Saratoga News
News
Council vote puts limits on design plan requests for north campus
By Shannon Burkey
The city of Saratoga will soon be soliciting requests for conceptual design plans for the North Campus.
At its March 21 meeting, the City Council voted 3-2 to ask for ideas on uses of the city-owned campus that voters overwhelmingly decided to save from sale to developers in June 2006. But the council has limited its request for ideas to only the front two buildings.
The campus is composed of four buildings. The administration building and fellowship hall are located at the back of the campus and the sanctuary and education building are in the front.
Councilman Chuck Page and Councilwoman Kathleen King were the two dissenting votes because each felt a request for ideas should not limit people to the front buildings. Each said they wanted to keep the request open to all ideas and possibilities.
"I think it's a shame to limit people's ideas from coming forward. To close down ideas is Orwellian. Basically, they are banning new ideas," Page said.
Mayor Aileen Kao said she was worried opening up the entire campus to ideas could lead to someone wanting to possibly tear down all of the buildings and come up with a whole new master plan. Instead she would like to see a plan for the front two buildings that would incorporate the existing back buildings into it.
"I'd really like to challenge whoever puts their proposal up for our consideration to be creative and figure out a way to integrate the whole campus together," Kao said.
However, Page pointed out that the council is only asking for ideas and if it doesn't like one, it doesn't have to accept it.
"This is just a request for a conceptual proposal. It's not a demand to do something, and it's not going to change anything that has already been done," Page said. "Just because we're asking for ideas does not preclude our use of those buildings.
"However, asking for ideas that exclude a building that is dead center in the middle of the property may preclude some phenomenal idea from coming forward. So what we've done is limit the potential for benefit to the city of Saratoga. I think we need to open this up to as many options as possible. Let the big idea come--that big idea could be the tipping point that we're looking for."
In January, the city began renovation of the administration building and has plans to begin renovations of fellowship hall by May. Because the city has invested money in those two buildings, Vice Mayor Ann Waltonsmith and Councilwoman Jill Hunter said they don't want to see them changed.
"I think we should ask for development ideas for the front two buildings and keep the administration and fellowship buildings for use by the public. But there should be a coordinated plan that whatever was developed in front would be coordinated with the back so it would be seen as a whole," Waltonsmith said.
King said she doesn't want to see any money wasted, but by leaving it as open as possible, a great idea could come forward that the city might otherwise miss.
"Someone might be able to come to us with an idea to use the whole space that would benefit all of our citizens. Why would we limit someone coming up with the best approach to all four?" she asked.
In July 2006, the council voted to allocate $500,000 to the renovation of the North Campus. At that time, it was presented with four levels of improvements, with level one being very minimal to a complete structural overhaul at level four. Level two was funded, which Page said is about five-eighths of what is needed to fully renovate the site.
"Here we are, investing money in a building that is not enough to make it right, and now we are going to limit people's ideas," Page said. "What if someone had a plan to do a $20 million senior center and now they can't do it? It's not going to cost the taxpayers anything to let people be creative."
Page said he also wanted to hear from the public before moving forward, but Waltonsmith said the process has already taken too long, and she was ready to continue on and hear from the public as things progress.
"We will have public input when there are ideas coming forward, rather than have philosophical discussions right now," Waltonsmith said.
But by not taking public input beforehand and limiting the request for ideas, Page said the council has made a terrible mistake.
"Now a proposal will come in for the front half of the property and there still isn't a solid plan for use of the back buildings," Page said. "More public input would have been better."
