Saratoga News
News
Group considers withdrawing plan to put parks initiative on the ballot
By Shannon Burkey
The Citizens for Parks Preservation group is considering withdrawing its initiative, aimed at protecting the city's parks and open spaces, after the city council voted unanimously at its Jan. 17 meeting to create an entity to look into the issues raised in the initiative.
"In the spirit of working with the city and trying to be positive, we are considering withdrawing it," a spokeswoman for the group, Denise Goldberg, said. "They are willing to open up dialogue on the issues, and we are open to whatever they may come up with."
The Saratoga Park Preservation and Field Use Policy Initiative grew out of a concern by members of the group that the desires of residents were not being considered and listened to as the decisions affecting their neighborhoods and parks were being made.
Since October, the group has been working to gather enough signatures on a petition that would allow the initiative to be placed on a ballot in a special election.
Although the group is still collecting signatures until it comes to a final decision, according to Goldberg, council members feel this is a positive step.
"I think it's great. If they withdraw, it gives everyone a chance to come forward--those that use the park actively, passively or not at all. We need to hear from all of those people," Councilman Chuck Page said. "With the initiative out there, essentially there will be a group of people holding the parks hostage."
With the council's vote to create an entity to look into the issues, Page said members can look into reinstating the parks and recreation commission or convening a task force to focus on the points brought up in the initiative.
"We've been asked to re-look at our park policy, and that's going to take a lot of public input," Page said. "With an entity in place, they can hear public input and create a new policy or recreate the policy we have."
American Youth Soccer Organization regional commissioner Howard Miller said he is glad to see the group considering withdrawing the initiative, which he says threatens for the existence of certain programs.
"I don't think these people meant anything bad against youth sports, but when you write something in such great detail, bad stuff trickles down," Miller said. "The devil is in the details."
Now he feels the city is on the right track to making everyone happy.
"I'm a real fan of putting back together the parks and recreation commission. They are the right group to deal with this--it's a park usage issue."
Councilwoman Ann Waltonsmith said this is good direction for the group to move in if the city is going to be able to open up the discussions on the initiative. If the initiative were to continue moving forward, she would not want to promote putting a group together to discuss the philosophies and ideas behind it.
"I'm not willing to have any group tackle that as long as we have this initiative hanging over our heads," she said.
The city council is scheduled to go on retreat Feb. 2 where, among other things, it plans to discuss reinstatement of the parks and recreation commission, as well as some of the other city commissions that were disbanded due to budget cuts.
