Zoe Morgan/Town Crier
A crew smooths the concrete Monday for the courtyard of the new Los Altos Community Center.
As the new Los Altos Community Center nears completion, city council members and staffers are conducting a thorough re-examination of the city’s parks and recreation programs and operations.
At an April 27 study session, the council heard from department leaders and consultants who presented an exhaustive “organizational assessment” of city programs and residents’ needs. City officials conducted surveys and stakeholder interviews, and did a comparison of programs in nearby cities. In addition, the city employed Godbe Research to do a scientific survey about community center use, sampling over 1,000 registered Los Altos voters.
Several findings emerged. Residents desired equal access to programs throughout the city, with offerings in south Los Altos as well as the north. Department heads also discovered a noticeable gap in programming, usually catering to youth and seniors while underserving adults. People also cited high program fees, budget constraints and uninteresting programs.
The assessment pointed out that the parks and rec department is short-staffed, has been impacted by staff turnover and needs a change in organizational structure.
In a survey on parks and rec priorities over the next one to three years, “respondents overwhelmingly indicated that the main priority should be ensuring services are equitably provided across the city, followed by making the community center a success,” the assessment stated. “Develop strategies to mitigate the perceived divide between northern and southern areas of Los Altos.”
Recommendations also call for better optimizing use of all facilities and parks, revitalizing existing programs and creating new ones that appeal to a wider variety of people.
“Although the department does already offer a range of programs, the existing ones do not meet the interests of the general community,” said the August 2020 assessment from Blue Point Planning. “Further investigation should be done to uncover the community’s interests, so that each individual’s needs can be accommodated.”
Post-pandemic programming
Much of the focus at last week’s special session was on the operations of the new community center, on track to open to the public in the fall. Godbe survey results showed residents most likely using the new cafe at the center, followed by the courtyard, playground area, dance and fitness room, and large community room with patio.
Council members, department heads and consultants all discussed a need for more “quality programming” to attract residents to the center. Also emphasized was public access to the center – and all facilities, for that matter – requiring increased hours of operation, additional staffing and revenue.
Councilmember Anita Enander said the new center, at 24,500 square feet, is smaller than the previous Hillview Community Center, and wondered about the impact on the programming that could be offered.
“We said ... we were going to be able to do less of certain kinds of programs, we were not going to be able to deliver what we were delivering before,” she said. “We don’t have a baseline to work with – it was never delivered. I’d like to know ahead of time what we’re doing because, quite frankly, I’m not confident that we’re ready to open this building and say, ‘Here we go.’”
Councilmember Jonathan Weinberg expressed confidence in the department staff to be “dynamic and nimble” in evaluating and determining programs that will attract people.
Mayor Neysa Fligor took into account the pandemic of the past year, which limited programming options and department revenues, as well as slowed construction of the community center.
“We’ll be coming out of COVID,” she said. “Should we just implement current programming and not rush the decision of adding new programming?”
Councilmember Sally Meadows stressed “connectivity” in programs between the center and the rest of the civic center campus, just as the physical layout of the project connects with other attractions like the main library and the Los Altos History Museum.
Both Meadows and Councilmember Lynette Lee Eng noted the facility itself would attract people who just want to visit and mingle with others.
“It doesn’t have to be monetary all the time,” Lee Eng said. “It’s not just programming, programming, programming.”
With council feedback, interim City Manager Brad Kilger said city staff will develop an implementation plan that includes programming, staffing and funding alternatives. Staff will return in June to seek approval of citywide “cost recovery” goals, such as program pricing, for the parks and rec department, and additional staffing to optimize operations.
Construction on the new community center, in roughly the same area as the previous, demolished Hillview center at 97 Hillview Ave., is now scheduled for completion by mid-summer. The city plans a phased-in opening to the public beginning in the fall. The council, after some scrutiny, authorized at its April 27 regular meeting $120,884 in additional construction management services and another $117,581 for design and consulting work. Initially approved in 2017 for $34.7 million, building costs now total $38.3 million, according to the city’s website.
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Parks and rec under consideration as city finishes community center - Los Altos Town Crier
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