Council delays waterslides vote Council delays waterslides vote (March 19, 2004)

Voters may be asked to decide on expansion
by Jeb Bing

In a meeting that lasted past midnight, the City Council on Tuesday delayed until at least next Tuesday a decision on whether to allow a planned $7 million expansion of the waterslides at Shadow Cliffs Regional Recreation Area on Stanley Boulevard.

More than 250 residents packed the Civic Center for a public hearing on the plan, many wearing lapel buttons and shirt-top stickers calling on the council to vote No or to vote Yes on the proposal. With only 45 of the 90 who turned in cards to speak making it to the lectern, Councilwoman Kay Ayala asked that the meeting be continued.

"I don't want to be in the position of making a decision at 2 a.m. on an issue that could affect Pleasanton for years to come," she said.

Others suggested that the final decision may be made by voters in a referendum, which the council could put on the November ballot.

Called California Splash, the proposed water park would renovate the 22-year-old four slides now at Shadow Cliffs and add another seven as part of a new theme park modeled after Knott's Berry Farm's Soak City in Southern California. It would include higher and more challenging slides, a Lazy River raft ride, wave and children's pools and numerous water-related attractions and concessions.

But it wasn't the waterslides as much as concern over increased traffic, noise and crime that brought an outpouring of public criticism at Tuesday's hearing. Much of it was the same as concerns voiced Dec. 10 at a similar hearing before the city Planning Commission, which, after a four-hour debate, voted 3 to 2 against the expansion plan.

Proponents of the water park include the East Bay Regional Park District, which owns and operates the Shadow Cliffs lake and recreational area, and Glenn Kierstead, who opened the waterslides in 1981 and has operated them ever since. He said the slides are deteriorating and need to be rebuilt, but that without a major expansion that will allow California Splash to compete with water parks in Concord, San Jose and Manteca, his investors would not support a renovation.

"We believe that the development of a water park at Shadow Cliffs will enhance the quality of life in the Tri-Valley area, especially families, by providing a locally owned, modern recreational facility in a safe regional park," said the Park District's representative Tom Mikkelsen.

However, Bob Russman of Via De Los Milagros, who heads the Committee for No-Water-Park, called the waterslides' impact on Pleasanton "indisputable."

"The project is ill-conceived for the space in which it is to be built and would affect everyone in the city," Russman told the council. "It would change the perception of Pleasanton from a nice, quiet place to live to a destination city with an amusement park venue. It would have a negative impact on aesthetics, noise, traffic and housing values."

One of 45 speakers at the Tuesday hearing, Russman also said that its site in Shadow Cliffs at the east edge of Pleasanton "is the worst possible location in town from an accessibility standpoint."

Citing Kierstead's projections that the new water park would attract 200,000 to 240,000 visitors a year, Russman added: "Except for the 10 percent of those patrons who would supposed to be coming from Livermore, the rest would travel right through town, even downtown. With everyone concerned about increased traffic, my only question is will this be the straw that breaks the camel's back?"

No-Water-Park committee member Gary Smith of Liberty Drive in the Shadow Cliff subdivision behind the parkland, and Anne Fox, an alternate member of the Planning Commission, cited police reports from what they said was a three-page rap sheet of police actions at Concord's Waterworld water park. One unidentified water park employee warned Fox to watch out for those peak attendance days during hot summer months "when crowds get angry if we have to turn them away because we're too crowded."

Their claims were discounted, however, by Pleasanton Police Chief Tim Neal and the East Bay Park District's Police Chief Norm Lapera who said they also looked at Concord's police files and could not substantiate the numbers council members were given.

Neal said that based on his department's experience with activity at the existing waterslides, where total attendance is about 40,000 over the four-month season that it is open, police calls could be expected to double at a larger park as proposed to a number more like 88 calls a year, "less than we get now at one of our fast-food restaurants or at a high school."

He said any fear of increased crime should not sway the council's decision on the water park.

Norman Houghton of Cristobal Way also urged the council to discount public fears over crime and traffic.

"I heard all this when the first waterslides were proposed," he said. "I remember the public hearing on May 13, 1980, when residents warned that young people would come to Pleasanton for excitement and this could create problems for our community. It hasn't happened and nothing here tonight has changed one iota from what was said then."

"The waterslides have been good for the youth of Pleasanton and the operation has provided good jobs for our youth," he added. "I know because my own daughter worked there as a teenager from 1982 to 1984."

Jocelyn Combs of Pleasanton, former director of the East Bay Regional Park District, was the final speaker at the hearing, urging the council to approve the proposed water park.

"There will always be some impact on someone when we do something for everyone," she said. "You may not feel it will be a popular decision, but believe me it will be the right decision that will prove to be popular."

Besides agreeing to continue the meeting to 7 p.m. this Tuesday, again at the City Council chamber at 200 Old Bernal Ave., council members indicated that they might support a referendum on the plan to let voters decide. They will meet privately with City Attorney Michael Roush to discuss procedures for making that move.

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