Valley Forum: An opportunity for flood protection lost

Unused Veterans Hall parking lot was only feasible site for project|

It was a great disappointment and a loss for the Sonoma Valley and local residents when a decision was made to no longer pursue a stormwater management and flood control project on First Street West in Sonoma. The Sonoma County Water Agency and the City of Sonoma worked diligently over the past three years to find a suitable location to make use of $1.9 million in state grant funding. Numerous sites were given consideration with the goal of finding a site where groundwater recharge could take place and prevent the future flooding of homes and downtown businesses along First Street West.

The third and final alternative studied was located adjacent to the Sonoma Veterans Memorial Hall and would have utilized a portion of a substantially unpaved underutilized overflow parking area for underground stormwater storage. The project would divert stormwater from Fryer Creek close to the cemetery, store the water in underground structures and then release the water after runoff subsided or potentially reuse it for irrigation. This kind of a project has been successfully used in other areas for this purpose.

Construction of the project would have been disruptive to activities in the area for several months, but after completion the parking area at the veterans’ building would have been paved and striped. In addition, much-needed improvements to the veterans building could have been included, and there was the potential to improve existing drainage problems surrounding the veterans’ cemetery.

The City of Sonoma has been a partner in the project and the stormwater storage project at the Veterans Hall property was approved by the City Council as the preferred alternative. Clearly, City officials recognized the benefits of the project to the City.

Unfortunately, some representatives of the veterans community opposed the project on the assertion that the project would somehow interfere with unforeseen future uses of the property and violate the State Military and Veterans Code. Veterans buildings are owned and managed by the County. It was the opinion of our County Counsel’s office that using the parking lot for the flood control project would not unduly interfere with the reasonable use by veterans groups and therefore would not violate state law and was consistent with practices at other veterans facilities in the county.

Further, in a recent letter State Adjutant/Quartermaster J. Nichols Guest of the California VFW stated that this project was a local matter and did not appear to violate the Military and Veterans Code.

Some of the Sonoma veterans were insisting that the Water Agency consider using the athletic fields located just to the south of the unpaved parking lot for the underground storage project. The athletic fields are used extensively by a variety of youth groups for baseball and football. The prospect of taking those fields out of commission for at least a summer baseball season and quite possibly a fall football season did not seem to be a reasonable alternative when compared to the potential impacts to the use of a partially paved parking lot.

In a recent letter to the editor in Index-Tribune (“Standing One’s Ground,” May 24), the author claimed that because the project would have violated the law, the veterans’ opposition saved the County from an expensive legal battle. While we respect the concerns of those who opposed the project, the County ultimately has responsibility for the property. Our intent was to promote a worthwhile project that would provide multiple benefits for our community and improve conditions at the Veterans’ Memorial Hall.

After having spent years trying to find a location, time was running out to secure grant funding for the project and the controversy within the veterans community over the use of the site created an untenable situation. The decision was made to withdraw this site from consideration and instead use the funding to address flooding issues in other high-priority areas of the county.

The real tragedy of this situation is that a stormwater project that would have benefitted our community will not be built and Sonoma Valley loses out on a great opportunity to improve local flood protection. In addition, our veterans community has been unnecessarily torn apart by acrimony and misrepresentation of facts, resulting in resignations and hurt feelings. I hope that in the future we can approach these types of beneficial projects with a more collaborative attitude to work with our veterans groups on projects that benefit the larger community as well as improve our County-owned veterans buildings.

Susan Gorin is the 1st District Supervisor for Sonoma County and a member of the Board of Directors of the Sonoma County Water Agency.

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