Citizen asks why 2010 EIR Traffic Review was not made public during Moraga Canyon/Blair Park EIR hearings –

During the discussion of a risk management policy for major Piedmont projects at the April 1, 2013 Council meeting, Piedmont resident Rick Schiller criticized City staff for “withholding” a City-authorized 2010 traffic study report of Moraga Ave.  The report by WILTEC Engineers was procured by the City Administration at a critical point during the controversial Blair Park/Moraga Canyon sportsfield deliberation. > Click to read more…

Citizen letter to the City Council, as it continues to consider adopting a Risk Management Policy – 

Dear Piedmont City Council,

re: April 1, 2013 Risk Management Policy Agenda Item

City Policy of enforcing agreements: This aspect is not included in this policy report. As of June 2012, PRFO  [Piedmont Recreational Facilities Organization] owed the City $220,000 with $31,400 in additional legal costs directly incurred as a result of their project through November 2012. What is the City Policy in regards to enforcing arbitration clauses in signed agreements? > Click to read more…

Future City Projects May Get a Closer Look – 

The City Council will discuss adoption of a  Risk Management Policy for major Piedmont capital projects at its meeting on Monday, April 1.  The meeting begins at 7:30 p.m. in Council Chambers, 120 Vista Avenue.

The City’s Public Works Director will present a revised version of his draft risk management policy, which he presented to the Council in January.   Since then, a Task Force on Civic Governance formed by the Piedmont League of Women Voters has developed  an alternative risk management policy for the City, which it submitted  to the Council for consideration. Both the April 1 Risk Management > Click to read more…

City Costs for Blair Park Sports Field Still Owed –

Resident Aaron Salloway addressed the Council during  the Public Forum at the March 18 City Council meeting.  Once again, he requested an accounting of the cost to the City of the Blair Park sports facility proposal by Piedmont Recreational Facilities Organization (PRFO) and payments received by the City after more than $250,000 in staff time expended and $220,000 remaining reimbursement due.  “I’m concerned about the City’s effort to recoup the outstanding funds from PRFO.  > Click to read more…

Residents Request Response from City Council – 

At the February 19 City Council meeting during the Public Forum, two Piedmonters inquired about the status of reimbursement of associated City costs by the private group that proposed constructing sports fields in Blair Park. The private group, Piedmont Recreational Facilities Organization, (PRFO) promised that their proposed sports facility would involve no cost to City taxpayers.

Piedmont resident Ralph Catalano asked for an accounting of the “at least $400,000”  PRFO owes the City  under their reimbursement contract with the City.  (The 2011 PRFO agreement with the City was executed on August 12th and disclosed by the City to residents several weeks later, in late September, at the urging of one of Piedmont’s Council Members.) > Click to read more…

News Release from Friends of Moraga Canyon-

Piedmont and Friends of Moraga Canyon Agree to Settle Lawsuit.

In a win for preservation of Piedmont’s Blair Park in Moraga Canyon, the City of Piedmont and the non-profit Friends of Moraga Canyon (FOMC) have reached agreement to settle a lawsuit filed by FOMC against the City Council for approving a sports field project in the park. The Council rescinded its approval of the project in May 2012, and the City and FOMC subsequently agreed to negotiate a settlement of the lawsuit outside of court.

The agreement calls for the City to pay a total of $30,000: $15,000 to cover a portion of FOMC’s attorney fees, and $15,000 to retain a landscape consultant to develop a landscape improvement plan for Blair Park and to implement the plan.

The intent of the plan is to preserve the park’s healthy native trees, remove dead or dying trees, and gradually replace removed trees with more appropriate species.  The plan will include improving the existing pedestrian trail, eradicating invasive plants, and identifying drought-tolerant plants and ground covers to “create an attractive setting for park users and enhance habitat for birds and other wildlife.”

The landscape consultant selected by the City must have experience in “creating and/or implementing plans for natural ‘open space’ parks similar to Blair Park.” FOMC will have an opportunity to comment on the scope of the consultant’s work plan and on the plan, itself, before it is approved or implemented.  Once the landscape plan is approved, the City will use remaining funds from the settlement agreement — and any additional money the City decides to allocate — to implement the plan.

“We are very pleased with this agreement,” said FOMC President Jim Semitekol. “Our goal from the outset has been to save Blair Park as a small slice of natural open space for all Piedmont residents and visitors to enjoy, to preserve the habitat for wildlife, and provide an attractive gateway to the City of Piedmont.

“We are grateful to have the lawsuit behind us,” he added, “and we look forward to working with the City to develop and implement a successful plan that truly preserves and enhances Blair Park.”

The $30,000 settlement agreement will be paid out of funds previously deposited with the City by the Piedmont Recreational Facilities Organization (PRFO), the organization that proposed developing the Blair Park sports field project.  As part of an agreement for project approval, the City required PRFO to reimburse the City for costs in developing the project and to indemnify the City for potential legal actions against the project approval.

