Good evening.

Welcome everybody.

This is the two October 6th, 2025 PROS Commission meeting.

I would first like to introduce and welcome our newest commissioner.

This is our first meeting, Glorianne Sasser.

Welcome.

Thank you.

Yeah.

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

Sure.

So I'm really pleased to be a commissioner.

Thank you.

And my background is in finance and human resources.

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

So thank you.

Oh, very exciting.

Thank you very much and welcome being here.

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

Good evening, uh Commissioner Sasser.

Here.

Commissioner Oler?

Here.

Commissioner Garland.

Here.

Vice Chair Pinkstaff.

Here.

And Chair Cook.

Here.

Thank you.

Let the record show that all the commissioners are here minus the youth commissioner.

Okay.

This portion of the meeting is reserved for comment on items not on the agenda.

Under the Brown Act, the Commission cannot act on items raised during public communications, but may respond briefly to statements made or questions posed.

Request clarification or refer the item to staff.

We've allotted 30 minutes for this particular public comment period.

Does any member of the public wish to speak on any item not on the agenda?

I do have some cards.

I'll call those off here.

And with that, the secretary's already given me the cards.

Correct.

All right.

And uh Mr.

When I call your name, please approach the podium.

Mr.

Burns.

Hi, members of the Commission.

Thanks for having us here.

Um good evening.

Uh, my name's Justin Burns.

I live in Walnut Creek with my wife and two children.

I'm here tonight representing Walnut Creek's beach tennis community to ask that you request staff to consider replacing the net winches at the city sand courts.

I have some of the other members here joining me.

Beach tennis is a globally popular sport governed by the International Tennis Federation, the same organization that governs traditional tennis.

Except beach tennis is played on a sand court similar to beach volleyball.

The sport is gaining serious momentum and is under consideration for inclusion in the 2032 Brisbane Olympic Games.

A key difference in our sport is the net height.

For beach tennis, it's set around five feet seven inches, about two feet lower than a standard women's volleyball net.

For almost three years, a growing group of us have been playing beach tennis on the city's sand courts.

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

Our request is to replace the dated net winches with a proven slider system, which is available for less than a thousand dollars from volleyball USA.com.

I actually have an example that I can give to the to the team after.

The slider system consists of tracks that attach to each pole, allowing the net to slide up or down to adjust the height for multiple sorts and various users, men's, women's, and junior tights.

The slider system can be attached to the city's existing poles once the winches and collars are removed.

This change will bring many benefits to the city.

First, it will encourage more players of all sports and ages, since a single court can be adapted within seconds for any use case, including the appropriate net height for children.

This will mean more revenue for the city from court rentals, including from tournaments.

The slider system allows for easy, intuitive height adjustment with the net remaining under full tension.

This avoids type of cumbers cumbersome manipulation of the net frequency seen with the current winch system, which can lead to sagging or damage to the net if the person is inexperienced or careless.

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

We asked you please refer to this item to the staff.

Thank you for your consideration.

Thank you.

Any comments, Mike?

Yeah, I mean, the commission's not authorized to comment on public comments, so there's probably not going to be a lot of back and forth, but I did want to share with the commission that Jim Carlson and myself have been engaged, and we're going to continue to work through some of these requests and proposals.

So and we'll bring it back to the commission and give you an update on where we're at.

Great.

Thank you.

Next up is uh Mr.

Shiner.

My name is Jonathan Shiner.

I live on Whitecliffe Way in Walnut Creek.

I've lived in Walnut Creek again, also for about 25 years.

I live across the street from various uh trailheads extending from there as well as Rock Spring Place and neighborhoods along the way.

I'm an avid hiker and I use the open space uh quite often, and I am rather appalled at the condition of the trails, including major arteries that have developed over the last say three years.

Now back in the day I do recall that you know I was in this room, uh may actually was a different room, but um and we were complaining about that, and ranchers were there, and uh a rather ingenious solution was uh developed by Mr.

Vickers, and that was to have rotational grazing, and that worked perfectly.

And let me say first that uh, you know, I just need to say that I am a uh firm uh proponent of using cattle to control the fuel that develops in the dry season here.

So this is not about like not having cows.

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

We do, though.

And I I put this out in an email I sent on September 10th.

So you can have the you know all this language in there.

Um this problem is pretty it's disgusting, it's unhealthy.

Uh, and it begs the question about whether the open space is really for recreational users or for cattle grazers.

Um, and lastly, or almost lastly, I do want to say um that even before the uh the poop becomes such a major issue in the spring and early summer, there are deep ruts in the trail that could break your ankle if you try to use it.

Um the last thing I would like to say then is uh you do have we have two minutes dedicated to this period, and you've you've exceeded that already.

So thank you very much for your comments.

Next up we have Mr.

Lang Langner.

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

Uh my name is Jeff Langner.

Um, I'm a fire-wise community leader uh for Summit Road in Lafayette.

I'm not a Walnut Creek citizen.

I'm a wildfire survivor.

We uh saved the dogs, lost the house.

Uh I'm joined this evening by Lafayette emergency preparedness commissioner Stephanie Bontemps, my colleague.

So our uh Summit Road Firewise Community borders Akalone's Ridge and uh the open space in Walnut Creek.

Reducing wildfire risk is our top priority.

I represent 38 homes, lived there for 45 years.

Um our goal is a what we say is a fire resilient future, meaning not have to constantly worry about losing our homes to fire, which I've experienced directly.

So earlier this year we entered into an agreement with Walnut Creek to utilize goats for grazing on Okalani's Ridge.

And the goal was to reduce the grass fuel load uh beyond the basic contra cost of fire protection district minimum weed abatement uh requirement.

The results were amazing.

Uh my neighbors were ecstatic, and uh we are a lot safer now as a result.

So I just wanted to publicly thank um assistant public works director Mike Vickers and Open Space Head Ranger Corey Frazier for coming up with a and facilitating a very creative solution to a problem that affects all of us.

So thank you, Mike.

Thanks to Corey.

Just wanted to say that.

That's it.

Great, thank you.

Next we have Barbara Guinness.

Hello, everybody.

My name is Barbara Guinness.

I've been a resident of Walnut Creek since 1996.

Today I wanted to talk about three items.

Particularly, I'll start off first with the ride safely signs that are being posted outside the open spaces.

In June 2025, the PROS Commission talked about a proposal for allowing e-bikes into the open spaces.

Then uh these I think you've seen them before familiar with the open space, these ride safely signs have uh started appearing at the open uh space entrances.

If you look at the websites here, it points to it, used to point to a police website, now points to a city website, but the information is correct incorrect.

It says it has class one, two, and three bikes as being allowed in various situations in the open spaces, and the current municipal codes do not allow that.

Second thing I wanted to talk to you about was uh the status of the social trails to official trails plan.

This was talked about in December 2024, and then again in April 2025.

Uh city staff said they formally completed trail evaluation checklists and they have other information, but they're only in the draft format, so they won't share that with the public.

So I think it's very interesting to withhold information from the public regarding a public project in the public open spaces, and especially since the public purchase these open space lands.

Now, last thing I want to talk to you about was motorized vehicles in the open spaces.

