Jul 3, 2008

City changing course over resident opposition

Menlo Park plans to build emergency water supply

By Banks Albach / Daily News Staff Writer

In response to strong opposition from neighbors of Seminary Oaks Park, Menlo Park city staff are rethinking a long-standing plan to build a massive emergency reservoir under the open space.

The neighbors, organized as Friends of Seminary Oak Park since May, turned out in force at Tuesday night's city council meeting to complain about a lack of transparency in the process and to show support for staff's recent decision to explore alternatives.

For years, the city's public works department has recognized the need for an emergency water source, which could continue service in the event Menlo Park's connection to the Hetch Hetchy reservoir is disrupted. Calling it a deficiency in the system, Acting Assistant City Manager Kent Steffens said that the situation leaves the Menlo Park Municipal Water District's roughly 10,000 customers susceptible to "devastating" outages.

The current plan calls for a reservoir capable of holding 3 million to 8 million gallons. The estimated cost of the project is about $18 million and the city already has a $500,000 contract with Infrastructure Engineering Corp. for preliminary designs and studies.

Speaking for about 100 households Tuesday, Bill Evans told the council that the park has 104 trees, some of which would need to be cut down, and that the reservoir's pump house would be incompatible with the surrounding neighborhood.

"We acknowledge the need for an emergency water supply," Evans, with about 70 supporters behind him, told the council. "All of the households would be very supportive of working with the council, and any subcommittees, to find alternatives."

In addition, many of the neighbors are served by the California Water Service Co., or Cal Water, not the Menlo Park Municipal Water District, meaning the residents impacted by the project the most will benefit the least, Evans said.

City Manager Glen Rojas said the public works department will return to the council on Aug. 26 with a list of other options, including new locations, for building the reservoir. Tuesday's communication item came at the request of Council Member Kelly Fergusson and Vice Mayor Heyward Robinson, both of whom saw firsthand how opposed neighbors were to the project at a community meeting in May.

Since the city started planning the project, the public works department has explored building a joint reservoir with East Palo Alto in the Ravenswood Business Park, and also considered pursuing the project at Willow Oaks Park and in the Sharon Heights Area. In December 2005, the council chose to study Seminary Oaks Park as the future location. Acting Public Works Director Ruben Nino said Tuesday that Cal Water has expressed an interest in possibly securing a 1 million gallon reserve through a joint reservoir.



E-mail Banks Albach at balbach@dailynewsgroup.com.