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The Pleasanton City Council has decided to table last week’s discussion surrounding proposed improvements to the Lions Wayside and Delucchi parks until a later council meeting this year so the Pleasanton Downtown Association could have more time to provide input.
City Manager Gerry Beaudin told the council that while staff could work on getting the latest plans for the downtown parks on the agenda for next Tuesday (Oct. 17), there might be a chance that it would have to be rescheduled depending on the other items the council will have to hear at that meeting.
The council voted 4-1 in February to halt the Lions Wayside and Delucchi Park Master Plan update process, which was included as part of the downtown transportation corridor plan.
The master plan for both parks had originally started in 1993 — what followed was a decade of design contracts being approved and several designs being evaluated before the 2014 City Council adopted the original master plan.
Some of the original redesign proposals, which would have cost the city roughly $14 million, included relocating the Kottinger Creek further east, relocating the Chan Henderson Bicentennial Bandstand to be on the west side of the creek and reorienting the bandstand to face toward a large open space on the downtown side of Lions Wayside.
Due to environmental regulatory issues with the original plan, staff had to then spend years designing and updating the conceptual plan before coming up with one in 2021 that met the regulatory requirements.
But after a decade of design work, evaluations and discussions, several council members on Feb. 7 thought the complete redesign was too costly — even though staff had said they didn’t have the actual cost estimates — and that the designs were ultimately unnecessary.
Following the council’s direction in February, staff were ready to present several recommendations from the Parks and Recreation Commission on Oct. 3 for a cheaper conceptual design plan that would utilize $1.9 million from the Lions Wayside and Delucchi Parks Capital Improvement Project budget.
The recommendations included moving the Chan Henderson Bicentennial Bandstand at Lions Wayside to the north side of the park in order to “create a stronger connection to the Firehouse Arts Center and a larger lawn area,” according to last week’s staff report.
The Parks and Recreation Commission also endorsed modernizing the bandstand to match the Firehouse Arts Center, even though it was equally split on either that option or the option of keeping the bandstand’s look more traditional to compliment the “Victorian-style homes on First and Second Street.”
The commission provided an alternative of only moving the bandstand about 10 feet further east from where it currently is located to “avoid encroaching on the regulatory agencies’ jurisdiction.” In this concept, the lawn space would be more limited.
The recommendations from the commission also came with requests that the council provide some direction on Phase 2 improvements, which wouldn’t be funded with the existing $1.9 million. Those improvements that the commission wants the council to weigh in on are possibly constructing a playground, a restroom or a lawn with seating to provide more concert viewing areas.
But instead of discussing these options on Oct. 3, Vice Mayor Jack Balch made a motion at the beginning of the meeting to continue the item until the Oct. 17 meeting after the PDA sent a letter to the council earlier that day.
According to the correspondence, the PDA was set to discuss the design proposals for the first time during its Board of Directors meeting this week.
“The Board of Directors for the Pleasanton Downtown Association has carefully reviewed the staff report regarding the Lions Wayside and Delucchi Park Conceptual Plans,” PDA Interim Executive Director Laura Brooks wrote in her letter to the council. “At this time, we formally request that this item be continued to the Oct. 17 City Council meeting so that the PDA has the opportunity to provide thoughtful comment on both the proposed conceptual plans and elements of Phase 2.”
According to Beaudin, that date is possible but the challenge is that the Oct. 17 meeting is already slated to be a busy one and he doesn’t want to delay other items that would be more time sensitive.
Beaudin did however say that he believes if the parks discussion doesn’t get to the Oct. 17 meeting, it should be back in front of the council sometime before the end of the year.
Mayor Karla Brown said that she does want the PDA to be aware of the proposed changes to the parks and clarified with Beaudin that the association was notified about the proposals back in September.
However, Brooks wrote in her letter that while the PDA doesn’t want to hinder the progress of the project, she feels the PDA deserves the “opportunity to fully understand all elements of the proposed project and provide comment before this is moved into the next stage.”
“The Lions Wayside and Delucchi Park Project has been a top priority for our organization for nearly 15 years,” Brooks wrote.
“We have attended numerous council meetings and worked collaboratively with city staff through multiple rounds of community outreach, planning workshops, state and local governmental outreach and conceptual design development,” she added. “We are champions for this project and want to see the eastern gateway of downtown become a beautiful and functional amenity for the entire community to enjoy for decades to come.”
Originally, the staff report stated that the construction for whatever plan the council decides to go with will be tentatively scheduled to start next summer, with a projected completion date before the 2025 summer concert series.
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