Park Commission - Regular Meeting

The September 2nd, 2026 Park Commission meeting is called to order. We'll begin the meeting with a roll call, starting on my far right. For the meeting transcript, can each commissioner state their name and that they are present? Jack Fisher, present.

Shanna Wagner, present.

Tom Smagle, present.

Arden Hall, present.

And the three that are not present, we are aware of that and they are excused, so we'll see them next time. Next up is Public Forum. This is an opportunity for members of the audience to speak on items not on the agenda. It's potentially a 10-minute period divided evenly between those who wish to speak. The Commission also welcomes comments on each agenda item and asks that those comments focus on the particular agenda item. Please limit your comments to three minutes. Are there any speaker cards for Public Forum? Okay, so I will close public forum and move on to our regular agenda. So item one on the regular agenda is approval of the minutes from our August meeting. Does anybody have any corrections or additions? Anything that's missed there? Okay, can I get a motion and a second to approve the minutes?

Do we approve the minutes? I second.

Thank you. All in favor? Hand raised is fine. Great. That's approved. Next up is an update on city parks and athletic fields. Nancy, will you be doing the honors there?

So the last month we have been in the field a lot working on two construction projects. The first one is the ADA and Swing Project at Piedmont Park. And if you haven't been there, the walkway is in. The planting that PBF has helped fund with an island oak and manzanita and coffee berry. Those plants are in. We did air spading around the native Oak tree in the upper right hand corner that had sand in it and the arborist was really concerned about the compaction It was really fascinating when they we thought we would air spade down 6 to 12 inches to remove all the sand the roots of the oak tree the really fine baby roots of the oak tree were encountered at about six inches and So we did not have to air spade as much material as we thought. So the compacted sand that came in from the tot lot was removed. We put down a material called biocharred underneath the top dressing of the playground fiber. So we're hoping that all that work helps alleviate some of the compaction under the native oak and helps with airflow and nutrients and all of that underneath the oak. The other thing that I know everybody is really looking forward to is the swings, and that is the one thing that has not arrived in time. I have been assured that the swings are ordered. Once they are ordered, one contractor will come in, install the swings and then also put the playground fiber in around the swing. So until that comes into the city and the work is done, the area where the previous swings were is going to be closed. But everything else is opened up. We have a little bit of fencing to protect the newly seeded lawn at the uppermost part. And Nick and I are working on getting some benches in. there are several benches that we're going to work with when we get the native play area in. So I think I can get half of the benches that were there before reinstalled, and then we'll work on the remaining benches when we do the plan for the nature play. So just, let's see here. So these were just the plants that you can look at there. The We put another island oak in that's been a really successful and happy tree in Piedmont. We have two manzanitas, the Dr. Hurd, which is the larger manzanita. We tried this over at the Highland Guilford Steps, and it's a slow grower, but it's a really handsome plant that we planted in clusters of three. So I think ultimately that becomes sort of a multi-tronc shrub. in that area, and then the ground cover is the Pacific mist, Arctostaphylus, and then we have the coyote mint, that's the butterfly that's in the photo. And that plant we used over at the circle on Magnolia and also along Oakland Avenue. So these plants, we've had success in other areas. And they're all California natives, which is always a nice thing. Any comments on that, or should we keep going?

I'm sure. We have a light agenda, so let's do it individually. Arden, do you want to go ahead?

That sounds great. I guess what I'm wondering is the coyote mint, more so than the others, I guess, but they're relatively short-lived, right? So the plan is to just refresh them every once in a while, is that right?

Well, they've been in, yes. Well, I think of all the plants, the coyote mint is probably the The most ornamental and the one that is, it's definitely not a woody plant, so we'll see how that goes. But having a little bit of color in there was desired, yeah.

I guess going back to the prior slides, tell us a little bit more about the fiber, what that material is that you're putting down for the playground surface.

That is technically called engineered wood fiber, and it is approved for ADA access. Now here, we're using it adjacent to the swing area. We're hoping that'll be our adventure play area. And over time, so it is not recycled material. Unfortunately, it is what you would call virgin wood material, but it meets very specific specifications for... either playground surfacing that is ADA accessible or pathways for ADA accessible. This we're just really using right now as a ground cover until we put in the adventure play.

The adventure play would be, if I'm looking at the big picture on the left, that would be the area that is passed?

