By Bruce Barton

A man who has been living quietly at the former St. William’s Parish Hall site the past 10 years is orchestrating a late-blooming bid to save the building from a planned demolition.

Roger Smith said he wants to save the 40-plus-year-old building, located at 401 Rosita Ave., not so he can continue to live there, but to preserve a girls volleyball team which uses the site. Smith coaches the Cosmos junior girls teams which have used the hall’s gymnasium on a limited use basis since the city of Los Altos purchased the 5.5-acre Rosita property in 1996.

“This facility has been and continues to be vital to the volleyball program,” Smith told the city council last week. “Many local girls have benefited and continue to benefit from this program and it needs to continue.”

City officials had proposed demolishing the old parish hall upon completion of newly built gymnasiums at Blach and Egan intermediate schools. The city partnered with the Los Altos School District to pay for the gyms in exchange for after-hours community use.

“The new facilities are very nice and much needed, thank you,” Smith told council. “However, with the understandable priority being the Recreation Department programs and the school sports and activities programs they will not be able to meet our needs.”

The city has sent Smith a letter ordering him to vacate the building by June 30.

City Manager Phil Rose said the council will consider keeping the 10,000-square-foot building as part of its discussions during the budget process. “It may have some utility to it, but it would be a change in direction if we kept the building,” Rose said. “From the staff’s perspective, we don’t need another gym.”

But Smith said the club uses the facility seven days a week, including 5-9 p.m., Monday through Friday, and would have no chance of getting as much time at the new gyms.

Smith, whose volleyball club involves 48 junior high-age girls, said the old building is still structurally sound and would cost a fraction of the $3 million cost of the new gyms to fix up.

In contrast, he said, the city would be wasting money paying $60,000-$70,000 to have it demolished.

“Why take down a perfectly good building?” he asked.

The city, which has already opened the new Blach gym, plans a June 4 opening for the Egan gym. An opening ceremony is scheduled for noon.