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Albany City staff outline parks rehabilitation priorities, flag Aloney Greenway path for repair
Summary
City staff reported completion of a facility assessment for the annual parks rehabilitation program (CIP 41,000) and recommended prioritizing paths and paving, play equipment and fences; staff highlighted the Aloney Greenway pedestrian path’s significant heaving and ADA slope issues and said a grant application will be sought to expand a Terrace Park tennis-court refresh to Memorial Park.
Allison Curio, the city’s CIP program manager, told the Parks & Recreation Commission that the facility-assessment field work for CIP 41,000 is complete and identified paths and paving, play equipment and safety surfaces, and fences and railings as the program’s near-term priorities. "The paths and paving need a lot of work around the park," Curio said during her update.
Curio said the assessment uses a repeatable yes/no checklist to create a priority metric and that the initial scoring supports repairing sidewalks, replacing failing safety surfaces beneath play equipment, and renovating fences. Near-term projects noted in the program description include a Terrace Park tennis-court refresh, play-structure renewals and a Memorial Park ballfield refresh.
The presentation focused on the Aloney Greenway pedestrian path, which Curio described as suffering "very significant heave" and extensive alligator cracking; she said some path slopes approach 11 percent, above typical ADA recommendations. For the pedestrian (park-focused) path staff proposed removing failed asphalt, trimming roots, repairing concrete edgings where feasible and repaving the existing 5–5½-foot asphalt path as a basic rehabilitation approach. Curio said the adjacent 12-foot shared-use trail is being treated as a discrete project with distinct pavement and striping needs.
Commissioners pressed staff about decomposed granite (DG) shoulders and drainage problems. Curio said DG tends to breakup and migrate over time and that subsurface French drains would not solve the DG breakdown; staff are evaluating alternative stabilized surfacing materials described as softer options used on golf facilities to approximate DG’s feel while improving durability. "We're looking at some products that may have similar characteristics but are a little softer," she said.
Curio also said staff will seek council approval to apply for a competitive grant (referred to in the presentation as a grant from "USA") to expand the Terrace Park tennis-court refresh scope to include Memorial Park courts; she emphasized the request that night would be authorization to apply, not to accept funding or finalize design. One commissioner asked staff to "agendaize" the tennis-court refresh so the commission can review multi-use options — such as nets that can be raised or lowered for volleyball or pickleball — before finalizing design, and Curio confirmed project scoping and design will return to the commission for further review.
Staff noted that projects crossing commission jurisdictions will be routed through the Transportation Commission as part of a "road show" process and that additional public posting and opportunities for comment will follow as designs advance. No formal actions were taken on the presentation; the commission will receive more detailed scopes, material alternatives and grant conditions in future agenda materials.
The commission closed the discussion by asking staff to post presentation materials earlier when possible so commissioners can visit sites and provide informed feedback prior to follow-up meetings.
