The Montgomery
Annexation, When it Rains
Queen Anne near
Fourth Avenue two days after it rained on 1/29/08. The water is still there.
Obviously a lot of dirt washed into Fourth Avenue and was carried into the
storm drain during the rain. People park in the mud.Click to see Frank who lives
on Queen Anne explaining the problem to the city council again.
North side of the
street
South side of the street.
Typical road condition. Pot holes are patched, but patch does not survive
a heavy rain. The water does not drain but fills potholes and soaks into the
dirt along the side of the road. Cars track the mud throughout the streets, and
it eventually ends up in the storm drains, which is clearly a violation of the
city's storm water permit.
These are
pictures of a few of the unpaved alleys in the middle of the blocks between
Banner and Del Monte in the Otay neighborhood of southwest Chula Vista.
Here it is clear that trash, mud and even small rocks wash from the
alley into the street
The cars track the mud on to the street.
1/26/08 The Union Tribune:
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Castle
Park area to get sidewalk, curb work |
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Installation
cost is $1 million per block
By Tanya Mannes
January 26, 2008 Chula Vista is making slow but steady progress
in bringing the old Castle Park neighborhood up to code by installing sidewalks,
curbs and gutters. The
prefabricated homes were installed in the 1930s and '40s without the usual street
improvements as a no-frills way to keep costs down. Joseph
Kish, who has lived 56 years in his First Avenue home, said residents are
tired of what he calls substandard You drive through here and the mud is atrocious, the
streets are dirty ,
you can't hang your laundry outside, Kish said. I wash the car one day and
I wash it again two days later. Castle
Park was annexed into Chula Vista in 1986 as part of the Montgomery area.
Many homeowners, including Kish, say that city officials promised to install
sidewalks as part of the annexation. However, the Montgomery incorporation
documents don't promise any specific improvements, said Jack Griffin, the
city's general services director. In
2005, the city installed sidewalks in three areas Naples Street from Alpine
Avenue to Tobias Drive, Tobias from Naples to Oxford Street and Dixon from
Naples to Oxford after homeowners formed assessment districts to pay a
portion of the cost. A
dozen blocks, however, still have walking paths that are no more than dirt
shoulders. The current cost to install sidewalks, curbs and gutters is more
than $1 million per block. Griffin
said the city has lined up money for most of the needed improvements. We're
leaps and bounds from where we were 10 years ago, he said. In
November 2006, the city received approval of a $9.5 million loan from U.S.
Housing and Urban Development, which will be used in Castle Park, Griffin
said. The HUD loan is backed by the city's annual share of federal Community
Development Block Grants. In
another important development, the city this year finished a $3 million
project to install 3,000 feet of badly needed storm drains to handle runoff
on Emerson Street, Griffin said. The storm drain installation was funded by
several sources including federal Community Development Block Grant money and
development-related taxes and fees. We
wanted to get the drainage project out of the way before we did any street
improvements, Griffin said. Kish
lives on one of two blocks that are expected to get sidewalks when the HUD loan
comes through, probably this summer. He
and the other homeowners formed an assessment district in which they will pay
for their driveway aprons typically, about $4,000 each and the city will
pay for the sidewalks, curbs and gutters. It's
about time, he said.
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This is my
response to the spin the city is trying to put on the street situation in this article: RE: Castle Park area to get sidewalk, curb work It is great that
some work is to be done in the Castle Park area on streets and sidewalks.
However, there is no way that the city "has lined up money for most of
the needed improvements," as Jack Griffin indicated in the article. The April 5, 2007 Infrastructure report
indicated it would take $369-$396 million to bring the Drainage and Pavement
Infrastructure in the city up to standards. $9.5 million dollars at one
million dollars per block will do around 10 blocks. It is great that the city
is doing something and a few streets will get fixed, but there is a
tremendous amount more to do. I realize the city
wants to put a positive spin on the situation after Turko included
the broken promises in the Southwest in one of his reports, but just to make
the needed improvements in a half mile around Castle Park Elementary will
take over $25 million dollars. The map included with the article shows the
area where the sidewalk and curb work is to be done, but this is less than a
third of the Castle Park area and other areas of the Southwest also need
extensive work to bring the streets up to city standards- not to mention all
the drainage and pavement problems in the rest of the city.
Thursday February 7
at 6PM in the council chambers the council intends to discuss the citywide
infrastructure situation again. This time they will analyze funding
alternatives. Clearly in 1985 the city did not have the money or an accurate
idea of what it would cost to bring the streets in just the Montgomery area
up to standard. When the Montgomery Planning Committee started asking too
many financial questions it was easier to dissolve them than to deal with the
situation. Hopefully, now that staff has extensively studied all the streets,
curbs, drainage and sidewalks throughout the city and produced an estimate in
2006 dollars this council will actually deal with the situation at hand
before it gets even worse. Theresa
Acerro |
Tanya
Mannes: (619) 498-6639; 