Library Board - Regular Meeting

Okay. Well, good evening and welcome to the 07/10/2025 Alameda Recreation and Park Commission meeting. Could we start this evening with a roll call please?

Commissioner Alexander. Present. Commissioner Bernie.

Present.

Commissioner Robbins.

Present.

Chair Ades.

Present. Thank you. The first item on our agenda is non agenda public comment. Members of the public may speak for three minutes regarding any matter not on the agenda. Commissioners will not respond to comments or answer questions. The city welcomes speakers providing public comment, but please be advised that this is a limited public forum. As such, speakers must stay on topic if speaking to a particular agenda item. And if speaking during non agenda public comment, they must address matters within the subject matter jurisdiction of the city. If speakers fail to follow these rules, they'll be warned. And if they continue to disregard the rules, their opportunity to speak will be ended. Do we have any non agenda public speakers this evening?

No non agenda public speakers. None.

Great. In that case, our next item is our staff communication from Recreation and Park Director Long. Director Long.

Good evening, commissioners. I just wanna go over some events that are coming up and some updates from the department. So for upcoming citywide events, we have the Rhythmics Rising Sea performance series taking place on Saturdays, one through 4PM on July 12 and August 23. July 12 will take place at Shoreline Park on Bay Farm Island, and August 23 will take place at Bohol Immigrant Circle Park. Also, the Apollo eleven splashdown anniversary is taking place on July 19 at 10AM to 5PM on the USS Hornet to celebrate the nineteen sixty nine moon landing.

Our Alameda Walk series takes place Saturdays at 9AM. July 19 is the next one at the Alameda hospital that'll be led by Pat Russi. You meet in the Alameda hospital front entrance. On July 26, Harbor Bay Isle Walk will be led by Devin Dennis Evan Stronsky. This will take place at Lydecker Park.

And then August 2 at Crown Beach will be the west to east walk, and it'll be led by the East Bay Regional Park District naturalist Susan Ramos. And then on August 23, we'll have the Alameda BeltLine and Alaska Packers Walk, and that'll take place at Marina Cove Waterfront Park. For our recreation upcoming events and activities, we have our Starlight movies in the park, which will take place on July 25 at 06:30 at the Alameda Multipurpose Field. Then again on August 22, we'll have Mufasa the Lion King also taking place at multipurpose field in Alameda Point. Just a reminder, July is National Park and Recreation Month, so please celebrate your appreciation visiting local parks, recreation facilities, volunteer some time, or get out and enjoy your parks.

So please do that. We've been transitioning from our spring to summer programs. Our summer programs are in full swing. Our camps have over 1,200 enrollments. Everything from STEAM to swimming lessons, arts, crafts lessons, and much more. And then registration is open for the fall programs. So we like to plan ahead. So if you want, you can go ahead and go to our website or you can also stop by our office or register online. We celebrated the fifty seventh annual sun sand castle and sand sculpture contest on June 21. We had over 500 participants and over a 100 entries and over 2,000 people who participated in spectators.

We just celebrated the forty eighth fourth of July parade, so this is the third one that was run by ARPD. They estimated about 50,000 spectators. We had over a 170 entries and 20 over 2,500 participants. We wanna give a big shout out to Pat Russi again for being our parade coordinator. He's doing a fantastic job with us on top of everything else he does. All of our aquatics programs are being run out of the Ensignal Swim Center. To of note, the dive in movie night is coming up. The movie featured is Sky High. It will take place Friday, July 18. It begins approximately at 06:30 with family swim and crafts with the movie starting around 08:15 to 08:45.

Bring your own floats and blankets and come have a jump in and have a good time. And just also wanna note that the Central Avenue safety project is ongoing, and the construction route is about to change. So getting to that swim center is going to switch. So please check the city's website for the detours, and all it is also posted on our aquatics website. Our for our youth, our youth summer field trips are ongoing to the adventure playground in Berkeley, the Don Castro Swim Lagoon in Hayward.

We also have our day camps taking place at Tenderfoot at Washington Park, Trails Inn at Crum Memorial, and our trailblazers at Redwood Regional. Our teen summer day trips and tween adventure camps are filling up. Day trips include Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk, the American River Whitewater Rafting, Six Flags, and Boomers Park. So please check out our website to sign up for those. Currently for sports, not just sports camp is taking place at Tillman Park.

Our sporty tots and cross country flag football and pickleball camps are taking place at the Alameda Point Gym. For adult sports, we have our open gym that's still taking place Sunday evenings from six until 10PM at the Alameda Point Gym. We're also also offering group and private tennis lessons as well as pickleball classes. So for and then for Mastic, it's Mastic membership renewal time. So all of our members will get renewed.

People can fill out the forms online, but they can also stop by and fill out a form at the center Monday through Friday from nine until three. Membership is free. We just require that you update your information. There's also a series of new classes called eat smart and live strong nutrition education for older adults. They're taking place Mondays, July fourteenth through August 4 from 10AM until 11AM in Room E.

This is a free speaker series to for improved health. There for our speaker series, the city manager, Jennifer Ott, will be giving a a talk on Wednesday, July 23 from one until 03:00 in the Media Room. We have glass on mixed medium workshops taking place on Saturdays between August from 09:30 to noon. And then there's Square Dance is ongoing on Mondays at 01:30 to three in Room A. There's there's lots of volunteer opportunities.

If you're interested in forming a chess club at Massey Senior Center, you can do so. Just reach out to Bridget Castillogram at the senior center. And then our just some updates. The Mastic Multimedia Art Exhibit is still on display until August 18. I encourage people to stop by and check that out, and the artwork's in the lobby.

And then just to give some Mastic by the numbers for June, we had over a 100 volunteers with over twelve hundred hours. We served over almost 1,300 meals, and over 240 bags of grocery were distributed through the Mastic and the Mercy Brown bag program. Our leisure club held its second annual talent and art show. It took place on the twenty sixth at the Harrison Center. It was a great event. I encourage everyone to visit those in the future. And for our parks, they've been working on taking care

of

overgrown vegetation, repairing playground servicing, really doing a lot of update. There was repair work done at the Encinal Boat Ramp, infield renovation at the Rittler is in progress. We delivered four new pickleball nets to Leidecker, and then we're working on getting the netting along baseline one at Lincoln Park Baseball Field installed. So and some members have come and spoken about that, so we're in the process of taking care of that. And then we're going to be a tree was planted in partnership with our on our Alameda sister city from The Philippines on Wednesday, July 22 in Washington Upper Park.

We're also doing a tree planting on July well, already did a tree planting on July 12 at Main Street Linear or this Saturday. I apologize. I'm ahead of myself. And then our Estuary Park phase 2, the five acre neighborhood park version is going out to bid at the July. And really just want a huge staff recognition for Pat Russi because he's really done a great job in running the recreation programs, but as well as all the events that are put together, whether it's movie nights or the parade. He does a fantastic job. So thank you, Neil. Thank you, Pat. And then also recognizing Neil Taff, who's been a custodian at the Masstic Senior Center since 2017. They're far more than just custodians because they're really part of the Masstic membership community, and they really help out.

So we really wanna thank him for all his hard work. So with that, that's my staff communications.

Terrific. Thank you, director Long. Are there any questions for director Long tonight?

I do have one quick question. I know that the traffic situation down by Ancinao is causing a lot of issues for families in getting there. And how much of a financial impact is that gonna be on our programs approximately?

We've seen a pretty drastic drop off in in cancellations from difficulty with swim lessons. It'll probably be in the neighborhood of a $102,150,000 dollars probably.

So that's a lot of money to make up. Do we have any sources to make up that revenue?

Well, what we've been doing is balancing our staffing to reduce our expenses to try to mitigate that. So as we've had to cancel classes and reduce staff, we've been reducing the staffing to try to minimize our expense costs.

Thank you.

Okay, moving forward our next item is Commissioner Communications. Commissioner Alexander, turning right back to you. Would you like to go first?

Sure. Thank you. First of all, again, I would like to give kudos to Pat Russi and the entire ARPD staff for that fabulous fourth of July parade. I know that was thrown on ARPD three years ago, and starting from scratch from what they did is absolutely amazing. I was honored to be asked to be a judge again this year, and I think this parade is the best one yet. I love seeing all of the kids out, and everybody had their floats decorated. There was a lot of music and enthusiasm. It was really, really good, as I said in the post. So I want to thank Pat Rusty and the entire staff. I went to the Leisure Club Talent Show at Lincoln Park last week.

And I understand they're going to make a video, put it together, Morris said, so it will be on the website soon. Those kids just do a wonderful job. Maybe the singing is not the best or the dancing is not the best, but their hearts are this big. And to watch them encourage one another is worth going to the event. Hopefully we'll be able to expand that program at some time with some more resources.

And I'd like to thank Jennifer Cobb and her staff there along with Morris McKay who run that program. I was down at Massive to renew my subscription. I did take a look at the artwork. Actually, I was given a tour by one of the staff members, which was really nice. Just a reminder that that thrift shop takes just about anything you need to get out of your house.

I was down there with lots of fabric and glassware. We're doing some little spring cleaning, so please remember to go down there. To have that many volunteers around that program and the money they make from it is just amazing. I did go to the Sand Castle contest. It was nice to go this year just as a visitor to see what was going on. You didn't have to judge or man a booth that was really nice. And yes, I think this is the most participation we've had in a long time. I know the ladies from the women's club were really thrilled at how many participants there were. I've been going to the different parks and seeing the camp programs we have for the summer. Lots of kids.

Our directors are always great with those kids, very friendly, and everything looks really organized. I think that's about all I have for right now. Thank you.

Thank you. Commissioner Boerne.

The only communication that I have is that and some of you may have heard this before, but I like to give an appreciation to the APRD staff because I am for those that don't know, I am on the verge of participating in another triathlon. I am really big in the triathlons. I will be participating in the Maine seventy point three Ironman in Maine in about two weeks. And if you haven't done one before, it involved a lot of training, a lot of training. And I spent a lot of my time these past couple of months training within the Alameda Park System and the openness and the availability and the cleanliness of parks is to be appreciated.

So therefore, as I become or get on the verge of participating in my second IRONMAN, I would like to give an appreciation to the ARPD staff for the facilities that helped me in my training.

Thank you. Thank you. Commissioner Robbins.

Thank you. I'm on the parade route, our house of the parade and I have to say there were at least a dozen people that came up to me and we're excited to see the Sikhs on bikes and the horses back at the parade this year. And everybody overwhelmingly had phenomenal reviews for the parade. I thought it was great. But for the last couple months, I've had some health issues and I've had some time to reflect and I haven't been able to get out into the parks.

And I just want to reiterate something that Commissioner Alexander is probably tired of hearing now after six or seven years. But I'm president of tennis and pickleball association that has over six fifty members here in the Bay Area. I'm also on the board of directors of Laney Tennis Association and we play out of Ensulimal High School with three eighty members. My husband happens to be the treasurer of a 6,400 North American volleyball organization. And we're all nonprofits and we all are trying to beg for money constantly to make our programs work.

The Recreation and Park Department has done a phenomenal job in all the years that I've lived here with the small budget that they have. And again, Commissioner Alexander and I have commented continuously about the fact that on a limited budget they are still able to take care of the facilities that we have here. But there's more that needs to happen. And I'm continually asked from people why do we not have more soccer or more pickleball or a BMX course and why is it taking so long to do XYZ? And the simple reason is because we're not paying our taxes.

