Opportunities & Challenges Emeryville has greatly improved the number, acreage, accessibility, and diversity of its park and recreation assets since the previous General Plan was adopted in 1987. That said, it is still a city dominated by roads and buildings where even small amounts of open space stand out. This chapter reviews the City’s existing parks, recreation, and open space facilities—including non-motorized trails—and assesses them against regional standards in order to identify challenges and opportunities. 8.1 EXISTING FACILITIES The section on parks in Emeryville’s 1987 General Plan was brief. It mentioned that only two facilities were available in 1984—the 61st Street Mini Park and Marina Park—for a total of 7.7 acres. As Table 8-1 shows, the City has added six acres of Parks, public open space since then. As of 2005, Emeryville contains Recreation, & 13.74 acres of public open space in eight City-owned parks and Open Space another 30 acres in the Eastshore State Park. 8- In addition to these parks, city residents also have access to PARKS, RecREATION, AND several recreation options, such as the fields at Emery Secondary School and a trail network, private open space, and regional 8 facilities. OpeN SpAce Parks and open space are essential in any city, but become even Table 8-1: City of Emeryville Parks more important in areas of high population density where City Park Play Basketball Acres homes may not include yard space and in places of intense Equipment Court development where landscaping is scarce. These green spaces 61st Street Mini-Park X 0.14 provide opportunities for relaxation, informal sports, passive recreation like walks and bird watching, and a break from the Marina Park 7.56 stresses of everyday life. They also serve as important gathering 1984 subtotal 7.70 places in a community, where people can casually meet or Christie Avenue Park 0.79 simply observe the diversity of lifestyles and backgrounds in their neighborhood. These activities need to be supported with Community Gardens 0.29 an adequate supply of accessible and appropriately developed Davenport Mini-Park 0.44 space. A city should have parks with a distribution and form Point Emery 2.08 that allows them to be enjoyed by workers during the day, used Stanford Avenue Park X X 1.74 by children and the elderly close to their homes, and to serve as a point of focus for residential neighborhoods. Temescal Creek Park X X 0.70 2005 TOTAL 13.74 Emeryville General Plan Update CITY PARKS Marina Park and Davenport Mini-Park 61st Street Mini-Park These parks, on the tip of the peninsula and just west of the Watergate Commons residential complex respectively, look out The mini-park has play equipment for young children but no over San Francisco Bay. They consist mostly of lawn and other open play area. Located within a residential district, it lies along landscaping, benches, and a dock for fishing and viewing. A the future Greenway so it will be easy to access by foot or bike. stretch of the San Francisco Bay Trail runs along the northern edge of the peninsula, connecting these parks. Parks, Recreation, & Open Space 8- The city’s two oldest parks offer different types of recreation. The 61st Street Mini-Park (top left) provides a playground for neighborhood children, while Marina Park makes available sweeping bay front views, a sense of open space, and a fishing pier. Opportunities & Challenges Christie Avenue Park This park is dominated by a circular berm, surrounded by a pathway with benches, within which seating is available. The park is across the street from more visible green space in front of Pacific Park Plaza. Together, these constitute the only landscaped open space between I-80 and the railroad tracks. Christie Park is small but provides much needed green space in an area of increasing intensity and usage. Emeryville General Plan Update Community Garden Point Emery Park Essentially a segment of the new Emeryville Greenway, this new Formerly known as the Ashby Spit, this site was described park space is at the northwest corner of Doyle and 59th streets. The in the 1993 General Plan Update as a privately owned and fenced-in space contains around a dozen raised plots of earth. undeveloped space fenced off to prevent public access, although To the north of the fence are decorative vegetation and a path, used by people for its views, fishing, and recreation. In 1982, which is the main route of the Greenway. Another community the State Department of Parks and Recreation published a garden, run by a local non-profit, is located in southern feasibility study on the proposed Eastshore State Park. This Emeryville at Peralta Street and MacArthur Boulevard. report recommended that Ashby Spit and adjacent land be publicly purchased and developed. It has been transformed