While city readies improvement plan, Saratogans debate El Quito

By Oakley Brooks

The city council has moved a step closer to approving funding on a slew of improvement projects throughout Saratoga. But the most contentious proposal among the public is El Quito Park improvements, which the council has tentatively decided not to fund.

At its Aug. 15 meeting, the council moved forward on 23 projects, from roadway improvements to an irrigation upgrade at Heritage Orchard, that would use $4.3 million from the city's general fund and another $1.4 million from the park development fund over the next five years.

Among the park improvements, the council has approved $850,000 to go toward the renovation of Azule Park and another $350,00 toward upgrading unsafe play equipment in Wildwood, Brookglen and El Quito parks.

None of the projects the council agreed on met resistance from the handful of residents at the Aug. 15 meeting.

But two weeks later when the city conducted a public forum on a potential overhaul of El Quito Park--listed as part of the initial citywide improvement plan but not designated for funding--more than 50 neighbors and youth sports representatives grappled over how the park should be altered.

The park has been a sore spot with neighbors for years. They've complained that too much drinking and drug use goes on in the park and that adult sport leagues bring traffic and overcrowding to the area.

Citing El Quito's low capacity for visitors, residents last summer opposed a plan to put a new youth baseball field in the park and eventually convinced the city to scrap it.

But local representatives from the PONY Baseball League and the California Youth Soccer Association are still interested in El Quito. They are without full-sized fields in Saratoga for their younger teenagers, and they won't have any fields in the newly resurfaced Congress Springs Park.

Keith Simon, an advocate for PONY League, presented the crowd assembled at the Adult Care Center on Aug. 29 with a plan to put a PONY field in one corner of El Quito--a slightly less imposing layout than one presented by the city a year ago.

Mike Whalen, president of the Saratoga youth soccer league, urged the city to level the grassy area at El Quito and give his youngsters a full-length soccer field in Saratoga.

But neighbors pushed to have a more consistent police presence near the park and to improve the maintenance of the area before adding any fields.

"There are ruts in the field that have been out there so long they have names," said nearby resident Emma Wyckoff.

Residents continued their skepticism of play field improvements in the park for fear it might add visitors to El Quito.

"The park appears to be maxed-out in its use," said Joan Faunce, who has lived near the park for 22 years.

Toward the end of the evening, however, the initial tension between the groups subsided, and resident Greg Gates--so far one of the most outspoken opponents of playing fields at El Quito--told baseball advocates, "Let's build some goodwill."

The parks and recreation commission agreed to put together a task force of interested parties to plan El Quito's future.

The task force will seek answers to two burning questions that could not be resolved at the Aug.29 meeting.

First, it must figure out exactly how much a new baseball diamond and soccer field would increase usage at El Quito. Second, the group must decide how the park's designation in the city's Parks Master Plan as one of Saratoga's three "community parks" (as opposed to a neighborhood park) makes it obligated to accommodate larger community groups like soccer and baseball organizations.

Meanwhile, City Manager Dave Anderson and members of the Santa Clara County Sheriff's Office last week held a meeting with several El Quito-area residents to begin addressing safety concerns in and around the park.

The city council will hold a public hearing on the entire list of improvement projects on September 19 at its regular bi-weekly meeting.

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