Directors also approve funds for golf irrigation line

By Ann Peterson

Editor-in-chief

Wednesday, April 2 (12:00 p.m.): The GRF Board last week authorized opening the bid process for new pickleball courts behind the Event Center.

The Board voted 8 to 1 at the March 27 meeting to seek competitive bids, pending approval of all permits by the city of Walnut Creek. The vote came hours before the Walnut Creek Planning Commission unanimously signed off on the project, clearing a key hurdle to ultimately bringing it to fruition.

Bids will provide clarity about the cost of the project, which has an estimated price tag of $4 million-plus. Staff requested authorization now so that they could “keep the momentum moving forward,” said Community Services Director Ann Mottola, as the permits are expected to be finalized before the April Board meeting,

Director Roy Yang, who cast the no vote, suggested waiting until April in case a large design structure change is required for final permitting. Yang also spoke against the project at Thursday night’s Planning Commission meeting.

GRF General Manager Jeff Matheson said staff will not secure bids until the permits are in hand.

“We don’t want to go out to bid until we have those permits identified and secured because then it could result in a change order,” Matheson said.

Following the Planning Commission approval, Matheson said he hopes the permits will be secured sometime in April, allowing the bid process to proceed. One wrinkle could come if the Planning Commission approval is appealed to the City Council.

Thursday night’s Planning Commission meeting drew a standing-room-only crowd, with over 100 residents packing the City Council Chamber. Following presentations by city staff, Matheson and the project architect, 20 residents provided public comment, with 13 in favor of the proposal and seven opposed. Those in support, including members of the Pickleball Club, cited the rapid growth of the sport and the desire by both current and prospective residents to have a state-of-the-art facility.

“I do receive inquiries very often asking when our facility is going to be built,” Pickleball Club President Carol Cerioni told the commission, noting that prospective residents have other options on where to move to play the sport. “With this facility, this will be a sought-after destination for retirees.”

Opponents focused on noise and parking concerns. A sound study found that decibel levels would fall within allowable thresholds for the nearest residents, and GRF officials have said the selected site will allow for existing parking that would be managed during large-scale events at the Event Center. The facility would be open for play from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m.

Since 2021, Rossmoor has been exploring a long-term home for outdoor pickleball courts. Initial plans called for expanding the former tennis-turned-pickleball courts, but shifting ground because of the adjacent creek scuttled that idea as erosion could make the facility unplayable in a few years.

After years of studying alternative locations, including the tennis courts and lawn bowling greens, the location behind the Event Center and alongside the golf course was selected. Sound studies to mitigate noise for nearby homes prompted the city of Walnut Creek to require redesigns for the facility, leading the project’s cost to balloon.

With a number of residents opposing the facility, GRF officials held a town hall and provided a Q&A in the newspaper last month to address some of the concerns. While some have objected because of noise concerns, many residents have voiced opposition because of the cost.

With no other viable location identified, the Board has continued to pursue the Event Center site.

During last week’s Residents’ Forum, Mary Rose spoke about concerns that Walnut Creek was ignoring special laws to protect Rossmoor’s open space by building the courts near the golf course. She provided the Board with a Walnut Creek General Plan map that appeared to show the golf course as open space.

“There seems to be confusion with the golf course being referred to as open space when it is not,” Mottola said. “The golf course is developed recreation space that is within the area designated as clubhouse land use.”

She added: “Rossmoor is zoned Planned Development 1483 (PD-1483) and includes the following land uses: residential, clubhouse and open space. The pickleball facility is proposed to be located entirely within the clubhouse area. Additionally, there was a lot line adjustment to parcels entirely within clubhouse-designated areas. There was no change to boundaries of residential or open space – so this project is entirely consistent with land use defined in PD-1483.”

Rose raised the same concerns at Thursday’s Planning Commission meeting, with city staff responding that the project was in full compliance with city regulations.

