Parks and Recreation Commission - Regular Meeting

Staff, are we ready? Good. Alright. The May 11 meeting of the city of Fullerton Parks and Recreation Committee will now come to order at 6PM. Would the secretary please call roll?

Chair McHenry?

Here.

Vice chair Freeman?

Here.

Commissioner Maldonado?

Here.

And commissioner Tullivera?

Here.

Alright. All accounted for. I will now ask that commissioner Talavera lead us in the Pledge of Allegiance.

Please stand.

Are there any department updates from staff this evening?

Good evening, chair and commission. We do have a presentation today for our department update as we've done in the previous months. So we'll get that loaded. We're about to enter our what we call our busy season, which is our summer programs, as kids wrap up school in May, and then we'll start with our camps in June. So this is an update up in or for this month of all the activities kind of that we've done in the last couple of weeks and then some of the events that are forthcoming in the next few months.

Good evening, chair and commissioners. I'll be touching base Regarding our parks, trails, and our sports fields, over at the Fullerton Tennis Center, we had a very busy month, for the month of April. We had over a thousand reservations, more than a 100 class participations, and then 370 private lessons. And as I mentioned previously, in our last commission meeting, today was actually the first day of this of the, pickleball conversion project. We expect that completion to be to be completed in two to three weeks.

We also notified those that had completed the survey, that the project was commencing, starting today. And, also, just to provide you an update, our field request for the fall and winter season starting July 1 through January 15 has been sent out to all of our sports users. We have scheduled our sports field user group meeting as well on June 10. Field request for users, deadline is this, this upcoming Friday, May 15.

And I wanted to provide you an exciting update. Our Union Pacific Community Garden, will be receiving the applications. We're we'll be creating an interest list. There are 10 parcels there. We are, per the commission, creating a hybrid model.

We're at minimum keeping two for the community for, like, teaching. However, depending on interest, we may increase that and reduce the private lots, but no more than four community, like, parcels or garden beds. Sorry. So we in the next week to two weeks, we will release the information. We'll have an interest list created, and then we will raffle kind of on a lottery system for those private lots.

And then, again, the first year will be free, and then there will be a set fee annual fee. But these were all, part of the Isle Of Fuller or Love Fullerton Day. So we're very excited to open up the space and activate Union Pacific Park in a you know, with the element of the community garden. So be on the lookout for that.

Good evening. Just a really quick recap on the events that, have been happening and are upcoming. For the Fullerton Night Market, we completed five weeks of April, which was very exciting and very successful, and it hasn't even started getting super warm outside. So we're really impressed by the number of attendees that have been coming out every Thursday night to enjoy our live performances, as well as some newer vendors that we included this year. So we included, like, Randy Sammy, so some Spam, Vendor, Bao Bao Express, Hard and Dough, which is a nice sandwich vendor that we included, and they've been selling out almost almost each week.

So we're really happy to hear that the market's really increasing with numbers of vendors and participants. As for upcoming events, we have our our coffee fest coming up on May 30. So as of right now, we we are planning for around twenty to twenty five vendors, including coffee vendors, pastries, coffee grounds, craft vendors, matcha, and hopefully some, like, other pastries. And then we're gonna have live performance, like acoustic music, poetry by we have OC Poetry Slam who's gonna be providing a a free poetry session for us. And then we're working with exhibit art and entertainment who's gonna be providing art vendors as well and art live art for the community to be involved.

So it's a lot of a coffee and art and entertainment that will be happening on May 30. And then following the the week right after, we're gonna be kicking off our first Fullerton fit five k ever. So as of right now, we do have 211 registrations, and we are gonna remain open until June 5 or until we completely max out on registrations. So we are excited for the along with the health and fitness fair that will take place at the five k and the trail run at Fullerton's oh, I'm sorry. Fullerton Sports Complex.

So if you guys drive around Fullerton, you'll be seeing both of these banners all over the city. So we're really gonna market it, and you'll see some upcoming social media posts as well. And then we moving on to recreational programs. So for youth programs, aside from the regular ongoing programs that we offer, we are we have had, summer camps for Hillcrest camp open. So there's still room for that.

And then, as well as hunt camps, which we will provide more information on that, when we get to that slide. So we do have camps coming up starting June 1 through August 7, and camps start from ages five to 12. We have 7AM to 6PM for the extended camp hours, which is great for parents that really wanna start their day early and drop off their kids at camp and pick them up right after their working shift. If not, the regular, camp hours is 10AM to 4PM. And all these camps include on-site entertainment, arts and crafts, and weekly excursions.

And aside from the youth programs, we are moving on with our outdoor equity grant. So we do have an upcoming excursion to Catalina Island, which is next Saturday, May 16. As of right now and I believe it's gonna maintain that way. We have 48 attendees registered. These are all families, parents, and children, and staff including. So they'll be going down to Catalina Island on May 16 for almost the entire day from 9AM to 9PM. And then the next excursion scheduled for that is June 30 from nine to two. They're gonna go to the marine biology lab in at LA Outdoor School. Thank you.

Alrighty. Good evening, commission and chair. I'll be going over our arts and cultural as long as our as well as our senior programs and our facility rentals over at the Fullerton Community Center. To start off with our arts and cultural, we'll be having our senior ukulele, senior drum circle of Discover Fullerton on foot, and our Crafternoons. So our senior ukuleles, senior drum circle, and Crafternoons all take place during the week. They're very popular programs. I believe each one of them reaches its its max registrations. And then our discover Fullerton on foot is our Saturday programs. This Saturday on May sixteenth, they'll be actually going to the historic Fullerton Union High School. All of these programs are run by our coordinator Amy All, who does a fantastic job.

Now moving on to our older adult programs. On April 23, our senior our our senior citizens club of Fullerton hosted the Spring Fling, bringing together the community for a lively afternoon of music, refreshments, and enjoyable company. They had about around a 100 total participants, so it was a really, really good time. And then we are actually reintroducing this program here, which was an ongoing program for for a while that kinda took a hiatus that we're bringing back. We're bringing back our morning hike our morning trail hikes, starting tomorrow.

So tomorrow, they will be actually meeting at Laguna Lake. We have a few participants that have already signed up. It is completely free for, anyone over the age of 18. It is a senior focused program. Our senior staff are actually overseeing the program, but anybody 18 or older is more than welcome. So, you know, if you have a family member that that is a senior and you wanna join them, you are more than welcome to. Each week, we'll be going through different program or different, sites. So this week is Laguna Lake, and then next week, I believe, is Acacia Park. And then kinda going into our upcoming May workshop. So this is besides all of our normal workshops that we have.

These are some, focus ones that we have. On May 6, we actually had our Mother's Day tea party, was a lovely event. We had about 40 participants in that. They had tea, snacks, music, all that kind of stuff. We had it in our grand hall. On May 8, we had our Mother's Day celebration, which is basically a bigger extension of that with, we had about a 100 participants for that, and it was it was a really, really good time. All of our seniors had nothing but positive things to say about it. As I mentioned, May 12, be having our morning trail hikes. May 14, we'll be having coping with emotion coping with the emotions of caregiving, which is a Spanish workshop. May 20, we'll be doing a drought tolerant gardening.

May 21, we'll be having a senior prom. That is actually run through our department ourselves. So that one's gonna be a really, really good time. I believe we are taking registrations for that as well right now. And then on May 26, we'll be having a flag ironing event, preparing flags for, flags from the Loma Vista Cemetery.

And then now moving into our Fullerton Community Center and Hunt, Branch Library rentals. It was a very successful month for for our Community Center and our Hunt Branch Library. We had about 4,500 attendees for the Fullerton Community Center, with nearly a thousand for the, Hunt Branch Library. We had four weddings at the Community Center. We had three birthdays at the Hunt Branch Library. And then our revenue totals are there at the bottom with 29,000 being for the Community Center and 12,000, 12,500 being for the Hunt branch library.

In our Hunt branch programs, can continue to, you know, increase in attendance. We continue to host the My Little and Me craft time, Monday, Wednesdays, and Fridays, on a here in the month of May. And then our try it Fridays would just occurred this last Friday with wire wrapping. And in addition to that, as you saw in the rentals continue to increase, there is a the library, the Hunt Branch Library is having a baby rave. So that's gonna be exciting.

And then we our, our coffee cart vendor, on-site continues to increase in popularity. You can find them on Yelp and stop on by. That does wrap up our department update. However, before I finish, I do want to share with the commission that we've hired our new parks and recreation coordinator for the tennis center, Kate Hernandez. She's right in the front there.

