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Home My WebLink About44- Public Comment NOTIFICATION TO : CITY OF SANBERNARDINO s OF: INADEQUATE FLOOD CONTROL AND DRAINAGE INFASTRUCTURE, AND INADEQUATE PROTECTION OF PRIVATE AND PUBLIC PROPERTIES FROM FLOODING AND MUD FLOWS IN THE MEYERS CREED. FLOOD CONTROL CHANNEL SYSTEM. AS PRESENTED BY: Kevin Mitchell Hank Mitchell 6794 Little League Dr. P/O Box 9837 SanBernardino, Ca. 92407 SanBernardino, Ca. 92427 Delivery methods CERTIFIED MAIL Physical delivery City Council Members April 13, 2007 San Bernardino City Council 300 N. "D" Street J� San Bernardino, CA 92418 . James Penman Ay San Bernardino City Attorneys Office 300 N. "D" Street, Sixth Floor 4Y San Bernardino, CA 92418 IV Ken Fischer Director Public Services Department 300 N. "D" Street, 41h Floor San Bernardino, CA 92418-0001 Re: Flood Control Improvements Dear Gentlemen: This letter represents Kevin Mitchell and Hank Mitchell. Both Kevin and Hank Mitchell own homes and property that are located along or accessed by Belmont Avenue and / or Little League Dr., in San Bernardino near Meyers Creek. The purpose of this letter is to place the City on notice of the inadequate bridge and flood drainage infrastructure in the Belmont Ave. / Meyers Creek and surrounding area, with the potential for flood damage to property in the area. This area has experienced significant flooding in the past. In the years of 2003, 2004, and 2005, Meyers Creek overflowed the channel and flooded along Belmont Ave., Meyers Road, and Little League Drive, shutting down access to the Mitchell's homes and homes on upper Meyers Road. These floodwaters caused mud and debris flows and deposits on Kevin Mitchell's, and 7 other neighbors' properties ( See photo group- "Flood Jan 05 Belmont Ave"). This required heavy expenditures by many to remove said debris and restore said properties to usable standards. The Belmont Ave. bridge across Meyers Creek that provides the sole access to Hank Mitchell's home, a neighboring family's home and another home that is soon to be constructed, was significantly damaged. Attached are pictures numbered 1 through 3 that show the floodwaters flowing down Belmont Ave. in 2004/5, and the resulting damage to the bridge over Meyers Creek. The flooding damage in the area was sufficient, in that, it was declared a FEMA project, and picture 4 shows a FEMA project number still visible on the asphalt next to the bridge. Despite the severe flooding the area experienced, and the availability of FEMA project funds, only minimal repairs were made to the bridge and no upgrades or modifications were made to the bridge to better accommodate floodwaters. Those minimal repairs are now caving in and the roadway is breaking up. The bridge contains serious design flaws. The culverts for the Belmont Ave. bridge consists of two 40 inch oval tubes which have begun to collapse from the weight of the road way (see picture 5). Immediately up stream there is another bridge at Meyers Road, with a 10-foot culvert (see pictures 6 and 7) that is fed by 5 canyons and a large portion of the Martin Ranch alluvial fan. An adjoining 7-foot culvert at the Meyers Road juncture (see picture 8), is fed by the upper Little League Dr. alluvial fan and 3 canyons which also drain into Meyers Creek. This 7-foot culvert is halfway filled with dirt and will undoubtedly overflow in a heavy storm. Thus, immediately upstream from the Belmont Ave. bridge there is a 10-foot culvert in Meyers Creek and a 7-foot culvert from another feeder stream all channeling water into the two much smaller 40 inch partially collapsed tubes. In addition to the difference in size of these culverts, the use of twin 40-inch tubes is a design that allows debris to become trapped between the tubes thus increasing the potential for the culverts to back up(picture 9) causing flooding in the area. Clearly this is a serious design flaw and will result in flooding in the surrounding areas of Belmont Ave. and Meyers Creek, when there is heavy rain in the area. This is not mere speculation; the flooding has previously occurred and will likely be much worse in the future. Your attention should be directed to the article in the Sun newspaper, March 28, 2007 " FLOOD ADVICE EXPECTED", where in it referred to the alluvial fans and adjoining canyons contributing to the devastating floods of December 2003 "Christmas day flood", killing 16 people and destroying homes and other properties below the mountains. The