presentation, thanks.
Hi, as mentioned, Chris Farrow,
Director of Arts and Recreation.
We're gonna run through some fun things
that we have going on this summer,
but as always, the best place to find your information
is through our summer activity guide,
which is available online,
and it's pages and pages and pages full of great stuff.
I'm not going to bore you and walk you through it
line by line, but if you have questions about our programs
or want more information, that is the best place to go.
With that, we will jump into it.
So we'll go kind of facility by facility and program
by program to give you some highlights.
So Lesher Center for the Arts and our center rep program
have some great programs going on.
In fact, just yesterday I was at the theater
seeing Jagged Little Pill and I can't recommend it high enough.
Everyone needs to go out and see it.
Phenomenal job.
Matt definitely knocked it out of the park
with center rep in this one.
So coming up, we have The Return of Summer Sounds,
three concerts that we've seen in previous summers.
some new bands this year, but same series. Our concert truck will be out and about once again
at Shade Lens and Civic Park, and then our theater lineup. We have Jagged Little Pill that's running
now through the end of the month. We have our Young Rep Theater Lab, which is like a theater camp
with a performance at the end. We have Pacific Mamba Orchestra coming up for the return of our
our Fiesta Cultural Street Fair,
and then our Young Rep Showcase.
At our Bedford Gallery, our current installation
is Aztec Stories in Modern Mexico,
and these pictures do not do it justice.
It is incredibly vibrant, beautiful exhibit.
I highly recommend that you get over there
and check it out.
A couple weeks ago, we did have the artist in town,
and it was really great to learn more about him.
He had an interpreter on site to tell his story and it was great, but even without him
being present, I highly recommend that you get over there and see the show.
And then we have our kaleidoscope, again, an annual program that we do, and our public
art walking tours have been really successful.
So they go offline during the winter, but they're back now.
And we've added a new one where you can tour the artwork that's in the library.
So fun addition.
Our summer camps, we offer a variety of summer camps
through our traditional recreation programs,
but also through our arts arm.
So everything from your kind of
traditional stereotypical summer camp,
but also focusing on various parts of the arts.
So theater camps, dance camps,
our young rep theater camp,
and some specialized recreation programs,
and our preschool camps as well.
And we do look at the different school schedules
when we do that.
So even if you are at a school district
that has a different schedule,
you make it out a week earlier or a week later,
we always have at least one camp going on
to coincide with all of our various school districts
in the area.
For classes, again, looking at both the things provided
by our recreation folks,
as well as our Center for Community Arts folks,
we check a lot of boxes with special interests,
so drama and music and ceramics and sports and sewing
and fiber arts, writing, glass and weaving,
personal enrichment, culinary arts,
all kinds of fun things going on at our programs,
which are offered at Civic, over at Shade Lens,
and then at Tice Valley Gym as well.
For aquatics, we still have our Clark
and Larky Pools up and running.
Clark is, thanks to Public Works, hanging on by a thread,
but we're gonna make it until the opening of our new pool.
We say, there's anything that you can do with duct tape.
We're doing it out there.
So far, so good.
but I should knock on something since I said that.
So we'll have all of our normal programs going on
over the summer, swim lessons, water aerobics,
and then I did want to mention our partners
because they have a lot of programs going on too.
So Aquanauts, our master's program, our aqua bears program,
busy, busy time of year, obviously, for our aquatics folks.
And the part that I wanted to mention
was it's a great opportunity to employ
a lot of youth in the city.
So we are onboarding over 100 people
for our aquatics and camps programs this summer.
So it's a really great place to get your foot in the door,
learn about municipal recreation,
and for a lot of folks, it's their first job.
And we see them again summer after summer.
So that'll give a shout out to my seasonal employees
that are coming back to us this summer.
And then we have our senior services
and specialized recreation folks.
Their offices are located over at Civic,
but we really run their programs throughout the city,
working in conjunction with a lot of partners,
including the county who give us a cafe Costa for example,
and then our transportation program
that brings us a cooperative between Lyft
and a mini bus transportation system.
