At last, cash to close the floodgates

The City of Morgan Hill lost a key funding mechanism for the Upper Llagas Creek Flood Protection project when the U.S. Congress placed a temporary kibosh on federal budget earmarks for local projects, but the City is prepared to row upstream to get the funding that it needs.
After years of hiring lobbying consultants and the occasional trip by council members to the nation’s Capitol, the City might be on a better track to get construction started than it would have been, had Council members held out for promise of an earmark.
In an effort to show the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers – the primary sponsor for the $137 million flood control project – how eager the local stakeholders are to start digging, the City and Santa Clara Valley Water District decided to indulge a risk of their own: They plan to front the Corps some money for the initial federal responsibilities on the flood control undertaking.
The seven-member SCVWD board of directors voted unanimously Tuesday to contribute $870,000 to the Corps, allowing the agency to complete two important studies, one of which will ultimately determine how much funding the federal government will spend on the project that will protect downtown Morgan Hill from flooding during heavy rains.
Those funds, along with about $450,000 already advanced to the Corps by the SCVWD in August, add up to the $1.3 million the Corps needs to complete a “Limited Reevaluation Report,” or a benefits-to-cost study of the project. The $450k will also cover a “Design Documentation Report,” which is required before the federal agency can start working on the project.
The SCVWD hopes to be reimbursed by the Corps, but for now the funds will come from the current Clean Safe Creeks parcel tax levied by the district, SCVWD Director Don Gage said. The two studies to be funded by the water district’s advance are “absolutely necessary” to the project. Allowing the Corps to start its share of the work is also crucial to leverage more funding.
“We need to keep the Corps involved, and they have to continue with the work in order for us to get state subvention funds,” said Gage, who does not yet know exactly how much of the state funding will be available.
The Upper Llagas Creek Flood Control Project was first proposed by the Corps in 1954, and cost projections have increased steadily since then.
When completed, the project will expand the capacity of the creek for about 12.5 miles from north Morgan Hill to San Martin to provide 100-year flood protection. Downtown Morgan Hill will remain at risk of occasional flooding during heavy rains without the project. The last time the downtown flooded was in Oct. 2009, resulting in more than $100,000 in public property damage.
Lower reaches of the project through Gilroy were completed in the 1980s, at a fraction of the current projected cost of $137 million.
Overall, the project will provide flood protection for 1,100 homes, 500 businesses and 1,300 acres of farmland along the creek, while preserving wildlife habitat, according to SCVWD staff.
Mayor Steve Tate attended Tuesday’s SCVWD meeting to emphasize the city’s support for the funding.
“It’s advancing the design of the project, and it determines how much (the federal government) can fund because of the cost benefit,” Tate said after the meeting.
U.S. Congresswoman Zoe Lofgren, who represents the 16th California district which includes Morgan Hill, sent a letter to the SCVWD board to urge the approval of the funds as well.
“I have been working against long odds to get flood protection for Llagas Creek neighbors since 1995,” Lofgren’s letter states. “The opportunity provided to your board appears to be a crucial step forward. As you probably know, residents suffer from flooding on a frequent basis. This is unacceptable.”
The city and water district already started the design and environmental review process for the flood control project with their own money in 2009 (about $10 million together, including $3 million in Morgan Hill redevelopment funds), but those efforts would stall out and the project would languish even longer without the Corps’ entry into the process, according to Morgan Hill City Manager Ed Tewes.
The LLR or cost-benefit study to be completed by the Corps with the funds advanced Tuesday will seek to identify at least one segment of the project that is worthy of federal funding, Tewes explained. Using a complicated formula devised by the federal agency, that study will weigh the value of the project versus the cost, and if that ratio is high enough the federal government will contribute a proportional amount of funding.
The most likely segment of the project to receive federal funding is that where property values are the highest, which is where the creek passes through “central Morgan Hill” including the downtown, Tewes said.
The Corps still has to gain permission from Congress to proceed on the two studies to be funded by the SCVWD advance. After that, it will take the Corps about a year to complete the studies, according to city and SCVWD staff.
Tuesday’s SCVWD board decision was the second piece of good news for the Llagas Creek flood control project this month. On Nov. 6, voters approved an extension of the water district’s parcel tax, known as Measure B or Safe Clean Water, which will raise about $548 million for capital and water protection projects for 15 years starting in 2016.
Of that amount, about $39 million will be appropriated for the Upper Llagas Creek project, according to SCVWD staff.
Other hopeful funding sources for the project include the state, grant funding and other SCVWD funds, according to SCVWD staff.