MEASURE DD COMMUNITY COALITION MEETING

JANUARY 24, 2005

LAKESIDE GARDEN CENTER

 

Agenda Committee: Ron Bishop, Ken Benson and Sandy Threlfall

Minutes by Kathy Raymond, Executive Director, Friends of Oakland Parks and Recreation

 

In Attendance:

Beat 15x NCPC – Jim Ratliff

Bicycle & Pedestrian Advisory Committee – Ron Bishop

Budget Advisory Commission – Dinah Benson

Chabot Park Highlands Homeowner’s Assoc. – Ken Benson

East Bay Bicycle Coalition – Rick Rickard

East Bay Regional Parks District – John Sutter

Friends of the Cleveland Cascade –Jim Ratliff

Coalition of Advocates for Lake Merritt – James Vann

Friends of Oakland Parks and Recreation – Kathryn Raymond, Judy Johnson

Golden Gate Audobon Society – John Bowers

Greenlink Taskforce – Nancy Rieser

Lake Merritt Institute –Liz Borowiec

Lake Merritt Rowing Club – Jerry Denham

Oakland Heritage Alliance – Naomi Schiff

Oakland Parks Coalition – Jennie Gerard

Philip Williams & Assoc. – Jorgen Blomberg

Shepherd Canyon Homeowner’s Assoc. – Mike Petouhoff

Spanish Speaking Unity Council – Rita Torres

Waterfront Action Coalition – Sandy Threlfall

 

Also:

 

From the City of Oakland:

CEDA – Kerry Jo Ricketts-Ferris

Council Member Reid’s Office – Pat Mossburg

City of Oakland Cultural Arts Division – Christin Hablewitz

Public Works Agency – Joel Peter

PWA – Environmental Services Division – Markley Bavinger

 

 

The meeting was called to order at 7:05 P.M. by chair Sandy Threlfall.  The attendees introduced themselves.  A new agenda committee was selected for the next cycle; Judy Johnson, Jim Ratliff and John Bowers are on the committee.  It was also mentioned that there will be a Groundhog Day event in Oakland to kick off the year of the Estuary.  It will be at the Jack London Aquatic Center on Feb. 2nd.  It was also mentioned that the play Casino is coming back to the newly renovated YWCA stage and that information will be emailed out to the group.

 

Agenda Changes:  There were a couple deferred items to the February meeting, the interim solution for the 12th St. project and Oak to 9th Street.  It was decided that the next meeting should be held on Feb. 28th as the 21st is President’s Day.

 

12th STREET PROJECT AND SHORELINE IMPROVEMENTS:

Jorgen Blomberg from Philip Williams and Associates, one of the subconsultants working on the 12th St. project came to talk about the current condition of the lake and shoreline at Lake Merritt.  The team is currently working on 35% design drawings.  In the 1st phase there will be removal of the culverts and roadway and construction of a bridge.  The long-term effort is to restore Lake Merritt to a more natural tidal condition.  Key parts of this project include a new vehicular bridge and circulation system for pedestrian and bicycle use, which will include an isolated bridge for this purpose.  There will be tidal marsh restoration, about .8 of an acre between 10th and 12th Streets.  The channel will now be a minimum of about 100 ft. wide (now about 40 ft. wide).  The vehicular bridge will be at least 10 to 12 ft. wide so it will feel very open to pedestrians going underneath, it will also include a gap in between the bridge lanes to bring in light underneath (about a 10 ft. daylighting section).  The path materials haven’t been officially decided yet, they are looking at a number of options.  The path should be about 15 ft. wide and will be separated, somehow, between pedestrians and bicycle use.  There will be a plaza area, over the water, and a bowl shaped amphitheater that can be used as a civic space.  By the boathouse, there are a number of possible shoreline solutions which maximize the opportunity for native plantings.  A storm water retention and run off program will also be integrated into the project.  They are looking at creating a possible pier or dock that will allow people to walk onto the water.  It was asked if a drain was being considered in the lake.  Jorgen stated that there was no elevation for this drain to work on it’s own and would need a mechanical element, are not looking at this as a solution.  They are predicting about a 3 ft. change in the tides. 