So we're able to get those that cannot drive
and have limited access to other transportation modes,
we can get them out and about to the services they need,
and that could be anything from a doctor's appointment
to grocery shopping and such.
And then we also have many partners who come in
to provide things like tax preparation, legal services,
all at either low or no cost.
So all of those services are available
on drop-in and scheduled.
Boundary Oak, Tim did a great job,
so I think we already touched on most of these things.
One of the questions that came up
were about our youth programs there.
So yes to repeat Tim,
a lot of things will be going on this summer
with First Tee, our golf camps,
golf lessons, Tim had mentioned briefly
that we work with the local middle schools
and high schools, so they'll be on break,
so we won't see them as much,
but that is a really great youth program
throughout the year that they do spend a lot of time
on our course, so they're familiar,
and I'm sure they'll be hanging out
at the driving range in the summer.
We did want to mention that we do,
through Arts and Recreation,
We do the picnic reservations, so although the parks are maintained under the parks unit
in Public Works, we are the reservation host.
So if you are in need of a picnic site, you will be contacting us to make that reservation.
In the summer, obviously a big place that we add is the pool, so you can also rent one
of those spaces out at the pool for your birthday party or special event.
We have drop-in sports going on at Tice Valley, badminton,
pickleball, basketball, and volleyball.
So it's also a great way to meet city staff,
because city staff drop in and play at those sports programs
also.
So if you're looking for somebody in IT or in admin
services, I just put you all on blast.
You guys know where to go find them now.
They're out playing at drop-in sports programs.
A lot of fun.
So a great summer starts here.
So here's all of our contacts.
I put the web addresses on since that's
where most people are going on their phones these days.
If you have any questions, again,
activity guide is number one spot.
Website has a lot of information.
You can also register online or at any one of our facilities.
And I'm happy to answer any questions.
Any questions from the commissioners?
Why not?
Got to ask one question.
What's the newest additions to the, to the various things?
The one that jumps to the mind is we've added
some specialized rec aquatics programs.
So that will be a new one for us.
Gosh, what else?
There has to be more, but that's the one
that we've been talking about the most
because we're really excited about launching, so yeah.
Thanks for coming, Sharon. Absolutely.
I have a wait, I have a quick question.
With the construction at Heather Farm
and the loss of the community space there,
are we having to find new places?
Are the civic park facilities enough?
So interestingly enough,
we thought that our other facilities
would capture those rentals and they actually haven't.
And so my guess is that folks are finding other things
outside of the city and maybe that's private,
maybe that's wineries, that kind of thing.
It's not apples to apples or other facilities.
So if you were looking to host, for example, a wedding at Heather Farm, you're probably
not going to use Tice Valley Gym for that same wedding.
So I think a lot of, probably private industry, picked up those rentals.
So we aren't seeing the impact so much to our other facilities.
I have a question about the soccer field reservation.
I recently was asked by somebody in my neighborhood on how to make reservation or have access
to the soccer field.
Sure.
You can contact Arts & Rec that runs through our sports unit
and they can help with that going into the summer.
So to back up, we do keep the new fields locked
and that's just to preserve the quality of the turf.
However, on school closures days during the school year,
we do open it and we have staff onsite
to monitor and provide supervision.
So that was kind of our test pilot
to see how that worked for us.
We don't have the budget to have staff out there
for the entire summer, but we will have some scheduled days
that it is just open and folks can use it.
And that could be used for, you know, just pop in play,
could be used for, you know, just calisthenics,
that sort of thing.
But if you want to use it on a regular basis
or for a tournament and you wanna be the only person
out there, then you would call our department
and we would schedule that for you.
Thank you. You're welcome.
So to follow up, the soccer fields are locked.
When not in use.
Other than school year closure dates.
So like spring break and winter break and things like that.
I mean, I've seen a lot of comments online
of people complaining about that because they say,
hey, as citizens of Wanna Creek,
we just paid for these new fields
and now they're inaccessible to us.
