Fairfax petition to bar use of ball field for flood water detention

Marin Independent Journal (CA)

May 05--Three Fairfax residents plan to begin circulating a petition this weekend in an attempt to ensure that Lefty Gomez Field at White Hill Middle School is never used as an emergency flood detention basin.

The petition seeks to amend the town of Fairfax's general plan to prohibit the field from being used for flood detention purposes.

If the group can get 10 percent of the town's registered voters, about 563 people, to sign their petition, the council would be required to either adopt the recommended changes to the general plan or put them on the ballot during the next municipal election. And if they can get 15 percent of the registered voters, about 844 people, to sign it, the council would be required to adopt the initiative or call a special election to decide the matter.

All three of the people organizing the petition -- Susan "Suzuki" Cady, Diane "Dine" DeMarlie and Marc Hammerman -- live near the field.

"We think that a majority of the public doesn't want a detention basin in this area, and we wanted to put it on the ballot and let people vote on it," DeMarlie said.

DeMarlie has several reasons for opposing the project.

"I think it is a safety hazard; it is right near where a thousand kids use the field," she said.

She said the millions of dollars it will take to convert the field could be better spent on other flood protection efforts, and she said the excavation necessary to convert the field would reduce the amount of usable space.

"It will sink and shrink the playing field," she said.

Former Fairfax councilman Frank Egger, who is assisting with the petition drive, said, "We're going to lose 25 to 30 percent of the field's space once they excavate."

Earlier revolt

Hammerman also said he believes it is important that local residents weigh in on the issue.

"I have come to appreciate that Fairfax is a jewel, albeit a fragile one," Hammerman said. "Lefty Gomez Field is a part of what makes it special."

This is not the first time that neighbors of a proposed detention basin have revolted. In November 2015, San Anselmo voters approved a ballot measure that prohibited the use of Memorial Park as a detention basin.

Memorial Park and Lefty Gomez Field were two of five potential detention basins initially deemed necessary to prevent future devastating floods in the Ross Valley like the one that damaged 150 businesses and 300 homes in 2005. The loss of Memorial Park put at risk an $8.7 million state grant that had been secured to help pay for the park's conversion and improvements to its facilities.

After the Memorial Park plan was blocked, attention turned to Lefty Gomez as a possible substitute. But opponents of Lefty's use emerged quickly and since then officials attempting to move forward with flood control have focused their attention on other opportunities -- most notably the former Sunnyside Nursery growing grounds at 3000 Sir Francis Drake Blvd. in Fairfax.

Reducing risk

Marin County purchased the grounds for $3.8 million in September and in March county supervisors approved spending about $400,000 to study the environmental impact of three options for reducing the risk of flooding in the Ross Valley. Two of the options call for Sunnyside's use as an emergency detention basin and the third does not include a detention basin. None of the options would use Lefty Gomez Field, and no further detailed study of Lefty is planned in the next few years.

Nevertheless, members of the Flood Control Zone 9 Advisory Board, which is overseeing flood control efforts in the Ross Valley, say the loss of Lefty Gomez as an option would be a significant setback.

"It would be a really troubling development," said San Anselmo Councilman Tom McInerney, who serves as the advisory board's chairman.

"To the extent we continue taking flood detention off the table, we are just shooting ourselves in the foot," McInerney said, "because these are proven ways of preventing flooding. There is nothing as effective as detention basins."

Regarding the contention by some critics that detention basins pose a drowning risk to children, McInerney said, "I think there is a significantly greater risk from floods than someone falling into a detention basin. That is just a red herring, an excuse."

Financial toll

As for whether the field's conversion would reduce its usable area, McInerney said, "At this point, there's not a designed project so no one can say it will result in a loss of recreational field space."

McInerney said if that proved to be the case, the loss would be mitigated by development of field space elsewhere.

Fairfax Councilman David Weinsoff, who also serves on the advisory board, said with some irony, "At the moment we have a detention basin in Fairfax; it's called downtown Fairfax.

"Every time it floods we have dozens of residents who flood. Our business community gets wiped out and all of our town's municipal buildings go under water," Weinsoff said. "This is an effort to move that detention basin from downtown Fairfax to a more safe, secure and economically viable place."

Weinsoff supplied some numbers to illustrate the financial toll that flooding takes on the Ross Valley.

He said 234 Fairfax residents pay a total of $204,000 annually for flood insurance while the town of Fairfax pays $220,000 annually for flood insurance.

In addition, Weinsoff said since 1978, Fairfax residents have filed for $1.8 million in flood damages while San Anselmo residents have filed for more than $11 million in damages.

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