YORBA LINDA : Drainage Problems Swamp Neighbors

Barbara Dickson’s back yard has become a mosquito haven. Gerald Smith had to have carpeting replaced in two rooms after the spring rains.

And both Los Altos Lane homeowners have spent several thousand dollars each, stockpiling sandbags and installing block walls and makeshift drainage systems to divert the runoff that flows constantly onto their properties from their uphill neighbors.

For about a dozen years, residents of Los Altos Lane have been plagued by water and debris from the upper neighborhoods washing down onto their properties. A constant stream of water trickles down trenches in Dickson’s and Smith’s yards.

During the heavy rains last winter, the runoff swelled into a torrent of water that flooded Smith’s home of 13 years and forced Dickson to use sandbags to protect hers. Dickson said the water was three feet deep in her yard at times.

Dickson, a 14-year resident of the neighborhood, has also had to call the Orange County Vector Control District to rid swarms of mosquitoes attracted to the standing water in her back yard.

Now, Dickson, Smith and their neighbors worry that construction of a home on Mountain View Avenue, above Los Altos, will produce even more runoff and worsen the drainage problems. “We’re afraid we’re going to have a house full of water,” said Dickson’s husband, Ron.

The residents say the city should install a pipe to divert the drainage from their homes. City officials, however, say they can’t do much because Los Altos is a private street.

Public Works Director Roy Stephenson said that although the city can’t spend any money on improvement of the private street, the Public Works Department is willing to work with the residents in an advisory manner to help them install pipes and a catch basin.

Another solution would be to build curbs and gutters, but homeowners have opposed such street improvements in an attempt to preserve the rural atmosphere of the neighborhood, he said.

The homeowners contend that they shouldn’t have to pay for the improvements, and that the city should take responsibility because it originally approved development of the tract a couple of decades ago. The residents contend that the original developer installed the substandard drainage pipe that sends the water onto their properties.