We're not paying enough to fund what needs to be done. And you continually vote down commissioners who are willing to stand up and say, you need to pay $4 more a month, people, on your taxes so that we can actually have the services that we need. So when things come in front of us, whether it's a new pool or expanding soccer or tennis, remember it's because of you, it's because of us that we don't have it. We have commissioners that have limited funds and our Rec and Park Commission is doing a phenomenal job with the limited funds that we have. But until we stand up and say I'm willing to pay for what it is that we want, we're not going to be able to get the proper programming and the growth that you all continually ask us to provide for you.

So I just want you to keep that in mind. Thank

you.

Thank you. Well, I'd like to I'd like to use my time tonight remembering Brendan Barker who passed away in June too soon at the age of 51. My family knew Brendan as many did as an umpire, grounds keeper, and mentor to generations of kids who played in Alameda Little League. I'll remember his friendly smile, his mentorship, and his sense of humor that reminded kids like my son that playing baseball is a game that is supposed to be fun above all else. I know that many of us here tonight belong to close knit parks and recreation communities in Alameda that rely on the contributions of many, but especially the contributions of a special few whose constant presence and contributions of heart, humility, and purpose create a space for everyone else.

So even if you didn't know Brendan personally, I suspect that you've known someone like him and also know the hole that his passing leaves behind. Rest easy, Brendan. You you made a difference. Thank you. Moving forward, the next item on our agenda is to approve the minutes from our 06/12/2025 meeting. Do we have a motion to approve those minutes?

I'll make a motion to approve the minutes.

And a second. Second. And a roll call vote please.

Commissioner Alexander? Yes. Commissioner Bernie?

Yes.

Commissioner Robbins? Yes. Chair Radese?

Yes. Thank you. The motion's been approved. We'll move next to our regular agenda items. The next item on our agenda is our regular agenda item six a which is to receive a presentation on the progress of the Road Home five year plan to prevent and respond to homelessness in Alameda. We'll have that presentation. Commissioners can ask clarifying questions. We'll have public comment and then the commissioners will discuss and and offer further comment. There's no motion to make on this item. Welcome.

Thank you. Good to see you all night. My name is Scott Means. I'm the president of the social service human relations board. I have with me Michelle Buchholz.

She's also on the social service human relations board and Mark Sinclair, he's a resident of Dignity Village. And we are going to present the Road Home report. So this here, let me see if I can use this. So great. So the purpose of the Social Service Human Relations Board, it has the responsibility of assessing and responding to social service human relations needs for the city of Alameda and to encourage the inform the formation of private social, private social welfare organizations to serve those unmet needs. The SHRUB is established by the city charter and ordinance, and there's, you know, a list of some of the things we do, which includes homelessness.

And this is basically Oh,

it's the

wrong order.

It's Okay.

Okay. I'm going to move I'm just going to be moving around here.

This is basically for us and we realize, as board members, often we don't know what other boards are doing and what a lot in the city is doing. And so we want to say we are this is our kind of we're doing a lot to address homelessness. And we feel like the park and rec departments are integrally address homelessness in people of our unhoused and vulnerable populations. And so we just want to keep you abreast of the progress we're making and some of the challenges. So this is our hope with this kind of walking tour, just to let more people know about the progress and challenges.

Thank you.

Okay, so California has 187,000 people experiencing homelessness as of January in time count. We also have the state of 28% of the nation's homelessness and forty four percent of the chronically homeless people in The United States. Even as the state managed to keep the increase to just 3%, which is lower than the national average of 18%, we still have an increase that is lower than 40 other states. Two thirds of unhoused individuals in the state are living on the streets, representing almost half of the country's unsheltered homelessness. The state's rising home prices and rents have outpaced homebuilders.

Over 25% of Californians, especially lower income adults, report daily or near daily worried about housing costs. And of course, Alameda, we are facing these same issues. A lot of them are tied into mental health and affordability. Tailored local strategies are increasingly recognized as essential due to the diverse conditions across urban, suburban, and rural parts of the country. California residents consistently identify homelessness as one of the top facing issues, And experts agree that addressing homelessness requires both short term solutions and long term solutions.

And there's many different things that we need to put together to make things work. It's not just one thing that is the answer. Every two year oh, yeah. This part just got blacked out. Every two years, communities conduct point in time counts for people who are experiencing unsheltered and sheltered homelessness. During the early morning hours of 01/25/2024, multiple teams across Alameda interviewed or observed people experiencing unsheltered homelessness. And I participated in this. Definitely encourage people to participate in this effort if you can. Roughly twothree of the unhoused population is unsheltered. Of those, twothree live in RVs or vehicles.

15% in tent or makeshift shelters and 13% in the street or sidewalk. There were other folks in other locations that weren't meant for human habitation. About half the population is 45. The fastest growing age group nationally are older adults. And men are more often without housing than women. African Americans are disproportionately affected by homelessness, representing less than 7% of the general population in Alameda, but 31% of the homeless population.

These aren't in the right order.

And you're up.

So this is a housing system map. I will say I'm a nurse practitioner and I work in homeless health care in San Francisco. So it feels, and I'm the heart of the Tenderloin, and so it's nice to come to Alameda because it feels like we actually have a little bit of a system compared to San Francisco. But our idea was we did the road home was to try to really fully understand all the network of social services we have, and we're really focused in Alameda about preventing and end homelessness. So we just wanted to kind of talk about what someone who has housing instability, how they kind of go through the system.

We use the 211 number. It is anyone can call. So if you see someone who is unhoused on the street and you want to connect them to resources, they can call this number. They can connect with housing support, emergency shelter options. We do a lot of outreach.

I was surprised that there was just a team calling and speaking about every individual that's on the radar and making comprehensive care plans. And then we have a lot of day services as well. And so that could be like, I mean, I'm sure at the Park And Rec, the library, we have social work at the library. It allows people to kind of connect to resources. And our whole goal in all this is first prevention, that people would not experience homelessness, but that we can get into housing and permanent supportive housing.

And that could be look like there's a case manager, a social worker on-site that can kind of help people navigate the system who maybe don't have the same level of resources. Like, you wanna click for me? So the road home was this plan, a really bold plan that we wanna address and say, like, we're doing something. It was a five year plan that we adopted, the city adopted in 2021. And that the mission we said is to prevent homelessness, address disparities, reduce chronic homelessness, and minimize temp time spent, outdoors.

It was adopted by council in October 2021, and it really just kind of said, like, what are the challenges the town is facing, and what are the strategies we can do to address this? And it was a very big, bold plan, I will say that, which is exciting. I feel like our city does big, bold plans. And we're really trying to of now this report of being what's the nuts and bolts. There's three overarching goals and with nine strategies to achieve positive outcomes to address homelessness.

So the goal one was to secure housing future for all ALM meetings. And it's like the big idea is that we want no one to experience homelessness, and we want to have more affordable housing. Basically and we we did a lot to do it. We conducted an inventory of unused, underutilized, and available properties, and identified those that were most suitable for sites for development. We enacted a policy so all residential and mixed zone districts must now permit multifamily and shared housing, so we tried to increase inventory.

And then we also enacted a policy to provide affordable housing lottery preference points to households that live and work in Alameda. So as we kind of assess someone in their housing status, that if they're living and working Alameda, we really wanted to give priority to those people. And then really exciting, the land where Dignity Village is located is an example of the city working to review inventory for the purpose of supporting unhoused members of the community. The city is focused on increasing affordable housing across the islands. And since 2021, two twenty six units have been completed, and there's additional 1,300 in development, which is very exciting.

The second goal was to increase access to homeless emergency response service. So the idea was to really strengthen our safety net. And since the Road Home policy was adopted in 2021, they've developed really interesting prevention programs like Rise Up in Alameda, which distributes monthly grants to 150 low income individuals for up to twenty four months. The city has hired a case manager that is split between the housing and human essential services, breaking down the barrier. So if anyone's ever tried to apply for disability, that is really hard.

And so having a social worker there to help someone walk through the process. Also want to highlight that Alameda Care Team is now a permanent program and operates 20 fourseven, providing mental health services to those in crisis and alleviating the police department who would have to respond to those crisis calls, and then really kind of triaging and supporting them to care. And now we have 81 temporary and emergency shelter beds have also been added to the city inventory. And these, emergency shelter capacity is supported by contract social service providers who then also provide 20 fourseven care. Also want to highlight the Alameda Day Center now can accommodate up to 17 individuals per night, and their shower and laundries, are once a week at the Alameda Day Center, and services are delivered in coordination with the Alameda Mid County Housing Resource Center.

And then our last goal, big goals, is to really work more closely and more seamlessly with community organizations and to bring quality services to those in need. So basically the idea is we want our service to be more robust. There were 76 volunteers for this point in count, and this is in the middle of like early morning January, about like five or six a. M. And so that we have these people that are wanting to go out is a really highlight to how actively engaged our city is.

And that we want to bring more people on. We want people to know and reach out to their neighbors and feel more connected to how do we support our neighbors in need. And then our other thing we wanted to talk about is our COT meeting. I now forget what COT stands for. Coordinated Outreach Team. Team. That some of you guys do attend, which is a confidential place where service providers speak about individuals who are served or need to be served. So this is really kind of going, what are their mental health needs? How can we connect them to other resources? We have encampment cleanups that occur twice a month and involves multiple city departments and the homeless outreach team.

And then we have housing coordination for Dignity Village residents and a full time clinician at Dignity Village with Alameda Family Services and a social service provider staff. So bottom line is we're really working to have all our community based organizations to really seamlessly and really hold some people that are incredibly vulnerable as they connect to permanent housing solutions.

The system of care relies on all of us, getting to know the system of care so that we know where to go if something happens to us or someone we know. It requires that we get to know our neighbors, our community, and so that everyone has someone to turn to when they need help. We can also support the system calling the homeless hotline when we need someone in need. This helps people connect to an outreach worker who will come out within a few hours of call, calling the care team if you or someone you know has experienced a mental health crisis. We can donate time or items to local organizations and shelters, participate in the Midway Shelter, run this July, or connect to ongoing opportunities through our volunteer list.

And of course, you can always volunteer for the next point in time count. So there's a hotline dispatches outreach within hours, which I mentioned. There are the care team that does provide 20 fourseven interventions. And just remember, if you feel in danger or if you see someone in danger, you still do call 911. So for this next slide, I'm going to introduce Mark Sinclair and he's a resident of Dignity Village. He's going to talk some about his experiences.

Good evening. Thank you for the invitation to be here tonight. My name is Mark Sinclair. I was elected president of the RAB, which is the resident advisory board for Dingandy Village. I ended up there.

I had contracted long COVID in 2022 and I was in John Muir ICU in Walnut Creek for about thirteen months. I was not someone that was a smoker or drinker, but I just contracted the most severe strain. So it sort of wiped me out, my businesses, and all that. So I had the opportunity, the hospital directed me and my doctor to a place here in Alameda. Was called Christ Episcopal Church.

