Santa Cruz city staff want to know residents’ priorities for potential upgrades to Harvey West Park. (Stephen Baxter — Santa Cruz Local file)
SANTA CRUZ >> Residents at a community meeting Wednesday shared their priorities for a potential overhaul of Harvey West Park in Santa Cruz.
Sports fields upgrades, pickleball courts, two new pools, a community center and traffic improvements are possible, and city staff are collecting spending priorities for the 50-acre park at 326 Evergreen St.
“Funding is always limited, so what are the most important aspects of the park system that community members want to invest in and support moving forward?” asked Santa Cruz Parks and Recreation Department Director Tony Elliott.
The park is primarily visited on weekends, and city staff want to see “more regular use seven days a week,” Elliott said.
San Francisco-based CMG Landscape Architecture and city parks staff presented potential improvements to the park at the meeting at London Nelson Community Center in Santa Cruz.
Patricia Fonseca Flores, principal at CMG Landscape Architecture who developed the proposed design said the project’s goals have been “to help evaluate the existing features and facilities and programs of the park, to help provide some various recommendations of those future improvements for the park and to guide the prioritization of the park” development.
Fonseca Flores presented some concepts for the park redesign that weren’t plans, but a set of recommendations for city staff and elected leaders to determine “a long-term vision of the park.” She said the event and subsequent feedback would help parks staff understand which upgrades the public wants the most.
Harvey West Park now has overlapping fields for soccer, baseball and football. (CMG Landscape Architecture)
An overhaul of Harvey West Park could include a large central lawn for picnics, upgraded pools, two-way traffic, a new community center and other improvements. (CMG Landscape Architecture)
A second concept for Harvey West Park could add a large, central playground, flexible lawn space and many other upgrades. (CMG Landscape Architecture)
Soquel lumber businessman and philanthropist Harvey West gave the land to the City of Santa Cruz in 1955. It now includes overlapping fields for baseball, football and soccer, a pool, community center, mountain bike pump track and other amenities.
Proposed upgrades were focused on the “heart” of the park at the developed center. Two new pools, a new community center, two-way traffic flow and other new features were part of two overall concepts.
A first “Great Lawn” concept included a large central lawn for picnics and events and a larger pump track.
A second “Active Heart” concept included a large central playground with flexible lawn space and more pickleball courts
Potential improvements in both concepts also included:
- Improved sports fields for year-round use.
- Pickleball courts toward the north edge of the park.
- Two upgraded pools.
- A community center with an indoor gym.
- A new rental building for events and classes
- Expanded pump track for mountain biking.
- Larger playground.
- Reorganized central lawn for large activities and events,
- Summer camp building.
- Second bathroom at the middle little league field.
- Wifi connection at the soccer field.
- Updated parking layout with two-way traffic entrance.
- Forest walk trail along the edge of the park.
Wednesday’s presentation highlighted some successes and challenges at the park. The park’s beautiful redwood setting, popular activities and high use during specific seasons and times of day were wins.
“There are a lot of parts of the park that are working, and we want to recognize those successes,” Fonseca Flores said.
The named challenges were some aging facilities, underuse of park areas like the Friendship Garden, and the distance between facilities. People sometimes camp near Friendship Garden, and some parents have expressed concerns about drug use and illegal RV parking on streets near the park.
Elliot, the parks director, said park funding usually comes from local taxes in the city’s General Fund. Fully renovating the park would require tens of millions of dollars, he said.
“We don’t have that at the moment, and so what we’re trying to understand is, if we had $10 million how should we think about that?” said Elliot.
Elliot said that the parks department could be looking to fundraising efforts from local groups like Friends of Parks and Recreation and Santa Cruz Mountain Trail Stewardship to support park efforts in Santa Cruz. Feedback from the event could be used for fundraising efforts targeted at the most popular improvements first, he added.
Though the focus of the event was on unifying the existing amenities at the center of the park, leaders also considered upgrades at the forest edge.
“That’s where we’ve proposed concepts like pickleball court, to activate that area in an area that’s otherwise underutilized,” Elliott said.
Patricia Fonseca Flores, principal at CMG Landscape Architecture, discusses Harvey West Park overhaul concepts at an April 2 meeting at London Nelson Community Center in Santa Cruz. (Tyler Maldonado – Santa Cruz Local)
Attendees view maps and potential improvements to Harvey West Park at an April 2 meeting. (Tyler Maldonado – Santa Cruz Local)
Public feedback
After the presentation, audience members were invited into a side room to discuss the upgrades, talk to consultants and city parks staff, and register their preferences on poster boards around the room.
About 50 participants gave feedback using green, yellow, and red stickers to signal their support, ambivalence, and opposition respectively.
Improvements to the pump track and sports fields were some of the most supported potential upgrades, whereas new pickleball courts at the forest edge were one of the more controversial ideas.
Meeting participants Wednesday chose sports fields, swimming and trails as the top valued features of Harvey West Park. (Tyler Maldonado – Santa Cruz Local)
Eleanor Markarian came with fellow members of a womens’ mountain biking group to show support for an improved pump track at Harvey West. She said it was the only track in the city suitable for different skill levels, which made it more social and community building than other tracks.
“You can talk for a short period of time, a little kid could ride with their mom or dad, you know, a great multi-age range,” she said.
Orry Korb of Santa Cruz Masters Aquatics and other board members of the group brought a letter in support of upgrading the pool at Harvey West park. It said that a state-of-the-art, city-owned facility was necessary to expand swimming access to the whole community.
“We’re ready and willing to help raise funds through our membership and community connections,” the letter stated. “This will be a long term investment for the city.”
Santa Cruz Park Planner Noah Downing is collecting feedback on potential upgrades to Harvey West Park by email at [email protected].
What do you think?
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Tyler Maldonado holds a degree in English from the University of California, Berkeley. He writes about housing, homelessness and the environment. He lives in Santa Cruz County.
