By Town Crier Staff
The city of Los Altos has options for thwarting a reservoir expansion project set for Mountain View land on Miramonte Avenue that is surrounded by Los Altos residences.
According to Councilman Francis La Poll, the city could still attempt to annex the property to Los Altos or purchase the land through eminent domain - the forceful taking of land for overall public good.
La Poll, an incumbent who is seeking re-election in the Nov. 4 council race, said he brought the issue before the council at its Oct. 14 meeting on behalf of the surrounding residents. Many of them have formed their own action group, FLOOD, which stands for Families of Los Altos Opposed to the Oncoming Deluge. They have established a Web site, www.f-l-o-o-d.org, detailing their concerns about the reservoir project.
The council directed Los Altos staff to offer options and report back to the council at its next meeting, scheduled for Tuesday.
Since 1999, Mountain View officials have been trying to build a new reservoir on the site of an existing 0.7 million-gallon reservoir, claiming it needs the emergency water supply to address potential disasters in the El Camino Hospital area. Ironically, Los Altos residents fear such a disaster as a result of the reservoir expansion project.
“This site is completely surrounded by a Los Altos neighborhood that has been subjected to a series of floods and fires that are the result of a long-term pattern of neglect by the city of Mountain View,” according to the FLOOD site. “Now they plan to compound the problem by building a new 2.3 million-gallon reservoir and connecting it to the existing reservoir, which is over 50 years old. In this way, they are quadrupling the size of the tragedy that will result when the aging reservoir or pipes fail.”
Council candidate Jeannice Samani also has embraced the residents’ cause and vowed to address the issue as a council member.
La Poll said there are other viable locations in the El Camino Hospital area for a new reservoir, including hospital land itself and neighboring Cuesta Park.
Mountain View officials reject suggestions that residents would be in danger as a result of the project. Their designs call for a new reservoir to withstand an earthquake of 7.9 magnitude without major damage. The reservoir is going forward at this point with construction slated to begin next summer.
Addressing resident concerns, Mountain View public works officials did decrease the capacity from 3 million to 2.3 million, and lower the top of the reservoir in the design so that it would not be as obtrusive on the surface. However, La Poll and residents still are far from satisfied.
“There shouldn’t be a decision without representation,” La Poll said.
“The bottom line is - I think the city of Mountain View has a lot of land, they have Cuesta Park - why not put it there,” asked FLOOD member Stella Chong.
