Five Projects Top Capital Improvements List

Piedmont's Capital Improvement Project (CIP) Committee wants the city this fiscal year to install artificial turf at Coaches Field and a fire hydrant at the corporation yard. The committee also recommends the city start work on three other projects, most notably seismic and structural fixes at the education wing of the former Christian Science church in the center of town.

The CIP Committee presented its list at the city budget workshop on May 21. The has not yet approved the committee’s recommendations.

Meanwhile, the Piedmont Park Commission on Wednesday heard an update on the CIP Committee recommendations from Parks and Project Manager Mark Feldkamp. 

“There are very limited funds,” said Feldkamp at the commission’s monthly meeting at Piedmont City Hall. “We want to prioritize what we should be doing.”

Between carryovers, deferred, and new projects, the CIP Committee proposals would amount to about $800,000 in outlays from Piedmont's CIP fund in the coming months. With it unlikely the city will add to the fund in 2011-2012, that would leave the account with about $500,000.

"We were operating on the assumption ... that the city council won't want to [let the fund balance] go below $400,000 to $500,000," said CIP Committee Chair Leesy Taggart, explaining how the group figured what it had to work with in making its spending recommendations.

Coaches Field Improvements: $653,340

Funds earmarked for improvements to Coaches have been accumulating in the CIP account over the last five years. The $653,340 still set aside for that project—after some money was spent to study turf options—should be just about enough to complete it in combination with an additional $500,000 available through the regional park district's Measure WW, according to Taggart. Any further spending needed would be pushed to 2012-2013.

The turf project has stalled while the city has been considering a proposal for across Moraga Avenue and that could involve expanding Coaches.

"Nothwithstanding if Blair goes forward ... Coaches needs to go forward," Taggart said, labeling the project as "high impact" for the Piedmont community.

She also wants the city to make a decision in short order about to Coaches, which has been debated alongside the considerations about Blair. As a member of the in favor of the lights.

Fire Hydrant Replacement: $34,393

All the back and forth about sports fields has also tied up the plan to spend $34,393 for a fire hydrant at the corporation yard above Coaches. But Taggart said her committee concluded in light of public safety that the hydrant is needed now.

"The fire chief feels strongly ... that it's important ... to make sure there's water available in that area of town that's ... still so wooded," she said. "We concur."

801 Magnolia Building Repairs: $75,000

A new community non-profit group's ambition to convert the neglected church sanctuary at 801 Magnolia Ave was the impetus for the CIP committee to make the rehabilitation of the education wing of the building a priority. The committee is proposing $75,000 as an initial outlay of the $331,491 tagged for the rehab.

"It's a very timely project… to make that entire building usable."

, however, whether investing in the building is premature without a decision on how the space would be used. A number of suggestions have been floated: it could be used to expand the Recreation Department's preschool program which currently has a long waiting list, as a study and hang out space for middle and high school students, or as a reading room should the city's negotiations with Oakland for library services fail.

"We need to have a public conversation about how to use that space," Taggart said.

The seismic and structural updates that the CIP committee wants to see done would however, according to Taggart, be necessary regardless of how the space is ultimately employed.

"My guess is that some kind of multi-use availability for that space [would be the answer]. ... We don't have enough [public space in Piedmont] to give us the benefit of single use space."

Replace City Hall Courtyard Wall: $15,000

Next on the CIP committee's list is the repair of a crumbling wall on the far side of the city hall courtyard, which the group estimated at $15,000.

"That needs to be done under the rubric of maintaining public facilities. … You don't want a falling down wall at city hall," Taggart said. 

The wall is “about ready to fall” and needs to be reconstructed, Feldkamp told the Park Commission.

Repair of the wall is the only project among the committee's priorities that has not already received a nod from City Council.

Traffic Triangle at Ramona/Ronada Intersection: $29,411

Finally, the committee is suggesting that the city put in a $70,000 traffic triangle around the intersection of Ronada and Ramona Avenues as soon as possible.

That intersection, said Taggart, has become particularly hairy since a traffic signal went in at Ronada and Grand Avenues and drivers started cutting through the neighborhood to avoid the light.

The first phase of the project would usurp the installation of a landscaped median at Grand and Rose, which had been targeted for $14,411 in spending this year, and absorb the $15,000 earmarked in the CIP fund for tree removal and replacement, since that cost has been moved over to the operating side of the city budget. It would also utilize $2,000 raised by neighbors to put in the hardscape and irrigation.

The committee speculated the $40,000 worth of landscaping needed could be done in 2012-2013 with some combination of private and city funds.

Feldkamp said the triangle was about more than aesthetics.

“It’s not only for the beauty of the neighborhood,” he said. “It’s very active, kids walk to school.”

Total Recommended Outlays from the Capital Improvement Project Fund: $807,144

If by some stroke of luck more cash should become available in 2011-2012 for spending on capital improvements, the CIP committee said a solution to the drainage problems at Hampton Field would be tops on its wish list. 

Feldkamp told the Park Commission that improvements to Hampton Field, at Hampton Road and La Salle Avenue, would cost between $1.2 and $1.5 million. This includes installing a new drainage system as well as refurbishing the tennis and basketball courts and adding a new play area.

The project would be completed in three phases, starting with the drainage system and tennis courts, Feldkamp said. 

“People like the park. They just want to improve everything there,” he said. “This is not a trivial project, it’s a pretty significant one.”