A house for a park

Happy Tuesday Daly Citizens!

Our neighbors in South San Francisco bought a house last month. On July 20 their council voted unanimously to spend $1.4 million on a three-bedroom at 1229 Crestwood Drive, right next door to Sunshine Gardens Elementary. They are going to take the house down and put a neighborhood park there. The money came out of their park acquisition fund, which they keep topped up with developer impact fees paid when new developments go up. They have a second new park already in design a few blocks away on the Centennial Way Trail.

South City keeps a standing pot of money for buying park land, so when a house went up for sale next to an elementary school they could actually move on it.

I did some digging and we do have a similar setup here. Daly City collects park in-lieu fees from developers under Chapter 16.30 of our municipal code, and the city's own Capital Improvement Budget says that money is "specifically designated to address parks and open space needs." Back in February the council approved a small eight unit subdivision on Crocker. The conditions of approval required the applicant to hand over 0.24 acres of park land or pay the fee instead. They obviously will not be handing over parkland, so by my rough math I expect about $300k to go into the park fund instead.

We can thank the city council of 2024, and specifically then-Vice Mayor Rod Daus-Magbual who moved it and then-Mayor Juslyn Manalo who seconded it, for making the fees meaningful with Resolution 24-175. Before that, the fees were so low that they brought in about $20k for the entire year. The fee schedule had not been updated in 25 years. The rec fund was in the hole by over $1.25 million because of that gap.

Residential fees went to $15.50 per square foot, and the parks share of that is $8.98, the largest single piece of it. The study behind it says the money is for exactly what you would want: to "acquire land and construct parks."

Interestingly, this change was partially due to a consultant we hired in 2024 to evaluate our parkland. If you remember, in my first post I listed the city as having 83 acres of parkland, or about 0.80 acres per 1,000 residents. That consultant put our real number on paper: 0.64 acres per 1,000 residents, counting 65.40 acres across 25 city parks. We are sitting at about a fifth of the standard set in Chapter 16.30 of our own municipal code, which is 3 acres per 1,000 residents. It is even lower than I thought. I need to dig into the discrepancy between the parks department's numbers and the consultant's a bit more in the future.

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As great as new money for parks is, I went through the Fiscal Years 2026 and 2027 Capital Improvement Budget, with Claude and basic ctrl+F, looking for any indication that this budget is being used to fill the gap in parkland. Every park item in there is a repair or a rebuild of something we already own, the largest being $4.66 million penciled in for the Bayshore Park rehabilitation out in 2030. Fixing facilities is important, but it doesn't change our park deficit.

Growth of a City

Another interesting data point comes out of our 2023-2031 Housing Element which outlines expected growth of the city. By 2043, the city is planning on housing 28k new residents. Apply our own 3 acre standard to those new residents alone and the city would owe them roughly 85 acres of park land. That is ON TOP OF the 239 acres we are already missing, measured against that same standard. 324 acres of total deficit if we don't get more parks by 2043. Seems coincidentally pretty close to the 365 acres the Olympic Club sits on in our backyard.

The 28k new residents is only a projection, and we, along with every city in the Bay Area, have a long history of not building enough housing. (And to be fair, Daly City is one of the densest cities in the entire country, more dense than Boston itself.) The point is though, if we don't build, we don't see the fees. And we are not really funding the parks any other meaningful way. One time fees don't lend themselves well to maintaining parks.

Annoyingly though, while the study behind it says the money is "to acquire land and construct parks," impact fees are not allowed to charge new development for shortfalls that already exist. Meaning it is not structured to close the parkland gap we already have. Just close the future gap that more development will create.

The last scheduled Westlake town hall

Thursday, August 13, 5:30 to 6:30 p.m., Pacelli Event Center, Merced Room, 145 Lake Merced Blvd. (city event page)

For maybe a more biased take, visit: SaveWestlakePark.com

Election Season is here

Filing closed on Friday, August 7 for City Council. Seven candidates for the three open seats. Daly City votes at large (for now), so every one of us can vote on all three (or fewer if you don't like the candidates).

Here they are, with the occupation each one put on the ballot, from the city's election page:

Note that the statements were filed a while ago so they don't reference the park issue.

Last week I put up a list of where I see them all standing on the Westlake Park project. Nothing has really changed, but thanks to all of you out there it seems like there is great momentum building in the community, and the City Council is paying attention.

Important dates

Point Martin below-market-rate homes. Pre-applications for six below-market-rate townhomes close Friday, August 28. Daly City residents. Details and application.

The council comes back Monday, September 14. That is the first regular meeting since July 27, and the earliest the Westlake Use and Improvement Agreement could land in front of them. Send a note to [email protected] to demand that it be on the agenda.

Events around town

Westlake Park Town Hall Thursday, August 13, 5:30 to 6:30 p.m. Pacelli Event Center, Merced Room, 145 Lake Merced Blvd.

Colma summer concerts Thursdays, August 13 and 20, 6 to 8 p.m. Colma Community Center, 1520 Hillside Blvd. Carnaval on the 13th, Native Elements on the 20th. Free, bring a chair.

Jenny Yang's Good Egg Comedy Show Friday, August 14, doors 9:30 p.m. Seafood City, 1420 Southgate Ave. Benefits the Filipino Community Center. Tickets at jennyyang.tv.

Japanese Flag Raising Ceremony Monday, August 17, 4 to 5 p.m. City Hall, 333 90th Street.

Izumisano Sister City Youth Choir Wednesday, August 19, 5 to 6 p.m. Pacelli Event Center, 145 Lake Merced Blvd.

Hip-Hop Day '26 Saturday, August 22, 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. War Memorial Community Center, 6655 Mission Street. Free food while it lasts.

Chinese Hospital Gellert health fair Saturday, August 22, 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. 386 Gellert Blvd.

History Guild walking tour, Broderick-Terry Duel Site Saturday, August 22, noon to 1 p.m. 80 El Portal Way. Free. Guild president Mark Weinberger leads it. It is a small park on the border near Lake Merced and most people who drive past it have no idea what it is.

Everything past two weeks out is on the events calendar.

Other Alerts

The slurry seal starts next week. The city's construction projects page now has the Westlake job posted with tentative dates on it. Prep work runs through August 21. The sealing itself is scheduled to begin August 17 and finish by September 4.

On the day of, your street will be closed from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Your driveway is off limits until the surface dries. Anything still parked on the street after 7 a.m. gets towed at your expense. Temporary no-parking signs go up 48 hours ahead, which right now makes those signs the only notice you are going to get, so keep an eye out for them this week and next.

BART's new schedule started yesterday. The whole systemwide timetable was rebuilt around Daly City Station, and per KQED one change at our station shifts departure times across the system and cuts some transfer waits by as much as 17 minutes. Check your train this week if you commute.

Does anybody know what the night work on Mission Street is? A neighbor asked on r/DalyCity what the crews have been doing there for several nights running and when it ends. It is not the Westlake slurry seal; that is a different project on the other side of town. If you know what it is, or you got a notice, let me know.

Until next time!

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