Although it’s far from the coast, Pleasanton’s Staples Ranch may soon be a hotbed for shark activity. Sharks ice hockey, that is.
The professional team won’t be practicing in town, but a San Jose Sharks affiliate recently proposed the idea of building an ice rink facility on 8 acres of the 17-acre Staples Ranch Community Park site, which is located at the corner of Interstate 580 and El Charro Road in eastern Pleasanton.
The proposed Sharks facility would be on land reserved for city parks use and would neighbor a future 1.4-million-square-foot senior living community and a 300,000-square-foot auto mall and retail center. The entire Staples Ranch site is owned by the Alameda County Surplus Property Authority and has yet to be annexed to the city. And while the debate over whether to extend Stoneridge Drive lives on, the development doesn’t require a road extension, nor are any cut-through streets planned at this time.
The proposed ice complex would serve anyone from the drop-in figure skater to the diehard hockey player and everyone in between. Designed for individuals, families and groups, it would be an active form of entertainment for both.
The center is practically a duplicate of the affiliate’s Logitech Ice in San Jose, which houses four rinks, locker rooms, a sports restaurant and bar, pro shop, seating and snack area. More than 2,300 adults, high school students and children participate in hockey leagues at the complex, and it also claims to have the largest figure skating program in the Bay Area.
“The second largest [San Jose Sharks] season ticket holder is from the Pleasanton area,” Sharks representative Jon Gustafson said. “There’s also a large potential for skating and youth hockey.”
The facility would offer ice skating and hockey classes for youth, adults and people with special needs. Gustafson said they will also offer curling and broomball, with space for birthday parties and special events.
In order to gauge interest in the facility, the Pleasanton Parks and Recreation Commission held a workshop March 1 where community members could give suggestions for the Staples Ranch park site.
If you build it…
City Councilman Jerry Thorne first brought the idea of a Sharks center to the attention of the council last October. He didn’t know the amount of interest that existed in Pleasanton.“I didn’t realize there was one needed until I started talking with people who play,” he said. “I met a lot of people who ice skate and there are a bunch of people participating. They’re crammed into various rinks around the Bay Area and we do have a need for something like that in the Valley.”
As evidenced by those wearing teal and black Sharks jerseys at the workshop, the idea of an ice rink in Pleasanton brings joy into the hearts of young hockey players and figure skaters.
Nine-year-old Chase Preston, a fourth-grader at Vintage Hills Elementary School, plays hockey for the Tri-Valley Blue Devils. He told the Parks and Recreation Commission that a lack of ice facilities in the area means he often has to practice at Dublin Iceland at 6 a.m. on weekends. With a desire to play in the National Hockey League by age 18, his family will often go to great lengths for practice. In order to attend a recent 20-minute skating lesson in San Jose, he had to get out of school early because traffic meant the round trip would take two hours.
“If you build it, they will come,” he said.
While he also plays soccer and baseball, 9-year-old Nick Powers, another member of the Blue Devils, thinks Pleasanton needs a hockey rink more than grass fields. The closest ice facility is in Dublin, yet the rink isn’t regulation size or lined for hockey and doesn’t have penalty boxes.
Kevin’s mother Patty said they have always been a hockey family and would love to see the proposed facility come to town. Her husband also plays, but reservations are so full in Dublin that he can only play during the summer months after 10 p.m.
“To have a bigger rink would mean that so many more kids would learn about hockey and have space,” Patty Powers said. “It’s good, clean family fun that’s exercise as opposed to going and sitting at the movies. It’s a reasonable cost in our own backyard.”
Another reason Powers thinks Pleasanton should support the ice facility is because of the wide range of people who could use it.
“An ice rink can be used 16 hours a day during all seasons no matter the weather, and not just by a small group of athletes,” she said.
Having multiple rinks would allow for multiple ice activities and groups to participate on a whim, she added.
Giving another choice for young people to be active is important to David Block. A Sharks fan himself, he spoke to the commission about the increasing demand for ice time and updated facilities.
