HomeMy WebLinkAbout11-01-2016 item 9, SchmidtGardner, Erica
To: Gallagher, Carrie
Subject: RE: Agenda Item 9 -- Park Plan
From: "Richard Schmidt"=
Date: Sun, Oct 30, 2016 at 3:44 PM -0700
Subject: Agenda Item 9 -- Park Plan
To: "E-mail Council Website" <emailcounciI@slocity.org>
Re: Agenda Item 9, Parks Strategic Plan
Dear Council Members,
COUNCIL MEETINU II UI /,40((,,
ITEM NO.:
=RECEIVED
I am concerned that this document's list of projects in "GOAL #4 Expand Parks and Facilities" omits
what should be the city's top park acquisition priority, a park for the "North Broad Neighborhood."
The P&R Element of the General Plan identifies this park as the sole unmet neighborhood park need
in the entire city.
As you doubtless recall from presentations residents made to you earlier this year, this park has been
promised in the city's plans for decades, dating back to at least the 1970s, yet park after park and
facility after facility elsewhere in the city has sprung forth and has gone in front of it. In the meanwhile,
site after site in the neighborhood that would have made a good park has been lost to development.
We are down to a very few sites.
In response to pleas from residents, you generously set aside $900,000 towards a land acquisition
reserve fund for this park earlier this year.
Now it's time to move this project to the top of the city's park expansion list so those funds can be
expended. Not doing so is tantamount to saying to the neighborhood that it will never have a park.
I believe the city needs to be much more aggressive, proactive, or whatever other activist word you
prefer, in seeking out a site, or this long-term promise will never bear fruit.
Please move this park to the front of the park expansion planning line, where it belongs.
Thank you.
Richard Schmidt