Several years in the making, the Baxter Creek "gateway" project will restore 160 feet of Baxter Creek, while building a landscaped park, with kiosks, benches, picnic areas and more.

Located on a 1.64-acre parcel between Key Boulevard, San Pablo Avenue and the BART tracks, the project will also extend the Ohlone Greenway northward, with the intention of eventually connecting it to the Richmond Greenway.

"Our goal is to break ground this summer and there's a high chance of that happening," said Drew Goetting, one of the designers of the project.

"That is possibly going to be delayed a little bit because of funding issues," said Maryann Aberg, the co-founder of the Friends of Baxter Creek. "We will probably discuss that at the DRB meeting."

Aberg added that the friends group is fully committed to completion and maintenance of the project, even as the group scales back its efforts in other parts of the watershed due to lack of funding.

The effort to save the Baxter Creek gateway site from a grocery store's planned expansion spurred the creation of the Friends of Baxter Creek in 1997, according to the group's Web site, www.creativedifferences.com/baxtercreek.

In November, 2002, the city bought the property using a $350,000 grant, applied for by the Friends, plus $50,000 in city money.

The city has since held several workshops for residents to say what they wanted to see at the site, a successful, inclusive process, said resident Rosemary Loubal. Among the ideas suggested, she said, were park benches, picnic areas and public toilets.

However, there may not be enough money for everything people wanted.

Project construction is estimated to cost $598,931. Some $340,000 is available for project construction from a state grant awarded to the city last June, said Melanie Mintz, the city's environmental analyst. The remainder is expected to be paid for through a $204,000 state grant, plus $50,000 in redevelopment money.

Whether the grant is awarded may affect whether the toilets, considered an amenity for the project, get built immediately. If the grant is not awarded, the amenities may be "phased" in later, said Mintz, though the city would rather construct everything at the same time.

There's a strong preference for toilets at the gateway site, said Loubal, who suggested that the redevelopment agency could pay for them, out of $17 million available in bond money.

"If you took $100,000 of that ... that is such a small percentage of $17 million, you could build two sets of toilets, which is what some people wanted," she said.

Meanwhile, the Friends of Baxter Creek have had funding issues of their own. A two-year grant that paid for a group coordinator ended last June and is awaiting an allocation of grant money this summer.

That funding gap prompted the group to reassess its goals last fall and winter, when its leadership held three meetings with a paid facilitator to decide how to proceed.

A decision was made to discontinue maintenance and creek restoration efforts at Booker T. Anderson and Mira Vista parks in Richmond, reduce the number of monthly work parties to six per year, and reduce the monthly Friends newsletter to five per year.

Instead, the group will focus entirely on the Baxter Creek gateway site and continue to support an eight-hour-a-week Mira Vista Field Stewarship program at Mira Vista School until September 2006.

"We have limited resources now and we have to focus the group's energy on particular things, or otherwise we're not going to get anything done," said Aberg. "And a decision was made to focus on the gateway area because that's one of group's main priorities and that's what we did."

In addition, the Friends of Baxter Creek will work with the Friends of El Cerrito Trees to push for a tree maintenance and planting plan at Canyon Trail Park, said Loubal, who belongs to both friends groups.

Resident George McRae said he was unhappy with the direction the Baxter Creek group has taken, saying the group could do more, but has failed to reach out to its membership, said to be 1,000 members strong, for volunteer help.

He said members have also been kept in the dark about development potential on land surrounding the Baxter Creek site.

"Either they've got something to hide or don't have the skills—good communication skills," said McRae, who is a member of the Baxter Creek group. "It could be something as simple as that, they're not good at talking to people."

Friends coordinator Apple Szostak said all of its members were notified about the winter planning meetings, while Aberg pooh-poohed development possibilities adjacent to the gateway site.

"I feel confident that we will given notice if someone decides to put a 50-story skyscraper there, that we will be given plenty of time to respond," said Aberg. "Our group has proven that we can prevent something, some sort of environmental disaster from happening."