Publication Date: Wednesday, February 16, 2005
Council nixes Environmental Services Center
Council nixes Environmental Services Center
(February 16, 2005) Property to be added to Baylands' Byxbee Park, as scheduled
by Jocelyn Dong
After more than six years of planning, the Environmental Services Center -- a controversial garbage and recycling center proposed for the Palo Alto Baylands -- is dead.
With a 5-4 vote, the City Council put an end to the notion that the city's current landfill would host a processing plant when the dump closes in 2011. Instead, the land at the end of Embarcadero Road will revert to parkland, as has been planned for four decades.
The decision took community members by surprise, even those who opposed the garbage-transfer station. But Councilmember Bern Beecham, who made the motion to his colleagues that "we simply kill this project," asserted that Palo Alto residents would not support the park being used for garbage purposes.
The city's Public Works staff had recommended the council approve a $466,000 study of various sizes of a facility and their possible impacts.
"The easy decision is to delay and put off," he said. "The hard decision is to say, 'No.'"
Council members LaDoris Cordell, Yoriko Kishimoto, Judy Kleinberg and Dena Mossar joined Beecham in rejecting the Environmental Services Center.
Walt Hays, a staunch advocate for an 8-acre waste-and-recycling plant, expressed his clear disappointment with the decision.
"It's totally irrational. They don't have the guts to face the issues," he said, making a swift exit in the City Hall elevator after the matter had been decided. "They killed recycling in Palo Alto without saying they killed recycling."
Hays worked with city staff to develop an alternative to their first choice, which would have occupied 19 acres. At one point, his vision included an education center, where visitors could learn about recycling and innovations in sustainability.
He and other proponents of the facility believed that local control of the waste and recycling plant was essential to the city remaining a leader in reducing, reusing and recycling waste.
The idea for a waste and recycling facility first floated into the public eye in 1999, with a consultant's recommendation of a 6.2-acre plant. By June 2002, the proposed facility had ballooned to 19, and prompted charges that the city's Public Works Department was trying to sneak the proposal through back channels.
Public Works Director Glenn Roberts flatly denied that allegation, saying his responsibility was to support what his department deemed the best for Palo Alto.
Following Monday night's decision, Roberts said he had done his job and that the council, in making its policy choice, had done its.
Beecham based his motion on his confidence that Palo Alto voters would never approve the "undedication" of land at Byxbee Park, which would have been required to allow the site to change to any other use.
"It's a highly emotional issue," he said.
In addition, he believed that although a large facility raised concerns among open-space advocates, a smaller facility would not provide enough services and benefits to be worthwhile.
"As we shrink the size of it, the value to the community shrinks as well," he said. He added his belief that Palo Alto likely would not have any competitive advantage over any other Bay Area city in running its own processing facility.
While rejecting the garbage facility, the council directed staff to study the city's zero-waste and recycling goals and devise options, strategies, cost benefits analyses and policy recommendations.
Longtime parks supporter Betsy Allyn said the process for devising the Environmental Services Center ultimately killed it.
"I felt like we put the cart before the horse," she said, referring to the push for a study of facilities when the council hadn't even decided which recycling and garbage processing services it wanted.
"I think there were a lot of questions that weren't answered, too," she said as she walked out of the meeting, still wearing one of many "I LOVE BYXBEE" red construction-paper hearts that park supporters had pinned to their shirts.
Former councilwoman Emily Renzel led the charge to preserve the land for park purposes, and hugged Beecham after the decision was rendered.
And yet, for all of Renzel's efforts - including writing numerous letters and making calls to council members and the press -- she was reserved about the victory Monday night, perhaps aware that decisions in Palo Alto have a way of being revisited.
"I'll wait till the next shoe drops," she said, her paper heart dangling from her jacket, just over her own.
Senior Staff Writer Jocelyn Dong can be reached at jdong@paweekly.com.
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