into a passive recreation area, with a small parking lot and a pedestrian and bike trail. Parks, Recreation, & Open Space 8- The Community Garden offers small individual planters Point Emery, in contrast, mainly offers unobstructed views of for participating members; it also sits along the route of the San Francisco Bay and of Emeryville itself. Greenway. Opportunities & Challenges Stanford Avenue Park This park is a linear piece of green space that gives Stanford Avenue the feeling of a parkway, although it is located to the side of the right of way. A small playground and a basketball court are included in the park. Temescal Creek Park This park is situated over the creek, which runs underground in this location. The park lies behind houses that are located in both Oakland and Emeryville. It includes a basketball court and a cemented performance space, but mostly consists of lawn and benches. Active recreation besides basketball is forbidden. Parks, Recreation, & Open Space 8- Two of the city’s more recent parks serve its eastern residential Temescal Creek Park provides the same amenities in a more neighborhoods. Stanford Avenue Park provides a pleasant place private and shaded environment. Its entrance (shown at top), to rest or play in visible open space created along the street. leads to a ribbon-shaped park with benches, a playground, and a basketball court. Emeryville General Plan Update EASTSHORE STATE PARK In coordination with the East Bay Regional Park District, the State of California established the Eastshore State Park in 2002. The park stretches 8.5 miles from Oakland to Richmond along the San Francisco Bay shore and is around 2,250 acres in size. While not a contiguous park, its pieces are linked by the San Francisco Bay Trail. In addition to much of the water in the bay off of Emeryville, the Eastshore Park includes the peninsula south of Powell Street (excepting the Police and Fire Station), the marshlands along the Crescent from the peninsula to the southern city limits up to I-80, and Shorebird Park, which extends north of the Parks, peninsula up to Point Emery Park. These holdings constitute Recreation, & around 30 acres of land, although the land along the Crescent is Open Space inaccessible due to a lack of pedestrian pathways. The purpose of the park is to preserve aquatic wildlife along the 8- shore while ensuring public access to the vistas and open space of the bay shore. Bird watching is one of the main recreation activities in the Emeryville section of the park. The park’s general plan, reviewed in Chapter 2: Land Use, restricts public access to the shoreline south of the Peninsula. NON-PUBLIC PARKS Emeryville includes some open spaces that are maintained by private entities, but which are available for public use. These usually result from development agreements that require large projects to include such space in their campus area. Given the dense nature of Emeryville, with narrow sidewalks, minimal setbacks, and little street landscaping, any green space stands out in the city. • Pacific Park Plaza has a small lawn on Christie Avenue. No paths approach or cross this green space, emphasizing The portions of Eastshore State Park in the city include its private nature, but it is more visible than the Christie restricted-access marshland south of the Peninsula and the Avenue Park across the street. This park is rarely used, shoreline path north of it. by residents or non-residents. Opportunities & Challenges • Chiron Corporation is required to develop a 30,000 San Francisco Bay Trail square foot park at the southwest corner of Hollis and The Bay Trail is a regional trail system that encircles the Bay 53rd streets. This park, preliminarily called Hollis Green, Area, attempting to provide access to shoreline amenities, replaces a proposed City park on Hollis Street between connect parks and neighborhoods, and provide links to non- 53rd Street and Stanford Avenue that was superseded by motorized transportation options. Following the shoreline as development of the Chiron campus. The final site and closely as possible, the Bay Trail system consists of a main trail design of Hollis Green is still being determined as of July 2005. • Pixar’s campus includes a large amount of green space, but it is not accessible to the public, although it is easily visible through their perimeter fence. Pixar’s approved acquisition and development of parcels ad- jacent to their core property does require them to de- velop and cede a 10 foot wide bike and pedestrian path that will run from Park Avenue to 45th Street, behind Parks, the Promenade Shopping Center. Recreation, & Open Space There is also a privately run community garden located at the southernmost edge of Emeryville at 3601-07 Peralta Street, 8- just south of MacArthur Boulevard.