Menlo Park City Council Regular Meeting 05/23/2023
Agenda Item I-1. Electric pool heating equipment at 100 Terminal Ave.
We in the Belle Haven community are united against the Menlo Park Community Campus at Belle Haven Project’s plan to go forward with installing pool heating equipment that will exceed the nighttime noise limit at 100 Terminal Avenue. Furthermore, we take issue with how the Project has marginalized and dismissed our community as we have brought our concerns up over the last several months to the Planning Commission.
1. The Project has treated the Belle Haven community as less than an afterthought - The Menlo Park Community Campus at Belle Haven’s concepts, applicable laws, designs, contracts, purchases, and construction were well underway before the Project thought to consider the harm the elevated noise levels of the swimming pool heat pumps would cause to the neighborhood – even the Project’s current plan forward is a case study in how not to run a project. This plan is to allow the Project to install the pumps as is and trust that if the sound levels are too high that they will fix it later – well sorry but the Project has given us, the community, no basis to trust it and only serves to further alienate us. Worse, this approach places the City and its Belle Haven residents at risk to costly litigation/project rework and health issues, respectively.
2. The Project has forced the City Council (CC) into a bind – with almost little in the way of alternatives. The CC is placed in a position where it would have to choose between its new GREEN ordinance that bans gas systems in public construction projects or the ordinance that prohibits systems from exceeding what is defined as a safe sound level for humans.
3. Now, we all support the vision for a greener and cleaner world, but not at the expense of people’s immediate health and wellbeing: this approach is counterproductive and undermines the GREEN vision as common people start to suffer from poorly executed green projects that are damaging to their well-being. Ultimately, support for green projects and efforts will erode and future green initiatives will not have enough voter support to become law.
4. Speaking of laws and ordinances, which one is more important to the community in this particular instance? The one that bans the use of gas HVAC systems for one community center that will (on its own) contribute zero improvements to the environment or the one that will measurably protect the community from unhealthy sound levels.
5. We believe the choice is clear – the Project must go back to the design table and relocate the pumps - perhaps to the train track side of the complex where additional noise mitigation measures can be implemented; or ask for and receive permission to use gas to heat the pool complex.
6. We all are looking forward to the grand opening of the Menlo Park Community Campus at Belle Haven. Belle Haven residents are proud to be hosts to the complex. However, unless the City takes measures to protect the Belle Haven residents from the harmful noise levels proposed by the current project plan; even if it means delaying the grand opening (or having the grand opening without the pools yet in operation), that day will be, rather than a celebration, a cause for peaceful yet vocal and visible protests followed by litigation.
7. Lastly, the Belle Haven Community is grateful for the efforts and support the Planning Commission has provided us regarding this issue.
Sincerely,
Donald R. Mendoza, Ph.D.
Adjunct Professor
Menlo College
1000 El Camino Real, Atherton, CA 94027-4301
Office: (650) 543 3746
Mobil: (650) 575 2531
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