My name is Octavio Hurtado, and I’m the Public Works director and city engineer for King City. I have been working on projects in King City for the past 20 years. The first 17 years as a consultant providing contract city engineering services, and I will be coming up on three years this August as an official city employee.
I came to King City when the Creekbridge and Mills Ranch subdivisions were just beginning their approval process to help the City with engineering services, and at that time First Street had that old narrow bridge with bent guard rails and a separate pedestrian bridge that you could bounce across as you walked.
The city manager at the time said here’s $400,000 to put “lipstick on a pig.” I researched the project and long story short, found out Caltrans had the funding to replace the bridge, and we ended up using the $400,000 as the City’s match. I remember working on the bridge replacement project for two years and what I remember most was begging PG&E to relocate their gas line.
The project was later followed by the Street Widening Project along First Street to provide bike paths and landscaping. That, along with the bridge, really improved the entrance to the City on First Street.
When Steve Adams came on board, he initiated the new King City Entry Sign Project at Broadway and San Antonio Drive and I think everybody can agree that it truly made a statement as you came into town, and it still does! Since that project, we have not slowed down. We have added a smaller entry sign along First Street at the veterinarian’s office and most recently a new sign was installed on Spreckels Road as you come into town from the north.
In town, the City has made great efforts to improve its sidewalks and handicap access ramps. Aside from the obvious benefits they make to our pedestrians, what I notice about these sidewalk projects is that they spark many homeowners to make additional improvements to their homes and front yards. An example of this is the last block of Mildred near Division Street. And there are many more throughout King City.
The Downtown Streetscape Project, which was completed last year, was a product of planning, community input, grant writing and execution. Much thought was put into the landscaping, street furniture, wind sculptures and especially the crosswalks. I know it was a disruption to our downtown for a while right up until the start of the Christmas parade, but I hope it was a worthwhile disruption.
The Downtown Streetscape Plan included the creation of a Downtown Plaza, which again went through the planning and community input process for many of its components, including the stage, the mural, the wind sculpture and the interactive play features. I invite you all to go experience spinning the big rock, and if you could guess what country it came from, you deserve a prize. The Plaza also includes a new parking lot in the rear, which offers the opportunity to be used to host events, such as farmers markets in the future.
The intersection of Broadway and San Lorenzo streets is also part of the Streetscape Plan. We were not able to build it with the rest of the intersections due to budgetary constraints, but it is fully designed, and the intersection will be getting the same treatment with bulbouts and decorative crosswalks. We are currently looking for grant funding to complete this final phase.
The new Visitor and History Center adjacent to the Downtown Plaza is another project that was just completed. The building was completely gutted, and everything had to be leveled, straightened or rebuilt, including the floors, ceiling and walls. We removed the false ceiling that was not original to the building to be able to restore the windows to their original locations and dimensions, and this was in large part due to having a great local contractor, Paul Tavernetti, who took pride in the restoration of the building.
The two projects, although separate and having started at different times, happened to be completed on the same day — the day before the ribbon-cutting ceremony! I invite everybody to come by and see all the history exhibits that the Jernigans and MCARLM have put together, as well as the new office of the Chamber of Commerce and everything they have to offer. When you visit, you can see that these projects really do complement each other.
In addition to the many art pieces that have been installed along Broadway, there are art pieces at Canal Street and Broadway underpasses. They were installed under a Clean California Grant from Caltrans. This same project also made improvements to the soundwall along the highway between Broadway and Canal streets and provided additional landscaping on the state right-of-way.
With all these great efforts made, our Public Works team has made it a priority to keep all entrances to the City clean. We even painted a graffitied soundwall along the railroad tracks so the City looks good to the passengers on the train.
I would also like to talk about the expansion of the City’s park network. Since I have been here, I recall City Park and the Recreation Center getting a new parking lot, Forden Park getting new play equipment, a new Pocket Park and a new Skate Park.
Most recently, there is a new neighborhood park at Mills Ranch, which opened last December. And you can get there using the new Linear Park pathway that runs along the northern perimeter of the City adjacent to Creekbridge and Mills Ranch. The Downtown Plaza is located in the center of these parks and is a great addition tying City parks to our downtown.
We just completed the resurfacing of the tennis courts, where there are now four new pickleball courts for your competitive enjoyment. We are still working on how to improve access to the courts as well as providing a nice sitting area to wait for your turn.
We are also assisting Ecology Action in starting a project to remove sod from center medians on Canal Street and on San Antonio Drive. The sod will be replaced with drought-tolerant landscaping to reduce water consumption.
Current construction activity in town includes the new Grocery Outlet that will join Dutch Bros, the Mills Ranch Subdivision that is adding great neighborhoods to the City and we can’t forget about Cal Water, which continues to upgrade the City’s water system.
Projects on the horizon
Now I want to talk about projects that are fully designed and coming up in the near future.
The new roundabout at Broadway and San Antonio Drive. The project is 100% designed. We are waiting for an encroachment permit from Caltrans and will be advertising for bids soon. The center of the roundabout will showcase a large wind sculpture art piece. This will be a great addition and tie in nicely with the wind sculptures downtown. The roundabout will also incorporate a combination of landscaping and hardscaping throughout.
Next to the roundabout, the Days Inn Project reached a milestone recently where with an immense amount of work and effort led by Steve Adams, all the pieces have come together to begin construction and improve the appearance of the site.
So now I’m going to go over some projects in the design stage.
First, the San Antonio Bike Path and Safe Routes to School Project. This is a big project. I feel this project will be transformative to King City because it will tie all the projects I have mentioned together. It will provide a protected bike path along San Antonio Drive from Mildred Avenue to Broadway. It will tie into the new roundabout; it will then proceed along Broadway to Mildred Ave making improvements to all intersections. We will also be coordinating our City street paving projects to repave Broadway from San Antonio Drive to Mildred Avenue.
The project includes a large non-infrastructure component, which TAMC and the County Health Department are leading the way.
Next, the King City Electric Vehicle Charging Station is to be located at 225 Broadway. A new parking lot will be built on the empty lot next to El Sinaloense Mexican Restaurant. We received federal funding from Sen. Lofgren for this project to create an electric vehicle charging station in downtown King City.
Another large project we are working on is the Multimodal Train Station Project. Although we have secured the funding for construction of this project, we are a few years from breaking ground. We still need Union Pacific approval, which is not an easy task. We are currently in the design stage, and are about to begin the Environment Review process. This project will have a big impact on our downtown as it calls for the relocation of the Pearl Street railroad crossing over to Broadway.
The last project I would like to talk about is the King City Golf Course. We have completed most of the FEMA process. We have completed the design, and we have received bids to make the repairs, but the bids came in $2 million over what was estimated, and the hold up right now is that we are trying to get FEMA to adjust their allocation for the project to reflect the actual cost to repair. We are doing this to make sure FEMA will be paying for all the repairs and to reduce and/or minimize any financial risk to the City’s budget.
There are many people and organizations doing their part in King City and together, I believe we are making a difference.
