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HomeMy WebLinkAboutMin - PR - 2023.01.19R C1TfY ti o� `ls Rvoawreo PARKS & RECREATION COMMISSION APPROVED Meeting Minutes Regular Meeting on Thursday, January 19, 2023 1. CALL TO ORDER The duly noticed regular meeting of the Burlingame Parks & Recreation Commission was called to order by Chair Pappaj ohn at 7:02 pm via Zoom meeting. 2. ROLL CALL COMMISSIONERS PRESENT: Holzman, Brunello, Pappajohn, Chang, Wettan, and Yu COMMISSIONERS ABSENT: STAFF PRESENT: OTHERS PRESENT: 3. APPROVAL OF MINUTES Milne Parks & Recreation Director Glomstad, Parks Superintendent Holtz, Parks Supervisor Burow & Recording Secretary Helley Council Member Peter Stevenson Commissioner Wettan made a motion to approve the October, November, and December minutes. The motion was seconded by Commissioner Holzman, and the motion was approved. 6-0-1 (Milne absent) 4. CORRESPONDENCE None 5. PUBLIC COMMENTS Councilmember Stevenson thanked the Commission for the chance to participate and stated he commends the Park & Recreation Department overall for all their hard work during the recent period of storms. He extended his thanks to all the staff. He also noted the importance of 1 Parks & Recreation Commission APPROVED Minutes January 19, 2023 improving the Parks Yard to ensure it is compliant from an access and ADA standpoint. He appreciates the opportunity to put it on public record. 6. OLD BUSINESS None 7. NEW BUSINESS a. Introduction: Carlie Burow — Parks Supervisor Superintendent Holtz introduced Carlie Burow, the new Parks Supervisor. Supervisor Burow stated that this was her dream job. She previously worked for Davey Resource Group, contracted by PG&E, mostly dealing with dead and dying trees up and down the Peninsula down to San Jose and Gilroy, resulting in her extensive knowledge of the area prior to joining Burlingame. Before Davey, she studied Environmental Science at California Lutheran University. b. Multijurisdictional Electric Bicycle Sharing Program Sustainability Program Manager Michael introduced herself and Assistant to the City Manager Kirshner to the Commission. She stated she and Assistant to the City Manager Kirshner have been working on a project with the City of Millbrae to create a multijurisdictional bike -sharing program. She shared a PowerPoint presentation. The cities issued an RFP, and of the three proposals received, the company they have been working with for the past few months is SPIN. The company has local experience (bike programs in Berkeley and San Francisco), low user fees, local staff, and a hybrid system with no cost to the cities. The program works by the users downloading an app on a smartphone to find bike locations, then scanning a QR code on the bike, providing a few safety rules. Then the user can ride the electric bike to the desired destination. The program will have incentivized parking to encourage users to return the bikes to a "parking corral." This program is a hybrid program meaning the user can ride the bike and park it wherever they want. It self -locks, then the user takes a photo of the bike, sends it in, and the ride ends. Michael stated the agreement is set to be finalized in the next week or so. The kickoff will be by identifying where the parking corrals will be located in the cities. The majority will be located in the downtown corridors, the Caltrain station, and near neighborhood parks. Michael also noted the cities applied to the San Mateo County Transportation Authority for a grant. Both cities received the grant funds, so the program has $440,000 to help subsidize the cost of the bikes to encourage usage. The funds will also be used to install new bike racks throughout the City. The red bikes weigh about 85 pounds with two kickstands. They are hard to topple over and generally more resilient than a regular bike. She invited questions, concerns, and comments from Commission. 2 Parks & Recreation Commission APPROVED Minutes January 19, 2023 Commissioner Chang liked the idea and asked for more information about the incentivized parking structure and how it relates to possible bike litter. Michael stated the app shows where the preferred parking areas are, and if users park in those designated areas, they will receive fifty cents or a dollar off their next ride. This option is flexible to what the cities decide regarding discounts, and some of the grant funds can be used for this. One of the reasons the cities like SPIN is the company is committed to having two local staff members/employees working in Burlingame to rebalance the bikes. Rebalancing means they move the bikes back to popular areas, or if they see a bike that has not been moved in 72 hours in a neighborhood, they will bring it back to one of the preferred parking locations. Also, the public can call if they see a bike left in a random place. The company has committed to responding within two hours during weekdays to move the bike. Commissioner Brunello inquired how the bikes are recharged since there are no docking stations, whether the bikes have a maximum speed, and if so, is it controllable. Michael noted the company has a warehouse in South San Francisco, and the batteries are swapped out in lieu of the bikes being taken, charged, and returned. In addition, the app shows the rider and the company the level of charge on the batteries. There is also geofencing technology to control where the bikes can go. The bikes can go up to 20 miles an hour, which is in the contract. It is also possible to have the electric component disabled when a rider enters a park area only to allow for pedaling or the maximum bike speed to 10 mph in a park area. The company also offers a live data dashboard showing where people are taking bikes, a "heat" map of the most frequented areas and popular routes, how many bikes are being used daily, how many new/returning users, etc. The information will allow staff to adapt the program as needed. Commissioner Holzman was curious about geofencing. Michael noted it is great to do this with Millbrae as users can take the bikes to BART and vice versa. Staff believed the bikes could not be stopped completely, but the electric mode would be disabled when a user went beyond the geofence. This makes for an unpleasant peddling ride as the bikes are quite heavy. If a bike is left beyond the geofence, SPIN staff will pick up the bikes and rebalance them to the parking corrals. Commissioner Wettan asked about the grant funds and if there was a contractual obligation on SPIN's part not to "ghost" the cities, and the City is out of the grant funds. Michael confirmed the contract contains a clause that if the program fails to operate