The agency charged with improving flood protection around San Francisquito Creek is preparing for its next ambitious project and the public is invited to weigh in.

The San Francisquito Creek Joint Powers Authority, which includes elected officials from Palo Alto, Menlo Park, East Palo Alto and water agencies from San Mateo and Santa Clara counties, is getting ready to kick off the environmental analysis for improvements upstream of the creek. In the coming weeks, the agency plans to hold three public meetings to ask residents for input about the project's objectives and the alternatives to be analyzed.

The upstream effort is the second major project for the creek authority, which last year began construction downstream of the flood-prone creek. The downstream project includes a reconstruction of levees near the Palo Alto Municipal Golf Course, removal of debris and the widening of a channel to increase the creek's capacity and protect the particularly vulnerable neighborhoods in East Palo Alto, which were flooded in a major storm in February 1998.

The upstream projects will build on these efforts by adding further flood-control measures. According to the creek authority's “notice of preparation,” the objectives are to protect property and infrastructure from floodwaters exiting the creek; enhance the habitat within the project area, particularly for endangered species; create new recreational opportunities; minimize operational and maintenance requirements; and identify ways to make improvements that would not preclude further actions that would “bring the cumulative flood protection up to a 100-year flow event.”

To do that, the creek authority is considering five alternatives (along with the state-mandated “no action” alternative). One would be to modify the Pope-Chaucer bridge and to widen creek channel bottlenecks immediately upstream of the West Bayshore Road Bridge and between Newell Road Bridge and Euclid Avenue. Under this alternative, the Pope-Chaucer bridge (which also flooded in 1998) would be replaced to convey the flow at this location.

Two other alternatives would aim to catch the water before it gets to the residential areas, either through upstream detention basins or through an underground bypass culvert. Another option is constructing flood walls along the channel between Highway 101 and the Pope-Chaucer bridge.

The San Francisquito Creek Joint Powers Authority (SFCJPA) will host public meetings in the cities of East Palo Alto, Menlo Park and Palo Alto at the times and locations listed below to present initial planning on the scope of potential capital improvements along San Francisquito Creek upstream (west) of Highway 101. The SFCJPA and partners are soliciting the public’s input on the project’s objectives, environmental issues and the alternatives to be analyzed.

The first of the three meetings will be held on Jan. 18 at 6:30 p.m. at the Laurel School Upper Campus Atrium Room, 275 Elliott Drive in Menlo Park. Meetings also will be held on Jan. 26 at 7 p.m. in the East Palo Alto City Hall Community Room, 2415 University Ave., East Palo Alto; and on Jan. 31 at 7 p.m. at the Palo Alto Art Center Auditorium, 1313 Newell Road.

Residents also can send comments to the SFCJPA, at 615-B Menlo Avenue, Menlo Park, CA 94025 or by email to: comments@sfcjpa.org. Comments are due by Feb. 21.

For more information, see sfcjpa.org.