The on-again, off-again plans for a baseball field at Corte Madera School in Portola Valley are apparently on again, as is the controversy that enveloped the idea three years ago.
Neighbors of the school, for children in grades 4-8, don’t want the field, citing the potential for noise, trash and illegal parking along Alpine Road.
Softball and Little League enthusiasts want to expand the town’s baseball venues, particularly in light of the pending closure of the field at Town Center for up to a year and a half while the center is being rebuilt.
What’s different this time is that the proposed field is smaller — junior- rather than senior-sized — and it doesn’t encroach on town-owned land as did the field proposed three years ago.
The idea for a field resurfaced at the June 14 Town Council meeting in a proposal by Mayor Steve Toben and Councilman Ted Driscoll to spend about $4,000 in town money for an architect to design the field and up to $6,000 more for drawings.
“The intent (of the proposal to the council) was to provide some seed funding for a design so that people could talk it out,” said Mayor Toben in an interview.
The council rejected the idea in a 3-2 vote. The ball field project’s future is now up to the group trying to raise $150,000 to build it.
Council members Maryann Moise Derwin, Richard Merk and Ed Davis voted no. Such spending carries too much weight, Mr. Davis said. “The moment we start sending money to the field, we are putting the stamp of approval on (it),” he said. “If this is going to be entirely funded by gifts, let the first $5,000 do the design.”
After the vote, Neil McKinnon, who chairs the Parks & Recreation Committee, said the council has “abdicated its leadership” on the matter.
School district is gatekeeper
The Portola Valley School District had included a “renovated” field in a $6 million construction bond measure approved in 2001, but it was later dropped by a community advisory committee. After being sued by baseball enthusiast Lindsay Bowen over the breaking of a promise made in a school bond measure, the district agreed to allow a field on campus but not to fund it.Any field would also have to address neighbors’ concerns and avoid interference with soccer field activities, said district Superintendent Anne Campbell.
Why now?
In remarks to the council, Mark Lockareff of the recreation committee said committee members had talked with neighbors “extensively,” had explored alternative sites and had studied field usage. He said he expects the need for fields to grow.“We have not just a temporary need for a field. We have a long-term need,” he said. “We’re trying to come up with a proposal here that will make everybody happy.”
His committee apparently missed resident and field opponent Jessie Schilling. Calling Mr. Lockareff’s assertion about talking with neighbors “disingenuous,” she said she was never contacted.
Resident Danna Breen also opposes a field. “There is just too much use (at Corte Madera),” she said in an interview. “It used to be really sleepy over here. … My opinion is thumbs down.”
Looming field shortage?
Brad Peyton, the town’s recreation facilities coordinator, told the Almanac that, between upper-level Little League and adult softball, Ford Field on Alpine Road is used “pretty close to capacity.”The field at Town Center is meant for younger players, Mr. Peyton said. If Town Center construction forces its closure, kids will have to find other meadows on which to set up their temporary backstops and bases.
A junior-sized field at Corte Madera could bridge the gap, Mr. Lockareff said.
Ms. Campbell noted that local school fields are already suitable for such activities.