I mean, I understand that we need to make sure
that a scheduled program gets priority,
Couldn't you just post a schedule on there
so that it's open to the public?
The bigger side, and this is per council direction,
so council made the call on this,
is that we have already learned
that staff supervision is required when we unlock that gate.
And on the first day that we tried the pilot program,
for example, there were people out there on scooters,
there were people running their dogs off leash
and not picking up after them,
like on our first day of trying it.
So we've learned already
that it's the staff supervision piece.
And so we need to work that into our budget.
So this is what it looks like for us right now today,
but going into our next two year budget cycle,
perhaps we can look at a different staffing model
and different budget to make it available more hours,
but that's what we've worked out for now.
Yeah, I mean, even myself, I ran by it the other day
and I'm like, oh, it is locked.
Like it seems weird to have a public park
that's locked and not accessible, so.
anything else any other questions from the commissioners if not we're opening
for a public comment any company public comment on the presentation all right
hearing none we're moving to thanks Chris we're moving to the next item on
the agenda open space summary I invite Mike Vickers with city of Warner Creek
forward to provide the presentation so good evening for the record assistant
Public Works Director, Mike Vickers.
This is a continuation of the long presentation
I gave at the last meeting.
This won't be nearly as long.
Sometimes feedback after the meetings are important, so.
Moving, jumping right in.
So like I said, this is really just focused
around the open space, a lot of information on these slides.
I'm certainly not gonna get into all that information.
One of the key takeaways from this meeting here,
from this presentation, is you'll
see about the fourth line down under created basically
when the property was purchased in 74.
That is almost all of our open spaces,
with exception of one or two.
And that has to do with the bond that the community decided
to tax themselves on back in 1974,
which is referred to as the R8 bond, which
that bond was somewhere around the neighborhood of about
$7 million, and that money was used immediately after it was passed to start purchasing this
property.
And so, as you see some of these slides, I'm not going to keep repeating, but you'll notice
that most of it was purchased in 74.
So this is Akalani's.
This is one of our smaller open spaces of the four areas that we have.
It's about 200 acres, about four and a half miles of both combined single-track and multi-track.
There's no cattle grazing.
Here at Akalani's, there is goat grazing.
We used to cattle graze here in Aucalani's up to about 2010.
And unfortunately, with the size of the property
and the way the property is laid out,
there was several animal human contacts.
And it was deemed to be unsafe to both have cattle out there
along with hikers or civilians.
So we did away with the cattle grazing.
You might hear there's more of a little bit more
stir in the Aquiline's neighborhood about bringing cattle back. So you might hear or
see some of this stuff online. I'm just kind of sharing some of the history with you.
Dogs are allowed off leash at this park, as most of them. And there's really two sections
to Aquiline's. There's south Aquiline's and north, excuse me, Aquiline's. South Aquiline's
is almost completely surrounded by Pleasant Hill or county property. And the same with
with North Aclanis. And then back in 2010, 2011, there was a joint partnership to purchase
26 acres, which is referred to as the John Muir property in Aclanis. It's an upper ridge
that was going to be developed. And four agencies, including the City of Walnut Creek, put their
funding together to purchase the property and preserve it.
So Hal Homestead is a historical property here in Walnut Creek, but it's not on the
historical register. It is just a passive-use space. We have 49 garden
plots out there that are very active. These are really large plots. They're
over 600 square feet, which is the largest plots that we've found definitely
in the county. It's a great deal. It's about $200 a year per plot, and there's
about a five or six year waiting list. If you can imagine, people are
investing all this time and energy and with the with the multifamily housing
that we have if you're fortunate enough to get one of these plots they're not
typically turned over very very often so if you're interested in the plot you can
reach out to the ranger department which you can find that online or you can
wait four or five years and reach out then there's no cattle grazing here it
is mostly a passive area as I mentioned there are a number of picnic areas out
there. And this is really one of the opportunities for the neighborhood to
get into Shell Ridge. There's a single track trail, which is a multi-use trail,
that leads from Howell Homestead into Shell Ridge called the Pick Covart Trail,
and it's a fairly active trail. Lime Ridge Open Space. So Lime Ridge is the
second largest open space. This property, and I could have these dates off just
ever so slightly. But we didn't start purchasing Lime Ridge until 1978, and then we were buying
it in pieces and completed the purchase in 1993. It's about 1,200 acres, a little bit
more than 1,200 acres. Additionally, we maintain 250 acres of Lime Ridge that is on, I say
maintain, we don't maintain it, we manage it on the Concord property. And there's a
a funding agreement there. We basically have about a half a ranger that's funded to oversee
that property. There is about seven or eight miles, Lime Ridge is really broken into three
different sections. We have North Lime Ridge, which is basically north of YVR, which we
We do cattle graze that area and dogs are allowed off-leash.
