“Poly Sports Fields”
June 1997  

The City General Plan Parks and Recreation Element (1995) identified youth athletic fields as the number one unmet need for facilities. Although the city uses 22 fields in it's youth and sports programs, the Element calls for 6 additional fields to meet current demand. The 1995-97 budget contains $100,000/yr for the city to embark on a program to locate and develop additional fields. Last year Cal Poly proposed that the City participate as 1/3 partner for $3million (firm) and $0 fields maintenance cost to develop a complex of 8 fields at Cal Poly, off Highland Dr. north of the campus. Cal Poly has stated that a smaller version of the complex would proceed even if the City did not participate.

$3million for the City's share is a lot of money, so staff was asked to investigate possible locations, costs and funding sources to develop its own fields. In January the City Council received an analysis of all potential sites in the city; all were more costly to develop and maintain than the Cal Poly proposal. The most feasible location found thus far is Laguna Lake Park, where 4 fields could be developed for around $3 million. However, the adopted Laguna Park Master Plan calls for passive use, not active recreational use. Therefore, the Park Master Plan would have to be changed, an Environmental Impact Report prepared and mitigations carried out. These might be difficult, since the fields would be so close to the Oceanaire neighborhood. City maintenance costs on the fields would be approximately $100,000/yr The most optimistic time frame for building these fields would be 3 years.

The trade off: a) unlimited use of 4 city fields, developed in 3 years for $3 million and $100,000/yr maintenance cost; or b) substantial use (details are still being worked out) of 8 Poly fields developed by next year for $3 million (firm) with $0 maintenance cost. Depending on the conditions of the use agreement, the Poly Project might be the better deal.

Can Poly be trusted to prepare a use agreement that the City will find favorable, and further trusted to live up to its conditions? I've worked closely with Poly Administration for over 40 years (most recently on the Performing Arts Center steering committee and the facilities committee) and have always found individual Poly representatives acting in the most straightforward and ethical manner. Most of the Poly administration are city residents and have an interest in seeing that the City is fairly served.

The EIR for the Cal Poly fields has been certified by the California State University Trustees. Wetland mitigation is being worked out on campus. Noise and night-lighting concerns are being worked out and the plans modified. Most off-campus access to the fields will be via Highland Dr. which has ample capacity to handle the additional traffic. Although Santa Rosa Street has adequate capacity to handle the additional traffic at this time, in the long term its regional nature will require that it be widened or that an alternate route be constructed. The primary traffic increases caused by the Cal Poly fields will be due to the baseball stadium (600 seats) and the softball stadium (300 seats). These will be developed whether the City participates or not. Residents concerned about effects on their neighborhood should do all they can to keep the City involved in the process and acting as their advocate. Were the City to develop sports fields anywhere else in the community, I believe the mitigation problems for lights, noise and traffic would be even more difficult.

Can the City afford $300,000/yr for Poly fields? The City has already decided to spend $100,000/yr on acquisition and development, maintenance costs of 4-6 fields is around $100,000/yr, participants have agreed to assess themselves for approximately $65,000/yr, and the school district has agreed to waive existing fees by $32,000/yr. This totals $297,000/yr. In addition, the Poly fields would allow tournaments which are not currently feasible. This would bring in many players and families, resulting in substantial business in SLO and increased City revenues. All of this should give us more than enough money to afford the fields development.