HomeMy WebLinkAbout03-01-2017 PRC Item 3, McLean
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FEB 2 8 2017
SLO CITY CLERK
From: cc me lean [
Sent: Tuesday, February 28, 2017 3:45 PM
To: Advisory Bodies <advisorybodies@slocity.org>; E-mail Council Website <emailcouncil@slocity.org>
Subject: Item #3 Parks and Rec. Mar. 1, 2016 ( Dec. 7, 2016 Parks and Recreation Goals 2017-2019)
Please distribute to Mayor Harmon and City Council and Parks and Recreation Commission
members and post on current Agenda Correspondence for both. Thank you.
To Whom it May Concern:
The email below was sent to both Parks and Recreation members and City Council members prior to
the December 7, 2016, City Council meeting regarding the Parks and Recreation Goals 2017-
2019. Apparently on the date of the 12/7 Council meeting Ms. Stanwyck placed the park for the
North Broad area back on the list shortly before her presentation to the Council. This happened as a
result of residents' seeing the Council Agenda and noticing the omission of our long promised
neighborhood park. We sent emails and spoke during Public Comment to plead for our park
remaining as a goal. (Ms. Stanwyck never mentioned the omission or her placing it back on the goals
list.)
Ms. Stanwyck's repeated attempts at dropping or raiding our "unmet need for a park" as cited in the
General Plan since the 1970's is downright disappointing and wrong. She has repeatedly obstructed
our ability to obtain a neighborhood park and now she has, without placing it on the February 1, 2017,
Parks and Rec Agenda, attempted to take $200,000 of the $900,000 allotted by the City Council on
July 14, 2016, for seed money for our North Broad area park and instead use that set-aside money
for a routine update of the Parks and Recreation Element, something that usually is done at low cost
and by in house staff in other towns (rather than her preferred method of hiring a "consultant" to do
the work). The Parks and Rec Commission discussed and agreed unanimously on the raiding of our
park fund under the direction of Ms. Stanwyck who offered to have "staff draft a letter" asking the
Council's permission.
Neighbors have asked for help repeatedly for in the acquisition of a park since the 1970s. We have
been to many Advisory Body and City Council meetings and were finally told to attend the July 14th
Council meeting and ask for a portion of the excess $6,900,000 that was found in last year's budget;
the $6,000,000 went to a computer system for the City, our neighborhood park acquisition fund got
the leftover amount. We would appreciate your protecting what has been budgeted for our park. Our
northern neighborhoods would all benefit. Many residents do not have usable yards and a park would
enable all ages to enjoy time outdoors.
Ms. Stanwyck's attempt to engineer diversion of our park funds without placing it on the Parks and
Recreation Agenda it is clearly another attempt to block residents' input and confiscate a substantial
amount from our park fund. Back in the 1990's there was a fund of $500,000 for our park, the only
older neighborhood with an "unmet need" and somehow that money disappeared into other budgets.
And now Ms. Stanwyck proposes a similar raid on the new fund. Please protect our long awaited park
by moving the funds out of reach of the Parks and Recreation Director and Commissioners. Thank
you.
Sincerely,
Cheryl McLean
San Luis Obispo
Please distribute to Parks and Recreation Commission members, new Mayor Harmon, outgoing
Mayor Marx and City Council members including new members Aaron Gomez and Andy
Pease. Thank you.
Parks and Recreation Commission members:
I was dismayed to see that the park designated for the "North Broad area" over FORTY years ago in
our General Plan, with seed money of $900,000 allotted by the City Council this year and included at
Council's direction as part of the Strategic Plan 2020 does not appear in the Parks and Recreation
Goals 2017-2019. This is how a park has fallen through the cracks over all of these years and budget
cycles.
Land suitable for a neighborhood park in this area has disappeared time after time as it is purchased
quickly by developers. There are few appropriate sites left in this area and the City needs to be ready
to purchase a park when a suitable parcel is up for sale. It appeared on an overhead projection list of
the Strategic Plan 2020 presentation by Parks and Recreation Director Shelley Stanwyck at the Nov.
1, 2016 City Council meeting.
Please correct this oversight and add this as a high priority goal on your list of Goals 2017-
2019 at your December 7, 2016 meeting. Thank you in advance for carrying out the Council's
directive.
Sincerely,
Cheryl McLean
San Luis Obispo