Public and experts mull a Master Plan Update for Las Animas
Veterans Memorial Park
A preliminary plan to upgrade Las Animas Veterans Park in Gilroy
could be a boon to sportsters
– but it’s not exactly for the birds.
Public and experts mull a Master Plan Update for Las Animas Veterans Memorial Park
Pinnacle Senior Staff Writer
A preliminary plan to upgrade Las Animas Veterans Park in Gilroy could be a boon to sportsters – but it’s not exactly for the birds.
As it stands now, the park’s Master Plan Update calls for a doubling of the existing tennis courts – from six to 12 – as well as two new adult softball fields where a storm-water retention pond has served as a rest stop for several species of waterfowl and local shorebirds.
The new and improved park also might sport a new Community/Tennis Club House, possibly ringed by a few retail shops, a new BMX bike park, more parking spaces and widened trails so that police cruisers can troll upon them for heightened security of park goers.
“The park is long overdue for being updated,” said Bill Headley, the city’s Facilities and Parks Development Manager. “The community has grown significantly, and there are additional user groups that want to see elements added to the park.”
But not all user groups. As part of his volunteer work for the Santa Clara County Audubon Society, resident Norman Watenpaugh maintains three bird nest boxes in the park, specifically crafted by Watenpaugh for the dwindling Western bluebird. The birds usually like to build nests in the crevices of trees and are “secondary cavity nesters,” usually taking up the abandoned holes of woodpeckers.
“I kind of like it the way it is,” Watenpaugh said of the park “They’ve got areas where people can go and rough areas where the birds can go.”
But part of the Master Plan – though it’s a work in progress, Headley explains – calls for cleaning up a swath of “open space” area that contains a thicket of trees and natural grasses and weeds on the southern side of the park. Those grasses, says Watenpaugh, are essential to the bluebirds, which search for insects among low-to-medium length grass stalks on the ground.
“A lot of people like the manicured pretty grass, but the wildlife doesn’t,” he said.
The plan calls for two dog parks in the open space area: one for little dogs and one for bigger dogs.
“No. That’s not good for the bluebirds,” Watenpaugh said.
Headley agrees that the Western bluebird is “a fragile part of the habitat” and lauds the efforts of ornithologist Watenpaugh, but would like to see a happy balance of use between wildlife, people and pets. He explains that Las Animas is an urban “community park,” one of only two (Christmas Hill is the other) in the city. The rest are mostly neighborhood parks. The two community parks contain sports facilities, such as lighted ball fields and tennis courts, and are created to provide various forms of recreation to the public.
“These are places people can drive to,” Headley said. “We wouldn’t put them in a neighborhood park, that’s what these two (parks) represent. They are important recreational assets.”
But there’s another part of the new Master Plan that may not thrill wildlife lovers, and that’s the vision to drain the roughly 3-acre retention pond that seasonally appears at the eastern end of the park. It is a favorite watering hole for ducks, Canada geese, two species of egrets and shorebirds, such as plovers that venture over from the coast.
“That part I’m not in favor of,” says Watenpaugh. “Of course, the birds would go somewhere else.”
Two new adult softball fields will be put in the pond’s place. The two smaller Little League fields currently occupying the middle and western areas of the park would give way to the new clubhouse; a new handball court is planned for the western edge of the park, which can be more readily observed by police vehicles than the existing court in the middle of the park. Little League fields are expected to make up a large part of Gilroy’s up-and-coming Sports Park.
Headley says the pond is manmade and that during the drought of the 1980s was perpetually empty. Before that the city attempted to maintain it, allowing the Boy Scouts to chain in logs for duck perches and even aerating it with a tiny waterfall. But then came the drought, and the city abandoned the project in an effort to save water.
“It’s runoff from about 200 homes (to the west side, off Wren Ave.),” Headley said. “The pond has been gone for more than 15 years. This is highly valuable urban land and during the winter months it’s a soggy, muddy bog. It has no recreation benefit to the park.
“Waterfowl will go to any standing water on the Pacific flyway,” he added, explaining that it wouldn’t be as if the city were rendering the waterfowl homeless.
Headley said the plan is to reroute the drainage channel that flows into the pond to underground culverts beneath the park. A dry creek bed that meanders through the middle of the park will serve as an overflow for the water that currently drains into Miller’s Slough and then into the Llagas Creek.
At a recent public meeting on the Las Animas Park Master Plan Update, Headley and the contracted consultants working on the plan told citizens and a Master Plan Task Force comprised of citizens appointed by the City Council that an EIR wasn’t necessary to replace the pond. An environmental impact report was conducted on the original Master Plan, and California environmental law does not require a second for the same place in a park. Furthermore, the state’s Fish and Game agency does not consider the wetland a significant habitat for waterfowl.
Headley and the consultants also released the results of a recent online survey they conducted of 105 Gilroy residents. It wasn’t a scientific survey – residents were invited to participate in the survey through a notice in their water bills – yet it revealed that most citizens who care about the park were most concerned with upgrading security and preserving open space.
But the wording in the survey regarding the open space is tricky. It asks participants to rate their concerns, and under the open space box, the choice is “Maintain/Improve open space.” That could mean those who checked the box either want the natural western area to be left alone – or get a manicure.
“The bluebirds get their food in the grass – mostly insects and grasshoppers,” said Watenpaugh.
Headley is quick to assure that the park’s Master Plan Update is a fluid, flexible document.
“The Master Plan is a loose-leafed operation manual and can be changed,” he said, “and this update is not going to happen overnight.”
In fact, it will probably take some 10 to 15 years to make all the changes, incrementally, whatever they may be. The city also has yet to identify a source of funding for the multi-million dollar changes, and a price tag has not been determined.
For more information about Gilroy’s Park Master Plan, visit http://www.ci.gilroy.ca.us/comserv/parks.html. For more information about Norman Watenpaugh’s bluebird box nest projects, call 408-842-5069 or email Watenpaugh at [email protected].
Public opinion on park
The City of Gilroy contracted a survey during March and April to gauge different attitudes toward Las Animas Veterans Park. The following is a partial list of responses.
1. Do you use Gilroy park and recreation facilities or programs?
Yes: 97.1%
No: 2.9%
2. How often do you use Las Animas Veterans Park?
Never: 1.9%
Daily: 13.5%
Weekly: 45.2%
Monthly: 19.2%
Less than monthly: 20.2%
3. If you use Las Animas Veterans Park, which days do you use it the most?
Weekdays: 41.6%
Weekends: 58.4%
4. How satisfied are you with the City of Gilroy recreation programs?
Very satisfied: 9.5%
Satisfied: 47.6%
Neutral 36.2%
Somewhat unsatisfied: 5.7%
Very unsatisfied: 1.0%
70.6%
The percentage of respondents who said open space was their favorite feature about Las Animas Park.
