Over 13,000 sq ft for Atherton police services! You must be joking. Is the police union requiring a spa, game room, shooting range and private restaurant?

I seem to remember a number of years ago a developer offered to build Atherton a free city hall and library as part of a development project near the train station. Could have sworn there was something in the Almanac back then including a comment from the developer.

This is absurd. There's a vacant building on the corner of El Camino and Watkins looking for a tenant.

Who will use the admin building and library ? Huge space for the APD who should be on the road not in an office.

Considering most of the Town's employees are contractors (nearly all the building and planning dept, arborist, etc.) please tell me why they deserve to work in premiere office space.

Primarily private funds should be more than 62 percent of the funding.

Please...don't come knocking at my door for a contribution.

hey cmon people. theres a lot of serious crime around here. Just last week i saw a strange man walking down the street, by himself, talking loudly and waving his hands... then i noticed he was wearing a phone headset.

People here need to get a grip.

Nearly new to Atherton, I like your thinking. The new building is about the right size. Tear down the trailers at building permits, keep the library and use the existing Admin bldg. for the PD and we are finished. This solution should be a lot less than $32 million.

I'm relieved to see that the comments thus far are all on the same logical track regarding this absurdly over-designed Town Hall project. How surprising that the police and their union still have the audacity to wheedle delegating over half the new facility for themselves. Not too many months ago, it was very iffy whether Atherton residents really wanted or needed our expensive police department in this essentially crime-free town. It still is because we don't. Yet here they are with their foot in the door again. Clearly, with good ideas like the nicely located, new, vacant building available in town, we need to change the committee making these Town Center decisions. Good candidates are writing here already!

small point of fact. the building at Watkins and ECR is actually in Menlo Park. I'm sure Atherton can lease it though if they can come to mutually agreeable terms.

A new admin building should only be big enough to replace the existing structures used for administration: the PD building, council chambers and the temporary buildings. And no bigger.

However, those buildings do need to be replaced. The current buildings are seismically unsafe.

If this can be done with no tax dollars, then I think it's a no-brainer that it should be done.

Question: I saw some of the candidate plans, but I don't know which one was decided on. Which one one?

Question #2: Also, I was told that there were plans to improve drainage on many of the streets in Atherton (I bring it up here because I know that topic has been discussed as part of the City Center work). Does anyone know the status of that planned work?

> Which one one?

Which one won, I mean :)

How about a mixed use.city building in which something useful occurs along with the usual sitting around? Maybe it could include housing for employees. How about a 50-story apartment or condo complex in the mix?

For almost 20 years this building has been debated with organized opposition from about 20-40 residents and support from about the same number. Finally the voters approved it. The council should move forward with the project. The delays have just increased the cost.

The comments and suggestions about using the existing new building at the corner of Watkins and El Camino Real (located in county Menlo Park) is a good question. The building was built on spec with permits as a medical-dental building. Although the interior never finish when built it has now been completed and is still a medical dental building configuration.
Over the years since it was built several Atherton police Chiefs and council members have looked at it as a possible police headquarters since the existing police building is so bad. Several obvious problems come up in that it does not have an adequate parking capacity and the ability to provide security. It would require extensive remodeling to add communications, a prisoner holding facility, record storage and offices and spaces to house the entire department staff including administration. These are just the obvious ones but only by designing a building with the end use for police use will you have something that will work for many years. The new police building will be funded with private donations.

Why is every one of the comments anonymous?

"Why is every one of the comments anonymous?"

Because this Forum fosters a culture of posting statements which people would never make in their own name and hence be held accountable for making.

@Astonished
". . . essentially crime-free town." could it be that Atherton is crime free because of its police department? Try doing without the local police and see how long Atherton maintains its low crime rate.

$32 million does seem excessive. Please don't ask me to pay for it.

Thank you, "public servants" of Atherton, for doing what you plainly have such expertise in - building a monument to yourself!

Great plans! The police station is a sad building and a new city center would be fabulous. If the city can only raise some of the money required, let's pay for it with some tax payers' monies.

Pay for it with taxpayer money? That's not what the taxpayers voted on (private donations only). If it's going to be taxpayer money, the taxpayers would need to approve a 13,000 square foot police station for three cops working on any one shift. Frankly it's ridiculous.

What about all the construction trucks not to mention the white and red Delta bus parked in the "atherton dumping ground"? Who's making money on parking lot? If rent is being charged that could be applied to a nicer town center and get rid of the trailer permit center "temp" sitting there for at least 15 years.