February Public Meeting – Sports & Play – Session 2

Audio Transcription:

Zoom Interface Voice  00:00

recording in progress.

Miranda Maupin  00:08

All Welcome to the sports and play breakout room and discussion.

I have added the recording here. And so this session, we’re going to look at two topics. The first is the sports and athletic fields. And the second is the play spaces.

And just to introduce myself, I’m Miranda Maupin with Skeo Solutions . And I also have Lauren Johnson from Skeo. That’s taking notes for us in our session here. And we’re also joined by Carla Schoof, from San Mateo County, and we have Nicholas Calderon

Nicholas Calderon  00:49

You have me this session. 

Miranda Maupin  00:50

Wonderful. Welcome, Nicholas. So for each topic, we’ll be providing a short presentation, that includes a couple polling questions for you all to participate in. And then we’ll have an open q&a at the end where you can ask questions and share ideas that you’d like us to consider. So I’m going to go ahead and share my screen.

Miranda Maupin  01:17

And, as I mentioned, we’ll be using the Mentimeter. Again, just to the other a few thoughts around some specific questions we have around the design.

So for sports and active recreation, want to start by just outlining a few of the objectives for the areas. One of the key goals of the project is to rehabilitate and expand recreational facilities for youth and families. It’s also important for the park to accommodate simultaneous play by organized sports teams, and drop in play.

Miranda Maupin  01:58

So as you can see, here are some of the sports spaces include the baseball softball field in the upper left, as well as a large multi use field that’s overlaying the baseball field. There’s also a small multi use field. And again, the dimensions and sort of the exact configuration here is something we’ll be looking at.

There’s also a pump track planned for the upper right here. There’ll be new tennis and pickleball courts, as well as new sand volleyball courts, and a basketball court here.

Miranda Maupin  02:45

So some of the design considerations that we’ll be thinking about as as we get into more detailed design is how to balance the more organized and the informal use of the park. We want to make sure we’re targeting a range of age groups from toddlers to seniors. And it’s important to allow for flexibility. So we can accommodate a diversity of sports and activities, and focus on how to access and inclusivity for people of all ages.

03:20

And then just a couple clarifications. So these are the different sports and athletic places that have been approved and planned for the design.

So going forward, we’ll be developing a detailed design for each of the facilities. So for example, we’ll be considering the field surface options. For example, whether to use turf, synthetic turf, or natural turf for this large multi field.

We will be using natural turf, the small multi use fields tha t have (inaudible) in surrounding areas and have a more flexible use. The fields in the other facilities will not include lighting at night.

Miranda Maupin  04:06

The team will be evaluating fencing or netting around this large multi use field could be temporary, but the ideas to make sure that it doesn’t affect adjacent parties.

Miranda Maupin  04:19

And then finally, we just want to share that our team does include a specialist in the sports and athletic facilities called pros consulting. And they’ll be advising the team on the design and operations of the facilities including how to schedule the scheduling of the multi use facilities that is consistent with the capacity of the park.

Miranda Maupin  04:46

So one to gather your input on a couple of questions.

And in particular, we’re interested in which sports or activities you do come to play or maybe your family

Miranda Maupin  05:00

So, soccer, baseball, softball, lacrosse, tennis, or pickleball, basketball, the new pump track the first in the county, volleyball or, or other. And this is where we’re hoping you can use the Mentimeter. To just share your thoughts. I’m gonna put the link in the chat for this group in particular, specific to this breakout group. And you can see these are some of the some of the input from the first breakout group. So we’re hoping you’ll add to this just share which of these sports or activities are you looking forward to come and play either you personally or your family

Miranda Maupin  05:51

looks like within this group, there’s a lot of interest in the tennis and pickleball.

Miranda Maupin  05:57

And just a lot of interest across the board with the new pump track soccer, baseball volleyball.

Miranda Maupin  06:12

And then the folks have had a chance to share some thoughts.

06:24

Next we wanted to take a few minutes to go over the place basis.

Miranda Maupin  06:33

So the new play areas are really there one of the most exciting aspects of the proposed park improvements. And the goal is to really increase the vibrancy of the park and meet the needs of the youth and families through some expanded uses. Our hope is to create a destination play spaces that include all abilities play, and also foster connections to nature.

Miranda Maupin  06:59

So the plan currently includes two play areas, the central play space here, and then a smaller play space and the southeast corner of the park, which is currently envisioned as a nature play space.

