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P&R 10-02-03 APPROVED PARKS AND RECREATION COMMISSION CITY OF CUPERTINO REGULAR MEETING THURSDAY, OCTOBER 2, 2003 CALL TO ORDER Chairperson Bradford called the regular meeting of the Parks and Recreation Commission to order at 7 p.m. PLEDGE OF ALLEGIANCE ROLL CALL Commissioners present: Commissioners absent: Staff present: Jeanne Bradford, Rod Brown, Frank Jelinch, Roger Peng, Kris Wang None Therese Ambrosi Smith, Director; Don McCarthy, Recreation Supervisor; Colleen Manning, Recreation Coordinator; Marie Preston, Administrative Secretary MINUTES OF PREVIOUS MEETING A. Minutes of the Regular Meeting of September 4, 2003 ACTION: Minutes unanimously approved as written. 2. ORAL COMMUNICATIONS Imam Yuen, 10463 Scenic Court Ken Joe, 10473 Scenic Court Don Bautista, 10434 Scenic Court Bill Hawkes, 10454 Scenic Court Residents of the Scenic neighborhood expressed their concerns about placing a trail in the Stevens Creek Corridor: trail should be on east side of the creek, no access to the Scenic neighborhood via the trail, no trees or shrubs to be cut, trail not visible from the neighborhood. A neighborhood petition addressed to the City Council and the Parks and Recreation Commission was presented. Director Smith spoke on the process of developing different aspects of the parkland. She outlined general future steps and considerations for the Stevens Creek Corridor Master Plan process. She reported that an environmental review of the project will need to be done, and this process will require that alternatives be reviewed. She will suggest the following alternatives be reviewed: west side multipurpose trail, east side multipurpose Parks and Recreation Commission October 2, 2003 Page 2 of 5 trail, a hiking only trail, and no trail as part of the environmental review. When the plans are refined, they will be given to the Commission and City Council in February or March 2004. Agencies who understand environmental issues will review the alternatives such as: Fish and Game, Santa Clara Valley Water District, and other experts. She stated that she would be sending out an email reiterating what she has just said to those residents who have been emailing their concerns. 3. WRITTEN - None UNFiNISHED BUSINESS A. Consider and formulate policies for tennis court reservations at the Cupertino Sports Center: Don McCarthy introduced Colleen Manning, new manager of the Sports Center. He then presented the current reservation policies for the tennis courts during prime time, as well as recommending new policies for the reserving of court number one during prime time. He also stated that new members would be getting policies in a new member packet. He answered clarifying questions of the Commission. Commissioner Brown asked what could be done to reduce or spread out the demand for court number one; what would be the cost to improve the lighting of another court? Supervisor McCarthy answered that staff would work with Public Works to determine the cost of lighting an additional court. He also stated that Lifetime Tennis has approached him about possibly assisting with lighting on COUrtS. Public Comments Michael Zimmerman, 870 E. El Camino Real #54, Mt. View, pass holder, Cupertino Tennis Club member, and member of the board, believes that the court reservation policies are adequate. He acknowledged that some people have taken advantage of the policies and abused it to their advantage and the disadvantage of other pass holders. He researched tennis court lighting and found that lighting needs of people age 50 and over are ten times more than the lighting needs of a 20-year-old person; the current lighting levels are substandard for the age level of the tennis playing community. He would like to see light maintenance improved. He stated that the Commission should not be dealing with policy issues, but they should make one policy that should state that the use of the courts should be equitable and fair and delegate the policy development to a committee inside the Sports Center to enforce it. Henry Chin, 3379 Amherst Lane, San Jose, stated that about three months ago he had submitted a petition to the Sports Center management with over 20 signatures stating that the rules that were governing the daytime play time was changed from what it had been for the last 15 years--in that afternoon play was usually on courts 2, 3, 4, and 5 from 1 to 4 p.m. He provided the Commission a copy of the petition minus signatures. He stated his disappointment that the petition had been misplaced. Parks and Recreation Commission October 2, 2003 Page 3 of 5 Tony and Grace Toy, 10130 Crescent Road, stated that Team Tennis has affected business opportunities at the Sports Center. They want to propose a marketing strategy to double the city's revenue. They believe that fees to play tennis by Team Tennis members should be increased. They believe there is an unfair Team Tennis reservation system and they would like it removed. They also stated that Team Tennis monopolizes prime time and that this had been allowed with the prior manager. They provided their research supporting this claim. They believe that Team Tennis takes away the business opportunity to serve more pass holders. They also believe that many members quit the center because they cannot get a court reservation due to Team Tennis's reservations. Grant Gower, 10158 Ridgeway Drive, current president of Cupertino Tennis Club, provided a presentation offering solutions for court allocations: defuse the conflict that exists by ruling that while court time can be