The dual open houses on the new Laura Fish Somersal Park design plan, scheduled for Thursday, April 3, were canceled by the City of Healdsburg on Monday. A noticed posted on the city website read as follows: “After reviewing preliminary schematic design cost estimates that we received on March 31, the project team determined that more time is needed to review the proposed project component costs to ensure the project aligns with the available funding.”
The original article announcing the open houses stated that the meetings—one online, one at the Council Chambers—would introduce the Schematic Design, phase one of the park’s master plan. A map of the park and projected uses was to be introduced as the Design Exhibit at the open houses.
David Fletcher, principal with Fletcher Studio, the landscape architecture firm that has been involved in the project since 2019, spoke on April 1 with The Tribune about the park design process, and why the April 3 meeting may have been canceled – or, as both the city and the design firm insist, delayed.
“This park was always designed knowing that per the overall master plan, you wouldn’t have enough money available to implement the whole thing,” he said. “There’s no playing field. We would love to put in a pump rack. We would love to put in a playground—I mean, there’s a lot of things, but those are things that I don’t think the budget really could support.”
Understandably, the question of money is a limiting factor. Mark Themig, the director of the Community Services department, said, “The City has $8,086,249 for Phase 1 of the park development. The project team is currently reviewing costs to ensure that the Phase 1 project aligns with the available funding.”
Asked if he was aware the plans they proposed might exceed the budget, Fletcher said, “it’s always possible that you’d exceed a budget. We haven’t over designed, we’ve designed essentially all of the required of the development agreement infrastructure… It’s very simple. It’s like a parking lot frame, some bridges and a bikeway…
“There are a lot of items that are just not required, but we wanted to get numbers for them in case we can afford them or other money is available, then we could implement them.”
Tom Campbell, the city’s project manager for the Fish Somersal Park, spoke to this topic as well. “As you may know, the cost for many goods and services continue to rise, and the current economic situation is creating some uncertainty which makes planning and designing a new park development with a fixed budget somewhat challenging.”
Thus the reason for the delay was to take a close look at what Fletcher Studios has proposed, and compare it to the money on the table. “The estimate was higher than anticipated, and our design consultants need some additional time to review the costs and ensure the Phase 1 project aligns with the available funding,” said Campbell.
Fletcher said that it was “very common” for a client, such as the City of Healdsburg in this case, to back off and take another look when presented with a design spec such as that Fletcher proposed. He insisted however that the “core project” would not be affected.
Both the city and the design contractor anticipate rescheduling the open house for later in April.