Miranda Maupin  07:15

So the hope is that the play spaces will be part of a much broader vision to create activities for all ages, and really think about some of these adjacencies with other uses.

Miranda Maupin  07:29

So families can enjoy the park with, you know, multiple ages. So during the design process, we’ll be exploring the size and configuration of these spaces, along with the theme, what kind of experiences to be explored what kind of zones and types of play. And in the next few months, we’ll be hosting a community about focus specifically on the design of the play spaces. So if that’s something you’re interested in, definitely keep an eye out for that event.

08:04

And finally, I want to share that the county in the design team has started discussions with the Magical Bridge Foundation, and to advise on the programming and design of the play spaces to promote play of all ages, abilities and sizes.

08:23

So we had a couple of questions for you all on the play spaces. The first is, is what your thoughts are about possible theme ideas for the play areas. So the forest theme or sea theme could focus on local cultural history or nature. I’d love to get your thoughts on this. And again, if you want to add your thoughts about potential themes feel free to go back to the Mentimeter link and you could see there were ideas shared by the previous groups and just add those but there’s a lot about trees, nature forests as well as fun ideas like space travel culture, cultural heritage and then we’d also be interested in your thoughts about

Miranda Maupin  09:37

Michael thanks for sharing your your idea in the chat feel free to use the chat if Mentimeter is not working for you or and we be assured we’ll be collecting all the thoughts in the chat as well.

09:50

So for play areas we’re curious, know how you would rank these different potential elements. Small  floods beings fan to play area spinning elements, natural elements like logs someone mentioned that I think on the last slide with a theme climbing on logs, rope structures or tunnels

Miranda Maupin  10:22

just give us kind of a real time ranking of where folks in this group and the last what they’re thinking would be fun for kids and family

Miranda Maupin  10:36

folks a few minutes to just add their thoughts to these elements and then we have a second set of elements as well.

10:54

This includes like a big slide possibly connected with a tower, bridges, climbable features, swinging elements or flexible sculpture sculpture where kids can actually climb climb the sculpture or tensile structures which are like this connective netting

Miranda Maupin  11:19

so again, love to hear your thoughts on which of these elements you think will be most fun for families in Flood Park.

11:30

And there seem to be kind of a interest in these larger climbing structures the bridge large slide

Miranda Maupin  11:41

feel free to add add your thoughts and I think we have one more question here

Miranda Maupin  11:59

folks another seconds to just share their thoughts. You know, it takes a minute to kind of go through and select your ranking

Miranda Maupin  12:13

Okay, and then the last question we had is what else is important for the playground enches and seating or tables or murals, hills or topography shade or plants and nature

Miranda Maupin  12:35

I know I mentioned this in the last group as a mom the bench the benches and shade were really have always been important to me as a mom, but curious to hear what you all think in terms of what else would be helpful to include in the play space.

12:55

The others others also agreed with the benches and shade but also interested in plants and nature natural shade. Thanks, Michael.

Miranda Maupin  13:19

Okay, and I think we have a few minutes left,

Miranda Maupin  13:24

saved a few minutes for some discussion.

Miranda Maupin  13:30

So at this point, just to open it up for discussion if folks could raise your hand. I think that’ll help keep the have

Miranda Maupin  13:40

17 Folks, I’m going to stop screen sharing here

13:48

Yeah, any any questions about the sports and athletic facilities or the place basis? Yeah, Michael,

Mike Murphy  13:57

Hi. You know, I’d like to welcome field sports and soccer to Flood Park. However, the place that’s called for putting it in the 2020 plan is is really wrong. It’s in the middle of the woodland, which is a time honored and valuable part of the park and I would like to suggest that it got placed at one of the alternative locations that have been mapped out by the community.

14:08

any other

14:32

any other questions or ideas that you want to share?

Carla Schoof  14:42

Miranda, I can actually respond to the questions that was in the chat earlier I think from Evelyn about the use of which type of fields we’re gonna have. Right now. There’s a lot of factors that are going into it. So I appreciate your your comments and concern about water reuse in particular, the cost of it especially, we’re looking at a number of factors including maintenance of the site. 

