The City of Oakley will be holding public meetings this month to solicit design suggestions and community input on two proposed neighborhood parks.

The first meeting, to be held Nov. 12 at the Oakley City Council chambers, will discuss the Vintage Parkway/Legless Lizard Preserve Park. Located on approximately eight acres near Vintage Parkway Elementary School, a portion of the land has already been set aside by the East Bay Regional Park District as a preserve for the lizards. The remaining property is what the city is looking to develop.

Basically what we're interested in at this meeting is to see what residents think are the main criteria for the park, said Daniel Yore, Oakley parks and landscaping supervisor. Residents in this location (Vintage Parkway) don't really have much else available to them, so we want the park to reflect what they feel they need.

Ongoing maintenance will also be discussed. The Vintage Parkway neighborhood has a lighting and landscaping district that deals with area cleanup, and according to Yore, the cost of maintaining the new park might be incorporated into the existing district.

There is the option to increase (lighting and landscaping) district fees, he said. Or if volunteers would be willing to step up and help maintain the park, that might be an option as well.

Most of the upkeep and maintenance of Oakley's nearly 30 public parks is handled by neighborhood lighting and landscaping districts. However, the city's second proposed park, Teakwood Basin, has no such district. Yore said that a push for community activism; i.e., public maintenance, would be one way to offset the cost of the new 5-acre park.

Teakwood Basin does not have a landscaping and lighting district, said Yore. But we (the city) do have a small community program for light maintenance and pickup that might be used. But we are definitely looking for more community help with our parks overall, and this (Teakwood Basin) would certainly be one place to start.

There is actually a grant in place for phase one of this project, so we would really like to get the public's input on what the residents would like to see there, and to talk about maintenance funding and other options from a long-term standpoint.

The Vintage Parkway/Legless Lizard Preserve Park public meeting will be held Nov. 12 from 7 to 8 p.m. in the Oakley City Council chambers. The Teakwood Basin Park meeting will be held Nov. 19 from 7 to 8 p.m., also in the council chambers. 

For more information, call Daniel Yore at 925-625-7015, or e-mail yore@ci.oakley.ca.us. The council chambers are located in City Hall at 3231 Main St.