AgdaPkt 2003-02-24 - Laserfiche WebLink

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REPORT To the Honorable Mayor and City Council From the City Manager February 24, 2003 Subject Joint effort of Redwood City, the Redwood City School District and the County of San Mateo to renovate Fair Oaks School Field with Artificial Turf Recommendation It is recommended that Council adjust the City's 2002 -03 Capital Improvement Budget to allocate $525,000 to the Fair Oaks School Field Artificial Turf Project, authorize the City to act as the lead agent on the project and to seek funding from the San Mateo County Community Development Block Grant Program and the Redwood City School District. Background Increasing the number of sports fields was first identified as a top priority for Council in 1998. Since that date, two school fields, Taft and Garfield Charter, that were not previously scheduled because of their poor condition, have been upgraded and added back into the field inventory mix for youth. This occurred under a joint agreement between the City, the County and the Redwood City School District. Another previously unscheduled field at Selby Lane was renovated for baseball use with contributions from many community groups via the Giants Community Fund program. Additional youth field use was secured via development negotiations with Pacific Shores. Improved field conditions and more hours of play for both youth and adults were achieved with the installation of artificial turf at lighted Hoover School Park. Most recently, St Anthony's Church is in the process of creating an additional youth sports field at their location adjacent to Garfield Charter School. The "fields" cause was also given a boost by the passage of Measure B, which provides funding for the renovation of many school fields in the elementary school district including Fair Oaks School. Given that the Council acted to accept staff recommendations to reduce general fund spending and make prudent use of reserves as a result of projected deficits in the general fund, the question is, why should the City spend City Capital Improvement Funds and County CDBG funding to install artificial turf instead of just letting the School District renovate the field in natural turf. We believe there are several reasons why this should be considered but understand that this decision must be weighed against other community needs such as reducing the current deficit ($3.5 million) or future deficits, the Courthouse renovation project, or the Ralston Interchange, to name but a few other uses. It is because of this understanding of competing interests that we are asking Council for guidance at this time. The Park, Recreation and Community Services Department schedules the use of school fields by youth and adult sports organizations outside of school hours. This has become an increasingly difficult task given the increasing numbers of youth sports participants even with the new and /or renovated fields that have been added. For example, the number of participants in the three Little League organizations has grown from 960 in 2000 to 1180 in