The City Council certified the Environmental Impact Report (EIR) in Dec. 2010 and referred the proposed project to three city commissions for their review and recommendations. The Recreation Commission has already met and recommended that the PRFO proposed project be approved by the Council. The remaining two Commission meetings are coming up soon: (UPDATE: Dates and times have been updated)

Park Commission: Thursday, Feb. 17, 5:30 p.m.
Planning Commission: Thursday, Feb. 24, 6:30 p.m.

Both meetings will be held in the City Council chambers, Piedmont City Hall, 120 Vista Ave.

PLEASE EMAIL OR WRITE A LETTER TO THE COMMISSIONS EXPRESSING YOUR VIEWS ON THE PROPOSED PROJECT OR SPEAK AT THE HEARINGS.
Comments may be submitted by email to the staff for distribution to Commissioners:

• Park Commission: email Mark Feldkamp: mfeldkamp@ci.piedmont.ca.us
• Planning Commission: email Kate Black: kblack@ci.piedmont.ca.us

Suggestions on points to make before the Park Commission and more information on alternatives are after the jump:

Key Points

• Project would remove 155 trees, including 55 mature live oaks.
• Blair Park is a wildlife corridor and home to dozens of species of birds and other wildlife.
• Loss of habitat is the primary reason for the decline of songbirds in America.
• Blair Park is the last remaining open space in Piedmont. Most cities try to preserve their open space.
• The park could be improved and better maintained, with native planting, a pedestrian/bicyclist boardwalk, benches and picnic tables. It could have several more parking spaces.
• Blair Park is a gateway to Piedmont that could be a lovely, landscaped entrance to the city.
• Beautification is one of the Park Commission’s charges. Creating a field of artificial turf, carving deeply into a natural hillside and then building a 325-foot long retaining wall from 15 to 35 feet high, and constructing a “berm” up to 25-feet high along Moraga Avenue will not beautify this park. It will be forever ruined as peaceful, tree-covered open space, and its potential to be another Crocker Park will be lost.

Alternative Plans

There are several plans which the City Council and the Commissions may consider:

Proponents (PRFO) plan: Although the sports club’s latest plan has added 20 parking spaces, their proposal still includes two fields the same size as their original plan which is much too massive for the space. The plan also includes lights and artificial turf at Coaches Field. Their plan would not mitigate any significant impacts.

Alternative plans: Two alternatives, proposed by Bill Blackwell and Al Peters, would expand the size of Coaches Field and build one smaller sports field or two practice fields at Blair Park. With more sports activity at Coaches and a smaller footprint at Blair, these proposals would reduce the impact on Blair Park, saving most of the park as open space. The plans would mitigate, but not eliminate, the significant impacts on Blair Park.

After the Commissions make their reports and recommendations to the City Council, the Council will vote on what (if any) project to adopt. This could happen as early as April, 2011.