Coronado has removed about $3 million from its Cays Park project, and will move forward with collecting bids that will allow City Council to remove line items to further adjust the price by removing individual amenities.
The project will both address needed maintenance at the park and enhance it by adding additional amenities, like additional pickleball courts and an accessible playground. It’s been at the forefront of public and political discourse this year due, in part, to its initial estimated cost of $31.2 million.
Schmidt Design Group returned to City Council on Oct. 1 with updated costs, bringing the cost of the project to $28 million after the city asked it to take a closer look at its numbers, Assistant City Manager Tony Winney said.
Of that, about $13 million is in maintenance costs, such as repaving the parking lot that is 10 years past its useful life, re-sodding the fields, and fixing the park’s irrigation system. The park has not been significantly altered since its completion in the 1970s.
The city will collect bids for the project, but will still be able to refine its amenities to tweak the project’s cost. Specifically, the council asked for bid alternatives on the proposed native garden and sunset hill, sunset viewing deck, and plaza, the spine of the park that would stretch from the parking lot to the proposed, new playground area and include seating and shade areas.
At a later meeting, the council will decide which options are worth their cost.
“I don’t want to start peeling (amenities) off right now,” Council Member Mike Donovan said. “I’d rather see the final bid, see how much each one of these things are going to save us and make the decisions then, when we know how much we’re going to save. My sense is that we’re all sensitive to cost. (But) when we talk about why we’re doing this, we’re trying to make this a park. Right now, it’s a field.”
During public comment, many people – predominantly residents of the Coronado Cays – spoke against the proposed park amenities. Opponents said they like they’re quiet, quaint park and worried about noise and the impact on their property values. However, other residents voiced their support of the plan and said they believed the city was thorough in its public outreach.
The city conducted a statistically valid survey of Coronado residents in June 2023 to determine which amenities to prioritize. Then, in December 2023, City Council unanimously decided to maintain 75% of the park as programmable field space.
“I think most people are thrilled about this,” said Council Member Carrie Downey.
In May, Schmidt Design Group presented city council with a master plan that included potential amenities and a new park layout, which would be built in three phases. City council approved this plan in a 3-1 vote, with Council Member John Duncan dissenting, though the meeting was tense.
And, of course, compromise is always needed. Planning the park’s final design is representative of the difficulty of taking the desires of about 19,000 people and cramming them into 16 acres.
The council also asked for options that would not include moving the playground from its current location near the parking lot, at Council Member John Duncan’s request.
The playground was moved in the master plan to a more central location. Glen Schmidt, founder of Schmidt Design Group said the park was moved because, by fencing the dog park, it had to widened.
Widening the dog park slid the athletic fields closer to the parking lot. Meanwhile, converting the playground to a fully accessible one requires more space, and because it is so close to the parking lot, it would need to be fenced for safety issues. Instead, Schmidt said, they moved the park.
However, Mayor Richard Bailey and Council Member Casey Tanaka, who also supported keeping the playground near the parking lot in May, said they might be willing to sacrifice some dog park space to maintain the playground’s current position. The argument is that having the playground near the parking lot would be imperative to parents with young children.
Bids will explore potentially keeping the park where it is.
Duncan voted against the master plan in May, and has been a vocal critic of its cost and its execution: In the December 2023 meeting at which the council opted to keep 75% of athletic fields, the council also picked which amenities it would be interested in learning more about. Instead, Duncan said, the plan included them all, with no discussion of their costs.
Another bid alternative will be including social space around the pickle ball courts. Players asked the council to consider this due to the social nature of their sport, and council obliged. Schmidt estimated that doing so would cost about $246,000.
This gave Tanaka, who originally championed the social space, pause.
“I’m going to have to look the public in the eye and say whatever the cost we decide on, I believe in,” he said, adding that spending that much money to move pickleball courts to allow for a social area in between them might not be worth it.
No decisions were made at the meeting, though it was clear that costs of individual amenities would be at the forefront of council deliberations at future meetings as the plan is refined.
