CITY OF SAN MATEO
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CITY OF SAN MATEO
Agenda Report
City Hall
330 W. 20th Avenue
San Mateo CA 94403
www.cityofsanmateo.org
Agenda Number: 1 Section Name: {{section.name}} Account Number: 10-6124 File ID: {{item.tracking_number}} TO: City Council
FROM: Alex Khojikian, City Manager
PREPARED BY: Parks and Recreation Department
MEETING DATE: February 20, 2024
SUBJECT:
Central Park Master Plan Phase 1 Implementation – Status Update RECOMMENDATION:
Receive a presentation on the current status of the implementation of the Central Park Master Plan Phase 1.
BACKGROUND:
With the 1922 purchase of the 16.3-acre Kohl estate, the city’s first municipal park, Central Park, was created (Attachment 1). Although San Mateo is home to over 30 parks, Central Park is known as a signature park due to its history, location, size, and variety of amenities. It contains a number of historic elements from the original Kohl estate, including a wrought iron fence, a pumphouse and an imported cast-iron dog statue. The alignment of the main pathway system throughout most of the park remains nearly intact from its estate days. Its location, adjacent to both downtown and residential neighborhoods, creates a unique setting that makes it both a functional and symbolic link, ideal for use as both a special event venue as well as a place for family outings.
Central Park is perhaps the most treasured and visited public park in San Mateo and holds special value to the community due to its unique mix of amenities and historic features. It includes a variety of active and passive use areas, supports multiple recreational activities and community special events and is home to several iconic features including the Japanese Garden, the Kohl Pumphouse and a variety of horticulturally significant trees. Its adjacency to downtown provides a key linkage in support of downtown vitality and economic development and many of those attracted to special events such as the Summer Concert Series or the Holiday Ice Rink become frequent visitors to the downtown.
The original adopted park Master Plan dated from 1982 was no longer considered adequate to address the park’s current and future needs. In 2004 teams of design professionals, including architects, landscape architects and planners joined together in a one-day design charrette to redefine the Fifth Avenue frontage of Central Park. The goal of the charrette was to create design concepts to improve the visual image along 5th Avenue, to enhance the sense of “park” and to improve the connection with the downtown. The results were shared with the City Council and Park and Recreation Commission and while generally favorably received, were never formally adopted. Some minor landscape and traffic flow improvements were made to the 5th Avenue entrance; however, no further improvements took place.
Funding for an updated Master Plan was adopted as part of the Fiscal Year 2013-2014 Capital Improvement Projects (CIP).
In January 2014 the City Council entered into a professional services agreement with RRM Design Group to update the Central Park Master Plan. From February through May 2014, RRM Design Group conducted a series of fifteen stakeholder interviews and 4 community meetings regarding the Central Park Master Plan update. The purpose of this exercise was to gain insight into the perspectives, desires, and concerns of a wide range of stakeholders including San Mateo residents and city officials. The list of stakeholders, selected by the city, was chosen to represent the primary user groups of the park and other groups or organizations that have a vested interest in the outcome of the Master Plan. In June 2014, City Council
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received a presentation on the Central Park Master Plan public outreach findings and provided direction on the preferred planning concepts to incorporate into Schematic Design alternatives.
In May 2015 an update was presented to City Council during a Study Session for their direction for the next phase of preferred design development options and were in consensus to move forward with the Community Gathering concept plan.
Following extensive community outreach and commission/council input over 4 years, the updated Central Park Master Plan was adopted in March 2018 (Attachment 2). The Master Plan outlines a long-term conceptual plan to make incremental improvements to the park, including a new plaza and underground parking at the 5th Avenue edge of the park; relocated tennis courts; a new community event building; Fallen Heroes Memorial Grove; new picnic pavilion; and renovations to the existing children’s playground area. Due to its age and condition, the renovations to the children’s play area were always anticipated to be the first phase to be implemented.
PHASE 1 Project Areas Include:
1.1 Turf Removal -Turf removal under trees along El Camino Real and Laurel Avenue and supplemental planting
1.2 New Restroom #1 - Build new restroom near future tennis; demolish playground restroom
1.3 Remodel Playground - Build new playground including areas 39, 40, & 41; new path
1.4 Build Picnic areas - Construct new picnic areas in playground / train zone
1.5 Fallen Hero Memorial - Design and build memorial
PHASE 2 Project Areas Include:
2.1 Laurel Ave Entry - Construct modified vehicle/ Pedestrian access & vehicle
2.2 Fitzgerald Field - Right field fence; El Camino path; 5th Ave streetscape; bleacher remodel;
2.3 Gateways - 5th & El Camino; 5th & Laurel
2.4 Storage Building - New Storage building – 3rd base area
2.5 Interpretive Plan - Design exhibits, add education and historic information exhibits PHASE 3 Project Areas Include:
3.1 Demo REC Center - Remove existing Recreation Center building
3.2 Rotary Pavilion - Construct Rotary Pavilion, picnic facility & restroom/storage building
3.3 Tennis Grounds - Construct 3 Tennis Courts and amenities
3.4 Maintenance Yard - Various improvements including new or remodeled garage PHASE 4 Project Areas Include:
4.1 Plaza/Parking - Construct Plaza and streetscape above New Parking garage on 5th Ave (Garage not part of Central Park funding.)