And Reverend Matt Cale and another gentleman named John Brenner took me in and I was able to start my rehabilitation. Even though I'm not someone a native of Alameda, I will always be grateful, extremely grateful to the people that afforded me that opportunity because I might not have made it. I think the other thing that's important is that I've been educated a little bit in this situation to see that there are many, many complexity problems that are associated with the homeless environment. Mainly is the lack of life skills. Mental illness is a big thing.

It's hard generally for the people that end up there, it's hard for them to cope. So they turn to narcotics, they turn to alcohol, and they use that as an escape phobia. If you don't have a support system and you're not able to overcome those challenges, then chances are you're not going to make it. And so I would encourage what Mr. Robbins said here about I'm well aware being in business that everything costs money.

And if society in general, I don't mean just locally, state, nationally, we all have to sort of have the desire or the passion to want to ante up. If we don't and we're just relying on nonprofits and say okay, they're gonna deal with it, they're gonna deal with it, the only way you're gonna get course correction is people have to come in, offer counsel, mentor, and say, hey, look, you've got to help yourself too. We can help you, but you've got to want to do it. And she pointed out about Alameda Family Services having a therapist on-site at Dignity. It helpful.

But I would say, just giving you through my eyes, firsthand account that more of that situation is needed because a person can get forgotten. Because you have caseworkers and they're overwhelmed with what they got to do and maybe the resources aren't there for somebody that maybe has dementia or maybe has outward signs of going through like a program to where they get up, they take a shower, they know where the kitchen is to eat, and they go out for a walk. Then they come back, they don't change their clothes. Or because they don't change their clothes or they wear a hat, certain things happen to their body. I don't have the answers and the solutions for all that, but I just want to share with you what I have seen.

And I would say one of the biggest things that probably needs to happen at Dignity Village is there should be some sort of program for people to go to NA and AA. They need to have that life skill. They need to have that direction. Because if they don't have it and they get housed, you're dealing not in a sheltered environment. Now you're dealing out in the open where people are working, they're spending money, they have kids, they're going to school.

And the patient's level is not going to be as considerate. They're going to be like, we're paying $4,000 a month, 3,000 a month. Why should I have to deal with this? So I think that's one of the long term challenges. And I just would like to close by saying that I can't stress enough for a community like a church group or someone like CEC or other groups that have the funding to sort of reach into a community and say, hey, you know what?

On Sunday, CEC, they have a shower and laundry program. It's only for two, three hours. But I am sure at that church, that Sunday, for those volunteers, for somebody, they are making a difference. And if other churches were to say, hey, you know what, maybe we can come up with a volunteer program. Maybe we can provide lunches down at Village of Love or over here, do something. Everybody can do something. But I think Mr. Robbins is right. When it comes to money, it's a big deal. Let's not kid ourselves.

It's a big deal. When you're asking people for money and they're already stressed out with day to day living and both husband and wife are working, they're putting their kids through school and they're doing this and they're doing that and health care and child care, I mean hey, now you're asking them to tack Probably in some cases for some people it's a big ask. So I think maybe a fundraising apparatus needs to be put in place to address the high priorities. And I don't know about a measure to add to property taxes or any of that. I mean I think big ask.

I'm not sure what the polling would be on something like that. These are just concerns and it all goes back to individual awareness, your passion, and what are you willing to do. Thank you. Thank you.

And we also just wanted to highlight you all as Park and Rec and align our desire to serve vulnerable populations. And we know that the park is often a space where people that are it's a safe space where people can gather and feel comfortable, and that so much of your mission and activities so much of your mission and activities are looking at people. You have reduced prices, prices, and and we we just just want to say how can we align more and understand how we're both wanting to make resources more accessible. And so we just wanted to think that and really say that we're making progress. It's kind of like a Sisyphusian task, but we really appreciate it and we want to see how we can align more.

Yeah,

just to bring it all to a conclusion. We were looking at some of the significant successes that we've achieved in some of the following areas. So we added to the affordable housing pipeline. We increased temporary housing opportunities. We ensured housing opportunities are both low barrier and respectful of an individual's dignity.

We leveraged county, state, and federal funding to achieve strategic goals. We increased outreach and services for people experiencing homelessness, and we increased coordination and cooperation among providers. And just as a very final, final note, I just want to sort of reiterate something that Mark was talking about, is that community and government need to open communication, collaboration, and work together. They are essential to meet the long and short term goals of reducing homelessness or ending homelessness in Alameda. Thank you and we're willing to take questions.

Thank you. Commissioners, are there any questions?

Go ahead. Go ahead.

Doctor. Birney?

So I just have a few questions. The first question that I have is that when I'm looking at the age ranges, I notice that it's slowly going up as the person ages. But then when they get to between 35 and 44, it's twenty three percent. But then it goes down to twenty percent when they're 45 to 54 and then it goes back up when they're 65. Do you know why that's the case?

I think it's part of the metrics is this is only taking the people you see on this one night in January. This does not fully capture the extent of homelessness, but it's part of like a federal regulation that you do in every county and every city. So I think like the numbers, I actually don't think they fully capture the demographics because it's only a point in time count. So those fluctuations, don't think, one I don't know the exact data of where it but I think it's more of the way we've collected the data that shows that fluctuations. I do think it is, because you're just wandering on the street and knocking doors.

But generally homelessness increases as a person ages.

One of the details of that, it tends to be older, more blue collar, non union workers. So they don't have those protections. And if you're doing more blue collar physical work and you're 55 and you're competing against a 25 year old, I mean, luck, right? And our society does not take care of people as their age very well is what it comes down to.

And then my other beef with the count, sorry, is that it doesn't always count those who are doubling up so that people that are in a one bedroom apartment and having several families in that space.

Okay. Oh, thank you. Well, thank you. And the next question that I have is how are you, because one of the things I heard is that a common theme is that the community needs to care. They need to care about this particular type of situation but it seems as though a lot of people aren't, the right word is probably, aware that it's their problem too. It's not just, well, it's the city's problem or it's the state or government problem, but people don't know what they don't know. People don't know how they can help and therefore, are you doing any reaching out Yes. To the Outside

of this.

Hi. Good evening, commissioners. My name is Gracia Manaillon. I'm a program manager with housing and human services. So I staff the social service and human relations board.

I'm here for moral support and to answer some additional questions. So I actually would say that a lot of Alameda resident most if not Alameda residents care, one way or another. People when the call is put out, we are overwhelmed by donations and time and help, but I think it goes back to doing outreach so folks know how they can help. So getting the word out in terms of the hotline or the fundraisers or supporting different programs and initiatives because they benefit folks so well and help prevent and end homelessness. So I think it's very much I think there very much is a care. People here in Alameda are very caring. It's just about knowing the right tools to to help and how to get involved. Mhmm. Whether yeah.

And my last question is how about those individuals who don't have people who know them or a network to help them seek help?

So you're referring to the unhoused that have no support network.

That's right.

I mean typically folks that you see that are unsheltered unhoused are there because of the lack of support network. And there are different, through that system, that map that we have, people have different entry points. So whether it's they come to Dine and Connect, which are rotating churches that serve hot meals, because they want food or because they want a shower and so they visit the church or they wanna do their laundry or they simply need somewhere to stay and they come to one of the shelters, there are different entry points. And so they can come to those different services and resources for those vital necessities. And in Alameda, also have a homeless outreach team that conducts active outreach.

So it's more of a matter of the individuals coming in for, at a certain entry point for something, let's say to get food, and then through that they are brought into the system.

That's right. Okay,

Okay. Thank you.

And I'm always impressed how I'm always impressed of how well ever people are known and people are cared for and even in this in offered services. And sometimes individuals will not are not interested in the services but I feel like there's such an awareness and a kind of close knit keeping an eye out and would you say most people are being offered a plethora of services and it's how that individual wants to engage with those services.

Thank you for the presentation. This is awesome. I'm extremely excited that the fact that we didn't hide these two twenty six units somewhere. They're right there, snack dev, where all of the society, all of us who need to understand that we need to make these individuals members of our community, part of our community are here with us. So, and one of our dearest friends, Sharon Lei was the actual development team that pushed this through San Francisco and her organization that she worked with.

So we're really proud of this, but we have a long way to go. Those 1,300 other units need to happen. And I just hope that the city and the commissioners are listening and we don't hide those additional units and that we incorporate them within our society so that the youth of our society can understand that these are individuals just like the rest of us and that they should have our respect and care. And also, just so that you know, I'm a school teacher with Alameda Unified School District and I would be more than happy afterwards to be a liaison because we have community service hours that students need to do and it would be phenomenal. I would like to be the liaison to help with your organization. Thank you.

Okay. And I wanna thank you for that. And I don't know if you're aware of this, but there's now an official Alameda volunteer list. It's hosted on the Steve Alameda website. I don't know the web address, but we could always get that for you.

Yeah. Could you get in touch with me?

We'll

I get in touch with you,

wanted to thank you for your presentation. The passion that you have for this is exactly what we need. You need to have people with passion. I taught school for thirty eight years. I had several homeless families. Some of them lived in their cars and moved from church to church at night. So I know a little bit about when you get the other side of it. Mark, can I ask you a question? I drive by Dignity Village when I go to Michaels every once in a while. And do you have a place where you make your meals? Because there's no kitchens in your place, right? So how do you eat?

That is correct. So what they have is they have a building that has tables and has a microwave. And the current vendor, Operation Dignity, they bring in food from I guess one of their kitchens in Oakland. And so people come in and they give their apartment number and they're marked off and they hand them a small box. And then they can either heat that up or just eat it the way it is. Water is put out and milk when it's available.

So do you have breakfast, lunch and dinner there or just this one meal that's handed

to Yeah, we have breakfast, lunch and dinner. On the weekends it's more everybody sort of self serves. But Monday through Friday it's hot breakfast and then you get a boxed lunch and then in the evening you get a hot meal.

I was just curious if there's no kitchen there how are these people eating? The other question I have is I guess this comes maybe to the city. Who is the point person in the city? If somebody wanted to call and ask specific questions about the homelessness in their neighborhood or issues, who is it that is the point person? You, Martin. I might not know that, Mark, but I'm asking When that

I was elected to the board, the person that I originally met and dealt with was Marcy Johnson. And so Oh, okay.

Yeah. Sorry.

So our department, or excuse me, division, which is housed under the city manager's office, manages those contracts and those programs with our partners. So Simone Falls is the manager of our division so she would be like the point person to ask those questions too.

Good, I've had several people ask me that question. Another question I have is

Oh, sorry. Apologize because Michelle just clarified. Is the question about whether you have questions about the programs or if you're seeking help?

For example, if there's a homeless person in your neighborhood that you want to call the city about to get some help so the person can get help, who is the city point to call? Not 211 or all that. Who is the person in the city that's in charge of all these programs?

Got it. So 211 is our best method to get folks, in the queue and to get connected to resources. Simone Falls, she oversees the division, the programs that the city, manages related to unhoused services. However, you're gonna get a quicker response and more information from 211 because they also seek and will connect you to services in the county not just in the city.

Okay, one of the things that's always been in the back of my mind and Mark this might be another question for you. Part of getting out of the homelessness situation is to get your own place, you need to have a job. What kind of resources is the city giving to some of these people, say like you, Mark, who need a job? Are we trying to hire these people throughout the city as gardeners or in the recreation department doing something or up the city hall? Because I think that's a big part of okay you've got a place to live, now you have to have an income.