Just recently, there were two motorcyclists that were there, and they were riding around a parking lot in uh Walnut Creek, they said, and then they said a police officer told them don't ride in the parking lot but ride up in the open space or pointed to the open space.

Who knows if it's true?

It's he's you know, he should he said, she said, whatever.

But anyway, I just wanted to bring that to your attention that continues to happen.

Thank you for all you do to protect the open space.

Thank you very much.

We appreciate it.

Are there any other any other public comments?

Okay.

With that, we will move on to the next item on the agenda, which is the consent calendar.

We have four items on the consent calendar.

Do uh does any of the commissioners have questions on the consent calendar items?

I do.

I would like to.

I have a couple questions on the tennis annual report.

Hi, Jim Carlson, recreation program manager.

I can help you with that.

Yes.

So I I really uh you know appreciated your update.

Thought it was really um really well done.

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

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

Are there too many other things going on?

Or I don't know.

I just was curious because it seemed like a big drop.

Yeah, it's a it's a really good question.

Because the tennis uh contractor who actually helps us with the information for the report, they're the ones that operate the tennis center, and that's lifetime tennis.

So I would need to go back to them to talk to them specifically about maybe some of the inner details of why that enrollment might have dropped.

Um but I'm sure they have a they would be able to get me that answer.

I could get back to that.

That'd be great.

And do you know whether there's any um plans to sort of try to rejuvenate that or um well I know there's always plans to be uh not uh I would say always to increase their business and to look at their court space and how they maximize the use of it.

And I would I would almost imagine they're gonna say due to we expanded over here, we reduced over there.

I think the court use is probably very similar.

It's probably the user groups are probably is what's changed a little bit, but I don't have the specific answers until I go back and talk to them.

One more question if you're gonna go talk to them anyway.

Sure.

So they also made a mention of the fact that um court utilization had actually improved, which it does.

It's looks much better than over the last several years, particularly better than last year, but it's 63%.

So I guess I don't really know the tennis industry very well to know it is sixty-three percent good.

Um, well, I I don't know if that's good.

I know that if you look at the hours of utilization, it starts early in the day and it goes into the evening, and like most of our programs, there's what we call peak hours, and during those peak hours, uh you could go around the city and almost all the facilities would be full during those peak hours.

Uh and those are typically in the afternoon from three to six, and then after six p.m.

I'm sure there's a lot of adults out there and in the early morning, but those hours somewhere between uh 9 a.m.

and 3 p.m.

are the hours.

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

I know that.

But I as far as sixty-three percent, that's a golden question.

I don't know if that's a good number or not, but uh that's a very good question for me to ask them as well.

That was it.

Thank you.

Okay.

Thank you.

Okay.

I'll move um acceptance of the consent calendar.

Um I have a question about aquatics program report.

Thanks for the report.

I I just want a little more information on the scholarship program.

This is the first time I heard about it, and the goes for 2026.

Okay.

Um so my Karen Heaston Martin, uh recreation program manager, I oversee Aquatics and Social Services.

Um our scholarship program is both recreation and arts based.

Um I don't necessarily handle the actual scholarship program.

That's um through community arts, the community arts manager, but we have so much money a year to contribute to all of our recreation programs.

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

Um it seems like a lot of people are interested in using that for day camps, things like that on the rec side, and we're really trying to push um more and more people use that for swim lessons and for fitness swimming.

So our goals are we have about 14,000 dollars that we bring in on the rec side a year um through our um Christmas tree lot that we rent uh the parking lot for the Christmas tree lot.

Um and so we're we're trying our hardest to use all that money up every year for all of our recreation programs.

And how is that awarded?

Like is skull like there's an application that um participants fill out online.

Um Miley, who is the um community arts manager, she goes through those and makes sure that the criteria is met, and then there's a percentage that's awarded to each family.

Thank you.

You're welcome.

Any other questions on the consent calendar?

Do we have any public uh any members of the public who wish to provide public comment on any of the consent calendar items?

Okay, with that, um we'll move to uh approve the consent calendar items, including the minutes from the last meeting, correct?

Um we have approval.

I move we approve the consent items, and a second.

I'll second.

With that, they are approved.

We'll just call roll real quick.

Um Commissioner Ouler.

Yes.

Chair Pinkstaff?

Here.

Commissioner Sasser.

Yes.

Commissioner Garland.

Yes.

Commissioner Conson?

Yes.

And Chair Cook.

Yes.

Thank you.

And please let it be noted that Commissioner Conson is here in attendance.

Thank you.

With that, next on the agenda is an item for the Commission consideration, the staff report.

Yeah, please.

So uh good evening, Commissioners.

Have two items on the consent calendar tonight.

Uh, the first one being the drone um ordinance, and the second one is the uh playground renovation.

We'll get to here just in a few minutes before I jump into the to the updated uh drone ordinance.

It's important to share that I'm not sure.

I think Commissioner Oler might have been here in 17, but I could be wrong.

Okay.

So this is the first time that this body is heard the drone ordinance, and so it's what's that?

Oh, so not necessarily an update to you folks, but uh back in 2017, the summer of 17, we presented a um an unmanned aircraft uh ordinance, you know, referred to as the drone ordinance and received feedback from the commission.

And the drone ordinance that I'm gonna share with you today is almost identical to the ordinance that was shared back in 17, with the exception of the feedback that we received from this body at that time, which had to do with criteria, in which the director was going to use to either approve or deny uh a request to use a drone in these spaces.

So I'll jump into the uh drone ordinance here.

I'm gonna read the first section.

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

Um, and then there uh so I'll read the first section, the second two sections are more legalese, so I'll just briefly touch on those, those are more for um council direction uh or for council to weigh in, and then uh we'll move into questions and uh potentially questions from the general public.

So the unmanned aircraft, no person shall operate an unmanned aircraft while located with any park or open space, nor shall any person utilize any park or open space as a landing or takeoff location for an unmanned aircraft without a valid permit, you issued by the director.

The director may designate certain areas within our parks or an open space where the operation of an unmanned aircraft or the landing or launching of an unmanned aircraft may be allowed.

For the purpose of this section, unmanned aircraft shall mean an aircraft operated without the possibility of direct human intervention from within or on the aircraft and includes unmanned aircraft systems and unmanned aircraft aerial vehicle or remote control aircraft.

The director shall have discretion to issue for permits for unmanned aircraft for the following photography or filming, historical, environmental or scientific surveys, vegetation management, or fire risk assessment or govern governmental purposes.

This section shall not apply to unmanned aircraft operated by local, state, or federal law enforcement or emergency response personnel while acting under their official capacity.

So phase or section two, this is this is really just describes that councils.

If this gets to council and approved, they're not going to be in, you're not gonna contradict state and federal law, so I'm not gonna go through this too much, and then this is really about the publication once this goes to council.

If it does, how many days prior uh does it need to be notified and those types of things?

So before I get into um uh questions and comments and in the council action, I did have a little bit of information I want to share with you.

So uh back in June or previous meeting this year, I brought to this body the um e-bike ordinance.

