Board Pushes to Bring Back Swimming at Contra Loma as $53M Golden Gate Fields Grant Advances

The East Bay Regional Park District Board of Directors used its Sept. 15 meeting to send an unmistakable signal: the community planning process for the shuttered Contra Loma swim lagoon must center on rebuilding a place to swim, not explore open-ended alternatives. That directive, delivered by nearly every director at the table, came alongside a 10-item consent calendar that included a landmark $53 million grant agreement to acquire Golden Gate Fields and new volunteer principles adopted unanimously with union buy-in.

• Board tells staff to stop being "agnostic" about a swim facility at Contra Loma, redirecting a planning process that directors said had drifted too far from what east county communities need

• $53 million Wildlife Conservation Board grant for Golden Gate Fields acquisition clears consent calendar, with a purchase agreement expected at the Oct. 6 meeting

• New volunteer principles adopted 6-0 after collaboration with AFSCME Local 2428, replacing a 1990 policy that called volunteers "unpaid staff"

• Public commenters clash over proposed Wildcat Canyon Flow Trail, with opponents saying 85% of park users don't know about it and families describing how mountain biking transformed their children's lives

• Tilden steam train operator warns the 75-year-old attraction may leave if an 8-year lease renewal impasse isn't resolved

• Lifeguard training partnerships expand to four new school districts serving communities that lost access when the Contra Loma lagoon closed