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Photograph by George Sakkestad
Councilmember Nick Streit has brought back the idea of creating a 'central hub,' possibly on some of the land where the Heritage Orchard is planted.
Neighborhood fields dumped for 'hub'
By Steve Enders
Saratoga's City Council and Parks and Recreation Commission ditched one long-running effort and replaced it with what's sure to be another June 8, voting to abandon the contentious playfields issue and instead agreeing to plow ahead with Nick Streit's recently resurrected city "hub" idea.
The unanimous vote won applause after discussion with parks commissioners could offer no other solution to the stalemate with neighbors. Most in the gallery were from two large neighborhood organizations that rallied to help defeat the idea that began nearly 10 years ago.
With the council's vote, the city will no longer seek to reconstruct new playfields at Blue Hills Elementary School/Azule Park, Marshall Lane Elementary or Foothill Elementary schools. It will, however, keep Congress Springs Park on its list of possible field improvements.
After hearing from city staff that the parks development money--$2.2 million has been earmarked for the project--can safely remain in the bank, the council took testimony and heard ideas from residents on pursuing the "central hub," proposed as an alternative last month by Councilmember Nick Streit.
The idea for a central sports/community complex was originally pitched in 1996 by the Parks and Recreation Commission's task force that set out to explore options to spend available parks money. The idea was then placed as a lesser priority than neighborhood playfields. But the "hub" also came with a provision to develop those fields for residential accessibility, according to resident Jenny Crotty, who spoke at the meeting and congratulated Nick Streit for resurfacing her idea.
After two hours of sometimes wacky idea sharing--including one to place mirrors on trees to create an arbor-like illusion--the council directed city staff to jumpstart the process by researching areas that may be suitable for such a complex other than the Heritage Orchard, even though the 20 acres is probably one of the best in the city.
The senior and community centers, library, theater and City Hall are all located there and come with plenty of parking. It's also not located in a dense, residential neighborhood.
The idea, it appears, has won cautious praise from residents. Those in the neighborhoods of Blue Hills and Marshall Lane, where they contended additional playfields would have threatened the quality of life, pledged support for the project.
The new hub idea sounds threatening to some, who told councilmembers that they don't support bulldozing the trees in the orchard for soccer fields. Others warned, and the council agreed, that it will take a lot of effort to see the idea through instead of watching it fall on its face as the playfields issue has so far.
"I hope that on this go-round we develop a process to get the consensus of the community," Councilmember Stan Bogosian said. "I'd much rather go slow and do it right than go fast and have false starts and make mistakes."
The city-owned Heritage Orchard and surrounding land is just one of a few possible sites for such a complex. Former Saratoga mayor and current West Valley-Mission College District board member Don Wolfe told the council he's willing to bring the city and district together to talk about using some of the college's land for field development.
Another possible site mentioned was the lot southwest of the intersection of Cox and Saratoga avenues.
For now, many more questions remain than answers as to how the City Council and Parks Commission intend to finally settle the issue. The fact that the city has spent more than $66,000 on the playfields process so far riled a few on the council and in the audience, even though there was some agreement that all hasn't been lost.
The city, it said, has learned that it needs to go to great lengths to seek input from residents from the beginning, unlike its previous effort. The Parks Commission maintains it has properly noticed residents of hearings and discussions, however.
To get input, residents told the city they'd be willing to help, possibly by canvassing affected areas or even the city as a whole. Email or a website may be another way to inform people.
Another issue surely to surface will be how the city intends to pay for such a complex or park.
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Saratoga, California Since 1975
