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Meetings to be held in affected playfield areas By Steve Enders
The playfields issue is about to hit home for a few Saratoga residents who will, the city hopes, open their front doors for city and community representatives to find common ground on the city's playfields issue.
Saratoga's Parks and Recreation Commission decided Feb. 22 that it's time to hold the small meetings as promised last month during lengthy public hearings, which were supposed to result in a final recommendation to the City Council.
Instead, commissioners voted to hold four small meetings--one per neighborhood--where neighborhood representatives will get a chance to voice concerns to parks commissioners in hopes of striking a compromise on how the fields are built.
Also at the meetings, representatives from the user groups, including AYSO soccer and Quito Little League, will get their say as well. So far, those organizations have promised maintenance support on the fields. City officials are concerned that financial support, which has been verbally offered by the users, could be lost if plans are significantly scaled back. That could leave the entire project in jeopardy.
The proposal under consideration is to make millions of dollars in improvements to the fields at Foothill Elementary School, Blue Hills School/Azule Park, Marshall Lane Elementary School and Congress Springs Park.
At meetings last month, hundreds of Saratoga residents turned out to give opinions on the playfields matter--most of which were negative. Many residents have stressed that they don't want to bear the burden of increased traffic and parking needs the new fields could create. Additionally, they're concerned about noise and trash that could flood the neighborhoods.
At the Feb. 22 meeting, commissioners refocused their goals and decided on the logistics of the meetings. The main goal, they agreed, was to build new playfields--that's what the community said it wanted in 1996 when asked to prioritize spending for the parks department.
Over the next week, Irene Jacobs, city staff liaison to the commission, will send out notices of the upcoming meetings to the neighborhoods located around the four sites under consideration.
In those notices, Jacobs will ask residents to choose a representative, who will get a set amount of time to summarize the problems they think the fields will bring into their communities.
If those neighborhoods aren't well defined or have more than one homeowner's group, they'll be asked to consolidate and come to agreement over who will represent their concerns.
The four meetings will be open to the public and will be more structured, unlike previous commission meetings. Each side will get a set amount of time to air opinions and will then get time to strike a deal.
Still up in the air is a proposal to include a mediator who can facilitate the process and keep it moving. Commissioners have so far said they can handle the small groups, but the city is still pushing the mediator idea.
The city will also likely ask Jay Beals, the consultant hired to study the cost of the projects, to return and provide technical information.
At its March 1 meeting, commissioners were expected to set a schedule for the neighborhood discussions and decide on a concrete format for them.
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Saratoga, California Since 1975