Comes from the city of Buena Park, and she will be overseeing today's her first day, actually. She will be overseeing the tennis center along with the, pickleball programs here in the next few in the next few weeks. So we're excited to have Kate that completes our team, and we look forward to, you know, her joining the team and her doing great things at the tennis center. Thank you.

Welcome, Kate. Welcome to the light side of the force, the city of Fullerton. Are there any commissioners that have any comments or questions for staff?

Yeah. I had a question. For the community garden, do we have any plans in the future for, like, nonprofits to come in, or are they all just for private rentals?

Right now, how it's set or how we based on the regulations that were approved here previously, anybody can apply. It's a lottery system. So if there's a local nonprofit that has access to a, you know, garden bed and does get a lottery for that or get chosen through the lottery, they can they can definitely utilize it. Got it. I don't believe off the top of my head it says, like, private resident only, but we can also incorporate the nonprofits into the teaching component.

We will we do have staff that will be overseeing the program and scheduling activities or not activities, but, like, gardening workshops throughout the year. So the nonprofits can definitely reach out to us. There are a few. Mhmm. However, just tell of caution, a lot of them are not necessarily free

Yeah.

Per se.

I heard about that.

There's a few that are very interested in participating, but they're not it's not a free service. They, so we we just gotta be because it's a for the first year, it's gonna be free again. And then the second year, there will be a minimal annual fee Right. Which will be established.

So if we pay people, it might go into the negative pretty quick

if Yeah. And and, I mean, the maintenance of it will be, it's been taken care of by our public works team Gotcha. Water, etcetera, but it's it's minimal cost. We just wanna make sure that we don't create a program that we're paying because there's a lot of, like, master gardeners. You see master gardeners that are willing to come out and teach for free. I think Cal State Fullerton has a horticulture program. So we're we've done our research in that sense, so there's a lot of opportunities that we'll explore.

Awesome. Thank you. I'll I'll reach out to some people, see if they're interested or what their rates are. The good luck I wanted to say good luck to Kate. You have your work checked out for you. We communicated with the pickleball and tennis group, and they can be a fiery bunch. So and my my heart's out to you. And then for the fit five k, obviously, since the last one was gonna be in the wintertime and this one's now mostly, like, in the summer, imagining just a lot more water sources are gonna be available this time or pretty much. Okay. Awesome.

I have not trained. I trained for the last one, and I forgot about it. And now I have one month to go, so we'll see while I do. Thank you.

Commissioner, do you wanna tell us what your time might be at the end of this?

What do you mean? My time?

For your race.

Oh, god. Hey. Alright. We we can I'm not gonna We

can table that. Any other questions from commissioners?

Yeah. I had a a question. For the special event update, I I noticed there wasn't much on July 4. I know that's kinda coming up pretty rapidly. I didn't know if there was an update on that. Is it still planned to be kind of a three day festival? Is that where we're we're at right at the moment?

Yes, commissioner. That's that's kind of the scope that we've been working through.

Okay. The only only reason I bring it up is just it's probably an unpopular opinion. But, you know, the optics of it with with I know we have savings with the the first night, the New Year's Eve event. But, you know, what's the what's the proposed budget right now for that event? Do we have that?

I don't have it specific. I think, for the three day rolling over the first night, don't quote me. It's about $3.50 to 400,000.

Okay.

I think that also includes, like, the staff salaries and all the elements.

PD and overtime, all that all that stuff.

Okay. And security and the activities.

Okay. Only reason I bring it up is just because, you know, with the kind of the optics of everything and with the kind of financial environment that we're in right now, I didn't know if there was anything to explore to kind of scaling it back to a normal event or or less up to kind of what you guys would look into. But I don't know. It's just something to I thought of about it because it it's I mean, as awesome as that sounds, I think it's just given the current kind of environment of the finances, I don't know if you had any thoughts on that. Or

Yeah. We can definitely explore that option of scaling it back. There is a commitment contract commitment with the firework company

Oh.

That we would honor. But aside from that, there's no other contracts that are, to my knowledge, that we've confirmed.

What's our what's our current commitment on the fireworks?

The fireworks is about 32,000, if I'm not mistaken. It went up from last year because it's the two hundred and fiftieth.

So It's so bigger.

Yeah. So we can we can explore re the reduction of the three days. We can explore just having the fireworks. We would definitely wanna support the bike parade. I know that's a very popular Yeah. Event. So I think we can definitely support the park parade or the bike parade, you know, have some street closures and then just the firework event at the evening. Yeah. In my experience, the last couple of years, people don't come out until after the sun goes down and it kinda gets a little cooler Right. And the firework. So we we can definitely explore that. We'll talk with staff, and, yeah, we'll share we'll share with our, any updates.

Yeah. I I don't like I said, it's probably an unpopular opinion. Just it's something to look into with considering everything going around right now. But, yeah, that's it. That's the only thing I had. I just wanna know if there there's an update on that.

Sorry. Just to confirm it, I got the number. It's closer to 400,000.

Oh, okay. Yeah. That's pretty expensive. And what's it normally, like, it's just a one time one day event? Do you know?

It's probably I don't know off the top of my head. I can get you an answer before the meeting ends.

Alright. No worries. Thanks.

And if I'm not mistaken, I think the numbers are a higher this year because we rolled cost of overtime and police coverage into the event that maybe wasn't allocated that way last year. Correct.

So it's always it's always been covered, but right now, we're including it into the event, the special event budget within parks and recreation.

Right. So it's always been part of the total cost of the event, just not out of the parks and rec budget per se.

Yeah. And we wanna provide true numbers, and it's just based on the scope of the the current layout of the event over time, security, staffing.

Yeah.

That's what increases the price.

Alright. Thanks.

One quick question on the community garden. So there there's four four raised bed gardens. Are those parceled out, or how many like, how many individuals can apply, and then how many are we leaving? Like, so you mentioned no more than four for teaching a community if there isn't that much of an interest. So, like, out of that, you know, I don't know if you can pull back the picture of of the garden, but are those gonna be parceled out, like, into quarters? Or

No. We Half Fed is allocated to, like,

the To the individual.

To the individual. Yeah. I I think with a space like that and the experience and passionate community gardeners out there, it can create more issues Yeah. If we were to parcel it out.

Yeah. No worries. That was that's that was my only question. Yeah.

And then, again, it depends how we we will based on the commission's recommendation and direction for a hybrid model, Depends on the interest because I know we've been getting calls already about interested residents in that area.

Yeah.

So how many we can allocate just to, like, the public versus the teaching model. So and then just to go back while I have the number for a one day event, roughly about $200,000 for fourth of July.

And that that includes the

That includes, yeah, police and stuff.

Other than that, no more questions.

First, great job. Like we say every month, lot lots going on. This is the busy season, and, certainly, you all have your work cut out for you over the few months. As for the April revenue figures that you shared, you mentioned that we're feeling good about them, but what I didn't see on the slide was necessarily a, you know, a representation of whether or not they're up and down versus goal or l y. Can you maybe share what that might be?

In terms of goals, that is pretty much on our on track. So our Fullerton Community Center, revenue goal is 400,000. So if we were to get $25,000 per year, that that adds up pretty quickly. Our goal for the Hunt branch library is a 120,000. So 12,000 times 12 will get us a bit over it. Through months, though, we have fluctuated. So that that 12,000 is a really, really good month for the month for the hunt. We have seen months previously with the hunt that it's been sub 5,000. So it it fluctuates. Fluctuates. I think going into the summer season, we're starting to get a lot more rentals, lot more rental inquiries.

Great. Thank you. And then that pickleball completion, that court completion seems pretty pretty expeditious and aggressive, and I'm glad it's gonna be done quickly. Do we have a tentative ribbon cutting potentially for that?

We're working on a final date. I know that the contractor's been working with staff on their it's about a two to three week project. So today was day one. Once they have a kind of more confirmed timeline, we will provide a the commission with the ribbon cutting. And I did wanna add that in addition to the, like, the extra, I guess, scope of work that the commission asked for staff to explore with the parking at the nursery, we've been working with them.

We're ready to build the sidewalk. So we're just coordinating with the nursery to minimize the impacts to their programs. So based on their feedback and our timelines, they're ex they're they've asked for us to wait till school's out, which is in, I believe, like, three weeks or so for the nursery. Correct? So, we may push that back, with the understanding of the nursery or work work with them to minimize the impacts for the last couple of weeks. So, but everything seems to be going on track.

