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Residents described a panic that swept through the city about 24 hours before the start of Menlo Park City Council’s Tuesday meeting. They heard the city was canceling its Caltrain quiet zone project and quickly organized to defend the project. In a matter of hours, the city received 114 emails lambasting officials for deciding to omit the project without any public input; many spoke in support of keeping the project at the meeting before the council discussed it.
However, the city was never planning on removing the project.
Residents were correct that it was omitted from the capital improvement plan before the City Council that day. But that doesn’t mean the project is dead, city officials say. According to Public Works Director Azalea Mitch, city staff decided to wait until it is further along to include it in the budget. City contractors are currently finalizing the design of the project.
Mitch said the city will solicit bids in the winter after the design is finalized as contractors are generally looking for work and may be cheaper. Mitch said when the city has a better idea of the project’s cost, it would look at grants to fund the project.
The project is still on track and a priority for the city.
Friendly ‘argument’
Residents’ efforts did not fall on deaf ears. City councilmember Jeff Schmidt advocated against waiting to determine how to fund the project, especially given uncertainty about the availability of federal grants.
“I feel very strongly that we need to look at a funding strategy, not a hope-based strategy. I’ve seen that not play out time and time again. I could really see this getting kicked down the road,” Schmidt said.
Schmidt then said that the city has money now, $3 million surplus and $2 million in the downtown amenity fund, and now would be the time to appropriate funds.
Vice Mayor Betsy Nash “vehemently” disagreed with funding the quiet zone from the downtown amenity fund.
“It’s wonderful to promise all of this money to all these different groups, to all these different programs. We have to be very careful with our money and really be very conservative,” Nash said. She expressed that given her experience navigating the city’s finances during the COVID-19 pandemic, she believes reserves are very important and is concerned about the city’s financial state.
Nash also said the city will need to use those funds for its downtown vibrancy priority.
Schmidt said he is still concerned about the city relying on future grants.
“No disrespect to staff, but I don’t think that’s where we are going. I don’t think that’s where our federal friends are going,” Schmidt said.
Many city councilmembers already support directing part of the surplus to the capital improvement plan, which includes the quiet zone project.
Last night the Council gave short shrift to the dire financial needs of the Menlo Park swimming pools which serve a huge community of users, instead choosing to dwell on the Caltrain quiet zone project even after it was made abundantly clear that it is still on track and a priority for the city. The pools’ immediate survival hinges on addressing a shortfall of a couple of hundred thousand dollars, thanks to the city’s own flawed projections and mistaken notion that you can simply “build a new pool, and they will come.” The Council once again kicked the problem down the road and placed the blame and burden on an operator with deep experience and proven compassion for the community who is simply unable to continue to swallow the financial shortfall. It is rather telling that a $4 million project that benefits a narrow slice of homeowners, despite firm support and being on track, takes attention away from a new facility in the Belle Haven community that requires, by comparison, a morsel of resources. And it needs that morsel immediately, not months/years from now like the quiet zone project. This is not a case of either-or. Both investments are valid and necessary. But support for the Belle Haven pool is urgent.
The trains have become more frequent over the years and horns becoming more disruptive. One has to wonder about the noise pollution and mental damage it’s causing vs how many lives it actually saved.