And then when you step over to the or jump over to the south side of YVR, we refer to
that as central lime ridge.
Dogs are not allowed in central lime ridge because of some of the rare plant material
we have.
And in the south lime ridge, dogs are allowed and we actually cattle graze there, but the
dogs are required to be on leash in south lime ridge.
So it's a little confusing.
The rangers are out there fairly often helping
to educate and remind people just
to be mindful of the regulatory signs at each of the trail
heads so that you're following the rules.
So Borges Ranch, most of you know or well aware of Borges
Ranch, which is located in Shell Ridge.
The area that we refer to, which is a developed area,
is about 20 acres.
There's some camping there, and there's
picnicking there at Hanna Grove.
There's a number of restrooms, which
you do a fair amount of weddings.
I say a fair amount, not a fair amount.
Maybe 10 to 12 weddings a year up at Borges Ranch,
which is kind of fun.
I have outdoor weddings.
Great setting.
It's quiet.
There is camping at Borges.
And there's also camping at Sugarloaf.
But we don't allow family camping.
It's more nonprofits.
It's more the Girl Scout, Boy Scout camps.
We don't do individuals or families, anything
along those lines.
If you haven't been to the house,
I believe the house is open the fourth Sunday of every month
for a tour.
And it's pretty fascinating.
When you walk through it, especially
if you've had kids, to know that they had four or five kids
living in this house, it would be a little challenging.
I think I would be building some tents or something
along those lines just for myself to get out of the house.
Great spot, though.
We do a lot of youth educational groups
up there with the school kids are coming in.
And we have a number of docents that come in
and provide the history and actually
some of the historical games.
And it's pretty fun.
Shell Ridge itself is about 1,500 acres.
It's definitely our largest piece.
We do cattle graze and a number of pastures
throughout the space.
We used to, and I think I've shared this with you guys
before, that back in 2018 or 2019, 17 or 18,
we started installing troughs around different areas
in the open space because we were
doing rotational grazing at that time, which
is basically managing the cattle no different than you
would manage goats with electric fencing.
and unfortunately that process is very expensive.
Our grazer no longer offers rotational grazing,
so they're back to just traditional grazing
where the cattle are just basically roaming in the areas.
We can somewhat control where they're going
on whether or not there's water in the troughs,
but there's a big benefit to having water in the troughs
other than just for cattle grazing for wildlife.
We do get some equestrians moving through
some of these areas that can take advantage
of some of those, some of that opportunity.
So there's restrooms.
We have a number of seasonal ponds
throughout the open space.
The majority of them are in Shell Ridge.
Dogs are off leash.
And I think most of you have heard of Fossil Hill,
the Fossil Hill Project, which is over off of Sutherland.
That is the Walnut Creek Open Spaces Foundation's
largest project.
I think it's somewhere around seven or nine acres right now.
As many of you know that we've had challenges in the past
with poppies and some impacts to the neighborhood,
we didn't see the growth in poppies
that we had seen back during what people refer to
as the super bloom in 23.
And so there were no measures that took place this year
in order to keep the traffic at bay.
And as far as we know, things were relatively back
to normal from where they were before the super bloom.
So Sugarloaf is our smallest space.
We do cattle graze up there, but we actually
fence a portion of it off.
Sugarloaf is probably best described.
It parallels 680.
