Redwood City synagogue fights S.F. PUC

Having to pay a few dollars for parking is one thing, but $55,000 a year?

That's how much Temple Beth Jacob in Redwood City is being asked to fork over to rent its own parking lot, which for nearly 50 years has sat on land owned by the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission.

The slice of land, which is behind Beth Jacob's sanctuary, is used for the Hetch Hetchy water system. A pipeline lies several yards beneath the surface.

Beth Jacob has never paid to use the land for the 100 or so paved parking spaces, but the PUC five weeks ago sent out letters announcing a new policy, one that demands rent from nonprofits and public agencies using PUC-owned land.

Public agencies have already been hit up, and now the PUC is coming after houses of worship, which for years have been given a free ride or paid only token rents such as $1 per year.

It all stems from a January 1999 resolution, which was passed by the PUC when the agency decided it was doing a poor job of collecting rents.

"Everyone on the board thought it was ridiculous," Beth Jacob board member Pam Ehrlich said Monday of the rent demand, which came from out of the blue. "They couldn't even believe it was really happening."

Not that Beth Jacob is running to get its checkbook.

For starters, even though the PUC is phasing in the rent over a four-year period, starting with a $13,800 payment due immediately, leaders of the Conservative synagogue feel that $55,000 is way out of line.

It's based on a PUC calculation that puts the fair market value of the land at $1.23 million, a "ludicrous" valuation, says Reuben Donig, the president of Beth Jacob's board of directors.

"The land in question is a landlocked parcel. It is not accessible from the street except by two driveways," said Donig, a lawyer.

And because of the underground pipeline, he added, "You cannot develop this land. You can't build houses on it. You can't build commercial buildings on it."

He blasted the PUC for establishing a fair market value by comparing the 41,000-square-foot parcel in a residential area to commercial real estate prices in Redwood City.

"That would be egregious enough," Donig pointed out. But adding to Donig's consternation is his contention that the PUC is ignoring an easement that gives Beth Jacob surface rights to the land.

The easement doesn't specifically spell out using the land for a parking lot, Donig said, but he feels strongly enough about Beth Jacob's legal rights that he fired off a long letter to the PUC on Sept. 13 stating the synagogue's case.

Donig said Beth Jacob, which has roughly 400 member households and an annual budget of $800,000, couldn't afford the $55,000 rent.

Garrett Dowd, the director of the PUC's bureau of land management, explained why the PUC is suddenly demanding rent from Beth Jacob and nine churches on the Peninsula and in southern Alameda County. Like Beth Jacob, most are fighting the rents.

"Many years ago, this land was sort of a giveaway," Dowd said. "But with economic shortfalls, the PUC has taken a much more aggressive approach to maximize the revenues it is generating."

Donig contends some agencies were allowed to speak on their own behalf before the PUC approved the policy in 1999. Apparently, however, none of the houses of worship was notified of a hearing.

"We have no obligation to contact each and every entity that might be affected," Dowd stated.

Dowd said the PUC's negotiations with Beth Jacob have "pretty much" broken down because the synagogue is refusing to enter into the proposed lease agreement.

If the case winds up in court, Donig is confident. "If we didn't have the easement, then we'd have a problem. It would be an argument over what the land is really worth."

Meanwhile, Dowd said the PUC is considering its next step, which might be to blockade the lot. That could turn into a sticky mess if the parking lot is blocked during the High Holy Days, which is one of the few times when it actually fills up.

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