By Los Altos Hills preservationists scored a victory of sorts last week when the town council rejected for the fourth time a Santa Clara Valley Water District plan for widening a particularly troublesome section of Adobe Creek, running parallel to Fremont Road.

We say a victory of sorts because rejecting the plan doesn’t solve the problem of potential flooding. In fact, the decision means the project, after years of planning and millions of taxpayer dollars in design costs, is dead with no alternative plan in place.

Part of the problem lies in the water district’s rigidity. District officials have imposed upon themselves a mandate for designing channels to meet the capacity of a 100-year flood. Pardon the expression, but such a plan doesn’t wash when set against the treescaped beauty of Los Altos Hills. The large number of trees targeted for removal to make way for rather large cement-lined creek banks amounts to overkill. In addition, some experts said the district’s plan would not address such a flood anyway; that is, one of such magnitude that it hits on average once every 100 years.

That said, there needs to be some plan in place for this quarter-mile section of creek, or creekside residents will be vulnerable to far less impacting storms. Expecting district maintenance to periodically shore up eroding creek banks means a long wait - several years in many cases. Doing nothing is an unwise option.

Resident D.J. Rogez and water engineer Mitch Swanson presented a less impacting, alternative plan last year that the district rejected, saying the plan would not meet the needed water capacity.

But other neighbors said district officials are willing to make some compromises, from reducing the number of impacted trees to changing the look of the cement barriers to make them blend in with the surrounding environment.

It appears the affected creekside residents, including those vehemently opposed to the water district’s plan, are working to come up with another alternative plan more suitable to the surroundings. This is a good sign and we’re hoping town council members help with such a plan.

Meanwhile, the town has made it quite clear to the water district that its old plan cannot be used. Instead of drawing a line in the sand, or in this case, the creek, the town and the water district must make strong compromises so that the needed creek improvements can be made.