Editor's note: This is an in-depth version of a story that already ran on The Almanac's Web site.

Two members of Menlo Park's City Council and a former mayor are urging the council to take a stand against a project that would create a community rivaling the size of Menlo Park on the city's border.

Kelly Fergusson and Andy Cohen submitted a resolution to the city Oct. 11, in opposition to a proposal by agriculture distribution giant Cargill/DMB to build a small city with up to 12,000 residential units on a 1,436-acre wetland site just outside Menlo Park.

The resolution calls for "full restoration" of the Cargill-owned salt ponds.

The council will take up the issue at its meeting Tuesday, Oct. 20.

Former council member Steve Schmidt (1996-2004) drafted the resolution in July. The version submitted by Mr. Cohen and Ms. Fergusson includes slight modifications to Mr. Schmidt's.

"We have determined that the project would impose significant harm on Menlo Park and the greater region, and believe it is important for Menlo Park to clearly and promptly communicate its position to Cargill/DMB, the City of Redwood City, as well as other local and regional organizations," Ms. Fergusson wrote in the letter to the five-person council.

An environmental impact report on the project is expected early next year, initiating Redwood City's formal review process.


Resolution: key points
The draft resolution paints the proposal to develop the site as regressive. It warns of harm to fish and wildlife, to the climate, and to neighboring jurisdictions.

Restoring wetlands and salt ponds in the bay has been a "high priority for federal, state and regional agencies and most bayside cities" since the 1960s, the resolution states.

It notes that Redwood City's general plan designates the land Cargill is proposing to develop as open space. It mentions that Menlo Park voters in 2005 chose to maintain the 160-acre Bedwell Bayfront Park, adjacent to the Cargill site, as passive open space.

Efforts are under way to restore 1,600 acres of a neighboring former salt pond at the western edge of the Dumbarton Bridge.

The resolution also points out that the site is not near a public transit corridor.

A host of environmental agencies oppose Cargill's proposal, including The Sierra Club and Save the Bay. The citizen group Friends of Redwood City, which in the early 1980s overturned Redwood City's approval of plans to develop Bair Island, is also campaigning against the project.

"It's definitely appropriate for us to take a stand," said Heyward Robinson, Menlo Park's mayor. "I don't want to say it's not in the Redwood City council's purview to manage it, but we are interconnected, and we need to be conscious of the environmental impacts."


Project details
Under Cargill's proposal, 436 acres would be restored as wetlands or natural habitat, with the remaining 1,000 acres given over to development, schools and other public facilities, roads, sports fields, parks and open space.

Cargill has harvested salt at the site since the 1940s, but the operation is no longer profitable, a consultant to Cargill told The Almanac in 2006.

Visit redwoodcity.org/saltworks for more information on the project.

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