By Jeff DeLong • Reno Gazzette-Journal
jdelong@rgj.com • Posted January 22, 2010
The Flood Project Coordinating Committee voted to accelerate plans to raise the home foundations, from 2 to 8 feet, in Hidden Valley and the nearby Eastside subdivision as soon as this summer.
It's part of a larger, eight-year effort that could eventually spend $10 million to elevate 115 homes that are threatened frequently by flooding of Steamboat Creek. Many sustained damage from the floods of 1997 and 2005.
"This has been a long time coming," said Naomi Duerr, director of the Truckee River Flood Project. "We not only get flood protection early, but we're looking at the most efficient way to get this done."
Earlier plans called for protecting Hidden Valley by building a $58 million levee.
Homes that cannot be raised could be purchased or moved.
The home elevations are among projects for which the committee is using local funding, separate from the much larger $1.5 billion Truckee River Flood Project that is under federal review and is not expected to be authorized until 2012
Other fast-track projects include construction of a levee to protect the Reno-Sparks Indian Colony, completed last year, and restoring the Mustang Ranch, now under way.
Buzz Harris of the Associated General Contractors praised a project he said will provide needed construction jobs.
"We see this as an opportunity to put some of these people who have been out of work for quite a time back to work," Harris said.
Some Rosewood Lakes homeowners, also plagued by regular flooding, also want homes elevated, Duerr said.