Discussions were broad-based and sometimes meandering at the June 29 special Hollister City Council meeting that also included members of the Parks and Recreation Commission to discuss future goals, objectives and policies on new and existing parks, in particular, Frank Klauer Memorial Park and the Skatespot at Dunne Park.
After a brief rundown of the current situation at various parks, Bill Avera, city manager, said the city would be hiring a consultant to draw up a park master plan, which he said will take considerable time.
“A park master plan is fairly lengthy, especially when we’re talking about new parks and identifying new park areas there’s going to be some CEQA (California Environmental Quality Act) review that’s also a part of that, so if there are any questions now is the time for you folks to get the word out there and make sure we understand exactly what you’re looking for,” he said. “As soon as that master plan is done, we would expect to update the park impact fees to reflect that new model and make sure if we have larger activity-type parks of five or 10 acres or more identified out there we can start looking at what the acquisition costs of those are.”
A part of any plan, Avera said, is to make sure that not only should they be looking at potential areas where developers are setting aside land, but they should also be looking at where future large parks might be located so they can begin the process of acquiring those properties. He went on to explain that while they wait for the master plan to be drawn up the city will continue to make improvements to existing parks.
“I don’t know if you folks have been up to Park Hill lately, but we have a number of projects going on there,” he said. “We’re not done yet. We’re hoping to continue with the baseball field. We have done extensive work at Dunne Park. We had opening ceremonies for Junior Giants. There are now 753 participants in the program. They weren’t all there, but it was packed.”
He also said additional improvements have been made at Valley View (Whale) Park, including shade structures and a couple new play areas.
After Avera’s comments, Mayor Ignacio Velazquez suggested the discussion might be broken down into questions for Avera about future goals, policies, existing parklands, dog parks and skate parks. Councilman Raymond Friend agreed, saying that the park study would tell them plans for long-term projects, but said some parks needed immediate action.
Councilman Karson Klauer said that when the council had been looking at the park study he did not think the number of acres per 1,000 people gave an accurate representation of what was actually happening in the community.
“When we do this new plan are we going to actually figure out how we’re going to get to those numbers and have useable acres?” he asked.
Avera told the others that what Klauer was referring to was that in the last impact fee study the joint-use agreements with the school districts that a lot of parklands were considered acreage for whatever goals were desired for parks. He added, however, that there was a degree of disingenuousness on the school district’s part in that even though the city has the ability to use some of those lands through the joint-use agreements, the use was limited in scope, and becoming even more so.
“As Rancho San Justo starts to implement their middle school sports program again, they have closed off the school to some extent,” he said. “The citizens aren’t really able to get on those fields until 5:30 or 6 o’clock at night and sometimes 7 o’clock. That’s one of the things we need to acknowledge in the new plan is that although we have these agreements, the facilities have limited usefulness.”
Klauer asked Avera if there had been any movement toward a joint-use agreement with Ladd Lane Elementary School. Avera said it is in the county and he wanted to make sure the city had not gone outside of its jurisdiction to form any such agreement, but said the city could approach the school to do so. Klauer went on to ask if there would be an opportunity to add some shade at Brigantino Park on the city’s west side, even though it was not yet officially a park. He said since it is being watered couldn’t some trees be planted there for shade. Avera said he didn’t see why they couldn’t do so.
Velazquez commented that he understood the school district was having a meeting to discuss increasing fees to the city. He also said it’s important for everyone to know where they’re headed. He asked Avera if he had been part of any conversations with the school district or county about the possibility of converting Brigantino Park into a regional park. Avera said he had not had any with the county about a joint project connected to Brigantino. He added that the school has a large property south of the school that he was expecting them to come to the city to propose some sort of a financial agreement.
“As far as the Hollister School District, the agreements are not only complicated from a facilities rental perspective, they are raising the rates and making our basketball program more expensive,” he said. “But it’s also the maintenance agreements that we have with them it appears, through doing some forensic financial analysis, I think we’ve been severely overcharged over the past several years for maintenance and staffing. Essentially, we’re paying for school staff to maintain parks that we don’t spend a lot of time on. That’s one of the things we have to delve into further. Is that what the contract was really intended to do?”
The mayor spoke of conversations with the Intergovernmental Committee about the county wanting to partner on a number of projects, including an aquatic center, a ballpark, and perhaps a recreational center. He said if conversations aren’t finalized the city can decide to move forward on its own and asked if then it could put forward a fee on all new construction to help build those facilities on both the city’s and county’s side.
“The problem is we have a conversation and then three months later we’re mad at each other for whatever reason and we stop working on it,” Velazquez said. “Then the public gets upset and we start working on it again. How do we commit to it and put in the right fee structure so we can actually accomplish these?”