Hockey is not the only ice activity to go into the proposed center, Jean Fahmie told the commission. An ice skater for 53 years, she represented a 460-member skating club of all ages, including a 91-year-old skater. With a rink in Berkeley closing, the group not only wants more ice time, but they also want to hold national competitions. Fahmie even urged the Sharks affiliates to add more than 300 seats to accommodate bigger competitions.
Susan Spitzer, a local soccer player, is concerned that the center would be a regional facility as opposed to something for city use. She said she’d prefer something that would give priority to residents and would allow for more adult use, since children are often the priority.
The idea of a large commercial sports facility in the city’s designated park land didn’t sit well with resident Judith Geiselman. She would rather see the entire 17 acres be used for park activity, adding that children’s involvement in sports has become overkill.
Prioritizing the park
After hearing public comment from about 20 people, the members of the commission each expressed their support for the Sharks ice center. While it may be one step closer to approval, still to be decided is the usage for the remaining 9 acres of the Staples Ranch Community Park.Several groups came forward, urging the commission to consider their cause. Sports and environmental enthusiasts are without the space they desire, they said.
Pleasanton’s youth football league is one of those groups. The teams are growing in popularity but don’t have the field space for games or practices, said Dan Faustina, who coaches the teams. Two teams had to be cut, he said, because the football league is not the top priority group using the Hart Middle School fields. He added that lacrosse and football can use the same fields.
Leonard Cooper spoke on behalf of local tennis players who need more courts. He said the city’s stated number of courts is misleading and falls “way below the national guidelines” because they are located at schools. Adults, he said, don’t have access during the day and only occasionally in the afternoons and early evenings. Cooper requested four to six lighted courts at the Staples site.
Lighted, all-weather fields were favored by John Clinney of Ballistic United Soccer Club (BUSC). Soccer is the dominant sport among Pleasanton youth, he said, and the current number of fields isn’t enough. With weather and limited daylight, the fields are really only available August through Thanksgiving, he said. And like at Val Vista Park, the group would be willing to help pay the bill.
Rich Cimino, a member of the 1,300-member Alameda Creek Alliance who leads bird watches in the area said he has a vested interest in the park area. While he endorsed the plan, he wanted to make sure that the park project focused on a green, continuous space rather than a developed park.
Traffic woes
Although the concern over traffic was only addressed once at the March 1 meeting, Sharks representatives said 90 percent of the traffic would come to Staples Ranch via El Charro, not Stoneridge Drive. To further encourage this route, the main entrance and large parking lot for the ice center would be accessed only by a road to be named Auto Mall Parkway. The remaining 10 percent can access a much smaller lot from Stoneridge Drive, although people would have to walk around the building to gain entry.A representative at the meeting said the facility would see an estimated 3,000 trips each day, adding that Logitech Ice is always “abuzz” with activity. Those attending the meeting didn’t voice any objections to adding more traffic to I-580.
Getting down to business
The March 1 workshop was the first on the Staples Ranch project. The preliminary recommendations made that night by the commission for the allotted community park space are as follows: the ice facility; four to six lighted tennis courts; two all-weather sports fields for soccer, football, lacrosse and possibly a baseball field; restrooms; trail heads; and a dog park. City staff also held a neighborhood meeting last Wednesday to get feedback on the other portion of the Staples Ranch project that includes the senior facility, auto mall and retail center. The meetings are being held to survey the needs of Pleasanton residents so commissioners can make recommendations to the City Council.The research into the possibility of the preliminary recommendations will be brought back to the commission at an April 5 workshop. According to Jim Wolfe, director of Parks and Community Services, the commission hopes to approve the park plans at its April 12 meeting for the Planning Commission and the council to review in June or July.
Formal negotiations would follow the council’s approval, and at that time special land leasing and liability would be discussed. A Sharks representative at the meeting estimated the ice complex would cost $30 million to build and $2 million a year to operate. Still in the preliminary stages, it is expected that the Sharks would pay for the construction and maintenance of the complex. The Sharks may look into building the center in phases, with two rinks at a time, but Gustafson said that decision would be made later.
“The area needs more ice sports and more facilities,” he said.
Even if people aren’t interested in playing sports at the complex, he said the center is designed as a place where someone could stop by for dinner, use wireless Internet access for work or grab a drink.
