The long-awaited Shepherd Canyon parking problem is finally going to be solved. It’s generally an accident waiting to happen, if you drive down the Shepherd Canyon Road while soccer games are in progress.
Through a combination of public funding and private donations, a new parking lot will be constructed over the next few weeks. The City Council approved 29 spaces, a wooden fence and five redwood trees planted as a visual barrier.
According to the resolution, the construction will be mostly financed by City District 4 and At-Large City Pay-Go funds. The gap was closed through these private donations: $30k from the Montclair Soccer Club; $7k from the Friends of Oakland Parks & Recreation; and $5k from the Montclair Safety & Improvement Council.
I’m not complaining, but with our City budget in shambles how come everything isn’t put on hold? I don’t pretend to understand why current budget allocations are sacrosanct. In any event, we are moving forward on this small construction effort in Montclair.
The City requires work to be completed rather quickly, because there’s a rainy season moratorium that kicks in by October 15th. Bids were already requested and received back in August, in anticipation of this construction timetable.
It’s been a long while since the original plans were created for Shepherd Canyon Park, and the need for decent off-road parking was identified five years ago. Soon we can cross this safety item from the list.
Today in Montclair, 94611 
Good Question: Sorry I did not see this earlier. Council Member Chang and I are using Pay Go funds restricted to transportation use. So our share can’t be used for staff or other purposes. Because of traffic danger, especially the critical role of Shepherd Canyon Road as an arterial exit route in case of fire, this is probably one the most important safety traffic problems I can address with my limited funds. As it was it took quite a while getting the costs down and raising the remainder funds.