Right now there there is is not a program that I'm aware of for that particular step. And I think a lot at Dignity Village would embrace it if there were. Operation Dignity, they sort of are responsible for feeding and then getting you housed. And some people have been there longer than others. So I don't want to rain down on anybody because I'm grateful to have what I have. But also there comes a point where you have to want to reentry into society. You got to want to have a job and you want to

And you need some help to get that.

You're right.

So we were working on something. So knowing that older adults or a lot of the people that were having problems with this, there's actually a program called CCEP, S C S E P. I can't tell you what the acronym means, but it's an employment program where you get paid prevailing minimum wage while you're in the training program twenty hours a week. It does not count against your benefits because it's a federal program. The Trump administration eliminated it. As of July 1, it no longer existed, and we were in the process of trying to actually set that up here. So there's an uphill battle we're working because of social programs that have been shut down too. So I just wanted there's a moment of kind of, you know, reality in terms of what's going on with the country right now.

You know, I worked with Rafael House in San Francisco for a while and made over 500 fleece blankets for all the children that are in there. And they had a wonderful program where the moms were there with their children and they lived and when the moms got a job, they followed them. They made sure they had money to pay for the bus. They were sure the kids had lunches. So there was support after, hey, here's your apartment. Have a nice time. But there was support. I'm assuming that this program that we have here in the city is when you house someone permanently that you're giving them some other support to. Am I correct to assume that?

So what I think you're referring to is what we call aftercare. So somebody is, so Dignity Village they have full time case managers as well that work with them through these applications. The primary goal is housing and getting their basic needs met, and there are folks who actually do work, who live in Dignity Village. But however, it comes down to our resources, so we're able to put aside some funding to follow people once in their apartments so that we can make sure that they're set up for success and they succeed, but we are limited in that funding. And so there isn't, yeah, it's limited is my answer.

Where we could partner and see how we could work better and get hiring, that's why we want to come to you.

Someone sent me some questions and it's been a conversation at the Coffee Klatch lately, so I have a whole list here, so I'm sorry about that. One of the questions is, I know Mark that you were in a different situation, you were in the hospital, you were ill, but when you do this count for the homelessness, are the majority of the people Alameda residents or are they from some other city that are coming here? Do you know that information?

The short answer is yes and no because there isn't hard data on it but anecdotally we know that many people that are unhoused in Alameda have a connection to Alameda. So whether that's they attended their whole school career, elementary through high school here, or they have family members or children, but anecdotally, most people have a connection to Alameda.

Okay. And just one more comment I'd like to make. I don't know if the mayor's watching tonight or not or any council people, but I really think that we need to look at what we can do as a city to find some jobs for these people. You know, that's a big thing. They need a job.

You can give them a place to live and you can feed them, but they need to get a job so they can get on their own two feet. So I would like to encourage the city people that are listening to that to see what we could do. There must be a job here or there somewhere, like you said, minimum wage, whatever, but to give those people some dignity. I was a school teacher, we had some mothers that would come and volunteer in the office, which was part of their agreement to get their services with whoever they were working with. So they would come in and staff the phones in the office, meet, greet people.

They would do recess duty, lunch duty, all that. So it gave them a way to get out of the house and do something and learn a skill. And I think that's what's important with all of this. I'm not trying to get on a soapbox but I just think that's a part of the program you have to look at.

And I think part of our road home is, I think, unique in that we're trying to prevent homelessness. And so kind of realizing that homelessness can happen when you're just a paycheck away, an accident, a car breaking down. And what we're really trying to do is intervene before people are in the shelter and see how we can have resources and I would say our guaranteed basic income pilot. So we're really trying to prevent before we get to that point where people are needing to be in our emergency shelter system. So I think we're aligned, and the city's goal is to prevent homelessness in a very comprehensive, thoughtful thoughtful way. Way.

What I will add is that we do have workforce development programs that the city supports and we have some models, but they're very much on a smaller scale. I think that's great feedback and something to continue considering. Thank you.

Thank you. Thank you. Is there any public comment?

No public comment.

Any further discussion among the commissioners? No? Thank you all for being here tonight. Okay moving forward, the next item on our agenda is regular agenda item six b which is to receive or rather it is a workshop to review and comment on the concept for a surf pool at Enterprise Park. I will have a report and a presentation. Commissioners can ask clarifying questions followed by public comment and then the commissioners will have the opportunity to discuss and offer further comment. There's no motion to make on this item. However, anticipating the feedback that we'll hear tonight, I think we'll do our best to review and synthesize those comments at the end of this agenda item.

Good evening commissioners. My name is Matt Nolan and I am the acting assistant parking rec director currently. Before we start this main presentation, we'd like to first take a moment to share where we are in this process and set the stage for tonight's discussion. This is a very preliminary high level informational meeting. Our goal tonight simply is to hear your thoughts and gather initial feedback on whether the interest among Alamedians is in the idea of a surf park and the potential location.

The presentation is for information and discussion only at this point. No decisions are being made tonight and if there's general support and interest in this concept, the next steps would be to engage in a much deeper public process, including a robust community outreach and input process. We really appreciate your time and input as we explore whether this idea is worth studying further with staff time and the possible way to help complete a master plan for the park known as Enterprise Park. I'd like to introduce you to William Duncanson with Neptune Beach Surf Club. They will be walking you walking us through their proposal proposed concept tonight.

Thank you. Welcome.

Thank you very much Matt and thank you commissioners. My name is William Duncanson representing Neptune Beach Surf Club. It's a pleasure to be here tonight. I'm not gonna read slides, I promise. I'm gonna try and go quick.

I do wanna read this slide to make sure I get it right. Neptune Beach Surf Club is excited about the opportunity to bring surfing to Alameda and to amplify an already vibrant ecosystem of waterfront activities, further contributing to the renaissance of Alameda Point. I just wanna set high level goals for the conversation. My role here tonight is to really educate you about what we're hoping to do, identify the location and why, talk about the engagement that we've done to date, and then really set the stage for hopefully what are next steps. Our goal is to get an exclusive negotiating agreement with the city at which time we would have much more detailed engagement process with you again hopefully and planning board and city council and additional feedback from the community.

So really this is an early step but we hope it is the first of many steps. The highest level, what we're proposing to do is lease about five acres, five and a half acres in the area that's known as Enterprise Park and we're trying to construct a surf park. The anchor of that is a surf pool. We would have some supplemental program and then in addition to leasing and developing the surf park, we propose to construct infrastructure improvements around the park itself. Project goals and objectives, we want to build a surf park, we want to create a destination food and beverage facility that's leveraging proximity to the surf and views of the bay and becomes something that everybody comes to and enjoys.

It's not just for the surf park. We want to leverage private investment for public benefit. I'm gonna go into those details on a subsequent slide so I won't talk about them here. We want to use surfing to educate the public about environmental concerns and we want to contribute to the growth and brand of Alameda Points and improve the park. The proposed community benefits are, as was mentioned, we're proposing to facilitate a community engagement process to do a master plan for Enterprise Park.

Our understanding is that it's been something that's been desired for decades or more. We want to improve park access circulation, in particular bike and ped connectivity from Bay Trail back up to Central Avenue. I don't know if commissioners use that park frequently and know what it's like to get there. Maybe hazard is a little bit of an understatement. Hopefully we can help rectify that.

We are proposing renovate 150 West Hornet, is an old building that the Navy built back in the 70s. We are proposing to donate time in the pool to local nonprofits, surf therapy nonprofits, the schools district ideally, and we are proposing a workforce training program, local hire program. We want to reactivate the campgrounds and we want to partner with local businesses for some of our secondary business units and certainly discounts for Alameda residents. So we're really here to talk about why surfing and why a surf pool, why surfing other than it's self serving, I meant to say, but one of the coolest things you can do in the world. But it is a skill based activity, it's fast growing, it's clinically proven to improve health and wellness amongst participants, it's proven to create economic uplift in the communities that it's proximate to and surfing has a rich cultural history that's rooted in environmental stewardship.

So why a surf pool? So a surf pool really gets you to bring the waves to the people. Surfing has conventional surfing has all sorts of barriers to entry. It's at the coast. You're dependent on weather conditions, all these kinds of things. Whereas surf pool, turn it on, you make waves, and then you can make them all day long. And those waves can accommodate all different skill levels of people. So predictable, repeatable, skill appropriate conditions for all ability levels. What is a surf pool? It's basically a big pool with filtered water and you can generate waves in it that you can ride surfboards or buggy boards or small personal watercraft.

The image on the right, presumably you're seeing it in the same direction I am, is a surf pool in Munich, Germany. It opened last year. There are a handful of different technologies out there, but the one that we're currently proposing for Neptune Beach Surf Club is essentially the same pool that you see on the screen. We have a short video because the only way to really understand what a surf pool is is to see it. I mean, I can say the word all day long but it's not going to mean anything until you see people riding waves in a pool.

So who surfs in the pool? Everybody from people that have never been on a surfboard before to professionals. The journey starts before you even get in the pool. We have dry land training. We provide wet suits and surfboards for people if they want to use the free boards that come with a ticket sale.

There's two zones. There's a shore zone and an outside zone. The person that's standing up on the board right now, that may be their first day surfing, so there's a guide to help them build the fundamentals of catching a wave and standing up. The person that just fell on the outside is a little bit more advanced. They're getting the fundamentals of catching a wave under their own speed, turning, angling, riding down the line.

And on the outside wave we have beginner waves like what you just saw and there are different settings within that. This is a left. If you're not familiar with rights and lefts, it's a little counterintuitive but that person was just riding a left And she's clearly stoked on her experience. We can turn the waves up and here's a person paddling into the wave under their own speed. This is a progressive setting where they're beginning to learn how to do more advanced turns and getting the fundamentals down of progressing in their surf journey.

Next we're going to pivot to advanced and expert waves, slightly bigger, slightly more advanced peel angle wave type, however you want to characterize it. This is actually me surfing in Germany last October. So you've got people that have never surfed before all the way to people like me who've been surfing for years. I'm not a pro and there's people that are experts and pros where here there's some images of people doing aerials and other turns. So it's something that really everybody on their surf journey can benefit from and it really helps, surf pools really help people early in their surf journey get that repetition in to develop the fundamentals to transition to the ocean.

It's not replacing the ocean experience, it's really supplementing it. So the project site where we're proposing to do this is a corner of Enterprise Park, which is the Southeast Corner of Alameda Point. The zone that we're identifying here is the approximate site boundary. It's about five and a half acres bounded on the north by West Hornet Avenue and on the west by 150 West Hornet, which is that existing building I mentioned. The east and south boundaries are a little bit flexible like has been mentioned.

We're in the early stages. We might need a little less area than that based on further investigation and study. Something to note here is where you see the A, we are proposing to relocate Stacked Adventures, which is a ocean kayak rental company that operates out of Encinal Beach. We've had conversations with the proprietor and he's aware of this proposal. The main reason for relocating him is, as you can see, there's an existing fenced parking lot that isn't open to the public right now and then there's the improved parking lot that people park at when they go to Enterprise Park.

