By Ann Testa
Other Voices
Heads up, Citizens of Los Altos! It seems our City Council is showing its true colors once again by allowing itself to be mesmerized by dollar signs. First it’s the anonymous $1 million bribe to put in a controversial theater at First and Main streets. Now it’s $3.5 million in the form of an aquatic center disguised as a “community pool,” to be situated at the end of a dead end street in a residential neighborhood.
I am in favor of a true community pool like the old Covington Pool was, with time for swim lessons, daily recreational swim, team practice, and lap swim. This proposal by SPLASH/Los Altos Masters to raise funds, donate the aquatic center to the city and manage it somehow it has mushroomed into a mega complex that begins to resemble the Santa Clara International Swim Center. In order to make ends meet, they plan to build three pools, and offer specialized classes such as SCUBA diving, kayaking, synchronized swimming, Special Olympics, which will require drawing on the populations of the surrounding cities, and beyond. Private groups could rent this place, with operating hours from 5 a.m. to 10 p.m.
The proposed location is at the end of Rosita Avenue, where there are two soccer fields, two baseball diamonds and a multi-use room for indoor sports. But the worst part is that Rosita is planned as the entrance of choice for the elementary students walking or riding bikes to the soon-to-be-reopened Covington School and day care center. The problem of access is critical. The original Covington Pool was accessed mainly from Covington Road. This aquatic center will be accessed from only Rosita. How did we go from one pool with two accesses to three pools with one access?
I have several questions for the City Council:
How can you dare endanger the safety of the children who will be attending Covington?
How can you propose to funnel more traffic onto a maze of neighborhood streets that are already saturated with ongoing activities?
How can you violate your own environmental ordinance that prohibits lights and loudspeakers at this location?
How can you ignore the findings of your own self-appointed Citizens Task Force that stated unanimously, “no continuous-use facility at this location?”
A real “community pool” (one pool), subsidized by the city, would work at this location. But if Los Altos feels the obligation to provide for the specialized swimming needs of the greater Silicon Valley and the Peninsula, then a mega swim center needs to be located on an appropriate site.
I have a proposal which I believe will allow everyone to win. It will take some creativity and some sacrifice of space, but I feel certain that it can happen. I am referring to the new Civic Center Master Plan which is in the process of being updated.
A location at the Civic Center would give SPLASH/Los Altos Masters their pools. The citizens of Los Altos would have a pool that is easily accessed. The Rosita neighborhood would not have to be unfairly burdened. And the downtown merchants would benefit by its proximity to their shops and restaurants, without additional parking requirements. I feel sure our elected leaders can come up with a plan that works.
There are those who would say this cannot work because some apricot trees would have to be sacrificed, or the soccer field. Yes, compromises need to be made. But what is more important: apricots trees or the safety and integrity of one of our own neighborhoods?
Testa is a Los Altos resident who lives near the Covington property.
