The Atherton City Council voted 3-2 Tuesday night to let voters decide this fall whether a new town center should be built primarily with private donations and whether to permit the Menlo-Atherton Little League to significantly change the ball field at Holbrook-Palmer Park.
In casting the majority votes, Mayor Bill Widmer and council members Jim Dobbie and Kathy McKeithen said they deferred to residents’ opinions by putting both potentially contentious issues on the Nov. 6 ballot.
The measures would join one that the council decided in July to put before voters. That measure asks whether a new library should be built at Holbrook-Palmer Park where the Main House currently stands.
The library project perhaps is the most controversial, because some residents fear it would reduce park space while causing parking and traffic problems. Many of them would prefer to see the library rise around the same spot as the existing one and have called for a town-wide survey or a ballot measure.
A speaker at Tuesday’s meeting reminded council members they were elected to make decisions, not punt them to voters. McKeithen replied that although she would prefer that “we didn’t have to press these issues on voters,” the public insisted on having a say.
Vice Mayor Elizabeth Lewis objected to that assertion, saying residents had asked only to vote on the library placement.
“I do not see that happening with the Little League in the park, I do not see that happening with the town center,” Lewis said.
In June, Widmer noted that the town center and proposed field improvements could become hot-button issues and broached the possibility of asking voters to decide their fate.
Proposed improvements to the ball field at Holbrook-Palmer Park would include bleacher seating for 200 people, an electronic scoreboard, restrooms and an overhaul of the turf, according to city documents. The Little League has offered to pick up the $500,000 tab for the project.
Widmer said he’s heard from residents who worry that the field bleachers and associated structures could prevent other uses in that corner of the town park.
Mike Haven, a Little League representative, asked to change the proposed language of the ballot measure to encompass more of the project’s benefits.
The original measure drafted by City Attorney William Conners read: “Should the Town permit Little League to erect and maintain spectator bleachers in the existing area used by that organization for playing baseball in Holbrook-Palmer Park?”
The council agreed to much of Haven’s suggested wording, and the measure approved now reads: “Should the Town permit Little League to improve the baseball field and surrounding areas at Holbrook-Palmer Park, including covered seating for spectators and players, an improved play area for children and new restrooms for all park users, using private funds only?
Lewis and Council Member Jerry Carlson argued that the project should be vetted through the planning commission before going to voters.
“I think this is a cop-out in a sense, so we don’t have to deal with it in the future,” Carlson said.
The ballot measure on the new town center was reworded: “Should the Town of Atherton use funds primarily from private donations to construct a new Town Center? Other funding sources might include funds derived from Building fees or future grant money, but would not use general fund or parcel tax money.”
The issue before voters wasn’t whether to build a town center, but how to pay for it, Widmer said.
Atherton’s existing town center needs seismic and fire safety upgrades as well as disability accommodations, according to a town-commissioned study.
Email Bonnie Eslinger at beslinger@dailynewsgroup.com; follow her at twitter.com/bonnieeslinger.