Walnut Creek is eagerly making ready to improve certainly one of its beloved parks, with a substantial chunk of funding stemming from a voter-approved gross sales tax anticipated to yield tens of tens of millions of dollars for the challenge.
The Metropolis Council has given the nod to the proposed enchancment of Heather Farm Park’s swim heart and group heart, each of that are greater than half a century previous and presently situated on reverse sides of the 102-acre park.
Although combining the 2 amenities would require lowering the scale of the fishing pond to make room for the brand new swimming pools, different facilities on the in style park will stay, together with tennis courts, picnic areas, the equestrian heart, a skate park, an off-leash canine park, bike paths, an all-ability playground, tot tons, a sand volleyball court docket, a nature pond, six athletic fields, restrooms and a connection to the Iron Horse Path. The brand new swim heart can be north of the central playground.
This sweeping challenge, among the many most expansive of its variety within the metropolis’s latest annals, is anticipated to value round $77 million and shall be partially bankrolled by income from Measure O – a half-cent gross sales tax sanctioned by voters in November for a number of gadgets, together with revamping of growing old infrastructure, public security and homeless initiatives.
On the Feb 7 council assembly, the workers introduced a forecast of Measure O revenues over the ten years the gross sales tax shall be in impact. The tax, which started April 1, will usher in an estimated $12.5 million every year.
The council directed workers to order $9 million of Measure O income for the subsequent two years, for a complete of $18 million, for building prices of the brand new pool and group heart at Heather Farm Park.
With an estimated $12.5 million in income from the gross sales tax anticipated in each fiscal 2024 and 2025, $3.5 million per yr from Measure O stays out there for different initiatives.
Council member Kevin Wilk mentioned in an interview that earmarking the cash now for the Heather Farm challenge will permit the town “to start out shifting within the route of getting it ready to be constructed, which incorporates an architect and among the preliminary planning that must occur.”
Kevin Safine, Walnut Creek director of arts and recreation, is presently on the lookout for an architect for the challenge. Wilk mentioned that the town anticipates devoting at the very least half of all of the Measure O funds to the Heather Farm challenge, with the rest divided amongst different group wants decided by a survey of residents performed within the spring of 2022.
The survey discovered that the highest precedence for the group was public security, adopted by well-maintained parks, and the restore or substitute of deteriorating metropolis constructions and amenities. Different priorities recognized within the survey embrace homeless intervention companies, packages for seniors and youth, COVID-19 restoration and catastrophe preparedness enhancements.
The ultimate suggestions on the way to allocate Measure O funding for the subsequent two years shall be introduced by workers in Could earlier than the council completes its biennial finances in June. Employees will return to the Finance Committee and Metropolis Council with a extra detailed proposed Measure O finances in Could for suggestions earlier than finances adoption in June.
At its Feb. 7 assembly, the council mentioned methods to fund the remainder of the Heather Farm challenge down the street, which might embrace borrowing from different funds or going into debt. No resolution has been made.