What Buena Park is about to decide

The Buena Park City Council meets Tuesday, September 22, 2026 at 5:00 p.m. in the Council Chamber, 6650 Beach Boulevard, with public hearings at 6:00 p.m. and a two-part study session after a recess. These are pending decisions from the posted agenda — nothing below has been approved yet. Every item links to the official record.

Source: official agenda packet (PDF) · Buena Park agendas · Written comments: comments@buenapark.com by 3:00 p.m. on the day of the meeting

✅ What actually passed (per the draft minutes): The draft minutes record on the city’s AgendaLink portal, marked as still in review and not yet adopted by the council, records ten motions with Ahn, Franco, Hoque, Sonne and Traut voting on each. The council declined to join the California Statewide Communities Development Authority and the Statewide Community Infrastructure Program (Item 6.B): a motion by Traut, seconded by Sonne, to approve the resolution failed 2-3 at 7:00 p.m., with Sonne and Traut in favor and Ahn, Franco and Hoque opposed. The record gives no reasons; without the resolution, the fee-financing route sought for the former Amway campus at 5600 Beach Boulevard is not authorized. The Friendship Park rebuild was awarded (Item 5.B): on a motion by Ahn, seconded by Sonne, at 5:56 p.m., the resolution approving plans and specifications and awarding the contract to Zeco, Inc. was approved with yes votes recorded from all five members and no no votes. The $199,710 Kreuzer Consulting Group design agreement for Commonwealth Avenue (Item 5.A) passed 5-0 (Franco/Sonne, 5:52 p.m.). The CDBG year-end report (Item 6.A) was approved 5-0 after its public hearing (Franco/Hoque, 6:09 p.m.). The consent calendar, Items 4.A–4.E, passed 5-0 in one motion (Traut/Franco, 5:46 p.m.) — the September 8 minutes, the claims and demands resolutions, the Hunger Action Month proclamation, the Noon Lions Club agreement for Silverado Days at William Peak Park, and the resolution honoring Alcene Cain. The draft record contains no motion and no notes for the two study-session items — overnight parking on Commonwealth Avenue (9.A) and the 10 mph e-bike speed limit (9.B) — so any direction given to staff is not documented here. A caution on the record itself: the draft vote lists repeat Traut’s name on three motions (once tagged “absent” on Item 5.B while also recorded as a yes); we count each member once and describe that item as approved without a no vote rather than assign it a tally. We will update this page when the council adopts the minutes.

Update (October 8, 2026): the city’s draft minutes of this meeting are now printed in the October 13 agenda packet (beginning on page 9; Item 4.A, up for approval, not yet adopted). They list each member once on every vote: the Friendship Park award to Zeco, Inc. (Item 5.B) passed 5-0 on a motion by Ahn, seconded by Sonne, with Ahn, Sonne, Franco, Hoque and Traut voting aye. They also record the study-session direction the AgendaLink record lacked. On overnight parking (9.A), the council “directed staff to instate parking restrictions from 12:00 a.m. to 5:00 a.m. on both sides of Commonwealth Avenue between Auto Center Drive and Dale Street” — an ordinance now on the October 13 agenda. On e-bikes (9.B), it “directed staff to establish a maximum speed limit of 10 mph for e-bikes and electric mobility devices operated on City sidewalks; and draft a Municipal Code language consistent with the City of Anaheim’s.”

The headline: a $6,238,582.79 construction contract to Zeco, Inc. of Yorba Linda to rebuild Friendship Park — a $7,000,000.00 project with contingency and workforce-agreement costs, funded by Measure R, that would close the park from November 2026 to August 2027. A public hearing asks the council to join the Statewide Community Infrastructure Program, which would let the developer of the former Amway campus at 5600 Beach Boulevard finance its development impact fees through bonds repaid by future homeowners’ property assessments. The study session returns to a 10 mph speed limit for e-bikes and to overnight parking on Commonwealth Avenue.

