Palo Alto will once delve into the murky issue of federally designated flood zones to see if recent flood control work may have removed some areas.
But city officials expect to get mixed results at best.
The Federal Emergency Management Agency requires homeowners who have mortgages and live in one of these flood zones to purchase flood insurance, which typically costs $300 to $500 a year. It also places strict restrictions on building and remodeling in the zones.
Many complain, however, that the flood zones border on being ludicrous. Many homes are in areas that, according to Palo Alto records, have never been flooded and even in a 500-year flood, according to federal estimates, would have water only up to their doorstep.
City Council members Ron Andersen, Joe Huber and Liz Kniss requested the information last week after several questions from residents. It's been five years since the issue, which affects several thousand homes in Palo Alto, was discussed in a public forum.
Public Works Senior Engineer Joe Teresi said a response will be coming over the next couple of months. He expects it will bring good news and bad news.
The good news is that the Santa Clara Valley Water District's flood control work has been completed on Adobe Creek through south Palo Alto, and should be completed by the end of next summer on Barron and Matadero creeks. The district's work on the Matadero Creek bypass culvert under El Camimo Real should be wrapped up by early 1996, Teresi said, while the portion through Bol Park in Barron Park should be done by the end of summer.
The completed work on Adobe has already removed a few small areas from the FEMA maps, and the work on Barron and Matadero should remove some areas between those two creeks near El Camino.
The bad news, Teresi said, is that FEMA is restudying the lower portion of San Francisquito Creek and it appears that it will result in an expansion of the flood zones around the Middlefield Road and Chaucer Street bridges.
In last winter's torrential storms the water ran high under those bridges, but didn't come close to spilling over, Teresi said. However, those weren't as big as the "100-year storm," with which FEMA is concerned.
And the saltwater flood zone, the city's largest, which affects several neighborhoods east of Middlefield Road, probably will not change, Teresi said.
FEMA says flooding from the bay could occur at high tide during a storm because the levees in the baylands are inadequate. The city last considered strengthening the levees in 1990, but dropped the idea because it would cause too much environmental damage.
Much of the Palo Verde neighborhood is in the tidal flood zone, and its homeowner's association has been working to find out what can be done to remove it.
"There are so many government agencies they don't affirm each other's findings," including FEMA, the Army Corps of Engineers, the water district and the city, said Gil Eakins, a member of the Palo Verde association's flood committee. "We feel as residents that it's time to go back and try again for some answers."
--Peter Gauvin
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