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The Board of Directors of Brooktrails Township Community Services District met in regular session Saturday, September 9, 2006 at 9:02 a.m. in Brooktrails Community Center.
A. PLEDGE OF ALLEGIANCE
B. ROLL CALL
Roll call showed the following Directors present: Ziady, Orth, Horrick, Williams and Skezas. Also present were General Manager Chapman and District Counsel Neary.
C. ADDITIONS/ADJUSTMENTS TO THE AGENDA
None.
D. SPECIAL PRESENTATIONS
1. Willits Bypass/Second Access Road Update. Director Orth stated he was on the development team for the bypass, and the Supreme Court decision on wetlands which had held up Federal agency decisionmaking had been resolved and now the agencies were able to do their final rulings. There had been some recent concern about being fully funded for a four-lane bypass because some community members had written letters saying they wanted two lanes rather than four. Director Orth said this would require double entry and would be far more environmentally damaging, and there was concern about getting the follow-up dollars to add the two additional lanes. The project development team approach has been used by CalTrans for the past 10 years and they modified their design over time as public input came in. Director Orth referred to a draft letter being prepared by MCOG and said he would like the District to sign on to it.
Supervisor Hal Wagenet took the podium and said that the project was 51 years old. Our local MCOG committed its complete local projects budget to this project. The North Counties Supervisors Association has identified this as the number one problem in our transportation network in the entire North Coast area. Very often CalTrans almost did the project but then was underfunded and put the money elsewhere. That is no longer the case. The northern interchange, now at Quail Meadows, is the most important part of the project to Willits. Mr. Wagenet said that what we get in this cycle is what we will get for all time; CalTrans will not be coming back, and now is not the time to change the project or location, but to support the project as designed. The state has been taking funds designated for local roads since 2001 under the guise of an emergency taking but this has now been stopped. The governor proposed an infrastructure bond package this spring which is now on the November ballot. If it passes, there is money directly flagged for the Willits bypass. STIP money is also already guaranteed for 2008. He urged the public to support the ballot proposition and the four-lane bypass.
Mr. Wagenet further commented about 800 garbage containers being shipped from Eureka on our roads. An audience member asked what percentage of traffic turned onto Highway 20. Mr. Wagenet said it is over half. He agreed there would still be a traffic problem there, especially in the summer, except that the Brooktrails traffic would be able to use the bypass.
Phil Dow, Director of MCOG, said he had been involved with the bypass project for 25 years. He said he wanted the public to understand that CalTrans was not entirely responsible any more for determining what state highway projects get funded; in the last nine years the decision-making has been given to the regional transportation planning agencies, like MCOG. MCOG committed its entire two-year funding share of $17.1 million to the bypass project. MCOG develops local priorities, and the bypass has long been its #1 priority. MCOG put another $14 million towards the bypass last fall, borrowing against future funding, to be used for right-of-way. At this point the environmental process is fully funded. Usually MCOG funds environmental first, then design, then right-of-way, then construction. There is $153 million available for construction. Construction, however, is not fully funded. You have to do these projects in phases. He expects the environmental process to conclude soon. A certain amount of design had to be done to enable the environmental process; the design is now 95% complete. Once the EIR is finalized and certified, the right-of-way people can begin. While waiting for the environmental process to conclude, construction costs have skyrocketed for this and all projects. We might need $110 million more for the construction. The Willits bypass is one of three high-visibility CalTrans projects.
Mr. Dow talked about the difficulties of driving with truck traffic on a two-lane curved structure, the temptation to pass, etc. He said yes, you could put up a barrier and there are proponents for that idea. Mr. Dow said he is a registered traffic engineer and has a license to protect, and he will state that two lanes will not work and are their own world of mischief. He said he was very, very confident we would get the remaining funding through the next STIP process. He said this is not the time for compromises or to say we're willing to settle for something less. He said we need to be concerned about the bonds passing in November.
Director Orth asked him to explain how this relates to the second access road. Mr. Dow said he funded a study in 1991-93 on the second access when we were under the assumption there would be a Highway 20 interchange in the bypass, so it was assumed the second access road would connect with Highway 20. Over the last 10 years Sherwood Road has been very impacted and is getting critical. The second access would now come out somewhere to the north end of town and would fit directly into a proposed interchange at the north. It would connect to a two-lane frontage road and then after a short distance would go up a ramp. People commuting to Ukiah could avoid town entirely. The bypass will greatly facilitate a second access road.
