CalCoast News

East Bay park district draws up expansion plans

Agency proposal to acquire seven parks, 12 trails goes before board

By Denis Cuff
Contra Costa Times
October 28, 2007

The East Bay Regional Park District wants to develop seven new parks -- including one nestled under the new Bay Bridge, and others at an old coal mining town site near Livermore, on grazing land near Hercules and in closed parts of the Concord Naval Weapons Station.

In a first step toward a major expansion of its natural park system, district administrators recommended adding the seven recreation areas and 12 trails to the agency's master plan.

This action must be taken before the district can spend money to acquire and develop the parks.

"This looks down the road for 20 or 30 years and tells people we're interesting in establishing parks and trails," said Bob Doyle, the district's assistant general manger for land acquisition. "It's a preliminary step, but it's a very big deal for us."

The park board will consider the plan Nov. 6.

One taxpayer group is upset, contending the park district wants to lock up too much land at great taxpayer expense.

"I don't think they should be gobbling up more land when they already have plenty," said Ken Hambrick, chairman of the Alliance of Contra Costa Taxpayers. "In my view, they should be working harder to open up the land they already have."

The park district has some 97,000 acres in 65 recreation areas in Contra Costa and Alameda counties. The cost of purchasing land is not known because the district hasn't decided exactly how many acres it would try to buy.

Park officials say the public needs more open-space parks to hike, ride, jog and enjoy nature because of the East Bay's continuing population growth.

"If you don't provide new parks in these growing areas, you're limiting access to parks for the people there," O'Brien said.

Older and newer areas need parks and trails for people to exercise, reduce stress and combat obesity, he said.

The master plan map calls for a previously announced concept of a 3,000-acre park in the weapons station. Concord is reviewing that and other proposals for the old base.

Other proposed park or preserve sites include Doolan Canyon near Dublin, Deer Valley near south of Antioch, Rancho Pinole east of Hercules and a preserve for vernal pools with rare fairy shrimp near the Byron Airport.

The proposal also calls for a chain of small parks along the Bay Trail through Oakland. One would be a 15-acre Gateway Park that would be at the foot of the Bay Bridge after a seismic overhaul of the span is done in 2013.

Caltrans, which occupies much of the site as a construction staging area, supports the idea of a park for families to picnic, and for bicyclists or hikers to begin trips along the Bay Trail or on a bike lane going part way across the bridge.

"The park is a great opportunity to provide a scenic gateway to a world-class (bridge) project," said Kenneth Terpstra, Caltrans project manger for the Bay Bridge seismic retrofit. "The views of the Bay and the bridge from that area are tremendous."

A museum about Bay Area bridges also might be put there, he said.

The regional master plan doesn't spell out park acreage, features or financing. Those details would be worked out later in more detailed plans for individual parks.

To be sure though, park officials want their future park sites identified before the district considers going to voters in Contra Costa and Alameda counties in November 2008 to renew a property tax measure to buy and develop parks.

To buy park land, the park district also expects to use state and federal grants, private contributions, and developer fees and donations.

Some proposed regional parks are on state land, making a purchase unnecessary.

Hambrick said buying more park sites diverts money that could be spent on opening up more park land to public use.

Regional park officials say about 15 percent of their park land is closed because parking lots, bathrooms and basic visitor facilities have not been developed there yet.

If the district suspended buying land, many areas now eyed for parks or trails would be developed in the next 10 to 25 years, park officials said.

Or escalating land prices would make it to expensive to buy land for parks, they said.

O'Brien said the park district wants to acquire land in part to protect wildlife travel corridors for deer, mountain lions and other animals to find food, shelter and mates to sustain their populations.

"Once you break up this continuous corridor of open space, the public is fenced out," O'Brien said. "The wildlife is fenced out, too."

Contact reporter Denis Cuff at 925-943-8267 or dcuff@bayareanewsgroup.com

Meeting

A proposed master plan map of potential park sites in the East Bay Regional Park District will be considered by the park board at 2 p.m. Nov. 6 at district headquarters, 2950 Peralta Oaks Court, Oakland. A public hearing precedes the vote.