#bw_community

Personally, Belmont's failing infrastructure in the San Juan Canyon just north of Ralston Ave. has had a major impact on my life & family while a resident. The failing storm drains and run away water had severely damaged my road a few years ago and they will continue to do so until they are either upgraded or maintained more regularly. Access to my property became severely compromised in 2013, friends stopped driving all the way to my home, and it became clear over time that the City's public storm drains were to blame. In the face of undeniable video evidence, photographs, and the City's own contradictory statements, Officials decided to turn and fight instead of work with residents.

Myself and a neighbor offered our own money to repair & repave the road if the City fixed their storm drains. Without addressing the root cause(poor storm drain design and maintenance), we could not in good conscience invest our own money into a road that would simply be undermined and again damaged by the City's system that we could not control.

Which leads me to my main point in the title of this article---your wasted tax dollars!  Instead of effecting repairs and inspecting their storm drains in 2013, Officials forced us into a position where we needed to hire a lawyer to compel a response.

From what could have been a $30k-50k fix for road repair and a weir structure on the v-ditch inlet, the City instead has spent $219,035.00 of your tax dollars on outside lawyers to fight and deny the residents a functioning storm drain system in an area the City designates as prone to landslides---wreckless. In researching the City accounting records, it was determined that this $219k has been paid to the Los Angeles law firm Colantuono, Highsmith & Whatley, PC. Any individual invoices from this firm that are under $5k do not need to be itemized in the public accounting records so it is quite possible the City has already spent >$250k to insulate themselves from any duty to maintain their public improvements while diminishing the safety of life and property---ludicrous. This astronomical figure does not include any expert fees or countless hours that City workers have and will spend attending to this case. Before this is over, a trial will cost half a million to $750k dollars in tax payer money for legal fees, hydrology experts, reparations, and State enforcement of clean water standards. Why does there always seem to be ample tax dollars available to fight residents over fixing storm drains and zero funds to actually fix them.  

Aside from the monetary cost, there is also the environmental impact to water quality from excessive silt and erosion that the Belmont system has caused and will continue to cause in the area. State and private regulators that monitor environmental health & water quality will not be as accommodating and patient when their legal armies descend upon One Twin Pines Lane asking for Mr. Rennie, Belmont’s City Attorney.

I struggle to understand the short sighted motivations and ideologies within our City government that have guided the response on this issue. City officials insist that the lower portion of Marburger Ave is a private road and therefore they are absolved from any and all responsibility of fixing damage caused by the storm drain failure and poor maintenance. Regardless of road ownership, the City acknowledges that they are responsible for the storm drains and sewers on Marburger Ave.  But when public improvements are failing, damaging private property, causing a nuisance, and impacting access, the 5th Amendment protects property owners like you and me.   The U.S. Constitution has afforded us a legal basis to fight our case.

Additionally, the City uses & abuses the road with the heaviest of construction vehicles, has rerouted a natural creek under the street which carries its own water course liability in CA, permits private utility companies to install infrastructure under and above it, spills sewage on it, directs traffic through it, and has prohibited the Mid Peninsula Water Company from improving it to solve their own issues with silt and street flooding. Does this situation sound like a private shared driveway controlled by residents?

If you want to fully appreciate the City's duplicitous position on this issue, ask someone at the County Recorders Office, at PG&E Land Use, at Mid Peninsula Water Company, or any lawyers who write title insurance on my property:  "who owns this 150 yards of road in the middle of Belmont?"

Perhaps playing with your tax dollars and insurance funds has emboldened City officials to the point of insanity. Thankfully, I have been able to secure my own legal insurance claim to drive this case all the way to trial next year and plead my case. It will be so satisfying to finally get our day in court and expose what certain individuals in this City government are capable of doing to residents. I hope you can attend.

I have provided some supporting media below regarding the progression of the horrible situation that the City has perpetuated here in our neighborhood….this is just a small sample of what will be presented to a jury.

