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HomeMy WebLinkAbout4/2/2024 Item 6k, McKenzie John McKenzie < To:E-mail Council Website Subject:4-2-24 Council Meeting - Item 6K - Laguna Lake Dog Park Attachments:DP-CC4-2-24 Letter.pdf This message is from an External Source. Use caution when deciding to open attachments, click links, or respond. ________________________________ Dear City Council, Please see attached letter about the Laguna Lake Dog Park. Friends of SLO City Dog Parks is in support of fully funding this effort to eventually make Laguna Lake Dog Park THE signature park in the county. Our letter includes several recommendations. Should you have any questions, please contact me. John McKenzie Friends of SLO City Dog Parks 1 Friends of SLO City Dog Parks SLOCITYDOGS.ORG 1 March 31, 2024 RE: City Council 4-2-2024 Meeting, Item 6k, Laguna Lake Dog Park Dear City Council Members, Friends of SLO City Dog Parks (Friends) is very happy that we are finally reaching this milestone of the City having its first enclosed dog park! It is long overdue for our 13,000+ faithful companions within the City. We hope the Council agrees and will approve the request being made by Parks and Recreation staff with a few suggested modifications. Ultimately, we look forward to seeing this dog park becoming the signature park for the county. While we understand the project before you will not quite get us there, the following discussion might help get us there faster, and possibly with less expense to the City. We will first talk about some of the plan details that we think should be changed or included and then discuss the ‘faster/cheaper’ option. Specific comments on the proposed plan are as follows: 1. Drainage – wherever there is potential for ponding/surface water extra efforts are warranted to avoid creating mudholes. a. For example, for all water stations, including the future dog rinse area, the plans should call out either 1) a formal drainage plan that carries all the spillage/runoff well away from the water source, or 2) the excavation of large areas of soil and replace with gravel under these water sources to create adequate subsurface capacity to keep water runoff from ponding/ surfacing. At water stations, water bowls are continually emptied because the water gets dirty very quickly or the dog plays with the water and bowl, or the station is used to rinse dogs off. b. The shallow swale near the bathroom that drains towards the lake remains wet for the longest time. Clarification should be provided on the plans on how this will be addressed. Over excavation and replacement with gravel could be a partial solution. It appears the existing large boulders will be moved to this location and possibly the pea gravel (it is hard to read the plans) to make it look like a creek (we support the concept). Given how quickly small rocks/gravel will sink into muddy/wet areas, an extra thick layer of pea gravel should be called out (especially if the soil underneath is not replaced with the suggested larger gravel). c. The grading plan should identify the location of the future dog rinse area; then identify where the rinse water would flow and show this as another large gravel area to be done during the grading phase unless a formal drainage plan is prepared to show all the water will be carried well away from the area. 2 d. Drainage for the existing parking area needs help. While we understand that any parking lot work would be done at a later time, we would ask for clarification that the proposed curb elevations abutting the parking lot will work well with this future work. 2. Groundcover – the main proposed groundcover is grass, bark mulch and pea gravel. While it is easy to see where the grass is proposed, it is unclear if the balance is pea gravel and/or bark mulch. Clarification should be provided. If it is pea gravel, this medium could get very hot during the summer months and Friends would recommend that pea gravel be used on/reduced to very small areas. 3. Landscaping – We fully support all the proposed landscaping that provides shade for dog park users. Since it will be 15-20 years before the trees will provide useful shade, NOW is the time to plant. Furthermore, more trees should be planted on the south side of all gathering areas to maximize shade to these areas. Dogs also enjoy shade. Several groups of additional trees should be planted along the edge of the grass areas of the large dog area. The proposed windbreak vegetation along the north edge of the park will not be effective for 15-20 years so early planting is important. As a windbreak, more windrows of large evergreen trees should be planted. With regards to removing the Monterey cypress, while it is in decline, it is the only source of shade for people and dogs. Friends would encourage that its removal be deferred for as long as possible, and trim as needed to allow for the new walkway and large dog fence. While we fully support the use of native and/or drought-tolerant plants, many of the proposed plants are moderate or slow growing. On oak trees, we would encourage the additional planting of deep one-gallon containers. Studies have shown that after 10 years, when compared to 24” boxed containers, the one-gallon tree is as large and future growth is usually more robust given the one-gallon tree roots have better adapted to the existing soil conditions. As there currently are no oaks in the immediate area, extra attention should be given to planting efforts and initial care for the first few years, including the inoculation of the roots with mycorrhizae. Once established, oaks will be a great tree. The specifications should include underground caging to keep burrowing animals from eating the roots. If there is evidence of deer browsing in the area, above ground protection should also be specified. For the first few years, temporary protective fencing from the dogs should be installed around all vegetation planted within the dog use areas. Once plants are well established this fencing would be removed. 4. Windbreaks – while artificial windbreaks are planned for a future phase, if there is potentially excess soil material from the planned grading, mounds/berms of soil could be placed on the northwest side of the gathering areas to act as a partial or full natural windbreak. Using this approach could reduce or eliminate the need for artificial windbreaks and would provide immediate relief. If supported by the Council, the grading plans should be revised now to show the size and locations. Cost Saving Ideas Anticipating a funding shortfall, over the last couple of years Friends has researched potential outside sources to help fund and/or install portions of the dog park. The beauty of this type of project is that it can be done in smaller pieces once the ‘master plan’ is approved. Further, none of the elements require very special expertise above the general contractor level, and all needed materials are readily available. 