The Redondo Beach City Council took aim at the city’s status as a “park poor” community last night, as part of its Fiscal Year 2015-16 mid-year budget adjustments.
The motion, put forward by District 3 councilman Christian Horvath, created an Open-Space Acquisition fund, seeding it with $300,000. His motion also set aside funds for accelerating the city’s street repaving projects, as well as for improving the city’s aging facilities. An amendment by District 2 councilman Bill Brand added $50,000 to supplement the city’s Traffic Calming Program.
Council adopted the budget in June, as it does each year, with an estimated ending balance of $4.3 million, excluding a $6.7 million set aside as contingency.
The midyear adjustments are designed “to maintain the City’s operational effectiveness and financial health,” as outlined in a report from staff.
Those adjustments came in the form of 22 decision packages. Among those packages were the option to fund the General Plan update, which was approved at the March 3 Council meeting; the creation of a new police lieutenant position; and tightening of the city’s code enforcement.
Mayor Steve Aspel initially made a push to help improve the city’s parks, citing multitudes of parents “clamoring for lights and backstops” at Julia Field and Dominguez Park.
“We have parents looking for remedies for lack of field time in their immediate needs,” he said. “They’re not worried about five or ten years from now…their kids are nine, and they want it done before their kids are out of little league.”
However, City Manager Joe Hoefgen convinced the council to hold off on that idea, suggesting staff take the idea into consideration and research it to better estimate costs.
Horvath then made his motion to approve staff’s 22 decision packages, as well as his amendments for a major facilities reconstruction fund, an infusion of cash to accelerate the city’s street repaving projects, and the $300,000 to create a fund for the City to acquire parks and open space in the future.
District 2 Councilman Bill Brand has often brought up Redondo’s status as a park poor community, doing so again earlier in the meeting during a review of the city’s Park and Open Space inventory.
According to a study by USC’s Center for Sustainable Cities, the South Bay region is alongside the South, East and Metro Los Angeles regions as having the fewest park acres per thousand residents.
“The South Bay doesn’t typically fit with the above groups,” Brand said, referring to the report. “It’s a problem, and it’s not getting better; it’s getting worse, because population is going up.”
District 5 Councilwoman Laura Emdee pumped her fists in excitement at Horvath’s motion.
“We’ve talked about Redondo being ‘park-poor’ for a very long time now. It’s time that we start doing something about it,” Emdee said after the meeting. “I know it’s a drop in the bucket — it’s a small token. But it’s a start.”
With this, Emdee figures that the city can begin contributing funds as years roll on. “We’ll eventually be able to buy new parkettes,” she said. “We can even expand parkettes [by buying adjacent land] so we can just have new parks.”
It was second park-related victory for Horvath that day. Earlier in the meeting, it was announced that Los Angeles County had awarded a $300,000 grant to improve District 3’s Ensenada Parkette.
The motion, and its amendments, passed 4-1, with District 4 councilman Steve Sammarco dissenting.
