From: Tricia Hoffman
To: City Council
Subject: Ives Park upgrade
Date: Tuesday, February 01, 2022 4:13:35 PM
Hello City Council members,
I would like to give my input into the City Planners vision for Ives Park. I hope that you will consider the plan to the restoration of Calder Creek which could be funded by the State’s new urban stream restoration program. The fencing along the creek and the concrete barriers make the Creek a total eyesore!! Make the creek a beautiful, meandering feature that runs though our Park and would enhance Ives as a place for families and individuals to visit.
I’ve lived across the street from Ives for over 20 years and nothing has been done to make any improvements to its aesthetics. I walk through the park only to get into town, but never spend any time IN the park itself unless there’s a music or other event. The biggest obstacle to having a lovely, inviting, safe Creek is the Little League baseball field which is rarely used! The field cannot be accessed by the public for drop-in games because the Little League has made clear that the public is not welcome to play there. It is locked up unless there’s a Little League game or an organized softball game going on. So, 90% of the time, that large space is totally unusable! I understand that there are numerous other baseball fields (9, I believe) in Sebastopol! So I hope you will get on board to make Ives a welcoming and beautiful place for all residents and visitors by restoring the Creek to a natural, environmental, and inviting place to visit! To make this happen, the baseball field needs to go! The Little League has many other places to play, but we only have this ONE park in the heart of our lovely town. Let’s make Ives a place people WANT to spend time in and enjoy its potential beauty.
Tricia Hoffman
Sebastopol