When I switch to the proposed site plan you can see we're proposing to recapture that good portion of that existing parking lot and aggregate it into the parking lot that's currently used to increase the parking capacity of Enterprise Park in general. That would clearly serve our patrons as well as general Alamedans and park visitors. Alameda Community Sailing Club occasionally has regattas, Okolani Canoe Club has regattas, we know that there are times a year where the fish are running and people use the boat ramp, So you might go there on a Tuesday and it seems relatively sleepy, but you might go there on a Saturday and people are parking deeper into Alameda Point and if you know this parking lot well, you've got to go all the way out to Central, the Main Street to come back in down Skyhawk to get to the backside. So we're proposing to reconnect West Hornet Avenue and increase the parking and generally make it all more accessible and usable. Here's a drone view looking across the park as it exists today.

Here's a view showing how the surf park might be integrated into the park. I want to say on a personal note, one of the things that really excites me about this project is the conversations I've had with the sailing club and potentially doing collaborative programming. I grew up doing you sailing in the summer in the mornings and then going to the beach and surfing in the afternoon. I think it's great exposure to natural environment and really makes you aware of your surroundings and to live life in chaos. Here's another drone view of the existing conditions shown with a potential surf park in place.

Here you can see proposing to improve road access out to Central Avenue, which was already mentioned. It's pretty challenging as it stands right now. There is a street section proposed in the master infrastructure plan. We'd be proposing to facilitate implementing that. 150 West Hornet, the existing building, I've been in it, it's pretty creepy.

But there are existing restrooms in there. We are proposing to renovate those, make those available to the entire park. The park itself is under amenitized right now in terms of resources, particularly restrooms. The community room concept actually came from conversations with the neighboring businesses and organizations, their desire for classroom space or in the case of O'Kalani Canoe Club having annual members meetings and stuff like that. So we would be using part of this building as our surf center.

The surf center is for check-in, wet suit rental, changing rooms, some back of house. We would like to operate a restaurant space with bay views as well as surf views. And I'm going to go pretty quickly through this although I'm happy to come back and talk about operations as much as you're interested. We're proposing two operating seasons, peak and low. In either of those seasons, weekends, Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays would have an extra few operating hours, but clearly low season has fewer hours overall.

Proposing to start operations at 6AM in peak season, 7AM in low season. Touched on this a little in the video, the shore waves are the inside section which are really for beginners, quickly you graduate to the outside section and in the outside section we have A frames which is two surf zones running at the same time. You can also operate the pool in a different mode where you have point break or single peak mode where there's just one wave that's running much longer. Here's a graphic representation of mode one, which is A frame mode. There's two shore zones.

Those are the black lines, the black dots and black lines on the inside. And then there's the two outside zones, the peak, one going right, one going left. And mode two, single peak mode, where you essentially have fewer people in the pool. This is more of a premium setting. We wouldn't be operating this that many hours of the day, but there certainly would be a desire mostly amongst those advanced and expert surfers to have a longer ride time.

So fewer people in the pool, longer rides. Community engagement to date, we have been looking at a surf pool in Alameda for many, many years. I want to say we zeroed in on Enterprise Park about three years ago as being the ideal location. At that time we started doing targeted outreach to stakeholders, the neighboring businesses and business community and residents. Earlier this year, a handful of months ago, we decided to co market and create this community engagement pop up to really expand the conversation with the broader Alameda community.

That meeting was marketed in a handful of different ways. The city used their own devices to do so. We did an ad in Alameda Post. There ended up being a little flurry of media attention. The purpose of the event was to basically do for the community what we're doing for you tonight, which is A, explain what this crazy thing called the surf park is, and b, talk about the location and all the benefits and hear what people had to say.

We also collected so we collected responses in a variety of ways. One was a survey that was live from May 3 to May 22. I do have to correct the meeting actually was Saturday seventeenth. I don't know how I got the date wrong in this presentation, but it's right in other materials. So it was on Saturday, not Sunday.

We did have some open ended, you know, the ability to take some open ended comments at the meeting in terms of a board with post it notes. There was a park programming board where we collected feedback on what community thought about ideal programs for Enterprise Park would be and then we had a sign in sheet. The survey had twelve thirty three responses. I'm not going to go over all the quotes here. And there were 14 questions in the survey.

I believe we have access to the full survey output, but I'm going to focus on three that I think are the most pertinent questions for this conversation. First question, or this is a statement, I'm super stoked on the concept of a surf park at Enterprise Park. You can see the detailed percentage responses below. 72% of respondents somewhat or completely agree with 62.32% completely agreeing with that statement. I was certainly hoping for it to be a 100% in that category but I think 72% in aggregate is pretty good.

64% of respondents were interested in learning how to surf and 90% of respondents believe that the utilization of this park will increase after revitalization. Here is a graphic representation of the outcome of the park program survey board, so green means support, red means not support for these different proposed programs. And there were a handful of themes that came out of that community engagement event. There's one that I want to address with you commissioners and that was why Enterprise Park? As I mentioned, we started looking at doing a surf park in Alameda many many years ago, zeroed in on Enterprise Park for a handful of reasons.

The first one really is synergy with the existing uses that are already there. We have this all watercraft will rise mentality and we think that we are better with the sailing center and the canoe club and stacked adventures nearby and the people that use the basin for paddling and just general recreation at the boat ramp. We're interested in being part of the park as it exists. This is kind of related. We think that we can provide some uplift to what's there through these improvements.

We are interested in contributing the master plan. We're interested in reactivating that campground, perhaps not as a campground. Interestingly enough, through the survey there was differences of opinion about whether the campground should be a campground. We're interested in giving it a new lease on life. And same thing goes for 150 West Hornet.

I'm an architect by trade. I believe that the most sustainable buildings are ones that already exist, so I'm really excited about giving that building hopefully another fifty or sixty or one hundred years of life because it's pretty sad as it stands right now. Clearly improving bike and ped access to Central Avenue, we think the location is bar none. If we were somewhere else, one of the areas that was suggested more than once was the sports courts area on the northern side of the point. For a host of reasons, I mean there's no there there yet relative to where we can plug into Enterprise Park, but also there is the Antiques Fair which we know is very popular and we wouldn't want to displace that.

And the Enterprise Park location specifically the way we're orienting and locating it has some prevailing wind mitigations that help our surface conditions in the surf pool and the Alameda knows that you've got a lot of wind particularly out at the point and wind affects waves. The project team consists of on the development side, Proswell which is a technical services management operating company specifically for surf parks and has a lot of development. Some of the members of Proswell have tons of development developing and operating water parks and attractions. Urban Mix Development is a Bay Area developer. Keith McCoy is one of the principals of Urban Mix.

They're involved in radium and Keith's an Alameda resident. BAR Architects is the architect and planner. BAR has been around almost sixty years. We've done a bunch of buildings in Alameda and projects in Alameda. We did AltaStar Harbor.

We were the master planner for site designed Little John Commons for the housing authority. I was involved in all those projects and I say that's one of the reasons why we found Enterprise Park because I'm a huge fan of Alameda and know the area well. Just to wrap up the goals for tonight, hopefully I helped you understand what we're trying to do and why we're trying to do it, where we're trying to do it. Really, the question before you is do you believe that this is a conversation worth exploring further? We hope that the answer is yes. We're really excited about that and thank you very much for the opportunity to share our thoughts.

Thank you. Great, thank you. Commissioners, clarifying questions? Commissioner Robbins? Good.

Not clarifying questions or statements I have. Can just go for it?

Why don't we start with questions if you can?

Okay. I do not have questions at this moment.

Okay. In that case, Commissioner Alexander.

Okay. Have questions. Thank you for that. I did attend the community meeting down there on the base. So this is a five year lease, is that what you said? How long is this lease supposed to be? Is that for you, Mr. Matt?

Good evening. That is something that's not explored at this time. This is more just exploring the concept of even the possibility of having it at the site. That'd be something the city would look into a lot further if an ENA was to be pursued.

Okay, why not this is a question, but I know that five years ago, Commissioner Robbins and I looked at a proposal to work on the campgrounds. And that was we were all in favor of that. We thought it a great idea. However, it all had to be part of the master plan. So I guess my question is, does the city need to do the master plan for this area to see what else needs to be there before this all gets done? There's some sports areas there too that I would love to see improved.

So that is something that wasn't able to be prioritized prior with staff and resources at the time and we are utilizing this as something to kind of capitalize on that of one, their dollars of private capital in addition to partnering with ARPD and staff to explore that further if the community is interested, we would be developing a master plan a part of this prior to any sort of development.

And I guess my other question is looking at the amounts that this will cost you to go do that, I assume that the developers are expecting people to come from Concord and Walnut Creek and San Francisco and San Jose on a regular basis to use this facility. Am I correct in assuming that?

Yes, it would be designed as a regional draw.

Have they done any research if this is something that is wanted in this region?

That is a part of this process that we're starting today or in the past few months I should say, sorry.

Okay, those are the only questions I have. I'll save my comments.

Mr. Boerne.

Think, well, Commissioner Alexander addressed one of my questions and I think you answered it in that this would be the only surf center in the area.

Correct.

That's right. And has the city done any projections because the previous conversation, the expectation is that people from all around the area will come use this facility but maybe in just in terms of my ignorance as it relates to surfing, at least to me it seems to be a niche type of activity and therefore what happens in a lot of these cases in that when it's described to someone who might not be into it, they'll say, Oh, it's cool, it's great, and then they use it and then all of a sudden they don't, they don't want to use it anymore and then it's just a matter of the hardcore people who are really into it will use it and has any work been done or I'm assuming it will be done to determine if that population will be sufficient to justify the cost of this facility? You're correct in the fact that a lot

of that work will be discussed and explored a part of the future process if we were to get to the point of having an ENA agreed? I can respond to that.

We wouldn't be here proposing this if we didn't have extreme confidence that this is going to be a successful attraction. There are starting to be a handful of these surf parks around the world. There are currently a few operating in the Continental United States. There's also a handful in Europe. There's a handful in Australia.

Generally speaking, the occupancy rate utilization, however you want to call it, is 85%, 90%, low 90%. So the handful of surf parks that are operating in the world right now have extremely high attendance and utilization and the majority of those are not in areas with an endemic surf population. So, I mean, and we have done our own research to try and determine what are ideal MSAs that would accommodate a surf park and the Bay Area is one of the top in the country.

Okay, and then my last question is, and this is for the city, is that right now this is just conceptually we're determining whether this park can, well this facility should be built at Enterprise Park. What's the, has the city considered, what happens if it doesn't move forward? How how would this park be used? What what will happen to Enterprise Park?

That that's a part of what this process is helping to identify for the master plan as well. So one, we're looking at if the community has an interest in a surf pool park as well. And if so, we will move forward to discuss this conversation with council and get their input and interest as well. And if so, we would be looking to enter into an ENA, an exclusive negotiating agreement. And then it would be a much further community input process to see if it's still of interest and at any point we'd be exploring other possibilities if it wasn't to be a surf pool.

Could I also make a clarification? I mean, if the public says no, then we have no funding to move forward with the master plan process and we will not have the funding and nothing will happen at all because we don't have the funding Correct. For anything?

Correct.

Okay, just to be clear.

So it's a so in essence, it's an all or nothing thing No.

Not not necessarily. It's it's the point of where we're at right now would be moving forward with community input process, entering into an ENA if if all is agreed and we can come to terms in that. And then it would be a much more robust community input process to still explore if this is of interest while still developing a master plan, and director Long could potentially help on that as well.

