BOARD AGENDA MEMORANDUM
SUBJECT:
Title
Opportunities for Coordination and Collaboration on Projects Benefiting Milpitas (District 3). (Previously Listed as Item 5.4)
End
RECOMMENDATION:
Recommendation
That the Board and City Council acknowledge District and City staff efforts and provide direction to work collaboratively on land rights exchanges, recreational trail planning, and recreation and flood protection benefits.
Body
SUMMARY:
Santa Clara Valley Water District (District) and City of Milpitas (City) own fee title lands and easements along waterways in City. Both agencies have improvements along or near waterways that provide flood protection and municipal services for City residents and businesses. Both agencies need collaboration and cooperation to continue building and maintaining their infrastructure for the benefit of City residents and businesses. There have been challenges in the past at the staff level in implementing District and City’s projects in exchanging land rights, planning of trails and flood protection work.
Exchanging Land Rights
As the two agencies proceed with land rights transactions for on-going projects, it’s important to dedicate resources and direct staff to resolve outstanding land rights transactions. There are land rights transactions that have been unresolved for more than ten years due to different expectations on appropriate land rights to be provided to or accepted by each agency. Resolution of these land rights exchanges would ensure that each agency has appropriate rights to access and maintain the infrastructure and improvements installed as part of the completed projects.
For water supply infrastructure constructed by the District, the District has expectations to obtain sufficient land rights over its pipeline infrastructure where located on City property to properly maintain, inspect, reconstruct, and operate its facilities to provide continuous service of water. The City would like to provide the District with a revocable license or permit for the portions of District water supply infrastructure located on City property.
District and City land rights intersect at road crossings of flood protection facilities. Identification of roles and responsibilities would help clarify the type of land interest acquired or retained by each agency. The District’s understanding has been that the City’s responsibility is for the roadway infrastructure, including culverts and bridges (i.e. the structure itself, including concrete, wingwalls, pavement, etc.), and the District’s responsibility is to maintain the channel for flow conveyance (i.e. sediment or debris removal) through those structures. For new road crossings, the District’s practice has been to have the City obtain a road easement over the District’s fee title or obtain fee title and have the District reserve an easement for flood protection purposes. However, the City’s understanding is that City constructed road infrastructure includes the pavement section, but not the culvert or bridge supporting the pavement and, therefore, City constructed culverts or bridges required to build a new road within an existing flood protection facility should be maintained by the District while the City will maintain the pavement on top of the culvert or bridge.
Staff requests that City Council and the District Board discuss the policy issue surrounding land rights and maintenance responsibilities, and following discussion, delegate authority to the City Manager and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) to develop an agreement between the District and City that reflects both agencies’ responsibilities and requirements for land rights transactions.
Recreational Trail Planning
In accordance with Board Resolution No. 74-38, “Declaring Policy Governing Joint Public Use of District Facilities,” the District supports public creek-side trail development by providing District lands at no cost to the City for construction of trail improvements with the understanding that the District flood protection and stream stewardship obligations take precedent over recreational uses. Creation of creek-side trails that balance the needs of the District while providing the public an enjoyable off-street recreational experience requires sufficient study and planning of alignments to identify constraints and opportunities and plan a viable trail that addresses both. Recreational uses, if not properly planned, can negatively impact District improvements and operations and result in a less than optimal recreational experience. These impacts are felt by the public through increased maintenance costs and increased staff time to complete maintenance activities resulting in longer duration trail closures and missed opportunities to provide trail amenities.
The City has identified possible trail alignments in high level documents such as the Milpitas Transit Area Specific Plan, however, master plans for the various trails identified have not yet been developed. District staff’s experience is that developers are conditioned to include trail design as part of their project based on high level alignments that are then implemented one small section at a time. Site specific trail evaluation and construction feasibility examined in such small sections makes it difficult for the District to comprehensively evaluate impacts on District operations and collaborate on how to best place bridges and trailheads to balance the District’s operations with the recreational interests. Master trail planning also provides an opportunity to engage the community in the development of trails that best serve them and provide meaningful connections that work with flood protection operations.
Staff requests the City Council and District Board discuss the policy issue surrounding comprehensive trail planning that includes community and District engagement, and direct City and District staff to increase collaborative efforts toward comprehensive trail planning and implementation between the agencies.
Recreation and Flood Protection
The District provides flood protection for residents of Santa Clara Valley. The District performs this function by constructing improvements and preserving the flood conveyance capacity on those improved channels. The District removes sediment, manages in-stream vegetation, and repairs creek bank erosion on improved channels that have been analyzed, designed and constructed to ensure they can carry a specific flood event.
For recreational trails along District flood protection channels, existing Joint Use Agreements between the two agencies provide for the City to install and maintain recreational elements and to relocate them as required for District flood protection purposes. Confirmation of these agreements and direction to staff of both agencies to uphold respective commitments made in these agreements facilitates better working relationships and reduces delay costs to construction and maintenance work to be implemented by both agencies.
When the District constructs new flood protection projects, the District works with cities to provide flood protection improvements in a manner that is least impactful to the community, functionally and aesthetically. However, the District has previously been required to provide and maintain recreational improvements as conditions of approval to construct flood protection improvements. These types of requirements are more applicable to conditions such as those that may be imposed on developers to mitigate development impacts on city resources and provide for public improvements commensurate with those development impacts. District flood protection projects are in themselves public improvement projects that do not impose adverse impacts on city resources, such as a new residential, commercial or industrial development would in terms of increased traffic or population.
It is current District policy that recreational improvements are to be installed and maintained by the City under joint use agreement. Staff recommends that the Board and City Council consider and discuss the policy issue of approval requirements with respect to recreation and flood protection improvement projects, and direct the City Manager and District CEO to implement policy direction that meets both agencies’ needs.
NEXT STEPS
Staff will implement direction by District Board of Directors and City Council for the areas described in this memorandum.
FINANCIAL IMPACT:
There is no financial impact associated with this item.
CEQA:
The recommended action does not constitute a project under the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) because it does not have a potential for resulting in direct or reasonably foreseeable indirect physical change in the environment.
ATTACHMENTS:
None.
UNCLASSIFIED MANAGER:
Manager
Melanie Richardson, 408-630-2035