The Sun
Sunnyvale's Newspaper

Sunnyvale seniors ask for, get bigger center

By Justin Berton

Helen DeWolf made good on her promise to pack City Hall with more than 100 senior citizens at the July 28 City Council meeting, and the oftentimes rowdy group wearing yellow ribbons got just about everything they demanded.

Councilmembers voted 6-0 to build a new, 23,000-square-foot senior center next to the existing Sunnyvale Community Center on Remington Drive.

Originally, the city said it could only afford an additional 14,000 square feet next to SCC to house a new senior center.

But a fight led by DeWolf, who chaired the Advisory Committee for a New Sunnyvale Senior Center, forced the city to redo their figures and rethink their plans.

DeWolf visited senior groups and retirement centers to gather 1,301 signatures in support of a spacious, 25,000-square-foot stand-alone center.

"They weren't shy in telling me what they wanted," DeWolf said of her constituents.

The city's final recommendation was for 20,000 square feet, still 5,000 feet shy of DeWolf's request.

The cost of the new senior center over the course of the next 26 years should total about $25 million, according to estimates prepared by finance director Mary Bradley.

Councilmember Julia Miller offered the motion to approve the smaller center, which was readily accepted by all councilmembers.

"We are in a position to build and look to the future because it affects not only all of us in this room, but all of our children, also," Miller said.

Currently, seniors use 7,000 square feet of a 25,000-square-foot multipurpose center on McKinley Avenue. The rest of the space is used by the city. The seniors are being displaced because the building's landlord, Sunnyvale Elementary School District, raised the rent.

According to a report put together by five surrounding counties, Santa Clara County will experience the greatest boom in the number of senior citizens in the Bay Area.

From 1990 to 2010, the report projects the number of senior citizens will increase 93 percent, from the current 242,000 to an estimated 467,000.

Mayor Jim Roberts had to call the audience to order three times during the meeting after applause, laughter or hissing broke out.

At one point, DeWolf thanked the city clerk for putting the senior center first on the agenda so many of her constituents could drive home before the sun went down.

"If you see these chambers empty out, it's not a show of protest," DeWolf deadpanned. "It's because they want to go home."

Originally, DeWolf and her constituents demanded the senior center be used exclusively for senior services, barring any other groups from sharing the space.

At the meeting, the two sides agreed to use off-hours, such as weekends and evenings, as a chance to earn revenue for the center by hosting wedding receptions and other banquets.

The compromise to use the facility for other purposes came with one warning from DeWolf: "Please come and ask us," she told councilmembers. "Don't come and tell us."

The new facility will be one story high to accommodate seniors who can't climb stairs. DeWolf hopes architects will use the new senior center in Pleasanton to draw inspiration for its design and upscale aesthetics.

"It should be better than the home they are leaving," DeWolf said. DeWolf also suggested the facility be absent of television sets to promote activity, and that a circular driveway be built to accommodate senior drivers who can't manipulate tight parking lots.

But most importantly, the additional space will allow the city to plan for the future, councilmember Pat Vorreiter said.

"If we planned for anything less, we would be planning for obsolescence," she said.

Moments after the council's vote, DeWolf was sharing hugs and shaking hands with friends and family in the crowded lobby outside City Hall chambers. "We won, we won," she said to well-wishers.

"I was a little overwhelmed to get all the votes," DeWolf said of the council's unanimous approval.

Ashley Colpaart, DeWolf's 16-year-old granddaughter on vacation from Austin, Texas, said watching her grandmother's moment of triumph was inspiring.

"She's always saying how proud she is of me," Colpaart said. "Now I get to be proud of her."

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This article appeared in the Sunnyvale Sun, August 5, 1998.
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