The city plans to finish designs and construction of the
long-awaited Southeast Park at the corner of Enterprise Road and
Mimosa Street by the summer of 2004.
The city plans to finish designs and construction of the long-awaited Southeast Park at the corner of Enterprise Road and Mimosa Street by the summer of 2004.
This week, the Hollister City Council approved a design contract with Monterey-based Bellinger Foster Steinmetz for $53,000. The total project may cost nearly $600,000, and the city will pay for the 2-1/2-acre park out of the Parks Fund.
“I was talking to some of the people from that neighborhood of the park (Monday),” Mayor Brian Conroy said during the Council meeting. “I happened to run into some of them where I work. They are very, very happy they could have a park in the summer of 2004.”
The contract with BFS also includes a separate project – a sound wall on Westside Boulevard between Steinbeck and South streets for an estimated $20,000.
Design work on the Southeast Park is scheduled to begin in a couple weeks and be completed by the end of the year. The city and engineering firm will hold two community meetings during the design period, according to a staff report.
Public Works Director Clint Quilter said in the past, the same firm has provided color boards and brochures for residents at such meetings.
“People in the area are clamoring,” Councilman Tony Bruscia said.
The idea for Southeast Park was conceived in the early-1990s. A few years later, several West of Fairview developments dedicated the five acres of parkland. Award Homes was to develop 2.5 acres, with Hollister cultivating the remaining 2.5 acres.
Hollister officials had waited for Award Homes’ plans to materialize before the city constructed its portion, according to Bruscia. But that never happened because the Award Homes project was eventually rejected.
Bruscia said at an “undetermined point in the future,” the city plans to develop the remaining 2.5 acres as well.
Since the state enacted a cease-and-desist order in September prohibiting constructions that stress the sewer system, the Parks Fund has dwindled from nearly $1 million to less than $700,000. The reserve is primarily financed by building impact fees, which have been virtually nonexistent during the moratorium. It is currently the lone funding source for parks development.
“Yeah, until the moratorium issue is taken care of, we won’t be able to collect impact fees,” said Parks and Recreation Commissioner Don Kelly. “We’ve definitely got to work harder to get funds.”
So far, the commission has failed to obtain grants and other sources of alternative funding, according to Kelly.
Lost impact fees are also contributing to the city’s imminent budget deficit in the coming year.
The city will forego hiring a project management firm for Southeast Park and the sound barrier. City engineers will perform the duties, saving about $12,000, according to Deputy Director of Public Works Lawrence Jackson.
City Manager Dale Shaddox said city engineers may also perform project management for the proposed Fire Station 2. Combined savings for Southeast Park and a second fire station would be “in the several hundreds of thousands of dollars,” Shaddox said.
“There’s a lot of stuff we’re going to start doing in-house,” Councilman Robert Scattini said.
The Southeast Park is one of several park projects that is included in the city’s Parks Masterplan, which was adopted in 2002 and maps out parks development for 10 years.
Kelly said improvements to Vista Park Hill are the commission’s next priority, including enhancements to the back side of the hill and road extensions.
Other park development sites proposed in the first five years of the Parks Masterplan include Ladd Lane, the corner of Union and Cienega roads, Meridian Street and development at San Benito High School.
The city recently rejected planned parkland development in the vicinity of the proposed Civic Center, a renovation project at the site of the old Fremont School. The Civic Center is a casualty of this year’s budget problems, so officials decided to also postpone the park.
