Water district: new program should protect against floods
By Kara Chalmers
Under a program the Santa Clara Valley Water District has been developing for the past two years, Saratoga would receive increased flood protection for Calabazas Creek, 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.
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 of this year.
"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's City Council has already approved the program in concept, which means it endorsed taking the tax to voters, and the Los Gatos Town Council has the item on it's agenda for June 5.
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.
In Saratoga, the Calabazas Creek project would run from Miller Avenue to Wardell Road, protecting almost 2,500 homes, businesses and schools from floods, Di Marco said. While a specific project has not been decided on yet, some of the possibilities could be to make the channel wider or create bypass channels or levees.
The program also would create new trails along Saratoga Creek and San Tomas Aquino Creek, part of which runs through Saratoga.
A "good neighbor" creek maintenance program, in conjunction with the California Conservation Corps, would send crews out regularly to remove trash that ends up in creeks, Di Marco said. The project would also entail replanting native plants and increasing weed management in Prospect, Saratoga and San Tomas Aquino creeks.
In Los Gatos, the program does not provide for any flood protection construction projects, but incorporates 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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Saratoga, California Since 1955
