Saratoga News | 0234 | August 21, 2002

August 21, 2002 Saratoga, California Since 1955

Photograph by George Sakkestad

The 2,700-square-foot administration building on the site of the city's recently purchased North Campus Facility will soon house city, community and group activities, as well as provide space to sheriff's officers for writing up incident reports.

City to get some use out of church site

By Kate Carter and Mandy Major

It may not be what was originally intended, but the city is gearing up to get some use out of its new property on Prospect Road.

This week the city's parks and recreation department will be holding trainings for its youth commission in one of the four buildings at the former site of Grace United Methodist Church, which the city is now calling the North Campus Facility. Plans are also underway to provide one of the rooms in that building as an office for Santa Clara County Sheriff's patrol officers, who currently do not have a space to write up incident reports at the West Valley Substation on Saratoga Avenue. Groups will also be able to rent space in the building for gatherings.

All this activity stems from the city council's approval Aug. 7 to spend $53,550 to bring its new property up to snuff. That amount is a far cry from the more than $1 million it had been told in July would be necessary to make the facility adequate for the senior center. The council had hoped to move the center to the new site and then move the sheriff's office from its cramped quarters in the post office to the center's current facility at the civic center.

The revelation that the buildings on the property would require work at such a prohibitive expense was a surprising disappointment for the council last month, but it approved the $4.5 million purchase of the property anyway, saying that it was an investment in Saratoga's future, as the city already needs more public space. Escrow closed July 19.

The parks and recreation department had already drafted a list of more immediately affordable uses for the new property, including options like adding modular units to the site for the sheriff's office, at a cost of $657,000; renovating the administration building, at a cost of $200,000; and razing the buildings and planting grass, at a cost of $210,000. The council didn't make a decision in July on what to do with the property, aside from directing staff to maintain the site's appearance and security and continue to study options.

Staff took another look at the property, focusing attention particularly on the most functional of the site's four buildings: the administration building, which is located on the site's west side and is behind the classroom building that faces Prospect Road. Approximately 2,700 square feet, the building contains three office-type rooms, a sizable storage closet and a large gathering space with a kitchenette and fireplace. The large room can accommodate up to 80 people.

Building official Brad Lind determined that the building was in compliance with building codes and the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) and would be usable with only minimal repairs. Parks and recreation director Joan Pisani presented this as an option to the city council Aug. 7 and asked its approval to make those repairs, purchase tables and other equipment for the building - all at a cost of less than $2,000 - and start using it.

The council approved the request, as well as the other necessary costs for the site as a whole - $25,000 for replacing broken fencing on the site's perimeter, $6,000 for irrigation repairs, $13,550 for year-round landscape and custodial maintenance and about $7,000 for minor lighting and signage repairs and annual utility bills.

Councilman Stan Bogosian voiced his desire to put a strict cap on spending for the building, ensuring that it not be made better than new but only brought to standard condition. Mayor Nick Streit did not endorse such a cap, saying he preferred to look at all of the prospective costs and groups utilizing the facility and allocate money from those numbers.

It is still undecided whether the other buildings on the property are suitable for use and, if so, what services they could provide. One Saratogan asked that the property be used for affordable housing, whereas another requested keeping it strictly for community group use.

Pisani told the Saratoga News she has already received calls from about 10 different groups interested in using the space.

Pisani has also started pursuing ways of making the site's second-most-usable building, the fellowship hall located on the east side of the property behind the sanctuary, available for city and public use. It is a large gathering space currently used by a Taiko drumming group for storing its large drums and holding its Saturday morning practices. Attached are a large kitchen and two bathrooms.

The room needs some upkeep, but most important is getting the bathrooms ADA-compliant. Pisani is working with Saratoga architect Warren Heid to determine a cost estimate for the work that she hopes to present to the city council next month.

The sanctuary needs more extensive work to bring it up to code, and the classroom building needs the most effort, Pisani said. The city is addressing each building one at a time, she said.

In the meantime, there has been a presence at the building in the form of different maintenance and landscape workers, as well as sheriff's patrol officers, who now park in the lot to write their reports. That presence helps to keep the property from being vandalized or used inappropriately.

However, Pisani said, her office has no immediate plans to move any of its staff members over to the new site, as it's more convenient to have them located together in their current office at the civic center, particularly because of their computer network.

"We don't have the budget to keep one person there," she said. "It's impractical for us to turn that into staff offices."

At Councilwoman Ann Waltonsmith's recommendation, the city will be holding two open houses for the community to view the new site. The first is Sept. 5 from 5 to 7 p.m., and the second is Sept. 10 from 10:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. All four buildings will be open. Staff will be available to answer questions and information will be provided about renting space. Light refreshments will be offered.