hillsides that drain into Meyers Creek were largely undeveloped during the floods in 2003-2005. Since that time several new projects of more than 300 homes have been approved, or are in the development review process (with hundreds more in the drawing / environmental review stage) for the hillsides and alluvial fans upstream of Meyers creek at Belmont Ave. The homes, streets and other improvements constructed in connection with these projects will create impervious areas and significantly increase the storm water runoff into Meyers Creek during rain periods. This increased storm water runoff will be forced to flow through the two partially collapsed 40-inch culverts at Belmont Ave. bridge. These culverts were already inadequate without the new upstream development and increased storm water runoff. What was already an inadequate structure to handle storm water runoff will get much worse as these projects are developed and built out. Despite approving the projects, the City has done nothing to mitigate (or require the developers to mitigate) the down stream effect that the increased storm runoff will have on the Belmont Ave. area. The Mitchells, and many of the surrounding neighbors, for years, have beseeched, met with, and written numerous letters and requests to the City, including the planning department, City Council, City Attorney, public services and development agencies, requesting an upgrade to the Meyers Creek and Belmont Ave. bridge to make it adequate to handle storm runoff. It is not only foreseeable, but a certainty that the Belmont Ave) Little League Dr. area will experience significant flood and property damage if the Belmont Ave. bridge and the Meyers Creek channel are not replaced and upgraded to handle the storm water runoff. The Mitchells request that the City replace the Belmont Ave. bridge, and enlarge and reinforce the entire Meyers Creek channel, to handle storm water runoff and prevent future flooding and property damage in the Belmont Ave. / Little League Dr. area. That the level of improvement should upgrade the existing infrastructure to handle the next 50 year build out of the hillsides and alluvial fans involving this drainage system. Until the required improvements such as ... ....: 1- Replacing the Belmont bridge with a larger bridge to handle more than the flow delivered by the culverts above it..... 2- Reinforcing and enlarging the Meyers creek channel from above Meyers Road (retention basins and cement lining of the channel) to it's blending with Cable Creek and protecting the new bridge and surrounding homes and properties, from flood prone damage carried down the Meyers Creek.... 3 –Providing continual and timely maintenance of said channel, to include repairs and clean up of debris so as to not allow any clogging of said channel and bridge abutments.... 4—Improving flood drainage at the intersection of Little League Dr. and Belmont Ave. ; to include: A)Cross- guttering of Belmont Ave at Little League Dr. B) Curb and guttering the west side of Little League Dr. from Belmont Ave. to_ Cable Creek Bridge... ..are completed, we will hold the City of SanBernardino, it's employees, and all contractors of the city involved in, or attributable to the non complete performance of the above, to be held responsible for losses of assets , and/or financial losses directly and indirectly related to non performances; to protect life, property and safety of the parties affected herein. The same entity and persons shall be responsible for I the expenditures incurred by the Mitchells, for protection from flooding, prevention {ram {loodOng and repairs T)T any damage from construction of said upgrades, or damage from the non- complete performance of said improvements. City Attorney Jim Penman, stated in person, January 17 th, 2004, to our very large neighborhood group gathered at the Meyers Creek Bridge, after a heavy rain fall had clogged and leveled the Meyers creek channel; "We feel the City of SanBernardino has a moral obligation to maintain the Meyers creek drainage". We, Kevin and Myslef, believe that to be very true and will hold the City of SanBernardino, morally responsible as well. Very truly yours, Hank Mitchell Kevin Mitchell Reference materials supplied "Flood Jan 05 Belmont Ave" 6-pages and photos "Additional Pictures (7)" Belmont Bridge/ Meyers Culvert-Bridge, in flood stage and resultant decay or plugging of same after flow slowed down. 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