Parks, Recreation and Trees Advisory Commission Special Meeting - June 18, 2025
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Parks, Recreation and Trees Advisory Commission Special Meeting - June 18, 2025
The Parks, Recreation and Trees Advisory Commission held a special meeting on June 18, 2025 at 6:00 PM at Fuller Park, 560 Jefferson St, Napa. Commissioners present: Chair Brian Bordona, Jeffrey Richard, Joe Streng, Mike Wallace, Simone Katz-O'Neill (recorded as 'Sadoo'), and Commissioner Honicky (recorded as 'Honaky'). Rex Stults and Darren Graffuis were absent. The meeting focused on an annual streets and sidewalks program update and a public hearing for the removal of one significant tree.
Public Comments & Testimony
- No members of the public spoke on items not on the agenda.
Discussion Items
- Item 6A: Annual Streets and Sidewalks Program Update – Jessica Lowe, Deputy Public Works Director, presented a comprehensive overview of the city's two-year Capital Improvement Program (CIP), highlighting over $185 million programmed over five years across departments. Key projects include:
- Lincoln Avenue road diet: reducing four travel lanes to three (one lane each direction plus a center turn lane) to improve safety on the city's high-injury network, along with separated bike lanes, bus stop improvements, and signal timing changes (expected delay increase of 3-7 seconds per intersection).
- Riverside/Montgomery neighborhoods: large-scale infrastructure rehabilitation including sidewalk, curb, tree, and drainage work, with design consultant hiring and community engagement planned for fall 2025.
- Coombs Street: full-depth reclamation, sidewalk upgrades, and traffic calming features.
- Westwood interior streets: paving, new sidewalks, and traffic calming at Kilburn and Bryant.
- Joint projects with Napa Sanitation (Pueblo neighborhood, Bel Air in 2028).
- Browns Valley Road: first parking-protected class IV bike lane in Napa, nearly complete.
- Commissioners discussed tree preservation, community engagement, driveway conflicts with bike lanes, and tree species selection (including native live oaks). Commissioner Streng noted the success of the Salvador corridor and requested tree planting in median islands. Commissioner Honicky asked about community outreach for the Montgomery project.
- Item 6B: Public Hearing – Application to Remove One Significant Tree at 2751 Beard Road – The applicant, Michael Gleason (with his wife Jean Wheeler), requested removal of a significant Pecan tree (designated in 2009) due to decline, hazard, and safety concerns. Staff (Jeff, Parks and Recreation) recommended approval under Municipal Code Section 12.45.060(B), finding that the tree's condition (disease, danger of falling, interference with property use) warranted removal. The applicant noted the tree had stopped producing pecans, had dead limbs, and had dropped large branches. The commission unanimously approved the removal after making the required finding. The property owner also highlighted two other significant trees on the property (a large redwood and a 300-year-old valley oak).
Key Outcomes
- Approval of Minutes – The regular meeting minutes of April 16, 2025 were approved unanimously with one abstention.
- Tree Removal Approval – Motion carried unanimously (6-0) to approve the removal of significant tree #32 at 2751 Beard Road, with the finding that condition B of Section 12.45.060 is satisfied. The Parks and Recreation Director is authorized to remove the tree from the heritage tree list.
- Other Reports – Commissioner (representing the Parker Wreck Foundation, likely the Napa Parks and Recreation Foundation) reported that the foundation was unable to renew the executive director's contract due to financial constraints, effective June 30, 2025. The foundation will operate with staff and pursue grants; a major fundraiser is planned for the 4th of July celebration at Oxbow.
- Next Meeting – The next regular meeting is scheduled for August 20, 2025.
Meeting Transcript
Okay, good evening. Um, I'd like to call to order the regular meeting for the Parks Recreation and Trees Advisory Commission, June 18th, 2025. Um, could I have roll call, please? Chair Bordona. Here. Stoltz is absent. Deck is absent. Honaky. Here. Richards. Streng. Here. Wallace. And Sadoo. Here. Thank you. Thank you. Just really quick, we'll do agenda review. The next item is going to be public comment. This is an opportunity for members of the public to speak on items that are not on today's agenda. We'll move to the approval of minutes. Doesn't look like we have any presentations. And then item six. We have two administrative reports. Item 6A is the annual streets and sidewalks program update. And then item 6B is a public hearing related to an application to remove one significant tree located at 2751 Beard Road. Item 6A, or excuse me, 7A is going to be a report by the bicycle and pedestrian advisory commission representative, uh Commissioner Honicky. And then we will move to adjournment. With that, I'll move to public comment. Is there anybody present that wishes to speak on items not on the today's agenda? Not seeing any. Thank you. With that, we'll move to item 4A, approval of minutes. Are there any comments or questions on the minutes? I'll move to approve the minutes. All in favor? Aye. Aye. One abstention. Motion passes unanimously. Okay, moving along here. Item 6A, annual streets and sidewalks program update. This is going to be presented by Jessica Lowe, Deputy Public Works Director. Okay. Good evening, everyone. I am Jess Kahlo, the Deputy Public's Work Public Works Director for the City of Napa, and I'll be highlighting a number of our upcoming projects. In public works, we work very closely with our colleagues in the parks department to deliver many projects within the parks. And I know that you're well updated on those, and so the focus of tonight will just be on streets projects. So this approach resulted in 67 projects receiving some type of funding in the upcoming year, worth over 41 million, and 40 projects the following year with over 28. And when you look at the next five years, over 185 million is programmed across various funding sources and departments.
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