About five years ago, serious discussions started about how to provide nearby recreational space for the growing number of kids who do youth sports, and an extensive search was conducted of property in Piedmont and Oakland. While it’s true that the most pressing driver of the project is the expiration of Piedmont’s leases in Alameda for field space, it is also true is that the park as currently proposed would be a multi-use park that provides usable open space where there currently exists an inaccessible patch of publicly owned land.
Community-Wide Asset
Blair Park is not just for youth sports. The park will be connected by sidewalks to nearby streets and will have a place for dog walking, unstructured play, organized sports and perhaps a community garden. The current site is inaccessible except to those who live adjacent to it. Additionally, the smaller, grassy field is proposed to be used for weekday practices only and not for weekend games and therefore available all weekend, all summer and during non-practice times for community recreation and relaxation.
Environmentally Responsible
Blair Park will be built using recycled materials, use drought resistant landscaping, and utilize storm water capture for irrigation and landscaping. The site’s proximity will enable people to bike or walk to the park rather than having to drive to Alameda or another field location. Furthermore, PRFO has committed to using organic field turf for the main field and natural grass for the smaller field to provide the most pleasing park feel for casual users.
Fiscally Responsible Gift to Piedmont
Blair Park will be built thanks to the generous donations of Piedmont citizens. Not only that, but the sports clubs have committed to setting up a funding mechanism to pay user fees (which now go to Alameda) to cover future maintenance costs. This park is truly a gift for Piedmont and its future generations.
Good Planning
The city has undertaken an objective process to review the potential impacts of the project, including a professional environmental study. Everyone has been given multiple opportunities to provide input into the study and the Final Environmental Impact Report will be released in October so the City Council has all of the facts to make an objective, educated decision. A public discussion about hours of use and other conditions will shape the final park.
Sports Open to All
How would you feel if your 6 year-old son, daughter, neighbor or grandchild had to try out for their community soccer, baseball or lacrosse team? That’s exactly what could happen when the field leases in Alameda expire in 2012. Since the early 1990s, the number of children playing youth sports has more than doubled due to an explosion of participation by girls, who now play sports in nearly equal numbers to boys. That is as it should be.
Until recently, Piedmont has been able to accommodate that increased participation by using fields in other cities. But as these other cities have experienced their own youth sports boom, they have eliminated field use by outside teams, including Piedmont. Approximately 330 children would lose their fall soccer practice slots alone if new field space is not built by the time the Alameda leases expire, not to mention the impact on other sports. The blow would be especially dire on children 10 and older because the only full size field is Witter which is already fully booked. With Blair Park we can Save 330.
