By Rory Brown
Almanac Staff Writer
Bayfront Park is re-entering the public limelight this week, with a golf course developer scheduled to present to the Menlo Park City Council the terms of his proposal for leasing a portion of the park.
Presentation of the proposed financial terms and other elements of the controversial proposal will take place in a February 14 closed session of the council.
Buena Park-based Highlands Golf LLC is proposing a 75-acre golf course at the 160-acre park, off Marsh Road and adjacent to a wildlife refuge.
The closed session will precede the council’s regular meeting, which starts at 7 p.m..
The council voted 3-2 in November to allow the city manager to negotiate a proposed agreement with Highlands; this proposal is to go before the Parks and Recreation Commission for a recommendation and the City Council for action.
More than 200 e-mails against developing the park have been sent to the council since last fall, when word began to spread about the golf course proposal.
Highlands is also proposing to build three lighted playing fields at no cost to the city on the condition that it is allowed to build the 18-hole golf course.
The playing fields are planned for the southern-most portion of the park — a site currently filled by a tidal marsh.
Marsh still an option
Contrary to a recent report in a local newspaper, the tidal marsh is still an option for the proposed playing fields, says Kent Steffens, the city’s public works director.
A column published in late January by the San Jose Mercury News quoted Mr. Steffens saying otherwise, but he said the quote is incorrect.
The Mercury said Mr. Steffens “acknowledged the field plan won’t fly” for the tidal marsh site. “The fields will have to be placed somewhere else, outside the park,” he is quoted as saying.
Plans to fill the marsh will almost certainly run into permitting and environmental problems. According to a permit issued to the city in 1970 and amended in 1985, the city was required to restore an 11.5-acre portion of the park at the corner of Bayfront Expressway and Marsh Road to “tidal action.”
The permit was issued by the Bay Conservation and Development Agency, or BCDC, which regulates the filling and dredging of the bay.
In November, the agency sent a letter to City Manager David Boesch regarding “a potential conflict between the city’s BCDC permit and the proposed facilities.”
Mr. Steffens said the city is still “looking at other locations” for the proposed fields, including land owned by the city’s Redevelopment Agency off of Hamilton Avenue.
The city is yet to find a site better than Bayfront Park to construct the fields, Mr. Steffens said.
Fields survey?
Since late last week, Menlo Park residents have received phone calls asking them to take part in a survey regarding the city’s playing fields.
Michael Taylor, the city’s acing community services director, said the survey was not commissioned by the city. Members of city staff don’t know the origin of the survey, he said.
According to Stu Soffer, a Menlo Park resident and former planning commissioner, the survey included questions about how the city’s current fields should be improved or maintained.
Mr. Soffer said the surveyor also asked for his political affiliation, and whether or not he is registered to vote.
