The Sunnyvale Sun
News
New neighborhood group focuses on getting a park
By Cody Kraatz
Sunnyvale's newest neighborhood group has a clear focus: making sure the city turns a city-owned industrial park into green space for its high-density neighborhood.
The Morse Park Neighborhood Association, which covers the triangle formed by Highway 101, Route 237 and Fair Oaks Avenue, wants the city to build a $3 million, 6.5-acre park that has been planned and postponed for years.
It would be located on the site of the city-owned Fair Oaks Industrial Park at 1010 Morse Ave., where the city collects $1 million in rent per year.
The city has budgeted to build the park in 2010. The MPNA said it just wants to make sure it's not pushed back.
The park would connect to a 1.2-acre extension of the John W. Christian Greenbelt, also budgeted for 2010.
The city has collected park dedication fees from surrounding condominium developers, which therefore were not required to dedicate any open space within their projects.
The fees are dedicated by law to the neighborhood where they are collected, but MPNA members complained that the Sunnyvale Golf Course and Plaza Del Sol are getting those fees while they have nothing.
"A lot of us neighbors bought here with the idea--it wasn't promised--but with the idea that it was to become a park," said Lorraine Larzabal at the group's March 27 meeting.
"Our beef is that those park fees don't go to our area. They just go to the city."
The city was not aware of a formal application as of press time.
"It's common for neighborhood associations to come together over a single issue of concern," said Adam Levermore-Rich, a city spokesman.
Larzabal lives with her husband at Parkside Villas Town Homes, 422 Toyama Drive, right next to the industrial park. Adam Berkan, a Google employee and first-time homeowner, just moved into the adjacent City Park at Sunnyvale at 504 Solomon Terrace.
The irony of the name is not lost on either of them.
"When my kid is old enough to walk around on the grass, there needs to be some grass," said Berkan of his 1-month-old daughter Beatrix who came to the meeting with his wife Deadra.
Thirteen people showed up to the meeting to discuss the application process at New Hope International Church, 539 E. Weddell Drive. The church, an immediate neighbor, will join the MPNA and host meetings because it wants to foster community.
Parks study
Larzabal participated in the city's ongoing Parks of the Future study. So far, the study has revealed only what city parks and recreation employees think the city needs most.
A teen center, trails, water parks with slides, BMX and motocross, frisbee golf, a fishing pond, a dog park and a petting zoo were among the most popular.
Larzabal said she was frustrated by the discussion because it focused on big-ticket items elsewhere while her neighborhood doesn't even have a park to play soccer.
For more about the MPNA, join groups.yahoo.com/group/morseparkneighborhoodassociation.