Atherton moved ahead with its plans for a new civic center in 2017, receiving voter approval for public financing for the project; but lost an election to renew the parcel tax that has brought it $1.86 million a year since 1978.

The town also continued its fight against Surf Air and hired a new police chief during the year.

Civic Center

In 2017 Atherton took significant steps toward a new civic center. Currently, the town facilities consist of leaking portables that don't meet building codes, administration and police offices built in the 1960s, council chambers built in 1928, and a library built in 1929 (with a 1981 addition).

Police officers work out in a garage and book prisoners in a former shed.

In February, the City Council approved the final design for a modern library packed with energy- and water-saving features, and a Santa Barbara Mission style building to house a police station, a council chamber/emergency operations center, and town administration, planning and building offices.

The historic council chambers are to be renovated as a library annex with room for a tiny restaurant inside.

But the town found itself without enough funding for the project after the nonprofit Atherton Now's attempts to raise $25 million resulted in less than $7 million in donations. (The library has a separate pot of tax money in place.)

So, in June, the town asked voters if public money could help pay for the project. Voters, by 61.4 percent to 38.6 percent, reversed a 2012 ballot measure that had limited paying for the design and construction of a new town center to donations. That 2012 measure had exceptions allowing public money to be used for the library and a portion of the new building and planning offices.

The town says it can pay the unfunded costs of the civic center without borrowing by using its unallocated general fund and capital improvements funds for the next three years. In case cash-flow problems appear, the council also investigated short-term borrowing.

Also in June, the City Council approved alternatives to the civic center plans that could save an estimated $2.5 million if bids are higher than estimated. Bids are scheduled to be in by May.

The current estimated cost is $25.17 million for construction and site development of the new administration and police building, the new council chamber/emergency operations center, and the town's corporation yard, where the town's maintenance equipment is stored.

The library's construction and site development cost is just under $15 million. The cost-cutting measures include delaying the building of the council chambers/emergency operations center until funds are available and delaying work on the corporation yard.

Parcel tax

While the town won an election victory in June regarding funding the civic center, in November it failed to gain voter approval to renew a parcel tax the town has had since 1978. The parcel tax brings in annual revenues of $1.86 million.

Passage of the measure required approval by two-thirds of the voters, but only 52.6 percent of voters gave their consent.

The amount of the existing parcel tax, which expires at the end of June 2018, varies by parcel size and use. For homes on the average Atherton lot of between a half and two acres, the tax is $750 per year. The tax is as low as $225 for unimproved parcels between a quarter and half acre, and it's as high as $10,000 for a private club.

The tax proceeds can be spent only on the town's police services and its roads and drainage system.

Tax opponents argued that steadily increasing property tax revenues in recent years mean the parcel tax is no longer needed. But council members, who had unanimously supported the measure, said they had hoped the parcel tax could be left in place for three more years while the civic center is built. That's because, until the project is completed, any general fund revenues not used for operating expenses have been allocated to pay for construction.

The council hasn't yet figured out how it will make up for the loss of the parcel tax revenue, but at a December study session, council members appeared to favor putting off some planned capital improvement projects until the civic center is built.

They also have discussed possibly raising additional revenue by making changes to the town's business license tax. Voters would have to approve the tax changes.

Surf Air

Atherton's attempts to get something done to quiet the noisy Surf Air commuter airline planes flying in and out of the San Carlos Airport made some progress, but had no resolution in 2017.

The town and local residents had been complaining since late 2013 about the noise from Surf Air's turboprop planes. Because the Pilatus PC-12s hold fewer than nine passengers, under Federal Aviation Administration regulations they may use the San Carlos Airport even though it is a general aviation, not commercial, airport. It is considered a "reliever airport," keeping small planes out of busy regional airports such as San Jose, San Francisco International and Oakland.

In late June, San Mateo County approved spending $1 million over three years to address the complaints. The Board of Supervisors on June 27 unanimously approved funding for an airport communications specialist to work with the public and pilots; hiring a contractor to investigate new air routes that avoid residences; and putting in place an automated flight tracking system tied to the noise complaint system.

But just 10 days earlier, dozens of protesters, including Atherton residents who live under Surf Air's flight path, picketed at the San Carlos Airport. They expressed their frustration with Surf Air's planes, which they say are noisier than jets, and the frequency of their flights.

The county has moved ahead with an FAA noise study of the airport, and added fees for landings and overnight parking at the San Carlos Airport and its other airport in Half Moon Bay.

A new operator, Encompass Aviation, began flying Surf Air's planes on May 15. The FAA had in January announced the end of a trial allowing Surf Air to use the Bayside Visual Approach to avoid the Midpeninsula on the way to the San Carlos Airport. But Encompass received FAA permission to keep using the route under visual flight conditions.

In September, the FAA held hearings in San Jose to help it decide if it should make the route a permanent, fair-weather option. A large crowd from Sunnyvale and Cupertino showed up to complain the route sent the Surf Air planes over their homes. No final decision has been announced.

Fire district

Atherton and fire district officials spent much of the year at odds with each other after the City Council voted late in 2016 to look at a fiscal study of the fire district. The council in April awarded a $50,000 contract to study the costs and benefits of the existing fire and emergency services provided by the fire district, and examine other options for providing fire services to the town.

Fire board President Peter Carpenter lashed back. He wrote emails calling the study "nothing but a greedy and selfish attempt to take property tax revenues from the Fire District to pad the coffers of the Town." He made a series of public records requests to the town for years of emails and other documents.

By year's end, with the report not yet released, the two agencies held an amicable joint meeting. However, they discussed only the North Bay fires, fire prevention, and the effects of development on local traffic.

Police chief

Atherton got a new police chief in May after illness forced former Chief Ed Flint to retire late in 2016. Steve McCulley was one of 30 applicants, coming out of retirement from Washington state, where he served most recently as police chief of the towns of Snoqualmie and North Bend. He had also been a public information officer for the Washington State Patrol.