By Sarah Lombardo
Members of the Greenbriar Homeowners and Taxpayers Association and neighbors of Azule Park showed up in full force at the Aug. 8 City Council meeting.
The group of about 30 residents was there to appeal a decision made by the Saratoga Parks and Recreation Commission to add two new sports fields to Azule Park and Blue Hills School.
Residents claimed in their complaint against the commission's decision that the impact such multi-use fields would have on their neighborhoods and the concerns made by residents were not considered.
"Safety and traffic are our number-one concerns," said Jim Schindler, an Azule Park area resident.
According to Schindler, a petition circulated last summer garnered more than 200 signatures from residents saying they did not want the fields to be approved for Azule Park. Schindler said the neighborhood task force prepared recommendations for the commission.
"Apparently, those recommendations were ignored," he said.
In a letter submitted to the council, Sally Johnson, the president of the Greenbrier Homeowners and Taxpayers Association, stated: "We do not want to further impact the traffic in this area by having organized sports which would jeopardize the safety of the children we are trying to protect. ... [W]e believe that the Council's decisionto develop Azule Park as an organized sports facility, in cooperation with the Cupertino [Union] School District, is not a wise one."
Citing numerous public meeting on the subject of the parks before the commission made its final decision, councilmembers voted unanimously to deny the appeal.
In other action, the City Council voted to deny an appeal by Meg Giberson against the Saratoga Planning Commission's approval of design review and variance requests for Robert Wilson and Deborah Davison to build a single family home on Peach Tree Road.
In her address to the council, Giberson said she feared the installation of a sewer hookup to the property would have a negative effect on Canyon Creek. She said she wanted to make sure that Wilson and Davison, in the course of construction of their home, did not change their plans to hook up their sewer at Peach Hill Road in favor of connecting to the sewer at the creek.
Councilmember Ann Marie Burger said that because Wilson and Davison said they had no intention of changing their plans from connecting to the Peach Hill Road sewer, she felt the appeal was a waste of time. She said that if Wilson and Davison do change the plans, they will be subject to approval.
This article appeared in the Saratoga News, August 21, 1996.
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