Brentwood Park records strong first year use; committee approves parking markings and advances sustainability plans

Brentwood — Parks staff told the Brentwood Public Works Committee on May 8 that Brentwood Park recorded heavy use in its first year and recommended painting parallel parking spaces to ease weekend congestion.

The parks report, delivered by Eric Lake, said the city “really consider[s] year 1 to be 04/06/2024 to 04/05/2025, mainly because that’s when the playground opened.” Lake said updates to the PlaceR AI platform expanded how visitors are counted — to include walkers, runners and bikers — and that the city’s analytics now show roughly 100,000 pass-through visitors and about 200,000 visits for playgrounds, pavilions and similar uses during that year. Lake said the park’s highest single-day total was 6,700 visitors on April 13 and that the platform reported about 324,000 total visits in the first year.

Why it matters: Committee members said parking has become the leading complaint about the park, particularly on busy weekends and from visitors unfamiliar with local parking options. Lake recommended converting roughly 300 feet of roadside into designated parallel parking and designating one space for part-time staff. The committee approved that recommendation by voice vote with no opposition recorded.

In the committee discussion, Lake described the park’s regional draw, saying the heat map showed visitors coming from within 10 miles for about 79% of visits and 21% coming from farther away; he noted visits mapped as far as Denver and Los Angeles. He also summarized weekday and hourly patterns, reporting most visits occurred between about 10 a.m. and 6 p.m. and that typical dwell time was 30–60 minutes.

Lake also outlined parks’ sustainability plans tied to broader events. The parks staff and the sustainability commission are developing a “Sustainability September” calendar and a family sustainability toolkit to debut at Brentwood Days. Lake said staff are working on a slogan and programming to encourage sustainably themed parade entries and other activities.

Committee members asked whether additional permanent parking will be required long term; Lake said the city expects to need more parking at some point and identified an adjacent redevelopment as a potential source of additional spaces, but he cautioned no firm project or funding was in place. The committee’s approved step — painting parallel parking and designating one staff space — is a low-cost, short-term measure to improve safety and circulation pending any redevelopment.

Questions and next steps: The committee recorded the parking recommendation approval by voice vote; staff will coordinate with Public Works to mark the new spaces and return with any implementation details and cost estimates if needed. Parks staff will continue work on the sustainability calendar and toolkit ahead of Brentwood Days.