And as I mentioned at that meeting, which is very similar to this this ordinance here, we oftentimes look to our big brother called East Bay Regional Parks, as most of these uh since they're in the um park and open space and recreational industry solely, uh they vetted the vast majority of these policies through their supervisors and and through their communities.

And so we look to see what's worked well with them and and what isn't worked well and try and learn from that process.

And that this policy here is almost identical to the drone policy within East Bay Regional Parks, with one exception and one critical exception is East Bay Regional Parks has a zero tolerance for drones in the open space, with exception, you know, for emergency purposes, those types of things.

So as we're um suggesting here, um sorry based on some of the criteria that we heard from the commission back in um 2017, we do have a need uh and a want and a desire in our open space in parks for uh for drones, and so we wanted to be very specific on what guidelines um uh the director would have so that he had these guardrails to work within, so that one person didn't say you authorized this individual to go out and take photograph for um environmental photography, and this person you didn't.

And so we wanted to be we protect the director, but also be very clear with the community on why they were approved or denied um uh a permit to fly a drone in the open space.

We do have several or we've probably filmed several movies out at Borges Ranch, and that's why we have in there um the photography and uh and filming um because there is a need out there.

Uh we have um staff that is out there um assessing certain areas in terms of fire abatement uh maintenance uh erosion, sometimes in the winter time we can't get out there to see what's going on because it's too muddy, we can fly a drone out there, and then obviously, and it's it's clearly stated in C we do work with PD.

We've had PD out searching for people that have been lost in the open space.

We've also had PD out looking for individuals that uh are not operating within the rules of the opera uh of the open space, and so we have a number of um reasons why.

The other one I want to point out, and this was a question that came from someone in the audience uh earlier today, there was a comment about why is it that you can control the launching and landing, and it's it's pretty simple to be honest with you.

The city doesn't own the airspace, the airspace is controlled by the FAA, and so the city can dictate within city property what is being done on city property.

So, for example, if I'm out at Heather Farm Park and I have a permit, I can launch from the park and I can land in the park.

But if somebody in the neighbor one of the neighboring homes uh launches a drone from their backyard and lands the drone in their backyard and flies all over the park area, the city has no jurisdiction um over the airspace, and so therefore that person could potentially do that, assuming uh they're not breaking any FAA rules that the city would not govern, to be honest with you anyway.

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

People are uh using drones um for uh mostly good from what we see, but we've heard rumors that people are uh out chasing wildlife um with drones, um, basically harassing wildlife and drones can have an impact if uh if you or I are out there walking and there's a drone buzzing around, you don't know nowadays what's going on, whether you're being filmed or what the case is, and so we've we've had some feedback, not nearly as much as we received back in 15 and 16, hence why we brought the drone policy in 17.

But the issues still do exist.

So, with that being said, um, uh the action for tonight was to hear and provide feedback on the proposed um uh drone ordinance, and I will open it up for questions.

I have some questions.

Um first of all, why since 2017 nothing's been happen nothing's happened?

The council decided not to act in 2017, it wasn't presented to them or yeah, so it uh it never made it to council.

When when we received the feedback from the commission at that time, um we we had other issues, other uh more driving issues come up at that period of time, uh which then led us into COVID, and this is really sat flat.

It sat more in in my area of responsibility, certainly not with city council.

Um and so it it's just coming back now because um it's it's raised that level on the priority list.

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

Also, um I'm just curious, is the director referred to parked and rec or public works or who?

Yeah, that's a good comment because the municipal code also calls out the um arts and recreation director, sometimes the public works director, so that's good feedback.

We need to be specific or at least list both of them.

Right, yeah, because I'm thinking drone and heather farm may be under a different jurisdiction than a drone flying out in you know Lime Ridge, right?

No, great feedback.

Thank you.

Um, and then I'm curious about the permit system.

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

Will there be a fee?

Um will a commercial venture like a film for a you know, for a company making money off of it, an advertisement or something, will they um be treated differently or charged more than you know the guy making an educational taking pictures for educational purposes or anything?

Have you thought about that kind of a structure, or is it just fill out a form and yet we say yes or no?

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

So for example, if there's a filming company that wants to go do a uh a shoot out at Borges Ranch, there's a specific fee schedule based on the hours.

Um if there is a uh special event, uh Karen's not here, but Karen handles special events.

There's a fee schedule for all those.

So if somebody was out there for commercial purposes, um there would be a fee associated with that.

Okay.

If they're out there for the open like the open space foundation, for example, if we were out there doing plant studies and we had a licensed drone operator out there helping us, we it would be an internal benefit, so there would not be a fee charged for that purpose.

Okay.

Is that just a policy of your department?

Is that written up somewhere or it's it's in the fee, it's in the master fee schedule.

Oh, oh, okay.

All right.

Um, but but Commissioner Garland, what's not specific in the master fee schedule is it doesn't use the term unmanned aircraft or drone.

And so when we bring that around in a year from now, year and a half from now, uh, that's good feedback.

We'll we'll work to work that in so it's sp so that people understand.

Uh because it's, you know, you put a camera on your shoulder, you can put a camera above you, you're still for commercial purposes, you still need to pay that fee.

So thank you.

Okay.

Um and then I'm wondering whether there's a penalty for breaking the rules.

Do you shoot it down?

Do you?

Just to ask whoever the operator is to um, you know, is it more the education?

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

Yeah, we've got the educational phase where we would ask them to stop and tell them why it's prohibited, et cetera.

Another good question.

The the municipal code and and uh I'm sure there's language in the code for um a f a penalty for violating the municipal code.

I I can't quote that right now, um, but I would I'm certain that it's in the municipal code in general, um, but I'll be sure and clarify that as as we move forward.

So, great question.

Thank you.

Thank you.

That was it.

Uh thank you.

Uh Mike.

I wanted to uh make sure I understood one of the last things you said about the um the code.

If you could go back to that for a moment.

So if I understand correctly, the code really applies to a person or a drone that is physically in a park or open space.

Correct.

And so there's a loophole here in terms of Walnut Creeks.

Code that if an individual in their private residence launches a drone that goes out over the open space and doesn't land there, we don't have any enforcement capability on we, Walnut Creek, don't have any enforcement capability in terms of our municipal code.

Is that correct?

That's correct.

We can only dictate where it is launched, where it's launched and landed.

Yeah.

So it is a fairly large loophole.

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

But it's controlling what we can control.

Because we can't control the airspace, but there may be rules from the FAA that govern it that uh could be enforced by other other than Walnut Creek.

That's correct, right?

Okay, all right.

And that's typically height.

Yeah, the more the larger drones, they can only think it's 400 feet or less or 400 feet or more.

Um, and don't quote me on that, but it's something around that height that uh the FAA gets more involved in.

Okay, yeah, thank you.

Thanks, Mike.

Um how would how does somebody know that a permit would how would somebody know that a permit is required?

Is there gonna be an advertisement, a public notice?

Yeah, we'll put we'll push the you know, any time we um update the municipal code, we'll we push it out through social media, we'll also advertise it in our parks and open space, um, whether it's through a uh one of our sandwich boards or through one of our kiosks.

Um we'll do our best to get the the word out.

And and you know that's oftentimes why we start with the educational side of things.

