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Following months of research into potential sites for a long sought-after cricket pitch in Pleasanton, city staff are considering how to move forward with the next steps of the process amid a surge of negative feedback from community members on the recommendation of Muirwood Community Park as a site several months ago.
At the Parks and Recreation Commission meeting on Nov. 18, staff recommended Muirwood Park as the site for two proposed sports facilities at the top of the city’s agenda: a cricket field and pickleball courts.
While the commission voted unanimously in favor of both items, the public input process, including several community meetings earlier this month, has garnered significant pushback from neighboring residents on the former.
“So far, feedback has been almost 100% negative, so that will definitely weigh in,” said Heidi Murphy, Pleasanton’s director of library and recreation. “It was very different than we expected, so our plans may change.”
Cricket has been on the horizon for Pleasanton since 2014, when the Parks and Recreation Master Plan specifically mentioned it as one of the programs the city should seek to facilitate, in cooperation with youth sports organizations. In January 2021, the commission named a cricket field as its No. 3 priority, with support from a number of residents.
The City Council unanimously supported the construction of a cricket field on April 28, 2021, deciding to make it an “A-list” rather than a “C-list priority,” with $250,000 in the city’s capital improvement project subsequently being allocated for the research, design, and construction costs necessary for a cricket field.
The process escalated later last year, however, and raised concerns from neighbors, when city staff recommended Muirwood as the most appropriate site for a cricket ground in the immediate future, with an eye toward hosting a cricket field at Staples Ranch in the longer-term.
Following several months of research and meetings on the matter, staff recommended that the city look toward both “near-term” and “long-term” solutions to Pleasanton’s lack of cricket facilities.
In looking for a “near-term solution,” staff sought to identify sites with criteria including a minimum 180-foot radius, at least five to 10 parking spots, access to restrooms, and that could accommodate a synthetic field and shorter grass. Sites that were reviewed along with Muirwood included Ken Mercer Sports Park, Amador Community Park, Bernal Community Park, and the as of yet undeveloped Staples Ranch.
Sports Park and Amador Community Park were eventually deemed to have too many conflicting activities, and were ruled out. Muirwood was recommended by staff as the site for the near-term facility, with Staples Ranch being eyed for the long-term facility. Bernal was also eyed for the latter, but staff determined that further legal analysis into whether this would be consistent with the park’s master plan posed an obstacle.
A handful of public commenters at the November meeting raised concerns, including about parking in the area, the potential safety hazard of flying cricket balls, and the loss of green space for picnics and pick-up games. However, the commission voted unanimously to approve Muirwood as the near-term site for cricket, and Staples Ranch for the long-term, offering suggestions for how community feedback that evening might be incorporated into the final plan.
Cynthia Shon, who lives two blocks from Muirwood, said that she first became aware of the potential for a cricket field there in a notice from the city about public feedback sessions on the potential plan earlier this month.
She said she was immediately concerned that the recommendation hadn’t taken into account what people typically use the park for beyond sports, particularly when she saw a picture of just how much space the field would take up.
“They showed us this map of what it was supposed to look like, and we realized this field was going to take up a huge section of Muirwood Park that is the only section of flat grass area,” Shon said.
Shon said that upon seeing the breadth of the potential cricket ground, she was certain that this wouldn’t be what park-goers wanted, and made the effort to spread the word to neighboring residents.
“My main concern is that it really is inappropriate for this type of park, and I know the neighbors don’t want it. So after hearing about it, I was concerned that the neighbors wouldn’t hear about it and wouldn’t have a say so, so it would just go through,” Shon said.
After outreach efforts that included distributing 400 flyers, Shon said that quite a few residents took notice, and joined her in voicing concerns over the project during the city’s community input sessions.
She tried to emphasize that pushback from herself and others in the community wasn’t driven by any general opposition to having cricket in Pleasanton, or reluctance to see the city change, but specific concerns about the choice of Muirwood.
Vikrant Dissai, another resident of the neighborhood surrounding Muirwood, and a longtime cricket player, said that the lack of fencing proposed for the field, where tournaments using a hard ball rather than a soft ball would be slated to play, was particularly concerning.
“Playing with a hard ball on a shared field is kind of never heard of,” Dissai said. “There is nowhere hardball cricket is played when people are in the vicinity walking or doing something else.”
Dissai said that he was among those who had been excited about the city’s prioritization and commitment to building a cricket field, but that a field at Muirwood Park would be more trouble than the sacrifice of the field and surrounding area would be worth.
Murphy, said that while community input was a central and valuable part of the proposal and planning process for new projects, the overwhelmingly negative feedback from community members surrounding Muirwood had come as a surprise.
In contrast, the commission’s vote to recommend that two tennis courts at Muirwood be replaced with pickleball courts has not garnered the same kind of community pushback. Like cricket, pickleball was identified as a sport that the city should seek to establish dedicated facilities for, based on community need and demand, according to its most recent CIP work plan.
Unlike plans for a cricket field, no funds were allotted for the construction of new pickleball facilities, leading staff to seek already established tennis courts that could be converted to pickleball courts as part of the city’s annual court resurfacing project.
After researching several potential sites, staff recommended Muirwood as the location for new pickleball courts at the same Nov. 18 meeting, citing advocacy from a resident in the neighborhood, and Muirwood’s four total tennis courts, which would leave at least two remaining for tennis, amongst the reasons for the recommendation.
Also unlike the cricket pitch recommendation, the idea of pickleball facilities at Muirwood included the suggestion of higher fences, with a lack of fencing being both a central feature and concern behind the cricket field suggestion.
According to Murphy, the lack of fencing planned for the near-term cricket field at Muirwood was meant to be a feature rather than a bug, and to have less impact on the park than a fenced facility would. As residents such as Dissai have pointed out, however, cricket balls can be just as dangerous as tennis balls or pickleballs.
Murphy said that typically at this point in the process, the Parks and Recreation Commission’s recommendation, along with community feedback, would be sent to the City Council, for consideration at a meeting in the late spring or early summer.
While she said that might still be the path staff elect to take, the scope and breadth of community concerns on the item meant that more research was necessary before confirming next steps.
Murphy noted that while removing Muirwood Park as a site to be considered for a near-term cricket pitch before bringing recommendations to the council could be an option, this would mean council members wouldn’t have the opportunity to weigh in. However, she added that regardless of what the next steps were, community feedback would be incorporated into any decisions going forward.
