Friends of San Lorenzo Creek


Developer to Fund San Lorenzo Creek Watershed Projects


MAY 29, 2007
OAKLAND

Alameda County's efforts to study, protect, and improve the San Lorenzo Creek watershed just got a financial boost. Discovery Builders Inc., of Concord, which is building a 302- home development in Dublin, agreed to pay $250,000 for projects in the 50-square-mile watershed -- the land area through which creeks flow and drain into San Francisco Bay.

County supervisors approved DBI's agreement with the county's flood control district on Tuesday.

The money -- along with an additional DBI contribution of $35,000 for sediment studies of the Hollis and Marshall creeks in Castro Valley -- are to mitigate the new homes' potentially adverse development impacts. Most of the Dublin land to be developed lies in the upper portions of the watershed, which also encompasses Castro Valley, Hayward, San Leandro, San Lorenzo and smaller communities.

The money will be paid in stages through 2011, county Public Works Agency spokeswoman Karen Borrmann said. Projects, which have yet to be determined, could include dredging silt out of Don Castro Regional Recreation Area in unincorporated Fairview or shoring up potential landslides, Borrmann said Friday.

Supervisors have imposed a partial ban on creek-area development while the county puts together a preservation plan for waterways and surrounding foliage. The ban coincides with a study on ways to protect hundreds of creeks, streams, rivers, culverts and channels that are draining from the hills to the Bay.

In the not-too-distant future, the county may ask property owners in the greater Hayward area's unincorporated communities to increase annual assessments for what is likely to be tens of millions of dollars in flood control improvements.

Source: Oakland Tribune