Sonoma County awards contract for park at site of Andy Lopez shooting

By the time the undeveloped lot at the corner of Moorland and West Robles avenues becomes a public park, it will have been four years since 13-year old Andy Lopez was shot and killed there by a Sonoma County sheriff’s deputy.

Grief-stricken family and friends of Lopez have gathered in the same spot every year to mark his death, and the vacant lot has served as an unofficial memorial to the Santa Rosa middle schooler and protest ground for those concerned with police use of deadly force.

Now the neighborhood on Santa Rosa’s southwestern outskirts, promised a park many years ago, long before Lopez’s death, will have one named in his memory. The Board of Supervisors on Tuesday awarded a more than $3 million contract to Santa Rosa’s Argonaut Constructors, which plans to start building the park in May.

Francisco Saiz, a community activist, told supervisors that Andy’s Unity Park would not address all of the problems faced by the Moorland neighborhood, which he said was underserved by the county for many years. The diverse, working-class neighborhood has struggled with gang issues in years past.

“But it’s a step in the right direction of tackling community problems,” Saiz said of the park. “Now, more than ever, we must come together ... to improve the lives of others who live here. Andy’s Unity Park will empower people in the low-income communities that yes, we can contribute and make a remarkable improvement in our community.”

The project is intended both to memorialize Lopez and finally deliver a neighborhood park that has been slated for more than 20 years.

Supervisor Shirlee Zane, the chairwoman of the board, said the name of the park alone “says it all.”

“It’s symbolic, not only of where we’ve been in terms of this tragedy and how much grief there was in the community ... but I think it’s also a good symbol for where we need to be as a community today, too, in terms of unity,” Zane said.

Supervisors agreed to move forward with the minimum level of development, which includes open turf, trees and a memorial area for Lopez. That excludes a wide range of additional amenities, including a skate spot, basketball court and community garden, which would cost an additional $564,500.

“This is really, truly long overdue, and I would just really hate to see us get all the way here and then leave the community with half a park,” said Supervisor Lynda Hopkins, whose district includes the park site.

Supervisors debated finding a way to commit to those alternatives Tuesday. Ultimately, they chose to follow county staff’s recommendation that parks officials investigate funding options for the additional amenities and return at a later date.

“We’re not putting a bare-bones park in, even at the base bid. It is a beautiful, beautifully designed park,” said Supervisor David Rabbitt. “I think we can add something to it, but I really want to have the money in the bank before I’m spending it.”

The contract gives the county 60 days to decide whether it will direct Argonaut Constructors to build the additional amenities from the outset. Regional Parks Director Caryl Hart said her department would try to get more time so officials could make funding decisions on the additional amenities that would coincide with budget deliberations in June.

County officials, guided by input from community members, have been working toward building the park since the months following Lopez’s Oct. 22, 2013, death.

The eighth-grader was walking down Moorland Avenue carrying an airsoft BB gun designed to resemble an assault rifle. Deputy Erick Gelhaus later told investigators he mistook the airsoft gun for a real weapon and ordered Lopez to drop it.

As Lopez turned toward Gelhaus, the barrel of the airsoft gun rose in the air, the deputy told investigators, and Gelhaus fired his weapon, striking Lopez seven times. Gelhaus was later cleared of any criminal wrongdoing and was promoted to sergeant in May 2016.

Lopez family friend Concepcion Dominguez, who lived in the area for years and still has family there, told supervisors in Spanish that the park would provide a crucial space where children in the neighborhood could play.

Dominguez said Lopez’s loss was “very painful” and described the park as something that “needs to be done for him.”