Um if we see somebody out there, we just let them know what the rules are, and uh if they become a repeat offender, then we address it.

You know, if we need to get PD involved or something along those lines, we do.

Does the John Muir hospital helipad have any restrictions uh that they place uh being given its proximity to Shell Ridge open space?

Are there any restrictions in the SOC?

Because I know there's um we spoke earlier, my daughter for a bit was playing around with the drone and there was some limitations as to uh this that was built into the software as to blocking uh access uh like the drone wouldn't go near an air so many a mile within a mile of an airport or something like that.

Any are you aware of any limitations with the uh helipad there?

I'm not no.

That air um air space, airspace above John Mears we use pretty frequently.

So does the FAA provide any uh, you know, like uh height limitations on how high a drone can go?

Is that I I vaguely remember 400 feet, um, but that seems awfully high now that I think about it.

If you if you just took John Muir as an example with John Muir's probably what four stories, five stories, you know, 40, 50 feet, not 400 feet.

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

Yeah, yeah.

Okay.

Uh any other questions for Mike on this topic?

Okay, I think we're ready to move on to the the next.

Is there any uh public comment?

Oh, I'm sorry, uh public comment on this topic.

Oh, Barbara, uh Ms.

Guinness, you'd like to.

I forgot my votes on that, but I was just gonna comment that I'm in the open space.

I'm in the open space a lot, and I think in the last few years I've probably seen drones up there around six times.

One time, Mike mentioned this, but it was search and he didn't mention search and rescue, but it was a search and rescue, and they were doing training.

So that would be considered uh legitimate.

Uh another one was uh the guy had a control around his neck and he was mountain biking and was really it was really not very high at all.

It was just buzz right above my head.

So I knew that was not correct.

And um I saw a man with a drone one time too by one of the kiosks, and he was taking some pictures or something.

But you know, probably more of the ones I've seen probably you know are not uh legitimate, and I don't know where they were launched.

It's uh thank you, Mike, for mentioning the airspace, uh, because I didn't know about that.

I thought, well, if it's above the open spaces, you should be able to control it, but uh yes, it makes sense about the airspace.

So I just wanted to comment.

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

Thank you.

Thanks.

Thank you.

So just before we are we ready to move on potentially.

Or any other public comments.

So just before we move on, um, based on some of the comments that were made here tonight from Commissioner Garland, um, where I do need to go back and and maybe touch this up just a little bit, are taking those comments in consideration.

Can I get a thumbs up um from the commission on whether you're comfortable moving this forward to city council?

Um, or would you like me to come back make those amendments um to this ordinance and come back for a second reading?

How uh how would you like me to proceed?

I actually did have one more comment on the permit.

Is it for a period of time or is it is it like a you get a one-year permit or a is it at one-day permit, or how's that how's the timing work on that?

Yeah, it's it it's another good question.

It's not clear in here, but they would be it would be based on a day.

Oh, so you'd need a permit every day you wanted to do it.

Correct.

If you wanted to um get like a seven-day permit for a film, for example, we would take that in consideration based on what the need or what the use is, and also what tied into our um our fee master schedule.

Okay, so I can be more clear.

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

Okay.

So Mike, you're looking for a thumbs up that that we can continue, uh or you can continue without having to uh based on the big continue based on the comments you've received today without having to amend the existing document.

Yeah, so so I'm comfortable amending the the document based on the feedback I received and bring it back to this body so that you can get a second reading and make sure that you're comfortable before accepting this and then um giving me uh recommendation to move to council, or I can take your comments as they are and add them to the uh amended city ordinance and then take that straight to council in the future so I can come back or I can go I can move forward to uh city council.

It's up to this body.

Commissioners, I was gonna say perhaps um can you I don't not sure your your your actual process on this, but could you just make your edits and send it to us and say here are edits in you know related to the comments and then you know before you actually you know hit the send button to the council or whatever, you know.

I don't know if that legit or would a second reading be better.

I'm not sure I can do that because I would have to the public would have to have an see those changes as well.

See what I'm sending you.

Um I think it was mostly clarification.

I am actually okay if we don't see it again.

Um I didn't raise anything.

I don't think that would, you know, is a different approach or policy, it's really more clarification.

Yep.

So I think the way we have typically handled it in terms of things like budgets and fee schedules and everything else where we have an input, but it's gonna go to the city council.

We're comfortable with um you taking our comments and making uh making a final version that you take to city council without r uh recycling it to us.

I'd suggest we go with that.

Uh try to approve that route.

And you're looking more than for a thumbs up rather than an official.

Yeah, just to hear from each of the commissioners that they're acceptable of that recommendation.

Okay.

Yep.

Yes.

Yes.

Yes.

Yes.

Yes.

And yes, I think so.

Commissioner Conson.

Yes.

Yes.

Thank you.

And next item on the agenda mic, I think, is also yours.

Pardon me?

Yes, please.

Okay, so Mike Vickers uh for the record, City of Walnut Creek.

I brought this item uh in the spring.

I think it was at the April meeting, our park uh playground renovation update.

Uh we've done a fair amount of um public outreach, and so this was an opportunity to bring it back and let you guys uh let this body know where we're at in the process and hopefully get a recommendation to move this forward.

Um so the agenda for tonight is we'll talk a little bit about the background uh the public outreach results, and then uh we'll get into the next steps here uh just in a minute.

So as I mentioned in 23, this body recommended to the city council that $500,000 be appropriated to improve the playground or completely renovate the playground at Civic Park and Walden Park.

Um I in 2024 I came back to this body and talked about our approach and how we would get that information and what would be the next steps in the draft design.

Um earlier this spring, as I just mentioned, um I brought a number of designs uh to this body and then shared with you that we were gonna take this out on kind of a roadshow in in which we did through our public outreach process.

Um so just backing up for a minute and and just so everybody's clear, in terms of public outreach, we did put it on uh the city's website.

Um we put up banners at um Civic Park, Walden Park, and Heather Farm Park to try and draw interest, had a QR code on each of those, which gave you an opportunity to go to the city's website and identify which amenities and which options you would like.

Uh we did re we did get over 600 uh participants of the survey, which is a um a really successful public outreach campaign.

And we also were um some of you may know that the Walnut Creek downtown hosts a Wednesday, I think it starts uh it's June, July, August, September, there's four of them, and we attended two of them, which is on Locust Street, uh one Wednesday a month.

It's a public outreach process where people have tents out there and and sharing information uh what's taking place in the city, sometimes selling crafts and things along those lines.

So um the design options, I well, so here's the here's the feedback that we received.

And I'll I'll get to this slide in just a minute.

But what we did is the the design options that I brought to you in the spring, we put on posters, took them out to the public.

We all they were also on the city website, and we asked are you know which option of the two to five at civic and and so on through the process.

And so based on the participants uh that voted, option A at uh at civic park the two to five, and and for the audience who may not know, two to five is years of age.

Um playgrounds have to be broken up in two to five, five to twelve uh by state law.

And so at Civic Park they selected option A, um uh for two to five, five to twelve was option C, and then Walden Park was the five to twelve.

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

We did not share with the public um the amenities for the two to five at Walden because the sand area is so small, you can only house two or three items in there.

