EAST PALO ALTO
CITY COUNCIL
STAFF REPORT
DATE: April 4, 2023
TO: Honorable Mayor and Members of the City Council
VIA: Melvin E. Gaines, City Manager
BY: Maurice Baker, Acting Community Services Manager
Melvin Gaines, City Manager
SUBJECT: Approval of the Parks, Recreation, and Open Space Master Plan for East Palo Alto
Recommendation
Adopt a resolution approving the Parks, Recreation, and Open Space Master Plan.
Alignment with City Council Strategic Plan
This recommendation is primarily aligned with:
Priority No. 3: Increase Organizational Effectiveness and Efficiency Priority No. 6: Create a Healthy and Safe Community
Priority No. 7: Enhance Community Services and Parks
Background
A Parks, Recreation, and Open Space Master Plan (Master Plan) assesses the city-wide parks and open space system and provides strategies and recommendations to fund, maintain, improve, expand, secure, connect, partner and advocate for, and celebrate the City’s parks.
The Master Plan includes recommendations for improvements on existing parks and recommends current and future staffing levels to ensure that residents and visitors are experiencing high quality parks and recreation services.
As part of the 2020-2021 Priority Setting process, the City Council reinforced the importance of completing the Master Plan.
On November 6, 2020, staff issued a Request for Proposals (RFP) to identify a consultant to complete the Master Plan.
On March 2, 2021, the City Council awarded the Master Plan contract to the team led by Wallace, Roberts, & Todd (WRT).
The initial work surrounding this plan kicked off with meetings with City staff to identifying key needs that would come up during the outreach period and a tour of city sites that included parks and potential areas for development. From these meetings, the consultant developed a work plan and timeline to complete the deliverables set forth by the City Council and staff. The next step was to identify the key stakeholders for our community that would be integral in offering their experiences surrounding Parks, Recreation, and Open Space. These community members were formed into focus groups and asked to provide comments without City input to ensure transparency and comfortably.
The purpose of this staff report is to introduce and transmit the draft Master Plan, along with supporting documentation to facilitate the City Council review, feedback, and adoption of a final Master Plan.
Analysis
The Master Plan articulates a vision for improving the system of parks and open spaces in East Palo Alto based on robust community engagement and thorough analysis.
The planning process begun with a detailed needs assessment conducted by consultants, City staff, residents, and stakeholders to evaluate both individual parks and the system as a whole.
From the analysis and needs assessment process, several findings emerged that characterize the challenges and opportunities for East Palo Alto’s park system.
The Master Plan is divided into the following five sections:
1. Understanding East Palo Alto;
2. Community Priorities;
3. Needs Assessment;
4. Recommendations and Implementation; and
5. Design Guidelines.
Public Input
Since Summer 2021, the City, WRT, and other consultants have hosted several community meetings, held listening sessions, conducted a comprehensive survey, and implemented other efforts to better understand the community’s needs and desires with regard to future parks and recreation planning.
On March 22, 2022, the City Council and Planning Commission hosted a Joint Study Session on the Master Plan. Members of the City Council, Planning Commission, and community expressed their excitement about the progress of the Master Plan to date and provided feedback regarding additional recommended efforts to further involve the community.
Key Findings
Through the multilingual engagement process, seven community priorities emerged:
1. Connect people to parks
2. Create diverse and inclusive parks
3. Promote public safety and sustainability
4. Celebrating the Bay
5. Activate East Palo Alto Parks
6. Improve Park operations
7. Grow Programming & Partnerships
Key Recommendations
Following the findings from this plan and priorities, there are several recommendations that were identified as action items. They have been laid out in the attached workplan (attachment 3), however the plan speaks to the following:
1. Improve safety in existing parks
2. Connect the community to shared schoolyards
3. Reduce critical gaps in park acreage through private development
4. Complements much needed housing without open space
5. Support Seniors with improved access to parks and programming
6. Provide design guidelines to ensure new parks meet community need
7. Promote equitable access to parks, trails, and open space
8. Enhance effectiveness of city services to residents
Next Steps
Staff developed a Workplan (Attachment 3) that serves as a supplemental document to the Master Plan. This document provides detailed action items that can be used to put the Master Plan into service by establishing principals and further direction for staff. There are no additional steps that need to be taken for these objectives and staff will return to Council at another time with recommendations on how Council can utilize this.
Fiscal Impact
There are no fiscal impacts associated with the City Council approving the Master Plan.
Public Notice
The public was provided notice of this agenda item by posting the City Council agenda on the City’s official bulletin board outside City Hall and making the agenda and report available at the City’s website and at the San Mateo Co. Library located at 2415 University Avenue, East Palo Alto.
Environmental
The proposed action is statutorily exempt from further environmental review requirements of the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) under Section 15262 “Feasibility and Planning Studies” Section 15262 provides that, “A project involving only feasibility or planning studies for possible future actions which the agency, board, or commission has not approved, adopted, or funded does not require the preparation of an EIR or Negative Declaration but does require consideration of environmental factors. This section does not apply to the adoption of a plan that will have a legally binding effect on later activities.” Consistent with this exemption, the plan is limited to a concept plan for possible future actions which the City Council of the City of East Palo Alto has not approved, adopted, or funded. The project is the first step toward improvement of the City’s various parks. The Plan will not have a legally binding effect on later activities. No design engineered plans have been prepared. The result of approval of the plan would be pursuing funding and does not commit the City to any specific project. Should funding be pursued and obtained, site-specific studies would be required to develop detailed designs beyond the conceptual level, which would at that time require complete environmental review pursuant to CEQA.
Attachments
1. 2023 Parks Master Plan Resolution
2. Draft Parks, Recreation, and Open Space Master Plan
3. Workplan