CITY OF POMONA
COUNCIL REPORT
December 15, 2025
To: Honorable Mayor and Members of the City Council
From: Anita D. Scott, City Manager
Submitted By: Betty Donavanik, Development Services Director Meg McWade, Public Works Director
SUBJECT: ADOPTION OF A RESOLUTION APPROVING THE CITY OF POMONA PARKS INVENTORY PLAN RECOMMENDATION:
It is recommended that the City Council take the following actions:
Adopt the following resolution (Attachment No. 1):
RESOLUTION NO. 2025-102 – A RESOLUTION OF THE CITY COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF POMONA, CALIFORNIA, APPROVING THE CITY OF POMONA PARKS INVENTORY PLAN; and Authorize the City Manager to administratively amend the Parks Inventory Plan for non-substantive modifications.
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY:
The City of Pomona (“City”) currently has 34 parks and open space areas, including three (3) areas that have not yet been developed as useable recreational space (i.e. Palm Lake (former Golf Course), Westmont Hill, and Huntington Boulevard). Currently, the City does not have a formal inventory codifying these spaces. The proposed Resolution would adopt a formal Parks Inventory Plan (“Plan”) that would memorialize the existing parks within the City and include park acreages. The Plan outlines future necessary actions such as corrections to park boundary areas, implementation of joint-use agreements, future zone changes, etc. Therefore, the Plan will be a living document that will be updated as necessary to implement the necessary modifications as well as add or amend amenities inventory. Any substantive modifications to the Plan (i.e. adding new park space, major park improvements, etc.) would require separate action by the City Council under a Capital Improvement Project; whereas ongoing updates would be handled administratively. The purpose of the Parks Inventory Plan is to codify the City’s existing parks / open spaces; no new park spaces or amenities are being proposed.
SB1439/GOVERNMENT CODE §84308 APPLICABILITY:
☐ When this box is checked, it indicates the agenda item is subject to the Levine Act SB1439 requirements. Councilmembers are reminded to check their campaign contributions and determine whether they have received a campaign contribution of $500 or more that would require disclosure and/or recusal from discussing or acting on this agenda item. Campaign contributions of $500 or more made 1) by any person or entity who is identified in the agenda report as the applicant or proposer or 2) on behalf of the applicant or participant, including a parent, subsidiary or otherwise related business entity, or 3) by any person who has a financial interest in the agenda item requires a councilmember to comply with SB1439.
FISCAL IMPACT:
There is no fiscal impact related to this action.
ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT:
The subject Resolution is exempt from the requirements to prepare additional environmental documentation per California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) Guidelines, Section 15061 (b)(3). This section is the “common sense exemption” that states that CEQA applies only to projects which have the potential for causing a significant effect on the environment. If the Lead Agency can determine that there is no possibility that the activity in question may have a significant effect on the environment, the activity is not subject to CEQA. Pursuant to this section, the proposed approval of the Parks Inventory Plan fits within the general rule that CEQA only applies to projects that have the potential for causing a significant effect on the environment. The Parks Inventory Plan does not have the potential to cause a significant effect on the environment as it memorializes the City’s existing parks and does not authorize the development of any new parks.
DISCUSSION:
The City currently has 34 parks/open spaces (including parks with community centers), three (3) stand-alone community centers, and four (4) historic sites, throughout the City. This includes Veteran’s Park that is currently closed to the public, and the former Palm Lake Golf Course and Westmont Hill that have not been developed with usable recreational facilities.
The purpose of the Parks Inventory Plan (“Plan”) is to document and memorialize the City’s existing parks, community centers, and historic sites. The Plan will serve as the City’s official record of park assets, detailing park acreages and identifying any necessary actions to address discrepancies. Staff will also utilize the Plan to update the City’s Parks Finder online database, ensuring that all information regarding park locations and acreages is accurate and consistent.
The Parks Inventory Plan (Attachment No. 2) provides details on park names, addresses, current zoning designation, property ownership, current acreage of City-owned parcels, recommended acreage, Joint-Use Agreements, and future actions needed (i.e. property boundary revisions, future zone changes, etc.). This attachment also includes information on two (2) parks which are owned by Pomona Unified School District (PUSD) – Kellogg Park entirely owned by PUSD and Tony Cerda Park with approximately half of the current park space owned by PUSD, as well as information on the historic sites.
