The idea of exposing an underground creek and allowing it to run through the lawn at Portola Valley’s Town Center moved closer to reality last week, but the Town Council vote that authorized it had an unusual alignment.
On the question of whether the council should support a proposal to raise $1 million to free part of Sausal Creek from a culvert buried under the 11.2-acre site, an environmental champion voted against it, a spending skeptic voted for it, and a hard-nosed finance realist abstained.
A majority of the five-member council, on a vote of 3-1-1, opted to make an initial outlay of $400,000 from the general fund to design a 280-foot stretch of creekbed for the north-flowing creek after it passes from under the baseball field. The majority echoed the sentiments of some 25 residents in the audience.
The new creekbed would form a boundary between a community green to the west and a native meadow to the east. The creek tends to be dry except during the rainy part of the year.
The council acted Wednesday, Sept. 12, after considering options outlined in a report from a community study last year. A consultant experienced in “daylighting” buried creeks gave a presentation.
The decision comes in the context of an ongoing donor-funded $20 million project — still about $2.5 million short — to build a new library, town hall, community hall and recreational fields. A grand opening is expected in late 2008.
Integrating a $1 million creek element to the project would presumably put the overall shortfall at $3.5 million, though fundraising for the creek would be a separate matter.
Mayor Ted Driscoll, Councilwoman Maryann Moise Derwin and Councilman Richard Merk voted to spend $400,000 for a creek design.
“We run around town waving our little green flag,” Ms. Moise Derwin said. The town taxes itself to create open space and it’s not going to daylight a creek? “It’s absurd,” she said. “We are stewards of natural resources, which includes creeks and ponds. I think we should just do it.”
Moving the project to $21 million from $20 million “will energize fundraising,” said Mr. Merk, who frequently indicates a preference to err on the side of caution. “It’s a risk that we need to take.”
In response to a reminder from Councilman Steve Toben that, in 2005, the council agreed to not draw from the general fund for capital projects, Mr. Driscoll said the town would borrow the $400,000 from the general fund. The town also has an untapped $4 million line of credit from the county.
Abstaining was Councilman Ed Davis, the council’s finance man, who cited the funding shortfall and the countervailing argument of community momentum behind creek daylighting.
“You’re seeing a person who’s really torn,” he said. “We’ve been running this project on time or slightly under time, and on budget or slightly under budget. This complexity so late in this project adds a degree of risk.”
Mr. Toben called adding the creek element a “bet on the come,” a poker term describing a player who, expecting to draw good cards, bets on a hand “to come.”
“I don’t think that’s prudent,” he said. “We don’t have $500,000 in our pocket to launch this part of the project.”
Community support
The council audience included several creek optimists. “If we start a fundraising drive, we will have the money in no time,” said resident Marianne Plunder.“I think we’ve been headed this way for a long time,” said resident Danna Breen, adding that the creek would “complete” the project.
“If it is practical to do so without derailing the (overall) project, I think (this alternative) would be a good one,” said resident Derry Kabcenell. Mr. Kabcenell and his wife Charlene have donated $1 million to the Town Center project.
As to the safety of an open creek, Marty Mackowski, a member of the community group that studied the issue, said he had heard of no liability issues in conversations with officials in other California towns with creeks.
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