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 on the brink of ceding local control for $22,000

On Monday, June 7, the Piedmont Council rethought its plans to give up local control of landscaping rules to a regional agency, StopWaste.org.  A number of citizens objected to a proposal to conform Piedmont law to a set of rules devised by StopWaste, plus any future rules it decides upon.  The future revisions to Piedmont law could occur without notice to Piedmont residents.

Mayor John Chiang expressed concern about forgoing one-time money of $22,000 offered by StopWaste.  But, the City of Newark, has already declined the offer of money, based on its determination that a one-year grant will not cover the extra staff time and costs on an ongoing basis. The City of Pleasanton has also declined the StopWaste offer.

A principle . . . not just one issue > Click to read more…

An open letter expressing concern over a law dictating that private property landscaping must comply with an external agency’s changeable requirements, plus new City staff monitoring requirements.

Piedmont Landscaping Requirements To Be Controlled By Another Agency – 

I find this proposed ordinance [704] a very unreasonable intrusion by government power on how individuals choose to proceed in doing their own landscaping.  While I am “for” the environment and personally practice many forms of conservation in my own landscaping, I believe that educating people and making conservation easy for them is far preferable to making laws enforced against them.

I truly question the legal source of power in our elected City Council to pass this bill.  This is not “health and safety” or any legitimate City government interest I can find.

In Section 17.18.3 (b), the City is required to apply (whenever they are making an individual homeowner do his landscaping in compliance with this law) whatever is then the most recent version of the Bay-Friendly Landscape Guidelines, Scorecard and Checklist.    This means that our elected representatives are giving up their discretion to pass laws that govern all of us to an outside group (which is STOPWASTE.ORG).   This is absurd.  We elect these Council Members to make decisions about how to use our taxpayer money and how to best run our sweet little town.  We did not elect the people at STOPWASTE.ORG who may have some pretty radical ideas going forward about how we should be landscaping our yards. > Click to read more…

Employee Medical/Dental/Vision costs continue to creep upward –

While many Piedmonters enjoyed a gorgeous day on Saturday, May 19, four City Council members, Budget Advisory and Financial Planning Committee (BAFPC) members, and a few interested citizens huddled with City staff in the basement of the Police Department, poring over the 100+ page 2012-13 budget that will govern the future of our city for the next 12 months.  (absent: Vice Mayor Margaret Fujioka)

In his budget message, City Administrator Geoff Grote said Piedmont “is in reasonably good shape given the circumstances facing local governments in California in 2012.”  He expects the City’s operational revenues to exceed expenses by $698,000.  When the capital reserve of $900,000 is set aside, as recommended by the Municipal Tax Review Committee, this will result in a slight operating deficit of $200,000.    Highlights of the proposed 2012-13 budget include:

FRINGE BENEFITS:

Fringe benefits were acknowledged as “not so fringe anymore”  and continue to edge upwards. Employees will not be contributing any portion of the anticipated increase in medical costs (7%), dental costs (5%), or vision costs (3%) in the 2012-13 Budget.   These increases affect every department and were noted by Council members throughout the budget review. > Click to read more…

On May 7, the Piedmont City Council unanimously voted to rescind its approval of the Piedmont Recreational Facilities Organization (PRFO) project to develop Blair Park into a youth sports fields complex.  Residents speaking at the hearing from a variety of Piedmont neighborhoods raised questions regarding the previous approval process, need for play fields, the future of the Environmental Impact Report (EIR), and the delay in public disclosure of billing disputes with the PRFO. > Click to read more…

Interested in how technology can make a difference in education?

Join students, parents, technologists, teachers, administrators, school board and community members and engage in a dialogue about the District’s use of technology to support effective learning and instruction. Find out how technology is being used in K-12, brainstorm with the group about the future of Piedmont’s use of technology, and discuss how technology can make a difference. > Click to read more…

BAFPC is meeting every Tuesday –

The newly appointed members of the Budget Advisory Financial Planning Committee (BAFPC), Mary Geong, Steven Hollis, Chair Bill Hosler, Tom Lehrkind, and Tim Rood, gathered on April 24 to discuss benefits, the Sewer Fund and other financial planning matters.  Highlights of the meeting can be viewed below.  It included discussion of:

• Possible New Sewer Plan:  Phase “5A”
• Medical Retiree Benefit Costs – New Concerns
  
• Benefit Cost Reduction Implementation > Click to read more…

City to Plant Cherry Trees at Teahouse-

The public is invited to the City of Piedmont annual Arbor Day celebration at the Piedmont Park Teahouse on Friday,  March 30, from 4- 6 p.m. > Click to read more…

Simple Changes in Buying Habits Make a Difference-

At a recent program, sponsored by the Piedmont League of Women Voters and Piedmont Connect, the audience learned about the worldwide pollution of plastics and how we, individually, can help solve this ever-increasing problem by reducing the use of plastics in our lives. > Click to read more…

League of Women Voters and Piedmont Connect Joint Event – 

“Rethinking Plastics,” a thought-provoking program on the role and perils of plastics in our everyday lives, will be presented at #3 Richardson Way in Piedmont on Thursday, March 22, at 7 p.m.  The program is co-sponsored by the Piedmont League of Women Voters and Piedmont Connect. > Click to read more…