Menlo Park voters may get the opportunity to say whether they want playing fields at Bayfront Park, but the feasibility of building fields at the 160-acre park may still be undetermined when the November 7 election rolls around.
Council members Nicholas Jellins, Mickie Winkler and Lee Duboc reiterated support at the May 23 council meeting for exploring an advisory ballot measure that would ask voters whether they want playing fields at Bayfront Park.
The council will decide whether to authorize the ballot measure at a meeting in July, when staff will present information on the financial and geological feasibility of building fields at the park off Marsh Road, which sits on capped landfill.
But what officials from regulatory agencies — including the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the San Francisco Bay Conservation and Development Commission, and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers — think of putting fields at the park won’t be known before the council decides whether to proceed with a ballot measure.
The city doesn’t have the time or staff to contact the agencies before July, but they will be contacted if the ballot measure is approved and passed, City Manager David Boesch said.
Putting an advisory measure on the November ballot would cost the city about $20,000, he said.
Because the park is adjacent to the Bay, surrounded by a wildlife refuge, and built on a landfill, there are environmental concerns with any development there, and the city would have to win approvals for the plan from various agencies.
Ms. Winkler, who originally floated the idea of a ballot measure in April, said the city is more likely to garner support from environmental agencies if voters support the plan.
Legal hurdles
Lennie Roberts, the San Mateo County legislative advocate for the Committee for Green Foothills, said public support would play no role in winning permits or exemptions to laws that restrict development at the park.Even if voters say they want fields at the park, environmental hurdles, high costs and difficulties with re-engineering the landfill could prevent development.
“There’s a huge number of questions voters wouldn’t have a clue about,” Ms. Roberts said. “An advisory ballot measure wouldn’t give the city any mandate in changing restrictions at the park.”
She added that several laws, including the Endangered Species Act and Migratory Bird Act, could restrict building fields in certain portions of the park.
Permitting hurdles and public opposition played a large part in a developer’s decision several months ago to withdraw a proposal to build a golf course and three playing fields at the park,
Task force report
Councilwoman Kelly Fergusson said the city should not consider Bayfront Park a viable site for playing fields.“Politically and in the courts, I think fields at Bayfront Park [don’t] have a snowball’s chance in hell for success,” she said.
Ms. Fergusson said the city should pursue recommendations in a report given to the council by a task force of parks and recreation commissioners and residents that studied the city’s playing field shortage.
The report says the city should modify fields at Kelly and Burgess parks to accommodate more users, and consider building a field on an empty lot off Hamilton Avenue.
Other suggestions include encouraging teams to use underutilized fields in the Belle Haven neighborhood and resurfacing existing fields with artificial turf.
Councilman Andy Cohen said putting fields at Bayfront Park may be a “pie in the sky solution,” and that it would be a mistake not to explore other options.
Mr. Boesch said when the city hires consultants to look at the feasibility of building fields at Bayfront, they will also study Kelly and Burgess fields and the Hamilton Avenue site.
Resident Nancy Borgeson said the council should try to implement the task force’s recommendations as soon as possible, but noted that because of the current focus on Bayfront Park, the recommendations may not “be taken seriously.”
Resident John Posthauer said the report is already “out of date” as the local Pop Warner football league will likely lose field space at Menlo-Atherton High School, adding to the field shortage. He urged the council to take steps to build fields at Bayfront Park.