Claudia Reed asked if they had a final alternative chosen on the second access road; Mr. Dow replied no. Director Orth asked where we stand in the regional plan on this; Mr. Dow said we stand with all the others, it has no particular priority now. Mr. Dow said we always knew we would need a third access at some point, to be paid with fees for new construction. Director Orth commented that would be a County fee, not a District fee.
District Counsel Neary asked how much was available for right-of-way acquisition and how much for environmental cost. Mr. Dow said he did not know; he thought there was something like $9 million already there and MCOG had put $14 million more in. The $153 million is just for construction.
Claudia Reed turned the discussion to the option of assessments on local people to create the second access. Director Orth said it was being mentioned here today for the first time. Mr. Dow said they had hired a consultant to look at the different options, the question was how it could be funded; we have to have some kind of mechanism identified or it's a pipe dream. The consultant study recommended it as an option.
Claudia Reed asked if Brooktrails would have the authority to fund it through property taxes. Mr. Dow said this was a legal question and he did not know the answer. Before the share of cost could be discussed, a route and an estimate would be needed. District Counsel Neary said there have always been various possibilities for how this would be handled.
President Skezas asked to move on to the next agenda item and thanked Mr. Wagenet and Mr. Dow for their comments.
2. Annual Report of Recreation, Greenbelt & Conservation Committee. The verbal report was presented by Director Mary Ziady, Board liaison to the committee and its chair.
Recreation: The Ohl Grove Redwood Park was to be dedicated today. The park sign was designed and made by Mike Aplet. A parking area, picnic tables and barbecues have been installed. A bathroom will be added this fall. There are plans for an ADA picnic table and accessible path. The children's playground has an additional child's swing. New directional trail signs were to be installed by Eagle Scout volunteers. Three new trails were mapped and named: Jurassic, Harden and LeBrun trails. The State has approved funding for three bridges on the Thimbleberry Trail, allowing for year-long access. We are waiting for the federal government to approve this; the committee will provide the matching funds.
Greenbelt and Fire concerns: An abatement class was held in the spring of 2006. The committee was working with the Fire Safe Council's projects for an abatement project in the southwest corner of Brooktrails and emergency access clearing along the closed section of Ridge Road. The Council planned neighborhood meetings to discuss fire risk reduction this fall and winter. In the future there will be small resident-hosted meetings to discuss cooperative abatement efforts.
The most significant events of the year were (1) the Board's review and approval of the Greenbelt Stewardship Plan; (2) the Board's approval of Willits Solid Waste franchise revenues for use for Recreation/Greenbelt issues; and (3) we have developed a close working relationship between the District, the Community, and outside agencies including Fire Safe Council and CDF.
Chair Ziady referred to the recent fire at the KOA Campgrounds, the area from which fire has historically swept up the ridge to Brooktrails. The fire was contained. A new grant is being applied for by CDF and the Fire Safe Council for WUI funding; the proposal will be presented to the Board in October to get 240 man-days of clearing for a shaded fuel break on Ridge Road according to the Greenbelt Stewardship Plan guidelines. It will require a financial commitment from Brooktrails.
An audience member referred to the evacuation brochure and asked if the locked gates could be opened. He was assured they would be opened by the fire department. Director Orth said there was a process for the fire department to open gates to prepare for any evacuation. General Manager Chapman said the road he followed down to the KOA fire was in excellent shape.
3. Report to the Community on Potential Water Sources/Storage Methods and Future Growth.
General Manager Chapman discussed that Lake Emily was 270 acre-feet with a 17 acre surface when it was built. We are on schedule for our August 2007 rubber spillway project which will give us another 51 acre-feet of water, which was critical to the community but will not get us out of the moratorium, but it would also allow us to capture water during the winter storm months. This year we did not get water from those storms, and the critical rains did not arrive. The cost estimate is $1.5 - $1.8 million, but we have to add to that clearing the shoreline of timber and brush and we need to get that cost. We are also working with legal counsel discussing about 15 lots which will be affected by the 3-foot raise and are getting an appraiser out of the Bay Area to help us with this.