Street Flooding, debris flow, and erosion from culvert failure: https://www.dropbox.com/s/h3967egt88l0mso/MVI_1774.AVI?dl=0

Resulting erosion damage, 13" in depth in front of my house.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/ggsymovht5r6m0p/Damage%20after%20culvert%20overflow-2.jpg?dl=0

https://www.dropbox.com/s/fmpf6949vlmkw48/Damage%20after%20culvert%20overflow.jpg?dl=0

The completely clogged main cache basin captured on more than one occasion during an exceptionally dry winter storm season.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/g2mnbixjzd8ly8b/P1040040.JPG?dl=0

Completely failed storm mains that collect public water from Ralston, Ralston middle school, Belmont Canyon, Hilcrest, etc.  Note the massive erosion under the broken pipes from escaping storm water which pushes silt in our direction and eventually into the bay. These pipes were either not inspected by the City for 21 months or ignored completely after major damage to the road. I discovered them broken in the woods during my own inspection in Sept 2014.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/rbi3njth8xqrplq/IMG_5823-Edit.jpg?dl=0

https://www.dropbox.com/s/aj6xjo3k1zjs1ls/IMG_5827-Edit.jpg?dl=0

https://www.dropbox.com/s/j5uom85lryy4qzg/IMG_5829.jpg?dl=0

Last but not least: Please observe the City's abuse of our road with heavy machinery and equipment. As one of the heaviest users of any easement that exists over the road, they have a duty to maintain that easement. Backhoes and loaded City dump trucks chewing up the road surface of our "shared driveway" are a regular occurrence.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/voq8oa9zb9c9frh/truck_damage.mp4?dl=0

I would appreciate your thoughts… What would you do if you were in our position having to navigate 13" ruts which damaged your car, having to stand idly by while City vehicles damage your road, watching ambulances unable to get to your neighbor’s house, apologizing to friends who can't drive all the way to your home, watching your road wash away before your eyes, cringing each time it rains, and having to personally find the broken pipes that damaged your property for which the City of Belmont is ultimately responsible .

Thank you for reading and watching. You can please contact me at [email protected]

James Baka

SELECTIVE ENFORCEMENT It appears that many of the problems involve city workers not applying regulations evenly. There should be leeway for judgement calls to make exceptions on building codes if the exceptions are minor. An example is building height. In this case one household had a leaky roof that needed to be slightly slanted. They were not allowed to raise the back of their roof which no one sees by less than a foot to solve their problem. Instead, they were told to go to the planning commission at a cost of $6,000 to have them look at it. Does the city seems to opt for decisions that make money for the city in addition to playing favorites? PASSING THE BUCK Another area of contention is trees. Maintenance of city street trees falls on the homeowners and can be very expensive. Some of these trees are responsible for destroying sewer laterals and sidewalks, you guessed it, homeowners pick up the tab. This could be easily solved if Belmont would follow widely published guidelines on street tree planting such as those outlined in the San Francisco Urban Forest Plan[1].

DON’T COMPLAIN TO COUNCIL When people try to complain to council members about staff intransigence on modest changes they run into a stone wall. Citizens complained that when they left messages for elected official they rarely receive responses. When they do receive responses they said it was usually terse and patronizing, rather than listening and understanding.

All in all, the City staff and elected officials are not held high in the public mind by residents who simply want to make modest changes.

REFERENCES:

[1]  http://www.sf-planning.org/ftp/files/plans-and-programs/planning-for-the-city/urban-forest-plan/Urban_Forest_Plan_Final-092314.pdf

2) Doctors affiliated with Mt. Sinai Hospital, and the Mt. Sinai Children's Environmental Health Center, state that children are the most susceptible to the hazards of leaf blowers because they breathe more air per pound of body weight per day than adults and thus inhale more of any pollutants that are thrown into the air by this equipment.

3) Former U.S. Surgeon General Dr. Luther Terry states:  "Excessive noise exposure during pregnancy can influence embryonic development."

As an aside, the operator of this kind of equipment is at risk as well, so if you care about your gardener, you may want to advise to not use a leaf blower. Note that the Hispanic gardeners I talked to stated that there is no cost difference for their services, if they use leaf blowers or not.  

For more information, please review the following:

http://www.smdailyjournal.com/articles/opinions/2014-12-06/op-ed-how-would-life-be-without-leaf-blowers/1776425134552.html http://www.drweil.com/drw/u/id/ART02059 http://www.leafblowershurtkids.info/ If you like to reduce the use of leaf blowers in Belmont, please contact me at [email protected], or call 650-888-2656.

Thanks for reading! Stefan

Just by way a sample of what transpired  the link below covers  the suggestions from the eight people at Table 1 (of 8 tables), presented articulately by Kemal, a member of the Table 1 team..

  If a computer illiterate like me can capture a portion of such a meeting why can't the City deliver the goods.

  We have no newspaper in Belmont and the minutes of council  meetings are sanitized.

  No wonder nobody outside City Hall knows what goes on in the City.

  Perhaps the City prefers it that way.

  http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=belmont+general+plan

Perry Kennan

Belmont Resident