Well, we're hoping to kind of sweep it around the swing amphitheater. So maybe stepping, it hasn't been designed yet, but the idea is maybe some stepping stones or, you know, sort of a journey pathway that may start in the lowest part and then wrap around up towards Opus Street.

Okay. But the pathway that was on the other side has been removed. Correct. Correct. Other questions?

Looks great. I'm excited to see it all come together. Just out of curiosity, are the swings the exact same replacement, like two bucket swings? Yes.

And then last question for me on the, I know we've had some concerns about some of the trees that are around that play structure. I think it's, they're all heritage trees, right? We've identified that group.

The oaks are, yeah. Oaks, yeah.

I'm talking about the coastline oaks. Is this one, was that an okay shape, the one that we've now kind of rehabilitated the area, the soil area around it? Are we hoping that's going to improve it or was it an okay shape to start with?

You know, when I first started here, it was showing some real signs of And at some point, I think it was under my predecessor's toolage, they removed or we might have removed bouncy. There were those little bouncy things underneath the oak tree. And believe it or not, they were finding that they thought the compaction was difficult for the tree. So those were removed. And then I think over time, as the sand migrated into that area, the sand ends up compacting as well. So it was an opportunity to address the compaction in that area, not necessarily that we were super concerned about the condition, but I think the goal is to keep that tree obviously as healthy as possible.

Okay.

Great. Jack? Quick question. It looks great. Has it come up at all, young new plants and kids trampling over them? Has it been discussed at all putting up some protective netting to let things get mature? I know it's not the prettiest looking thing.

Right now, everything hasn't been trampled on yet. I think we'll sort of take that day by day, see how it is. Okay.

All right, you want to move on to the next question?

Sure. This is Hampton Park, and if you remember in 2016, Hampton Park with some WWW funds and some donations through PRFO, the entire park was regraded, the turf was redone with an extensive drainage system, and the infield went from the old fashioned cinders to artificial turf. So the turf was at a 10 year lifespan, and that's what most of the industry standards are for artificial turf. We did try and replace the wear areas. Unfortunately for us, those replacements were not as successful as I think they will be this time around. We had an installer in 2016 that the turf company ended up replacing. folding during the construction process. So the general contractor took over the warranty of the turf. Warranties are usually about seven years. So this time around, we've spent time thinking about where the wear patterns are, the pitcher's mound, is a tougher material than the other orange area. We also have considered when we have to replace the high wear areas at the bases that the design lines make sense if we have to remove some panels. So I think there's also been thought this time around to accommodate not only little league, but also softball. So the bases, this group here may know more about baseball than I do, but the bases are actually embedded. What's a great term for that? They're not just loose bases, but we actually have a sleeve in there. several different options for that. The comments I've gotten is the green, overall people like this green better than the old green. It's a little bit deeper and a little bit greener. Just to give you a quick overview of how the process goes, the first sleeve is a forklift where they actually have a tube and they roll up the old turf What you're looking at there underneath the old turf is the brock pad. That's the cushion pad. It looks like igloo styrofoam lids that are actually snapped together and form the cushion so that young athletes... have cushion underneath the fabric. That's called a brock pad and that is stockpiled on site to be reused. Then the filter fabric is removed and they do string lines to check out the the grading of the actual field to make sure that it hasn't sunk. We had testing done. The drainage has remained very solid on the field. So once the minor dips were graded, they were very minor, they come back in and they reinstall the filter fabric, reinstall the Brock pad, And then the fun part, which is the second photo, where they start laying the carpet down on top of the Brock pad. The white is the Brock pad. And you'll see that... The old brock pad is used everywhere but on the edges because the edges tend to be the areas where there might be some give. So you want a really tight joint system with these. So we have new brock pad all along the edges. In 2016, they sewed the seams together. 2026, they actually use a glue system. So the third picture is the system they use to put the seams together. The fourth picture is just the rolls on site and the guys working to pull the different carpets in place. And the last slide was done today. You'll see remnant pieces all around. They've finished with all the brock pad. that will be disposed of offsite. And now they're just doing the final, there's some striping lines that need to be done along bases. And once the entire carpet is in, they come back in and put sand and cork infill in. And they think that that should be complete by early next week.

