Dear Council Members,
I ask that the Council and the Planning Department prioritize completing ADA compliance in Ives Park. It is extremely important that the Ives Pathway is ADA compliant. Ives sits in the middle of downtown Sebastopol and is heavily used not only by pedestrians but as a venue for community events. Some events draw over 2000 people.
It is a huge liability for the City of Sebastopol to have such a heavily used public resource to be out of ADA compliance.
It appears that the cost to complete the job would be between $100,000 - $200,000. While this is a significant amount of money, I believe it is a low cost to have the park be in ADA compliance.
I ask that moving forward, basic park upgrades such as ADA compliance and new fencing be prioritized in Ives Park. The City has spent a significant amount of time and resources developing and redeveloping a Master Plan for Ives. While the Master Plan is compelling, it will take at least a decade to secure funding and many additional years to complete. The Master Plan would be at minimum a $10,000,000 project. As a citizen, I would like to see basic upgrades such as an ADA compliant walkway and simple new fencing. I believe these two items would cost less than $375,000 and would yield significant improvement for residents, visitors, business owners, the Art Center and festival goers.
Moving forward, I would ask that the Planning Department present a Parks report to the Council three times per year and that Capital Improvement Projects also be presented more regularly to Council so Council has a firm grip on the infrastructure needs of the City and Parks and benchmarks and timelines for when projects are being addressed.
Last year Capital Improvement Project budgets came at the end of an extremely long budget meeting. This was not helpful to the Council nor the general public. Capital Improvements should have at least one or two dedicated meetings and timely reports to Council and the public throughout the year.
Capital Improvement monies and discussions are of extreme importance to residents and taxpayers.
Best,
Kate Haug