Publication Date: Wednesday Oct 15, 1997

Flooding problems in October

Because of changes in a flood zone and a design error, pockets of property owners in Barron Park, Midtown and Crescent Park are about to take the hit.

Although the El Nino-inspired winter storms have yet to unleash their much-anticipated fury, Palo Alto is already dealing with flooding problems.

These are the manmade kind.

Property owners in two sections of town have received some unwelcome news about how they will fare in a 100-year flood, and the news will hit them in the checkbook.

The owners of about 800 properties in and around the Crescent Park neighborhood learned that they are on the verge of being added to the Federal Emergency Management Agency's (FEMA) Special Flood Hazard Area. The impact of this dubious distinction is that these residents would be required to get flood insurance--if they still have a mortgage on their homes--and would be required to raise their homes if they do any substantial remodeling.

An untold number of residents in Menlo Park and East Palo Alto are also expected to be hit by the expanded San Francisquito Creek flood zone. Those details are not yet available.

At the same time owners of 200 properties in south Palo Alto, most of them in Barron Park, have been in the flood zone but have been looking forward to the day when they would be taken out. That was supposed to occur at the end of the MataderoBarron Creek flood control project which was finally completed in July 1996.

But they have now learned that because of a design error in the project, they are still in harm's way. In addition, the goof has added a number of homes in the Midtown area--homes that previously had been considered high and dry--to the flood zone.

Both of these reports are discouraging. The latter in particular does little to improve public perception of how government agencies work. This flood control project began in 1988 and was prefaced with countless public meetings. The district had ample opportunity to catch this error before now.

What is encouraging is how the district so far is handling the problem. The district is taking responsibility and has already devised some short-term and long-term solutions. Residents who live near Barron Creek will have the opportunity to meet with water district officials tonight to discuss the problems. The meeting will be held from 7 p.m. to 9 p.m. at Hyatt Rickey's.

Matadero Creek neighbors will have the same opportunity on Thursday night from 7 p.m. to 9 p.m. at the Holiday Inn in Palo Alto.

Responsibility and solutions for the problems in Crescent Park, however, are more complex. The issue there also has the potential of developing into a battle over preservation of the natural setting of San Francisquito Creek, Palo Alto's last natural waterway.

What's behind the latest additions to the flood zone in north Palo Alto? According to the FEMA, the flooding potential of San Francisquito Creek is far greater than previously estimated. District studies had previously concluded that in the event of a 100-year flood--the kind of flood that has a 1 percent chance of occurring--the creek would burst its banks and flood up to 1,350 properties up to a foot or more. Officials now put that number at 2,150 homes.

The creek's greatest points of vulnerability are at the bridges where Middlefield Road and Chaucer Street cross over the creek. These findings have resulted in a 60 percent expansion of this freshwater flood zone.

Although these maps are not yet final, and individual property owners will have plenty of opportunity to plead their case, history has shown that FEMA is inflexible when it comes to changing these maps. Palo Alto hired a lobbyist in Washington, D.C. in 1990 the last time it went through a similar debate, but got nowhere.

These situations are understandably frustrating for the affected property owners, particularly for those in Barron Park and Midtown who have been victimized by this design mistake.

In addition to flood insurance, owners of property in a flood zone must raise their homes if they do any substantial remodeling. A "substantial" improvement is defined as anything that is equal to 50 percent or more of the market value of the existing structure. In some cases this could require a property owner to raise the lowest floor from three to six feet above the existing ground level. For some of the city's older homes with slab foundations this would be not only unnecessary but prohibitively expensive.

On the other extreme, however, our hope is that this will not result in another call for major flood control projects such as ones discussed in 1990. Those ideas included building a massive reservoir in the foothills and lining San Francisquito Creek with cement. We have long opposed such measures as making little economic sense and certainly no environmental sense.

Our hope would be that as we enter these disputes that residents and city officials will be able to maintain what high ground still exists.



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