Atherton council agrees it wants non-park location for water facility

NIMBY at its best here! Only those who live around the park object because they do not want the construction.

This project could easily have been placed under Marsh Road when the creek channel was redone - too bad the Town passed up that opportunity.

This isn’t a matter of NIMBY. I supported the town center, even though it will be extremely disruptive to my family, because it seems like a good thing for the Town. In contrast, this water project is a bad idea. The cost of maintaining the facility is unknown, but estimates are extremely high, and there is no facility in operation with which to compare it. There is no plan to deal with the facility at the end of its use (in 50-100 years) other than abandoning it underground. Not a particularly Green Option! If this is not acceptable to residents, it will have to be dismantled at another huge expense to the town. In addition, Tetra Tech is not a company Atherton should be dealing with.
I don’t want to rehash all the arguments against this project. They have been presented at meeting after meeting.
I think the town has over extended itself financially on the town center project and now is grasping at this Caltrain money. This is not “free” money. It’s our tax money and it is meant to clean the Bay. Cleaning our relatively clean water and marginally helping a flood problem on the opposite side of town is a misuse of the funds.

Peter Carpenter wrote:
"This project could easily have been placed under Marsh Road when the creek channel was redone"

The Marsh road+channel closure was performed during the summer of 2016.

Do you have evidence that the $13.6 million offered by Caltrans was presented in/before the summer of 2015? I've done numerous Google searches and cannot find evidence to support your implication that the $13.6 million was offered before 2016.

Here's a link to Atherton's updated drainage plans (Updated in 2015): Web Link

Additionally, is there enough square footage there to accommodate a basin the size targeted for LLSD/Holbrook-Palmer/JL-Dixon Stables?

Yes, the Marsh Road site would have been large enough to accommodate this treatment facility.

And, from the Staff Report -"The need for a stormwater detention facility was identified in the Town-wide Drainage Study Update prepared in 2015 to reduce flooding associated with the Atherton Channel. "

All that was lacking was some creative thinking to put these two projects together.

Not NIMBY

You do not have the facts right. Read the staff report and watch the presentation on the project and the Q&A.

Nimby,Not Nimby

I think this project pretty clearly is being driven by the “free” caltrans funding and despite all the discussion not being well planned or thought out. The HP location would provide some floor control (but not much) and reduce pollution (but there is not much in the water). In return the town would turn the park into a 2 year contraction site. This would require new bridges, paths and effectively make a large portion of the park unusable. Sorry Elizabeth this would impact significantly more than 10% of the Park. Additionally the town would then be stuck operating the facility forever. This includes monitoring and eventually dismantling the facility. With unknown costs.

The location is not a good one (other options have not been looked at), the benefits are dubious and the costs to run the facility are unknown. I have to agree this is a bad idea and not one the town can afford to take on while still trying to fund the town center/library.