Measure L dollars at work!
Lodi’s parks are seeing the benefit of Measure L in the new fiscal year, which began July 1.
It was only a matter of days before two dangerous -- and rather large -- cottonwood trees at Emerson Park were removed, using Measure L as the project funding source. The trees threatened to drop large limbs on the nearby playgrounds and restroom.
By June of next year, Parks & Rec will be able to perform an additional $80,000 worth of pruning and removal of trees that pose a hazard to the public, thanks to voters’ approval last November of the half-cent sales tax measure and the City Council’s approval of Parks & Rec’s request. Otherwise, Parks & Rec had only $20,000 for this work.
Starting in August, Candy Cane Park will see a complete renovation, with Measure L funding a substantial portion of the work. And in early 2020, we expect to install a new child’s playground at English Oaks Park and another playground at Beckman Park. The preliminary concept is to make the apparatus at Beckman Park more appealing to teens and adults for targeted fitness activities.
DeBenedetti Park Site Master Plan Update
Following a series of community meetings and online polls that attracted more than 700 responses, the City Council on July 17 approved a new master plan for DeBenedetti Park.
The new plan recognizes DeBenedetti Park’s role in providing space for organized sports, as well as the need of the surrounding residents for neighborhood park amenities.
Fully developing the park will cost an estimated $14 million, with improvements phased over time. The first phase includes expanding the infrastructure needed to support the park’s uses, including additional parking off Century Boulevard and restrooms, with neighborhood park amenities to follow. Parks & Rec plans to develop construction plans for the first two phases later in 2019, with timing of the actual construction depending on the rate of impact fees paid by developers for future housing and commercial projects.
The overall plan calls for walking/jogging trails throughout the park, picnic areas, sports field lighting, a basketball court, one soccer and one baseball/softball field, an area for outdoor games like bocce and horseshoes, picnic areas, a band shell and other amenities not typically found in other Lodi parks.
City Applies for Hale Park Grant
The City has applied for nearly $5 million in State funding for the Hale Park Community Heritage Project in an effort to make Lodi’s park more of a focus of community life in the city’s Heritage District.
Hale Park, named after the City’s second mayor, dates to the 1870s, when it was known as “Wardrobe Grove.” The proposed project includes new playgrounds, new fencing, undergrounding overhead utility lines, and pathways that lead to a gazebo-like structure that will be the focal point of the park for public events. The proposal is based on recommendations from the dozens of community members who voiced their preferences at five public outreach meetings held at the park in May and June.
In addition, the project application includes future cooperation between the City and the Lodi Historical Society to use the park as a way to outline the park’s history and to document the history and role of various immigrant communities that have come to Lodi over the past 150 years.
Parks & Rec expects to hear by the end of the year if the application is successful. Funding would be through Proposition 68, a water and parks bond the State’s voters passed in June 2018.
Blakely Park/Pool Renovations Continue and Prop 68 Grant Application
A renovated swimming pool and a new shade structure are the latest improvements to Blakely Park, as Parks and Rec continues to use a combination of federal and State dollars to enhance the 10-acre park.
Within the next year, a new restroom will be placed on the west side of the park, using federal block grant funds. Also, the City anticipates ballfield renovations on the north side of the park in 2020, along with construction of a new basketball court.
This list of upgrades could continue if the City’s application to the State to fund a new shallow teaching pool, splash pad, restroom upgrades, parking lot and shaded picnic area is successful. Funding would come from Proposition 68, the same funding source eyed for upgrades at Hale Park.
The City held five outreach meetings at Blakely Park this spring to gather the community’s ideas about how the park could be improved.
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Candy Cane Park’s Extreme Makeover
Lodi’s smallest park is getting scraped to the ground (except for one tree) and rebuilt to address outdated and missing playground equipment and meet new regulations to allow disabled persons to access the park.
Candy Cane Park, just west of Ham Lane at Holly and Gerard drives, is 1/10th of an acre. Construction is expected to begin in August and includes replacing some of the surrounding sidewalks and new curbing to allow wheelchair access. Inside the park, the larger play area requires new walkways and modified irrigation due to changing hardscape.
The project will cost an estimated $350,000, with funding coming from Parks and Recreation funds, Measure L and the Street fund.
Parks Division staff developed plans to renovate the park in early 2016, but the estimated cost – which included required street and storm drain modifications required by the Americans With Disabilities Act -- exceeded available funding at the time. Candy Cane Park was identified as the department’s top project in 2016, and the Parks and Recreation Commission affirmed that selection in February 2019, three months after Lodi voters approved Measure L.