Statewide Park Development and Community Revitalization Act (AB 31) In 2008, the California Legislature approved the Statewide Park Development and Community Revitalization Act (AB 31) which set measurable and specific goals for funding park projects in underserved communities. A “critically underserved community” is defined as a community which “has less than three (3.0) acres of usable (emphasis added) parkland per 1,000 residents.” (Pub. Res. Code § 5641(b)(1).) The Legislature did not define the term “usable parkland”. However, through the legislative history of AB 31, the Legislature provided, “would be defined to include a community with less than three (3.0) acres of usable parkland per 1,000 residents or a disadvantaged community, as defined, that can demonstrate to the California Department of Parks and Recreation that the community has insufficient or no park space and recreation facilities (emphasis added).” (AB 31 Legislative Counsel Report December 4, 2006.). AB 31 does provide the definition of "Facilities" which includes, but is not limited to, places for organized team sports, outdoor recreation, and informal turf play; nonmotorized recreational trails; permanent play structures; landscaping; community gardens; places for passive recreation, enjoyment of scenic open space, nature appreciation and study, and outdoor education; multipurpose structures designed to meet the special recreational, educational, vocational, and social needs of youth, senior citizens, and other population groups; recreation areas created by the redesign and retrofit of urban freeways; community swim centers; regional recreational trails; and infrastructure and other improvements that support these facilities.
Park Acreage Per 1,000 Residents
The City’s 2014 General Plan Open Space Network Element strives to achieve the goal of providing 3.0 acres of parkland per 1,000 residents. At the time of the General Plan’s adoption in 2014, with a population of approximately 149,058 residents (corrected from 163,000 stated in General Plan) (California Dept. of Finance est., 2010), the City had a total of 221 acres of parks and open space, equating to 1.48 acres of parkland per 1,000 residents. It is important to note that the 2014 General Plan acreage of 221 did not include Veteran’s Park (13.95 acres), Palm Lake (former Golf Course 15.80 acres), Westmont Hill (327.14 acres), or Huntington Boulevard (2.49 acres). The proposed Park Inventory Plan calculates 569.42 acres of park and open space on parcels owned by the City. The calculation includes Veteran’s Park as they include recreation facilities although currently closed to the public. The Plan does not include Kellog Park as the property is owned by PUSD, nor portions of Tony Cerda that are owned by PUSD. Stand-alone community centers and historic sites are also not included in the park acreage calculation. At the completion of the future actions needed to be taken to correct park boundaries the recommended park and open space area will be 573.73 acres. However, because Westmont Hill is undeveloped and does not have recreation facilities, it is not considered “usable parkland” and therefore will not be calculated in the City’s calculation of usable parkland acreage per 1,000 residents. Westmont Hill is zoned open space and will be added to the usable parkland acreage calculation once recreation facilities are developed. With the exclusion of Westmont Hill (327.14 acres), the Plan calculates 246.59 acres of usable parkland. The 2025 California Dept. of Finance population estimate for the City of Pomona is 153,042. Therefore, this equates to 1.61 acres of usable parkland per 1,000 residents.
Acreage Calculation Methodology
Staff determined park acreage by the legal parcel that the park is situated on. The acreages were derived from information from the Los Angeles County Assessor’s Parcel Number maps for each parcel. During staff’s research, several discrepancies were discovered. For example, some parcels associated with the parks include public right-of-way, where others do not; and/or some parks are physically located on land that does not have a legal parcel and therefore was not included as park space. In those situations, staff utilized Geographic Information System (GIS) to map out the area and estimate the resulting acreage.
The Parks Inventory Plan includes maps for each of the parks, community centers, and historic sites (Attachment No. 3). The park boundaries outlined in “orange” are parks located on parcels owned by the City. The park boundaries outlined in “dotted green” is the Recommended Acreage that includes further action that needs to be taken to rectify discrepancies and adjust parcel boundaries to account for public right-of-way, etc. Please see the Parks Inventory Plan “Future Actions” column for details on the future actions needed for each park. Furthermore, there are also parks that are located on Pomona Unified School District Property and are operating under a Joint-Use Agreement or require an agreement / further action.
Future actions also include a field inventory of each park’s amenities. The Plan will be updated administratively to include amenities.
The table below provides a summary of the City-owned Acreage and Recommended Acreage for each park.
Table 1 – Park Acreage Summary (See Attachment No. 2 for more information) Park Name
Current City-Owned Acreage
Recommended Acreage
Centennial Park – 242 S. Gibbs St.
0.46 0.46
Center Street Community Garden – 192 E. Center St.
0.35 0.35
Cesar Chavez Park – 2720 Barjud Ave.
0.96 1.03
Kids World Pomona (Civic Center Park) – 505 S. Garey Ave.
