HomeMy WebLinkAbout2/4/2026 Item 4a, Owen
Cathy Owen <
To:Advisory Bodies
Subject:Emerson Park
Subject: Regarding Consistency Between Apparently Conflicting City Statements
Dear Commissioners,
I am writing regarding the City’s current Emerson Park proposal and how it departs from the basis on
which Proposition 68 funding for this park was originally justified to the State.
In the City’s 2019 certified grant application materials, Emerson Park was selected for funding for the
specific reasons stated below. The following language is quoted verbatim from the City’s submittal:
Why Emerson Park Was Selected
(City of San Luis Obispo – Proposition 68 Grant Submittal, 2019)
“Emerson Park was chosen for the grant application as the park location met the criteria
of an area with a critical lack of park space and meet the grant’s poverty level criteria.
As conceived, the project will focus on new recreation features and amenities to
enhance Emerson Park including: restroom, bike pump track, zen garden, educational
garden, shade structure, black-top re-pavement, ADA upgrades and sustainable
features, and updated fitness equipment.
City staff developed this initial project plan based off the public’s input collected at the
Bright Ideas Public Workshops.”
These certified statements identify Emerson Park as an area with a critical lack of park space and
describe enhancements intended to strengthen recreational access for the surrounding
neighborhood.
The current proposal would fence off a substantial portion of the neighborhood’s only open, adaptable
playfield. This space is used by children for informal, unstructured recreation and has already been
identified by the City as being in critically short supply. The proposed change shifts the project from
enhancing scarce park space to reducing it, particularly in the one neighborhood selected on the
basis of that scarcity.
Proposition 68 was expressly intended to expand equitable access to recreational opportunities in
underserved areas. The removal of flexible play space from this park appears inconsistent with the
City’s certified justification for selecting Emerson Park in the first place.
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I am asking how the Commission reconciles this shift between the City’s 2019 certified statements to
the State and the current project design now under consideration.
Cathy Owen
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