By Bruce Barton

One of the wettest winters on record has brought out an obvious fact: Poor drainage results in flooding.

Just ask the residents of a south Los Altos neighborhood inconvenienced for years by flood-prone St. Joseph Avenue.

Sandalwood Lane resident Per Fernqvist, who lives off Granger Avenue between St. Joseph and Eva avenues, noted water drainage was “not planned well” in his subdivision, built in the 1950s. “All water from Eva, including several side streets and Granger, moves to the one drain at St. Joseph above ground, creating a river we fondly call Granger Creek.”

Even light rains draw water buildup, Fernqvist said.

Fortunately, local residents are working with the city of Los Altos to do something about it. Fernqvist is leading neighbors’ efforts to hire their own contractor to install a catch basin on Granger as an extension to the storm drainage system. The plan would be to transfer water from Eva and the side streets underground just after it reaches Granger to an existing drainpipe on the northeast side of the street.

Larry Lind, the city’s associate civil engineer, said the proposal “sounded pretty good to me.”

The city is in the process of putting together a special encroachment permit needed for the work to go forward.

Public works director Jim Porter said the city would review plans and inspect the work.

Fernqvist said he was collecting signatures for a petition getting his neighbors to share in the $14,000 cost for the work. But he wondered “why the city hasn’t taken care of this earlier.”

“We don’t have a program to proactively repair drainage systems,” Porter said. But he added that the city works with neighborhoods that come to the city with drainage issues.

“We have hundreds of drainage problems throughout the city,” Porter said.

“With unimproved streets, and very little curb and gutter, there’s more difficulty getting water to where you want it to go. It’s part of living in Los Altos.”

Thanks to a united neighborhood effort, one south Los Altos neighborhood is due for some flood relief.

“If nothing else, I am getting to know all my neighbors and I am having fun doing something different,” Fernqvist said.