With a midyear budget report showing municipal revenues up by almost $3 million over expectations, the Pleasanton City Council moved forward this month with its 11-point list of work-plan priorities, playing catch-up to several years of fiscal restraints during the recent recession.
Although never imperiled financially during the downturn because of prudent reserves, the city pulled back on capital improvements, freezing employee salaries, hiring, equipment and vehicle purchases and curbing plans in the pipeline for new buildings and services. Now the lid is off, with wage adjustments being made for police and firefighters who’ve gone without raises over the last three years. Other employees will likely benefit too when their union contract comes up for renewal.
First on the two-year priority list is the $16.5 million expansion of Bernal Community Park, the 318-acre tract of land along Bernal and Valley avenues. The land was given to the city of Pleasanton in 2000 by Greenbriar Homes, a firm that with its partners paid $126 million to acquire the entire 510-acre Bernal property from the city of San Francisco, which had owned the acreage since the 1930s. In return, Greenbriar and KB Home received approvals to build 530 homes and apartments on Bernal, which have been completed. Another development, called Township Square, is nearing completion. It is located between Safeway and Gateway Center and Bernal Community Park.
Voters approved the Bernal Park master plan several years ago, and lighted baseball fields have since been constructed. The council’s new top priority calls for more sports fields and a 38-acre Oak Woodland, called “Grand Meadow.” It will include trails, tree canopies, meadows and diverse vegetation perceived as natural wilderness.
Extending toward Bernal Avenue from the baseball fields off Valley will be three new all-weather lighted multi-purpose sports fields with synthetic turf, suitable for soccer, football, rugby and lacrosse. Also part of this new project are field seating, parking, restrooms, a children’s playground, picnic area and a storage building.
The council’s decision to move forward with its 2015-16 priorities means that city staff can now seek bids, secure a construction contract and start the work on the Bernal Park improvements. It’s a long-awaited project that will add to the city’s already prestigious portfolio of public parks and sports fields that’s everyone’s top priority.
