| State Panel Tables Plan to Axe Trees along
Creek About 150 trees along Linda Creek in
Roseville were granted a temporary stay of execution, thanks to a technicality.
Last week, the state Board of Reclamation denied the city of Roseville a permit to begin
work on the Cirby Linda Dry Creek Flood Control Project despite a 3-2 vote in favor of the
city's request.
Although three of the five board members present at Friday's meeting in Chico voted to
grant the encroachment permit, the city needed one more vote for approval.
The city's $12.2 million project designed to decrease the chances of flooding for homes
along Dry Creek and its tributaries includes a new Sunrise Avenue bridge over Linda Creek,
and flood walls behind homes on Tiffany Circle, Oakridge Drive and Vinmar Court and the
Twin Creek Commons apartment complex.
But part of the project also includes what a group of doctors and dentists in the Sunrise
Avenue Office Complex call a channelization of Linda Creek.
The city plans to to build a concrete retaining wall ranging in height from 4 to 7 feet
along the part of the creek that runs behind the office complex. The plan requires
removing part of the bank and destroying about 150 heritage oak trees.
Several months ago Lamont Hornbeck, a dermatologist with a practice in the Sunrise Avenue
Office Park, hired attorney Bill Kopper and certified hydraulic engineer Steve Sert to
devise an alternative flood control plan that would save the trees.
But in March the Roseville City Council rejected their plan, saying that changes to the
project could jeopardize the $6.2 million the city is to receive from the Federal
Emergency Management Agency.
Since then, the doctors, along with the Placer Group Sierra Club and other residents who
formed the Friends of Linda Creek organization, have appeared before the council to argue
their case and filed a protest with the reclamation board.
On Friday, Sert and Kopper spoke against the city's plans at the reclamation board
meeting.
"There were some issues that we brought up that some board members had concerns
about," said Kopper. "They were concerned that some of the issues had not been
adequately studied."
Among the issues are the project's effect on residents downstream in Rio Linda.
"The people in Rio Linda are concerned that this particular project, which would
channelize the water, could increase the flood flows to Rio Linda," Kopper said.
"The other issue is more environmentally sound alternatives other than channelizing
the water into a concrete trough."
But Larry Pagel,
Roseville's public works director, said Rio Linda residents needn't worry about the city's
flood control project.
"First of all, the board's guidelines basically say the only way they can deny this
permit is from a certain list of things they have to find wrong with the project,"
Pagel said. "Environmental concerns shouldn't be made because the environmental
impact report was adequate. Their board, legal counsel and staff said our EIR was
adequate.
"The issue of downstream impacts was addressed in our EIR and has been analyzed.
There are no downstream impacts due to our project," he said.
The city hoped to start construction on the project later this month.
Board President Frank Delgallo and fellow board member Wood Yerxa voted against granting
the permit.
"It's my understanding that the two people who voted against it wanted to give people
the opportunity to make additional comments," Pagel said.
He said people who want to preserve the trees accused the city of scheduling the hearing
in Chico so residents would not be able to attend. However, Pagel said, the board's staff
scheduled the project for the meeting in Chico.
"Typically this would go through without any hitches, but because of the scheduling
the board wanted to bring it back," Pagel said. "One board member said the only
reason he voted the way he did wasn't because he was against the project itself. He just
wanted to clarify the discrepancy and give people a chance to be heard."
The group of doctors has repeatedly said that many of the trees slated for destruction
were 150 years old.
"I think that the city can accomplish its flood control goals and also meet the
concerns of the Sierra Club, the Friends of Linda Creek and the doctors by modifying the
plan and making it more environmentally sensitive," Kopper said. "(They all)
believe that it is an environmental tragedy and disaster to cut down this pure, oak
woodland forest when there are better alternatives.
May 21, 1998
The Sacramento Bee
By: Jennifer K. Morita, Neighbors Staff Writer |
