CA: Homes approved near river with 'superlevee' protection

Sac Bee ^ | 6/27/06 | Matt Weiser

[NormsRevenge]

State flood-control officials gave a green light Monday to a developer's plan to build luxury homes atop a massive new levee in San Joaquin County. The vote by the California Reclamation Board allows the River Islands project in Lathrop to move ahead with the first phase of a development that will eventually include 11,000 homes on Stewart Tract, an island in the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta.

The developer, British-owned Cambay Group, plans to build 224 of those homes on top of a new 300-foot-wide "superlevee" overlooking the San Joaquin River.

The Reclamation Board approved an encroachment permit that determines where private structures can be built on the levee. It reserves 60 feet of space inland from the San Joaquin River for levee maintenance. But critics said it could open the door to more development in the Delta and expose thousands more people to flood risk.

"I believe they have insulted the public, and I believe they have permitted projects that are injurious to the public," said Tom Foley, president of Concerned Citizens for Responsible Growth, a Marysville-based group that opposes the project.

[NormsRevenge]

Sacramento Bee file, 2005/Bryan Patrick

Construction of a new levee protecting what will eventually be an 11,000-home development near Lathrop was under way in what's known as the Stewart Tract in October 2005. On Monday, state flood-control officials gave approval for the placement of luxury homes in the River Islands project atop a 300-foot-wide berm.

[jiggyboy]

Thank heavens, 11,000 more homes in California, all to be replaced within a decade at taxpayer expense.

[PC99]

Classic case of willfull self-deception. Every player in this saga is sleepwalking into inevitable disaster - the local governments, the developers, the homebuyers, and the insurers. There is at least some admission of the risks that would not have been forthcoming if not for the New Orleans disaster, but the residents of these areas are still in mondo denial.

[Mike Darancette]

Where I live in CA they are building houses on a creek's flood plain. The canyon the creek flows from has had period of rainfall over 10in/hr.

[tertiary01]

Plus like New Orleans, California Delta lands tend to sink as well. Many tracts are well below the normal low water marks of the rivers and sloughs next to them.