If you're driving down 680 or looking up in the hills,
you can see a pretty large portion of it.
There is camping there, as I mentioned, and also picnicking.
There's a number of restroom sites,
great views of the surrounding east bay, number of connector trails. There's also a native plant
garden and dogs are authorized to be off leash in that area. And by off leash, it's typically voice
control or sight control or vision of the dogs. So we have a paved trail system. This is focused
on the Ignacio Canal Trail, which is five and a half to six miles long. We have approximately
eight or nine full miles of paved trails throughout the city that the city manages. If you haven't
been on this paved trail system, I'm sure your kids have. It's really a great spot for
a neighborhood. Whether you're hiking or whether you're getting to school or you're just going
out for a walk. It's a great system. There's a portion of the paved trail system that
ties into the Contra Costa Canal Trail, which is managed by East Bay Regional. Other than
if you were looking for signage, you really wouldn't know who's responsible for what trail
system because they're both fairly well maintained.
So I'm not going to go through all of these. This is a document that a committee of volunteers
worked with the pros commission on actually the chair and vice chair back in 2020 put
a document together of the trail recommendations and there was a list of 17 recommendations.
I think I've gone through this a number of times with this body if there's let me just
see if there's anything real important to point out.
most of these have been completed. You'll see I there, which is explore the possibility
of multi-use flow trails. For those of you who weren't on the commission back then,
back when we were vetting this over the last, it was probably from 21 to 24, somewhere in
that range, we did have a flow trail designed for Lime Ridge. That has been, that project
project has been completed. We did not move forward with that project. That's why it
says completed up there. And there's not a lot else that stands out here. I sent this
document to the Commission last week, just as a reminder. So I brought these up in case
you guys have some questions. We can discuss those during the question and answer period.
Yeah, and I would say one of the projects that is still very important to us that we
have not been able to move forward with is implementing a volunteer patrol program. There
is definitely a need. The Rangers have done a great job. They continue to enforce daily
through the education program and to have a few more volunteers out there just to remind
people to ensure that they are following the rules and doing the right thing is always
beneficial. So current projects, this is kind of in line
with what Mr. Simmons was referring to earlier with the Walnut Creek Watershed.
This Bram Hall Pond, this is our sixth or seventh pond in the open space that we are,
so we've already de-silted, I think, six ponds.
This will be number seven.
We're waiting on permitting from the California Department of Fish and Wildlife.
Before we move forward, we do plan to, assuming we get the permitting on time, we do plan
to move forward and desilt this pond in August or September of this year to ensure we're
done by the rainy season, you know, by the October 15th date.
We have – we do partner from time to time with the Walnut Creek Watershed.
We have done extensive partnership with the Walnut Creek Open Space Foundation.
Not only have they helped us mitigate, replant, but they've also come to the table with
with funding on every one of our desilting projects.
They've really been fantastic partners over the years.
This is an ongoing project.
You can see the site probably could
have got a little better example than the one on the left.
It doesn't look very great.
But those signs are probably 10, 12 years old.
They're faded.
They don't share probably enough information.
We received some feedback and decided to upgrade the signs.
So we're going from the ones on the left
to the one on the right.
The information is a little bit more clear.
For example, with the symbol there of the bike,
obviously if you're on a single track trail
or in an area that you're not supposed to be,
there would just be a red line through that trail.
So these are six by six posts as opposed to four by four posts.
And I think we have about 200 that we need to install.
And to date, we've installed about 60.
And so once we finish weed abatement within the next week
or so, this will be our summertime project.
Every year, we have an open space summertime project.
It's tough to do a lot of work on the trails in the summertime
because the soil is so dry.
So we're either rebuilding or painting kiosks.
Last year, we built some retaining walls.
And this year, this is our summertime project.
So there was a couple other projects or topics
that had been discussed over the last couple years.
One was drones.
I came to the commission, I think it was last year,
maybe even at the end of 24 to get your feedback
on implementing a drone policy.
I did receive your feedback.
I still need to take that to council.
I have not moved forward that project
to go to City Council to update the municipal code.
