|
Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...
|
With a financing agreement in place with Pleasanton’s eight youth sports teams to help pay for the new sports fields and facilities they will use, the City Council Tuesday voted unanimously to build out another major phase of Bernal Community Park, a 318 acre tract of city-owned land that was given to the city of Pleasanton in 2000 by Greenbriar Homes.
The developer, with its partners, paid $126 million to acquire the 510-acre Bernal property from the city of San Francisco, which had owned the acreage since the 1930s. At that time, Greenbriar and KB Home received approvals to build 530 homes and apartments on Bernal, which have been completed and are now occupied.
Voters approved the Bernal park master plan two years ago. Design work on the second part of the plan, or Phase II, has now been completed, and the council’s decision Tuesday means that city staff can issue the request for bids on Dec. 22 for the project, which will cost an estimated $16.5 million.
The planned expansion on the park will closely adhere to the overall master plan prepared by San Francisco landscape architect Michael Fotheringham in 2004. Phase 1 of that plan, the lighted baseball field with parking and other facilities are now in use. Phase II will add more sports fields and also, key to what voters approved, a 38-acre Oak Woodland, which will cost $4.2 million and offer a new open space amenity to Bernal Park.
The “Grand Meadow,” as some call it, will include trails, tree canopies, meadows and diverse vegetation perceived as natural wilderness. Native woodland and grassland components will be included along asphalt and decomposed granite pathways and a trail system.
Three pedestrian foot bridges will be built over a meandering creek and drainage channel. The woodland project will add a diversity of activities in the still largely-undeveloped Bernal park, providing opportunities for walking, jogging and bicycle pathways in a flat central Pleasanton location.
A critical element of the project is its requirement for approximately 115,000 cubic yards of fill soil. So far, no supplier has been found who can meet the city’s strict clean soil specifications, although Assistant City Manager Steve Bocian said Tuesday that he expects a supplier will be found by the time the project goes out to bid.
If the drought continues, much of the water-thirsty landscaping will be delayed or dropped. As part of the bid requirements, the project contractor will still plant trees that are part of the landscaping plan, but will have to irrigate them with trucked-in recycled water until they take root. The Oak Woodland will not be irrigated so all plantings will rely on recycled water.
Bids from contractors will be opened in early February and the awarding of the construction contract is scheduled for the City Council’s Feb. 17 meeting. Completion of Phase II is expected in late 2016.
As part of the arrangement, the eight youth sports leagues signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) that calls for them to launch a fundraising campaign to support the development of Phase II of the park.
The leagues promised to raise up to $2 million towards the development of the sports field portion of Phase II.
Participating groups include Ballistic United Soccer Club, Pleasanton RAGE Girls Soccer Club, Pleasanton American Little League, Pleasanton Foothill Little League, Pleasanton National Little League, Pleasanton Girls Softball League, Pleasanton Lacrosse Club, and Pleasanton Pride Girls Lacrosse Club.
“This MOU really reflects a significant spirit of collaboration that is assisting the City in meeting project funding for this phase of Bernal Park development,” according City Manager Nelson Fialho.
A unique aspect of the MOU is that in the event that within 90 days after the opening of Phase II of Bernal Park, the fundraising campaign has not raised the target amount, then each participating sports group will provide its share of the outstanding fundraising balance over a period of 10 years after the date of the park’s opening.
Under the guidelines of the Bernal Community Park Master Plan, the park is being developed in phases. Phase I, which included lighted baseball fields, play areas, parking and other amenities, is complete and paid for. Phase II has been in the design stage and a construction contract is expected to be awarded in February 2015.
This second phase of the park will include three all-weather lighted multi-purpose synthetic sports fields suitable for soccer, football, rugby and lacrosse, and the 40-acre oak woodland with trails, open space, and passive recreation areas.
Phase II will also include field seating, parking, restrooms, a children’s playground, picnic area and a storage building.
Terrific! I’ve been looking forward to this woodlands/sports park addition to town since the property was sold and the alternative designs were displayed at the library a few years back. This will be a nice addition to town and the City did a great trade-off by allowing a large home development and getting a large new public area. Cool stuff!
Both my kids play Little League unfortunately this year because the fields are always closed at the sports park we have tryouts at Hart middle school on the blacktop. It’s so frustrating for parents who pay hundreds of dollars for the kids to play sports on field that they’re not given access to. The city really should work better with the little leagues and grant more access for things like tryouts and practices. If you want parents to help fund raise for this new field then you need to take care of the children who are involved in sports treat every sport fairly, allow the kids to have a safe place for practices and tryout!
Thank you City Council for remembering the Bernal Master Plan – makes the whole dog park issue much more palatable now
@Jill…the park and recreation department does not close the Pleasanton Sport Park without a good reason. Many generations of kids have had to tryout on blacktop because the fields are unplayable. The sport park has been open for most of year because of continual fair weather. The park does need a rest to allow the fields to recover from the tremendous amount of usage over the spring, summer, and fall seasons. I think your kids’ tryouts are more of a problem for you then your kids. I can remember as a young kid being excited about playing baseball period. If it rained we played on the playground blacktop, if it was sunny we played on a baseball diamond or sandlot. i.e. we made the best of the situation. And for the cost of a baseball, glove, and bat, us neighborhood kids could play from March to October whenever we wanted with no parents telling us what to do and how to do it.
