Group to explore interest in creating local parks authority
Residents seeking to turn El Granada's Burnham strip into a public park are focusing their efforts on an unexpected agency the sewer district. With the county lukewarm about acquiring the land, the Granada Sanitary District is emerging as perhaps the community's best hope for turning the weedy patch alongside Surfers' Beach into a jewel of public parkland. "The best way I see to get sufficient funding (for acquiring the land) is to have a public agency to manage it," El Granada resident Jerry Laster said. "You can't expect to do it with $10 and $20 local contributions." Laster has helped form Park Alternatives for Granada, a group that is exploring the possibility of reforming the sanitary district into a community services district. Such a district is able to provide multiple functions. The Burnham Strip, an approximately 6-acre parcel at the entrance of El Granada on the east side of Highway 1, is owned by the Harbor District, which has told community members it would sell the strip for between $1 million and $1.6 million, according to Laster. Developer K.N. Properties has been in negotiations with the district for over two years to build a small retail complex with an adjacent picnic area on the property. But the Harbor Commission, facing a growing local movement to preserve the land as open space, voted in April to table any decision on the property for six months, giving the community time to hatch a counter proposal. Since then, the quiet stretch of land has the center of a flurry of activity. San Mateo County has begun a survey of the need for public land in El Granada, where residents have long complained they are under-served. A month into the study, the county has found "a significant level of need, for everything from tot lots to playgrounds to community centers, to places for hiking and biking," County Park Superintendent Gary Lockman said. Many of the strip's defenders had hoped the county might acquire it. But so far the county has been reserved about that prospect. "I don't know how high on our list that property would be," San Mateo County Supervisor Rich Gordon said. "While I think not having the property developed has some significance for the community, whether it is appropriate for parks and recreation purposes is questionable." According to Gordon, the county is looking more seriously at properties that connect with Princeton Marsh and the Fitzgerald Marine Reserve. Meanwhile, many of the strip's defenders are trying to garner support for a ballot measure to turn the Granada Sanitary District into a community services district, an agency with the authority to run local parks. "We are trying to have local control over parks," said Jim Blanchard, president of Midcoast Park Lands, a non-profit organization that manages El Granada's Quarry Park. MPL is the only local organization providing parks' services. "This goes beyond the Burnham Strip to pocket parks and other things the community needs that the county may not be able to provide for us." Although Midcoast Park Lands is helping lead the charge to create a special district, it is unlikely to garner the resources to purchase the land itself. "We're basically a bunch of volunteers," said Blanchard. According to Blanchard, "The big advantage of having a community services district is it can reach out and tap into tax dollars." The district would likely need to use some kind of tax assessment to raise money to purchase the strip, although community groups are also seeking grants and donations. But the plan's proponents are proceeding cautiously with the issue of taxes. It does not plan to put any tax assessments on the November ballot. "I think it would pass, but it is too much of a risk," sanitary district Chair Leonard Woren said. A tax would require approval of two-thirds of the voters, while creating a special district requires only a majority. A similar effort to create a community services district narrowly failed in 1994 when a $12 parcel tax to fund the district did not garner the required two-thirds vote. This time, a measure would be put on the ballot to form the district, and measures to fund land acquisition would be addressed at a later date. Park Alternatives for Granada will hold a meeting Monday, May 30 at 7:30 p.m. at El Granada Elementary School to assess public interest in the creation of a community services district.
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