Parks Commission Decides More Information is Needed To Move Forward With Osage Parking Lot Plan

Visitors to Osage Station Park will continue to use residential street parking when the lots on the 35-acre site are full during Danville's 13 tournament weekends this spring and summer.

The Parks and Leisure Services Commission considered three plans for new parking and heard comments from 10 Osage Station Park neighbors Wednesday night, deciding more information was needed to give a recommendation for increased parking to the Town Council.

Commissioners said other solutions to mitigate the parking overflow problem should be considered before going forward with the recommendation. Those include adding a residential parking permit program in the area, or using the parking lots at nearby Charlotte Wood Middle school.

There are currently 99 parking spaces at the site.  The greatest increase proposed would give the lots a total of 176 spaces, with a price tag of $993,000

Assistant Town Manager Marcia Somers said the plan for increased parking at Osage Station was originally part of a $296,459 capital improvement project fund in 2005. The project was put on hold, while the town worked on improvements at the four other public parks in Danville.

Somers said the town had received anecdotal information from residents about the overflow parking at Osage Station.  Several residents called the town about the problem, saying that street parking is congested during weekends when sports fields at the park are in their highest use.

Public comment at the meeting attended by about 20 residents made it clear that a lack of parking is not the only issue residents are concerned about at the Osage Station Park.

Several residents who moved to the neighborhood in the 1970s and 1980s said they remembered a time when the park, built in 1980, was a quieter "neighborhood park."

Mary Johnson moved to her home on Brookside Drive near the park in 1977. She said she attended the first town meetings about the park.

"We never dreamed it would turn into the sports complex it has," said Johnson, referring to the sports tournaments that occur on weekends during spring and summer months at the park.

Richard Ponder, who moved to Brookside Drive in 1987, said he appreciated the city's efforts to make Osage a premier park in Danville, but feels the city has forgotten that Osage is by definition a neighborhood park.

Ponder said he has observed up to eight soccer games played at one time during weekend tournaments at the park.

"This is a neighborhood park, it is not a sports complex," said Ponder who has seen the number of games at the site grow over the last 10 years. "The problem is the park is over-utilized on the weekends. It just floods the neighborhood."

Assistant Town Manager Somers said the park has not seen an increase in the number of sports fields since the park was built in 1980.

Somers added that the town also schedules games and tournaments at Diablo Vista Park and Sycamore Valley Park in addition to those at Osage.

"There are more needs for sports fields than we can accommodate," said Somers. "So we do turn things away and schedule as much as we can."

The commission said the use of Osage Station and other parks in Danville for games and tournaments would be a topic of discussion when the Town addresses the general plan update later this year.