Letters

Inaccuracies in letter critical of Montalvo

Thank you for giving me the opportunity to respond to the letter entitled "Commission shouldn't OK Montalvo Park project" in the June 14 edition of the Saratoga News. The letter, while well intentioned, contained many serious inaccuracies that I believe your readers will want to know about.

Villa Montalvo is a private not-for-profit organization. We own all of the 175 acres, including the land that the "Orchard of Artists" complex will be built on. The land has never been owned by the County Parks Department.

Instead, we have voluntarily chosen to lease some of the acreage to the parks department to assure free public access to the grounds. Montalvo's primary mission, however, is as an arts center dedicated to "the development and support of music, art, literature, and architecture" per U.S. Sen. James Phelan's will. The new artist residency complex is a direct outgrowth of our mission and that bequest.

We held three separate community meetings throughout the early development stages of the "Orchard of Artists" project and invited our neighbors to those meetings. Their feedback was invaluable in the planning for this project.

In addition, The Saratoga News, as well as other local newspapers featured extensive coverage on this project, including pictures of scale models and schematics. The project not only met with the unanimous approval of the planning commission, but is gaining national recognition as a model for community-oriented artist residency programs.

None of the hiking trails on the property will be impacted, nor, as the letter states, are we removing "redwood and oak forest". Only lots of poison oak, scotch broom and nonnative growth!

As a matter of fact we have a major grant from the Compton Foundation. The grant supports the building of an environmentally conscious complex, which serves the needs of artists and integrates seamlessly into the natural beauty that is Montalvo.

Elisbeth Challener
Executive Director Montalvo Road

Tennis club is blight in neighborhood

The Saratoga Tennis Club on Komina Avenue is a blight in our upscale neighborhood. It reduces our property values. Seventy years of deferred maintenance and a miserly budget have pleased its members, but at the expense of the neighborhood. Its dues were just raised to a mere $220 a year, a small fraction of what other private tennis clubs charge.

Komina Avenue is a narrow, substandard street that must support an immense flow of traffic. There are no walkways, and all pedestrians must walk in the traffic lanes. This creates several risks to the children at the Saratoga Elementary School on Komina and Oak when they are walking on the street. The Safety Commission has repeatedly expressed grave concerns about the traffic hazards to the children at the school.

At the recent meeting of the planning commission, the neighbors urged that the club be required to provide its own off-street parking, and provide pleasant landscaping in front of the front fence. Commissioners all seemed to favor those requirements until the club president insisted that this was not necessary, that the costs would be "astronomical," and the club could not afford it.

Astonishingly, the director of community development, James Walgren, then suggested that the club might monitor its own parking in the tiny parking area in front of the clubhouse "for a year or two," and provide a plan for landscaping in the 14 inch (repeat, fourteen inch) strip of dirt between the front fence and the curb. So the Commission, clearly feeling quite frustrated, voted 3 to 2 in favor of James' suggestion.

Since the president reported that the club could not afford renovations, let's look at the financial side of the club. It owns, free and clear, a full acre of land worth $1.5 million, and has a savings account of $63,000. For every member with a net worth less than a million dollars, there are easily 10 with a net worth of over a million.

As a member of the club, and a recent member of the board of directors, I know that the club has adamantly refused to investigate various options for resolving these problems. They own a half-acre of vacant land behind the club. They could easily have the clubhouse moved back there, and create pervious surfacing for the driveway and a parking area. They could easily move the front fence back far enough to create pleasant landscaping in front

The members of this decrepit tennis club have an average age of 66.4 years. The courts are woefully underutilized. These aged members are usurping a valuable community resource. If half of its membership refused to pay an additional assessment, or refused to obtain long-term financing, or were permitted to sell their memberships, that would create opportunities for perhaps 66 young families to join this low-cost club, restoring it to its former glory.

The neighborhood will be appealing the decision of the planning commission to the city council. We neighbors sincerely hope for a more reasonable decision.

Arthur W. Anderson Jr.
Komina Avenue

Bravo to Saratoga Drama Group for 'The Music Man'

Bravo, bravo to the cast, crew and orchestra of the Saratoga Drama Group's highly energetic and entertaining production of The Music Man. I enjoyed every minute of it.