Sounds good. Questions, comments from commissioners? Okay. Any public comment on item two, A or B?

No.

Okay. Thank you, Nancy. We'll move on to item three, an update on our sustainable park management plan implementation strategy.

So we do have a speaker card for Garrett Keating. For three, yeah.

Do you have a reason for the speaker to go first or...?

Garrett, you want to come?

Do you have a report, Nancy, before we get to public comment?

I have an update on using the spreadsheet that we used last time. So I can give a brief update.

Why don't you give a brief update and then we'll have a look.

Okay. So one of the things that we're working with in our sustainability plan is to expand the tree canopy. So there has been an opportunity on one of our streets that has a tree species that's really struggling. And so one of the things that we're talking about, and we have one dead tree. So that may be one of the streets that I have been in discussions with the homeowner to see if any of the plants on the new list that was generated by the subcommittee, if there are any trees that we would like to try on that street. Just reviewing the idea of street trees. We are trying to expand the the Species that we're using in our street trees and where there are options for adding Variety within a street if it's not a colonnade or a prominent street. We're doing that so Tree canopy Nick's been really WONDERFUL HELPING ME SECURE SOME OF THESE NEW TREE SPECIES. WHERE POSSIBLE, WE'RE SWITCHING OUT TO NATIVES, SO OUR LONDON PLAINS, WE'RE TRYING THE CALIFORNIA NATIVE SYCAMORE, AND WE THINK THAT MAY BE A LITTLE BIT MORE DROUGHT TOLERANT, A LITTLE BIT LESS FUSSY THAN THE ONE THAT WE HAVE IN PLACE NOW. landscape and planting you know there has been a big thinking of number three on our list landscape and planting We are trying when we introduce new, sorry, it's not in your packet here. We are trying to use natives and I think the main park, the plants that we're using in the area by the top lot, those are California natives and we'll see how they survive in a high use park area. Also, we don't have a report this week on lawn and turf, but we do have our subcommittee that we will be working on understanding where we can remove non-functional turf and alternatives for how we might replant those areas. I think we can do that at our November meeting. One of the things in the sustainability management plan we talked about is making sure that the city stays on top of maintaining high use areas and Hampton I think is a good example of a high use area where we push the limits as much as we could for that artificial turf and then we're able to fund it in this fiscal year for replacement. The last item about climate change and resources, I wanted the Park Commission to know that we are working with our landscape contractor to see if there are rebates available to replace a gas mower for the big lawn area. There's some new technology out there for battery rebates. mowers that are more adaptive for big spaces and also longer running than than just your normal. So we're we're working on that and I'm hoping to to bring that back. So those were the items I have. So Garrett if you want to make public comment.

Yeah let's open public comment. Mr. Keating.

And you'll have three minutes.

And check the microphone as usual.

All right. Good evening, Commissioners. Three minutes off. Speak fast. Implementation strategy, do the worst first. And as this commission knows, that's our dog parks, right? I mean, that's why we're here tonight, even. So, and to do that with our current dog parks, I think you need to find the capacity we need, right? We are one short, and to try to implement this plan with the amount of dogs and what people have come to expect in those parks, with one park down, I don't think it'd be a worthwhile effort. So I think this commission or Nancy should look at other areas in town, assess them for sustainability. You have the plan now, so you can look at the bridge, you can look at other lawn areas, you can look at... other parts of town and apply those rules and see a viable space for additional dog parks. And then, of course, recommend that to council. So the other strategy I would say is about the tables in the parks. Now, I've commented to this commission, I don't think, There's a sustainability element to that, and I think it's actually worse for sustainability of our parks. But it's in the plan, as I understand it. So I would have this commission or staff come up with a rationale for what they're trying to sustain. The tables are just added to the plan, in my opinion. There's no, I can't see it, any identified sustainability improvement that's going to achieve in our parks. So I would ask this commission, again, as a strategy, identify that need so we can go there with tables wherever these other improvements in the park will actually make a difference. Because my anticipation is if you bring tables into Dracaena, you will exacerbate the problem. I don't think there's proper enforcement by PD and REC now, and whatever conditions you see in the park, lawn, the slopes, fallen trees, it's due to the lack of enforcement. So by all means, if you're going to bring in these tables, define what you want to improve. It's not in the plan now. If you just pop them in there and walk away, then problems will be worse. And I say that particularly, I'll close on this, is that, you know, as I understand it, these tables and playgrounds and use restrictions are the purview of police department and rec. I don't believe the Park Commission has a lot of say in that. You may look at their rules, but so that's why I say this commission should really look into what those improvements in our parks are gonna do, because this is your one shot at the apple, so to speak. So I really recommend that as part of the strategy. But Nancy sounds like, you know, you're getting at it through some of these other elements, more trees, the worst places, Hampton. But again, I would think from this commission's perspective, look at those two elements because they are what the city needs. Lower Piedmont particularly needs a dog run. They've lost a major asset, and I think the city needs to look into that with a sustainable eye.

