On December 8, 2010, members of the City of Roseville Parks and Recreation presented the park site proposal for the W-53 park site located between the new St. John’s church/school and Carrington/Walkabout homes. Jeff Dubinsky, Park Manager and Tara Gee, Senior Park Planner presented the proposal to over 30 members of the WestPark-Fiddyment Farm neighborhood. The park is considered a City-Wide Park (like those adjacent to the Junction and Chilton schools), and as such, will be used by the City for city-organized sports.

As planned, park amenities will include: adult outdoor fitness equipment, 2-seat bathrooms, picnic and play areas, and a fenced dog park. Sports amenities will include 2-youth softball fields with a soccer field overlay, 3 half-court basketball courts, and 2 tennis courts. At this time, the only lighting will be those for security, but they are still deciding about lighting the tennis courts—if so, they will have automatic shut-off at 10:00 PM.

The plan does not include any on-site parking, but they indicated parking should be amply provided by the church/school areas. Representatives from St. John’s responded that the church is supposed to have 250 parking spots, but they have not as yet even begun their plans for the school facility.

Following the planning and approval phases, the project would go out to bid in the winter of 2011, with construction to begin in the spring of 2012 and finish summer of 2012, and probably followed by a 3-month waiting period for the grass to grow (as with Junction and Chilton now). City-Wide park fees are part of each house purchase price, and $10 of each city-run sports fee goes towards parks maintenance. Ms. Gee also mentioned that homeowners mello roos assessments also contribute to park maintenance fees. She said that currently we are only being assessed with the one completed park (Burner) and assessments will increase as each park is completed for use.

A number of comments and concerns were brought up by the neighborhood members:

• Will the dog park be split into small and large dog areas? Still being considered.
• Several neighbors felt the park should be ‘flipped’ so that the sports area is away from the houses and conveniently closer to the parking areas, thus taking the noise and lights away from the residential areas. This would also put the picnic and children’s areas closer to the residential areas.

Some concern was raised about the mello roos assessments which have already been increased each year to the maximum. If we are supposedly only being assessed for one park currently, how will the needs be met as the new parks are completed? No comment from the City.

The W-53 park site plan (concept) has been posted for viewing and comment at yourlandscape@Roseville,CA.US. The comment period will end Wednesday, December 22, 2010.

WFFNA would encourage you to submit your support to ‘flip’ the park site and any additional concerns you have before the deadline.