At the last City of Fremont East Bay Regional Park District (EBRPD) Liaison [Committee] meeting, Kim Beranek stated that there were no plans to support EBRPD parking or staging at Vallejo Mills Park. However, her predecessor Susan Wolfe had agreed to work with EBRPD to facilitate extension of the Bay Ridge Trail from Garin Regional to Vallejo Mills Park.
The agenda item on the Wednesday [Aug. 26] meeting shows the trail as being extended through Vallejo Mills Park. If there is no additional parking inside the park, then visitors will have to park elsewhere. This is extremely shortsighted. The city needs to accept some responsibility for reasonable access to our local and regional parks.
In 2016, the City of Fremont started a residential permit parking program for public parking on the streets near the Stanford Avenue entrance to Mission Peak Regional Preserve. This program was stated to be “revenue neutral” by then-Chief of Police, Kim Peterson. The cost to implement the program and the majority of enforcement costs were borne by EBRPD as a means to placate an irritated neighborhood.
This ended in 2020 when EBRPD declined to continue enforcement actions. Since then, the City of Fremont has absorbed the costs of multiple community service officers and their sergeant at a cost of over $360,000 per year. Citations average $100,000 per year leaving the public to pay $260,000 in costs each year.
The restricted parking program is a stain on the city as EBRPD had agreed to build parking inside Mission Peak Regional Preserve on three acres of land hidden from the neighborhood. They had agreed to spend $4.5 million and had completed design and were compliant with CEQA requirements. This action was dropped when the city council grew hostile based on pressure from the Stanford Avenue neighborhood.
As a result, the stink of opposition to parking near public parks permeates the conversation with city staff, politicians and park employees. We can do better by having a vision of what a connected community will look like when accessible parks provide safe routes for bikers, walkers, hikers, runners and equestrians.
William Yragui
Co-founder, Mission Peak Conservancy
Ed. Note: Specific claims about the views of the council, park district and neighborhood are the author’s own opinions. Some financial claims cited in the letter could not be independently verified by Tri-City Voice before publication.
