San Jose District 6 City Council member Ken Yeager is at the forefront of the effort to complete the city's Rails to Trails project, and a few Willow Glen residents are looking at the anticipated acquisition as a way for the city to solve some old problems, particularly flooding.

Of specific interest to a handful of Willow Glen residents are the Willow Glen spur trails that would connect the Guadalupe Creek trails to Kelley Park. Parts of the rails that cross Willow Street past Minnesota Avenue and across the creek are raised. Ed Rast, who has been a Willow Glen resident for 13 years, believes these raised rail beds act like a dam and cause floods through northern Willow Glen when Ross Creek overflows. The water is stopped by these raised railroad beds and cannot disperse evenly, he says.

"This is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for the city to solve a lot of problems," he says.

If the city were to turn these rails into trails, Rast and a number of other northern Willow Glen residents will campaign the San Jose Planning Commission and the city council to lower the trails to grade level, he says.

"We want these raised rails lowered back down to grade level so that if ever there is a flood again, the water will flow over evenly," Rast said.

Since the rails also pass behind a number of residences, he believes the city should offer residents the opportunity to extend their backyards toward the rail line, making for a narrower trail.

"Ideally, it would cut the maintenance cost to the city," said Rast. "And as a homeowner, you'd have to be a fool not to take an offer" to increase property size.

But before any decisions are made Yeager wants to make sure the city has legal ownership of that particular section of land.

Buying that portion of the railroad tracks only became an option when the Union Pacific Railroad filed a petition with the Surface Transportation Board—a federal agency—to abandon some rail lines running through ZIP codes 95110, 95112 and 95125.

"We never thought it could never happen, but now that the rails are available and we're really excited," Yeager said. "We've already started discussions with the railroad company and they appear to be very interested. But it'll take about six months of negotiations, plus we'll need to find the money to purchase the rails and also do an environmental impact report."

At its Dec. 17 meeting, the city council approved actions to submit to the Surface Transportation Board a petition for reconsideration of the abandoned rails and also submit a statement to assume financial responsibility to both the Surface Transportation Board and the railroad company.

This involved process, whereby abandoned rail lines become trails, is called "railbanking." Rail corridors that are railbanked are no longer considered abandoned.

The city also needs to submit a public use condition request to the Surface Transportation Board, which would place a six-month restriction on the railroad company preventing it from selling off the abandoned rails during that time period.

The city council has voted to approve a planning commission amendment to the city's General Plan supporting actions to pursue other rail lines for conversion into trails.

Doing so would potentially speed up the "San Jose Greenprint" project, which is a 20-year San Jose Parks, Recreation and Neighborhood Services plan. Among the plan's overall strategy for parks is to create a citywide trail network that "encourages alternative transportation modes and provides access to recreation."

The planning commission is scheduled to address the Rails to Trails project again at its spring General Plan meeting on March 17. The city council's spring General Plan meeting is scheduled for April 15.