Great. Thank you. If there are no more questions for staff, we will now move to the public comments portion of the meeting. This is the time for the members of the public to address the commission on any item of interest to the public that is not within the subject matter of matter jurisdiction of the parks and recreation I'm sorry. That is within the subject matter jurisdiction of the parks and recreation committee other than those items listed on the agenda. So if there's anyone here who would like to speak, please come forward and state your name and address for the record. And keep in mind, you have three minutes.

Is this on? Okay. Good evening, commission, staff. My name is Jensen Halstrom. Also, I'd like to thank staff for all the awesome, amazing programs that keep Fullerton active and wonderful place to live. So thank you, especially the outdoor equity project. I've been, you know, seeing all the awesome trips that, you know, kids are being allowed to have the opportunity to go visit, like Catalina Island. Amazing experiences. So thank you for that work. I would like to inform the commission on some matters on the state of our urban forest throughout Fullerton.

Despite it being three years since council adopting the updated urban forest management plan, there continues to be deficiencies in management seen throughout our park system, trails, streets. There have been improvements, yet still one of the, most unfortunate things that I find are the lacking standards in terms of inspection for hazardous trees throughout parks and trails. I as, just throughout my own observations and, research, walking parks being very observant, have reported over the past ten years, dozens and dozens of very large, mature, dead, dying disease trees throughout Fullerton at Hillcrest, Laguna Lake, Acacia Park, Rolling Hills Park, and and and parks trails citywide. A lot of these are trees that the city should have already been very well aware of and already acting on because some of them had been standing as a hazard for multiple years. Over at, Old Flirting Creek Road right by Acacia Park, there are multiple 90 foot tall dead eucalyptus trees overhanging the street where, you know, students park and are often sitting in their cars.

I've reported so many dead trees at Acacia Park over the years, specifically. And, over over the years, I've seen that I am having to provide this awareness to the city as just a a volunteer in the urban forest. This is very troubling, especially given the, circumstances that we see a lot of our parks in very, you know, established mature trees, some of them experiencing, you know, storm damage, heat stress, and also damage from over irrigation. Over at Byron Park, I've been complaining for six years now about the 70 year old Chinese elms, which have root decay and basal rot from sprinklers over spraying onto their trunks and mechanical damage from lawnmowers and string trimmers that still happens to this day. I've been complaining about these issues for so long now.

There really needs to be resolution to these issues that are systemic, and, hope to continue working with the city to accomplish those goals.

Good evening, commission and staff. My name is Mariah Figueroa, and I'm from the Woodcrest Association looking for an equipment for the moving light at the park for this summer. And I'm here if it's possible if you guys can sponsor this program. Every year, we used to have this movie night at the park, and you guys can see photos at, we have Facebook. You can find us on Fullerton Woodcrest Association, and, also, we are on Instagram.

So you guys will be able to see how our families, they attend to the they used to attend to this, movie night at the park. We need help if you guys can, help us about the equipment publicity screen. And, also, if you if it's possible, if, you guys can install an electrical outlet at the light post closer to the so we can set up the the moving night. And this is will help our community, will help our park so the park can be more safe for the community and also the families can enjoy during the summer. Thank you.

Anyone else wish to address the commission? Anyone online?

I have no one online.

Alright. With that, I will now close public comments, and we will move to the approval of the consent calendar for the meeting of 04/13/2026. Are there any commissioners that wish to pull an item from the consent calendar?

I'll move to approve the consent items as it's currently agendaized.

I will second.

Okay. Commissioner Maldonado?

Yes. Commissioner Talavera?

Yes.

Vice chair Freeman?

Yes.

And chair McKendree?

Yes.

Thank you. Motion passes.

With that, we will now move to the regular business portion of the meeting. I'd like to now call item number four. Is there a staff report or presentation?

Yes. Good evening, commission. Item number four is a general plan open space and conservation element update. And here with us today, have Young Gao, who's our senior planner, who has a presentation. I apologize. And our planning manager, Chris Schafer. So they'll be available to answer any questions after their presentation.

Hey. Good afternoon. It's good to meet you. I'm Chris Schafer, planning manager, honorable chair and commissioners. Process that we've, undertaken for this has been a span of about nine months. Our department's been tasked with a lot of updates to the Fullerton plan, also known as the general plan. We recently adopted the housing element last year, which took us four years, and then we did the safety element. And now we're working on the open space element and the environmental justice element. So it's been a a lot of work with a little bit of staff, and, we're we're happy to, give a presentation on the open space element at this time. And Yan will run through that really quickly for you.

Thank you. Good evening, chair and commissioners. Tonight, we're presenting the open space and the conservation element update, a general plan amendment prepared with our consultant, Michael Baker International. I'll be walking you through this item this evening. Next slide, please.

The city is required to update its open space and conservation element to comply with senate bill fourteen twenty five signed in 2022 with a compliance deadline of 01/01/2026. The OSE is a core component of Fullerton's general plan, the foundational long range policy document guiding growth and land use. Adoption is required by state law. The update must specifically address three areas, equitable access to open space correlated with the environmental justice element, climate resilience correlated with the safety element, and rewilding opportunities correlated with the land use element. As the Parks and recreation commission, your input is particularly valuable here.

This element directly shapes the city's long term framework for parks, trails, open space access, and habitat stewardship. Next slide, please. Here's a quick summary of what is before you tonight. The item is the open space and the conservation element itself, which replaces the current chapter 19 of the general plan and will be filed as appendix m to the general plan. Additionally, there is the appendix m supplement containing the online public survey responses.

During the public review period, staff received five public public comments. These have been reviewed and integrated into the element and its goals and actions as applicable. Adoption requires a general plan amendment. This is a primarily policy integration. There are no land use changes or zoning code modifications.

The planning commission approved and recommended amendment for city council adoption by a five o vote, adopting the resolution number PC twenty twenty six zero six on 04/22/2026. The project is also exempt from CEQA under the common sense exemption section 15 o six one b three with a draft notice of exemption prepared. Next slide, please. This effort is processing two general plan amendments elements simultaneously. On the left, the open space and the conservation element update, which updates the open space inventories develop Senate Bill fourteen twenty five compliant goals and policies and creates an implementation strategy.

On the right, the environmental justice element, a companion item, mapping environmental inequities and health risks, identifying policy gaps, and developing compliant goals. Both elements were developed through a shared process of community outreach, engagement, and the public hearings. Tonight focuses specifically on the OSE. Next slide, please. Here's where we are in the project timeline.

We kicked off in September 2025 with research analysis and public engagement, including an online survey and a community pop up event at Oktoberfest that led into vision and policy development, an administrative draft and then an action plan draft, A thirty day public review period run February 20 through 03/20/2026. The Planning Commission held its public hearing in April 2026 and recommended adoption. We are now here at the Parks and Recreation Commission hearing. Following your recommendation, the item will proceed to city council for adoption tentatively in June 2026. Next slide, please.

The element appendix m is organized into three main main components. The introduction covers purpose, background, statutory requirements, the planning process, and a state relationship to other general plan documents, existing conditions, inventories, open space citywide, including West Coyote Hills, and analyzes access, habitat conservation, wildlife connectivity, rewilding opportunities, and the climate vulnerability. Goals and policies form the core of the element. Seven updated goals responding directly to senate bill fourteen twenty five's three mandates. I will walk through those shortly.

The survey supplement captures the community input collected through our fall twenty twenty five online survey, which included as the appendix m supplement. Note that the 130 plus action items are an internal implementation tool, not part of the OSC filing. Next slide, please. The community engagement program reached residents through multiple channels. The online survey ran for thirty five days, October 27 through 11/30/2025, and received six forty two total responses across five survey categories covering environmental justice, open space and conservation, access, rewilding, and climate resilience.

We also hosted an in person outreach booth at Oktopufest on 10/30/2025, connecting with over 150 visitors, spending approximately four hours engaging directly with the community, distributing 100 plus flyers, and collecting 85 responses across two activity boards. Next slide, please. The outreach channels included the city's dedicated website on the environmental justice and open space elements, Instagram, email blasts, physical banners throughout the city, and a sofa digital display boards at a transit center. This multichannel approach ensured we reach we reached a broad cross section of Fullerton residents. Next slide, please.

These photos show our community and economic development booth at Oktopufest last year where we engaged directly with the Fullerton residents and distributed outreach materials. It was a great opportunity to reach families and community members in a casual welcoming setting. Next slide, please. The next two slides summarizes the key themes that emerged from the community survey related to open space and the conservation. On open space, over 85% of respondents actively visit open spaces in Fullerton.

