Publication Date: Wednesday Dec 23, 1998

Crescent Park residents want bridge removed

Residents of Crescent Park have asked the city of Palo Alto to remove and replace the Chaucer Street bridge nearly a year after San Francisquito Creek overflowed at the span and flooded their neighborhood.

Claiming "incorrect engineering" of the bridge caused the Feb. 3 flood of their neighborhood, several Crescent Park residents at the Dec. 7 City Council meeting presented a petition signed by 175 residents. The petition said the bridge acted as a dam, causing greater flood damage, instead of allowing water to travel beneath it.

"The problem has been known by the city but ignored for many years and was the primary cause of flooding which damaged our homes last winter," the petition said.

The residents said they fear a similar flood could happen again and expressed disapproval over the city's efforts to help them recover from last year's flood. The best solution, according to the residents, would be to remove the bridge, which connects Chaucer Street with Pope Street in Menlo Park.

"The city has taken some steps to put in a system to warn residents about floods, but they haven't done anything to keep the flood from happening," said Scott Wilson, a Hale Avenue resident.

In addition to removing and replacing the bridge, the residents have asked the city to improve delivery of sandbags, keep the creek bed clear of debris, "shore up" eroded areas near the creek and work "to provide long-term flood control while maintaining the creek's natural state."

Glenn Roberts, the city's director of public works, said the city has taken a number of steps to cope with past flood damage and to prevent future problems. He said the city removed creek blockages, established a Web site where residents can monitor creek levels and conducted studies to develop more effective strategies.

As for the residents' proposal, Roberts said it is unclear whether Palo Alto or Menlo Park is responsible for the bridge, although he said it is likely the two cities own the bridge jointly.

Roberts also said the bridge did not cause the neighborhood's flooding.

"If the bridge had not been there, the flood still would have happened," Roberts said. "In my opinion the bridge was a minor part of the flood. It was not a major factor."

Several residents have complained about the design of the bridge, which has a concrete structure that rests in the creek basin and a hole that allows the water to pass through. The residents said the hole is too small to handle a large water flow during a rainstorm, causing the water to back up and spill over the creek banks and into the neighborhood.

According to Roberts, the issue of the the bridge's smaller hole "is not as dramatic as you might think." While the hole allows for a smaller volume of water to pass through, Roberts said, the pressure created by the smaller hole forces water to travel through faster, mostly compensating for the reduced pass-through.

Jan Dolan, Menlo Park's city manager, also said that removing the bridge won't solve the problem.

"There's just no technical evidence that removing the bridge is the answer," Dolan said.

John Hanna, an attorney who lives on Hamilton Avenue, said he and his neighbors will sue the city if it refuses to remove the bridge. Hanna said he will give the city until the end of January to act on their request before taking legal action.

"We will probably wait 30 days for the city to develop leadership," Hanna said. "If there is, we'll let them run with the ball. If not, we'll go ahead with the lawsuit."

Roberts said the city could not meet the 30-day deadline. According to Roberts, any proposed change involving the creek will require the approval of both cities, of both San Mateo and Santa Clara counties and of state and federal agencies with jurisdiction over the creek.

"By way of analogy, if you wanted to do even simple things, like maintaining the existing bridge, it could take up to two or three years," Roberts said.

Hanna, who said he has been asking the city for eight years to replace the Chaucer Street bridge, as well as the similarly constructed bridge at Middlefield Road, rejected Roberts' time estimate and said the bridge simply wasn't part of the city's priorities.

"(The jurisdiction issue) is just an excuse--a very lame excuse," Hanna said. "We've got a City Council running in circles over historical preservation, and they're ignoring important issues like flood control."

Roberts said any measures taken to correct flooding will be costly--ranging from $50 million to $100 million--and that a solution for the Crescent Park neighborhood could result in greater flooding in another area.

"Is it a responsible action to lessen conditions in one place and worsen them in another area?" Roberts asked.

But another flood could happen while the city is trying to figure out solutions, said Cathy Lehrberg, who lives near the corner of Chaucer and University Avenue.

"I don't think (the bridge) is a very high priority," Lehrberg said. "The city is liable to us now."

Roberts said the city staff had no plans to pursue the matter further unless directed by the City Council.

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