And so we just made an assumption based on the regular use that's out there that they would be comfortable with it.

So these were the playgrounds.

Uh this is the two to five at Civic.

This is the original design that I shared with you in the spring.

This is the five to twelve.

And this was the dollar amount for the combination of the two of them, which includes the uh you see the resilient surface, that blue trail.

That's the resurfacing of that resilient surface, the painting of the swings, and um, and the amenities that you see.

So keep that number in mind, 450 basically.

So at Walden, this was the sand area that we're uh gonna make us uh a staff decision, you know, with the support of the um support of the commission.

One thing that's not on here, one of the amenities that we are bringing is a jug filler, which is those small um, basically, if you think of an igloo jug that you would stick under a fountain where the kids can hit a button and fill up their water bucket or whatever.

We're gonna add one of those over there because the kids seem to love the water uh experience so much.

So we are adding that um to this to the two to five, assuming you guys recommend we move forward.

And then this was the one that was selected for for Walden Park, the five to twelve.

Keep in mind what's interesting about Walden Park, if you haven't spent a lot of time over there, it is almost 100% two to five year olds.

Uh, you don't get very many kids, school-age kids at that park using that equipment.

You might get a few more school age kids using the disc golf course in the back, but they're really not geared towards this playground because it's so small.

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

And so this here uh was 245.

So we had 455 and 245.

We were in the you know 700 range, right?

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

And so I'll I'll share some more options here with you in a minute.

But to break these out, just so you know, moving forward, the two to five upgrades are about twenty thousand dollars of that two fifty, so keep that in mind um as we talk about options moving forward.

So this is uh a breakout of the feedback we received.

Um, some of you remember from the meeting in the spring.

Um, if you go back to these to back to the options that I shared earlier, they may have a uh a playground panel, which could be tic-tac-toe, or they could have a teeter totter, and we came up with a whole list of items that are popular in playgrounds around us that we got from our consultant, and we listed those and gave the community members an opportunity to select which ones they were in favor of um in the parks as opposed to what was currently out there, and so uh we took everything that exceeded more than 250 votes, and that was these six amenities, um, and then we took the uh actually there was we we selected these three based on the feedback, and there's a challenge, right?

So, so obviously the climbing walls, the one on the top left.

The blue one in the middle also spins, um, and then the the one on the bottom right corner obviously is a spinner, it's something you know we probably all used or uh you know many years ago that they banned for a long time and they've figured out how to bring them back.

The fun stuff they're finally bringing back.

Um, some of the climbers, like the climber on the bottom left corner or the the swing in the in the top right corner, because the playground at Civic Park is so tight, they have a buffer zone that has to go around each structure.

And for example, if you if you're on a um, if you're up on a swing, there's a buffer zone based on your height.

So it might be six feet, you got a complete buffer zone around six feet.

You get up where you're at Heather Farm, and you're up on that second tier.

Obviously, your buffer zone is bigger.

And so that is why these three were selected was because of the buffer zone.

So each of these amenities, the total uh for these three amenities is about thirty to thirty-two thousand dollars.

So if you look at each one of these amenities, about ten thousand dollars installed, that's kind of a good reference as we continue to move forward, and we're gonna get to a financial conversation here in a few minutes.

And I'll be happy to circle back when we're uh getting into questions here.

So um what what are those amenities look like?

Um this is where they're currently designed at um at Heather Farm.

So uh pretty self-explanatory.

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

Um so this is where the project costs have increased, right?

So I as I mentioned we had over 600 people participate, uh 207 of those people um provided comments, 95%, so what 195 comments had the word shade in them.

Uh which isn't, you know, it's not a surprise, right?

The temperatures are the summers are getting hotter.

We all want our kids in shade.

Uh we want to be in shade.

And so we went back to the designer and said, you know, as I shared earlier, went to the designer and said, Hey, put these um, put these amenities in the playground where they would best fit.

They did that.

We got the shade comments, we went back to the to the designer and said, Okay, how are you going to implement shade?

And what are what is going to be the financial impact?

And so these are the shade structures uh over the um over the playgrounds.

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

Yeah.

So this number, if you remember, was uh 245.

So with about $30,000 in amenities, um, and then it's I don't know, I did the math earlier, and it's probably another 50, 55,000 or something like that for the shade.

And so you you've got a better idea now what Civic Park would look like based on the comments that we received and the three options of design that the community picked.

So important to note, right?

$500,000 was appropriated.

This is $540,000 uh project.

Um if you were to throw the two to five in there uh over at Walden, you're talking uh $560.

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

There's some permitting uh in regards to permitting.

There is um our building um inspectors need to inspect this, so there's a little bit of money in there.

And and so that being said, uh, well, I I jumped ahead of myself, sorry, a little bit there.

So there's a number of options, right?

And and I I jumped to number three there.

But number option number one is to accept the original designs, which was the four four forty-five for civic and the two forty-five or whatever the number was for Walden, and suggest to staff, hey, this is the direction we want to go in.

Please move forward and go seek additional funding from council and see where we end up with that.

Uh option number two is accept the regional design and defer one of the parks.

And so if we have 500,000 and Civic is 455, uh, in theory, you could give a recommendation that says, hey staff, we want to move forward with the original design.

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

We think the comments were great, uh, but we don't necessarily think we have the funding.

Move forward with Civic Park uh at the 455 range, or defer Civic Park and go to Walden Park and uh build that out for the 245.

Uh option number three is what I shared.

I jumped ahead a little bit.

Uh we can kind of do a little bit of mix and matching, um, accept the amended design, recommended staff to seek the additional funding for civic and or walden.

Um, so uh we'll get into questions.

I was gonna ask if that made sense, but we'll I'll ask that when it uh again in question.

So your action for tonight is to provide feedback on the data and the comments received by the community during the public outreach process and the amended designs.

Um and to be more specific, I'm I'm really looking for a um some pretty detailed um direction uh from the commission so that I know I know where to go in terms of next steps and if it has to do with funding, it'd be great to get that recommendation from the from the PROS Commission because I'll have to take that to council.

So uh with that being said, uh Chair Cook, I'll open it up for questions.

Uh questions from the commissioners.

I have a question, Mike.

So if we were to go with option three, um how much additional that are we um asking?

Um if we want um to take the the public's recommendation.

I really think we should um because we uh you know 600 participants, we can't ignore their input, and I think the shades is a really good um recommendation.

So that will be like 540 for civic plus two forty-five for Walden.

Is that right?

Correct.

If you want to do all of Walden.

Okay.

Um I mean favor of option three.

For the both parks, complete renovation of both, excuse me, of both parks, okay.

From a procedural uh situation, I think we ask questions now, get public comment, then we'll get our own comment.

So um I'm I'm not trying to take it away from you, but but I do have a question.

Um do we have um usage data on Walden and uh Civic Park?

We do not.

Um I can tell you from 15 years of experience that uh Heather Farm is our number one, you know, most used uh playground that we have, and then Civic is second.

Um and Civic is uh heavily heavily impacted.

Uh Walden Park, not so much.

Right.