As you may know, the SF PUC actually owns a swath of land that goes right through the middle of the baseball field. And so having maintenance of that particular site is definitely a factor we’re considering as well. We’re looking at ways that we can reuse water on the site. We’re definitely not just making a decision just with with a single lens on this, that we have a lot of different factors we’re considering. So thank you for your comment on that. 

Audience Member  15:26

Thank you, thank you for answering.

Miranda Maupin  15:30

And I’m getting a notice that we’re going to get called back to the main room. So want to give everyone a little warning that we might have time for one more question looks like,

Miranda Maupin  15:39

here. Yeah, have your hand raised. 

Audience Member B  15:43

Good. I just wanted to say, I take my grandchildren to Mitchell Park. And the reason is somebody wrote, say tech, so meaning that it’s kind of a fun, but very unusual kind of playground. So I was wondering if you could add into integrate with nature, of course, but something more techy and kind of advanced. More than G big some kind of thing.

Audience Member B  16:15

 Yeah.

16:17

Thanks.

Audience Member B  16:19

Yeah. And then bicycle, I believe we can keep the bicycle there around the whole park, I believe.

Audience Member B  16:28

Having some fun stuff for bikes as well.

Miranda Maupin  16:33

Definitely, definitely, I think, in addition to the pump track, I think there’s the design is looking at the circulation throughout the park. And, yeah, I’ve seen in other countries as well as some kind of signs so that kids can learn like, you know, traffic light or something that they start to learn to develop in a safe place, which means in a park instead of on the street. So pretend to be on a city, you know, type thing. Yeah, so I think to simulate, that would be quite interesting.

17:14

Right? Ron, looks like you have your hand up. And just a warning, we might get called back to the main room. But I want to take advantage of the time to hear as many questions as we can, or suggestions. Go ahead, Ron. 

Ron  17:27

Okay, I want to put my two cents in for pickleball. This, this meeting didn’t get a lot of publicity within the pickleball community. But there are hundreds of people that are interested in pickleball at Flood Park. And it would be great if one of the two tennis courts could be made into a into four, because that’s how many pickleball courts hit on one tennis court four could be made into four permanent pickleball courts with permanent nets. So they don’t need to be shared with tennis. The idea is that if you have pickleball courts, it will create a drop in culture people will show up without pre arranging games, they will just show up as they do at Mitchell Park in Palo Alto, which is right adjacent to the Magical Bridge Playground, if you ever go out there on it 10 o’clock on a weekday you will see 50 people playing pickleball and they don’t show up with prearranged games that just show up in all ages, from 10 to 90. 

Audience member C  18:27

I would like to I can’t figure out how to raise my hand. But I would just like to x add to what Ron said I played Pickleball for the first time over the holiday break. And it’s really fun. It’s not as exaile It’s not as doesn’t wear you out like tennis does and any age can play. So it would be nice to have some permanent pickleball courts too. That’s all I have to say. Thank you.

Miranda Maupin  18:50

Thank you, Scott.

Miranda Maupin  18:52

Okay, I think I think we need to get

Miranda Maupin  18:55

Yeah, I think we’re getting called back to the main room.

Miranda Maupin  18:59

So thank you so much for everybody, for joining and sharing your thoughts on the polls as well as your discussion in the chat and verbally. So we’re going to go back to the main room do a quick sharing out of what we heard in each of the breakout groups. And as I mentioned, we’ll also be collecting all of the chat. So any comments that you shared there, we’ll definitely keep those in mind as well. So we’ll see you all back in the main room.

Ron  19:37

Thank you.

19:44

[End of Session]

Acknowledgements:

Thanks to the local Flood Park advocates for their work to present the materials from the Feb 2nd Public Meeting and to Mike Murphy for the transcription of the audio from the meeting.

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To preserve the historic trees at Flood Park, action is needed. Below are a few ways, more ideas for action are on our Action webpage.

Support Petition

Become an Advocate

Ways to Participate:

The plan of San Mateo County Parks department is to cut down a major portion of the historic woodland in the park. This will have a major negative impact on wildbirds and the overall ecology of the park. It may very well have a negative impact on the remaining trees due to loss of the protective environment of those trees, resulting in hotter temperatures, stress of changes to soil microbes, moisture, and exposure to sunlight on soil.

Please visit the Action webpage and write to the county Supervisors to let them know that woodland trees should be preserved and protected. This is critical to protect this natural habitat for wildbirds and other wildlife that call Flood Park home throughout the year.