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Dear Mayor Taylor and Members of the City Council,
Tom Kabat and I have read staff’s report for item D-2 and would like share some concerns we have about the term sheet and conceptual design for the Menlo Park Community Campus (community center). They are as follows:
1. We are concerned that the latest conceptual design for the center would require that the existing pools be demolished. If staff’s estimate of $7.4 million to build new pools is accurate, it seems prudent, both financially and environmentally, for the Council to preserve the current pools and ask that the new community center be designed around them. If the pools are no longer desired as an amenity, we would ask City Council to exclude pools from the community center design and budget.
2. “Pursuing LEED Platinum (instead of LEED Gold)” seems unnecessary at this time and we would request that this item be removed from the “City Requested Work” in the term sheet. Even though we are both strong supporters of environmental causes, serving on the City’s Environmental Quality Commission, we see this item as an unnecessary label to spend money pursuing right now. We will get much bigger “bang“ for our environmental “buck“ by investing in a backup electricity system, called a microgrid, so that the center can remain functional as an emergency center for cooling and shelter during a blackout or earthquake. See item 3 below for more information.
3. Please make sure that a solar+storage microgrid (Term sheet item 3.a.vi.) is included in the design of the center. This will make the community center functional in an emergency for many days longer than would be possible with diesel back-up generators, which can run out of fuel. No fuel is needed to keep a solar+storage microgrid going indefinitely, since it can recharge every day using free solar energy. The air quality around the center will also be much better using solar+storage microgrid than it would be using diesel generators - a serious concern in times of fires, smoke, rolling blackouts and extreme heat. Similar solar+storage microgrids are being deployed now in other Bay Area cities, including Fremont, for use in emergencies and they are a much better solution than diesel generators in these uncertain times.
4. Please consider adding a specific clause in section 1.f. of the term sheet requesting that all off-road construction vehicles, such as bulldozers and such, used in construction of the community center be electric-powered instead of diesel-powered. There are suitable electric models on the market now and Josie has been told that they can be rented easily in the Bay Area today by construction contractors. Diesel exhaust from non-electric versions if these vehicles are known to be quite damaging to the lungs of those who live around a construction site, sometimes for years. That harm is greater in young children. Let’s do the right things for residents of Belle Haven who already endure poor air quality caused by the traffic in their neighborhood.
5. Finally, we would like to request greater transparency for the costs summarized under “Impact on City Resources” on page D-2.4 of the staff report. What is included in the “City’s base-level commitments” and how will the $5.988 million of City funds, which has already been allocated for this purpose, be used? How do the items listed under “City Requested Work,” which are estimated to cost $3-4 million, break down, in terms of cost?
It seems that the Council is owed more information before it can sign off on this term sheet and conceptual design for the community center.
Thank you for considering our comments and questions.
Sincerely,
Josie Gaillard
Tom Kabat