Popular destinations include Hillcrest Park, Laguna Lake, Craig Regional Park, and the Coyote Hills. The primary barriers to access were time constraints, lack of amenities such as restrooms, shade, and seating, and safety concerns not cost or transportation. These are improvements centered on cleaner restrooms, better parking, shaded seating, improved maintenance, e back restrictions, and enhanced safety. These themes speak directly to the kinds of recommendations that parks and rec recreation commission is well positioned to weigh in on. Next slide, please.

On wildlife awareness, over 78% of respondents risk reported awareness of wildlife areas in Fullerton with frequent sightings at Coyote Hills, Laguna Lake, and the city's parks and trail systems. On adaptation and preservation, the most common suggested actions were planting native trees and vegetation, expanding tree canopy, and restoring native habitats. Over 77% of respondents identified areas to preserve or expand with Coyote Hills cited the most frequently. On outreach, respondents favored partnerships with local nonprofits and schools, community workshops, and online service. About 58% provided an email address to stay informed on long range planning updates, demonstrating strong continued interest.

Next slide, please. The element includes a full open space inventory. Fullerton has 50 public parks totaling approximately 665 acres, seven joint use school parks at about 18 acres, five habitat conservation areas totaling approximately 700 acres, and three other open space areas. The maps show here both the open space inventory exhibit two dash one and the primary recreational trails overlay exhibit two dash two, which illustrates the trail network, including regional backbone and connector trails, as well as trails not yet constructed or developed. Note that the recreation facilities are mapped here but remain governed under a separate section of the general plan.

Next slide, please. Looking at the park access, Fullerton as a whole ranks better than 82.4% of California cities and towns on the park access index, a strong baseline that reflects the city's investment in parks and open space. The census track map on the left shows variation within the city. Several tracks in the eastern and southern portions fall into the lower access tiers. The half mile buffer map on the right shows the spatial gaps directly.

Areas outside the yellow shaded zone lack walkable access to a park or open space. These identified gaps directly inform our goals around equitable access and neighboring neighborhood greening. Next slide, please. Two additional maps. On the left, essential habitat connectivity.

The green areas represent natural small areas identified by California Department of Fish and Wildlife that align with Fullerton's existing open space, particularly Coyote Hills and the Northern Corridor. Urban development limits broader wildlife corridors, but a smaller scale rewilding, habitat enhancements, wildlife friendly infrastructure, native plantings can meaningfully expand the pathways for wildlife movement. On the right, urban tree canopy coverage by census tract. California's urban areas average 14.5% canopy cover. Several Fullerton census tracts fall below that average, particularly in Districts 4 And 5, which directly motivates goal six of focus on green infrastructure and a tree canopy in those areas.

Next slide, please. The goals and policy development process had three steps. The first was reviewing the existing policies in chapter 19, the current open space chapter, which included policies on management and maintenance, land trusts, access, accessibility, long range needs, watershed management, and new open space creation. These form the baseline we updated and expanded. Next slide, please.

The second step was integrating senate bill fourteen twenty five directly into the goal framework. The statute requires every city to review and update its open space plan to address equitable access, climate resilience, and rewilding opportunities. Rewilding is defined broadly to include opportunities to preserve, enhance, and expand an integrated open space network for habitat, recreation, natural resources, historic and tribal resources, water management and and aesthetics, as well as natural communities conservation planning. Next slide, please. The final step was drafting the seven updated goals.

Briefly, goal one, promotes responsible management of existing open spaces, balancing public use with ecological health. Goal two, guides planning for future open space acquisition and stewardship. Goal three, protects Fullerton's natural systems, habitats, waterways, and native biodiversity. Goal four, increases accessibility and trail connectivity. Goal five, strengthens open space for biodiversity and climate resilience through rewilding and nature based solutions.

Goal six, addresses infrastructure resilience against extreme heat, flooding, and other climate hazards. Goal seven, strengthens community participation and a multilingual engagement. Each goal is supported by detailed policies available in the public review draft on the dedicated open space element web page. Together, these seven goals directly respond to senate bill fourteen twenty five three mandates and reflect the community's priorities we heard throughout the engagement process. Next slide, please.

As required under government code section sixty five three five two point three, senate bill 18 consultation letters was sent to all California tribes identified by the Native American Heritage Commission on 03/05/2026. We have received responses from four tribal groups. Formal consultation must completed prior to the city council adoption, and the tribes are afforded ninety days to respond to the initial notice, which aligns with our June 2026 city council that timeline. Next slide, please. The element is accompanied by 130 plus action items.

But to be clear, these are for internal CTUs only and are not required as part of the OSE filing. They span all seven goals and translate policies into concrete measurable steps across planning, parks and recreation, and public works with timelines ranging from ongoing through short, mid, and long term horizons of up to seven years and identified funding mechanisms. This is the implementation layer that will help departments like CED and Parks and Recreation operationalize the policy goals over time. Next slide, please. The action plan tables show the full structure.

Each item lists the implementation policy, the specific action, responsible department, supporting agencies, time frame, and the funding sources. Next slide, please. For example, under goal one, policy p 1.3, long range needs, actions 1.3 a through 1.3 c, direct the city to pursue a parks and recreation master plan, identify district level open space gaps, and prioritize open space opportunities in each budget cycle. This is a kind of implementation guidance that flows from the policy goals. Next slide.

Following tonight's hearing, the recommended action proceeds to city council tentatively in June 2026. At that time, the adopted element will also be submitted to the government governor's office of land use and climate innovation, formerly OPR. The city is working to adopt the updates as close to the 01/01/2026 statutory deadline as possible. That concludes the presentation. Staff is available to answer questions. Thank you.

Thank you. Wow. I mean, incredibly thorough and and well done. Thank you. I will open it to the commissioners for any questions they may have.

Yep. I have some, okay. May I have more information on what the restriction of ebikes would be? Like, Yeah. What was the feedback for for the restriction of

There's some there were some public what do say? It expressing the concerns that the the ebikers are interrupting their park open space experience, probably the speed or the adequate Okay. Of those e bikers.

Are we addressing that, or or is it I I remember there was a there was something that went to city council a few months ago, but I'm not too sure if it was something that we're actively considering or I re something about, like, a speed limit, if I

believe. It

it's a complex issue. E bikes, there's different classes of e bikes, they have different roles based off the speed that they can obtain. So it it's really falling into the PD's realm. They're they're addressing it right now. So Okay. In that case, we're we're stepping back, and the police department will be handling that.

Okay.

Understood.

Two more questions. One is for SB eighteen, the four tribal groups. What was the reaction based off of the what the tribal what the tribal groups were saying? Like, what

was Three tribes were saying that because there were no there there was no land use changes or zoning code modifications, they are aware of this. There was no need for consultation.

Oh.

They are gonna keep the this notice. And then if in the future there's any land use changes, then we need to notify them. But we're gonna have one consultation session with one of the tribes. Actually, it was it's gonna be tomorrow. So we'll see.

Oh, interesting. Okay. That sounds cool. Thank you.

You know, if I could add to that, the tribes are they're very conscious about educating staff on former living areas of the tribes. And so they wanna make us aware of what could be out there. So in case we're starting to dig up sites and we run into things that might be tribal related that we're aware of it, we report it to the right authorities.

Okay. Understood. And then I guess that also in lines with their, climate resilience and climate stewardship. Right? Are they also going on that, or is it more about the history of the area?

Yeah. It's more more related to preserving the history

Okay.

And not disturbing sites that might be old tribal locations.

Understood. Okay. Thank you. And then the last question is so with hopefully the passage of this, right, because we have to bring this to council next month. So does that make, like, in situations where District 4 and District 5 that would they get priority for new, parks or, I guess, for more canopy sort of areas? Or

So this is a policy document. It makes recommendations to council. So when staff looks at funding, we should be referring to this document to, prioritize those projects and, you know, move funds as necessary to those locations. But it really comes down to city council.

Okay.

Staff makes a recommendation, and council is the approving authority.

So in the future, theoretically, if we got this one done and then also parks master plan, we would have, like, an audit of all of our park infrastructure. And then in addition with this, we would know, you know, who needs it the most. Is that do I get that correct, Christian or anybody?

So, yes, and, ultimately, as Chris mentioned, it is council authority that gives the direction based on these documents that provided the information. But just to clarify tonight, you're just receiving and filing Correct. The report. There's no action to be taken on it. It's just a presentation to give you information on on that open space element.

Understood. Thank you.

You're

welcome. I'm done. Just out of curiosity, I saw the barriers to access, one of those being safety concerns. Can you share what those safety concerns might be?

It's pretty much the same as the ePikers, so that's what they expressed.