There's no reason why I haven't, other than,
well, actually there is a $77 million reason
that's out at Heather Farm.
I've been a little busy with that project.
And then the second one is,
it was probably a year or so ago
when we were having a discussion,
not only here at the pros, but also citywide,
that was being led by the City Manager's Office
to update our bicycle and skateboard municipal code.
We have paused on updating the municipal code.
As we know, there's legislation currently moving
through California, and we do not
want to get ahead of that legislation or those bills.
We want to ensure that the state vets that process through
before we make any decisions here in Walnut Creek.
And that's in my presentation for your action tonight.
I'd appreciate to get feedback from all of you
on the information I just shared,
And I'll open it up to questions.
Does Walnut Creek have any rules about e-bikes in the open space?
We do.
So we currently follow the state guidelines
that authorize class 1 and 2 e-bikes in the open space.
Mike, a while ago, I'd asked you what the ownership status of our open
space was and if there were any reserved rights.
And this had to do, it triggered my thinking
by the articles that were saying that Mount Diablo could
be subject to oil and gas leasing,
because the feds, I guess, helped
the underlying mineral rights.
So you were checking with people who
might know this in the legal department, I assume.
So did you ever get a response on that?
Are they still investigating?
I have not.
I checked in with our legal department,
And I haven't heard back, so I will reach out to them again
and see if they can move that up on their priority list
and hopefully bring an update back at the next pros meeting.
I haven't heard anything back yet.
I'm assuming state land is probably
subject to some different laws as opposed to municipal land.
But I'll have to follow up.
Right, and part of my concern was things
that affect our open space aren't just on our land
that are adjacent to our land.
So it was a little bit broader than just our properties
themselves, but where we border other open space lands
kind of in that region of Mount Diablo.
So yeah, we'll find something out great.
Thank you for that.
I'll follow up.
Mike, do you mind bringing up that table of action,
the status of all the action items, just for reference
again see so for the items that are ongoing and then can you look at can you
can you make it on to the go down to the next slide and current is there any like
priority I guess it's all depending on the the resources the funding and the
staff availability or the the trail committee's availability in terms of
implementing these recommendations is there is there any item that's kind of
the highest priority for implementation or they're kind of pursuing it
concurrently with all the ongoing items and current items yeah so do you have
one particular or do you want me to I mean like Jay here for example evaluate
trails that were... Yeah, that's my specific question for that item, yeah. Yeah, so as part of the
Trail Committee recommendation plan that I showed you, there's a number of maps
within that plan and there's some trails that were recently authorized. There's a
trail in Shell Ridge that was a social trail and there's a trail in
Lime Ridge that was also considered to be a social trail that are now permanent
and they're authorized trails to be on.
They're signed.
There's regulatory information out there.
The trails are safe.
So those are two trails of the probably six or seven
that are in that plan that I shared with you.
Part of the challenge with the plan
and the different suggestions is the bulk of those trails
are on Concord property.
So we don't own that property.
We manage it.
We've had conversations with Concord.
And we need to continue to have more in-depth conversation
with them about whether or not that's something
that they're going to be receptive of.
OK, can you keep us updating the future on that item?
Yeah, absolutely.
Yeah, it's an ongoing buy-on.
Well, it's a new lead.
We talked about it for probably a year and a half.
We tabled it.
Concord now has moved through some employee transition.
They have a new director.
And we started having this discussion probably
four to six weeks ago, and so it's coming back again.
Concord is definitely interested in talking more about it.
OK, thanks.
I have another question.
Elle, on that same page, we have a trail advocacy group
or similar group that says it's complete.
Like what?
Yeah, so this wasn't really,
so there's a number of trail advocacy groups.
In fact, there's individuals, for example,
Mr. Smith, who's here tonight,
is the president of the Open Space Foundation,
works, and even Bob Simmons, who was here
with the Walnut Creek Watershed,
work a number work with these groups fairly often. There's groups such as the
Trail Dogs. That's their name. They come out, they help us with work on the trails,
they help come out and remove their fencing. Fencing that might be damaged
and potentially impact wildlife, they'll come out and remove the barbed wire and
the posts. We have developed, well probably pre-COVID, I can't remember if it was
pre-COVID or just after COVID, we
had a number of volunteers that were coming out
from the biking community that were helping
with a number of projects.