Great. Thank you for your comments. I appreciate them. The Commission appreciates your comments. Nancy, let's move on to item four, which is related somewhat because we're talking about capital projects. So upcoming or for the that's for the current fiscal year that started in July.

Sorry. Sorry. Just wanted to get my phone, my timer off. So I discussed with our public works director and he recommended that we push this to November because so much of our park commission is not available To hear he thought it was a dialogue that the entire Commission should hear But the so that first half The facility capital projects will bring back to you in November the Second item which is scheduling the annual report I think it would behoove this commission to really start thinking about it as soon as possible because the budget planning and the budget workshops come up fairly quickly. And if we're presenting, I think they start in March or April, if we are presenting our requests, and there more than likely will be a new public works director at that time, in March or April, it's almost too late to kind of get it in there. So I think if we could get the report to the new public works director in February, that would be really ideal. So I just wanted to get it on the park commission calendar that we start working on there. recommendations to council sooner than we did last year.

I agree. I think that makes sense. One question for logistical question would be if we want to have a report that proposes or recommends a capital project that's in line with sustainability master plan for example the priorities that are laid out in there um slope stability or irrigation management or something like that we probably in terms of brown act we probably need to have a dialogue in an open session about ideas that commissioners might have before doing that. So we sort of need a couple of meetings. Okay.

Would you like for the November meeting to have a discussion? I think so.

Okay. I think what I would encourage, and we can talk about this also in October, but I encourage commissioners to...

In October.

Well, it depends on whether you want to have it in October or not. But I would give commissioners a month fair warning to read through the sustainability report and maybe come with some ideas about some things we might want to consider recommending to city staff for potential inclusion in the budget. realizing that we're making recommendation and we're not determinative, of course, and that there's many other competing priorities, but if we had a particular priority or a particular recommendation that we wanted to highlight in that report, I think that'd be good to discuss early on. It sounds like maybe targeting the report to be given to council in January or so. January, February, February at the very latest.

Yeah, that would be ideal. So I actually I'm I think it would be great to start the discussion in October because we may or may not have a meeting in December.

Yeah.

Yeah.

We typically have a very short if we have one. Yeah. Yeah. Are there questions or comments on that item?

Yeah. I guess I've been reading about and thinking about the El Nino that's coming. And I was wondering, and maybe Nick could talk about this, if there are, you know, nearer term projects that the city ought to be considering, you know, in anticipation of that.

Yeah, I think we've got him on the agenda just in a second here. earliest that Nick's had to speak for a long time, unless we can filibuster for 45 minutes. Yeah, I think that's wise.

We have talked a little bit, but I'll let Nick talk about some of our compost waddles that we're thinking of using.

Any public comment on this item? Absolutely.

26, 27 projects.

I didn't think I could propose new ones, but you make a good point.

We'll be getting to that in an upcoming meeting.

Yeah, but no, I would just, I like your point, Tom, is that, you know, start the discussion now. And I would get the word out. I mean, I will tell people that, you know, this commission that wanted to fix the dog park, it will be looking for ideas. So I will be circulating that. But I think it's... And doing it in the sustainability plan is a good way to advertise it. Unless you kind of bring projects out to the public, visible projects in problem sites, it may just slip away. So I'd like your point. Thank you.

Jack. Yeah, I actually like the idea of including sustainability report. And, you know, there was the action items there and prioritizing it. Because it gives us, it's more than just our voice or opinion. It has a little oomph behind it. Right. That someone will listen to it as more than the Park Commission. This is, you know, the ongoing thing. So I think that's great.

Great.

Okay, so Nancy, you'll schedule agenda items as appropriate for that?