3 Further, this is about the betterment of dogs, a beloved companion in a third of our households, so it is very appealing to many outside funding sources. As all the ideas below introduce additional moving parts and additional staff time to oversee/administer, staff has currently opted to use the standard approach of farming everything out to others, which is what currently is before the Council. The main cost-saving measures we have found include: A. Soliciting non-profit, benevolent groups to fund and/or build elements. Friends has already reached out to one group (Rotary) so far to see if there is interest in their participation in this effort. They have provided preliminary comments to Friends that they think there would be interest from their membership to help. In the case of Rotary, there are 3 different Rotaries in SLO and they sometimes collaborate to support larger projects. This could then equate to completing larger pieces of the project, such as installing the shade sails or elevating the shade sails to a gazebo. There could also be many smaller pieces that they could do. There are other similar benevolent groups that may also wish to participate. Rotary has worked successfully with the City in the past to help build community projects. If this concept is supported by the City Council, Friends would be happy to act as an advocate to determine their interest and broker further interaction with City staff, if desired. While it would have been nice to have had city support before the project reached this stage, at this point we would recommend that the bid be further refined to just cover the core pieces – grading, fencing, water lines, utility work, landscape irrigation, groundcover elements, waste stations and signs. Everything else being considered in the Phase 1 package would be moved over to an Alternate element along with the other existing Alternates. This would give Friends some time to then reach out in earnest with Rotary, and possibly other similarly city-recognized benevolent groups, to determine which elements they would like to support. Then once the Phase 1 contractor is selected, hopefully enough time would have been provided to know which elements were selected by the benevolent group(s). The benevolent group may decide to just provide funding or potentially be involved with the construction aspect. We would then know how much of the new Alternate would be left for the Phase 1 contractor to complete. Friends would expect any work to be done by benevolent groups would come on the heels of Phase 1 completion. For the benevolent group to consider anything, they would need to be provided by the City an approximate cost estimate for each potential element (hopefully a line item on the spreadsheet used to generate the amount the Council is currently considering). Anything done by a benevolent group would be overseen by the City. Friends believes savings could be as much as $100,000 per benevolent group. B. Cal Poly – The Construction Management Department has an ongoing program for students and their required Senior Project, where about $5000 is available for each student to complete a ‘design and build’ project. For the dog park, this would include smaller items like tables, benches, dog rinse station, kiosk, signs, etc. The program director, Michael Brennan MBA, is familiar with all California codes, and would be making sure the student included all the current requirements in their project, as applicable. City staff would then review before actual construction began. If the Council directs staff to allow this approach, completion of these elements would probably take at least several years, depending on the interest of the student(s) to take on as their Senior Project. Cal Poly has already said ‘yes’ to this opportunity. Completion 4 of any such Senior Project would not be allowed until Phase 1 was completed. Many of the potential Senior Project elements are in subsequent phases. C. Memorial Entry – The main dog park entry proposes to use concrete. Friends would like to see this changed to potentially consider a memorial brick entryway. The general concept would be to reach out to the public to buy a customized brick that would memorialize their lost loved one(s). The price of each brick would at least cover the cost of the brick and the labor to install it, maybe more to help pay for other elements. Friends would be happy to work with the City to find an appropriate brick type, advertising and other administrative tasks to reduce city staff time. In addition to offsetting this cost, such an effort would engage the community and help them take more ownership of this dog park and their community. The Phase 1 project would need to be amended to defer/eliminate the concrete portion of the entry. The curbing would remain and finished grading would be done so it would be ready for either concrete or bricks. As a temporary measure, decomposed granite or other similar material would be placed within a portion of the entry area to provide all weather/ADA compliant access to both the small and big dog areas until the permanent measure is installed. The brick program would likely install the bricks in 2 or 3 phases. Four bricks (4”X 8”) will take up one square foot, so for every 1000 sf there could be up to 4,000 bricks (there are also larger brick/paver sizes). If there are not enough customized bricks to fill the entryway, blank bricks would be acquired to fill in the rest. The plan would be to target completion of this campaign at six to nine months. Entryway costs were not provided in the staff report, so we cannot estimate the cost savings for this item. If there is just not enough interest at all, the entry way could go back to just using the originally proposed concrete. Friends currently has a website to help market such an effort and be the point of sale. D. Sponsorships – This would mostly relate to subsequent phases of the project. Friends would be happy to work with the City to help develop and/or administer a sponsor program, as desired by City staff. The intent here would be seek out sponsors for specific items (e.g., benches, tables, sheds, entry sign, kiosk, etc.) and then create some form of (semi-) permanent way to recognize their contribution (if the above brick program were approved, sponsors could get a large paver). City staff would need to assign an approximate cost per item before a campaign could commence. Advertising of this could be done in conjunction with the memorial brick program to save costs. We look forward to the City Council approving the maximum amount of funding possible so we can get as far along as possible towards our goal of having a signature enclosed dog park in the City of San Luis Obispo as soon as possible! If any of the above suggestions are supported by City Council, we encourage city staff be provided direction. Please contact me should you have any questions. Sincerely, John McKenzie 5 Friends of SLO City Dog Parks