By JULIE MEHTA
Despite the storms that recently pummeled Sunnyvale and the surrounding area, the Santa Clara Valley Water District on Dec. 19 deferred plans for a ballot measure in March to improve flood control on three area creeks.
After hearing a torrent of objections, the district's seven-member board of directors voted unanimously against asking voters to approve an increase in benefit assessments until the staff could provide specifics for what is needed and its environmental impact.
The proposal, which now will appear on the ballot no sooner than November 1996, nearly triples the benefit assessment for the North Central Zone from $15 to $43 per year until the year 2010.
The additional money would be used for various projects in the zone, which covers parts of Sunnyvale, Cupertino, San Jose, Santa Clara, Campbell, Monte Sereno, Los Gatos and Saratoga. The principal work proposed would occur along the Calabazas Creek from Miller Avenue in Cupertino to Wardell Road in Saratoga and carries a $24 million price tag.
Sunnyvale resident Bob Pfeil, who lives 5 to 6 blocks from the creek, does not see how he'd benefit from paying more.
"My whole approach is they call it a maintenance assessment which is a run-around past Prop. 13. It purports to say that you benefit from what we're doing, so we can assess this against your property value. I don't have a flood problem; therefore, it really doesn't benefit me," he said.
Several residents who live in the area were among the more than 20 speakers to address the board at the public hearing. Many attendees had to watch the meeting on closed-circuit televisions set up in the lobby because the small board room was full before the meeting began.
Residents of the Calabazas Creek area said they felt the flood risk was not significant enough to warrant such an expensive project. They also feared destruction of the riparian habitat and the loss of property value.
"I don't mind paying more money if it's necessary. Right now, I don't see that this is necessary," said Bob Good, a Cupertino resident.
Although he does not live along the creek, Sunnyvale resident Howard Krawetz said he would resent such a high increase in his benefit assessments because he said the water district did not have a plan.
"They don't know what they're doing. A small increase might have been reasonable if they'd done their homework," Krawetz said.
Al Wigger of Cupertino has lived next to the creek for more than 35 years and said he believes only minor work is needed to secure the area from flooding. He said the creek is home to white, valley and live oak trees, sycamores, willows, elderberry, periwinkle, opossums, raccoons, squirrels and great-horned and screech owls.
"I enjoy the creek. It's the focal point of being able to call my house home," Wigger told the board.
Wigger became involved with the creek issue after learning of it from neighbor Tom Schaefer, who lives on the creek between Miller Avenue and Bollinger Road.
Schaefer spearheaded the effort to inform other creek residents about the proposed project after receiving a notice about the proposal from the water district. In a letter distributed to nearly 200 residents, he cited work currently under way on the creek near Homestead Road in Sunnyvale, where "almost all trees and vegetation have been removed, channel and banks reshaped and bulldozed to a precise cross-section."
"I sure don't want this turned into a concrete channel," Schaefer said. "The main reason I bought this house was because of the back yard and the nice view. ...I don't feel there's any risk of flooding where I live."
He said he does recognize that there are erosion problems in the area, but he wants the district to move slowly in remedying these and to make every effort to preserve the creek's natural state.
"In the North Central Zone, they are less supportive of flood control because they didn't get flooded last year. ...We have lots of community education to do," said Teddy Morse, the district's public information officer.
The national standard for flood protection is based on what is called the 100-year event, the type of flood that has a 1 percent chance of occurring in any given year. Protection against flooding usually entails widening creek channels, reinforcing banks and raising levees, according to Morse.
She said the district is not receiving federal or state funding, so it is relying solely on property taxes and benefit assessments for flood control.
At the current assessment rate, which expires in 2000, Morse said the district will not be able to maintain completed flood-control projects, much less start new ones.
At the public hearing, several organizations, including the Sierra Club, the Audubon Society, the Santa Clara Valley Manufacturing Group and the Tri-County Apartment Association, joined residents in asking that the flood-control vote be postponed.
Katherine Petersen contributed to this story.
This article appeared in the Sunnyvale Sun Wednesday, December 27, 1995.
©1995 Metro Publishing, Inc. All rights reserved.