Yes, and I think we'll do it in October. Yeah, sounds good.

Okay, next item is monthly maintenance report.

Good evening. Your park staff has been very busy this past month with maintenance in our parks, medians, and we also continue planting trees. We just recently planted four cherry trees on Cherry Walk, four dogwoods in Main Park, Guilford area, one Persian ironwood on Bonita, two Chinese pistache on Vista, and one Chinese pistache on Magnolia that presumably a high school kid ran over. We were alerted to a tree that had been knocked over when high school started. The homeowner over there said it looked like the kid was trying to parallel park, and it went over the curb, and he took off. And the tree was uprooted when we got there. So smaller Chinese pistachio tree, but it was replaced. Whereabouts? That was right over here on like 500 block of Magnolia. Oh, right, right. Yeah, right there. So if you guys see anyone, any teenagers right around with Chinese pistachio bark on the bark, you guys let me know. Tree removals, not mentioning that one. Staff removed five dead trees throughout town this last month. All these trees were dead. Trees being small, stumps not so. Our contractor will be needed to remove the stumps. Where the trees once stood, replacements will be added. So we will replace where all these trees once were. Tree pruning, the team kept up with the raising of the trees throughout town. We've been going around the schools once school started just to get the eye-pokers and head-knockers. I've also noticed a lot just been driving around town that street signs and stop signs are blocked by low hanging limbs. So they'll continue on doing that in the next month, raising the trees. Summer limb drop did start up again just last month. Not too many, but the two that we did have was pretty significant. We had two large limbs, one on Hampton and one on Sheridan. The one on Sheridan was a large limb with the three trees there that are repeat offenders, so they're on the watch list right now. There will be some safety pruning done to those three trees over there. Still on trees, two campers were removed last month due to the fact that we could not sidewalk back without removing large buttress roots these trees were located on grand avenue on cambridge way three more liquid amber trees are slated to come out on pacific part of the same sidewalk repair project again where these trees were standing they will be replaced lastly we came across some vandalism in our main park looks as if someone had made a stencil and sprayed some political statements within our park staff jumped on these sites and cleaned them up It looked as if nothing was ever there. The lawns also were touched up again with the same acidic smelling material at Main Park. Nothing politically charged, just a big dead spot. Now I know you guys were mentioning the El Nino coming up. We are taking, we're starting to do sandbags right now and getting the yard cleaned up just to have more stuff available in our yard this year. I know I'm looking at all the, what they're saying is coming right now. It kind of looks like We're on the fringe of it, but we still are making that preparation. So we're starting with the sandbags. I don't want to swamp the guys with all the sandbags in one week or two weeks because it's a whole lot of sandbagging going on, which is not a bad thing.

But you generally remove debris that might be blocking storm drains.

We've done that, and we went into the main park in Oak Creek. where we go in and we stockpile on the side during the season, that's all been removed already. We did that like two months ago. So that's all cleared out and ready to go. We'll hit that again though, once the first storm is on its way, just to make sure everything's up and up. Nancy mentioned the wattles that we're gonna be replacing with compost ones. So the ones that you're seeing right now, I believe we're gonna remove is the plan and we replace them with compost wattles. So that's gonna be one of the hotspots. I'm going to have a guy on standby over there standing at that one catch basin up on the stand. Because once that one goes, everything goes.

So the, I think one of the changes that's happened over the years is we get more and more compliance issues. And one of the compliance issues with, and it's, It's all really, I support the philosophy behind the compliance. It's just sometimes hard to implement. So we have requirements for the city is supposed to use so many cubic yards of compost and mulch. They have to be compost and mulch that is diverted from landfill, so it is reused material. We are starting to change our mulch to use that. Of course, one of the challenges is our old mulch had more fiber in it, and this new mulch tends to move more. But we have to comply and use recycled material. One of the things, if we use these composts they're basically waddles, but they're filled with compost, is we can get credit for our compliance for that. Now, it's more work for Nick because these compost waddles are heavier, but I think they may stay in place a little bit better. So it's just one of those challenges, making sure that we meet our requirements, but they don't always are perfect fits for a small town with small parks.

What's the production capacity of those compost bottles? Are they freely available or are they pretty limited?

