HomeMy WebLinkAbout5/20/2025 Item 6e, Horn and Cruce - Staff Agenda CorrespondenceCity of San Luis Obispo, Council Memorandum
City of San Luis Obispo
Council Agenda Correspondence
DATE: May 20, 2025
TO: Mayor and Council
FROM: Matt Horn, Public Works Director
PREPARED BY: Greg Cruce, Deputy Director – Maintenance Operations
VIA: Whitney McDonald, City Manager
SUBJECT: ITEM 6e - AUTHORIZATION TO ADVERTISE THE RIGHETTI
COMMUNITY PARK PROJECT, SPECIFICATION NO. 2000054
Staff received the following questions, regarding the Authorization to Advertise the
Righetti Community Park. The questions are listed below in bold with staff’s response
shown in italics:
1) Is a vehicle assigned specifically to each of our parks?
Each Parks Maintenance Specialist is assigned a City vehicle, and each
Specialist maintains between one and four parks, depending on size of the
facilities.
2) How is maintenance staffing (or hours of staff time) determined to maintain
each park? Is there a square footage calculation or formula we use based
on the types of amenities provided at the park?
Staff uses nationally recognized productivity standards developed by the National
Recreation and Park Society and the Professional Grounds Management
Society. These standards provide the average time it should take a skilled
person to perform a task, based on units of measure (e.g. acres, square footage,
linear footage, etc) and method of work being performed (e.g. by hand, by
equipment, etc), also factoring in the level of attention the park will require on a
scale of 1-5, with level 1 being the highest (e.g. Mission Plaza) and level 5 being
the lowest (e.g. open space). This data is then incorporated into the
Maintenance Management Plan as part of the formula to determine total labor
hours and FTE values.
For the base phase of the Righetti Community Park, one full-time Parks
Maintenance Specialist will be required, with an annual maintenance cost of
approximately $140,000 (this cost includes the staffing, utilities, and materials
and supplies). Once all phases of the park are complete, the total annual
maintenance cost is projected at approximately $225,000, which would support
two full-time positions, utilities, custodial services, and ongoing materials and
supplies.
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3) Why is the dog park area not included in the Righetti Community Park?
And would the City be interested in partnership with local service groups to
help fund the dog park in order to speed up the timeline?
This response is to a question posed from the non-profit community group,
“Friends of SLO City Dog Parks”, regarding their potential to be involved and
initiating the work on the dog park area at the Linear Park parcel in the Righetti
Ranch development. The City has determined that the Righetti Community Park
is the main priority for the available funding to initiate the park projects within the
Orcutt Area developments. The overall planned park system consists of the
Community Park, “Linear Park”, and “Pocket Park”, as well as the newly opened
Righetti Hill Open Space.
The Community Park located at the intersection of Tiburon and Ranch House
Road has been prioritized into multiple phases based on available funding and
community priorities established through public outreach. Phase 1 of the project
consists of a comprehensive all-ages and inclusive playground, supporting
restrooms, large picnic and shaded area, turf recreational fields, walking and
biking paths, and lower parking lot. The Linear Park located on Righetti Ranc h
Road and Tiburon, has been designed to support a community garden, dog park,
and supporting parking area. The Linear Park is not part of the City’s initial Phase
1 and has been designed as a separate project from the Community Park.
Staff are interested in the proposal from “Friends of SLO City Dog Parks” and will
review in more detail the proposal received on May 19, 2025. The City has had
previous success working with local community service groups such as Rotary
and Kiwanis clubs to benefit our community through these types of partnerships
resulting in upgrades and enhancements in a variety of areas with San Luis
Obispo, such as Eto Park, Meadow Park Gardens, Community Garden at
Laguna Lake Golf Course, as well as the Mitchell Park gazebo, Laguna Lake
Park picnic gazebo, and Mission Plaza Amphitheater.
Staff are planning to schedule to meet with the representatives of “Friends of
SLO City Dog Parks” in the coming weeks to review and discuss this partnership
opportunity.