Uh we do have the youth, the you know, the two to five year olds there, the younger kids every day, same groups of you know, dozens and dozens show up, but the older kids are not uh participating that often.

And did the comments um indicate who used which, who uses which, or were they just generic?

Generic.

Okay.

Um the age of Walden's uh playground equipment versus the age of Civic.

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

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

There was.

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

We also got some grant money uh to make the necessary ADA improvements at that time, and also some renovations to some of the slides uh that weren't in great condition.

Some of the play panels, um you've probably seen the bubbles, the glass bubbles that the kids look through.

Some of them have fogged up and those types of things, and we made improvements back in 2015.

Okay.

Um but that was the last time we made improvements to either park.

Okay, and do we see any opportunity to uh utilize some of the grants that we've had in the past on certain types of equipment that can go, whether it's shade or otherwise?

Is there any opportunity there?

We can seek that.

Um that that we do as part of this package here uh through game time, we did receive um a grant uh which reduced the cost down to what this is including the grant funding that we received, which I think was in somewhere around the eighty thousand dollar range, but we could potentially seek additional grants that is going to slow things down a little bit.

We could um find out whether or not we could use some recycle smart money and pose that question to uh council if if that's the direction uh we want to go.

Thank you.

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

So um if the usage for five to twelve um is relatively low compared to the other um Civic park and the two and uh two to five at Walden Park.

What does deferment look like if we were to defer that piece of the Walden Park in terms of timeline and um secured future funding?

Yeah, that great question.

So if we were to defer Walden, uh we would put it on our CIP, our 10-year CIP, and we would continually have that conversation every two-year cycle with the uh PROS Commission as we come in the spring of every other year to talk about what our two-year capital budget is going to look like.

All of those projects that are on our CIP are listed, and an opportunity for the PROS Commission to weigh in on what their priorities are.

So potentially the five to twelve at Walden could come back at the next cycle, um, and if there's an influx in developer fees, uh which is what um pays into the park and loo fund, uh maybe there's an opportunity at that point.

Yeah.

Thank you.

And actually, that's but that brings me to a point I for I forgot to mention.

There's currently somewhere between six and seven hundred thousand dollars uh in reserves in the park and loo fund that is unappropriated at this time.

That was actually gonna be my question.

Was what does that look like?

Um but I just want to clarify.

So number three, except amended designs, the amended part are the three additional standalone merry-go-round like things, right?

Yep, and the shade.

Correct.

Okay, so um, but so number three really is accept those amended designs, but only, and then it says and or wall, the civic and or Walden.

So there's still an option to say, yeah, let's do all of what's been recommended at Civic Park for now, and we'll work on the other uh Walden Park later in the CIP.

And and table Walden Park for a future, yeah, discussion.

And that's essentially number three, yes.

Right.

That's correct.

But we the part the funding would it would all still be dependent on funding.

Yes, okay.

And then about the funding, so the company that you have in a um a contract with right now for design, are they also acquiring the equipment?

Should we okay?

You don't have to go out for bid for any of this.

No, okay.

So this price is real.

Yes.

Okay.

Um maybe a side question, but how is measure is measure o eligible for providing some of the benefit here without dipping into reserves for the park and loo?

That that could be a um that would be a question for city council.

Yeah, and and it could be part of the staff report, assuming we get the recommendation, it could be seek funding from other sources such as recycle smart park and loo, measure o, those types of things could be part of the staff report, yes.

And the the shade is specifically for civic, not heather, or or Walden, I think you mean.

Or Walden.

Yeah.

Uh that's correct.

We we only added the shade at this point.

We we could go back and add shade at uh at Walden.

Um, but there wasn't a uh that wasn't in the proposal.

Any and nobody in the surveys was or that wasn't part of the survey, is shade.

No, it was part of the survey.

But Civic was the focus, is what you're saying.

I have to think, yeah, just for a second.

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

I don't think they were though.

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

Yeah.

Are there any um just I don't know how to phrase this right, but um if the if the use isn't there at Walden, um could we just do something smaller?

I know it would be more design money, probably, um, because there is currently a playground for that age group there, correct?

Yeah, and that's and is it safe?

It meets safety and ADA requirements as it stands.

So the five to twelve meets meets all the local and and state laws.

They're all of our playgrounds do, to be quite honest with you.

Um it's the it's the two to five.

This the amenities that are in the sand um that are about twenty thousand dollars to replace those amenities, which are the ones that are are most frequently used because the kids like the sand and they're smaller um but those amenities uh get worn out quicker because of the sand the impact that the sand has uh both on the plastic and some of the wood framing um and so those those amenities are the two to five the twenty thousand dollar amenities are looking pretty tired.

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

Yes and and defer the five to twelve yes just feedback based on my friend group but the the younger kids walden but then if the old the older kids are more interested in going to Heather.

Yeah yeah and that's that's what I've seen as well.

Yeah and if they're not with their parents just through the trail system you know the trails right there it's a quarter mile to to one yeah yeah that I've seen as well.

Okay.

Are there questions for Mike?

Okay well uh any questions from the public regarding the um proposed uh options on our playgrounds which we have by the way gone over uh in in as Mike initially pointed out in a lot of detail the specifics on all the the different options and and whatnot so this was kind of like the final report as to uh moving forward which is what you're looking for Mike yes of uh and you're looking for consensus here or uh yes please okay who wants to go first on uh on providing uh their their input on one two or three art you look eager um so um I think we need to get on with it first of all and that drives my desire to uh accept original designs.

Um but I I want to land at at one point five instead of one or two.

I want to do something for Walden.

Um in in the two to five area at least a um what's what's the terminology you used on the uh it's like a la carte menu where you pick the the amendment yeah yeah uh something and still hit our budget target of five hundred as close as we can at or below uh so we can get on with it.

So um we can always add things later and through the processes that we have in terms of the the two year cycles and everything else and um sometimes we defer items from the current schedule and maybe we have a little money we can spend on additional items here.

So I'd like to get on with it except uh original designs for civic uh which means I think we have to hold off in the shade, right?

And um and add a a feature or two for the two to fives in uh Walden.

Sorry we're difficult Mike.

No it's it's it's a good comment and and I don't mean interrupt because I know you guys are uh gonna gonna share your comments but in the other because you're absolutely right Commissioner Ohler we can go back in and add a spinny wheel in the future those types of things um but but I also want to verify that we can go back and add the shade because there might be an option based on the the structural posts that the post can be amended to add that shade in the future.

So I'll I'll double check on that as well.

Yeah.

Always a good idea.

I it's and I'm not trying to say we don't need shade.

I'm just trying to say we need to get moving, and if we can add shade down the in the future, that's great.

I don't think any of our playgrounds are currently shaded, are they?

There are very small shades shade uh roofs at at piece uh parts of um Heather Farm uh but built into the built into the structures, not bigger correct shade, I'm spit that that's correct.

Yeah, but we don't have any.

Okay.

Other thoughts on this topic?

Is that is that a vote for a specific item there that we're going to be able to do?

Yeah, I understood from Commissioner Ohler, and and please uh clarify if I'm incorrect that we go with the original design at Civic Park, uh which was in the 455 range.