4.2 Community Building - Construct New Event -oriented Community Building
4.3 Trash/Recycle Enclosure - Build new enclosure near Fitzgerald Field In March 2019, a Request for Proposals was distributed seeking design development landscape architect services for this first phase. At the conclusion of the interviews, staff consensus was to enter into negotiations with RRM Design Group.
Their previous work and understanding of the Central Park Master Plan, their relevant experience with designing playgrounds for all abilities, as well as their firm’s structure, which is multi-disciplined and includes in-house expertise in the fields of architecture, landscape architecture, civil engineering and structural engineering, will prove to be of benefit when preparing plans and drawings. In July 2019, City Council approved an agreement with RRM Design Group for design development, construction document preparation, and bidding and construction management services for the Central Park Master Plan Phase I Implementation. It is important to note that Phase 1 of the Master Plan can be considered a standalone project which can complete improvements and pause until necessary future funding is identified. However, there is a domino effect to phases two through four which do not have a natural stopping or pausing point and must be completed at the same time. In addition, there are structural issues with the Central Park Tennis Court Garage that must be addressed in the near future and although the budget for the garage does not pull on the same funding as the Master
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Plan, the tennis courts will need to be moved and that is not part of the plan until phase three. It was always anticipated that a bond measure would be needed to complete the Central Park Master Plan.
The community outreach process for the playground design started in October 2019 with an on-site workshop to collect initial feedback on preferred playground character, features, materials, etc. A subsequent community- wide survey was also conducted to solicit feedback. The top responses for how the community would like the playground to feel were safe and fun, with the highest- ranking priorities listed as imaginative, inclusive and natural. The feedback collected from these efforts resulted in the design of two distinctly different conceptual alternatives, Concept 1 Adventure Village and Concept 2 Playful History. These design alternatives were shared at several events to solicit feedback- at a LEAP pod with elementary school children held at the Martin Luther King Jr. Community Center (April 2021), a virtual workshop (June 2021), an on-site workshop (June 2021) and a second community survey that was online from May- June 2021. The overwhelming majority of children and adults preferred Concept 1, Adventure Village. They felt the natural character of Adventure Village fit well within the majestic tree canopy of the playground while the magical forest inspired creative and imaginative play. There were several features in Concept 2 Playful History which the public liked such as a zip line, bronze sculptures and a musical garden that have now been incorporated into Adventure Village. Worth noting is that in addition to the renovated playground, the plan includes a new restroom building, located adjacent to the main pathway that will serve both the playground area as well as the future tennis courts that will be located across the path, as well as a new picnic shelter with BBQ’s. The preferred design alternative (Attachment 3) was presented to City Council in September 2021 and was received with “enthusiasm”. At that time, the budget impact stated that the balance for the project was at $7.5 Million with an additional $1 Million to be budgeted in Fiscal Year 2021-22. It was also stated that RRM was working on the cost estimate associated to the first phase. The conceptual design estimate at that time was $9.4 million dollars.
In March of 2022 the Central Park Play Area Renovation Design Development Update was presented to the Park and Recreation Commission. The budget impact at that time stated that the initial cost estimate was $9.5 to $10 million for the playground renovation portion (Attachment 4). The agreement with RRM for Central Park Playground and Memorial Grove Final Design and Construction Administration Service, to include construction documentation, and bidding assistance, was approved by City Council at the March 21, 2022 meeting. In September of 2022 the design development estimate for the project was $10.5 million dollars.
Current status:
•100% Construction Documents completed
•Pre-bid qualifications completed
•Permit applications in progress
•100% Construction Documents Cost Estimate completed
Next steps:
•Permits issued
•Bid/RFP expected in Spring 2024
•City Council Contract Award expected in Summer 2024
•Groundbreaking expected Summer/Fall 2024
The latest cost estimate from RRM for the playground construction includes hard costs of $10.7 million with a 15% contingency for a total of $12.3 million. When adding the soft costs of approximately half a million dollars, staff anticipates the total project costs to now be $13.4 million which would deplete the $12.2 million balance of existing park in lieu and park impact fees and may delay progress on other park improvement projects. Operating and maintenance costs are estimated to be approximately $350,000 annually for the new playground including personnel cost as well as equipment replacement cost.