I agree with Bill. The issues are more with the parents than the kids. As kids we played in the dirt, mud, asphalt, whatever. We did not feel entitled to anything. We accepted what we had and enjoyed it.
Jill also has it backwards. She thinks the city should do more to accommodate the sports teams. The city does a great job now. If the sports teams want something specific, they should do the fundraising and be the solution. I am tired of people who want/demand something but think others should pay for it. This behavior is setting a bad example for our kids who now think they are entitled to everything.
Don’t see the Pleasanton Junior Football League or the Pleasanton Cavalier Rugby League in the list of groups to sign the MOU.
These leagues should not be allowed to use the new fields until they agree to pay their fair share.
Bill must not have kids who played football or soccer this season. Football was kicked off the sports park and forced to play at PMS middle school because supposedly the fields were in such bad shape. Soccer was also kicked off early this season because of the field condition. So, The reason they closed the sports park is because they were not maintaining the sports park, hummmm? considering how much money the residents of Pleasanton pay to have these fields maintained shouldn’t more go into taking care of what they have before they build something new? Look at Val Vista soccer fields they were using recycled water and keeping those fields nice and green all year while the Pleasanton sports park fields were dry and in bad shape. I would hate to see the sports park fall into neglect to this new park.
@Pam, recycled water is also planned for Sportspark: http://www.pleasantonweekly.com/print/story/2014/09/19/recycled-water-is-coming-to-ease-the-pain
@Pam-
I have kids who play soccer and for someone who likes to complain, you sure are misinformed.
The sports park was in the condition it was in because of the drought. The city did the best it could but because of the extensive wear had to move the kids for the last two weekends of the season.
I’m sorry. Did that horribly inconvenience you? What is your proposed alternative? Recycled water is coming. Just be patient.
Maybe Pam does not realize that Val Vista is adjacent to the water treatment plant (you would know that by the smell many times of the year at that park). As such, really easy to get the recycled water from them. The Sports Park is not as convenient to recycled water so is not a quick project to get recycled water there. Same as the golf course and other parks.
I am glad the city did not do the normal watering in the sports park with the drought we are in. Would hate that everybody has to conserve water in our homes but the sports players who want a green turf got the water for their activities.
This should have happened when the houses were built (the new park!!) Glad its happening now The City planners have gotten all to good at approving dense housing while being slow at keeping our park ratio high (this is an important aspect of the Ptown quality of life)
I think at the current rate of rain the drought will be behind us soon.
I agree with Ptown Sport Nut — the football and rugby leagues need to get on board. I bet we could rent out their time slots to teams from Livermore or Dublin.
I want to react at “Drought?’s” comment because it is surprising how people think that after few days of heavy rain we can be out of the drought. He/she is not the only one thinking like this.
If you watched the news recently, they said that we need another 44 inches of rain to just get out of the current drought!!!
When you think about it, we had barely no rain since April (just a few days here and there). That is about 8-9 months out of 12 without rain. It is not a week of heavy rain that is going to fix the problem.
For the city, it is a delicate balancing act they have to do between the cost of watering vs. the cost of fixing the parks vs the costs of new parks. One thing for sure is that our current (re-elected) mayor seems to think developing more housing – and therefore increasing our water need – is the solution!
I am generally for progress and development … as long as there is a long term sustaining plan for our natural resources, which doesn’t seem to be a matter of interest for our city leaders!I hope that all recently approved plans/projects will be reviewed in light of a better use of resources.
I read the comments by PTown Sports Nut and Don Fan with amusement. They remind me of those kids who when they didn’t get their way would stomp, pout and then take their ball home. The city charges each league the exact same amount on a per player basis to use the fields throughout town. So the amount collected by Pleasanton is shared proportionately and fairly by all the various sports leagues. While I’ve no insight to why the football and rugby leagues were not involved with sponsoring the development I could reasonably presume that as smaller and newer leagues their finances are probably not as plum as those of the soccer and baseball leagues.
As far as using the newer fields once they are built I doubt the football or rugby league would really care as long as more space was made available to them elsewhere. As a parent that has children who have played soccer, baseball and football in Pleasanton I can say the following with certainty- there is more than enough space to go around. When dropping off my kids for practice during baseball season we pass numerous empty baseball fields. When a field is accidentally double booked or a makeup game is needed they just move to an open field. No problem. With football practice there are often 7-8 teams trying to hold their practice on a single playing field at Hart Middle School. One of my son’s flag football teams would practice at the Hopyard Sports Park even though it wasn’t officially approved practice space by the city, but it was never an issue as there was more than enough room. The soccer teams practicing there were always gracious to allow for this. It is nice to see that cooperation and goodwill are abundant within the sports leagues. My sense is the best approach would be to see how to make things work for all sports leagues within Pleasanton rather than complain or speak negatively about some of the leagues.