Thank you. And then, you know, just in terms of that, you know, internal action plan, is there anything that you as professionals here doing this compliance audit and making sure that we are in this place of compliance for the state would recommend that we, as a Parks and Recs Commission and and Parks and Recs staff, really prioritize most in that body of work.

I mean, it's it's it's a balancing act. We're we're dealing with limited funds, and more projects and funding is available for. Part of it is we're also dealing with the the CIP, the, capital improvement program. And so it comes down to staff making a recommendation to council and the council directing funding to where it needs to go. But, you know, it's just lots of moving parts, herding cats, if you if you will. So yeah, I hope I answered your question.

It's fair. It's just a 130 items on an action plan seem indigestible. So I'm just thinking about, you know, as a commission and other commissions, like, if we could internally internally prioritize prioritize work that we should be getting after, then that might be an easier way to digest some of this workload. But something for a later date, for sure. Any other commissioners with questions?

Just

a quick question about the and then maybe just be an example you guys did, but the Barkmaster plan as part of it. Is that anything that is actually part of your guys' plan or that, or is that something that we have to do in response to this passing council? Is there anything that's linked, or is that just an example of internal action items to help drive the focus?

So the OSE is just a policy document, and the parks and recreation master plan is one of the implementation item

Got it.

This implementation framework.

Got it.

Okay.

So it kinda helps.

Requirement, yeah, flowing from policy into the implementation items.

Got it. Alright. So that'd be one of the action steps of this plan.

Correct.

Okay. Thank you.

And also, can I add some point? So for the 130 plus action items, there are different time frames to that from short term to midterm to longer term. So short term is zero to two years, and midterm is to two to three four years, and and, longer terms are seven years up to seven years. So we still have, like, different layers of, time frame to do the action plan.

So my my question was, you referred to some of the measurable or tangible kind of measuring some of these action items and tying it to the parks and rec master plan. So can you you share a little bit more about that? So I think it was one of, what slide was that? Because we've kinda looked at each other. Commissioner Freeman. Yeah. But but you also referred to some of the measurable outcomes in in some of those items of the

Second to last second to last slide.

Yeah. Second to last slide that was asked to

The parks and rec recreation master plan is ongoing item. Mhmm. And there are some other items in the open space element.

Yeah. So those are the the open item or the the other elements is what I'm referring to is

We can find some examples out. Let me look through

Okay. Yeah.

Text

that. No. No. For sure. That I I guess that was my kind of question is, like, can you share some of the some of the examples of those of those measurables that we can, right, as a commission can kind of understand, especially to again, tying it to a master plan that we don't have yet, but I think it'll be

I need I need I need to

get Okay.

For the digging.

Yeah. No. No worries.

Do you want the PowerPoint to be brought brought back up real quick? Is that possible?

So it is on the, action action plan items. So it's the, the third bullet point where it says the following action items transform policy goals into concrete measurable. So, like, what are some of those examples of of those measurable

Third from the bottom.

Yeah.

So some of the measurable items are No.

Up one.

Up one more. It looks like this. Think you're the one that's showing. It's this one right here. So right above There you go. That one, nineteen. Yeah. So I guess so my question is the measurable steps. Can you kinda share how how those kinda transform policies into goals?

Well, like, for instance, you know, with the Southeast corner of the city, it's very industrial, little park area. So one of the goals one of the measurable goals is would be to have parks within walking distance, generally a quarter mile. So that would be something we would try to move towards. Some of the hurdles are availability of land and the zoning. So that's something that we'd have to overcome.

Also, there's a a ratio of people per park area, and I forgot what that ratio is. Do you do you remember what? That's another that's another metric. One person per, you know, four acres of Parkland. I I forgot what the the the formula is, but that's another metric we'd work towards.

Yeah.

The ones right after that.

We will have action items in the in the list that we are trying to develop further linkages in that area. So in the future, that that blank spot is not gonna be, like, blank. It's gonna be covered by some kind of shaded area to be within that map. And, also, some of the urban canopy Mhmm. The some of the census tracts are below the average number. So we need to increase that number. We have some kind of action items to respond to that at least to reach to the average level.

Okay. And the goal is to kind of create those measurable outcomes for those next steps, right, for the city with this?

Correct. Yeah.

Okay. Yeah. I just wanted to kind of get some some examples, and I think that's right after that is when you guys spoke about the master plan, and that's why I looked over to my fellow commissioners. I was like, I was jotting that note down of, like, how do we integrate that? And then how do we kind of, you know, work hand in hand with, again, potentially creating a a parks master plan. Yeah. Thank you, though.

Alright. No more comments from commissioners. We will move to public comment. Are there any members of the public who would like to comment on this matter?

Alright. I think that these are all goals that we look at in this document and and see the the positive, you know, outcomes that we would hope result. I I really thank the commissioners for asking questions that opened

up

a little bit more visibility into the many action items, which were kind of described in a number of 130 plus, but it seems like that list of action items wasn't made publicly available. Not sure any reason why that could not have been done. What I what I'd like to mention is regarding goal number four, barriers to access. I I think anybody looking at our map of open spaces and trails and also, with the consideration of the need, especially for District 4 And 5, to have improved access to these spaces. I just feel like it should be very apparent to anybody that there has not ever been safe passage for District 4 to cross from the, South Side of Brea Creek Channel at Gilbert And Malvern to the North side of the channel.

That, I believe, is the only, vehicular bridge over Brea Creek which does not have sidewalks. If you've ever driven on Gilbert and and you've driven over that bridge, which is just immediately south of the intersection of Gilbert And Malvern, you'll notice that on the east and west side of the bridge that there is no pedestrian access at all. People still try to walk on what is basically just a small curb, maybe only about a foot, maybe 16 inches wide, which is actually kinda daunting when sometimes, you know, a car is coming up in the right turn lane to turn right onto Malvern. And, know, I've seen people nearly get nicked by cars as they're walking on this very awkwardly tight it's not even a walkway. I I think that's so unfortunate that members of the Valencia Park, Olive Park, Gilbert Park neighborhoods are not even able to have pedestrian access across to, the north side of, of Malvern right there.

And the previously Bassinchuari Tree Farm lots are the most accessible in proximity and topography, open space opportunity to District 4 and to create this, link by creating some sort of pedestrian crossing at that intersection should have been a very clear goal, and I I wonder if that was in the action action item list. Thank you.

Any other members of the public wanting to comment on this audit item? Anyone online? No. Alright. Thank you. Okay. Well, thank you, staff, for your presentation. As this is a receiving file, we will now move on to item number five. Is there a staff report or presentation?

Good evening, chair. Yes. So this one's, now talking about the parks and recreation master plan update that was approved. And one, key distinction as, staff was discussing the open space, that the preservation and conservation of open space. Parks and recreation master plan highlight the programming, the activities, and also the inventory of parks.

So parks are open space, but what the parks master plan highlights is the inventory and capital improvement needs of the actual playground. So there's that distinction. However, having a document like the open space element further encourages us to pursue the parks and rec master plan. So just wanted to kinda clarify that because, yeah, there's a 130 actionable items and how they relate to parks and recreation vary from each item. So here before you today, I have the parks and recreation master plan update.

This is the scope of work. This is kind of the final set of review. Once the commission gets the opportunity to provide feedback, we will then move forward in the process, which leads us into the RFP. So we're just that much closer. So next slide, please.

The scope of work, is to provide a comprehensive road map for the master plan master plan process. We will identify it identifies consultant responsibilities and deliverables. We ensure community driven planning and transparency, and we also support it also supports the long term strategic decision making. Next slide, please. So there's different, elements of the open or sorry, parks and recreation master plan.

The first one is the community outreach and education strategy, and this is to, the goal is to identify community interests, needs, and concerns. It's to gather feedback from users and nonusers, engage the residents regarding parks, trails, programs, and facility, and we ask that the consultant develop inclusive outreach methods. So there's much more advanced technology, and, you know, we will have our community meetings, but there's websites that can be built where the public can visit and provide feedback on maps, on information. So it's very key for us to share that information and make sure that everyone's voice is heard in the in the entire process. Next slide, please.

The next step would be to, include the community demographics and trends. So analyze the demographic and population trends, assess needs of seniors, youth, veterans, and special populations, evaluate income, household size, ethnicity, and growth patterns, and also forecast recreation and service needs over the next twenty years. Master plans are long range planning documents, and it's important to identify, you know, what we need today, but what we'll also need in, you know, in the future years. And, again, something key here, it's it's very challenging to analyze the population trends, because in some agent or in some cities, there's more single family homes. Others, it's more you know, we're a commuter, with the university, so there might be more student housing, or we might have more residential.

