Editorial Editorial (February 06, 2004)

Build the waterslides

The owner of the Shadow Cliffs park waterslides will have one more chance March 16 of gaining city approval for his proposed $7 million California Splash expansion project on Stanley Boulevard. The city Planning Commission rejected the project Dec. 10 in a 3-2 vote, with the majority of commissioners deciding that the proposed theme park was "just too big" for Pleasanton. It's a good things they weren't on the commission in the late 1970s when Stoneridge Shopping Center and Hacienda Business Park were approved or we'd be looking across the freeway to Dublin or north to Livermore for the diversified, bustling city that this kind of visionary growth has brought to Pleasanton.

The proposed expanded California Splash would be modeled after Knott's Berry Farm's Soak City in Palm Springs. Financed privately by longtime owner and operator Glenn Kierstead and an investment team, the project would significantly upgrade and enlarge the aging waterslides that opened at the east end of town in 1981, offering a safe, healthy water-centered recreational alternative to the $40 million Callippe Preserve golf course under construction at the other end that is being financed by Pleasanton taxpayers. It is supported by the East Bay Regional Park District, which owns the land; the Pleasanton Youth Commission and Parks & Recreation Commission, hundreds in business and civic organizations who have endorsed the project at meetings and by e-mails, and by an even larger number of parents who urged the planning commissioners to approve the project so that they and their children could enjoy a fun and challenging waterslide park close to home instead of traveling to the only large theme parks available today in Concord, Manteca and San Jose.

We like the California Splash proposal and urge the City Council to overturn the Planning Commission's negative decision. During much of the 1980s, the newly opened Shadow Cliffs slides attracted more than 100,000 visitors each summer. As newer, more exciting slide parks opened, Pleasanton and Tri-Valley teens and parents who had to do the driving for those under 16 motored to Water World USA, Raging Waters and Marine World. That took them away from other Pleasanton activities and stores for the day and also led to a gradual decrease in waterslide attendance here. Where once Kierstead's operation grossed over $400,000, gate receipts last year were down more than 50 percent, resulting in a net profit of only $11,000. Kierstead dug into his own pockets to cover maintenance costs needed on the slides, pumps and water filtration system. Without Council approval, it's unlikely the Shadow Cliffs slides or the proposed Pleasanton-sought bicycle motocross (BMX) facility on park district land to the south will be in operation.

Take a look at the kinds of youth- and family-focused activities Kierstead plans in his expanded waterslides park: Ą A four-lane Surf Hill featuring a 38-foot drop over a 230-foot length into a channel and pool; Ą Two Speed Slides that will intertwine with the Surf Hill slide, also with the 38-foot vertical drops; Ą The Sidewinder, a raft ride that will provide a 35-foot drop into a concave half-pipe, where riders will traverse the walls before ending in a pond; Ą A Dual aqua Drum where water sliders will twist and turn inside a large 30-foot diameter bowl before splashing into a run-out slide; Ą A 3,500-square-foot Challenge Activity Pool that will include higher impact activities for older children including "water fight" equipment that will appeal to those interested in more aggressive water play; Ą A 9,000-square-foot Children's Pond, with theme slides such as fiberglass frogs and other activities geared to small children; Ą A 4,000-square-foot activity pool with a large slide hill complex; and, Kierstead's favorite, Ą A Lazy River ride 14 feet wide and 2,200 feet long that would be the longest of its kind in the country.

Opposition to the proposed theme park, which was voiced at the Dec. 10 Planning Commission meeting and posted in phone calls and e-mails, has been loud and fierce. As planners are finding in their considerations of a new General Plan, many in Pleasanton are fed up with increased traffic, with cut-through traffic and with long waits in their cars at the ever-increasing number and often unsynchronized traffic lights throughout the city. They don't want any more traffic and they said so to planners. Besides traffic concerns, critics also argued that the waterpark could attract people "from all over" to Pleasanton. One said she feared that the waterpark could change the dynamics of the "close knit" city and its neighborhoods.

But traffic experts have testified that the new waterpark would generate no more than 4,000 patrons on its busiest days, such as July 4, and less on other days. Principal Planner Jerry Iserson says that existing city streets and intersections are adequate to handle the additional traffic. He also points out that Shadow Cliffs-bound traffic is heaviest on weekends and holidays, with weekday traffic to the waterslides coming after the morning rush hour and leaving ahead of the evening rush. Since only the first 75 percent of the expansion project would be completed in the first year, with the rest to follow over the next six years, there would be ample time for planners to put the brakes on further expansion if problems arise.

Kierstead and his waterslides have served Pleasanton youth safely for 13 years. The expanded California Splash would allow this service to continue while bringing nearly 100 summer jobs to teenagers in Pleasanton, who will have preferential hiring status. It would provide greater recreational activities for Pleasanton families and would also provide an estimated $400,000 annually to the cash-strapped East Bay Regional Park District and another $40,000 in sales tax revenue to Pleasanton. It's a cost-free opportunity that the Pleasanton City Council should approve.

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