When the San Francisco Public Utility Commission began to plan for a Sunol Water Temple welcome center, President Barack Obama had just taken his oath of office and the cost of gas was just over $2. More than 17 years and millions of dollars later, the project remains incomplete.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf we had a schedule, we would share it,\u201d Tim Ramirez, division manager of natural resources and lands management at SFPUC, said of the proposed Alameda Creek Watershed Center. \u201cThe plan has gone through different iterations over the years, but I definitely think there\u2019s the gusto. \u2026 The fact we\u2019ve invested so many resources shows our gusto.\u201d<\/p>\n
Built in 1910, the Sunol Water Temple is a Beaux Arts-style pergola inspired by the Temple of Vesta in Tivoli, Italy, serving as a memorial to the confluence of the Bay Area\u2019s major watersheds.<\/p>\n
Underneath the temple\u2019s Corinthian columns, three subterranean pipelines from Arroyo de la Laguna, Alameda Creek and Pleasanton supplied half of San Francisco\u2019s water supply during the early 20th century.<\/p>\n
When the Hetch Hetchy Aqueduct began delivering water to San Francisco in 1934, however, it replaced the Sunol Water Temple as the primary water source for San Francisco. In 1976, the American Society of Civil Engineers declared the temple as a California Historical Engineering Landmark.<\/p>\n
![\"An](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/EBT-WATERTEMPLE-0226-1.jpg\")
An aerial view of the Sunol Water Temple in Sunol, Calif., on Thursday, Feb. 26, 2026. The San Francisco Public Utility Commission has yet to open the Alameda Creek Watershed Center more than 10 years after it was initially slated to be open. (Jane Tyska\/Bay Area News Group)\u00a0<\/p>\n
Some Sunol residents may find themselves completely unfamiliar with the temple\u2019s place in Bay Area history because it has been largely inaccessible to the public for about a decade, said Connie DeGrange, a 45-year resident.<\/p>\n
\u201cPeople haven\u2019t been there in 10 years. There are people who are in Sunol who have never experienced it,\u201d DeGrange said. \u201cThere are kids who have never learned the importance of it. It\u2019s a magnificent structure to represent a pivotal project to California, bringing water to San Francisco and the Bay Area.\u201d<\/p>\n
SFPUC initially proposed a $3-4 million educational center east of the Sunol Water Temple in 2009 amid public criticism that the agency had provided little public access to the site\u2019s 36,000 acres, according to a 2012 Mercury News article. SFPUC said that any estimates from 2012 predate current leadership.<\/p>\n
At the time, Ramirez said that he had hoped the watershed center would become a \u201chub for the community.\u201d For many, including DeGrange, the watershed center is important to revitalizing the bucolic town, which has witnessed the closures of a restaurant and cafe that were previously nerve centers for the community.<\/p>\n
But Ramirez pushed back against that characterization in a recent interview with this news organization. The center, he said, was deliberately for the SFPUC\u2019s mission to educate the public on water, ecology and the history of the Muwekma Ohlone people.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s not a community center. This is not a building for people to have weddings or events. This is an educational facility,\u201d Ramirez said. \u201cIt\u2019s not going to be available for people to use for other purposes that are not related to our operations.\u201d<\/p>\n
![\"An](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/EBT-WATERTEMPLE-0226-14.jpg\")
An aerial view of the Sunol Water Temple, right, in Sunol, Calif., on Thursday, Feb. 26, 2026. The San Francisco Public Utility Commission has yet to open the Alameda Creek Watershed Center more than 10 years after it was initially slated to be open. (Jane Tyska\/Bay Area News Group)\u00a0<\/p>\n
Several aspects of the center\u2019s development \u2013 excavation, bidding, and construction \u2013 took multiple years or faced unexpected delays that expanded the view of the originally proposed project, according to SFPUC.<\/p>\n
During an excavation of the site, as mandated by the California Environment Quality Act, SFPUC hired a documentary<\/a> team to capture the findings of Muwekma Ohlone artifacts<\/a> over two years. The effort resulted in the discovery of about 13,000 artifacts, according to SFPUC.<\/p>\n Initial planning documents for the facility were rejected by the San Francisco Arts Commission and sent back to the drawing board. Even awarding contracts to construct the center took multiple rounds of bids, according to the SFPUC.<\/p>\n \u201cIn the beginning, it was going to be just about the tribe and its history, right?\u201d Ramirez said. \u201cBut we changed the actual exhibits themselves, and the tribe allowed us to make reproductions of some of the artifacts to include as part of that new exhibit.\u201d<\/p>\n When the project was released for bid in 2016, the proposal received only two bids \u2013 one that was later withdrawn and the other rejected, according to SFPUC. The water agency then separated the proposal into separate bids between the watershed center and an infrastructure improvement project at the Sunol Yard.<\/p>\n With limited prospects, the watershed center was \u201cput on hold due to funding\u201d in 2017.<\/p>\n
![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/EBT-WATERTEMPLE-0226-9.jpg\")
A closure sign is seen at the gate to the Sunol Water Temple in Sunol, Calif., on Thursday, Feb. 26, 2026. The San Francisco Public Utility Commission has yet to open the Alameda Creek Watershed Center more than 10 years after it was initially slated to be open. (Jane Tyska\/Bay Area News Group)\u00a0<\/p>\n