[Water_news] 5. DWR'S CALIFORNIA WATER NEWS: AGENCIES, PROGRAMS, PEOPLE - 8/13/07

Department of Water Resources

California Water News

A daily compilation of significant news articles and comment

 

August 13, 2007

 

5. Agencies, Programs, People

 

SACRAMENTO LEVEE ISSUES:

West Sac levee squeeze; To fund the local share of a river shield, housing is planned in floodplain - Sacramento Bee

 

BAY AREA FLOOD CONTROL ISSUES:

Lawsuit challenges vote on flood control measure in San Anselmo - San Francisco Chronicle

 

Guest Opinion: How to offset flood dangers - San Francisco Chronicle

 

 

SACRAMENTO LEVEE ISSUES:

West Sac levee squeeze; To fund the local share of a river shield, housing is planned in floodplain

Sacramento Bee – 8/13/07

By Lakiesha McGhee, staff writer

 

West Sacramento officials say they are caught in a "Catch-22" as the city struggles against time to secure $400 million for levee improvements.

 

The dilemma centers on several proposals that would add more than 8,000 homes and other developments to the city's Southport area, which is in a floodplain and has a buildout of 16,000 homes.

 

To increase density, developers want to annex 537 acres at West Sacramento's southern boundary and rezone most of the large vacant properties remaining in Southport. About 11,250 people live there.

 

City officials say more money from development fees and assessments would more quickly generate an $84 million share for levee improvements to meet new federal standards after Hurricane Katrina. West Sacramento's levee work would be paid mostly by state and federal resources, which often require a local match, city officials said.

 

"The city is in a position where it has to increase density to pay for additional improvements," said Councilman Mark Johannessen. He explained that allowing higher density would also allow Southport developers to help fund other community needs, such as enhanced roads, an "ultra light-rail" system or other public transportation.

 

On a recent afternoon, Johannessen drove along one of Southport's narrow levee roads. As he reached the city limits to the south, he stopped to point out an expanse of former farmland proposed to be the site of thousands of homes and an 18-hole public golf course.

 

"If you don't grow, you die," Johannessen said. "But you have to consider the people who are here and have respect for existing neighborhoods. You don't want to move too much too fast."

 

The California Building Industry Association reports that developers are building more high- density housing primarily because of land costs. For years, home developers have funded roads, sewer and water lines and other infrastructure near their projects, all contributing to the high cost of housing, association spokesman John Frith said.

 

Some West Sacramento residents say it's bad planning to stick more homes in a floodplain to offset costs. More homes would put more people at risk during a flood and create a daily traffic nightmare, said members of a group called "Save Our City."

 

"We're not trying to stop development," said Irene Eklund, a member of group, which formed several years ago in response to Southport's growth. "We just want quality development, and we want what we were told we were getting."

 

Southport has seen most of West Sacramento's growth since 2000. The area was planned for 16,000 homes south of the Port of Sacramento, between the Deep Water Ship Channel and Sacramento River. The 1995 Southport Framework Plan describes residents living in "pedestrian- oriented villages" blended with housing, shops, schools and parks.

 

By year's end, more than 4,500 homes will have been built in Southport's once-open fields, according to a city report.

 

Stephen Patek, city director of public works and community development, said three proposals would add 8,000 homes to Southport, increasing the area's buildout from 16,000 homes to more than 20,000 homes. Community workshops during the past year allowed residents to voice concerns and to help develop a decision-making process for Southport projects, he said.

 

At a City Council meeting Wednesday, residents pushed for projects to be considered at the same time to allow a more comprehensive review of traffic, flood control and other issues.

 

"Don't just piecemeal this together, but do it the right way," resident Dani Langford said.

 

Resident Pat Flint urged the council to first improve Southport's levees.

 

Mayor Christopher Cabaldon said levee improvements will come as the city collects new developer fees and property assessments. In the meantime, projects should be reviewed thoroughly but as quickly as possible, he said.

 

In 2003, five applications were submitted to develop more than 12,000 homes in Southport, according to a city report. Over the years, projects have been amended, dropped or put on hold for various reasons. Three proposals for residential developments remain active.

 

The Vina del Lago project by Live Oak Development Corp. involves annexing 537 acres in unincorporated Yolo County at the West Sacramento's southern border. The development would be a senior community of about 2,200 homes, said Dan Ramos, who is part of the project's development team.

 

Part of the Vina del Lago project involves Live Oak funding a new southern levee that would protect the southern flanks of West Sacramento and a northwest interceptor pumping plant, Ramos said.

 

The proposed Yarbrough project by ASB properties includes about 3,000 homes and an 18-hole public golf course, according to a city report. River Park by Richland Planned Communities calls for 2,788 homes, a 41-acre regional park, 30 acres of open space and trails, an elementary school site and a marina.

 

Another Southport project -- likely to add many homes -- is still in the early stages of planning. The city recently selected Cordish Co. of Baltimore to develop the city's Stone Lock District along the Sacramento River and both sides of the Barge Canal. As developments are being planned, West Sacramento is racing to strengthen its levees. Recent geotechnical studies revealed that West Sacramento faced the same deep underseepage and levee stability problems occurring in Sacramento's Natomas area.

