The city of Ukiah is moving forward with plans for a new park along the Russian River after the proposal was embraced by the Public Spaces Commission this week.
“There is a property at the end of Norgard Lane that the city owns that could be turned into a park,” Community Services Director Neil Davis told the commission at their latest meeting Tuesday evening, describing the parcel as technically outside the city limits currently, but “within an area that the city likely will annex.”
Most of the surrounding property that the city also owns will be used for activities connected to the nearby Waste Water Treatment Facility, Davis continued, “but there is quite a few acres there, about 2.5 of which that could be made into a park, and there is also room along the Russian River to the south for us to put in a trail that would go down to the east side of the river.”
Another possibility that Davis said had not been pointed out in the staff reports prepared for the March 11 meeting was that the trail going south along the river could connect to a larger park at the bottom, “so we could theoretically have a 2.5-acre park (at the top) with a trail connecting it to another 12-acre park (at the other end).”
Also in that general area will be the southernmost part, or Phase 4, of the Great Redwood Trail, and Davis said construction on that is “expected to start pretty soon, weather-dependent,” and its terminus at the end of Plant Road could eventually connect with the potential new trail near the entrance to the WWTF.
“Right now, we have a lot of bird enthusiasts who come through that area to do bird-watching,” said Davis, noting that it has become so popular with local birders that they call it “the Ukiah Wetlands.” He also acknowledged that the “team that manages the WWTF isn’t super crazy about people coming through the area to access (the wetlands), so we realized that there is a gravel road that comes around the side, and we think we can put in a little parking lot that would allow people” better access to the area, and might even expand the hours that they could look for birds.
When asked how residents in the area felt about the plan so far, Davis said that he had “primarily heard positive feedback, but we haven’t done outreach (to the extent) that would allow me to say” definitively whether or not the community is in favor of having a park there.
Also on city-owned property at the end of Norgard Lane, Davis said, is a barn “that could be developed as some sort of a facility that would support park-type activities,” including kayak storage, or as a place for people to practice the dances for Quinceañera celebrations, as “we’ve heard there is a shortage of spaces for people to do that, so there are a lot of things that could be done with that site.”
Heading toward the river from the barn, Davis said there is already a path to the water, and the spots there include a swimming hole, adding that “a lot of us floated down the river from Riverside Park last summer, and it was super pleasant.”
After his presentation, most people addressing the commission either online or in-person said they were enthusiastic about having another park, particularly one with river access, but that they did have concerns about how much parking would be created, and one nearby resident pointed out the current access road was quite narrow, and that having a lot of people visiting the area could create safety issues.
“The road is really narrow, so that is definitely a challenge,” Davis said, adding again that while it is currently a “county-maintained road, the city is hoping to annex that area. And again, this is all first steps, so this is exactly the kind of thing we need to hear about, especially from people who live in the area.”
As far as next steps, Davis said he is currently “preparing a grant application to the California Coastal Conservancy,” and if the city receives those funds they would pay for “someone to solicit community input, then draw up a plan based on that input,” and also help pay for the creation of a plan for refurbishing on the barn, and for initial environmental assessment of the park, such as soil testing.
“And we’ll set up a steering committee to kind of oversee planning of the park,” said Davis, noting that it would be great if two members of the Public Spaces Commission could be on the committee. After his presentation and public comments were received, the commission expressed support for the proposal, and two members of the commission agreed to join the steering committee.
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