Staff recommend proceeding with the project with options for cost reduction. This would mean soliciting bids for the complete project as currently designed and including a series of “bid alternates” to give the City a menu of options to reduce cost once the actual construction cost is known. This approach enables the budget to be evaluated and managed based on actual bids as opposed to estimated costs and provides flexibility to reduce costs selectively without prematurely compromising the integrity of the design.
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BUDGET IMPACT:
Historically, capital improvement projects such as park renovations are funded through the collection of park impact fees (Municipal Code Section 13.05.070, Park Impact Fee), park in lieu fees (ILF) (Municipal Code Chapter 26.64, Dedication Of Land For Community Purposes), and the park and recreation tax (Municipal Code Chapter 3.58, Park And Recreation Land And Facilities Tax). The balance for these fees and taxes currently stands at $12,287,087. Projections for these fees have been consistently unreliable due to the recent volatility residential and commercial development activity. Over the last three fiscal years over $4.5 million has been collected in ILF, and there are two projects on the horizon that total over $7.4 million.
To keep existing parks and facilities in good working order and to meet the dynamic needs of our community, additional improvements and projects will need to come online over the next five years. In the five-year Capital Improvement Plan (CIP), we have $23 million park renovation projects listed in 2024-25 and 2025-26 forecast which will draw on this funding source. Current Planning for renovations at East Hillsdale Park are projected to be over $2 million, both Joinville and Martin Luther King, Jr. (MLK) aquatic facilities improvements are still being assessed but are likely to cost upward of $10 million each, in addition to ensuring resilience center status at the MLK Center, for which costs are currently being analyzed. Lakeshore Preschool is also in need of refurbishment to qualify as a licensed childcare facility (Attachment 5).
The overwhelming need for park and facility improvements will far exceed the capacity of park in lieu and impact fees to fund projects and it will be necessary to find additional funding sources, such as the General Fund, Measure S or a voter approved revenue initiative. If we are not able to undertake new projects due to funding constraints, we run the risk of closures and escalating cost of repairs due to deferred maintenance. Discussion of competing project priorities and funding needs will be brought forward as part of the Capital Improvement Project process at a future City Council meeting.
Anticipating the need for major funding to implement the Central Park Master Plan, funds have been incrementally added to CIP Project #610027 over the past nine years. The project was awarded $500,000 from Measure S and a $100,000 District Discretionary Measure K grant from San Mateo County, thanks to the support of Supervisor Carole Groom. $75,000 has been allocated to fund the playground renovation project and $25,000 has been allocated towards construction of the Fallen Heroes Memorial. Additionally, the Fallen Heroes Memorial phase of the project has been granted $232,386.81 in generous funding support from the San Mateo City Parks and Recreation Foundation and another $103,400 in funding from the Civic Arts Fund. Presently the balance sits at $9,306,678. Most recent cost estimates for the construction phase of the project include hard costs of $10.7 million with a 15% contingency for a total of $12.3 million. Additional soft costs for the project are estimated at half a million dollars for a total project cost of $13.4 million. Operating and maintenance costs are estimated to be approximately $350,000 annually for the new playground including personnel costs and equipment replacement. It was always anticipated that a bond measure would be needed to complete the Central Park Master Plan.
As a point of reference for cost escalation for a similar sized playground project, the Magical Bridge Playground in Redwood City was completed in 2021 at a cost of $7 million, with a project size of approximately 1 acre (43,560 square feet) or $161/square feet. If 4 years of annual escalation is applied to the proposed project, the total cost would be approximately $9,336,734.00 if the project were completed in 2025 ($214 / square feet).
ENVIRONMENTAL DETERMINATION:
This project status update is not a project subject to CEQA because it is an organizational or administrative activity that will not result in direct or indirect physical changes in the environment (CEQA Guidelines Section 15378(b)(5)).
NOTICE PROVIDED
All meeting noticing requirements were met.
ATTACHMENTS
Att 1 – Central Park Location Map
Att 2 - Central Park Master Plan
Att 3 – Preferred Alternative Design Agenda Report – September 2021 Att 4 – Central Park Playground Improvement Site Plan
Att 5 – Budget and Funding for Current Projects for Fiscal Year 2023-25
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STAFF CONTACT
Joanne Magrini, Director, Park and Recreation
[email protected]
650-522-7404