Recommendation to authorize City Manager, or designee, to execute all documents necessary to accept and expend grant funds from the State of California Department of Parks and Recreation Land and Water Conservation Fund, in an amount not to exceed $2,016,000, for the Davenport Park Expansion Project; Increase appropriations in the Capital Projects Fund Group in the Public Works Department by $1,975,680, offset by grant revenue; Increase appropriations in the Capital Projects Fund Group in the Public Works Department by $1,975,680, offset by a transfer of Land and Water Conservation Grant Funds from the State of California Department of Parks and Recreation from the Capital Grants Fund; and Increase appropriations in the Capital Projects Fund Group in the Parks, Recreation and Marine Department by $40,320, offset by grant revenue. (District 8)
Thank you. Item 25. Please. Item 25 Report from Parks, Recreation and Marine and Public Works. Recommendations to accept and expend grant funds from the State of California in an amount not to exceed one point million. The Davenport Park Expansion Project. District eight. Councilmember Austin. Thank you. Is there staff report? Yes. We have a brief staff report by Eric Lopez and Brant Dennis. Yeah. Thank you. Mr. City Manager, Honorable Mayor and members of City Council. I've asked our Parks Planning and Partnership Bureau Manager Meredith Reynolds to provide a brief presentation to support the project. Thank you to. Greeting members of mayors. The City Council wanted to provide a brief overview of the Davenport Park expansion. And next slide, please. This has been a long time coming. The history on the Davenport Park expansion began long before many of us were around when the Long Beach Redevelopment Agency acquired the six acre land, which is a former landfill in 2006. Since that point in time, the redevelopment agency has been dissolved, and so the property sat without the final design or any construction happening on it until 2014, where a community survey effort was begun. So since that survey provided some initial feedback in 2015, the concept plan was developed in partnership with the Community and Council District eight that took the survey information and started to create those concepts. From there in 2016. The concept plan was completed and the Department of Parks Recreation, Marine submitted a grant application that eventually led to what is being proposed in front of you today. During that time, we were working with the grant agency. Some initial work began and was completed to cap and close the landfill and to construct the walking path that is installed there today. The initial study and sequel was completed in 2019 and Site Plan, Review and Planning Commission approval was secured in January of 2020. Next slide, please. This additional acres of land just under six acres, together with the existing Davenport Park, will total approximately 12 acres. The amenities proposed include a multisport turf playing field and bleacher seating, outdoor fitness equipment that will be placed along a perimeter exercise walking loop shaded picnic area, drought tolerant landscaping and entry plaza on Paramount Boulevard . Additional parking along 55th way and many site furnishings throughout, including trash receptacles, benches, pedestrian lighting and bike racks. Probably most importantly, to make sure that the park feels like a holistic park is a connection to the existing developed part of Davenport, which will help us provide those pedestrian connections and make the park that total 12 acres feel very usable for the community. Next slide, please. This is the initial site layout that we have been working with the designer on. So you can see here the predominant amenity is that multisport turf field. And so this will have the opportunity to play a myriad of field sports. And the parking along 55th way along the Northern Access Point shows where people will access the park. And then you see the meandering walking loop surrounding the sports field. So you start to begin to see in this rendering how the new acreage will connect to the existing park and how the park begins to have a holistic feel from the user perspective. Next slide, please. So the project budget available for the project is just over 5.7 million. And tonight the item in front of you is to accept and appropriate the grant received from the Land and Water Conservation Fund. And there's additional measure, a funding that is set aside for this project along with 1.4 million and park impact fees. And the anticipated project timeline is here on the right section of your slide. And we're still in the design phase, which is anticipated to continue through July of 2021. Subsequent to that, a bid for the construction of the project is anticipated in November 2021, with the award in January of 2022. The construction is to follow, which is anticipated to happen between April and December of 2022. During that time, that section of the park will be fenced and under construction. And with that, that concludes