Pleasanton residents upset over the city's plan to remove trees and grass at a park in favor of tennis courts gathered at the worksite Monday morning and blocked crews from starting the job.
Neighbors of the Pleasanton Tennis and Community Park on Valley Avenue and Hopyard Road, upset that they weren't properly notified about the project, rallied Sunday evening as workers prepped the site. The crowd returned early Monday morning to block bulldozers from entering the site, and work was halted for the day.
"Why have you not posted any type of notification that you were doing this? resident Daisy Ng said.
There are 10 tennis courts currently at the park. The original plans for the park in 1985 called for 12 courts, but the last two were never built due to lack of funds. In 2012, the city renewed the plans for the final two courts, and the City Council approved the funds, nearly $500,000, about three weeks ago, according to the East Bay Times.
But Ng and other residents said they learned of the plan only last week, when they received a postcard in the mail.
"This is our city government not really going through due process," neighbor Kimber McCarn said.
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Mayor Jerry Thorne said he agreed the city could have provided better notice.
"I totally understand that," Thorne said about residents' frustration with the lack of communication. "So we're trying to make sure we hear from both sides."
But the mayor wouldn't go as far as to say the project would be halted. So while workers backed off on the first day of construction, it's possible they would be back.
In the meantime, Ng is grateful to her neighbors who fought for the park. If not for the Monday morning gathering, "fences would've been open, and our trees would be gone," she said. "And our kids would have no open space to play. It's not right."