Yeah. And I would just say, commissioners, with the current project projection in our department between D PAVE, Estuary Park, we don't have the capacity to take on developing Enterprise Park anytime soon. So we probably won't be able to even start a master planning process for the park for four, five, maybe six years from now. We will continue to operate the park as is and it will still be open to the public, but we won't be making any major improvements anytime soon.

And then my last question is since the expectation is that people from around the area will use this park, assuming that there'll also be improvements to or ideas to account for the traffic that will be generated by this facility?

That would be as well as part of our exploration is on this. There'd be a traffic management plan and study and further discussion on that absolutely.

Okay. I

have one more question. Please. Mr. Duncanson, are you involved with the Wave Park that's being built in Palm Springs?

If I can take a moment to just address the question about traffic. So a couple things. One, if all the stars align in terms of how long this process would take to go through getting to an ENA, going through the ENA process, getting approvals, constructing this project, our projections is that this wouldn't open until early twenty twenty nine which coincidentally is when the Alameda Access project is supposed to be complete. Of course, plans cannot align on both fronts and both could be 2030. So that's the first point is that there should be a different situation at or around the opening of this park if everything goes well.

Secondly, on traffic, the way the surf park operates and this is one of these wonky things and I'm glad you asked the question. So time in the pool is organized generally by the hour. So there's a maximum number of people that can be in the pool of around 50, I mean it could be 56 depending on how we operate but generally each of those four zones in a mode one scenario is going to have 12 to 14 people in it and that's maximum capacity, maximum occupancy. So that's 100% utilization which we would love to have that problem but that might not be the case. And people will arrive and somebody may come and stay for another session, somebody may come and leave.

So the point I'm trying to get to is there's not hundreds of people arriving at 9AM and hundreds of people leaving at 9PM or 6PM. There's going to be, you know, and we've got to talk about all the different modes that people are going to come. We certainly hope that there's going to be a great deal of Alamedans that might ride their bikes. So in terms of trip generation, you might have 30 well there will be a traffic demand management plan, there will be a traffic analysis by a professional that does this stuff that's not just me sharing these analytics here, but you might only have 30 or 40 cars that are already staggered to arrive at a time and then 20 might leave and then 30 might show up. So the trip generation from a vehicle standpoint is scattered across the entire operating And then Commissioner Alexander,

I didn't hear you. Are you involved with the project, the Wave Pool in Palm Springs?

Palm Springs Surf Club or Desert Surf? Palm Springs Surf Club is an operating park. It's sort of been operating a year and a half or so, although it had some closures. There's another park that's under construction in Palm Desert and that one's called Desert Surf. That one's supposed to open I think next summer.

Just curious.

And I have nothing to do with, you know, nothing to do with Palm Springs Surf Club. I was involved in the early master planning and entitlements for Desert surf many many years ago.

And I guess one other question, don't know maybe this is for you Director Long. What is the cost to the city of this project? I mean, does city have to out and take money? Is there money from our recreation budget that's gonna go towards this project?

Currently, there's no capital request for our beginning of this process or conversation. And will not be involved in the construction cost or build out should that get to the point of that project.

Okay, thank you.

Great, I have a few questions myself for Mr. Duncanson. I'm hoping you can help us understand how this all pencils out as much as understand the profile of the facility once it gets built. But roughly speaking, what's the cost of construction for a project like this?

Well north of $50,000,000

And from your standpoint, what would the anticipated payback period be? What would you hope for?

That's a great question that one of my partners would have to answer. I'm an architect so that's not my role in the project and the phone a friend is in Greece right now so anyway, sorry. Okay.

As a general matter, outlined kind of the hours of operation and some of the hourly costs of operation. How many paying visitors per year would you model in this facility over a typical year?

That is a great question. I would ask the same friend. I mean, I think the total number of I mean I think what we were saying was that there, I mean this is really challenging because you will have, and I'm not sure I totally understand, I mean is the question about visitors or is the question about paying sessions? Mean something that we Both effectively. Yeah, so I mean the way we've looked at modeling out visitors and this is gonna be a super oversimplification because again there's peak weekend, peak day or peak weekday and then there's low weekend, low weekday.

But say an average day might have 500 total available sessions for purchase if you want to call it that, although we are assuming that a certain number of those sessions are donated on every day. Exactly how that works out operationally we'll have to sort out. But say we model out the 500 total available, then we assume there's about 80% utilization and then we also would assume that some people are going to have repeat sessions. I think the number of visitors that we were averaging, like individual surf visitors was around three nineteen or three twenty per day average across the year. And then we also assume that some people will bring,

you

know, loved ones or friends or something like that and that might be another 150 or 160 people a day. If I get my cheat sheet which I can consult, it's around four eighty unique visitors a day as an average.

Trevor Dees, I would just say that all of this information will come forward as more study is done and this is very high levels to which we're just trying to get if there's interest in moving forward this project.

My next question gets exactly that point. I'm curious of the early modeling that you've done. Do you have a sense based on your forecasting or your surveying what percentage of those daily visitors would be coming from Alameda versus the broader region as a whole?

No, we don't have that.

Do you have any evidence from other projects of what that ratio might look like?

Mean as I stated before, there aren't that many surf pools that exist in the world today that are proximate to an endemic surf population. Candidly a lot of the projects that are out there keep all their data very tightly. So there's a couple projects in Australia. They would be good reference points but I don't have that information from them. But Munich is not a good example of how many local surfers are patronizing the establishment but in Munich, Germany they have extremely high utilization.

The first commercial surf park in US was in Waco Waco, Texas. I've been there six times myself and every time I'm there, it's completely booked out. And funnily enough, now there is an endemic Waco surf population after all these years.

Okay, but what I'm hearing in your response is at the moment we don't know the endemic demand for surfing within Alameda. Is that fair?

No, not within Alameda, no.

Okay, great, thank you. My last question is I'm curious on the other side of this. I was trying to take the worst case scenario. What happens in the instance that this doesn't work out? What is the city left with if ten years from now it just didn't work? What's left on the site and who takes care of it?

In that scenario there's a surf pool that was built Correct. That we paid for that failed. Correct. I think the first question would be why did it fail? Did it fail because we were poor operators? There's potentially other operators out there. I mean you would have a surf pool and you could operate it however you want. I mean I look forward to a world where there are municipal surf pools that are owned by cities and operated by third parties. So you would kind of get a surf pool for free and you could operate it as a municipal surf pool which would be awesome. Okay. And along the way you'd have a renovated building that you could, you know, do something with and a master plan and all that other stuff.

Understood, thank you. Are there any other questions from commissioners before we go to public comment? Do we have public comment on this item?

We do, we have nine in person speakers. The first speaker is Catherine Chang.

I'm sorry to interrupt. Before we go to the speakers, are there online speakers as well?

Pardon me. There are two, pardon me.

There are two? Yes. Okay. Okay. In that case, let's move forward.

Good evening. Thank you for the opportunity to speak about the surf park. My name is Katherine Chang Duplessi. I am the owner of Live Simply Surf Shop here on the island, the only surf shop in the East Bay. I wanna take a few moments tonight to share a little about my story and why this surf park matters. When my husband Kevin and I first opened our shop, we didn't know if a surfing community even existed in Alameda. Our goal was simply to find a community or build one from scratch. And what we found was so much more. We found surf families, old school surfers, water lovers. We met so many people who had never had the opportunity or access to try surfing.

People will walk into our store in disbelief, making u turns just to confirm, wait, is that really a surf shop in Alameda? The response was incredible and over time, our little shop became something more than a store. It became a hub, a welcoming space for anyone curious about surfing. But I didn't fully understand what kind of place Alameda was until this community wrapped its arm around me. When Kevin's cancer came back, COVID hit, I had a newborn, and I was trying to keep the shop alive.

I was drowning. But the kindness and generosity of this community pulled me back up. That's when I realized Alameda isn't just a beautiful island. It's a place where people show up from one another. When Kevin passed away three years ago, I was overwhelmed with grief. I was lost, and then one day, I got back in the water. I hadn't surfed in years, the waves crashed into my face, my heart was pounding, and then I stood up on my surfboard for the first time in years. In that moment, something shifted. I felt strong again. I felt alive again.

Surfing became my therapy. It gave me calm, clarity and courage. It rebuild my strength physically and emotionally. And I had to be strong, not just for myself, but for my son.

Thank you. Thank you.

Next in person speaker, Cammy Richards.

Welcome, speaker Richards.

I'll talk faster. My name is Cammie Richards. I'm representing Alameda Community Sailing Center. We will be bounding the new surf park and we have been at that site for twelve years as a community sailing center. On the negative side to this whole deal is the piece of paper with drawings on it showing boundaries between different organizations. And I want to be darn sure that the businesses that are there that have been there for a long time are protected from being rolled out of existence. On the positive side, the benefits are huge. There is no running water where we are. There is no electricity where we are. We have solar panels.

We truck in water to rinse the boats. The water costs $50 The delivery is $600 Water's precious resource. If these guys go through with this plan, we will have running water. We will have electricity. I think on the much bigger side of things, I'm amused at some of these questions where you seem to not want people to come onto the island to enjoy the park.

I understand that. You can't run a business without customers. And it's not bad if the customers come from San Jose. Any customer is a good customer. If Alameda has a transportation problem, it's problematic to blame a surf club for making it worse. He explained it better than I did. I think that having more people get out by the edge of the water is a huge benefit to everybody that lives in Alameda. My perception of the city of Alameda is it's afraid of the water. You don't have to water the grass. You don't have to pull weeds. You don't mow it. You don't light it at night. It's just the bay. It's always there. Let people enjoy it.

I got four seconds to go. Thank you very much.

Thank you, speaker Richards. Excuse me, before we continue I just want to clarify I know that when we have more than five public speakers there's the option to adjust the speaking time to two minutes. I noticed that we're at two minutes right now. Is that the default or should that be at three minutes? Okay. Great.

Thank you.

Thanks. If the previous speaker would like to come back and have an extra minute, you're welcome to. It's okay, welcome back.

Where was I? So

surfing became my therapy. It gave me calm, clarity and courage. It rebuild my strength physically and emotionally and I had to be strong, not just for myself but for my son. He lost his father so young and as any parent knows, a child's grief is deep and personal. I had to help him face those emotions. Surfing became our way to process it, not run from it. That's what surfing can do. It's more than just a sport, it's a healing force, especially for kids. And that's why the surf shop had to continue, not just for me or for Kevin, but for the community we created. Our shop became a safe place, a place where people shared their stories.

Families battling cancer, single moms struggling everything, people navigating loss. They saw everything in my story, and I solved myself in theirs. And that's why this surf park matters. It's not just for experienced servers, it's for everyone, for all ages, all skill levels, a place where people can come together, support each other, and heal through the power of water and

waves. Sorry.

Busy families need something like this close to home. Surfing brings people together. It strengthens bonds. Being in the water with your kids, cheering them on, watching them grow, it creates memories that last a lifetime. And let me say something as a mom, we give so much of ourselves, sometimes we lose parts of who we are. That's why I started Alameda Surf Club just two months ago. I wanted to create a space where women, especially moms, could reconnect with themselves and with each other and with the water. Already

I'm brought mom sorry. We need to move forward, but thank you.

Thank you. You can provide your comment via written as

well. Yes.