To see the full Settlement Agreement and City of Piedmont News Release, go to: www.ci.piedmont.ca.us

Resident identifies Council’s misstatements –

I do not support the proposed parcel tax. The city’s official position statement, written by (Mayor John) Chiang and  (Councilman Jeff) Wieler, has material factual misstatements.

The Council (except Keating) who are mostly attorneys, the City Administrator and City Attorney have been less than forthright about things the past few years. They previously spread misinformation and scare tactics on the proposed and defeated sewer tax. The deceptions and the arrogance that leads to this behavior needs to stop.  > Click to read more…

New Vision for Piedmont’s Blair Park-

Recently, there have been many suggestions for Blair Park in the local media. Some credible and some ridiculous. If one thing is for sure, it is time for a “New Vision” to emerge for Piedmont’s Blair Park. This should be a plan that is modest in scope, has a cost that is appropriate in the context of Piedmont City budget priorities, and involves extensive public participation through a transparent process.

Any new plan should consider the current status of Blair Park.  The considerations for a development plan can be summarized as follows:

Arterial Robustness and Safety

Moraga Avenue is a critical traffic artery, but has vulnerabilities, particularly under stressed circumstances. Any development should at least maintain the arterial aspect of the avenue, and more desirably, enhance it.

Moraga Avenue in its present condition has safety issues related to uphill bicycle traffic and the use of the few parking spaces that exist. An improvement in both these safety areas is desirable, and the need for such improvements, by themselves, provides motivation for limited development solutions.

Moraga Avenue is also dangerous for any pedestrian attempting a crossing. Development plans should not have any effect that specifically encourages pedestrians to cross the street.

Aesthetic

Blair Park is inherently beautiful, but has been neglected and is being used as a dumping site. Intelligent and forward-looking attention to maintenance basics is already needed. Blair Park is also considered a gateway to Piedmont. Attention to aesthetics and related issues such as tree health go hand-in-hand with consideration of development options. Any development plans should have a natural open space character and contribute to a parkway style aesthetic.

Public Accessibility and Use

As it is now, Blair Park is nominally accessible and is used to a very limited extent. It would generally be in the interest of the community to improve safe accessibility. With appropriate and carefully planned development, Blair Park can easily absorb a modest increase in use.

Environmental and Topographical

Blair Park enjoys and provides a rich environment for native vegetation – plant community and the appropriate wildlife habitat that should be preserved and restored to a rich level of ecological diversity. The ecologically rich, elongated, and meandering site is suitable for incorporating many diverse elements as the community members may decide under the guidelines of “Bay Friendly Landscaping Principles” that embody community values for health and safety, wildlife, and the environment.

Development by the Community

The developmental direction of Blair Park needs to be community-based. Any development needs to be attentive to real world budgetary constraints, and can be staged over a period of time. There is an opportunity for private-public partnerships, but development is fundamentally a Piedmont City project, and should be run in a transparent manner, with abundant opportunity for the community to contribute to the planning.

As resources become scarce in the urban environment, the inhabitants of the land need to learn and practice new ways of stewarding the land. Blair Park gives us in Piedmont an opportunity to venture on a path where, unified, we can create a project that exemplifies this new way of thinking about our environment, and fosters a real sense of community.

Piedmont has an opportunity to develop Blair Park in a way that accords with an emerging vision of public space, with community feedback. We therefore invite community engagement regarding the tenets of a mission underlying a development plan for Blair Park, defining the structural foundational elements for such a plan, and broadly seek community ideas and participation on development of features and amenities within the Park.

Let us hear from the Community at large, the Garden Clubs, Piedmont Connect, and the wider School Community, and regional stakeholders. Please give your opinion, your ideas and your suggestions. You can write to Piedmont Civic Association at editors@piedmontcivic.org or e-mail your comments to blairpark2012@gmail.com

Sinan Sabuncuoglu

Piedmont Resident

Editors Note:  The opinions expressed are those of the author and not necessarily those of the Piedmont Civic Association.

Piedmont Recreation Facilities Organization Debt to City is “Under Discussion” – 

A June 18^th staff report to the City Council by City Administrator Geoffrey Grote outlines the City’s total outside vendor expenditures for the now defunct Blair Park sports field project and Coaches Field.

The expenditures, compiled by Finance Director Mark Bichsel, total $793, 956 for Blair Park and $103,234 for a plan to install lights and artificial turf on Coaches Field.  The $897,191 grand total is for outside consultants and services and does not include the substantial costs of time estimated at almost $250,000 spent by City recreation, planning, and administrative staff over the past four-plus years on both of the failed projects.

