By Linda Taaffe

A city notice sent to the wrong address has temporarily spared 72 girls and their volleyball coach from being ousted from the gym at Rosita Park just weeks before a scheduled eviction date.

If things had gone as planned, Los Altos coach Roger Smith should have been packing his things this month from the city-owned gym that he has maintained and called home for the past 12 years. Smith operates a junior volleyball league for mostly Los Altos girls. The Los Altos City Council ordered his eviction last month, and city staff sent him a notice to be out of the building by July 31.

The council put the eviction on hold last week and scheduled a new public hearing for June 14 after learning that Smith never received proper notice of the council hearing. Staff had apparently delivered the notice to the wrong address.

Smith said he knew his time was limited, but he had no idea that he would have to move this summer until seven days after the council’s decision. The last he had heard, the gym and he could stay until enough funds had been secured to build a swim center at the site. That project is currently tied up in court.

City Manager Phil Rose and City Attorney Jolie Houston initially recommended against holding a new hearing and convinced the council two weeks earlier to drop the topic when the council questioned staff about the possible mix-up.

Houston agreed with the council to schedule a new public hearing last week when Smith approached the council for the second time this month.

“If I can show the council things can be addressed and at no cost to the city … why should they care (whether I stay in the building)?” Smith said. “(They) made a decision without the benefit of my input.”

The council said the 40-plus-year-old building is in violation of several codes that would cost the city about $60,000 to bring into compliance for a residence, according to the Fire Marshall.

Smith said the Fire Marshall allegedly had visited the gym annually for the past 12 years and never said anything to him about code violations.

This isn’t the first time Smith has faced eviction from the site. He orchestrated a late-blooming bid to save the building from a planned demolition in 2003 following the opening of two new city-schools’ gyms by convincing the city to save the estimated $60,000 in demolition costs for at least another year.

He said Los Altos is getting a good deal with his club. He pays $34 an hour for one court, essentially twice the price others pay for two courts. Smith said he pays the city $15,000 annually in rent and utilities.

Smith said he plans to take the club with him if the city forces him to leave.

There is no city-sponsored club program in Los Altos.

Smith said the Cosmos junior girls teams will have nowhere to go if the gym is demolished. The club uses the facility seven days a week, including 5-9 p.m., Mondays through Fridays, and would have no chance of getting as much time at the new gyms. They have practiced at the 5-acre site since 1996.