He turned the discussion to the 15-foot raise of Lake Emily. This would take the reservoir to 515 a.f. of water, more than doubling its size. We were looking at 2012 for this and most of the delays would be from state bureaucracies. There was a problem that developed after the core test drillings this March; we will have to do further drilling on the east side of the spillway. The fear was that if you raise the reservoir by 15', you are increasing hydrologic pressure on all sides which might trigger a slide. We have to do more drillings to prove to Division of Dams that that hillside is safe. The 15' raise has now been classified improbable by Hanson Engineering, until we can prove otherwise. We may have to drill 5 to 10 holes; even if we are successful, the Division of Dams can still turn us down. It is still our goal to raise the reservoir 15', and Mr. Chapman said he was going to ask the Board to do two drillings by Thanksgiving. We need to know more now, as ultimately we will have to go for funding via the Prop. 218 assessment vote. Our hope is that we can put two 500-feet reservoirs into the community, and for now, they are potentially doable. If Lake Emily is classified fatal, we definitely have to go in and dredge it. Right now the sedimentation is 20' in height and the size of a football field.
Discussing Lake Ada Rose, it is a 7-acre surface reservoir with 138 acre-feet of water. We have lost 20 a.f. due to sedimentation, but the drainage behind this lake is only about half a square mile, so we get nowhere the amount of sedimentation as we do in Lake Emily. In the next year we will look at putting 2-foot wooden flashboards in there, which may only gain us 12 acre-feet; but the Board will need to decide on this potentially $100,000 project. Mr. Chapman commented these are very expensive projects; raising the reservoir itself will cost around $5 million. The really good news was that we didn't know until this spring that Lake Ada Rose could increase from 6 to 20 surface acres. We, in essence, will rip out the old dam and start over, and impound two different drainages. This project actually becomes a higher priority than Lake Emily, which was our number one project last year. This is for several reasons, including that this drainage area is one of the few spots in Brooktrails with fewer slide issues. The geologist looked at it this spring and said it seemed more doable. It would be raised 28', twice as big as Lake Emily in its prime. This is important because if we are successful on both of these reservoirs our development capacity will be at least 3600 - 3700 SFRs. The water rights will require a separate application for 1,015 acre-feet with the state. He noted that Richard Estabrook's estimate for the Specific Plan was 939 acre-feet.
Director Orth asked Mr. Chapman to describe how the rubber dam lets us capture water earlier. Mr. Chapman said it is a mechanism activated with balloons like tractor tires on the back side, with an 8' rubber face. The Division of Dams loves these because we become almost like a flood agency; right now we just have wooden flashboards and if a major storm comes in, you have no way of relieving the pressure. But with this, if you have a major storm coming in, they could call you and ask you to put it down for some specific hours; then you raise it back up to capture water. Responding to President Skezas, Mr. Chapman said the spillway would be raised incrementally starting in January.
Mr. Chapman said he would like the public to understand how important state politics are in terms of our projects. He said where we were going to get held up would be the CA Division of Water Rights and CA Division of Dams. He said he has been arguing regularly with Division of Dams for 2-1/2 years on the rubber spillway. The state tells us it's four to five years to get approval; in terms of project costs this is astronomical in increased costs. We need to get a political mechanism somehow, and this is where the public could actually help us. We are in a moratorium, we have these projects, we have the right engineers, the right CEQA team, and we've got the potential mechanism for funding. He said next year at this time he would like to be looking at Prop. 218 assessments and election. He said funding of $10 million would be needed to be paid over 40 years; the vacant lot owners would pay the bulk of this because they stand to make the most gain by having water to develop their lots. Additionally, we will also need a half-million-gallon storage tank, for a distribution problem rather than a capacity problem.
Jim West said asked about catchment dams as a maintenance fixture and why this was being postponed. Mr. Chapman responded that you still have to have your US Corps of Engineers 404 permits; you just can't walk into a reservoir and start pushing things around. We will, however, put catchment dams in both of the reservoirs when we do these major projects; it makes sense. Mr. West said he sells property and the main question from buyers is whether and how much they will be assessed and how soon after they buy. Mr. Chapman said he did not know that answer right now, and invited Mr. West to attend the Board meeting with the Prop. 218 engineer later this year.
4. Dedication Ceremony, Ohl Redwood Grove. Director Ziady and District Counsel Neary gave presentations on the history of the District itself and on the relationship of the Ohl Family to the District and their assistance to the District in its desire to purchase the Grove. Mike Aplet of the Recreation Committee spoke about goals for the future and various volunteers were thanked for their activities, in particular Gloria Harden and Louis LeBrun.
E. PUBLIC HEARING
None
F. PUBLIC COMMENTS
None.
G. ADDITIONS TO FUTURE AGENDAS
None.
H. ADJOURNMENT
A motion was made to adjourn, and President Skezas declared the meeting of September 9, 2006 adjourned at 11:25 a.m.
GEORGE SKEZAS
President
MICHAEL V. CHAPMAN
Secretary to the Board of Directors
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