Big storms bring big problems to Leucadia. Highway 101 and the businesses alongside it are in a natural drainage swale and they suffer the majority of flooding. The highway sits in lower than the rest of the corridor, with the high bluff tops to the west, and higher ground to the east, across the train tracks.
In 2001, the City paid $4 million to lay 2 miles of storm drain between Highway 101 and the train tracks. Although this alleviated some of the flooding it did little to fix the problem.
Saturday, November 30, 2019
Leucadia Flooding!
At Encinitas Current:
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Open a gondola service.
ReplyDeleteWhat about the "Hymettus Estates" area? Did that Fulvia Lake come back? Anyone have pictures of whether those new houses are threatened by water?
ReplyDeleteThe lake was back, bigger than ever. City pumper trucks arrived too late, so yard/house at SE corner of Fulvia/Hymettus flooded. The new BMP at the NW corner of Fulvia/Hymettus filled to overflowing and lead to the flooding of the intersection itself. Most runoff was bypassing the BMPs and just running down the street. No gutters on any of the new $2M+ homes to redirect water to the retention basin, and now new impervious hardscape being installed to illegally increase runoff.
DeleteThe new homes are safely above all of the water, it's the old-time residents that suffer.
DeleteWe looked at those houses and they don't come with gutters! We had a landscape guy take a look at the backyard and he expressed some concerns about the job. Apparently, the builders only put 1 drain in each yard and each of those drains ties in to a single output drain that spits out onto Fulvia. He was worried this could be challenging.
ReplyDeleteSo I'm just wondering how these new homes are doing with all this rain, especially the one that hasn't sold yet on the corner of Fulvia and Hymettus.
No gutters!
ReplyDeleteHow does that meet code?
Did the retention basin fill up?
There are flood pictures somewhere online. Maybe EV or Encinitas Current.
What is "EV?"
ReplyDeleteEncinitas Votes. Look at left near the top.
DeleteOne photo of Fulvia-Hymettus flood here:
ReplyDeletehttps://encinitascurrent.com/leucadia-floods-again/
Not the developer$' problem. They're exempted from infrastructural upgrades.
ReplyDeleteFulvia at Hymettus is a natural bowl with no downhill outlet for water. The depression is clearly marked on USGS topo maps. It collects water naturally until it can seep into the ground.
ReplyDeleteCity government isn’t responsible for geology.
Good reason not to build nine more houses there that contribute to the flooding.
DeleteSo, person A builds their home in a sink, and demands that everyone else must stop building on land they own.
DeleteNah.
So, 6:11, you're all for making the problem worse?
DeleteI’m against people whining about the logical consequences of their own mistakes, like buying a house in a natural depression.
DeleteIt’s not the job of the city to protect you from your own dumb decisions.
How would anyone know it flooded unless it was winter and raining?
DeleteAre you gonna blame everyone along Leucadia 101 where it floods?
See 8:18 for what happened.
How would anyone possibly know that water runs downhill during the dry season?
DeleteStep 1: Stand on the property.
Step 2: look in all directions.
Step 3: if the surrounding land is higher in elevation, don’t buy the property.
Step 4: If it’s unclear, look at a topo map.
Step 5: Consider that 30 years earlier, there were probably less houses in the area. Extrapolate forward the likelihood that 30 years in the future there will likely be even more.
Step 6: If after all this, you ignore the warning signs and buy the property anyway, don’t complain. You chose to buy real estate in a drainage basin. Good luck.
OK, so you do blame everybody along 101 where it floods and everybody else who lives in a valley or at the bottom of a hill.
DeleteThere's a drainage system at Fulvia-Hymettus that doesn't work.
Agree to disagree.
DeleteYou think local government should save people from the logical consequences of their own dumb decisions by taking away property rights from neighbors who were smart and bought on higher ground.
I believe that just reinforces and encourages people to make more stupid decisions, costs the city a fortune trying to fix nature, and usually doesn’t work anyway. Nature always wins.
10:06 You do see that you have a weak, prejudicial argument that makes no sense, right?
DeleteWater flows downhill.
DeleteIf you don’t think that makes sense, then I can’t help you.
1:45 You haven't addressed the point: How is it that plenty of people live in valleys and at the bottom of hills but don't get flooded out every time it rains?
DeleteThe answer is there are working drainage systems or other mitigating factors in those areas.
The drainage system at Fulvia-Hymettus doesn't work. That's not the residents' fault. Same along Leucadia 101.
Bottom of a hill is not a problem. Most valleys, also not a problem, unless they have very little slope and a broad, level floodplain on the valley floor.
DeleteFulvia is unique in that it is a natural dry pond. Water cannot drain, because it’s uphill in all directions. There is no dry creek bed that can carry water away downhill during a storm.
