San Andreas fault can't be wished away San Andreas fault can't be wished away (June 30, 2004)

By Ted Driscoll

Let's face the facts. It's fine to wish the San Andreas fault won't have another major earthquake. It's fine to rely on Portola Valley's 30-year-old studies and long obsolete building codes to justify your wishes. We all wish it weren't so. But that is irresponsible in this year 2004. The facts are different. The current Town Center buildings were built in a terrible place, period. The extent of this was made clear by studies done in the past two years that demonstrate the rift zone passing through our buildings is bigger and more complicated than we imagined. World class engineering geologists now tell us it would be "foolish" to build or rebuild our town center buildings where they are now. Our town geologist, like he did 30 years ago, is again clearly stating this. And the building codes we now must adhere to are at least twice as stringent as they were back in 1975. Upgrading the current buildings is simply no longer an option. Fortunately everyone agrees that the back third of our site is a much better site to build. It will shake like the rest of the town in the next big one, but the ground won't crumple and heave like it will under the present buildings. And we already own it, and it will put the new buildings next to the playing fields and recreation on the rest of the site. This just makes sense, economically and culturally. No one wants to deal with this problem, particularly the Town Council that has spent eight years studying the options, enduring the controversy and being pilloried in the press.

But the fact is we risk losing our liability insurance, and we are putting at risk the 60,000-plus users of the town center site each year, most of them children. This cannot wait any longer, period.

The school district bit the bullet and dealt with it 30 years ago. Now it's our turn. It would simply be irresponsible not to address this problem.

Old Saint Andreas is not going to wait forever. We will have to find a way to do the best we can, and include as many uses as we can, with the appropriate financial resources we can muster. But let's focus on the opportunity in front of us to do something wonderful and world-leading, rather than sticking our head in the sand and wishing it weren't so.

Ted Driscoll is a member of the Portola Valley Town Council.

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