On Thursday, the directors also unanimously approved spending $9,000 for an irrigation design by Russell D. Mitchell & Associates, which will detail how to move a golf irrigation line in preparation for construction of the pickleball facility. Those funds are for a design only. Construction would not happen unless and until the Board accepted a bid for the overall facility construction costs, Matheson said.

Capital financial planning

On an 8 to 1 vote, the Board also approved seeking proposals for consultant services to assist with capital financial planning. Several directors emphasized that they were not approving funds, just acquisition of proposals.

The GRF Board has been trying to decide what to do with the Medical Center building, ever since John Muir stopped leasing it in 2019. Twice, the building outside the gate almost sold before one buyer backed out and another failed to secure the necessary funding. Then, the Board began studying whether to refurbish the space for offices and relocate Mutual Operations and many other departments there.

A 2022 Facilities Master Plan identified replacing the aging MOD building as a priority and significant project. The possibility of moving MOD to that building raised other questions, Matheson told the Board, such as: What is GRF’s ability to access future funding if it no longer owns the property, which was used to secure three existing loans? If it retained the property, how much additional funding could be secured against it, especially if it were an office complex? With the ongoing food and beverage study, what opportunities might exist if additional space existed at Gateway?

Matheson suggested exploring how a consultant might help answer those questions, and more.

Treasurer Mary Hurt noted that an outside consultant could provide the Board with an “objective opinion.” Director Cheryl Hines, who is also the Planning Committee chair, supported the Board having guidance in the planning process because of “how interrelated a lot of these different facets of these different projects are. For example, the medical office building. Do we sell it? What are the ramifications?”

Yang, who voted no, said capital financial planning “doesn’t feel like this is a today problem but a tomorrow problem.”

GRF President Leanne Hamaji said she disagreed. “We’re going out there and collecting information we don’t have because we don’t have experts in capital decisions. So we’re relying on consultants to give us their opinion on various topics so that we have the options to make a sound, due diligence decision that is fully balanced for our organization. To your point, now vs. later, this is going to take some time, so there will be time to evaluate.”

Food study phase two

The Board unanimously agreed to move the Food and Beverage Study into its second phase. The directors approved a capital expenditure from the Trust Estate fund not to exceed $59,100 to continue the project with Synergy Restaurant Consultants.

Of those funds, $19,600 will be used to assess the facility and opportunities at Creekside, develop strategic recommendations, and prepare a request for proposal for an operating partner. Mottola emphasized that the current owner of Creekside Grill will be invited to submit a proposal to stay on as that partner.

The other $39,500 would be for optional support in bidding and selecting the operator. Not all of those funds would be needed if an operator is selected quickly.

The recently completed phase one of the study was designed to “measure the appetite” for Rossmoor to expand food services, Mottola told the Board. The end result helped gauge the type of business model that would work – moving away from a restaurant tenant to an operating partner.

Mottola explained that an operating partner would give Rossmoor not only an owner for the restaurant at Creekside but also an operator to bring Rossmoor other food and beverage service options in the future. Having an operator that takes a holistic approach to food service might help other options to succeed where previous ones, like Kairi’s Kitchen, did not.

“This could be the biggest enhancement of a Rossmoor amenity in years,” Director Dwight Walker said. “We’ve already looked at what the residents want, and now it’s a process of how do we achieve that in the most expeditious and budget-conscious way to take care of our residents with an enhanced amenity.”

In other business

• The Board signaled support for adopting changes for Residents’ Forum guidelines for its regular and committee meetings, allowing email submissions to be read aloud and representatives to read submissions for them. Directors offered suggestions for providing more clarifying language to the policy, so they returned it to the Policy Committee for review.
• The Board also heard a first reading for a proposed rule change to the hours for the Rossmoor Table Tennis building. Because of its growth in members – from 307 in 2015 to 452 this year – the Table Tennis Club requested expanded hours for members’ use of the building, including officially opening the facility for club play on Sunday. The Board will vote on the rule change at its April meeting.
• The Board also unanimously approved a Title VI program update to remain in compliance with the Caltrans grant that provided Rossmoor with six buses. The program ensures non-discrimination of residents who ride the buses.