Potential new sailing spot - South SF Bay

[Belarus]

The San Jose Santa Clara Water Pollution Control Plant near Alviso is planning a major rebuild project. They own one of the large ponds next to the plant down in the South Bay. They have several tentative plans and are looking for more input. When I talked to them, they said the main body of water in the pond will stay as a pond but they had no idea that it might be a good sailing/kitesurfing spot. With some extra encouragement and input from the windsurf community we might be able to obtain access to this patch of water and sail in the often strong North West winds that funnel down over the plant. The next (and currently, final) public meeting is tomorrow, Wednesday, May 19th in the Cupertino Community Hall, 10350 Torre Ave, Cupertino: 6pm to 8pm. It would be great if some more sailors turn up and press for access to this pond.

http://www.rebuildtheplant.org/go/doc/1823/258442

http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&source=s_q&hl=en&geocode=&q=95054&sll=37.0625,-95.677068&sspn=29.358024,53.876953&ie=UTF8&hq=&hnear=Santa+Clara,+California+95054&ll=37.448765,-121.950388&spn=0.028687,0.052614&t=h&z=14

[LUCARO]

thanks for the heads up i am gonna try and make it

roland

[PAmuddog]

Just a reminder to show up tonight to lobby for a new windsurfing site in the South Bay.

Cupertino Community Hall, 10350 Torre Ave, Cupertino: 6pm to 8pm.

I know this may ruin your sailing session this evening but this could be the most important windsurf related evening of your life.

[ShreddinEd]

[jimyjak]

Robin,

When are you going to learn to read between the lines?

The dog said "COULD be the most important"



We better show up to that meeting just in case

[PAmuddog]

WOW!

It loooks like the wind gods are being very favorable to the meeting in Cupertino in an hour.

Hope to see a good windsurfing croud!

[human_catapult]

What came of this meeting after all?

Did the committee have an open mind about water access?

[PAmuddog]

Ok, about the meeting.

We had 6 windsurfers show up, by far the largest interest group. Thanks to all who attended.

The management actually souned positive about windsurfing use. Intrigued would be a better word to use. When, is the issue. Right now there is no legal access to pond. Granting acces will probably depend on how much pressure the sewage plant gets from the windsurfing community. The manager of the plant and the chief engineer suggested a strategy of community input through their online questionnaire. So the more interest we show the more they will fine tune the design for windsurfing.

The pond is sailable as it is. It is salt water. The depth is about 2-4 feet. There are no hidden obstructions as in many of the other salt ponds. However there are power lines and broken down catwalks at the eastern edge of the pond similar to what you have at Palo Alto approaching the Charlston Slew entrance. This will not affect the major sailing area.

The main fetch will be approximately 1.5 miles and get shorter as you head upwind for several miles to the Northwest corner of the pond. About 1 mile downwind of the main fetch you will encounter the power lines. This is a very large area of extreemly flat water.

Right now the pond has a levee surounding it. The master plan has a new larger levee being built where the South and East levee sections are now.

Here's the part we need to lobby against.....They plan to remove the levees to the bay side to allow normal tidal action at the pond.... If they do this there will be no windsurfing at this site. It will no longer be a pond but part of the bay and will silt up and rarely have water high enough to sail. And when there is water it will not be the flat water we want, it will be just as choppy as the bay.

So, anyone who may have an interest in having this become a windsurfing site needs to respond to the online questionnaire.

Here's a link:

http://www.rebuildtheplant.org/go/doc/1823/258442

They are taking input until the end of June.

It would be awesome if we could get this site up and running. I believe you can view the pond from the Don Edwards Wildlife Refuge. Look at the Google map as well. It's the big pond closest to highway 880.


http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&source=s_q&hl=en&geocode=&q=95054&sll=37.0625,-95.677068&sspn=29.358024,53.876953&ie=UTF8&hq=&hnear=Santa+Clara,+California+95054&ll=37.448765,-121.950388&spn=0.028687,0.052614&t=h&z=14

Lets do this

[geohaye]

EXCELLENT! For all of us who could not attend the meeting, huge thanks to the group that did! You guys have opened the door, now it's up to all of us to walk through it and HELP MAKE THIS HAPPEN. Let's be clear--it is not every day that we get a chance to increase windsurfing access in SF Bay. The Alviso Pond would be a great asset to windsurfing in the SF area... For speed sailing and racing, for sailors located in the South Bay, and for sailors who for whatever reason prefer flat water.

DEADLINE for feedback: JUNE 30 (correct me if I'm wrong).

FEEDBACK PAGE:
http://www.rebuildtheplant.org/go/inquiry/1823/

I just submitted the following public input (below). It would be better to submit your own original comments, but it would also be OK to copy and paste a 'sample' feedback such as this (below). This 'sample' feedback may be refined and improved upon by others over the next month (those of you who write better/other 'sample' letters like this, please post yours here so that others who don't want to write their own can copy & paste yours), but at least this gets at the spirit of the matter based on our current understanding of the situation:
--------------------------------------

PUBLIC COMMENT REGARDING THE PLANT MASTER PLAN PROCESS:
IN SUPPORT OF WINDSURFING ACCESS IN THE LARGEST MAJOR POND (THE ONE CLOSEST TO THE 880 FREEWAY)

I would like to voice my strong support for providing public windsurfing access to the largest pond at the San Jose/Santa Clara Water Pollution Control Plant near Alviso and Milpitas. (I believe that the Planner referred to this pond as Pond A18.)

Windsurfing is a non-polluting, wind-powered and muscle-powered sport that is quite popular in the San Francisco Bay Area. Due to geographic conditions, San Francisco Bay is "made" for windsurfing, and windsurfing is exactly the type of recreational outlet that area students, professionals, and retirees thrive on. Due to private ownership of most bayfront property, among other factors, windsurfing access is quite limited in the area -- which only makes potential access here at the pond that much more crucial to the area population.

Please do:
(1.) open up your largest pond to windsurfing access,
AND
(2.) to prevent the pond from silting in and becoming un-usable, please do not remove the levees to the bay side of the pond. Removing these levees may sound like a good idea now but this action would unfortunately allow normal tidal action to work upon the (currently 2' to 4' deep) pond, which in turn would quickly render the pond un-usable for windsurfing due to silting. Specifically, the silting would greatly decrease the (currently ideal) depth of the pond, making it un-usable.

Thank you for your time.

Respectfully submitted,
[YOUR FULL NAME AND FULL MAILING ADDRESS]

[NickB]

So you are saying that if we play this right, we have a chance to get a Bay site that offers:
- shallow warm flat water
- consistent and regular winds
- mile+ long reaches
- potential for being a GPS speedsurfing destination in high winds
- potential for being a great freestyle and beginner spot in medium/light wind
- some powerlines to keep kites away

sounds too good to be true, what's at the bottom of the pond, radioactive mud?

regardless, thanks for your efforts, I'll respond to the questionaire and hope to try this spot in the future!