Water district: new program should protect against floods
By Kara Chalmers
Under a program the Santa Clara Valley Water District has been developing for two years, Los Gatos will receive increased flood protection, according to a spokesman for the district, Mike Di Marco. The program would also help keep neighborhood creeks free from trash, and would develop trails along creeks in the city.
The Clean, Safe Creeks and Natural Flood Protection Program would be funded mostly by a special tax that each resident of Santa Clara County would pay. The district is asking all cities in the county to endorse a vote on the tax. Los Gatos' council placed a resolution supporting the tax on the consent agenda for its June 5 meeting.
In July, the district board will decide whether to place the program on the November ballot for a vote by all residents of Santa Clara County. If voters approve it, each homeowner in the county would pay about $39 per year, and businesses would pay between $139 and $474 per acre per year, for 15 years. The tax would generate $25.4 million annually, Di Marco said.
In the early 1980s, voters in each of five flood control zones in the county approved benefit assessments, which expire in June.
"There's still a lot of work that needs to be done," Di Marco said. "This is the district's proposal to fund the cost of flood protection work that still needs to be done in Santa Clara County."
The way the district makes flood control affordable is by securing state and federal funds, Di Marco said. But to get those funds, the community needs to contribute as well.
"Because there is no way the average homeowner could afford the true cost of flood protection, the way we make it affordable is by asking the community to provide enough money so that we can get the bulk of funding from state and federal funding," Di Marco said. "It's a real bargain for the community. Having flood protection throughout the county is much cheaper than flooding."
Saratoga, Mountain View, Cupertino, Campbell, Morgan Hill, Gilroy, Milpitas, Santa Clara and Monte Sereno have endorsed a vote, according to Rick Callender, local government affairs manager for the district. Milpitas, Los Altos, Sunnyvale, Los Gatos and San Jose still haven't voted, Callender said. The county's board of supervisors subcommittee has approved the program in concept.
If the tax is not approved, no new projects would be undertaken and the maintenance of existing flood control facilities would be drastically reduced, Di Marco said.
A "good neighbor" creek maintenance program, conducted in conjunction with the California Conservation Corps, would send crews out to regularly remove trash that would end up in creeks, Di Marco said.
In Los Gatos, the program would not provide for any flood protection construction projects, but does incorporate the same good neighbor program, weed management on Los Gatos Creek and San Tomas Aquino Creek, and possibly building trails on San Tomas Aquino and Ross creeks.
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Los Gatos, California Since 1881