Grote’s report states that Piedmont Recreational Facilities Organization (PRFO) owed the City a total of $303,588 for expenses dating from March 21, 2011 (the date the Council voted that all expenses for the Blair Park sports field proposal be paid by PRFO)  through April 2012.  To date PRFO has paid the City $118,000 of this amount and still owes $220,267.  Grote states that, based on the Council’s March 21, 2011 decision, City expenses incurred for Blair Park before that date, with the exception of “previously received gifts” will not be billed to PRFO.

To date, the City has received $379,200 in “donations” for Blair Park.  If PRFO pays its outstanding balance of $220,267, that will leave the City with costs of $194,489 in outside consultant and other expenses for the Blair Park project. This amount, plus $246,187 in estimated City staff time, adds up to a total of $440,676 in City expenditures.

Although PRFO made a binding “Reimbursement and Indemnification Agreement” with the City to pay all legal expenses related to Blair Park, the City has not billed PRFO for any expenditures between January and April 2012, because, according to Grote, “These expenses are the subject of ongoing discussions.”  At the same time he notes that the City is holding onto a $125,000 deposit from PRFO as a guarantee of the indemnity agreement.

Grote concludes, “It is unlikely that we will know the totality of financial circumstances of this project until all legal matters are concluded, primarily the issue of attorney’s fees in the matter of Friends of Moraga Canyon v. Piedmont.”

The full staff report can be viewed at http://www.ci.piedmont.ca.us/citycouncil/
Listed under Staff Reports: b. From the Private Contributions fund to the CIP Blair Park Account (127-0432-006-001) in the amount of $118,000

Piedmont youth soccer players don’t have to lose practice time – 

The following letter was published as a Viewpoint in the Piedmont Post (6/6/12) in response to a letter published on 5/30/12 by Mark Landheer, past president of the Piedmont Youth Soccer Club (PYSC).

Speaking for myself and not for the Friends of Moraga Canyon (FOMC), I offer the following rebuttal in response to Mark Landheer’s letter of May 30, “The Legacy of FOMC.”

1. The number of kids in PYSC will not necessarily be restricted without the large field at Blair Park. Alameda Point with two fields provided only half the required 3-hour practice time per week for the 330 that play competitive soccer. Existing fields in Piedmont provided the other half.  Piedmont Recreation Facilities Organization’s (PRFO)Steve Schiller said (9/28/11) that one new large field at Blair Park would replace the two large fields at Alameda Point by doubling up; that is, two teams would practice simultaneously on one field. That being the case, doubling up on the existing fields in Piedmont would equally well resolve the lack of field space for the 330 youths displaced at Alameda Point, at least temporarily. There would be no need to turn away any youngster. Moreover, I have visited several alternate soccer fields outside of Piedmont. The field at Laney College in particular was unquestionably available. So, in fact, there are other possibilities for the 330 youths. Roughly 20 percent of these players live outside of Piedmont.

2. Blair Park clearly has the potential to be enjoyed not only by dog walkers but also by many other residents of all ages for passive recreation as a complement to Coaches Field and as an attractive gateway to the City. The East Bay Regional Park District has allocated $507,325 of Measure WW bond funds to Piedmont precisely for the purpose of improving this and other city parks. Cost to the City is not a problem.

3. In the November 9, 2011 Piedmont Post, Lance Hanf, then treasurer of the PYSC, calculated air pollution from the round trips needed for soccer practice at Alameda Point. However, Lance miscalculated the number of trips, assumed an excessive driving distance, and omitted the net difference between round trips to Alameda Point and Blair Park. As a result, his numbers for reduction in carbon dioxide emissions, etc., were greatly exaggerated. Be that as it may, the PYSC at any time could have rented a bus to make just three round trips per night during the 11-week practice season instead of the 60 per night by auto, which would have radically reduced the negative impacts associated with travel to fields outside of the city.

4. On safety, Moraga Avenue will continue to be unsafe for pedestrians and bicyclists as long as there are no sidewalks and no bicycle lanes (which PRFO deleted), and as long as the Piedmont Police Department does not enforce the 25-mph speed limit. The Piedmont Public Works Department is vigilant, and we can all be confident that the Monterey pines at Blair Park will not crash on Moraga Avenue.

On another of Landheer’s points, City policy has long been to provide park maintenance. It was the City Council, not the FOMC, that required PRFO to pay for all maintenance costs had Blair been built. Even so, unknown to many, ELS, the Blair Park project architect, defined a “project area” within the site that evidently limited PRFO responsibility to a portion of the park and not the entire 5.6 acres.

Three years ago, I told the City Council that Blair Park was unsuited for the large field proposed and suggested instead an improved “drive-to” public park with various amenities. My comments fell on deaf ears. Not much has changed from my point of view, but the opportunity still exists to complement Coaches Field with an attractive neighborhood park, accessible to the entire community, across the street at Blair Park.

William Blackwell, Piedmont Resident

The opinions expressed are those of the author and not necessarily those of the Piedmont Civic Association.