The Willow Glen Resident

Photograph by Skye Dunlap

For Sale: The water district still needs to purchase nine Glen homes to complete its flood-control project, but some homeowners say they won't sell.

Flood project moves ahead despite some Glen concern

Some residents refuse to sell homes; district officials say forcible means are unlikely

By Michelle Ku

Mary Weeks has lived on Mackey Avenue since she purchased her home in 1950. At 87, she is comfortable with her home and does not want to move from it.

"I'm legally blind," Weeks said. "I'd be lost somewhere else. I know this house." Yet she could face the possibility of selling her home to the Santa Clara Valley Water District for its proposed $141 million flood-control project.

Weeks' home is one of the 88 properties along McLellan and Mackey avenues and Palm Street that need to be demolished to complete the Upper Guadalupe River Flood Control Project. The project would create a bypass channel that would run along the river and provide a place for flood runoff to go.

The undertaking is designed to prevent a so-called 100-year flood--a flood of such magnitude that it has only a 1 percent chance of occurring each year--from destroying homes and land along the Guadalupe River, including parts of Willow Glen Way and Lincoln Avenue.

According to a report written by the water district, about 7,200 homes, six public schools and hundreds of acres of agricultural and industrial property could be destroyed by such a flood.

To date, 67 of the 88 properties have been purchased by the water district, including 21 of the 30 properties located in Willow Glen. The nine Glen parcels the water district still needs to acquire are on Mackey Avenue, said Sally LaMare, senior real estate agent with the Santa Clara Valley Water District.

The project is not slated to begin construction until the year 2000, said project manager Dennis Cheong. "We'll need the homes on Mackey probably in the year 2001 or 2002," Cheong said. "Right now we are on a voluntary basis, so it would be great if we could acquire those homes prior to those years."

At this point, the district is only buying houses that the owners are voluntarily selling, said water district spokesman Mike Di Marco. The district could forcibly obtain homes through eminent domain, but its policy is to use forcible means as little as possible, he said. "It's nothing that you would expect to happen quickly," he said.

"Years ago we were contacted by people who wanted to sell their homes," LaMare said. "They knew they couldn't sell it because there was a project being slated in the area, so they asked if we wanted to buy their homes." While not actively soliciting homeowners to purchase their properties, the water district will be contacting people after its board has formally adopted the project, LaMare said.

The district is now addressing and researching concerns about the project's environmental impacts that were raised by the public during a 90-day comment period in February 1997, Cheong said.

Once that process is finished--possibly by fall--the water district board will vote on whether to move ahead with the project. Another public hearing will be held in July, Cheong said.

Varied responses

Reactions from Mackey Avenue residents to the project are mixed. Bud Kanemot, a Mackey homeowner, has yet to sell his home to the water district, but says he does not have a problem with doing so when the time comes. "I kind of knew this was going to happen when I bought this place 25 years ago," he said. "If [the water district's] fair, I don't have a problem with selling."

The water district is purchasing the properties as well as paying the homeowners' relocation, moving and closing costs, Cheong and LaMare said. The district then examines the purchased homes to determine if they can be rented out until they are set to be demolished.

In contrast to Kanemot, Weeks says she will have to be forcibly removed from her home. "I'm staying here until they throw me out," Weeks said. "I'm not giving up my house. I have it the way I like it."

Property owners who refuse to sell their homes will have the opportunity to fight the issue in court, district representatives said.

Some residents on the west side of Mackey, the side next to the Guadalupe River, do not seem happy about having to move. Resident Mike Sattler said he would not leave voluntarily.

Some on the east side--who would not have to vacate their homes--seem pleased that the project will prevent flooding in the event of a 100-year flood.

"I've talked to about 10 of the people on the [east side] of the street, and they are happy about it," said Mark Smith, who lives on that side.

"I think it's too bad and a shame [that people are being forced to move], but they can't do anything to change it. I understand that they have to take care of the creek, but if I was born and raised here, I'd fight like hell to keep my home."

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