A Chronology of the North Stairs
Sausalito Infrastructure is deplorable and the current incumbents have done NOTHING TO MITIGATE the problem. The City is now studying an infrastructure bond for Sausalito taxpayers . (What happened to the sales tax revenue?) This bond was conceived by a committee composed of some of the same people who gave up 45% of our property taxes to Southern Marin Fire and were involved in the SCA deal. With over $90 million in deferred maintenance, our City is literally rotting before our eyes. . Sewers are leaking, hills are sliding, sidewalks are hazardous and roads are full of potholes. Below is an illustration of how our Sausalito handles dangerous infrastructure problems with damaged houses, lawsuits and blocked evacuation routes. When will the City and its “leaders” take responsibility instead of burdening the taxpayers with incompetence and taxing the hell out of them?
February 2017. The City’s overgrown acacia trees along the North Stairs were uprooted with no permanent remediation performed by the City to repair the hill. The North Stairs are a designated Disaster Evacuation Route.
January 2019 The City’s 75 foot Stone Pine tree at the top of the North Stairs fell on the residence at 201 North St. The aborist reported the tree was rotted where the trunk met the soil, from too much ground water. Months before, homeowners on each side of the North Stair offered to finance its removal but the City said NO!
February 2019 One month later the AT&T utility box along Josephine Street was gushing water during a rainstorm. A suspected 8-inch storm drain line under the street running from Atwood down Josephine was leaking. Water was also coming out of the North Stairs. The CIty did nothing.
March 2019 One month later, a major landslide occurred on Sausalito Boulevard. During the same storm, the City’s acacia trees which were left uprooted from the previous slide at the North Stairs went down and created a landslide. These trees remained at the top of the previous slide/cut from February 2017.
April 2019 One month later in the springtime when the ground was dry, the homeowners along Josephine Street tested the 8-inch storm drain line running under Josephine St. An 800 gallon water truck deposited water in the Atwood catch basin that feeds down Josephine Street to the North St catch basin. Within minutes the dry AT&T box filled with water. Interim DPW Director Dave Bracken was made aware and agreed there must be a break in the line given the water test during the dry season (AT&T box in blue)
September 2020 One year later, a $400,000 new retaining wall was completed by the adjacent homeowner to protect their rear yard which was undermined by the second City slide in two years along the North Stair. The City declined to permanently repair their hill-instead, rolled jute down their 70 degree slide area in an attempt to maintain their hillside. It was advised that the jute would not hold the hill and a year later the City’s North Stair hillside slid again.
December 2022 After the storm of the season, the 3rd slide occurred in 4 years and a 4 foot deep sink hole appeared on the City property along the North Stairs. The yard at 6 Josephine was further undermined, the North Stair hillside slid again and remains unstable to this day. Th North Stairs (a City designated evacuation route) is closed for the 3rd time.
January 2023 Josephine homeowners retained a civil engineer who inspected the storm drain system again with video and located a break in the storm drain underneath Josephine Street as was suspected and tested in 2019. 3 slides in 4 years- the North Stair hillside remains unrepaired and unstable. The 8 inch storm drain has not been repaired. The white X marks the location of the break just upstream from the AT&T box.
May 2024 LAWSUIT SETTLEMENT WITH THE CITY OF SAUSALITO
The City is required to repair the North Stair hillside and repair/replace the underground storm sewer running from Atwood down Josephine to major catch basins at North and Josephine which ultimately runs into the Bay.
In December 2023, the City lost its liability insurance having been jettisoned from the Tiburon/Belvedere/Mill Valley insurance pool costing the City over a million dollars in additional premiums and a higher self insurance/deductible of $500,000 per occurrence.
The cost to the City of this settlement was over $600,000 primarily extracted from the city general fund and cobbled together from other funds/separate accounts (stair fund, capital projects fund, etc) as noted in the City Council budget meetings. It includes reimbursing plaintiff‘s legal costs.
September 2024
North Stair Slide repair completed but….
Contractor excluded irrigating the applied mulch and the City did not want to issue a change order so neighbors are paying to irrigate the hillside mulch until winter
An abundance of water is still pouring down the North Stairs as it has for years. The City claimed the major 12-inch storm drain running from North/Josephine under the North Stairs to the Bay was in good condition. However, the neighbors commissioned a “dye test” which established the sewer line is broken . Subsequently this was confirmed by cameras used by the City. The City states they will replace the line out to the Bay before winter 2024/2025.
The North Stairs, a Sausalito designated Evacuation Route, have been substantially closed over the past 5 years and remain so until the 12-inch main storm sewer line running 200 feet underground down the Stairs and exiting into the Bay has been repaired/replaced. Cost to repair this major drain will be significant but is unknown at this time. The big question is: Where are the funds in the City budget?