Dear City Council,

I am a resident of Menlo Park for 29 years. I have kids who attended Menlo Park Public Schools. They played soccer and Little League. Tonight I will be joined by neighbors from Felton Gables in Menlo Park who oppose resolution #2 on your agenda–authorizing $600,000 from Recreation-in-lieu funds to build a fenced U19 (“adult-sized”), artificial turf soccer field at Encinal. This is the wrong place to build this field--basically on the only open space that will be left for Encinal elementary students.

The elementary children should be our number one priority at Encinal School. In this resolution they are not! An elementary school play ground should be reserved primarily for elementary school age children's activities. It’s their school and their grounds. Your resolution effectively forces the Menlo Park School Board to compromise its stated values at Encinal. My understanding is that they did not ask for a full-sized soccer field at Encinal. They asked you to fund a field upgrade to artificial turf. But, in return, Menlo Park apparently negotiated, as a condition for providing money, that Encinal School convert their planned smaller soccer field (U14) to an adult sized field (U19). This resolution will create problems (quality of life, safety, traffic, environmental, etc) for the Encinal Elementary School children, for the school itself, and for the neighbors. Problems Menlo Park doesn't need!
 
You can and should find another alternative for this field—it may not be the instant solution you want but it will be a better one. If Menlo Park doesn’t get this field by September, what are the real consequences? There are a lot of Menlo Park fields these older soccer teams can use. And I’m even beginning to have doubts about your assertions--that an adult sized soccer field really should be Menlo Park’s number one park priority. For example, the MP Strikers Soccer (that’s Mid-Peninsula Strikers, not Menlo Park Strikers) has 6 fields in Menlo Park as their home fields per their web site (I couldn't find home fields in any other cities listed). By the way, I learned about the Mid-Peninsula Striker soccer league based on a post to your City Council log from a Portola Valley parent. So if I miss represent them, I apologize. But the MP Strikers—apparently a great league--seem to serve teenagers from other Peninsula cities (like Portola Valley, San Carlos, Redwood City, etc.).
 Maybe one (or more) of those cities could partner with Menlo to develop another field--perhaps Flood Park. It will take leadership from our Mayor and City Council to build such a partnership, but I know it can be done. I've worked with two States (Arizon and Hawaii) to partner computer sharing agreements. It wasn't easy, it wasn't quick, but the results were great! However, staff can’t do this without your strong sponsorship. I believe Heyward Robinson noted in a Council meeting last May 2006 that Menlo Park needs to think outside the box! John Boyle, in that same meeting, apparently made public comments that consideration should be given to traffic and neighborhood issues in deciding soccer field location issues. Flood might be a great opportunity to explore and honor both of these recommendations.
 
Tonight, there will be many concerns (pro and con) discussed. But one just jumps out at me as being incredibly important.

This resolution is being put forth without either the City or the School Board providing adequate public notice or opportunity for debate. This may have gotten lost in the shuffle becasuse all parties apparently feel the pressure of the clock. Nevertheless, I sure thought our November election asked for something different from our Menlo City Government.

I’ve talked to many Encinal parents in the past few days, ones who park in front of Felton Gables houses as they pick up Encinal children. As late as this Monday, only one or two were aware that Menlo Park was proposing funding (from Menlo Parks Recreation-in-Lieu fund) to add a fenced adult sized soccer field to Encinal. Many neighbors/parents still don't know or don't understand this resolution.
 
I’ve looked at all the agenda items from both the last School Board meeting March 13 when the Encinal School proposals were last discussed. I also looked at the Parks and Recreation Council Meeting March 21 agenda. I hope you’ve looked at them also. Wow—in not one of these documents is it mentioned that, by the way, the soccer field planned for Encinal Elementary School is “adult-sized” designed for older teenagers, not elementary students. Even tomorrow night’s (4/4) school board agenda and attachments have no mention that the proposal is for a fenced adult-sized soccer field. In fact, the last Encinal plans shown to parents at the last School Board Meeting (on March 13) were drawings showing a smaller soccer field—I believe it's a U14 field to serve children up to 14 years old.....So where’s public notification?

We ask that your decision on this resolution be deferred.

Thank you for your consideration,

Elizabeth Blois
 
Received on Tue Apr 3 15:58:10 2007