So there's different elements that we need to identify in this process. And is our population going to grow? Are we built out? Is there opportunity for new development, which creates new parks, etcetera? So this is all within the scope of work that the consultant would have to identify.

Next slide, please. Benchmark analysis. It's very important as we were drafting the scope of work as well. We did a benchmark analysis with neighboring cities, but that would compare Fullerton to five peer agencies understanding, similarities, what they've incorporated into their, parks and recreation master plan, evaluating 15 key performance metrics, and those metrics can vary, depending on the on what we feel is important to include, identifying the best practices and service standards, and supporting our strategic planning recommendations. So, again, this plan, will provide ways to incorporate, their recommendations into actualities, in in real time deliverables.

So next slide, please. This is something that's very key in any master plan. However, in ours here in Fullerton, it's necessary. It's an inventory and facility assessment. So it's assessing our existing parks, trails, and recreation facilities, the amenities within each of those, evaluating the current infrastructure and capital projects.

We've done this at a staff level, but I think it needs an overarching approach with much more tools to get specific information and identifying deficiencies and opportunities. I think once us as staff that we're in the day to day programming, sometimes we we get narrow minded in the sense of opportunities within the programs that we can explore or what other agencies are doing and documenting existing conditions citywide. This will definitely incorporate our public works team or facilities team who are responsible for the day to day of our park playgrounds. Next slide, please. And then we would include the public outreach and engagement.

This is where you get your surveys, your data, your hard facts, your comments, your feedback. So we would conduct statistically valid community surveys. We we ask to hold in person and virtual workshops. At minimum, in my experience, there's at least two workshops in person within, like you know, to kick off and maybe something through the process, but definitely there's in person workshops. Attending community event for the broader reach similar to open space element at Puptoberfest at the markets where it's a high volume of residents, is always important to gather the more information and data, and then meetings at various locations throughout the city.

So, yeah, typical, it's after our work meeting at 6PM, but, you know, not everybody can make it to the community center at 6PM. So being strategic and maybe hosting meetings in the North Side of the city, in the West Side of the city. So us as in the consultant going to the residents in their neighborhood. Next slide, please. Programs and services assessment.

We would evaluate the current recreation programs and services, identifying the gaps and unmet community needs. We'd also recommend future program enhancements and align our services with changing demographics. So in this area here, if we have a, you know, a high population with, youth possibly with physical or mental disabilities, are we you know, it would it would identify if we have programs to address those needs as a department or facilities or ADA improvement. So, definitely, there's there's areas of improvement that we can identify as staff, but in overarching, again, general services, what we provide as an agency. Do we contract out services?

Do we provide them in house staff led? So this is very key, and it's important to assess our department and our programs. Next slide, please. General needs assessment and level of service, future capacity of parks and programs, the physical and technological infrastructure. It's to also evaluate our staffing and operational needs and determine future budget and resource requirements.

So this is where that number always grows. It's, you know, to their realistic, professional opinion, I guess you'd call it. They give you a budget of this park needs x number this amount of work. This is what you should plan for. But, again, this is a launching path to it's a starting point that we currently don't have that I feel is definitely important in identifying for future capital improvement projects, programs, and to seek out funding.

Next slide, please. Equity mapping and gap analysis, I think to one of the commissioner's point, We would use GIS mapping to evaluate park access. That's always important. Similar to, you know, I I I believe it is half a mile within you know, everybody has access to a park, and that's just like a general standard. Identifying service gaps and overlaps. Are there nonprofits in the community that also provide services that we're providing, or are they providing services we don't provide? Supporting equitable distribution of recreation amenities. Where do we focus all of our amenities, our programs? We have one community center, and that's kind of in the South Side. Is there anything in the North Side that's closer?

That city city ran? Is there space? You know, we do have the Red Cross Building, Hillcrest Park. We're reactivating that. And then guiding future park acquisition and improvement.

So this is your capital improvement project. Next slide, please. And then it would leading into that, it would help us prioritize modifications and facility improvements, estimate the implementation and maintenance costs, develop implementation action plans, and support data driven investment decisions. This is the the backup of which park needs, you know, a new playground, new amenities, but what is that gonna cost? I think, in working with Public Works, in their experience, it's you build a playground, but then the maintenance of it is not always incorporated into the budget, which is it's very important.

So, this helps us identify and create a priority list for our capital improvement projects. Next slide, please. Funding and revenue strategies, identifying and evaluating our park dwelling fees, potential tax revenues to fund different parks and programs, identifying grants, sponsorships, and partnerships. I think master plan and projects when they I think the ones that are shovel ready, I'll call it, more often receive grants because they're further in the process, and they can apply the monies right away. Assess future funding opportunities and develop long term financial sustainability strategies, which incorporates our our fees, our fee our schedule of fees.

Are we you know, what does that look like? And I know that some of these elements are being incorporated in other agencies standalone per se. I know the city of Orange just did a fiscal sustainability exercise with also their field fees and their schedule of fees for parks and recreation. So this is very important to create sustainable programs and park facilities. Next slide, please.

And economic value and cost recovery. So developing in return on investment analysis, evaluating the life cycle cost of facilities and assets, everything has a life cycle, optimizing financial decision making, and supporting sustainable operations and maintenance planning. Again, these all kind of intertwine, but they're they're important to include in our scope of work. Next slide, please. And GIS system updates.

It was briefly touched upon on the open space element, but this is really reviewing and updating our city GIS shape files. We're slowly getting there, but it's we have a lot of parks and we have a very outdated map that we wanna up update, so this is very important. We provide accurate mapping data. We can have, like there's different types of map, heat maps of where people congregate. There's the there's an AI technology too where they can identify when people come to an event, where is their cellular data, and I'm totally blanking out on the name.

Placer. Placer dot ai. Yes. So identifying where people go after your events in Fullerton, it helps also our economic development. It's it's very key, including future and recommended facilities. If there's additional facilities that we should plan for building just based maybe on population and support long term planning and analysis. Next slide, please. So the last the last step in the master plan scope of work would be to develop and present. There would consultant would prepare a comprehensive draft and final report. We would definitely conduct a thirty, sixty, and 90 review phase.

They would present a final plan to commission and city council, and it would be a digital and hard copy deliverable. So it's a it's a key element. That's just I believe that's the last slide. Next slide. Oh, sorry.

And then the next step. So today, you're reviewing the scope of work and feedback. We will finalize that. My next step is to meet with our admin services team to finalize the timeline for the RFPs. We would then select the consultant and initiate the parks and recreation master plan process, which I'm hoping it is about you know, some cities have done twelve to eighteen month entire process, but it culminates with meetings, inventory assessments, depends how aggressive we wanna be.

But we're looking at, hopefully, by, you know, next fall, we'd have a document ready to present and and for the public. So I'm available for any questions. And, again, this is to identify the scope of work that you'd like to include. Thank you.

Thank you. Do commissioners have questions for staff?

Yes. I have oh, okay. So this is just the recommendation to council to begin an RFP or no. To begin the process of developing an RFP.

So at the last meeting, council had already recommended or sorry. At not the last meeting. Previously, commission had recommended for council

Yeah.

To initiate the RFP process. We moved it forward to council to allow us to go out to bid. Okay. This is finalizing the scope of work to include in the RFP. So if there's other things that you'd like to be included, this would be the opportunity to provide that feedback.

If there's something in the parks and recreation master plan that you'd like for it to be specific, this is I think encompasses everything and is pretty detailed. We added the GIS mapping and the return of investment and researching what other cities were including in theirs. Yeah. But in so after you review your feedback, you vote on it, we would then move forward with the RFP. We wouldn't go back to council to review the scope of work.

Understood. Yeah. Okay. In that case, I'll reserve till after, public comment.

Couple questions. Just, was there I I don't know if they were if policy on this or not, but why we went RFP versus RFQ? Just I know, like, there's different flexibilities with some RFP comes in kind of low bid sometimes, and RFQ, can have a little bit more flexibility to choose. Doesn't always come in the lowest, but I don't know. Just wanted to see if there's a reason behind that.

No reason. We were looking at going through the proposal process similar to what we've done with previous, like, master plan works and but there's no

Okay.

And I think also we kinda skip the qualification step and go into, like, the proposal and being able to interview. So it may cut back a little bit on the timeline wise, but there's no specific we could do one or the other.

