Menlo Park backs creek, Bay flood study Menlo Park backs creek, Bay flood study (November 16, 2005)

By Rory Brown

Almanac Staff Writer

Menlo Park has signed on to a plan to spend $7.4 million in federal, regional and local funds to study how to keep flood waters from San Francisquito Creek and the Bay out of homes and properties on the Peninsula.

The City Council voted unanimously November 8 to support a cost-sharing agreement between the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and the local creek Joint Powers Authority (JPA), of which Menlo Park is one of five voting members.

The JPA was created in 1998 to address flooding hazards along the creek -- hazards that became very real after flooding caused $28 million in damage in Palo Alto, East Palo Alto and Menlo Park during storms earlier that year.

Other voting members of the JPA are East Palo Alto, Palo Alto, the San Mateo County Flood Control District and the Santa Clara Valley Water District. All members must support the resolution for it to pass.

San Mateo County also voted to support the study on November 8. The county's Flood Control District will contribute $1.5 million to the project.

The Menlo Park council gave the go-ahead to its JPA board member -- Councilwoman Lee Duboc -- to approve the financial outline of the study.

The JPA pays half of the costs of the creek and tidal studies -- federal funds pay the rest -- and has secured $3.6 million.

That amount covers the creek flood study, for which the JPA owes $3.2 million, but leaves a shortfall of $139,000 for the additional tidal study of the Bay.

The Menlo Park council supports a proposal to cover $32,500 of the shortfall from the city's Storm Management Fund. The amount is half of the $65,000 shortfall San Mateo County owes.

The JPA plans to approve and sign the master plan with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers at its November 17 meeting.

East Palo Alto's City Council will vote whether to cover an identical cost at its November 15 meeting.
INFORMATION

To read the staff report from the November 8 Menlo Park City Council meeting, go to menlopark.org, click on "City Council" and go to the November 8 agenda.

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