Avera said the classic example was the planned aquatic center that involves three different potential locations. He said everyone needs to figure out who it would belong to — the school, the county or a combination of both. He said it would make sense if it belonged to the school so it would have access for its water polo and swim teams. And then the city would be on board as a financial partner.
“I don’t know how to get us from here to there because things change on a regular basis,” he admitted.
Friend said he recalled during Intergovernmental Committee meetings working extensively on the regional park and it was his understanding that the county was planning on using part of the revenues from the new sales tax to help with the park. But now that the supervisors have voted not to move forward on the tax, he wondered if the county intended to still be involved with the regional park.
“Where does that put the regional park?” he asked.
Commissioner Jason Ballew responded, “To be honest, they’re (county) pushing the more grandiose plans off a little bit right now. I don’t know if they’re moving forward on it at all. They’ve had some staff changes over there and the people who left were the ones pushing, so there may be some issues because of that.”
Velazquez wondered if the city could go it alone to put forward fees for new developments.
“We can say we’re going to do the aquatic park first, the recreational center first, whichever so we’re moving towards it, and we’re not changing directions every year,” he said.
Avera said the city could identify projects in its master plan and set priorities and implementation goals, and the associated fee schedules. Brad Sullivan, city attorney, said if the city did so it would make the county want to keep up. If the city were to come up with a fee schedule, he said the county would be more likely to buy-in.
Commissioner Karen Percival asked how long it would take for the master plan to be completed. Avera said it would most likely be two years, minimum. She said if that were the case, would that mean they would not be able to implement any fees. He told her that any impact fees always require a Nexus that sets out specific capital improvements or land acquisitions.
Klauer said he was disappointed that the county had decided not to move forward with the regional park because it was an “easy out” for his district in getting a park. He said now that the development of a regional park is going even slower it is more important to do something for his district.
“I was hoping that would be the open space for the 9,000 people of District 3 to go to because they have nowhere to go right now,” he said.
Avera said the situation with the regional park might make a joint agreement with Ladd Lane more important. He said he did not know who holds the option on the property south of Ladd Lane and that perhaps the city might consider it if the school is not going to expand in that direction. He compared it to the joint relationship the city has with Calaveras Elementary School in which it and the city share a park, saying something similar might be possible at Ladd Lane.
Friend said it is important to go back to the Intergovernmental Committee to be clear where the county now stands so the city can decide which direction it wants to take, whether the county is involved or not.
“Are we going to wait for the county,” he said. “They’re track record isn’t very good.”
Ballew suggested he meet informally with county’s Parks and Recreation to see where they stand. He said it has been at least five months since they’ve been able to have an official meeting. Councilman Victor Gomez said it might be helpful to include Parks and Recreation in the Intergovernmental Committee meetings. He also commented on Percival’s question about impact fees and said a Nexus study on traffic impact fees had moved forward quickly, possibly because there was considerable political support in getting the fees updated. He said he believed the study of impact fees on new projects could move forward as quickly as a year.
“I’m confident we can move it along a lot faster, if the political will is there, if the council is supportive of it and the parks commission, and depending on how our conversations go with the county,” he said.
Avera said the difference between traffic impact fees and the master plan is the amount of public input. He said the last master plan took two years because of the public outreach. He said traffic impact fees move quickly because it’s “just us sitting in a room picking out what streets we want to fund.”
Friend said he thinks they need to make it a priority that before they come up with a master plan that the fees are put in place.
When the topic moved to policies for the commissioners, Percival said as a first-time public servant she was concerned that the commission does not have bylaws and it does not have a voice within each district. She wanted more transparency in order to know what the council members expected of the commission. She said the commissioners did not receive the current parks master plan or even information on the Brown Act (guarantees the public’s right to attend and participate in meetings of local legislative bodies).
“There needs to be more structure so when we get sworn in we have a clear idea what our task is,” she said.
Commissioner Amanda Kennison commented there is no sense in having a parks commission if the commissioners don’t have a job. Ballew, who has been the commission’s chairman for five years, said the sessions have always been informal between it and the city staff, and it was often difficult to have a quorum. He said it often takes six months or longer just to learn the basics. He said when Percival was elected she pointed out a number of things that were obviously wrong that the rest of the commission had figured out over two terms. Percival said she would like to see more communication with the council to discuss what residents are saying they would like to see regarding parks.
“I understand we’re here to be an advisory commission for you,” she said to the council. “I would like you to employ us as much as you can in that capacity.”
As the conversation turned to park features, Councilwoman Mickie Luna said she would like to see a water park on the west side of town. Klauer commented that whatever feature any park might have it should not be determined by two or three residents who live across the street from the park. Gomez just wanted someone to make up their mind if Klauer Memorial Park was a dog park or not. The mayor said in order to determine what the public really wants for parks in their neighborhoods, the commission needed to devise a questionnaire and get it out to the public in order to get their input.
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