Okay. Yeah. No. That's fine. I just didn't I was just curious if there was a reason going either way. I did have one other question. The one thing that I'd like to have in there, it it kinda touched on it, but more of, like, safe routes to to get to parks. Having that be if they're gonna already kinda be looking at the walkability and stuff like that, but making sure that the routes that kids take from neighborhoods, families, you know, go to some of those the neighborhood parks that they have to cross some of the major streets. They have good access to crosswalks, stuff like that. I think that's it for oh, actually, more question.

The key performance metrics that you mentioned, you you talked about the like, it was, like, 15 key performance metrics or something like and you said that that you guys would decide what those metrics are. When you say we, is that staff? Is that commission? Is that council? All the above? Residents? Who who does that part?

Yeah. Good question. So, the consultant would provide the key metrics, and we staff at the staff level based on their, I guess, their ultimate proposal, highlight what they believe is the key metrics, and that can be the distinction between one consultant and the other, how they identify. Usually, just based on the previous cities that our most recent cities, the scoring has been relatively, like, difficult. There's they've been pretty head to head in the in the firm industry and the consult RFP or master planning industry because they all have kind of their boilerplate, but it's ultimately presentation and their outreach and who's going the extra distance to get all the information, and then it ties into cost.

Right? So we the the consultant will provide their key metrics, and then staff would review them part of their proposal.

Okay. Thanks. That's all the questions I have. Have comments later, but just questions.

So question on the outreach component and in person in person meetings or in person presentations. Would that be held per district, or are we looking kind of more regional, north, south, east, west?

We can include so so we're paying for the time. Right? So we can include per district if that's the commission's direction. We can include two general or you can say four general meetings, two general meetings in the South Side Of Fullerton, the North Side Of Fullerton. It's however it it doesn't have a specific in how it's written. It's general outreach

Mhmm.

Which my experience is two to three meetings, and it's strategically in others in different areas of the city.

In different areas of the city. Yeah. Okay. And then you also mentioned the thirty sixty ninety review. Would that be for commission to review kind of the work that's coming in? Can you explain? I didn't I didn't really understand that that component.

Yeah. So part of the contract would include a 30% review of the information gathered, sixty and ninety. We can definitely bring it back to commission as a kind of a receiving file. This is what we're you know, this is at this point, this is the information that's been received. So you can see the document, and it's not a, like, a a extensive read at the end. Right? Okay. But I would hope that the commission be part of the process as well and share your feedback through those community meetings, surveys, etcetera. And we will definitely like, I alluded to it at the beginning. Some of these, consulting firms have a website that's pretty up to up to the day data on what they've received, surveys, feedback.

They have, heat maps of where people concentrate based on questions, etcetera. So there'll be an ongoing review. Okay. Yeah. But But in detail, like, we can definitely bring it back as a possibly receiving file item. Okay.

But it would be primarily reviewed by staff?

Yes.

Okay. Yeah. That's what I was trying to understand. Like, who's reviewing this? Like, staff or, like, us? Who, like okay.

Correct.

Yeah. Okay. No. Sounds good. Okay.

I apologize if you addressed this already, but how long do you anticipate the RFP to to take?

I think once we award the contract, think about twelve to sixteen months realistically.

But the actual RRP actually getting re request for

Oh, got it. Got it. We can have it op I mean, we kinda got the timeline on that in the schedule. We can have it open for three to five weeks at most. We were tech we were leaning towards the four to five week opening it, closing it within five weeks, review. There's, like, a period of questions that we need to answer questions, giving them a chance to submit alternatives, etcetera, clarifications, and then, probably about two months. K. Yeah.

And then assuming an RFP is approved and we land on a particular vendor, is the idea then that the cost would be absorbed in this year's financials?

So the the plan has always been to absorb the cost in the park dwelling fees. So that's a rolling fund. So whether once we award the contract, realistically, it's probably in the 2627 budget year, but it's coming from the capital or park dwelling program capital improvement program, park dwelling fee specific. So it wouldn't, we've always planned for it to not be part of the general

fund.

Okay. So the but for that park dwelling fund, are those monies already allocated for other projects? And then would we have to reallocate some of that money for this?

There's currently monies allocated for a project similar to, like, Independence Park comes to mind, but there is money in the fund already kinda preallocated for this parks master plan. So we're counting on I think we budgeted about $400,000 between $3.50 and 400 to what we presented per the available funding that we had.

Any more questions from commissioners? With that, I'll open it to public comment.

Yeah. I'd like to say I that I think it would be prudent for the city to include specifically addressing the urban forestry needs in parks. This is something that's already readily, you know, apparent that, you know, a lot of parks have been, especially even recently, been affected by storm damage. There's been many trees that have actually been uprooted from some of our high winds few months ago. And as I had just mentioned, the urban forest management plan that council adopted has still left a lot of gaps in management in terms of awareness and implementation.

I think as parks are very clearly the spaces that community members go to to enjoy large shade trees, the ecology, you know, the the a lot of parks actually are defined by their tree palette. I mean, Chapman Park has its massive ash trees. Byron Park, Lemon Park have their beautiful Chinese elms. This is something that the urban forest aspect of each park really defines the atmosphere, the aesthetic, and and really, in some cases, the the the cultural values of these trees as well, especially when they are California native trees. I think that, obviously, the the plan is in regards to city facilities, you know, and and services and programming.

And there is an very, you know, complex. It can be dynamic as, you know, tree management. It falls under public works, obviously. But a parks master plan should have a section that specifically focuses on the health of park trees. I I just think that's, something that's very reasonable, especially because, as I said, the urban forest management plan that the council adopted nearly three years ago, there are still dead and dying trees that have, you know, been been left, you know, unaddressed throughout our park system even even still.

So I feel like there needs to be an increased scrutiny into these issues and especially in that regarding risk and hazard. You know, you need our parks to be safe. And as I had mentioned, right now at Rolling Hills Park, at and also Acacia Park, there are tall, dead, and dying eucalyptus trees. Over at Rolling Hills Park, I was there just before this meeting taking photos of what are nearly 80 foot tall dead and dying eucalyptus trees over at Rolling Hills Park. So those are my comments.

Anyone online? No. Alright. We'll bring that back to the commissioners here. I will say, personally, I have no issue moving forward with an RFP. I do think, generally, though, down the road, we may have a bit of an optics problem, when we're asking for or looking to allocate money even if it's from the Park Dwelling Fund to the tune of 400 k in an environment in our city today where there's significant concern around financials. So something to think about in the future. But in this particular case, it's probably better to understand what the full financial burden would be, and get that quoted out. And so I, for one, am in favor. Is there a commission that'd like to make a motion?

Just before motion, I just want to I had a couple comments of things that I'd I'd like to be included in this. Obviously, deterrence on that. But like I mentioned before, the safe routes, you know, for children and families to get to the parks. I think during the marketing, the outreach part of it, whenever that whatever that survey period is should include, you know, face to face outreach with staff to at at all of our special events that just are happening during that time frame. So just would say be strategic to maximize the number of events that people are at, to that way you get the most diverse group of data.

And then, with that also, you know, multiple languages, the languages, the the demographics that meet our city, make sure we have the marketing in there and people's native languages so they can understand what they're what they're saying. I know that that comes at a cost, but I think that's extremely important to have that. And it's usually a standard thing, but should be noted that have multiple languages. And then lastly was just to have, I'd recommend having individual interviews. If if it's not gonna be included in individual interviews with, like, city council, with the consultant, and the applicable commissions, obviously, us are planning any of those ones that that might have a hand in shaping this giving vital information to to them, and and, obviously, the appropriate staff in those departments as well.

That's it.

My comment would be for urban as the commenter said, for urban forest planning, just to backfill any of the holes that were left from. I don't know if it's possible to enroll them over to the parks master plan as at least a recommendation to,

I

don't know, take into effect take into consideration the health of trees or health of natural landscape as well when doing kind of the auditing of just overall park structure so that we can have we can be proactive in, I don't know, any kind of invasive species that do come in. We can plan ahead in that case. But I would like to make a motion to approve the recommendation to city council for you know, to go ahead with RFP.

Sorry. Commissioner Maldonado, and I apologize. That was a my error. But on the actual agenda item Yeah. And I will read you the recommendation itself is to review the proposed scope of work for the parks and recreation master plan and provide feedback and recommendation for consideration prior to the issuance of the RFP.

So if you'd like to include your in your motion, the comments made by commissioner Freeman, I've made those notes here, and that's safe routes to to parks and walkability. I will share that OCTA has been working with the city of Fullerton for safe routes to school program. Okay. OC Health, I believe, if I'm not mistaken, about a year about six to eight months ago, unfortunately, lost their funding for those programs, but that's where walk audits occurred that then led to Valencia Park. So we can include that in here and see how we can incorporate it.