 

A 100-year flood protection level is considered a minimal safety threshold by the federal government. West Sacramento has acted swiftly to get a higher 200-year level of flood protection, with property owners last month voting for property assessments to generate $42 million for levees. Another $42 million will come from new developer fees approved by the City Council in April.

 

Johannessen, who lives in Southport near the Yarbrough and Vina del Lago projects, said despite the flood issues, he thinks homebuyers will be attracted to the amenities and to being close to downtown Sacramento. #

http://www.sacbee.com/101/story/322171.html

 

 

BAY AREA FLOOD CONTROL ISSUES:

Lawsuit challenges vote on flood control measure in San Anselmo

San Francisco Chronicle – 8/11/07

By Peter Fimrite, staff writer

 

The long-delayed effort to prevent another catastrophic flood like the one that inundated San Anselmo on New Year's Eve 2005 is being taken to court.

 

A lawsuit was filed in Marin County Superior Court this week challenging the mail-in election that supposedly approved raising $40 million over 20 years by charging property owners a flood fee.

 

The suit, filed by San Anselmo lawyer Ford Greene, says the ballot used by the Marin County Flood Control and Water Conservation District failed to adequately warn voters of the unusual requirement that they had to sign the ballot, resulting in the disqualification of 1,678 ballots, or 21 percent of the total.

 

"They employed a trick ballot to eliminate an entire category of voters who by nature would have been disinclined to burden themselves with any kind of tax," Greene said Friday. "They knew they could disqualify old people on fixed incomes."

 

The vote, completed in June, passed by only 65 signatures. Greene said a manual count determined that the measure would have failed by 147 votes had the unsigned ballots been counted. The warning that ballots would be disqualified if they weren't signed was in small print and in an out-of-the-way spot on the ballot, he said.

 

Supervisor Hal Brown and county lawyers have said they intend to stick by the vote, which was in compliance with the law.

 

Flood control has been a major issue since Dec. 31, 2005, when San Anselmo Creek poured over its banks, flooding 500 homes and businesses and causing millions of dollars in damage.

 

Flood victims filed lawsuits and complained loudly that San Anselmo and the other 11 entities in the flood corridor - including Fairfax, Ross, Larkspur, the Marin Municipal Water District and the Ross Valley Sanitary District - were not doing anything to prevent a repeat performance.

 

The election was supposed to resolve the issue, but it, too, is now mired in controversy.

 

"Flood control doesn't justify the subversion of people's votes," Greene said. "I'd like them to throw it out and then do it properly."

 

A hearing is expected to be set within 25 days. #

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2007/08/11/BARGRGJNU.DTL

 

 

Guest Opinion: How to offset flood dangers

San Francisco Chronicle – 8/12/07

By Ron Stork

 

According to federal and local government officialdom, before Hurricane Katrina struck, New Orleans was not in a floodplain. Obviously, nature thought otherwise.

 

The striking disparity between government pronouncements and reality highlights the fact that despite the best of intentions, the nation's flood-management policies and uncoordinated federal, state and local efforts ensure a repeat of the Katrina disaster, again and again.

 

This comes as no surprise to engineers, biologists and floodplain managers. In a recent article in the American Society of Civil Engineers magazine, Civil Engineering, Darryl W. Davis, senior adviser to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers' Institute for Water Resources, shows how disparate flood-control efforts, land-use planning processes and federal funding criteria results in a dysfunctional approach to flood protection. He writes, "Increasingly substantial evidence suggests that the present approach to managing flood threats in the United States is not sustainable with respect to public safety and economic and environmental consequences. Despite efforts by various levels of government as well as the private sector, flood damage continues to increase, more lives are threatened, and the ecological functions of floodplains continue to be degraded."

 

The consequences of these dysfunctional approaches are not just a problem in Louisiana. In California, levees line the banks of rivers, confining once extensive streamside forests to thin ribbons of green and ensuring that swift, concentrated floodwaters have ready access to erode and overwhelm vulnerable levees.

 

In the meantime, developers do what they do, aided by local governments pursuing expanded tax revenues. So behind, and often well below, these levees, subdivisions sprout up, lured by government pronouncements that these lands are no longer part of a floodplain and are free from floodplain building and siting requirements.

 

The residents there no longer need concern themselves with flood insurance requirements, and the few that even think about it take comfort in the hope that some government deep pocket will help them rebuild if the floodwaters return -- if they survive.

But this is a recipe for disaster.

 

Fortunately, California flood managers, the governor and the Legislature are grappling with ways to rebuild California's flood defenses so they are both more functional and environmentally friendly, with levees set back from the rivers' banks -- an expensive but necessary undertaking.

 

Equally important is to design flood-management approaches with a little humility. In the real world, and particularly in our seismically active state, cities located on floodplains behind levees are always at real risk of catastrophic flooding. Thus land-use policies that reduce exposure of communities to loss of life and economic damage are also an essential part of successfully confronting our dysfunctional flood-management system.  #

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2007/08/12/EDGIPRFTEA1.DTL

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