Claire Selvi
Via Madronas

'Lack of funds' argument is lacking in sense

On the Saratoga Planning Commission's June 14 agenda was a request to enlarge the existing tennis courts at the Saratoga Tennis Club on Komina Avenue. The tennis club is situated on a one-acre site about 1 1/2 blocks from downtown Saratoga. Several of the neighbors were in attendance, and expressed the opinion that now would be a critical time to remedy two obvious problems with the club--adequate off-street parking and a setback with landscaping.

The driveway where club members park is only two cars wide and three cars long. Komina Avenue is a substandard width street, but it is often used for parking by Tennis Club members to avoid having to disturb someone in the middle of their game to move a car. There is a lot of room in the back of the property; however, the clubhouse (built on the property line and an eyesore, or historical monument, depending on your point of view) would have to be moved or demolished.

The suggestion of providing adequate parking was rebuffed by the Tennis Club as "too costly." Club members have agreed to "monitor" their parking, using Komina Avenue parking only in the rare instance when more than six cars are parked in the available off-street parking.

The chain-link fence, which starts 14 inches from the street curb, and runs across most of the Tennis Club frontage on Komina, is in total discord with a residential neighborhood. Immediately behind the chain-link fence is a retaining wall and adjoining tennis court. The neighbors are asking for at least a 10-foot set back, which would most likely require a new retaining wall. In this setback area from the street, it was hoped that landscaping would provide some relief from the new green, vinyl-coated, chain link fence.

Again, this modification was deemed "astronomically expensive" by the Tennis Club. Their "compromise" is to dig up the 14 inches of asphalt between the street curb and the new chain-link fence to plant something (tall skinny plants?).

Lack of funds should not be used as an excuse for not making these long-needed improvements. I salute the two members of the commission who were not swayed by the "lack of funds argument" and voted against approval of this modification.

Clarence E. Schultz
Komina Avenue

People want orchard to stay in hometown

Not having a hometown can be pretty tough for a kid growing up and even troublesome as an adult when folks ask, "where are you from." I never had a "hometown" because I was born and raised in the army and we moved from post to post or overseas every few years.

In the late 1940s and early 1950s, I was stationed at the Presidio of San Francisco. My father, who retired after service in both World Wars, settled on a small ranch south of Santa Cruz--a lovely spot with an orchard, stands of redwoods, a pond, and meadows. On weekends I drove there to escape the rat race of the city and to get some of Mom's home cooking.

I loved to pass through Saratoga on my way. It was such a beautiful, peaceful village. I often thought "This would be an ideal hometown," nestled close to the forested mountains; small enough to be quiet and friendly, but large enough to have its own drug store, hardware store, theater, and good restaurants. It had lots of open space with many trees, mostly fruit orchards.

In the spring I would drive up old Highway 9 or up Saratoga Avenue, put the top down on my old jalopy, slow down and soak up the perfume and beauty of the valley and hills. I decided then that I would return and make this my "hometown."

In 1976, after 33 years of service, my wife, Jean, and I moved to Saratoga. Fewer orchards, less wooded area, and far less open space remained, but still the sense of tranquillity, friendliness, and community was here. I was home--home at last. (And for all Realtors--this was my 63rd and last move. I'm going out of this place "feet first.")

Now, 24 years later, only one orchard is left to beautify and to welcome visitors at the entrance to our village. It is a precious piece of open space--a lovely reminder of the city's heritage--a touch of the past with a hold in the present. Old and young alike will cherish and enjoy this small but healthy area of trees that help clean the air of pollution while giving us back oxygen year round and in spring, gorgeous vistas and perfumes

I beg the city council, do not let this priceless bit of our heritage be destroyed.

I also challenge this city council to take bold action, long overdue, to declare our Heritage Orchard an historical site preserved in perpetuity from all and every incursion for development or conversion.

That is what everyone I know wants for our hometown.

Thomas "Mac" Barrick,
Col., U.S. Army, Retired
Bonnie Ridge Way

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