How to resolve AdBlock issue? LAKEPORT, Calif. – The Lakeport City Council on Tuesday night voted to set hours for all city parklands in an effort to bring Westside Community Park’s hours of use in line with other city park facilities.
Tuesday night’s public hearing was the second necessary step in accepting the new rules. The proposed ordinance to address hours for all parklands was introduced at the council’s Feb. 5 meeting.
The staff report for Tuesday’s meeting, with the proposed ordinance, begins on page 71 of the agenda published below, and the discussion begins at the 4:20 mark in the video above.
Public Works Director Doug Grider said that Library Park is currently the only park with posted hours of use. It's closed to the public from 12 a.m. to 5 a.m. daily, with the exception of special events approved in advance by the City Council.
The ordinance the council considered on Tuesday amends a section of municipal code to change the wording so that instead of referring only to Library Park, it refers to city “parklands.”
Grider said there have been issues at Westside Community Park which were brought up by one of the Parks and Recreation Commission members as well as from residents of the nearby Parkside Subdivision.
Westside Community Park, located off of Parallel Drive, remains under development by the Westside Community Park Committee, which leases it.
There are no hours posted there, and while doing research Grider said city staff discovered that Westside Community Park wasn't included in the city's rules for park use hours that were established in 1993 and specifically refer to Library Park.
Grider said the proposal was to bring all park facilities under the same rules.
He said there's really no need for anybody to be out on the baseball fields at Westside Park at midnight or 2 a.m., and with the new rules police can ask people to leave.
During public comment, Chris Macedo, a resident of the Parkside Subdivision – and the county's undersheriff – wanted the council to change the rules to make them more stringent, closing Westside Park from sunset to sunrise.
He said there are a lot of problems that go on at the park from sunset to midnight, ranging from speed contests, to drinking, unlawful sexual activity and drugs.
“Nothing good goes on at a park after dark,” he said, adding that Westside Park is not near a commercial zone but rather residences.
Councilman George Spurr asked City Attorney David Ruderman if they would need a different ordinance if they chose to adopt Macedo's suggestion.
“If you wanted to change it then we would have to bring it back for another reading after this,” said Ruderman, explaining that the hours would need to be changed and, if making the hours different from Library Park, that a separate section would be needed in the city code.
Councilwoman Mireya Turner asked Lakeport Police Chief Brad Rasmussen about activity at the park.
Rasmussen said the police department does get calls out to Westside Park, but he didn't have statistics in front of him to give them an idea of how many calls they get between the hours when darkness falls and midnight.
“We do get calls out there at all kinds of different hours, even on the weekends, sometimes during the daytime,” Rasmussen said, adding he could research it if the council wanted more information.
When Turner asked about why the hours were set the way they are, Rasmussen said that, originally, the city had been having issued at Library Park and wanted codified rules. He said Library Park has a high concentration of community activities and, with that in mind, the decision was that midnight and early morning closure times would be good, as it would still allow for legitimate uses of the park after dark.
“That's why Library Park ended up with those hours,” Rasmussen said.
City Manager Margaret Silveira noted that there are no lights at Westside Community Park.
Returning to the microphone, Macedo reiterated the point about a lack of lights at Westside Park, contrasting that with Library Park, where there are lights. He said people like to fish along the shoreline at night, and he didn't see a reason to close Library Park earlier, but the situation is different at Westside Park, where he said people tend to be more mischievous. As such, he was only asking for an hours change there.
Councilman Kenny Parlet noted that issues with drinking, racing and sexual misconduct are reportable, and that the police department has response times between three and six minutes.
He felt sunset, especially in winter, is too early to close the park, adding that there also is a dog park there.
However, he agreed, “If anyone is out there at midnight, they need to be gone.”
Parlet said he didn't want to dial in different parts of the city with different rules and saw no reason to change the rules further at this time. However, he said he would be happy to look at it again in the future if there are problems.
Councilman George Spurr agreed with Parlet. He said he wanted to get the new rules on the books and have Rasmussen monitor the situation. Once they have more information, they could dial the hours back.
Turner said she was open to changing the hours from midnight to 10 p.m. “I think that midnight is late enough that there could be problems with allowing it to stay at midnight.”
She said she was OK with keeping the rules general rather than breaking them out into specific parks, noting that she didn't think it would be an issue for people to walk through the park after hours.
Mayor Tim Barnes asked how difficult it would be to say that all parks are closed from midnight to 5 a.m. except for Westside Community Park, which would close from 9 p.m. to 5 a.m. Silveira said there isn't an issue with doing that.
Rasmussen said that if the park is closed, people can't be there for any reason. “It's a lot cleaner to enforce it across the board.”
He said that if the proposal for the Lake County Theatre Co's theater comes to fruition out at the park, the council could have exceptions for approved events, allowing for later hours. Rasmussen explained that the city's popular July 4 event usually goes until past 10 p.m. “It may already be in the ordinance.”
He added that his officers will enforce the rules as they are laid out in the ordinance.
Turner said the council could move forward with what was before them that night, then have staff bring back something specific.
Councilwoman Stacey Mattina said very little information about the issue, but that they should add Westside Park to the rules and they can look at more possible changes in the future.
Parlet said 10 p.m. is way too early to him, adding they also could look at 11 p.m. “Our parklands are to be used by the local citizens as much as possible,” he said, adding that the last thing they need are more laws and rules when they already have rules for handling things like drinking, racing and mischief.
“If there's any issues, we're more than happy to hear it again,” he said.
Turner, who is a planner with the county of Lake, said she had brought up a change of hours to 10 p.m. because it's standard to switch decibel levels to quieter levels at 10 p.m. in noise ordinances.
Barnes also asked for more enforcement out at Westside Community Park. Rasmussen said he can put out a briefing to ask officers to visit the area more often. He also encouraged residents near the park to call police with concerns so they will have a record.
Silveira said staff can also ask the Parks and Recreation Commission to further analyze the hours at Westside Community Park for future changes and bring them back to the council.
In the meantime, Parlet moved to adopt the ordinance, which Mattina seconded and the council approved 5-0.
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