my staff report. Myself, our director Brant Dennis and Public Works Director Erik Lopez are available for any questions. Thanks so much. You are, Mr. Reynolds, for the Great Staff Report. I can tell you that as a councilor for a district, somebody who has been working very hard with your department and staff to get this project moving, it has. This is this is welcome news, particularly this grant from the Water Conservation Fund. We'll actually put this project over the top. And I really think it's important to to point out what it takes to develop a park. Right. You went through a timeline there. That is, I think, very, very illustrative, where it shows that it takes several years and several different types of funding just to get a active recreation field or park developed. And so it's no small undertaking to do that. And so I do want to appreciate all of the dedication from our city staff that has gone into making this vision a reality, taking the former dump site, transforming it into a park that will be enjoyed for it for generations to come, for by, by youth and families, not Long Beach community. And so this is this is a project that I'm very, very proud of. I'm happy to make a motion to accept this this item and recommendation and ask my colleagues to fully support this as well. Okay. Great. Thank you. Next up is comes from India. I just wanted to second the motion and say that I absolutely support this. Congratulations, Councilmember Austin. I think that this is going to be great in your district. I'm very passionate about any time that we have an opportunity to increase green space and opportunities for families to enjoy, the outdoors is something that I'm always going to be supportive of, so I'm happy to support. And second, in your motion. Thank you. Come to my very Ringo. Thank you, Mayor. And I, too, want to extend my congratulations to cast member Austin. Projects like these. We'll take a peek a lot of time. As if not for the tenacity and the perseverance of the council officer in this case, Councilmember Austin. To keep this project moving along and looking for the money to make it happen is is a quite an accomplishment. I want to congratulate you on that. And I also support any kind of any kind of just an opportunity for open space. We're going to go for it. Thank you. Thank you. Councilman Richardson. Thank you. I want to also chime in. This is a great project. You know, it was a beautiful park before the second phase, but it's going to be completely transform space. So congratulations to Councilman Austin. This is I mean, this this is an area that has no parks actually no parks on that on that small area. It's very close to my home. It's used to be in the ninth district. And it's a see, this level of investment here is is incredible and it's certainly welcome and needed. So congratulations on this transformative, transformational project. Thank you, Councilwoman. Thank you. I want to congratulate Councilmember Austin. This is a fantastic project that has been years in the making. I cannot say enough how excited I am for this exciting project. Great work, great community input, and most especially great on bringing in outside funding. Thank you, Councilwoman Sara. Yes. I too want to thank Council member Austin for being such a strong advocate to ensure that there is expanded, open and green space in in North Arm region for the city overall. And so I want to congratulate you and and just appreciate that that that you continued to ensure that we do do have opportunities to create parks. And it's a lot of work. So thank you very much. Thank you. Before we vote, I just want to add, for as long as I've known Councilman Austin, we've been talking about this park and he has pushed and pushed and pushed staff and pushed me and has really been the champion on ensuring that this park gets finished. And, you know, if you haven't been out there and I have a few times, you just look at it and this the potential is just right there. It's an incredible space. It's just right next to the neighborhoods that really need access to open space. And I just want to also thank the staff for their creativity and making sure that this park never fell off the radar and that you guys kept pushing and pushing until we got it completed. And so thank you again to Councilman Austin for your leadership on this. I'm very excited for the opening of this park. I think I think, Councilman, you and I have done, I think, some similar openings when some of the trails were open and some of the other kind of smaller elements of the park, that this will be something really special when it's done. And so congrats again. And with that, we will go to a vote. Councilwoman Zendejas. I. Councilwoman Ellen. I. Councilwoman Pryce. I. Councilman, supra. All right. Councilwoman Mango. I am a woman. Sara. I. Councilmember Waronker. I. Councilman Austin. Vice Mayor Richardson. All right. Motion carries. Great. Thank you. That concludes the item on the agenda. Would you have any closing remarks? I do have one from comes from Ringo.