The Piedmont City Council will consider approving a design contract for the Blair Park Fields Project at a public hearing on Monday, May 18, 2009 at 7:30 p.m. in the Piedmont City Council Chambers. The agenda and staff reports will be available for viewing on the City website on Friday, May 15th on the Current Agenda page.

Because of the major financial and environmental impacts of the project, and in light of viable alternative sports fields recently identified at nearby Merritt College (see below), we believe the City Council should table the Blair Park project. If you would like to join us in opposing the project, we urge you to write to the City Council and/or attend the meeting on Monday.

To present our position to the Council in advance of the meeting, Al Peters, former Mayor of Piedmont, wrote the following open letter to the City Council on behalf of Friends of Moraga Canyon:

On Monday, May 18th, the Piedmont City Council will discuss approval of a contract for architectural design work for Blair Park. The design work is required in order to provide adequate information to prepare an Environmental Impact Report for the Blair Park Sports Fields/Coaches Field Synthetic Turf and Field Lighting Project.

Only one design is under consideration, that of the most expansive proposal requiring:

• extensive excavation into the canyon hillside and fill to the street side,
• a 40-foot retaining wall plus fencing at the back of the canyon,
• a 20-foot retaining wall plus fencing on the frontage of Moraga Avenue,
• a handicap ramp and pedestrian bridge over Moraga Avenue,
• two playing fields,
• a concession stand and
• two parking lots.

This is a massive multi-million-dollar development of a sensitive open space in a time of great economic uncertainty.

Two new alternatives have surfaced at nearby Merritt College that could provide a solution to the issues of environmental impact, finance, field size, safety, expediency and probability of completion. Merritt College is 5 miles from Piedmont with easy access via Highway 13.

First, the college has expressed its desire to work together with local sports groups to make its three existing sports fields a well-maintained community resource. Second, the college has tracts of graded land that can be developed for play fields with priority or sole use given to the developer.

Ultimately, it is unrealistic to expect to raise the estimated $7 million for the Blair Park project. The best approach is to redirect funds already available for Blair/Coaches to a site that can be used in the near future at a more realistic cost.

The Friends of Moraga Canyon urge the City Council to table the contract before you and take the time to investigate the possibilities offered by Merritt College before approving the expenditure of any additional funds for the Blair Park/Coaches Field project.

Al Peters
For Friends of Moraga Canyon