By Kami Nguyen
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Town Crier Editorial Intern
Potential neighborhood lawsuit doesn’t deter Rosita pool planners
The public pool planned for Rosita Park remains on track despite a neighborhood lawsuit to halt the project until further environmental studies are conducted.
About 350 residents calling themselves the Rosita Neighborhood Coalition say the proposed three-pool complex at the end of a dead-end street is too large, too commercial and will bring too much activity for the neighborhood. They raised $30,000 to hire a lawyer and filed a suit against the city of Los Altos last April.
Los Altos City Attorney Marc Hynes said the ball is now in the coalition’s court. City officials recently met with the coalition to seek a possible settlement, but nothing has been decided yet.
The next step is to gather administrative records and prepare them for the members of the coalition to review so they can determine whether they want to go to court and make a motion, Hynes said.
In the meantime, architects will proceed with designs for the 26,000-square-foot pool complex. The city is scheduled to present two or three alternative proposed designs at a public meeting early next month. The design process will take about 18 weeks, organizers from the non-profit Swimmers Promoting Los Altos Safety and Health (SPLASH), who are raising funds for the project, said.
“The project still moves forward, but if the court decides more analysis should be done, then they’ll yank back what has been done and (the city) will have to do more of a study,” Hynes said.
Coalition member Norm Kitching said that working on the pool project with the city is a good step forward, but he still plans to wait for a judge’s opinion on whether more environmental studies should be completed.
Kitching said he doesn’t believe the residents will back out of the lawsuit.
“The city and SPLASH are not trustworthy. They have lost our trust,” he said.
Carl Swirsding, who lives a block from the proposed pool site, also believes the lawsuit will move forward. He called the coalition “a committed group of people. We didn’t have to go around and ask ‘Do you want to support us?’ There wasn’t a lot of activity, people just came.”
On the other side of the issue is an equally committed group working to bring the city a public pool. The non-profit SPLASH has launched a campaign to raise the $3.5 million needed to fund the complex before the city will break ground.
The belief that swimming is an important part of a child’s social development and safety is at the heart of the group’s drive to bring a community pool to Los Altos. They say swimming is part of the culture in this community, an area that has turned out a high number of Olympic contenders, including Mark Spitz.
“There are a lot of people in Los Altos who have had success in life through swimming,” said Kathy Englar, a Masters Swimmer and executive member of SPLASH. “Swimming has been an important part of my life. I want to make sure children have the same opportunity. If they have to drive somewhere else, and it’s a hassle, (swimmers) might not do it.”
Englar said the 1,000 or so swimmers who were using Covington pool before it shut down have had to drive to Mountain View, Sunnyvale and other locations to swim recreationally and for swim practice. The Los Altos School District removed the community pool at its Covington campus in 1999 to prepare for the reopening of the school. Englar said the nearby pools are crowded, with as many as seven swimmers sometimes having to share a lane.
Mary Feliz, a Rosita Avenue resident, said she and her family were among those who used the Covington pool. Feliz said she is pleased that a community pool is being built. It will make access to a pool more convenient.
“Until the Covington pool closed, our family was up there daily for swim team practice,” Feliz said. “Now, our children have dropped out of year-round swimming because the practice pool is too far away.”
The proposed plan
The proposed Los Altos Aquatic Center will have a 25-meter-by-25-yard competitive pool, a 25-yard-by-25-yard recreational pool and a wading pool. There will also be approximately 4,000 square feet set aside for locker rooms, office space, pump room and storage at the Rosita Park site adjacent to Covington School.
The city chose that location in 1999 after it made a land lease swap with the school district. The city has use of the site. In exchange, the school district has use of a portion of land near the city’s municipal yard.
The area already includes two soccer fields, two baseball fields and a multipurpose room. Covington School is scheduled to reopen this fall as a temporary camp school for Springer Elementary students to attend while their campus is being renovated. The site will eventually open as a regular elementary school. There are also plans to open a new day-care center in the same area.
