P&R 05-04-95CITY OF CUPERTINO~ STATE OF CALIFORNIA
10300 Torre Avenue, Cupertino, CA 95014
Telephone (408) 777-3200
MINUTES OF THE ADJOURNED REGULAR MEETING
OF THE
PARKS AND RECREATION COMMISSION
City Hall
May 4, 1995
CALL TO ORDER
1. Adjourned regular meeting of the Parks and Recreation Commission called to order at 7:02 p.m.
SALUTE TO THE FLAG
2.
ROLL CALL
3. Commissioners present:
Commissioners absent:
Staff present:
Quinlan, Buhler, Hendrickson, Hopkins, Lohmiller
None
Stephen Dowling, Director of Parks and Recreation
Linda Lagergren, Recording Secretary
INTRODUCTIONS
4. None.
ORAL COMMUNICATIONS
5. None
UNFINISHED BUSINESS
6. None
NEW BUSINESS
7. Director Dowling stated that "the Commission is aware that City Council wanted to make the name
change at the former Fremont Older school site prior to the renovation. The Fremont Older Master Plan
committee went through an effort to try and generate suggestions for the renaming. As a result of an
article in the Scene, and one of the committee members canvassing the Sedgwick elementary school
campus, plus a brainstorming session with the committee itself, we had eighteen suggestions for the
name change at Fremont Older. When the committee met to form a recommendation, they made three
determinations, one of which was that there were a lot of candidates that had some historical
significance, and the committee felt that rather than remove one historical name to simply replace it
with another was not appropriate, so with that premise the committee discounted any historical names.
Secondly, the name nominated by the Historical Society, Pioneer Park, was considered and there was a
concern that it was in conflict with Cupertino High School. The pioneer is their mascot and they even
have a little area on campus called Pioneer Park. Thirdly, the committee wanted to acknowledge the
fact that this is a multi-use facility. Although it has a strong youth sports theme, it is also a
neighborhood park and for that reason wanted to stay away from strictly a sports name. So the
committee focused on features and descriptions of the park and with that narrowed the field down to
three names - Creekside, Orchard, or Redwood. Following a vote by the Master Plan committee, the
recommendation to Commission is Creekside Park."
PRC # 166
Approved
6/1/95
Call to order
Salute to
Flag
Roll Call
Selection of
name change
for Fremont
Older school
site.
Ron Esparza, member of Fremont Older Master Plan committee - representing Tri-Cities Little League,
"Everyone I spoke with from Tri-Cities Little League were all pretty happy with the name Creekside
Park."
Commissioner Buhler moved that the Parks and Recreation Commission recommend to City Council to
rename the Fremont Older site to Creekside Park. Commissioner Quinlan seconded the motion. All in
favor. Motion carried.
Director Dowling stated that "this item is not for action tonight, we are starting to take a look at a very
sizable effort on the part of the County and this is their Trails Master Plan. Your role in this is to, if
appropriate, simply pass judgment on some of the philosophical justifications and policy statements of
this document. It's not your role to review the entire document and all the routes around the entire
county. As it turns out there are only three trails that impact the City of Cupertino. One of the things we
will talk about next month are the six strategies." Director passed out the detailed version of the six
strategies and asked Commission to review them for discussion at next month's Commission meeting.
He stated if Commission wished that Julie Bondurant, staff person for the County assigned to this task,
can be at the meeting to answer specific questions. He also stated that she is expecting that this will go
to the County Board of Supervisors sometime in the Fall. Director asked for questions from
Commission on either the Preamble or the Executive Summary.
Commissioner Lohmiller asked, "What is the process? Is this a draft copy. D~rector Dowling replied,
"This is a copy of the draft. All of this language will be finalized and adopted and its intent is as a
planning tool for the future development of trails around the county. It becomes part of the County's
General Plan."
Chairman Quinlan said, "Since some of these trails are in incorporated cities, it seems that before it can
go to the County Board of Supervisors it has to go before the city councils to get their approval."
Director said, "The language in here talks about that this plan in the incorporated areas is subject to the
jurisdiction that the trail goes through. The county is not imposing these policies on any incorporated
area, only the unincorporated areas. They are happy if we adopt their design guidelines, but any trail
within a municipality is subject to that municipality's own guidelines and policies. What the county is
trying to do is coordinate this network of trails. They are trying to get the cities to endorse and
comment on the strategies and if appropriate adopt design guidelines."
Commissioner Buhler asked, "Will we be asked to send a recommendation on this to our City Council
who will in turn act on this." Director stated, "That is correct. What I am going to advise this group to
do is only recommend those portions that you are comfortable with. We are not even going to get into
the design guidelines. Most jurisdictions will focus on the route. So far, what is proposed is consistent
with our own General Plan with the exception that there was a correction we made last Fall in this plan
that was not picked up. Unfortunately this map still shows the Stevens Creek Trail going through the
Phar Lap neighborhood and we corrected that last Fall with the County, so they changed their narrative
portion of this document, but the map wasn't changed."