reserved during prime time, courts will be randomly allocated amongst the aspiring candidates; upgrade the lights on all other courts. Mike Wilkens, 10631 Castine Avenue, stated he would like to see written policies, and he would like to see these policies made available for modification by a committee of staff and pass holders. He would like the allocation reservations for court number one be set up to allow each person to reserve it once within a period of time of approximately one month. Commission Comments Commissioner Jelinch stated that it was not the job of the Commission to micromanage the Sports Center; that people are hired to manage. He would like to see flexible rules set up that prevent abuse of the system. He sees the Commission's role as setting policy and not the rules. Commissioner Wang agreed completely with Commissioner Jelinch. She stated that management should develop the rules as they manage the day-to-day operations; they know from their experience what works best. Commissioner Brown also agreed with prior comments. He does not believe the Commission wants to get involved with setting policies for every single facility that are overseen by Parks and Recreation - believes to leaving the majority of the decision making up to staff. He supports improving lighting conditions, establishing a committee of pass holders, moving away from the 24-hour advance sole reservation system, and perhaps limiting pass holders to reserving court number one to once a month/week. He suggested that staff look at comments and at long-term procedures. Commissioner Peng stated that policies should be developed that creates a fair environment. He stated that based on comments he heard, he suggested that pass holders Parks and Recreation Commission October 2, 2003 Page 4 of 5 be allowed to reserve court number one once per week. He would like to leave the development of policies and rules to the discretion of staff. Chairperson Bradford supports Team Tennis, and because they represent Cupertino, they should be able to use court number one, which has the best lighting. She was supportive of the staff recommended policy for use of court number one. She agreed that staff knows best how to make the business run. She stated that the rules have been generated in such a way so as to put a Band-Aid on current problems. She would like to see the rules with a "can do" message approached instead of"can't do." She is glad the policies will be documented and there should be more effort to have a clear understanding of what the policies are. She asked about the cost of improving the lighting of an additional court, and she suggested developing a proactive way to allocate time to court number one so that it has abuse resistance to it. Director Smith itemized the Commission's thoughts: · Allocation of court number of one · Address the importance of USTA or other league play · Amount of time that should be reserved for walk-on, without reservation informal play · How will this process get evaluated - by committee? Commissioner Jelinch stated that he doesn't hear complaints about the present system; what he hears are about a few people who may be abusing the system. He believes that staff should have discretion to handle problems expeditiously so that people don't come to the commission time and time again complaining. Supervisor McCarthy asked what the commission thought of offering court number one reservations to once a week and this would offer access to this court to more pass holders. The Commission was in joint agreement with this thought and that staff should decide the time period that is appropriate. Director Smith offered the following recommendation: · Provide fair allocation of court number one with the time period per reservation being once per week, while retaining the USTA scheduling priority. This would be provisional for a three-month period, after which staff would return back to the Commission with a report. At that time, the policies would be separated out and the Commission would be asked to evaluate. The policies and procedures would then be provided to all new pass holders with their new membership packet and would also be sent to existing pass holders. The process would then be developed with an internal evaluation procedure. Supervisor McCarthy was asked to return with the cost of lighting an additional court. Mr. McCarthy stated he would meet with Public Works and get some costs to do this work. Parks and Recreation Commission October 2, 2003 Page 5 of 5 NEW BUSINESS - None MISCELLANEOUS - NO ACTION REQUIRED A. Staff Oral Reports: a. Director Smith reported that on Monday, City Council will hear more information on the closure of the Blackberry Farm Picnic Grounds, what that means financially, and what the proposed facility might generate financially. b. The Sports Center remodeling project is ahead of schedule and staff is looking for a late winter opening. c. Director Smith invited the Commission to check out Portal and Wilson Parks. Community Contacts: a. Commissioned Brown stated that his 14-month-old daughter approves of the newly finished Portal Park tot lot. ADJOURNMENT Chairperson Bradford adjourned the meeting at 9 p.m. Respectfully submitted MarJ[e Preston, Adminis~t~x~e Secretary Televised Council meetings may be viewed live on Cable Channel 26, and may also be viewed live or on demand at www. cupertino, or~4. Videotapes of the televised meetings are available at the Cupertino Library. or may be purchased from the Cupertino City Channel 777-2364. Minutes approved at the November 6, 2003, regular meeting.