Dracena Park Bridge Gets Council OK, City Will Absorb Some Costs

Piedmont City Council members gave their approval "in concept" Monday night to a proposal to build a footbridge in Dracena Quarry Park and agreed to absorb some costs of the public-private project.

The $50,000 to $60,000 bridge is an Eagle Scout candidacy project for Cole Becker, a Piedmont High School student and son of local designer-builder Mark Becker, whose construction firm designed the footbridge with input from Cole. 

The footbridge would span a ravine leading to the off-leash dog area in Dracena Park. It's in the same location as an earlier bridge that was removed by the city in the 1970s because of vandalism.

Council members voted 3-0 for the approval, with Councilmember Garrett Keating abstaining. Keating said he "had no doubt about the quality of the work" but would rather see the old bridge abutments removed and the park's redwood grove preserved in its present state.

Mayor John Chiang, who presided during the early part of the evening, had to leave before the bridge project came to a vote.

The council also agreed to waive city permit fees for the project and to absorb the costs of staff time spent on the project; structural and civil engineering review of the project (estimated at about $4,500) and inspection of the construction by the city's contract engineer; and the city attorney's time to determine if the project is exempt from formal environmental impact review.

The council also agreed to substitute "suitable financial security" for completion of the project for a performance bond. The bond had been recommended by the city's Park Commission.

The project will return to the council for final approval when fundraising and the engineering and legal reviews are completed — most likely in late summer. At that time, council members could withdraw their approval or require that if environmental impact studies are needed, the costs be paid through private — not city — funds.

Cole Becker told council members that he decided to ask for the waiver of permit fees and for city-paid engineering and legal costs after reading an opinion piece by Councilmember Jeff Wieler in the Piedmont Post. 

Wieler's op-ed piece urged the city to pick up the tab for those items, and Monday night the councilmember said, "We're talking about protecting the city [from liability]. We should pay those costs."

Cole Becker also said his formal Eagle Scout project encompasses only raising private funds to pay for the bridge's construction and shepherding the project through the city approval process.

Becker said he does plan to remain involved with the project through its completion and to volunteer his labor, along with other Scouts, for unskilled tasks such as clean-up during construction of the bridge.

He noted that about $4,500 of the bridge costs, including soils engineering studies and an arborist's consultation have already been paid with donations from the local real estate firm Highland Partners and other private donors.

The project came to the city council with a recommendation of approval from the Park Commission, which reviewed it at three separate meetings earlier this year. 

You may read more about the bridge proposal in "Special Park Commission Meeting on Dracena Park Bridge Thursday" and "Dracena Park Bridge Project Gets Thumbs Up from Piedmont Park Commission."