Saratoga News

CITY COUNCIL CONSIDERS FREEWAY NOISE SUIT

Committee asks city to join in legal action

By Clarence Cromwell

The Saratoga City Council will discuss the possibility of suing Caltrans for noise mitigation measures at an upcoming closed session, at the request of the Freeway Noise Abatement Committee.

"We're still hoping. We're still trying to believe that the elected officials will get some movement out of Caltrans," said committee co-chair Joan Hershkowitz. "But so far, they have been non-responsive. I'm hopeful that enough pressure will build up to make them do something, but what if they don't?"

Hershkowitz asked the City Council at a Dec. 12 adjourned meeting to prepare a lawsuit against Caltrans, for which the committee has laid a foundation by filing a claim with the state.

"It's our option of last choice. It's something we haven't wanted to deal with," Hershkowitz told the council. "We hoped [that] with the City Council on board we would see some action, but it hasn't happened."

After the meeting, Hershkowitz said, "We really feel that the political avenue would be the most productive. But we want to keep all our avenues open, and that includes litigation."

Members of the noise-abatement committee filed a claim in April 1995 with the Government Claims Division of the State Board of Control, asking the state to pay for sound-deadening measures. The state denied the claim on Aug. 8.

The group has until six months after that date, or Feb. 8, to file a lawsuit in connection with the claim, if it chooses to do so.

Joan Hershkowitz told councilmembers in a Dec. 12 letter that the committee lacks funds needed to litigate the case. She asked the city to pay the estimated $15,000 to $20,000 to prepare the case and $150,000 to $300,000 to take the case to court.

The committee estimates that the freeway noise affects between 3,000 and 5,000 homes in Saratoga and Cupertino.

The council will discuss the item in a closed session Jan. 3. The state's open-meeting law allows public decision-making bodies to consider potential litigation at a closed-door meeting.

At the request of the noise committee, both the Saratoga and Cupertino city councils adopted resolutions in November asking state and federal legislators to sponsor bills that would fund a test of road-silencing technology in the area. Such a bill has not yet materialized.