There's also a couple other groups that we regularly visit.
Actually, there's a group called Defensors and then
the Trail Dogs, two different volunteer groups
that we work with.
We clearly partner with the Open Space Foundation,
and we regularly have, not regularly,
But we definitely get feedback.
And we've had discussions with the East Bay Bike Council
in the past about some opportunities
that they see in the open space.
OK.
So there was nothing really specific,
it was more a general approach to this, which is we partner.
That's correct.
OK.
Yeah.
And then another question is, I noticed
a couple of the open spaces have water at the trailheads.
some of the trail heads or near the parking lots.
Is there any chance of adding water in Lime Ridge?
Just something to consider for the future.
So do you have a specific area?
Yeah, well, there's none that I've ever found in Lime Ridge.
Yeah.
I mean, I was thinking of Valley Vista.
The golf course is there.
That's one of the benefits, right?
The golf course has the public restrooms and things around.
Yeah, well, I live in the Woodlands neighborhood.
And I mostly hike there or across the tunnel
and go into the other side.
And yeah, I've never seen water ever.
Yeah, I mean, the biggest challenge,
because we've had these questions before, right?
Why can't you add more restrooms?
And for example, at some of our parks, right?
San Miguel Park doesn't have a restroom.
There's no sewer there.
The problem is typically the utility hookups.
To bring in, well, I'll give you an example.
We're putting in two inch water mains, two and a half inch
water mains that are going to feed
a new pool and community center at a price of just over $600,000.
And so to bring in a 3-quarter inch meter or 5-eighths meter to this site, and it's
not, they call it the meter price, but it's the piping to get it there, it's the long-term
maintenance and those types of things, it's probably $70,000 to $80,000 to get a drinking
fountain out there.
Yeah, so it's costly.
costly. Okay and then on the grazing, I know that you explained before the
issues that the ranchers have with the electric fences, but it is a lot more
difficult to take my dog to the open space when cattle are everywhere on the
trails, you know, and I mean I don't know is there any way of trying to convince
them. Are there any formal complaints? I mean, have there been issues with the
cattle being aggressive or anything, or is it really not much of an issue? There
was a complaint we received four or five years ago about an aggressive
over in off the Valley Vista entrance in Lime Ridge. There was a resident that
said he had been harassed a number of times by cattle. We reached out to the
rancher, we asked the individual, most of the cattle are numbered and we asked the
individual, it's you don't want to get close enough to see the number, but if
for some reason you can identify the cow to let us know, we can get a hold of the
rancher. We put some signage up that we, you know, with it we, that was like I said
four or five years ago, that's one comment that we received. Obviously I was
As I was sharing earlier with Akalani's,
we received a number of comments.
And so we pulled the cattle out of that area altogether.
Yeah, we don't get a lot of feedback
about aggressive animals.
We definitely get feedback about cattle being out there.
And some of the impacts that they might have on trails,
we try to pull the cattle off before the rains hit,
so they're not pockmarking the trails.
We've been asked that we go out there
and remove the cow pies from the trail.
We don't have the staff to do that.
So we do get some comments like that periodically,
but we get well over a million users.
And in 16 years I've been managing the open space,
we've probably had two dozen comments.
OK, well that's good to know if it's not impacting people's
use of the open space.
But I don't know, personally, I liked it better
when they had the electric fences because it kept the cattle
under better control.
So did we.
So did we.
And in fact, we took it East Bay regional.
They have 11 or 12 different ranchers
because they have so much property.
And they don't have a rotational grazing rancher.
They're just, I don't want to call it a dying breed.
It's just so expensive to have a rancher out there
because you basically have to have somebody on property
because the fencing gets cut fairly regularly,
or the fencing loses its charge because the soils are so dry.
