Despite Opposition, City OKs $1-Million Sidewalk for Max Berg Park

The city will spend almost $1 million to build a sidewalk and traffic improvements in the circular drive around .

The council split 3-2, with Bob Baker and Tim Brown voting against the project, which has exceeded its budget by $139,000.

Council members argued that the sidewalk, paid in large part by $594,000 from a federal Safe Routes to School grant, didn't improve safety and took city sidewalk money from other parts of town that needed it more.

Even though the city would have lost the $594,000 if it did not move forward with the project, Brown said it was fiscal discipline at the local level that would reduce rampant government spending.

Baker also said the sidewalks wouldn't improve safety, and worried about the cost overruns.

"We've used this year's sidewalk funds, we're talking about using half of next year's sidewalk funds, we're talking about using traffic calming funds," he said.

"If this grant was titled 'Beautify a City Park with Government Grant Money,' I would be 100 percent for it," Baker said. "This is titled 'Safe Routes to School.' I've been there... If we think putting a $1-million sidewalk on the perimeter of this park is going to make the route any more safe, we're kidding ourselves."

Several residents spoke against the project and several spoke in favor of it, including members of a neighborhood council in the area who expressed their support in a letter to the council.

Bill Hart said the neighborhood, which is largely Hispanic and less affluent than other parts of San Clemente, deserved investment.

"There are a lot of people in this community who have made an absolute science of shutting ideas down," he said. "I think it's time for one neighborhood to have some public investment."

Mayor Jim Evert, who said he was "on the fence" at the beginning of the discussion, cast the deciding vote in favor of the project.

The contract goes to ATOM Construction Engineering.