Denise has given me a local supplier. At the places like Bee Green and some of our bigger landscape suppliers, we have not... found them, so we're probably going to pre-order them and make sure that we have them on site, and actually at Dracaena that they are installed in advance. So we'll be switching out some of those.

Yeah, because obviously one of the recommendations of the sustainability plan was to look out for these high-sloped areas. And I know we're working on that in Dracaena. But in Main Park, there's several other areas that are similar. And if you could expand the use of waddles, especially in prelude to potential heavy rainfall events, which could happen in El Nino. That might be, you know, might be helpful for future cleanup and, you know, land movement and that sort of thing. So I don't know what the potential is there, but it's something you guys could look at.

I just have to find a good local supplier for Nick. Sure. I just haven't found it yet.

Any other questions or comments from anyone else? Go ahead, Jack.

You had mentioned Pacific, the liquid amperes. I just wanted to make sure I understood. So the... You said the liquid embers are going to be replaced. Have the trees been picked out, or are they going to be replaced with liquid embers? No.

No. OK. All right. No. I've planted one liquid ember in the 19 years I've been here, and that would took a twist of a lot of arms for that to happen. So liquid embers have never been replaced. I believe they're going to be going back with Chinese pistache.

Yes, because we've got power lines, and we've also got planting areas that are about two feet wide. So the lower, well, it's really one block of Pacific has the beautiful canopy of liquid ambers, and they have just reached their limit, especially the The south side where they've been topped by PG&E. And there is some concern when they've been topped numerous times that that causes structural issues with it. So the three trees that are being removed are all on the south side and have all been topped. And those locations, the homeowners have agreed to replacement trees.

As an editorial comment, I've always really liked the Chinese pistache in front of our house. So I know they start out really small, but ours is of a reasonable size, and it's a pretty tree, and it's just messy for about a week or two. They're gorgeous right now.

Yeah.

They're starting to go through there.

It's interesting. It is one of the trees that's on Devil Mountains. trees for adaptive, uh, sorry, uh, trees for a warmer climate. So they've, they've got quite a list of trees, not all native and obviously Chinese pistachio are not native, but, um, it was just nice to see that one of our predominant street trees is considered climate adaptive.

So, uh, Nick, I wonder if you could talk briefly about the project in Dracaena, the path replacement, um, that was done a week or so ago. Just let us know what was going on there and why that needed to be done.

Yeah, so we get a certain amount of money for pathways and parks every year. That was nominated as one of them. I was over there, we did the other side at the end of the fiscal year last year. And when I was there looking, I go with that, could use it too. And it was an asphalt one. Asphalt pathways, what happens to them is the roots will pop up right through them so easily. So we went back, we removed the asphalt, we went back with concrete. So it's a nice thickened edge. It's the guys did really, it's a new contractor. They're doing really good work for us.

Good.

So yeah, that was the reason for it. It had tripping hazards on it, it had buckling, and it had roots starting to come out of it. Yeah, it looks nice.

Yeah. Good. That's all my questions. Thanks. Thank you. All right. Next up is announcements, old business, and consideration of future agenda items. I think we talked about some future agenda items already. Nancy, on old business, did you want to give us a follow-up on last month's agenda item with respect to the tree?

So the tree that was on Cambridge, we did have Daria of Hort Science come out and she confirmed that the structural integrity of the tree, the lean of the tree, she supported the removal and replacement with a more suitable tree. So that, Nick, that hasn't been scheduled yet, has it?

All right, our next meeting is October 7th. So Jack, go ahead, yeah.

A couple more agenda items, future possible agenda items. Heritage tree plaques. I don't know if we could, so we got four in, right?

I think we have three or three or four.

I don't know if we could just set up a certain amount in the timeline that we could just kind of keep the process moving. That would be great. And I'm at Dracaena a lot. There's just, I'd love to have a discussion about enforcement of park rules. There is none. There is zero. And so there's no compliance.

Yes, Nancy and I got into a little disagreement with some other members of the public. We happen to be at Dracaena at the, Same time walking our dogs. Yeah. In compliance with the regulations. And others were not. So that is a challenge.

Yeah.

That's definitely a challenge and is subject to good further discussions. Okay. Thanks. So with all that said, our next meeting is Wednesday, October 7th at 530. We look forward to seeing you all there. Okay. Meeting's adjourned.

Thanks.