SHERMAN OAKS : County OKs Money for Storm Drain

The Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors has approved construction of a $1.7-million storm drain for the Woodcliff area of Sherman Oaks, a neighborhood plagued by flooding for years.

“It’s been a long time in coming,” said Richard Close, president of the Sherman Oaks Homeowners Assn. “It’s been a continuing problem and it’s not getting any better.”

Bids for the project are expected to go out in March, said Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky, the former Los Angeles city councilman who worked for years to resolve the problem.

The project must be approved by the city of Los Angeles and the county’s Department of Public Works, Yaroslavsky said.

The money will come from the county’s Flood Control District.

The proposed drain would run along Saugus Avenue and Valley Vista Boulevard as well as Deerhorn Drive and Woodcliff Road, he said.

The project would involve laying 1.2 miles of reinforced concrete pipe that would connect with an existing county storm drain system at Sutton Street and Saugus.

When the neighborhood was built in the 1950s, it was considered too expensive to install flood-control drainage, Close said.

Meanwhile, according to Yaroslavsky, supervisors have also approved a separate agreement with the city of Los Angeles for construction of a sewer main on Burnet Avenue, from Plummer Street to Lassen Street, near the Arleta and Panorama City areas.

The project will be part of a proposed storm drain system to be administered by the Department of Public Works.