as outlined in the scope of work, then SPIN has to return whatever funds the City put in. Wettan inquired if either school district has weighed in on this on how they feel about having bike corrals with these bikes parked in them or how they feel about elementary and high school students using the bikes. Michael stated the program requires the users to be 18 years of age. However, SPIN is considering lowering the age to 16 based on high school interests. Wettan asked how the 20 mph speed was determined and if there was any concern about user skills. Michael noted that 20 mph is a class I bike standard speed for electric bikes. She noted the learning curve is very quick. The bikes are e-assist, so riders feel the e-assist as they pedal. He also asked if the City could direct how many bikes could be relocated to certain areas. He cautioned that the City should not rely on the "best interest' of the company to rebalance bikes. If there is anything staff thinks should happen, it must be in the contract. He also asked if BPAC and TSP have weighed in on this program. Michael confirmed they both have, as she presented to them in October. He also noted that Hillsborough would be the area he thought that geofencing 3 Parks & Recreation Commission APPROVED Minutes January 19, 2023 would come in handy. Michael noted she would talk with Hillsborough to see how they feel about the bikes since they seemed to like the LIME bike program and if they would like to join. Commissioner Yu is excited about the program and is curious about what would be considered a success and how we would obtain user feedback. Michael noted the number of complaints and ridership numbers would measure success. In addition, user feedback can be obtained through surveys on the app for riders to complete. Public Comment — Parks Supervisor Burow inquired if there is a weight/height requirement for the bikes. Assistant to the City Manager Kirshner stated the recommended height is about 5 ft to 6 ft 4 inches, but there is no, at least in the City's contract, a set height or weight limit. Councilmember Stevenson noted he is excited about the e-bike program and feels the City needs to continue the efforts around sustainability. Commission thanked Michael and Kirshner for their presentation. 8. STAFF AND COMMISSIONER REPORTS a. Parks & Recreation Department Reports Director Glomstad gave a recap of the recent storms. Excluding the previous evening, the City rain gauge recorded from December 22, 2022, 22 inches of rainfall 5 inches of that was on December 31, 2022. On December 31, staff initiated a Department Operations Command Center with Public Works and Emergency Services, then escalated to a virtual Emergency Operations Command Center. Flooding occurred in different locations throughout the City. The flooding did cause some potholes, which Public Works temporarily repaired and will return to fix more permanently once the weather improves. In addition, Public Works crews installed over 100 temporary stop signs due to ongoing power outages throughout the City. Over the last several weeks, Public Works received over 212 service calls related to flooding. Two thousand tons of sand and over sixteen thousand sandbags went out to the public during this time period. Easton Creek had a couple of breaches to which temporary fixes were placed. They will be reevaluated when the weather has improved. The City sewer system had a few issues with increased water flow due to the increased rainfall. Some City facilities did have leaks, including the new Community Center. The groundwater below the parking garage seeped through, and there was a leak in the roof. The contractor is fixing the issues. After every storm, Public Works and the Parks Division staff were out in the City removing blockages, removing silt, and picking up tree limbs. 4 Parks & Recreation Commission APPROVED Minutes January 19, 2023 The Parks Division had thirty emergency calls. Of those thirty calls, only eight were for City property. Most of the calls were for tree and branch failures related to El Camino Real, Hillsborough, or in the county jurisdiction (Burlingame Hills area). After every major storm event, staff patrolled every street, picking up branches that were in the right of way, and noted any potential issues needing follow-up. There were four City tree failures, three of which were eucalyptus trees, one that was removed due to a water main break, and three eucalyptus trees that were removed preemptively. They were starting to lean and were removed before failing. Mills Canyon had three landslides of varying degrees, with one closing the lower trail. It will be closed for a while to allow it to dry out and for staff to assess how to proceed with rebuilding/rerouting the trail. Glomstad noted that several staff went above and beyond the call of duty. Lead Works Pedro Barron and Neal Brosnan were out there during the storm. Maintenance Workers Jasen Wong and Steven Pappas were on call doing work in the evenings. Also, Parks Supervisor Carli Burow and Parks Superintendent Holtz checked all the large eucalyptus trees on Burlingame Ave, Easton Ave, Skyline, and along the train tracks after each event to assess the stability of groves. Commission expressed thanks for all the work and dedication from staff during this period and for keeping the City up and running during the recent potentially catastrophic events. b. Commissioners Reports Commissioner Holzman — No Report Commissioner Wettan — Reported meeting with Manager Acquisti and Supervisor Coggins about building continuity in the coaching for the 4tn-8tn grade after -school sports program. They made some progress and will keep the dialog open. Commissioner Yu — Reported she met with the Burlingame Soccer Club board. They reported they have been experiencing challenges with access to fields as they are a renter and not a validated user group. Commissioner Brunello — Reported having a brief meeting with Burlingame Softball and BYBA, who noted the two groups are getting along better. Commissioner Pappajohn— Reported that the Pickleball Committee held two listening sessions this past week. Items discussed were the current policy and paddle holders. The Committee will continue to get input. 9. FUTURE AGENDA ITEMS 10. ADJOURNMENT There being no further business, the meeting was adjourned at 8:02 pm. 5 Parks & Recreation Commission APPROVED Minutes January 19, 2023 The next meeting of the Parks & Recreation Commission is scheduled to be held on Thursday, February 16, 2023, at 7:00 pm via zoom webinar. Respectfully submitted, Joleen Helley Recording Secretary 6 Parks & Recreation Commission APPROVED Minutes January 19, 2023