 

 

 

 

PROJECT UPDATES:

 

Studio One:  The City has received the 65% design review drawings, so they will soon begin construction documents.  There is still some discussion over the landscape plans for the front and side of Studio One.  They are looking at putting the garden on the side of the building between the building and the pool; this would be a community and teaching garden.  They are also proposing undulating grass because of maintenance reasons; however, this would prevent children from playing kickball, etc.  Also, there are some concerns because there is a fire main, telephone pole and street light that all need to be considered in the landscaping plan, that have not yet been addressed.  The process of moving the classes during construction is still being investigated; a plan to integrate children’s classes to various recreation centers around the city is being considered.  The adult classes are proposed to be located to Cascalord Center (formerly known as the Alice Arts Center).  Measure DD funds could help with moving costs but cannot provide for rent payments so Parks and Recreation staff still needs to find funds for rental costs.  The total estimate cost of relocating for an estimated 20 months is around $150,000, $41,000 of this would be associated with moving.

 

The Lake Merritt Systemwide Improvements recommendation will go before the Life Enrichment Committee, with a series of other reports and resolutions, on Feb. 8th.  City staff requested that members of the Coalition be in attendance to show support for the recommendations.  The meeting is at 6 p.m. and looks to be the 1st item on the agenda.  City staff is presenting a status report on Measure DD including 3 resolutions (1. accepting and allocating the $10,000,000 in the California Coastal Conservancy Funding, 2.  Amending the contract for the FOPR Coalition administration and 3. Amending Measure DD improvements relative to the channel projects.) 

 

Because of a $1 million dollar addition mistake during the master plan process and because of increased inflation costs, there is about a $2 million shortfall in the park boarder improvement project and few areas in which to cut costs.  City staff is proposing to put the sailboat house on hold and put these funds towards the municipal boathouse and park borders projects, which would be about $1.2 million.  In addition they will be asking for two action items, to accept the Lake Merritt Systemwide Improvements recommendation and an action associated with putting the Sailboat House project design process on hold.  You can find more details on each of these on the web site at http://www.oaklandparks.org/measure_dd.htm.  A few modifications were made from the last time the coalition reviewed the systemwide improvement recommendations.  The money allocated for Athol Park is proposed to be consolidated with money associated with the East 18th gateway.  It was also recommended that the fire suppression system in Lakeside Park be fully funded.  Nancy Reiser mentioned a discussion with a Capt. Burke from a local Fire Station that the current fire hydrant situation within Lakeside Park adequately protected the facilities.  City staff indicated that buildings around the lake, such as the garden center and boathouse do not meet fire and building code requirements for access and flow. The new building to be funded at Fairyland would not be able to be constructed without the new fire suppression system proposed to be funded under Measure DD.  Naomi Schiff suggested that the state historic building code should be looked into, as historic buildings could have different standards required. 

 

There is also some hope that the earned interest can help backfill some of the projects that are not currently fully funded.

 

It was asked if there would be a listing of recommendations, like the Lake Merritt Systemwide improvements list for the Estuary projects.  It was stated that the Council is not yet ready to have this discussion, and wish to see the outcome of the Oak to 9th St. charette process first.  It was mentioned that the Brooklyn Basin project, is on hold while the Port negotiates with a private developer, Gray and Reynolds.  Staff noted that regardless of the proposed improvements, BCDC would require a certain amount of open space as well as trail access.,

 

ANNUAL MEETING:

Discussion was held around what the annual meeting should be and how it should outreach to the community.  One suggestions was to have a booth around various Farmer’s Markets instead of one large meeting.  Many people thought this wouldn’t be effective, as you couldn’t have all the materials you would need spread around like this.  It was deliberated on what the purpose of this meeting should be.  It was decided that we would not be ready to hold this meeting in March and more discussion was needed.  It will be a topic for discussion in February.  It was also suggested that maybe our efforts should go into trying to get press coverage like a layout in the Tribune on many of the DD projects status.

 

The schedule was set for the eight 2005 yearly meetings, they will be in February, March, May, June, September, October and November.

 

It was stated that the Public Art Division had released an RFQ for Studio One that was due on March 15th.

 

Next Agenda Items that were suggested: 

  1. Interim Solution 12th St.
  2. Annual Meeting 
  3. Oak to ninth- Estuary Park – set a group policy.
  4. Update on Union Point Park
  5. Creek Update

 

The next meeting dates were set, they will continue to be on the third Monday of the month. The next meeting date is February 28th at the Garden Center in the Ebell Room.

 

The meeting was adjourned at 9:00 p.m.