Um we do not include any of the additional amenities or shade um until possibly at a later date and we move forward with the improvements to the two to five at Walden.

Is that accurate?

Yeah.

So if if I'm hold if my numbers are accurate, it would be 455 plus 20,000 for Walden, we'd be in the 475 range.

Right.

You're correct.

Uh I want to oh, sorry, go ahead.

Okay.

So since we have 500, should we also I so I agree that we should write time is money and costs are gonna go up and we've been given 500,000, that's the budget, that's the budget.

And so we'll do our best within that.

So but so there's still 25,000 left, so we could potentially add one or two of the amenities at civic.

You could, or you could potentially add shade to one or the other uh amenities or one of the other structures in um yeah, it's great point.

So so the three amenities, sorry I'm jumping around here, but the three amenities were about a total of uh 30,000, and the two shade structures, or sorry, the the shade structures at each of the playgrounds was somewhere around 55.

And so assuming the smaller one was 25, the bigger one was 30, that that's also an option as well.

Well, I would like that.

I would like the option to use to add shade within the budget, because then we're being responsive to the feedback that we received.

Okay.

With the finance background, she wants to get it right to the total, right to the dollar amount.

I like it.

So I have um my current thinking.

So uh for option three, um, if we go with um the shade recommended by the um the the public from the outreach effort, so that will be 540K, is that right?

And if we So it's five forty plus the and that includes the other three amenities, the spinners and the climbing wall, which are about 30,000.

Okay, yes.

So we have everything for 540K.

Correct.

And then if we do um Walden Park two to five, that's 20, so uh 20K, right?

Correct, additional 60,000, yes.

So okay.

So we need to ask for if we were go to the council for additional funding, it will be 60 K additional funding.

Correct.

Approximate approximate, yes.

Approximately funding if we asked for more.

Yeah.

And council may, you know, as as was pointed out by Chair Cook, there might be other options.

Okay.

Um, but there is funding in park and loo, doesn't mean that they're gonna appropriate it, but the the money is there, yes.

How much time were we adding to the process by waiting for a council to make a decision uh if we were to ask for more funding?

Um probably a couple months.

Yeah, and potentially potentially less than that.

Yeah.

And just for everybody's uh education, how was the original five hundred thousand dollar budget determined?

It was likely a staff recommendation to the PROS commission.

I don't I mean, it came up in 20 the spring of 23 when we were getting ready for the next two-year cycle.

So I don't remember specifically, but typically those numbers come from staff because we have the experience we've done the research.

So I think it was a staff number.

Yeah.

Was it based on the balance in the park and loo uh fund at the time or is it specifically based on what they thought it was gonna call what projected costs of to do all of this?

Yeah, that i i it was probably based on my projection.

Um I don't remember us uh making that decision based on the available funding in the park and loo.

I think it was an estimated uh it was an estimate that uh likely I gave to be honest with you.

Not it didn't come from engineering, it came from me, yeah.

I'd like us to try one time, like one make some effort to um get the extra 60,000 to be able to do the shade and the um amenities, but I also support not waiting very long, you know.

In other words, not going on some huge, you know, grant cycle or anything like that.

It's just look, can we get this?

Is there a way to some other project underspend?

I mean, is there a fairly simple way to transfer the money that we need to do it and then get it done?

But if not, then I I would support us, you know, continuing um to actually build, you know, get it built.

And you know, I think it'll be a really nice whether it has shade or not, really.

Um most parks don't.

So yes, it's nice that if we can do it, but but I don't want us to just assume we can't get it very easily.

I'd like you guys to that your staff to try um see what they can come up with in a reasonable amount of time, a couple of months, like you said, that type of thing.

So yeah, and I I certainly think that's doable.

You know, it'd be great to be in construction, you know, late winter, early spring, so that when summer hits, right, or or getting close to summer that these structures are in place and and the community can enjoy uh you know we we've been talking about it since 23.

Spring will be 26.

Um, you know, be nice to get it done.

Yeah.

Well, um would we be is there are there any other big projects out there that that the park and loo funding may need to use to in terms of accessing the reserves we've currently got?

Anything out there that could that by us seeking this funding we're derailing something else, uh no, not that I can think of off the top of my head.

I mean, we are out to bid for phase two uh to build the new community center and pool.

Uh we haven't got those bids back yet.

Um so you know, I'm not city council, I don't get to appropriate, but sometimes that funding can be used to offset some other uh additional costs that were anticipated.

But those other costs could also be measure O related funding as well.

They could be, yes.

Okay.

Measure O's been it's been pretty well tapped, but we're not talking huge dollars here.

Right, right.

Are uh Commissioner Older, does this uh new information uh uh change any since you started this conversation?

I'll just go back to you.

Uh not really.

My uh my reason for pressing is um I think I have been consistently asking for support and dollars to do something for Civic Park and also the creek for a long time because of the growth of Walnut Creek has all been down here.

The growth of Walnut Creek doesn't occur outside the downtown area.

And there are a lot more people that want to use that park and do use the park, but it's it's really shown its age, and I'd like to get it done, and we don't have to ask permission because we already have the the 500,000, we can go forward with it.

I want to go forward with it.

That's that's I just I know things may happen within two months and things may not happen within two months.

And the answer could be no.

So I'd like to say let's go with it.

Um that Walden does have um I know it's county property that but there was a lot of units being built uh right across the street, you know, across the street and uh a hundred you know feet down uh to the north of uh uh of Walden Park there.

And how many do you happen to know off your hand off the top of your head how many units are being in going to the former Palmer School uh location?

Uh I don't I do not, but I drive by it regularly.

It's gotta be a hundred plus.

Yeah, yeah.

Um I'm a physically responsible person and also a financial person, but I'll go for number three and say uh uh because I think Walden is gonna be pretty key and get a whole lot more uh attention when those un if those units are when are they scheduled to be completed or they are it looked like the people are living in some of those units are are being lived in.

Yes, it's gotta be young people with kids in those units.

Um they don't have we didn't we don't have a way of taking any surveys or getting a handle on like who's moving in there and how many kids there and what the impact is to schools and I know that's way off target here, but we're point or uh no, I mean I I could I could reach out, you know, go by the the front desk there and and see if they have an average on how many families are moving in.

I think that would be good as far as making a case to council as to why we need the additional funding specifically for Walden given the pressure that we're gonna be receiving from that large development that the county put on us this for the city of Walnut Creek and maybe get some fund, you know.

They'll look favorably on that.

I'm sorry that it may delay that topic, but um that's my two cents.

Okay.

Um so we're we're divided.

Commissioner Conson, do you have any?

You have a recommendation?

One, two, or three?

Um I personally am uh leaning more towards uh two because the way I see at Civic Park is our second most popular uh park, while uh maybe focusing more on Walden will uh create uh uh will allow more people to uh get interested and um uh if uh the question um if we focus uh like defer one of the parks, will all the fifty five hundred thousand go to uh just the park or just the two forty five thousand to Walton, yeah.

So it's a good question.