You can you can give us your written comment and we'll include it as well. Thank

you. Can we have our next speaker, please?

Speaker Richard Bangert.

Welcome, Speaker Baer.

Thank

you, Chair Radees. If this I'm waiting for the number to come up.

When you start it with. Okay.

Thank you, chair Regis. If this proposal was a proposal to purchase land at Alameda Point for this facility, give me a t shirt, give me a hat, I'd be all for it. We need to be selling property at Alameda Point to get it off of the city's books and into private hands and on the tax rolls. I'd be all in favor of it. But in this case, this developer would like to locate their facility on city property, and instead of purchasing it, it would be a long term ground lease and agreement to allow them to build their facility on land that does currently currently does not have a master plan.

It's for a future park. In the city's announcement in early May for the pop up event, it said this facility would be a defining feature of Enterprise Park. It would be, it could be, and it might be if after a robust community planning process for a master plan, the community decided they want a surf pool there. But currently, we have had no such process. A day or so ago, the city on their Facebook page invited people to this meeting saying, plan your next park.

Come and share your ideas for land use at Enterprise Park. This agenda item is concerned only with what's inside the four corners of the proposal, not a planning process, visioning process, or beginning of a master planning process for Enterprise Park. If if I knew that we were going to be starting planning Enterprise Park tonight, I would have brought the drawing and had it put up on the screen that the park district developed thirty years ago as part of the base reuse plan because at the time, it was envisioned it would be a region serving park. They developed a complete plan, and there are many elements that we might still want today, like a marine science center. But that's not what we're starting today.

We're only talking about one facility. I encourage you to start a process with public funding for Enterprise Park, but this is not the way to start it.

Thank you, speaker. Speaker Baer. Our next speaker please.

Speaker Irene Dieter.

Welcome speaker Dieter.

Hello, commissioners and staff. I'm here today because I want to remind you all about what is there at the park today. The reason why it is so popular is because it's a relaxing, peaceful area, for people enjoying the beach, for non motorized watercraft, for viewing the harbor seals, for fishing or picnicking. And, so this particular project would change the entire tenor of the area. And so even though we are here today to explore the surf park concept at Enterprise Park, I'd like to encourage the city and the developer to explore various locations at Alameda Point on private land, because this is the wrong spot.

We should not be privatizing our public parks for the benefit of a commercial enterprise. This will be fenced off for users of the park for only those who want to pay to play And we would be paving a lot of the area with concrete. While we're removing pavement from Depave Park, we're adding concrete here, which is contrary. And and also, as you may well know, the city has been criticized over and over again for leasing land rather than selling land out at Alameda Point. And we should be looking into various locations for this developer to purchase property, which is what I said at the pop up event.

There were lots of comments, about not commercializing our public park at this pop up event. The developer, if they were to purchase property and take that risk for their business on their own property, we could ask them for a community benefit such as providing a master plan of Enterprise Park. There is a perfect location even across the street from Enterprise Park And there's no reason why that cannot be explored to sell these guys property. I don't blame them for wanting to do this. You know, but it shouldn't be at the expense of our public open space.

So I think this visioning process for Enterprise Park that starts with a business that's baked in is backwards. I think that it should not happen that way.

Thank you, Speaker Dieter. Next speaker please.

Speaker Peter DeCock.

Welcome.

I just wanted to say that I support this park, this wave pool park. I grew up in South Africa in Cape Town and I was very fortunate to have served in South Africa. And when I came to this country, served in Southern California and in Pacifica, Santa Cruz and in Hawaii. And I think it's obviously, I'm biased, but I think it's a wonderful sport for kids, for health and getting out and enjoying the outside. It's hugely important for that.

Also, it's not just for expert surfers, it's for beginners. You can have schools there, surf schools. In South Africa, my brother was involved with disabled surfing, which they do now. They're very much and disadvantaged people so they get to learn to surf even though they're disabled. This is something that could be done at this pool.

You can't do it in Pacifica and Santa Cruz. It's almost impossible to do it there. So this is the pool will be used to help these people enjoy the sport of surfing which they normally cannot. So that's something that should be looked at when you talk about having this whirlpool. You've also got the environmental issue.

You can educate people. All the surfers that come here, the new surfers, surfers learning, young kids, they need to know about our seas and all the pollutions and the plastics that are going into our seas. And they're not going to know about it unless they hear about it from people who are teaching them in this wave pool and the coaches, the surfing coaches. This is where you're going to hear it. And these are the kids are going to go back and make a point of trying to save our oceans because right now they're in trouble.

We all know the big pollution, the big islands of polluted plastics in the Pacific. As for the park, I mean, there's so many things you can do. You can have covered parking with solar panels for the to help with support with the power. You can have bleachers for people to watch the surface because they love watching it. You can have night surfing, so you can extend the hours.

You can have surf contests. You can have this disabled surfing. You can have surf schools. The pool should be heated, there should be sponsors that should help with the finances like Quicksilver and Rip Curl and then there's the environmental education. All these things will benefit not only Alameda but the whole of the Bay Area. You'll have plenty of customers coming from all around the Bay Area. So don't worry about the customers. They'll be coming.

Thank you. Okay. Thanks. Next speaker please.

Speaker Rick Lewis.

Welcome speaker Lewis.

Hello. Thank you. I'll be brief. I have a couple of issues and one of them is that I do think it's a narrowly defined kind of enterprise that otherwise are unlike a restaurant or something else that if the enterprise fails, you could move into it. This is going to be a lot of cement, a lot of construction that's for a surf park in particular.

So I don't know about the long term disposition of this land once it's gone. And that's my other comment. I'd prefer to have a more natural habitat there that accentuates and works off of Depe Park, the lease Turn Colony, and the existing trees and campground there. Also, I think in Snell Beach and the walkway there is more of a pedestrian type thing rather than a commercial venue. And so I would really prefer long term enhancements to a more natural environment than a commercial environment. That's my position on that. Thank you.

Thank you, Speaker Lewis. Our next speaker please.

Speaker Marjorie Powell.

Welcome, Speaker Powell.

Thank you, commissioners. I am Marjorie Powell. I'm an Alameda resident. I'm a member of the Friends of the Alameda Wildlife Refuge. And I go to Enterprise Park maybe every six weeks or so to walk and look at the birds and check out the harbor seals and so on.

And I was surprised to discover that there was a pop up event to talk about the plans for a water park at Enterprise Park because since I've been involved with Depave Park development, I understood that the process was to develop a master plan and then to and through that process to decide what was going into a park development. And so I was surprised to suddenly discover that we were talking about a commercial program within a city park. Now I think a water park would be marvelous. It's not something I would ever want to use. But when I was at the pop up event, I kept looking around at how much empty space there was out at Alameda Point.

Now I don't know what all of the areas are zoned for and there may be restrictions, but it struck me that it was not necessary to take down existing trees at a time when the city and NPOs are planting trees in Alameda to put a commercial entity within a city park when there was so much extra space. I understand that the city would benefit from having the commercial developer pay for development of the master plan because that has to be expensive. But I'm not sure that putting it taking what looked to me to be at least a third of Enterprise Park and making it commercial entity was the best use of a city park rather than other parts of Alameda. So I would urge the Rec and Parks Department to think about other places that a commercial entity like the Surf Park might be. Thank you.

Thank you, Speaker Powell. Next speaker please.

Speaker David Mick.

Welcome, Speaker Nick.

Thank you and good evening commissioners. I appreciate the opportunity to speak. My name is David Mick and I'm the President of Power Engineering Construction. We're a forty year old marine construction firm and we've been operating at Alameda Point since 1998. As a long time member of the Waterfront community and one of the project's closest neighbors, I'm pleased to express our support for this proposed surf club.

We see the project as a step forward in activating a part of Enterprise Park that as long as I can remember has been underutilized, transforming it into a welcome hub for outdoor recreation. We believe this project aligns with the city's vision for a thriving Alameda Point. As a local employer with over a 140 team members, a member of the city's economic development advisory panel and treasurer of the Alameda Chamber of Commerce, I understand how important amenities like this are for attracting and retaining talent. Many of our employees, myself included, are surfers and outdoor enthusiasts, and there's genuine excitement within our company about this project going in our backyard. We feel the project reinforces Alameda's coastal identity, increasing an inclusive space for people of all ages.

It's the kind of development that builds community and supports healthy and active lifestyles. Lastly, I wanted to acknowledge the development team for their proactive approach. They contacted us early, they've genuinely welcomed feedback and they've kept us informed along the way. That kind of neighborly approach matters, especially at Alameda Point. As a business and as people, we're excited about the future of Alameda and believe this project will be a valuable addition to the point. Thank you for your time and consideration.

Thank you, Speaker Mick. Next speaker please.

The last in person speaker, Ken Robles.

Welcome, Speaker Robles.

Thank you, Commissioners. Thank you, Staff. My name is Ken Robles. I was born in the Alameda Hospital in 1958. I won't give you my complete history, but I want to tell you that I am a product of the Alameda Recreation and Park Department. I am very proud of that through its sports programs back in the '60s and into the '70s. I am also a surfer, started at the age of 15. I'm also a firm believer in master planning. Having lived here in Alameda for thirty three of my sixty seven years before I had to paddle across the estuary and seek homes elsewhere. I just I I think it fits.

Okay? If I look at Enterprise Park, and I think the first slides talk about it, I heard synergy, very true. We are an island. We're surrounded by water, so water is very important to us. But yes, there's many things that should be done at Alameda Point. And I don't think I would love to see another Presidio type park out there, which I think they've done a wonderful job. But anyway, point here is I think it fits. I want to touch quickly on the health factor of surfing. And thank you very much for bringing that up and all of you because surfing is a very spiritual endeavor. You spend a lot of time waiting.

You're paddling. You're waiting. And then you get something in return. And that feeling is incredible. It is incredibly therapeutic. So I don't want to have you lose sight of that. I also want to applaud Live Simply Surf Shop because if you understand the history of surf shops in the world, they are a gathering place. This is like the clubhouse for young people. And so at a time when our kids are searching for things, I want to applaud you. Keep up the great work. Thank you. I'm very excited about reuse of 150 West. It's dilapidated. And here's a great use for it. Now I will agree.

Is that the ideal spot? Maybe not. Okay? Maybe it should be somewhere else. But Alameda Point is the place for it, I would say.

The one thing that's missing, and again, I talk about wanting to see a master plan, is I think Alameda should have four sand volleyball courts, not the ones on East Bay Regional because that is dredged sand and nobody really wants to play on that. Beach volleyball is now an NC2A sport, and at least 12 high schools in the East Bay have started beach volleyball programs for men and women. So I think that would be a great use. The city could generate revenue through the use of that facility as well as the public. So anyway, thank you for your time. I support the surf park. Surfing is great. Let's find a master plan way to do it. Thank you.

Thank you. Virtual speakers?

We do have two. The first speaker is Amelia McDonald.

Welcome speaker Mcdonald.

Yes, Mcdonald. Can you guys hear me?

Sure can. Go ahead.

Thank you. Good evening, commissioners. My name again is Amelia McDonald. I'm a long term resident of Alameda and a lover of all things water related. Currently, am a swim coach, a lifeguard, and am committed to working on building programs that connect Alamedans to the water.

