Residents near a landslide in the Santa Cruz Mountains that took place earlier this year will soon have access to a temporary road as they wait for the county to procure at least $3 million to fund a permanent, long-term repair.
The landslide began moving slowly in February on Mountain Charlie Road south of the Lexington Reservoir in unincorporated Santa Cruz County, and since then has blocked residents’ access to essential services and in some cases has added hours to their commutes to work and school.
Steve Wiesner, assistant director of public works for Santa Cruz County, said at a community meeting on Aug. 8 that the county has set aside about $500,000 in Measure D funds to build the temporary road. Voters in 2016 approved Measure D, a half-cent sales tax that has funded various transportation projects in the county.
“I will share with the community that this money has traditionally been used for our pavement management program, and so what that really means is that a lot of the projects that we would normally be doing on an annual basis up in the San Lorenzo Valley and greater Scotts Valley area aren’t going to get done,” Wiesner said at the meeting. “So this is a big sacrifice for the rest of the community to provide funding for this temporary road.”
The construction began on Monday, Aug. 12, and will last about four to six weeks, officials said.
Though county officials have said they’ve notified local firefighting agencies of the unique circumstances for the community, residents, who have Los Gatos addresses, are still worried about their ability to evacuate if a serious fire does affect their neighborhood.
“That’s been one of my biggest fears,” resident Debbie Robinson said.
Residents who live south of the landslide have until recently been walking across the fractured road to get to their cars parked on the other side of the slide to avoid having to drive in the wrong direction to take a detour to reach Los Gatos, where many work and attend school.
But with the construction, county officials have restricted pedestrian access on the slide from 8 a.m. to noon and 12:30 p.m. to 6 p.m. to allow construction crews to work on the project.
“Cooperation from the community would be incredibly appreciated,” Wiesner said.
Santa Cruz County officials are also continuing to work on getting funding from outside sources for the long-term repairs to the slide.
Public works director Matt Machado said the Mountain Charlie Road slide is on the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s damage inventory list, and he’s working on setting up a field review with FEMA to get financial assistance for the project, though that process could take “a couple years.”
“They will have to obligate funds for the project, which is a very slow process, and if the past is any indication of the future, in 2023 back in January we had about 200 project sites with damage and not one of those has been obligated,” he said.