Leucadia naturally drains North to the lagoon. But there is virtually no slope, so water drains slowly. It’s so flat between Leucadia Blvd and the lagoon that sometimes it collects water faster than it can drain. There’s just no slope to drain it—it’s nature.
Some have proposed cutting a tunnel downhill through the bluff to the beach, but the CCC will never allow it. That would kill water quality. The plants in the lagoon filter and clean the urban runoff before it enters the ocean.
I’m not just being flip. Understanding how the natural landscape works is important.
Don’t buy a house or building where water naturally collects and then expect someone else to fix nature for you.
Then by this logic, we should abandon New Orleans.
Delete8:04 So then why did the city allow nine more houses uphill from the sink? There's some kind of drainage system at the intersection. It doesn't work.
DeleteAnd we are. Population of New Orleans is more than 20% lower than it was before Katrina.
DeleteWith sea level rise and increasing hurricane intensity, New Orleans will become a memory.
Re: New Orleans
DeleteThe only question is how much money and how many lives are lost in a futile attempt to fight nature and delay the inevitable.
6:11 Years ago, Person A was actually at a (several by now, I would guess), city council meeting talking about his problems with flooding and staff played dumb. There is a drainage system that hasn't been maintained. City Mark had a neighborhood meeting on the site with about 50 people and poo poo'd everyone's concerns about flooding.
ReplyDeleteSomewhere along the line, they stated that the housing development would actually improve the flooding conditions!
DeleteI do not live in that neighborhood, but I was there and I heard their claims. They said that they would solve the problem!
DeleteCity stain Mark strikes again.
ReplyDeleteOne would think after their debacle on north Hymettus or Hygeia where they spread toxic dust all over the streets making animals and kids sick and causing homeowners to move out of their own homes for their health, City stain Mark would have learned something.
Nope.
Their go to tool from Passco or whatever the firm is, assured the local residents that the flooding would be better controlled.
None of the residents believed him at the time and knew better.
Guess what? No big surprise there.
An utter fail by the city, planning, and everyone involved in letting City stain Mark royally f things up again.
Too bad certain builders cannot be banned from our city after repeated instances of bad faith like what City stain Mark has done. Rant over.
9:58, Who is "City stain Mark?" What year and month was the toxic dust? What is the actual name of the firm "Passco?".
DeleteI think they're referring to CityMark.
DeleteThere was a toxic dust issue at the Hymettus project:
https://encinitasundercover.blogspot.com/2011/08/toxaphene-manor-update.html
People get killed on Hwy101 all the time and the City doesn't do shit.
ReplyDeleteEven though there has been a plan for ten years, no bikelanes and people are maimed yearly. Why take care of a little bit of flooding before trying to save the nice pedestrians and bicyclists?
Bullshit, simply not true.
DeleteDouble BS- It is true and the City is so fucked up internally, they do nothing.
DeleteThe Roberta law suit will drop the hammer on the issue along with others like Stephanie and the many others that were run down but did not make the headlines. I have seen 5 incidents were bikes were hit by cars.
And how many died? Not that that's OK, but 6:21 is grossly exaggerating.
DeletePedestrians, bicyclists and other cars get hit all over the city. It's the nature of the beast. It's like fire — it happens, and there's just so much that can be done to prevent or limit it.
The more bicyclists there are the more car-bike crashes there will be, and the bikes will always lose.
Hi Tony.
ReplyDeleteOver at Encinitas Votes, a bunch of people express their outrage to each other. As one member posted a short time back, What good does that do? Well, none. She suggested showing up at City Council meetings and showing outrage there. Would that do any good? Maybe, if enough people very strongly expressed their outrage — get in the council's faces. Forget about being polite. That doesn't work.
ReplyDeletewave your hands in the air like you just don't care. How f'ng stupid.
DeleteI will clap if I want to. Blakespear can't make me wave my hands if I want to clap. That's B.S. Even Stocks didn't do that. 10:29 is right, polite does not work. Check out this weeks Coast News in the announcements section and see how many lawsuits citizens are going to have to pay money for. This is not the way to run a city.
ReplyDeleteIf you act like a douchebag, others like me will automatically take the other side.
DeleteDon’t act like a douchebag.
You won’t always get your way, spoiled child.
Blakespear needs to look in the mirror when doing her crazy jazz hands routine to see just how stupid it looks. Not that she would think it looks stupid, that's the problem.
Deleteknee jerk much, 11:23?
ReplyDeleteFrom crazy jazz hands to residents required to join the council's electric company.
ReplyDeleteThe new electric company run by city of San Diego and Chula Vista where Encinitas is a small, insignificant but paying member and has a Mayor Blakespear that likes being bossed and bullied around by the big cites while she bosses and bullies those who voted for her. More flooding and now more power outages to come by the incompetent Encinitas council.