February 24, 2006

Fowler Creek Park Phase I development approved

Construction to begin in early April

By Candy Richter
Staff Writer

After years of planning and much community anticipation, the city council awarded the contract for the Fowler Creek Park Development Phase I Project on Feb. 14. The low bidder, Granite Rock Company DBA Pavex Construction Division, came in with a bid of $3,394,750. The city also approved an accompanying contingency in the amount of $340,000.

After years of planning and much community anticipation, the city council awarded the contract for the Fowler Creek Park Development Phase I Project on Feb. 14.

“The construction contingency is an amount that the city approves to take care of any unforeseen issues or construction problems that might be encountered during construction of the project, something that might not have been included in the contract,” said City of San Jose Park Manager Simeon Mercado. “Normally the city council allows approximately 10 percent of the construction amount for the contingency.”

For nearly two decades, plans for Fowler Creek Park have been in the works and the park was also included as part of the master plan for the Evergreen Specific Plan. However, with the recent growth over the past 10 years, the original community plans were revisited and the decision was made in May of 2002 to revise the original master plan to better suit the needs of the growing community.

After a number of meetings between Councilmember Dave Cortese’s office, the city’s Department of Parks, Recreation and Neighborhood Services and community members, a new vision of Fowler Creek Park was born and the Master Plan was approved by the city council on October 21 2003.

“The outlook for this project was looking pretty gloomy for many months after the Master Plan was approved by the City Council,” said Friends of Fowler Creek Park President Hai Chang. “While funding was in place to build the park, the city couldn’t move the park construction forward without a plan to cover the operating and maintenance costs of the park.”

According to Chang, it wasn’t until June 2004 that the project got a big boost forward through the efforts of Councilmem-ber Cortese. He was able to get agreements from those instrumental to the project’s progress and was able to start the project design immediately for Phase 1.

However, over the last few years the community has expressed growing concern over when construction on the Fowler Creek Park project would actually begin.

“For a while, we heard comments from residents that their kids will have grown up before this park is ever built,” said Chang.

Although the Fowler Creek area is your typical suburban neighborhood community, peppered with single-family tract housing and many micro-parks and grass areas, there is no traditional developed city park in the immediate vicinity where families can picnic, play recreational sports, have community meetings or enjoy play structures. To experience these sorts of amenities, community members must leave the area. Working with the city, the Friends of Fowler Creek Park finally hope to see that change.

“There was great community input throughout the process. (At meetings for the park) it was one of the largest turnout of neighbors and advocates of the park I’ve seen, said PRNS Park Manager Evelyn Velez-Rosario. “It’s wonderful to have a group that’s so interested in what’s going on in their community. The Friends of Fowler Creek Park are the most active community group I’ve ever seen – very positive. Hai is a real asset to the community for all he has been doing.”

Now that the first phase of the Fowler Creek Park Development Plan has been approved, the Friends of Fowler Creek Park will be providing the community with regular updates on the project’s progress and plan to act as a liaison between the community and the city if needed. The group also sees this as an opportunity to open discussions on Phase II of the Park’s development, which will include a community center. According to Chang, there are plans to work with Cortese’s office and the PRNS Department once the Phase I construction has begun.

“Obviously, our group is very happy about the news of the contract being awarded and the forthcoming ground breaking in April,” said Chang. “Many community groups and hundreds of residents actively participated in the master planning process over the years, so the anticipation for starting construction has been building for years within the community.”

For more information about the Fowler Creek Park development and about Friends of Fowler Creek, go to http://www.fcpfriends.org/ or visit the District 8 Website at http://www.sanjoseca.gov/district8/.