Under the aquatic center business plan, the pools will operate 6 a.m. to 10 p.m., seven days a week, for recreation and private parties as well as for swimming, kayaking and scuba lessons. The fees from the lessons will help fund the cost of the pools’ maintenance. The city will own the pools, and the Los Altos Masters group plans to manage them.
The controversy
Rosita neighbors have argued for the past two years that a complex of this size is not appropriate for a residential area.
Swirsding said there is just no way a dead-end street can accommodate the traffic the pool and other activities will generate.
“If all those other things weren’t there, it would be fine,” he said. “With the school and the baseball field and the soccer field, it’s just too much.”
City studies indicate otherwise.
Last year, the Los Altos City Council hired EIP Associates and TJKM Transportation Consultants to meet with the pool complex’s task force and evaluate potential problems as well as residents’ key concerns.
According to Jim Gostafson, assistant public works director for Los Altos, the studies did not show significant impacts to the neighborhood.
The results were presented to the city council, which voted to approve the results of the initial environmental review, giving the go-ahead for the project.
Lawsuit
For the residents, those initial studies were not enough. On April 25 the Rosita Neighborhood Coalition filed a lawsuit against the city alleging that the city did not follow regulations required in the California Environmental Quality Act.
The act states that any proposed project that may cause a significant impact on the environment will have to undergo an environmental impact report.
Roy Presley, a member of the Rosita Neighborhood Coalition, said the council’s approval of a Mitigated Negative Declaration does not reflect accurate information on the increase in traffic, increase in noise and safety of residents.
The lawsuit could force the city to put a temporary halt on the project and conduct a study that satisfies the act.
Presley said the council’s vote to accept the Mitigated Negative Declaration was not clear-cut.
He said the vote was 3-2, and the two who voted against the declaration said there should be more analysis.
A study was conducted in 1998 for the Rosita Park Master Plan, which stated that the street’s threshold was 1,200 car trips per day.
The 2002 study concluded that the capacity of Rosita Avenue is 3,000 to 4,000 one-way trips per day. This significantly higher number has residents concerned.
Gostafson said although traffic studies can never be perfect, he approves of what the report indicates.
“There were two things we did to measure the existing traffic in the area,” he said. “We put counters in the street and looked at schools of similar size and their traffic. When there was a soccer game going on, we did a detailed analysis of those circumstances.”
He said having a pool complex near Covington School should not create a traffic problem on Rosita because access to the school and pool are located in two different areas. Students will access the school from Covington Road, he said.
He said the studies show that there would not be a significant impact that couldn’t be mitigated in the design process.
“We did consider all traffic - estimated or measured,” he said. “It’s hard to get a precise count, but we found no significant impacts.”
Future of the pool
Although the Rosita Neighborhood Coalition opposes placing a multi-pool complex in their neighborhood, Presley said, the members are not against swimming or any other programs the pool might offer.
“We were never against a swimming pool, we just think they need to find a better location for it. It’s just not safe,” he said.
Kitching said he wouldn’t mind a pool similar to the former Covington one, while Swirsding said there should not be one at all.
“The street is at its capacity - even beyond capacity. There isn’t any room for more,” Swirsding said. “We all have different opinions, but I believe (one pool) will not accomplish what (SPLASH) wants. One community pool won’t meet the needs, and it would just turn into one large pool. This is not just a complaint, it’s reality.”
SPLASH Co-chairman Dick Thomas said the city had looked at other sites for a pool and determined in 1999 that Rosita was appropriate. He said the community may make suggestions and changes to the architect’s drawings before the Los Altos City Council narrows down its choices. There will be several meetings with the community before a final decision is made in September, he added.
The pool is planned to be completed by 2004.
“The city has been without a pool for one-and-a-half years,” he said. “By the time it is finished, it will be three years. When all the dust settles, I hope the city embraces (this pool). This is one of those things that when we look back, it will be the best thing we’ve ever done.”
As for Presley, he hopes the lawsuit and possible court hearing will be enough to determine that the pool should not be built. If not, there will be nothing else he or the coalition can do, he said, except to “start taking swimming lessons.”