8.56 8.56
Country Crossing Park – 2 Pala Mesa Dr.
10 Santa Clara Dr.
6.68 6.98
Esperanza Y Alegria Park – 2380 Angela St.
0.16 0.16
Ganesha Park – 1575 N. White Ave.
57.29 60.99
Garfield Park – 801 E. Holt Ave.
2.67 2.52
Greenbelt Park – Along Village Loop Rd.
14.29 14.33
Hamilton Park – 317 N. Hamilton Blvd.
1.07 1.01
Huntington Park – Along Huntington Blvd.
2.49 2.49
Jaycee Park – 2000 N. San Antonio Ave.
6.39 5.36
John F. Kennedy Park – 1150 Fairplex Dr.
8.17 7.91
Kellog Park – 690 Medina St. (2.53 acres owned by PUSD; Joint-Use Agreement) 0 0
Kiwanis Park – 954 Weber St.
4.82 4.82
Lincoln Park – 400 E. Lincoln Ave.
2.97 3.33
Martin Luther King Jr. Park – 800 W. Lexington Ave.
4.95 4.95
Meadow View Demonstration Garden – 38 Meadow View Dr.
0.98 0.98
Memorial Park – 655 W. 3rd St.
1.53 1.53
Montvue Park – 1555 Cordova St.
3.36 3.36
Palm Lake – 1300 W. Phillips Blvd. – Currently closed to the public.
14.43 15.80
Palomares Park – 499 W. Arrow Hwy. (incl. Community Center and City-owned Palomares Adobe historic site and water reservoir site)
19.60 19.60
Phil and Nell Soto Park – 1225 N. Park St.
1.94 1.93
Philadelphia Park – 700 E. Philadelphia St.
5.21 5.21
Phillips Ranch Park – 18 B Village Loop Rd.
5.05 5.05
Powers Park – 600 W. Olive St.
0.74 0.74
Ralph Welch Park – 1000 Buena Vista St.
9.55 9.31
Ted Greene Park – 2105 N. Orange Grove Ave.
5.68 5.62
Tony Cerda Park – 450 W. Grand Ave. (Total park area 4.38 acres; 2.39 acres owned by City; 1.99 acres owned by PUSD; Joint-Use Agreement)
2.39 2.39
Veterans Park – 1945 W. Mission Blvd. – Currently closed to the public.
13.95 13.95
Washington Park – 865 E. Grand Ave.
25.40 25.40
Westmont Park – 1808 W 9th St.
5.97 5.97
Westmont Hill – Undeveloped; not included in usable parkland acreage calculation 327.14 (not included in calculation)
327.14 (not included in calculation)
Willie White Park – 3065 Battram St.
4.22 4.50
Total Usable Parkland Acreage (Westmont Hill excluded)
242.28 acres
1.58 acres of usable parkland per 1,000 persons
246.59 acres
1.61 acres of usable parkland per 1,000 persons
Community Centers (Not included in Park Acreage)
Casa Primera – 1569 N. Park Ave. (Also historic site)
1.65 1.65
Garfield Neighborhood Center – 563 N. Mountain Ave.
0.15 0.15
Renacimiento Community Center – 2383 Chanslor Pl.
0.17 0.17
Youth & Family Club of Pomona Valley – 1420 S. Garey Ave.
0.86 0.86
Historic Sites (Not included in Park Acreage)
Ygnacio Palomares Adobe – 491 E. Arrow Hwy.
1.17 (included in Palomares Park acreage)
1.17 (included in Palomares Park acreage)
Casa Primera & Barbara Greenwood Kindergarten – 1569 N. Park Ave.
1.65 1.65
Louis Phillips Mansion – 2640 Pomona Blvd.
2.32 2.32
COUNCIL PRIORITIES & GOALS:
This item supports the 2021 City Council Priority 5 (Infrastructure), to invest resources in streets, sidewalks, parks, landscaping, water systems, and public facilities to enhance the economic development, public safety, accessibility and beauty of the City.
CONCLUSION:
Staff recommends that the City Council adopt Resolution No. 2025-102 approving the Parks Inventory Plan to codify the existing parks and open space areas within the City.
Prepared by:
Betty Donavanik
Development Services Director
Meg McWade
Public Works Director
ATTACHMENTS:
Attachment No. 1 – Resolution No. 2025-102
Attachment No. 2 – Parks Inventory Plan
Attachment No. 3 – Park Exhibits
Adoption of a Resolution Approving the City of Pomona Parks Inventory Plan