🏞️ Friendship Park rebuild

$6,238,582.79 to Zeco, Inc.: the lowest responsive of eleven bids opened September 3 (base bids “ranged from $5.9 million to $8.5 million” against an engineer’s estimate of “approximately $6.7 million”), plus $634,057.21 contingency, $100,000 construction engineering, a $24,860 purchase order to the Solis Group to administer the Community Workforce Agreement and $2,500 CWA contingency — total $7,000,000.00 from the Measure R Fund (Account No. 11-9806-190140). Item 5.B
What gets built at the 6.9-acre park off Cameron Drive next to Beatty Middle School: an expanded parking lot, new concrete paving and curbs, playground upgrades with rubberized surface and shade sails, storm drain replacement, dog parks, pedestrian lighting and benches, “a multicultural pavilion, half basketball court, and pickleball courts,” restroom and picnic shelter upgrades, and fitness equipment. “The park will be closed to the general public during construction,” anticipated November 2026 through August 2027. In April the council directed staff to bring an $8 million design down to about $7 million. Item 5.B

🛣️ Commonwealth Avenue

$199,710 to Kreuzer Consulting Group for design of the Commonwealth Avenue (Auto Center Drive to Dale Street) Complete Streets and Pavement Rehabilitation Project — seven proposals ranged from $198,860.00 to $444,009.12 — with an $84,600 budget transfer from the Commonwealth Avenue K-Rail Account. The Beach Boulevard–Dale Street segment would get Class II buffered bike lanes, ADA curb ramps, bulb-outs and high-visibility crosswalks, backed by a Surface Transportation Block Grant of “up to $2,921,000 toward eligible construction costs” with a local share of “approximately $379,000.” Design runs September 2026 to February 2027. Item 5.A
Study session — no overnight parking: direction on a restriction along Commonwealth Avenue, revived after a business near Beach Boulevard reported “recurring overnight parking, vehicle camping, and related impacts”; a 2022 proposal for the south side between Beach Boulevard and Auto Center Drive, 9:00 p.m. to 6:00 a.m., was approved by the Traffic and Transportation Commission but denied by the council. Item 9.A

📣 Public hearings (6:00 p.m.)

Joining CSCDA and the Statewide Community Infrastructure Program: continued from August 11. Shopoff Realty Investments, the applicant for the former Amway campus at 5600 Beach Boulevard (for-sale townhomes and senior apartments), asked the city to join so it can finance its development impact fees for parks, water, sewer and traffic; per the report, the fees “will be paid from the proceeds of bonds issued by the CSCDA under the SCIP program, with future owner(s) of the residential units being responsible for paying annual property assessments to repay the bonds,” typically over 20 to 30 years. The resolution would also authorize CSCDA to accept applications, conduct assessment proceedings and levy assessments within the city. Item 6.B
CDBG year-end report: a hearing on the FY 2025-2026 Consolidated Annual Performance and Evaluation Report and its submission to HUD. Item 6.A

🚲 Study session: e-bikes at 10 mph

Direction on whether staff should further evaluate a Municipal Code amendment “establishing a 10-mph speed limit for electric mobility devices operating on residential streets or sidewalks,” requested by Council Member Franco in March and tabled in June pending a survey of neighboring cities. Chapter 10.56 currently sets no specific speed limit. Item 9.B

📋 Consent and presentations

Minutes of the September 8 meeting; resolutions approving claims and demands (one resolution in the packet allows $3,161,547.29, demand Nos. 437741 through 437950); a Hunger Action Month proclamation; an agreement with the Buena Park Noon Lions Club to use William Peak Park for the 2026 Silverado Days Celebration; and a resolution honoring Alcene Cain at the 2026 Memorial Grove Ceremony. Items 4.A–4.E
Presentations: a certificate to Sarah Barron for completing her youth microgrant project, the Hunger Action Month proclamation to Lorenzo Rubalcava of Second Harvest Food Bank, and a presentation by the Friendly Center. Items 2.A–2.C

Council Brief summaries are produced from official public records by our automated newsroom and reviewed before publication. Items are described as posted; the council may amend, continue, or remove items at the meeting. Spot an error? hello@councilbrief.com — we publish corrections.