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In This Issue...
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Opinions
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A Decade’s Effort Results in New Seacliff Park
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A Decade’s Effort Results in New Seacliff Park
By Supervisor Ellen Pirie
Rick Stoker is looking forward to the day he can invite friends over to the neighborhood park for a barbecue.
The park isn't there yet, and neither is the barbecue pit. But, thanks to a decade-long effort by Rick and other tenacious members of Seacliff Needs a Park (SNAP), Seacliff residents will soon start deciding what features their community park should include: a barbeque, a basketball hoop, a playground, a bocce ball court, or a community garden perhaps.
Until recently, the future park site, located at the intersection of Sea Ridge Drive and McGregor Road, was zoned to accommodate a hotel or some other kind of visitor accommodation. In the late 1990s, Barry Swenson Builders from San Jose proposed to change that zoning to allow a natural foods grocery store and retail center to be built there instead.
Seacliff residents didn't want a hotel or retail center, which they argued would bring too much traffic to Seacliff. They wanted a park and were successful in fending off the proposal for a retail center.
In the aftermath of that effort, Rick founded SNAP, a non-profit with the primary, informal mission to bring a children's park to Seacliff. With a membership that included local resident Cherie Bobbe, Harry Vaughn, Kate Minott, Niki Derby and Tom and Kathy Dobrovolny, SNAP, Inc. quickly evolved into a community service organization dedicated to developing public park and open space in the Aptos-Seacliff area.
SNAP, in conjunction with the County, worked to get the $1.8 million needed to purchase the park. A measure asking Seacliff residents to tax themselves $98 per parcel every year for 30 years was on the ballot in May, 2005. SNAP members knew it would be difficult, very difficult, to get the two-thirds majority vote of approval that the measure needed to pass.
Opponents of the measure argued that Seacliff already had state beaches and parks available. SNAP countered that what the community didn't have was a neighborhood park.
When the votes were counted, the park measure failed by about 40 votes. It had been approved by an impressive 62 percent of the voters, but still fell short of the two-thirds majority needed.
But Rick and other SNAP members weren't ready to quit. With SNAP members' approval, I approached South County Housing with a proposal to split the property for affordable housing and a park, thus allowing at least one acre of the site to be used as a park.
Smaller Park Approved
Vimal Kumar, who owned the site, made the deal possible when he agreed to sell the property for $2.1 million, about $750,000 below the appraised value.
This approach involved the County Redevelopment Agency providing initial funding to South County Housing to acquire the entire parcel. The County would process a General Plan and zoning change to accommodate the proposed land uses.
If both the County and Coastal Commission approved the changes, South County Housing would sell the park site portion of the property to the County. Had the Coastal Commission and County not approved the land use changes, South County Housing would sell the entire property as a visitor accommodation site to a private developer.
The County Board of Supervisors approved the option to purchase the property for use as a park in January, 2006, with funding from state Proposition 12 and Proposition 40. Last month, the Coastal Commission approved the zoning changes â€" the final approval needed.
Now, the fun part begins â€" deciding what features the park should include. Several community meetings will be held this summer to let residents review design concepts, construction time lines and costs.
Some Money Still Needed
Following the park planning meetings, fundraisers will be planned to finance the park improvements. In this effort, Seacliff Park will benefit from the strong support of the long-standing Seacliff Improvement Association (SIA), currently chaired by Terry Winston.
A few former members of the SIA Board of Directors have also served on the SNAP, Inc.’s board of directors, while many SIA members have participated directly and indirectly in SNAP, Inc. events to raise funds and raise awareness for the Seacliff Park issue.
Disappointed that it isn't larger, but having succeeded in guaranteeing that a community park will be built in Seacliff, Rick has resigned from the SNAP, Inc. Board of Directors but plans to remain an active supporter of this project and active in the community in general.
The new chairperson, Tom Dobrovolny, hopes to promote the development of the McGregor property into a safe place for children to play and where the Seacliff community can gather. Development of the McGregor property remains the primary focus of the group's activities, but the group has explored other possibilities for increasing the inventory of park and open space in the area.
Tom said, "Much of the 'heavy lifting' has been done, but we mustn't let this opportunity languish. SNAP, Inc. will continue to focus on developing Seacliff Park until at least the basic features are in place. Then maybe we can rest for a little while and consider pursuing other projects."
The first Seacliff Park planning meeting will be held at 7 p.m. on Tuesday, Jun. 12, at the Aptos-La Selva Fire Station, 6934 Soquel Drive. I hope that interested members of the community will come and lend their voices to this next phase of the planning process.
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