Yes,

please. I do wanna share, though, that we do have an urban forest management plan that was Okay. To the that was adopted in 2023. Mhmm. I'm not gonna say I'm an expert in reading through it all, but there are based on the appendix and the document on our website, which can be found on our website Okay. There are areas of implementation and different elements. So there was already a very vast and inclusive plan that was created and adopted. Okay. We can include some verbiage there. I guess my hesitation would be to focus on like, include that as a element, which just kind of increases the cost when there's a document that already covers that area.

Right? But we can always ask the consultant to reference it in their recommendations as well. Because, ultimately, the goal is for all the plans that we have to kind of in synergy work together and that we're all meeting the same goal. So if if you're open to that Yeah.

I'd be comfortable with just with a reference to the urban forest mastery plan from 2023.

Okay.

So And the inclusion of commissioner Freeman's.

Okay. Yeah. Yeah. So for commissioner Freeman's, I have safe routes safe routes to parks, walkability, survey periods include some face to face outreach, multiple language outreaches outreach and marketing, etcetera, and then individual interviews as possible in in addition to kind of the scope of work that was presented.

Right. Okay.

I wanted to include a little bit more on the on the outreach aspect as well too. I know it was talked about, you know, attending a lot of, like, you know, city events. But I also wanna see a little bit of a balance of just knowing the city a little bit that there is either community groups or neighborhood groups, and kind of going to them as well too. So not just waiting for residents to come to, you know you know, the farmers markets or or whatnot, but reaching out to some of those neighborhood groups that are already kind of established and formed and going to them as well too. So just having a a little bit of a balance in there, so not just strictly come in or, you know, having them come to, you know, some of our bigger events, you know, where where community is already gathering, but also go into to some of the neighborhood groups.

And I think, you know, staff and, you know, council and ourselves can probably help direct, you know, and share where those are. I also was kinda thinking about the public private partnership, creating a list of that and maybe some opportunities that the consultant can maybe come up with because I know we have some of those public private partnerships and kind of do an analysis on that as well too. So I don't know what my fellow commissioners think on that.

I would agree. I I would I think that's useful to find out at least listing of all the private public partnerships that we've had.

Yeah. That we have and then roll that in.

Yeah. I can definitely include those in I think some of these may be able to fall into the scope of work identified as kind of an additional bullet point.

Yeah.

So I can definitely make sure that we include the feedback into that frame. For me,

the public private partnership is the the return on investment for me is that's kind of, like, where I'm looking at it from of you know? And sometimes not necessarily monetary, sometimes just, again, access to community as well when there is when there is those partnerships happening.

I can ask real quick, tagging on to the the user group the groups. Are is part of it to reach out to, like, our field user groups and all the sports? Is that part of that? Because it's obviously a big part of our community.

Yeah. It would it would be included kind of in the community outreach specific to groups. So, again, a lot of it is the framework, but now with the information and the feedback you're sharing, we can incorporate that into the scope of work Mhmm. As in community outreach to include youth sports groups, local nonprofits, etcetera. And we can use avenues like the collaborative to post some feedback sessions. So there's definitely ways to accomplish that.

I would need a second

for the motion. Yeah.

If you guys wanna make one.

Second the motion. Yeah.

I was in a second.

I'm sorry.

You can

go ahead. Frame.

Go

ahead. Are are we good on that motion? Yeah. Do need restate it. Clear. But

Yes. I have the feedback included by the commissioners to incorporate into the scope of work, which I'll highlight again safe routes safe routes to parks, face to face outreach, including community groups, multiple language in the marketing outreach, one on one interviews, and including public exploring public private partnerships as a return of investment.

Okay. Moved by commissioner Freeman, seconded by vice chair I'm sorry. By commissioner Maldonado, seconded by vice chair Freeman. Alright. We move to a vote.

Mister Maldonado?

Yes.

Commissioner Talavera?

Yes.

Vice chair Freeman?

Yes.

Chair McKendree? Yes. Motion passes.

Alright. We will now move to the commissioner comments, staff communications section of this meeting. Any commissioner comments?

Just to what, the commenter Maria Figueroa said, are we able to kind of partnership with them for the movie at the park for, I'm guessing, Woodcrest? Woodcrest Park.

I can definitely reach out

Okay.

To them, get a look. They're part of the association to get more information of if it sounds like a partnership or more of a funding partnership. Okay. If they do if they are seeking funds, it's a little bit more challenging, but we can definitely redirect them to partner with some maybe some local nonprofits to help accomplish their goals. And, also, I I I didn't get all the details in the sense of how often they host these movies. I've I personally have not been part of them. So but I can definitely reach out and explore ways we can support them.

Yes, please. If that could be possible.

And then

my last one was, I guess, just things

and stuff.

You guys are amazing. You guys are kicking ass every single day, and I'm almost terrified to get see you guys in June after the run if I still have my legs, and then we'll go from there. But thank you guys so much for everything you do.

Just to reiterate, great job, guys. You're always doing a lot of work, and it's impressive. And like most, we do a lot with a little, so keep it up. Good job, guys. That's it for me.

Yep. Same thing. You guys do an amazing job. I was kind of blown away. I learned something new that I wish I would have, like, learned to and some of the events, I try to take screenshots of so I can attend if if I don't if my algorithm, my Instagram algorithm doesn't pop up with city's information.

But, yeah, just to kinda see if you guys can, again, forgot how to connect with Mireya and see how they can be supported with those movie nights. And, again, I think I had mentioned this more than a few months ago, but kind of having, you know, the movie nights that the city hosts in kind of revolving parks areas, you know, just kinda going to them instead of kind of waiting for them to come to us. And then would definitely like to hear an update on FIFA events if if we can get an update on that either at the next meeting or whatnot. And then also the July 4 as well too to kinda see where we are or where the city is is looking to come up. I don't know if that's part of the agenda for, you know, for for next month.

But just just get a July 4 update if we are gonna be hosting a three day event or a a one day or, you know, something a two day kinda meet in the middle, whatever it may be.

Yeah. I sorry, commissioner Talabeda. I I can definitely share a little bit of FIFA events. There was an approach to host kind of a watch party on June 18 in the Walk On Wilshire space, maximizing our Thursday night market and also staffing and for that same sense. So economic development and parks and recreation are working with the Okay. Vendor to hopefully host. That would be the only event, but in addition, they'd host, like, a free clinic for the community. So if we are, once we finalize all that, the information will be shared. And we can definitely provide an update, if not sooner, about July 4

Fourth of July?

Via email or any other forms. But we will definitely keep the commission updated based on our decision and kind of the feedback from tonight.

Okay. So you said June 18 is kind of, like, what?

Yes. Absolutely. That's a Thursday. We're we really are trying to maximize the resources. So since we already have the Thursday night market, we're looking at exploring an event in the Walker and Wilshire area. So it's not finalized yet, but I I can definitely we're that's what we're aiming towards.

That's what okay. And just the one time or just one day, one time event?

Yes. We've had multiple conversations on different, potential events and activations, but it's number one is definitely funding becomes a challenge. Mhmm. And this is this is a an approach and a plan that I think can work for both, I mean, the city and all the residents. But in addition, they would do a, they would host, like, a soccer clinic for free for the community.

Okay. Sounds good.

June 18 will be quite the draw. It's Mexico, South Korea at 6PM, so I'll be there.

I mean, we weren't strategic at all.

I will echo the sentiments of my fellow commissioners and just thank staff for all the great work as as we do this every month, but, the work just keeps getting better. So we appreciate you very much. Question I have is I know that during the summer months, occasionally, we think about maybe skipping a meeting here and there. Do we have any of that on the radar? Do we we're we're pretty pretty well confirmed for June and July, you think? Or

I believe our calendar is set, I'm looking over to our admin staff. But I believe it's set. However, we can definitely I'll let I'll discuss it with staff and see if there's any elements. I do know I think I'll have to check our calendar if I I don't know if it was July or August that we that we didn't have a meeting. So I'd I'd have to see what the calendar looks like and confirm and confirm with the commission.

Alright. I'll and I'll let you all know that I more than likely will not be in attendance next month, so I will keep you posted. But I have a business trip I have to attend. If you just keep us posted on, the ribbon cutting for, pickleball courts, that'd be great. My kids are excited about that. So my Achilles tendons are not. Alright. Any last comments before we adjourn? Alright. We will adjourn the meeting tonight at 07:50PM.