Crittenden to add creek trail, track to campus

The Mountain View Whisman School District is just months away from major changes to the Crittenden Middle School field that would add a running track and a winding trail extension that would bring the Permanente Creek Trail through the campus to Rock Street.

The project would replace the existing baseball field south of the Crittenden campus with a 123,000-square-foot track-and-field facility.

The project includes a 900-foot extension of the Permanente Creek Trail to the west of the school from Rock Street down to the Farley Street and Middlefield Road intersection. The width of the trail fluctuates between 10 and 20 feet wide, in part because it has to squeeze by school facilities and a 12-foot easement required by the Santa Clara Valley Water District.

The city of Mountain View will reimburse the school district for the design and construction of the trail, which is expected to cost about $1.2 million.

To make room for the trail and the track, 21 trees — including 14 redwoods — along the southwest edge of the campus will be removed. At a school board meeting last week, project director Mary Ann Duggan said the school district had to weigh its options for getting rid of the heritage trees. The alternative would have been to remove the softball and baseball fields on the Crittenden lawn, which would have been a huge loss to the city.

“We tried to fit the track and field on the site without removing the trees, but it simply wasn’t feasible,” Duggan told the board.

To counteract the loss of tree canopy, the district is expected to plant at least 41 new trees on the campus, all of which will be species native to the area instead of redwood trees, Duggan said.

The tree removal and the new sports lighting proposed in the project are expected to cause excessive glare for properties to the south and west of the project. By adjusting the brightness levels on the lights, the district should be able to mitigate any significant impacts to nearby residents, according to the environmental report.

Board member Steve Nelson said he was concerned about the PG&E gas pipeline that runs under the Crittenden field, which he believes could be a major hazard in the construction of the new track and field, despite its not being mentioned in the environmental report. Duggan said the pipeline is too deeply underground to be considered within the “sphere of influence” of construction, and will be surveyed and marked ahead of construction so contractors are aware of what’s underground.

Tree removal is expected to start at the beginning of next year, followed by construction of the trail through May. Construction of the track and field is expected to start in June and end in November.

The board is expected to sign off on the environmental report at its Dec. 8 meeting.

Residents are asked to submit any comments on the project to the district office by Nov. 28 at noon, to Mary Ann Duggan at 750-A San Pierre Way, Mountain View, CA 94043. Comments may also be emailed to mduggan@mvwsd.org.