West San Jose Resident
News
City kicks off master sports field study in meeting with community
By Eli Segall
The city of San Jose kicked off its sports fields feasibility study Feb. 26 with a community meeting at Moreland-West Community Center in West San Jose. More than 30 residents from across the city attended the meeting, hosted by San Jose Parks Department deputy director Cynthia Bojorquez.
The San Jose City Council approved the $165,000 plan to hire a consultant and seek community input on ways to better utilize field space within the city last December, after Councilwoman Nancy Pyle proposed the idea.
Participants at the meeting were offered a chance to sign up for the study's five subcommittees, which will inventory existing facilities; identify partnerships or land acquisitions; inventory sports user groups; explore other cities' sports fields policies; and examine San Jose's current permitting and scheduling process.
Each committee has been assigned a city staff member who will serve as an adviser to the group.
"This is a good approach," said San Jose Parks Commission chairwoman Helen Chapman. "We need to see what we have now; it's something the parks commission has been asking for for years."
Chapman, who lives in San Jose, has heard some groups need a permit just to play Frisbee.
The city is also working with the San Jose Unified School District on a separate plan to jointly fund and operate community fields on school campuses. The city has reached an agreement with San Jose Unified School District to build a $5.5 million jointly funded and operated community sports complex at Leland High School, to be used as a model for other school sites citywide.
The city council is scheduled to vote on the agreement on March 20. Bojorquez declined to comment on the deal. Sonja Shurr, the school district's facilities manager who worked on the deal, could not be reached for comment.
The complex will include construction of two synthetic-turf soccer fields, refurbished baseball and softball fields, the addition of new concession stands and bathrooms and usage of the existing football field. It will be open to the public for 5,000 hours annually, outside of regular school hours.
The project is scheduled to break ground in July, with work to be completed by October, said Leland principal Bob Setterlund.
Under the agreement, the school district and the city's parks department will jointly operate the complex. The partnership is the first of its kind for a San Jose Unified high school. While the district is in the process of upgrading its natural grass fields at its high schools, Leland is the first facility to receive city funding for the upgrades, said district spokeswoman Karen Fuqua.
Details on funding the fields have not been made public, but San Jose Unified construction director Ty Williams said the district will contribute $3.5 million toward the project using funds from Measure F, a $453 million bond that voters approved in 2002 for the modernization of the district's 48 schools. The city will contribute $2 million, Williams added.
Pyle said last October, when the district announced the partnership, that Measure P bond money could be used for a sports complex.
Williams said the district was preparing to move forward with design plans for the complex last summer as part of upgrades earmarked for Measure F money when the city offered to help manage and fund the complex in exchange for expanded public use.
The city agreed to pay for upgraded synthetic turf on the new fields, which will cost an additional $1.2 million to $1.4 million, Williams said. The new restrooms at the complex will also be city-funded, he added.
Discussions are under way for similar partnerships in the East Side Union School District and West San Jose's Moreland School District, Bojorquez said.
For more information about the Sports Fields Feasibility Study, call Teri Allen at 408.793.5559.
