Letter to the Planning Commission, New Central Park Master Plan

Tuesday, March 25, 2015

Dear Planning Commission,

Yesterday evening I attended your meeting on the proposed new Central Park Master Plan. While I made comments then, I wanted to write a brief letter to follow up, taking in consideration the final comments of the Commission, which I watched from home online.

Baseball Diamond and Tennis Courts

Organized sports are an important way for our citizens to get outside and stay healthy. We need more of these features not less. The substitutions proposed at other parks are further away from many neighborhoods. Given complaints in San Mateo about traffic, the need for more people to drive within town should be discouraged. Also, generic athletic fields are not the same as an actual ballpark. Scale down the bleachers, but please keep the organized sports where they are currently situated.

Train

It is wonderful to have a little train for the younger children, however making it a more dominant feature seems overly ambitious. I am concerned about how this will impact access to the children's playground, as well as safety, particularly in the Community Center Option. Under this scenario a child playing in the 2-5 year zone would be in an entirely different, fenced off area from a second child playing in the 5-12 year zone. As people often have children of varying ages, this distinct a separation between playgrounds is totally impractical and unsafe for many families.

Parking

Please do not decrease the existing parking, but spare our park the impact of any more. The cost for additional parking seems way too expensive and invasive for the return on investment. Despite the gripes we hear regularly about lack of parking, open space is more scarce than spots to put a car.

Plaza

A  large, cement feature does not enhance the character of the park as a retreat from the urban space of downtown. Comparisons to Redwood City do not persuade me. The Plaza in Redwood City is often rented to private events and corporate parties. Should this come to pass in San Mateo, it would be a horrible set back to the general public who would actually lose park space despite a stated objective of gaining more.

Self Help for the Elderly

There is a demonstrated benefit to this organization. Should they be displaced from Central Park, it would be to the benefit of the City to find suitable accommodation for them in the downtown area.

Bathrooms

The one point of the new plans I have only praise for it is improving the existing restroom as well as providing another option or two.

Finally, I very much agree with comments from Commissioner Massey urging we respect the existing uses of the park. Please help it maintain its historic character as well as its current user base. Do not alienate the existing daily users by moving forward with unproven proposals which may not in fact enhance the user experience for our citizens in the long run. As many said last night, let’s not expend a great deal of City revenue ‘fixing’ a park which is beloved as it is now.

Kind regards,