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14. Report regarding City Council Priority for Upper Bernal Fields and approve consultant agreement with Harris Design Landscape Architects for preparation of construction documents for Bernal Community Park, Phase 2, Project No. 017045 Jim Wolfe, Director of Parks and Community Services, gave the staff report and recommended that the Council to approve a consultant agreement for the design of Phase 2 of Bernal Community Park. He discussed the Council's priority for the project moving forward, said there was a neighborhood meeting held in June where issues identified traffic mitigation, use of synthetic turf in the Upper Bernal Fields and control of access by the public, lighting concerns, lack of restrooms at the site, and interest for the City to move more quickly with Phase 2 where three lighted synthetic turf fields could be built. Mr. Wolfe highlighted Phase 2 construction items via a PowerPoint presentation, confirmed with Councilmembers that they want to expand into the oak woodlands instead of simply focusing on the more active areas which can be addressed in Phase 3. Councilmember Thorne suggested bifurcating the subject of the Upper Bernal Fields noticing. Mr. Wolfe said he has held discussions and meetings with the youth sports groups, there has been an interest with synthetic turf, representatives attended the community meeting, and there is the possibility of doing both. Councilmember Thorne confirmed there were no official minutes of the meeting and the interest from the sports groups was to move quickly with the Bernal Community Park work, and staff feels it makes more sense to design all three fields to support football, lacrosse, and soccer. Regarding timing, if the Council moved forward with Upper Bernal Fields, Mr. Wolfe believed there would be a lot of concern expressed by neighbors regarding removal of natural turf. By accelerating this project, staff will have bid documents to start construction on Phase 2 in early 2010. Councilmember Sullivan confirmed with Mr. Wolfe that the contract was for improvements to the Bernal Community Park, Phase 2, and not design for Upper Bernal fields. Mr. Wolfe said staff is proposing exactly what the neighborhood is looking for. City Manager Fialho referred to neighborhood outreach and those neighbors living adjacent to the property, stating in the scope of services there will be two scheduled public meetings with the Parks and Recreation Commission. Councilmember McGovern referred to Attachment A of the contract, page 7 of 8, three, full size soccer fields, synthetic surfaces and asked if the description needed to be amended to indicate, "multi-purpose" fields. City Manager Fialho said for the record it was important to indicate they would be all-weather fields and staff can amend the contract to reflect this. Councilmember McGovern referred to the map, said Pleasanton Avenue in this phase does not go through to Bernal Avenue and confirmed it went up to a parking area, but does not take Pleasanton Avenue beyond the roundabout. City Manager Fialho noted Pleasanton Avenue does not connect to Bernal until Phase 3. Councilmember McGovern suggested a design alternative that would show Pleasanton Avenue connecting to Bernal Avenue and determine what the cost would be over and above Phase 2. Staff said this could be explored, but it is not reflected in the current contract. Mr. Fialho noted this would involve increased cost, it may delay the ultimate construction of the entire project, and staff estimates that Phase 2 would cost $7.3 million, and if '/, to one mile is added, staff might have to delay the bid until the City has sufficient reserves. He suggested rather than modifying the scope of services, that to simply explore it and staff can return to the Council with an amended contract. City Council Minutes 5 October 21, 2008