Chairman Quinlan asked, "Do we have a representative on the County Trails group?" Director said,
"The person representing the City of Cupertino is Beez Jones. No one from our current Trails Task
Fome or Commission is sitting on that committee." Chairman Quinlan asked, "Has there been any
discussion or coordination with the Santa Clara Water District?" Director said, "I know that there is a
representative sitting on the County Trails Committee and I know they've worked with the District on
the Guadeloupe and on the Stevens Creek Trail through Mountain View. The County worked closely
with the Water District because they are a real asset in this."
It was opened up for public comment, however at this point there were no comments from the public.
Page 2
Ron Esparza
10711
Gascoigne
Dr. Cupt.
Motion
Review
Santa Clara
County Park
Trails Master
?lan.
Director reviewed the trails map with the Commission. He pointed out the three trails that were called
out for in our city limits and sphere of influence - Juan Bautista De Anza National Historical Trail, the
Stevens Creek Trail, and the Southern Pacific Rail Corridor. All three of these are consistent with our
own General Plan.
Commissioner Lohmiller asked if we are going to have a detailed map of every street and area in
Cupertino that the trail touches. Director Dowling said that "the County will not produce that. The
· ' ts '
narration will call out the stree .
Chairman Quinlan stated that he thought it would be a good idea to have the County representative,
Julie Bondurant, present at our next Commission meeting when we discuss this item. Director Dowling
said that she put it on her calendar and he would let her know that Commission would like her to be
there·
Father Michael J. Mitchell, representative of San Jose Diocese, St. Joseph's property, stated; "I
appeared at the County Trails meeting and I explained that we were very willing to have a trace put
down on our property that is going to be given in our proposal to the public agency that would take it.
We identified with the other trail property owners that what had happened to us was realistic. Our
particular property has been very severely vandalized. You may hear that in another venue about people
and cows and things of that sort. We're very willing to have a trail put down provided we have the open
space dedication, provided that we're involved in the development plan that would involve 138 acres
given to a public agency. I would say that we are looking forward to completing a trail provided that
several other things fall in line. We are one of the property owners that the trail is going to go down.
We are very willing to have the trail go down this piece of property, but it is going to have to be
publicly owned. I want to go on record that we are very much for trails, we would like to see the
completion of the trail and we would like to see some public agency take the property. After that then
we are going to have another set of problems. The meeting that I was at the people were very
antithetical to trails, but we're not. We think that our piece makes a good completion piece and makes it
come out right for everybody. We all need to work on putting the pieces together."
Commissioner Quinlan stated, "We will be discussing this item again at our next commission meeting
on June 1".
MINUTES OF PREVIOUS MEETING
9. Commissioner Hendrickson moved and Commissioner Lohmiller seconded the motion to approve the
minutes of the April 6, 1995 Parks and Recreation Commission meeting. All in favor. Motion
approved.
WRITTEN COMMUNICATIONS
10. None
MONTHLY REPORTS
11. Commissioner Hopkins reminded Commission of two upcoming events· Walk-A-Golden Mile will be
held on Friday, May 12 and Cupertino Day at Blackberry Farm on Saturday, May 13.
12. There were no community contacts.
Page 3
Review
Santa Clara
County Park
Trails Master
Plan.
Motion
Monthly
Reports
Community
Contacts
MISCELLANEOUS
13. There was no legislative update·
14. Chairman Quinlan reported on the Mayor's breakfast meeting. "The mayor brought up the issue of the
Ropes Course. He had walked some of the area with some of the McClellan Ranch Task Force
committee and they had ideas of things they needed the Simms house for and mentioned what some of
their plans were for the area around the road. He wanted to know if we had heard anything about it and
I stated that we hadn't. He wanted to know how we could get this moving. I told him they should write
a letter to the Parks and Recreation Commission asking for an action from that committee. You may be
getting a letter."
15. Director stated that "at the last commission meeting the chair raised the question of why do we count
residential developments that have their own amenities in the park population per acre ratio. The reason
we still count them as part of the population of that neighborhood is that the park dedication obligation
is a fifty pement obligation. There is still an assumption that those residents will continue to use Sports
Center, Quinlan Center, Senior Center and other community amenities. The question is should we count
them 100 percent. We have historically done that. If Commission would like, when we look at the
General Plan update next October, we can discuss that item."
16. Commissioner Lohmiller reported that the next Fremont Older Master Plan Committee meeting would
be held on Tuesday, June 6, in conference room A at City Hall.
ADJOURNMENT
17. Commissioner Hopkins moved and Commissioner Hendrickson seconded the motion to adjourn at 7:58
p.m. to the regular meeting of the Parks and Recreation Commission on Thursday, June 1 1995, 7:00
p.m. Council Chambers. All in favor. Motion passed.
Respectfully submitted,
~~"Rin a . agergrenl ~
ATTEST:
APPROVED:
Chairperson
Page 4
Mayor's
Breakfast
StaffOral
Report
Fremont
Older Master
Plan
Committee
Motion