Answers to Council Questions and Comments from July 28, 2026, Study Session Item 1.A Question/Comment Answer
1. Multiple Councilmembers expressed interest in
seeing artificial turf field closures for heat, perhaps a policy mirroring that of Fremont Union High School
District, which dictates fields will be closed when they reach a certain temperature outside.
Staff have discussed the possibility of closing the fields when there are extreme heat warnings for Santa Clara County. Closing the fields would entail canceling reservations and notifying the reservation holders and posting signage on the artificial turf field. However, staff will not be able to routinely enforce whether or not people use the fields on those days despite posted signage.
2. Use learnings from this survey process to improve
future survey processes and understand why survey
responses came mostly from 94086 and 94087 zip
codes.
Staff will consider engagement tactics to ensure a more even spread from respondents in future surveys. It should be noted that population is not evenly distributed across zip codes in Sunnyvale (roughly two-thirds of Sunnyvale’s residents live in 94086 and 94087 and responses to the survey were 75% from the 94086 and 94087). Each park that comes up for renovation also includes significant community engagement to review park design options.
3. Council requested definitions be added or clarified
for the decision tree, and specifically where
consideration for non-sports uses of Parks is
considered and how to define high-intensity use.
Pages 15-18 of the report provide more detail on what should be evaluated at each step of the decision tree. Edits have been made to clarify further where the evaluation of non-sports related activities would occur.
Staff will use best available data and resources to evaluate and define the criteria in this decision tree when it is used. The first anticipated need of this decision tree is not until 2032. Library and Recreation Services (LRS) Department will lead the effort in defining high-intensity use within the next two years.
4. Mayor requested use of artificial turf in park strips be examined for a potential policy or standards update.
Considerations for private property regulations or around use of artificial turf in parking strips may potentially be a future Council priority project. Private property regulations would fall under Community Development, and parking strips would fall under Public Works. Regulating the parking strips would likely be hard to enforce, so an educational program might be a better fit.
5. Council requested the City track data related to Park closures and/or reservation cancellations to
understand how many days a year fields are
inaccessible due to weather (i.e. rain and heat).
LRS will begin tracking weather related closures/cancellations across all fields that are reservable. Generally, Sunnyvale’s fields are closed in the months of December, January, and February for resting during the winter months. Closure outside of those timeframes will vary from year to year depending on significant weather events (e.g. el Niño years).
Attachment 2
6. Comparison of Sunnyvale’s field usage for grass
versus artificial turf and lighting versus no lighting.
In 2025, there were 21 fields in Sunnyvale reserved for more than 600 hours in a year. 14 of those fields are over 800 hours in a year and 6 of those fields are over 1,000 hours in a year. Please keep in mind that one park may have more than one field, so some of these fields are in the same park.
The top three fields reserved are the Fair Oaks soccer fields. The next three most used fields are from San Antonio, Las Palmas, and Ortega Park. Only Fair Oaks and Ortega Parks have lighted fields.
There are 11 grass fields without lights that get over 800 hours of reserved play.
7. What are the hours of reserved play for Washington
Park?
There are 3 reservable fields at Washington Park for baseball, softball and soccer. These fields had reserved hours ranging from 250-580 from 2023-2025.
Attachment 2