Um Commissioner uh Sasser uh made a comment about using the original design, which was in line with Commissioner Oler for Civic Park, but with the forty-five thousand dollars or fifty thousand dollars remaining, adding maybe one or more of the amenities that the community reached out about, you know, getting it somewhere into the four seventy-five range and then spending you know the remainder if I if I've got my numbers correct and it's 25,000 to put shade over the two to five at civic, you know, that's kind of touching, that's using the whole five hundred thousand dollars up, um, and it's touching various various parts.

So um you know there's another option, and I'm sure we could potentially make this work.

Um, if you had the original design at Civic, which is the 455, you didn't add the other three amenities, which were 30,000, but you added the 55,000 in shade, so you're getting the shade, so now you're at 510.

Um I'm sure we could you know figure out how to get that 10,000 dollars and then potentially add those other amenities, those spinners and the rock climbing wall in the future that wouldn't necessarily leave any money for an upgrade for the two to five at uh at Civic, or sorry, at Walden, but maybe there's an opportunity to move forward with Civic.

Um and I'm not trying to convince you, I'm just sharing information.

Maybe there's an opportunity to move forward with Civic now based on what I shared, and then seek additional funding for the $20,000 or $30,000 improvements at Walden as well.

So maybe that maybe that's an opportunity too.

So at least we are getting one of the projects under contract and we are moving forward.

So we're talking about maybe breaking this up a little bit, moving forward with Civic and then seeking additional funding on the other one.

But that wouldn't that'll we can break that up like that.

Yes.

Alright, well that that works.

I certainly support that because it's it's it's working civic first and maximizing what we can do for them immediately and then continue to work to try to get uh more funds for other things for civic and for Walden.

Give us Vice Chair Pinkstaff.

Are you in favor of that?

So will that be option three?

That is uh option three point one three point one that is on the yeah, you know, in the moment option.

I think the shade is really important.

I just remember um my children uh you know at that civic park in the summer.

I I I would incorporate that.

And yeah, I would go for that uh proposal.

Commissioner Garland.

Um yeah, I would be okay with pursuing Civic first using our full budget, and if you can conjure up a few extra thousand, you know, do as much of that extra at Civic as possible, and then defer Walden.

Although it concerns me a little bit that you said the two to five is showing its age at Walden, and if that's a lot of new families coming in, that could be who's gonna be using it.

And I'm curious whether the county had to give Walnut Creek any money because it's all you know, Walnut Creek roads, parks, schools, etc.

that are going to be affected by the housing right there.

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

Um I know in the past the county has been uh has given so going dating back to 2012-2013 when we were building the Allability Playground, the county contributed $500,000 of their park and loo money towards that playground.

And so that's a potential funding source that we could reach out to along with some recycle smart money or or some other funding opportunities that may exist.

I mean it does sort of make sense what what commissioner Aller was saying that if we just let's just get one done fully, and then we in the meantime instead of delaying everything while we look for more money, start that process, and then it may it's likely to take more than a couple of months.

So that does make sense to keep that viable as a plan, but then really, you know, get some staff working on trying to get money from whatever sources available.

I mean, I I support that.

And to your comment earlier, just so we're on the same page, the two to five at at Walden is showing its age, but it's it's not in disrepair.

It's uh it's going to survive for a few more years until we can get to it.

Commissioner Sasser?

Right.

I agree to move forward with Civic.

And Commissioner Conson?

Uh yeah, I also agree.

And as do I, so there's consensus.

There you go, Mike, as your orders.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Fantastic job, as always.

And um with that, I think we're closing out the meeting.

Okay.

Great.

Uh, this concludes the October 6th, 2025 PROS Commission meeting.

We are adjourning.

So we're sorry, just so we're closing out considerations.

I do have a couple staff reports that I want to report.

Do you want to uh move on?

Unless there were some commissioner is there commissioner updates or you can go first, Karen.

Oh, sorry.

Go ahead.

Um my staff report or announcement, Karen Houston Martin program manager.

Um I just want to invite our community out on Friday, October 24th to Civic Park for our sixth annual trunk retreat um put on by Arts and Recreation.

From three to four, we will be hosting a low sensory hour, and then from four to six, we will have music, movement, activities, giveaways, and of course, lots of trunk retreating.

So I invite all of our community to come out and enjoy this um free and very popular event.

Thank you.

Thank you.

So we have a quick video here, a time-lapse video of phase one at Heather Farm, and then we're gonna roll into the time-lapse video for the synthetic turf fields.

If you look closely at that floating island that's kind of going back and forth, just to the other side of that floating island, you'll start seeing a car show up.

There's a an old car in the bottom of the pond.

Did we know the car was there?

We did not.

No, we did not.

When the water's down low enough, we can see the windshield, the motor, seats.

But this was not a city vehicle.

Best of our knowledge, it's not, yes.

It's kind of starting to show up a little bit there.

Right along the lake edge there, close to the far side there.

You can see like twos, looks like the back of two seats.

Did they suck the fish out, or how'd they get the fish out of there?

So we had biologists on site that were there to uh move the fish from one lake to the other and make sure that the environment was protected yet.

This is uh ball field two.

Is it a permit for this drone?

I assume.

There was a permit for this drone.

No, actually, no, it wasn't.

There's no permits yet.

So that's called a Brock pad.

So in years past, you would see the infield material used to be rubber, like shredded tires basically.

Now they use this.

This is newer technology.

They have this absorbent pad, uh called a Brock pad that they put underneath the turf.

Our infield material is sand, and I think it's olive pit.

Mike, what how do they join the glue the seams?

Oh, yeah.

Yeah, they used to stitch them and gotten away from stitching, and now they glue the seams.

This is gonna show the most of ball field two getting completed.

Um, if you're out if you get a chance to go buy ball field one, uh probably 70% of the turf is on ball field one now.

Um laying the turf out in the broad pad and that that black liner you see is uh is is a lot of work gluing the seams down, but there's two weeks of infill material that you bait you go out with a spreader and you just keep throwing it around, you got to brush it all in.

It takes a few weeks before the fields are uh complete.

So you see the posts on either side of the light poles.

Those posts are gonna have nets on them so that the balls can't leave the uh the playing field of the so that that was it.

I just had one other um update.

Uh there were some comments earlier about our e-bike policy that I brought uh to the commission um earlier this year.

Uh the e-bike policy is um based on the feedback that we received is is being revisited by the city manager's office.

The city manager's office is looking into developing a citywide uh e-bike ordinance to absorb all of the parts of Walnut Creek and not just specifically call out the parks and open space.

And so city uh city staff, um, I believe the chief in the city manager's office is going to be providing a presentation on October 21st uh during a study session at this at the city council meeting, uh, which is at six o'clock.

You're welcome to view it online.

You're welcome to come down here and participate, but there will be a study session with City Council on the 21st of October, uh, specifically geared to e-bikes.

And uh it's more of an update on which direction the staff is going and wanting to get some feedback from council uh to ensure we're headed down the right road.

So, and that's it for me.

Okay.

Uh and we're ready for adjournment.

That's correct.

All right.

Uh, this concludes the October 6, 2025 PROS Commission meeting.

We're adjourned to December 1st, 2025.

Uh, scheduled meeting.

Thank you very much for attending, everybody.

Great to see you.

Great job.