And so you've got to wet the area,
and it's pretty challenging.
And I do appreciate what they do for fire prevention.
So I'm not, you know, I mean, it's
just unfortunate that it's too expensive to go that way.
Yeah, and people cutting fences is unfortunate as well.
Yeah, so I wanted to ask about the ponds and the distilling
in Shell Ridge.
I just wanted to ask you if something similar is
being done with the pond under Indiana Valley.
Indian Valley?
Indian Valley, yeah, this school.
Oh, sorry.
Oh, yeah, Indian Valley.
Yeah, the elementary school, I'm sure there's a pond underneath it.
That's correct.
I was just wondering if something similar is being done
with that pond as there is with the other ponds.
So that pond really has a couple different sections in it.
There's the upper portion, and then the lower portion.
The upper portion definitely needs to be de-silted.
It's not currently going to take place.
The only one we're going to do this year is Bram Hall, which
is just upstream from that pond.
And then next year, we're hoping to do Twin Ponds,
which is on the Twin Pond Loop Trail.
And then within, hopefully by 2930,
we're back into Indian Valley Pond and desilting that.
OK.
Thank you.
Any other comments, questions from commissioners?
If not, I'm going to open this item up for public comments.
Please step forward to the podium.
any public comments? Also complete a speaker card. Consistent with the city
policy related to public comments each speaker will have two minutes to make
your remarks. All right. Okay my name is Barbara Ganis, I've been a resident since
96. There are several open space projects that were presented in prior
that the community hadn't heard a status on for awhile,
even though the items were presented.
Mr. Vickers just gave a couple statuses tonight
about the drone ordinance,
that's still to be taken care of going to council.
Another one was on the e-bike ordinance,
it sounds like they're waiting for legislation,
which could take quite a while.
The other project is a status of social trails
to official trails.
I think I heard Mr. Vickers say a couple were done.
I don't know.
There was one in Lime Ridge and one in Shell Ridge
that I haven't heard anything about
and haven't seen a trail checklist
and that type of thing on that.
Another one was there's a status
of the Bram Hill Pond Restoration Project.
There was a document written in March of 2025.
It was not just the desilting was planting a lot of plants.
I wondered what's going on with that status of that.
And then the last thing I think Mr. Vickers somewhat mentioned
about the fossil hill restoration project.
I think particularly there's one more section in the Northeast
corner that was wanted to be developed or restored.
So I think it's really a good idea
to let the community know about the status of items
if they're brought up in prior pros meetings.
So we did get some status tonight.
I just wanted to say that's a good thing to do.
Don't let them go that long.
And then also on the Boundary Oaks golf course presentation,
I just wanted to mention on the agenda report,
it says there will be a question and answer portion
for the pros commission and the community
to engage with the organization
at the end of the presentation.
So anyway, that's, I thought we'd have questions answered.
Thank you very much.
Do we have a discussion on the public comments?
No?
All right.
So the next item on the agenda is
staff update on park projects.
Do the staff have any updates on park projects?
Yeah, I don't have anything further to add
other than the fact that the art and wine
is gonna take place this Saturday and Sunday at Civic Park.
And I believe it is a, I'm looking over at Chris,
she may know better than I do.
I think it's on Saturday and both Sunday,
it's a noon start and goes to,
I think Saturday goes to eight o'clock p.m.
and then Sunday goes to six p.m.
Thanks, any other updates?
No, not from staff.
Okay, all right.
The next item is the commissioner's announcements.
commissioners have any updates or announcements?
All right, I have an announcement to make.
This is our youth commissioner, Eli's last PROS meeting.
We really appreciate your input, your participation
and bring the wanna Creek youth perspective
to the matters that in front of the PROS commission.
So we have a little token of appreciation for you
and we wish you the best of luck
in your next career endeavor.
Yes, thank you.
All right, you wanna share any, your updates, your?
No, I don't have any updates,
but I'd just like to say that it's been an honor
to work with you all and I wish you the best
in all of your future endeavors.
With that, the meeting's adjourned.