San Mateo parks and facilities plan takes shape

With many community centers and park resources reaching some 50 years of age, the effort to plan for the needs of park users in the next half century has been rooted in community feedback, said Council. To understand how amenities like additional preschool and after-school classrooms, a new community pool or new gymnasium and assembly space at various parks could fit into the citywide parks system and meet the overall needs of the community, Council said the second survey was administered to hear what residents thought about specific options developed from feedback offered last year.

“Particularly for a project like this, where you’re making plans for the next 50 years, it’s really important to engage the community,” he said.

Council said the survey was made available online and at each of the locations where major changes may take shape, collecting some 1,300 responses over the course of three weeks. He said planners would use the more detailed feedback from the survey to shape recommendations to be presented at the commission’s Nov. 7 meeting and again at a City Council study session slated for Nov. 19.

Of particular focus by commissioners and residents Wednesday was the feedback received about the Bay Meadows Community Park, where a lifestyle center featuring a family aquatics center, gymnasium and space for a range of other recreation activities such as group exercise or weight-training classes is being considered. Estimated to be two-thirds complete, the massive mixed-use, transit-oriented development at the former race track is home to 18 acres of parks and open space, tech companies like SurveyMonkey and Guidewire Software and retail tenants like Blue Bottle Coffee, Tin Pot Creamery and Fieldwork Brewing Company.

Garnering 453 responses, the Bay Meadows Community Park survey received the highest number of responses and showed limited support for two variations of the lifestyle center, one with a gymnasium, which received 52 percent support, and one without gymnasium, which received 32 percent support.

Council noted a further analysis of the data from the Bay Meadows survey showed those who likely responded to the survey from outside the neighborhood largely supported a lifestyle center with a gymnasium and Bay Meadows residents largely opposed it. He also noted the survey administered did not give respondents an option to indicate a preference for maintaining open space at the park, which many noted would have been their preference in written comments. Several comments also voiced concerns the facility would exacerbate traffic congestion and parking availability in Bay Meadows, according to the survey results.

As president of the Brightside Homeowners Association within Bay Meadows, Michael Goff noted Bay Meadows residents’ responses showed a range of response to a lifestyle center. He said they were also aimed at supporting the maintenance of open space and fields at the park, which he noted is well-used by neighbors and community sports teams.

“There were certainly many people who do want facilities and do want a pool,” he said. “But there are also many who would like open space.”

By making fields and open space available to San Mateo and other nearby communities, the Bay Meadows Community Park is already a great resource, said Goff. He noted it could continue to be a great resource if its open space is maintained, especially as other transit-oriented communities come online in the city.

A request from Bay Meadows residents to further study what could be considered for the park weighed heavily for Commissioner Amourence Lee, who acknowledged the process to update and improve city parks has been years in the making but also wondered whether residents were fully aware of the effort. Lee worried about losing the perspectives of Bay Meadows residents as the city approaches a defined plan for parks improvements if they don’t take additional steps to ensure residents are aware of the effort to assess parks resources across the city.

“Without [Bay Meadows residents] on board, I feel nervous about buy-in in the long run and I think it’s important to have real buy-in especially from a new development and one that is a voice for preserving parks and open space,” she said.

Having served on a Community Advisory Committee assembled to provide feedback on the survey results, Commissioner Eric Holm noted residents discussed how the park at Bay Meadows was designed to have a facility during the master planning that occurred long before anything was built there. He added the additional history of the plans set forth for the neighborhood could be helpful for future discussions as the city draws closer to making decisions on park improvements.

Parks and Recreation Director Sheila Canzian said staff are available to meet with Bay Meadows and other neighborhoods to discuss the process to plan for park improvements, but said she wanted to make sure the discussions are done in the context of where the city is in the process and that residents are not under the impression they will be able to start from the beginning after years of planning. Though she acknowledged the concerns Bay Meadows residents have raised, she noted the difficulty officials would face in re-evaluating long-range plans every time new residents move into the city and should find a way to incorporate their views in to the ongoing discussion.

“I think where we need to be careful is an expectation from the community about wanting to start back at ground zero because I’m not sure that’s where we’re at,” she said. “It’s very hard in a city process to be able to do that every time someone moves into a neighborhood.”

Visit cityofsanmateo.org/3249/Recreation-Facilities-Strategic-Plan for more information about the city’s Recreation Facilities Strategic Plan and for survey results.

anna@smdailyjournal.com

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