I grew up surfing in San Francisco, and I represent a third generation of a pretty salty surf family. I'm also a customer of Live Simply Surf, and I found them by doing a u-turn because I saw them and I was like, wow, there are my people here in Alameda. I'm also a parent of two budding little surf grounds, and I'd love to see them and their friends have this amazing opportunity. A consistent place to surf closer to home, to practice, backside floaters, or whatever they are, that would be amazing. I've also taught surfing, I really think there is no better stoke out there to watch.

Watching someone ride their first wave is one of the best experiences I've ever had. Ultimately, a wave pool can really act as an inclusive space for all people to find and start their surf journey. Introducing surfing in a safe, controlled environment gives folks the skills and confidence and opportunity to really explore their lifelong, hopefully lifelong relationship to the water. I'm a master's coach here on the island. I have lots of surfers in the water every morning swimming to train for surfing, so I do think you have a huge customer base.

Ultimately, the proposed Neptune Surf Club, wave pool is a bold and really exciting opportunity for Alameda. I think transforming that space with respect I I hear everybody talking about master plans, and with respect to, like, the environment, I really feel like these guys are going to bring that for us. But I think that what they want to do is just going to amplify that space and make it really great for people. I swim out there all the time. I'd love to see more action out there. I would love to surf out there. Thank you guys for your time tonight.

Thank you, speaker McDonald.

Next speaker is Ruth Abbey.

Welcome, speaker Abbey. We can hear you.

Yes. Good evening, commissioners, and thank you so much for your work on this. I, appreciate the Rec and Park department, all the staff, and all the parks. I, I wanted to associate myself with several of the speakers that have expressed concerns about the private use of public lands and would really encourage the sighting of the surf Park in another location and perhaps across the street from the park. If you've been to that park, know that it is contemplative.

There's a lot of nature. There is the Bay Trail and the idea of adding a privately operated, privately private facility not open to the public unless you're paying, to me I think is not the purpose of our city parks. And so I would encourage the Surf Park to find another location and that we find the funds over the next several years for doing a master plan. And I know it may be too windy but I've been to a lot of public comments that we need more pickleball courts. So I think you'll hear that if you did a master plan in that location. Okay. Thank you so much.

Thank you, speaker Abby. I believe that concludes public comment.

Correct, no more speakers.

Thanks. Okay, moving to commissioner discussion and comment. Who'd like to start us off? Commissioner Robbins, would you like to offer your statements?

Okay, thank you. So thank you everybody for your comments. Some of you want this to be a fully open park. And as a reminder, we do have a lot of open spaces. Deep Pave Park, Sweeney, at least two thirds of the middle of it.

The Northwest Territory, a 150 acres west of the sports complex. Seaplane Lagoon as it transitions back to a natural habitat. And although this won't be fully open space, it does include and continues to keep the shoreline pristine so that the Bay Trail is there. The ability to look at the harbor sales is still there. And the area that's looking to be developed as I have been on Rec and Park Commission for years has been so soulless, just dirt, just sitting there and never there's never been any thought or process to use it or that dilapidated building.

Next thoughts were that the area next to this is zoned as enterprise zone with concrete and current business zoning. And by moving it there, we're taking away revenue and jobs that we need for future development from that area. And the city already, you know, with the shutdown of the base, we need revenue. So if we decide to move it and displace in an area that we've already got zoned for revenue, then we're taking money away from the city for that. And I was a three term County Planning Commissioner in Michigan.

I was the chairperson as the twenty five year master plan process in Michigan. And we, through that process, nine years I served, and we were hit with projects all the time through that weren't part of our master plan. And it's because we didn't have the forethought to think about it at the time. Certainly we didn't have the forethought to think of something as brazen and bold as this. And we didn't have the funding.

But we amended our master plans. And in our twenty five year master plan that I was the chairperson of, we had to include and adopt some additional new things to think about. Also, my husband happens to be one of the deputy directors of the San Francisco Planning Department and I have several friends that are planners either with private companies or public companies and I've spoke at length with all of them. And they all resoundingly said, hell yes, you're going to develop this. Where are you going to get the money otherwise?

What is the city going to do? How are they ever going to develop a master plan? It's gonna sit vacant for he says four to six years. I think he's being nice. I think it's gonna be longer than that before the city will come up with the funds to try and come up with any kind of an idea of a master plan. We have three different stages of different things that are supposed to be built here. A 45 acre sports complex that unfortunately I will be dead by the time we finally get around to even thinking about having the funding to go through that process. So for us to think that, oh, we'll get to this because we'll find the funds. We can't even fund a BMX course for our current residents. We can't even fund additional soccer fields.

We can't fund the things that we have. We don't have the funds to now all of a sudden come up with a plan that was very passionate to both of us for many years and has been put on the back burner. So for us to think that we can just decide that put this off and we'll get to it, I just don't see that we have the finances to be able to do that. So I think Gene Sweeney is a good example. Here we had a master plan for Gene Sweeney and now we have an aquatic park or pool that is now being put in the middle of the park.

There was a master plan, but we were able to change it. So you don't need a master plan in place in order for things to occur. And nobody here is we are not being tasked. We were just here to listen. You know, we're not being tasked to make any judgments or or any calls on that.

So I I think that this is a great opportunity for us to at least visit the whole concept of what could be done out there. And and I would recommend that a development team create a plan with a surf park and other items such as a campground and possible rehabilitation of the current building, ways to access the park, the parking lot and more, go through getting community input and if staff deems needed and our commissioners sign off, require the Surf Park do a full park master plan, looking at everything including the tidelands and all the above reference areas I just said. And after all community input has been gathered and our commissioners feel the city has done its due diligence, if appropriate, we recommend it go to commission for approval. And then commissioners would then ultimately have to say as to whether or not we want a surf park or not, but at least we would have the bones of a master plan in place to at least move forward with because right now we don't have anything. That's it.

Thank you, Commissioner Robbins.

I'm not going follow that. Okay, I will. Couple comments. I'm all for doing some more research on this, reaching out to the community again. I don't think 1,200 responses to a survey is enough.

I've worked on a couple of redo's of our parks and we've had three or four community meetings held at the park to talk to people. But I think there needs to be much more community outreach here. I'm pleased to know that you don't want to displace the businesses out there and that you're working with them to find them a new place for their business. Because we need to protect them. I think that's number one.

We had talked about that campground and making it like a little glamping area and where kids could come and have their first camping experience there. I'm all for doing something with that area too. I'd like to keep as many of those trees that are there on that land. And you know, I would like the city to look at when they're looking at this plan, the mayor and the council to look at developing the rest of the playground area there. There's a basketball court that is in terrible shape that's there.

We had looked at that area for putting pickleball courts in, but it was not a thing we could do. Maybe there's a space to put a sand volleyball court there, but I really would like to see that part as part of this development. Whether it has to be a whole master plan, I don't know. I'm not in that department, so I can't speak to that. But I really think that that area should be developed along with this.

Well, I think those are all my comments. And I know it's not up to us to make the final decision. Am I correct? It's gonna have to go to counsel, and they're going to have to approve the thing, correct? Okay, so but you have my support to continue working with the community to continue to develop it, but I really think there needs to be a lot more community input. Like I said, 1,200 people answering a survey to me is not an indication of what people really want in this town. Thank you.

Mr. Boerne, thank you.

I do have questions. I do have concerns and I'll follow-up by saying I used to be, I used to work for the federal government as a reviewer at the Food and Drug Administration and one of the things that we would do when trying to clear or approve a medical device is to make sure that the sponsors provided enough information to ensure that the device is safe and effective. And therefore, in this type of situation, I don't, naturally there isn't enough information for me to make a final recommendation over whether to move forward with this project or not, but I do think that the question that is being proposed tonight is that whether there,

is this

an idea worth exploring? I think this is at least an idea worth exploring to make sure that the city and the company provides enough information for the commission and eventually the council to make an informed decision and that as Commissioner Alexander has stated, to make sure that there is enough community outreach so that regardless of how this goes, the community is can at least say everybody did their due diligence, everybody they provided enough information and at least I might not, I might be supportive of it, I might be against it, but I understand where and how these decisions were made and where things were headed and therefore in conclusion, at this point in time, at least I'm aligned that this is an idea worth exploring and look forward to the information that the city and the company will have when they have the necessary information to present to the commission and the council.

Thank you Commissioner Bernie. For my part, certainly sitting here one of welcome challenges of being on the commission is trying to form a kind of a comprehensive view of a project to propose on a really short period of time. And clearly there still are a great number of unknowns related to this project. That said, I echo my colleagues comments in that I haven't heard anything tonight that should block further exploration of the of the Surf Park the Surf Park project. You know, my own my own personal perspective, you know, it sounds like a great innovative concept, but that's that's not that's not my call to make.

It could be very easily be sitting here evaluating a golf course or or a sports field for for that matter. But it sounds like a great concept. And if the financials pencil out within the within the company, then then of course that's that's their call as well. The the questions that I'm left with, you know, come from the fact that we're talking about a project on leased public land which makes me which makes my mind go to the question of how do we ensure that this is the best possible public use, the best possible public purpose for this for this pure piece of land. The fact of the matter is that if there's a private company willing to make a $50,000,000 investment into Alameda along with a business that could run it by my quick estimation of 15 or $20,000,000 annual run rate, that's that's a positive contribution to the city's revenues from the lease agreement as well as a positive direct and indirect contribution to the local business community.

That said, you know, with hourly prices above $100 and an unknown local demand for surfing, I'd wager at this point that the percentage of use from those 175,000 annual visitors is likely low from the immediate Alameda the immediate Alameda community. So I would recommend and suggest looking at this project through the lens of a straight concession and looking at it as a transaction, you know, that funds a master plan for for the city of Alameda that funds and resources don't currently exist for. That we look at this through the lens of the lease revenue that the project might provide and the additional regional benefits that might come from a regional attraction and what what value that represents. As well as the exploration, and I'm not sure if this is appropriate within a lease agreement, but the exploration of a really tight community benefits agreement. Because I I suspect that the benefits that accrue to the community from a project like this where local usage is probably gonna be low are gonna come from the other elements of the project that have been mentioned, whether it's the campground or the sports fields.

And firm commitments around those obligations, I think would be an important an important part of the ultimate agreement. And I conclude just by echoing my my colleagues comments that that evaluation where we're comparing those benefits against the alternative uses of the property are conducted through a really robust public comment. So I think we've heard from a lot of people tonight a certain frustration and a certain lack of clarity about the status of the project and and how it might proceed moving moving forward. Thanks. Okay.

Are there further comments from commissioners? No? Okay. In that case, I believe it's time to move on to the next agenda item. We're on recess during the month of August. So the next item on the agenda is our next meeting on 09/11/2025. Do we have any agenda items that anyone would like to put on that agenda?

We have an update from some of our recreation programs because we took a little pause because of the busy summer season, but we'll start with that.

Okay, wonderful. Thank you. Anything

else? Mm-mm.

Alright, in that case the next item on the agenda is the adjournment. Do we have a motion to adjourn please?

I would like to make a motion to adjourn. Second.

I'll second.

Thank you and a vote please.

Commissioner Alexander? Yes. Commissioner Bernie? Yes. Commissioner Robbins? Yes. Chair Ades?

Yes. Thank you everyone. The meeting is now adjourned. We'll see everybody in September.