Fixing the flooding problem in northwest Richmond’s Parchester Village is a priority, city officials say, but it may take millions of dollars and years to complete, according to the Department of Public Works.
The department gave a presentation on the issue at Tuesday’s City Council meeting after a number of items were postponed until the April 22 meeting, including a public hearing regarding which union should represent eight new community intervention specialist positions.
Last month, the Richmond City Council allocated $500,000 left over from the 2023-24 budget to pay for the first part of a Parchester Village-Giant Highway Infrastructure Master Plan that will outline how the city can address the constant flooding during heavy rains and king tides, fix aging utility systems and pavement, and improve pedestrian and bicycle access.
Janney Lockman, associate planner with the Department of Public Works, said during the presentation that the city plans on opening up the bidding process for consulting firms in the coming months and stressed how the city has historically underinvested in the neighborhood, which was the first California city to sell homes to the African-American community after World War II.
“This neighborhood has had historic underinvestment, especially in infrastructure, due to segregation,” Lockman said. “The work that we are planning to do today cannot undo decades of underinvestment but it can begin to change the course for the future.”
Lockman said that the department expects to complete the plan in two phases: a planning phase to collect data on the existing conditions, make work recommendations and cost estimates and get community input; and a phase that would make high priority improvements and pursue grant funds for additional work.
“The bad news is public works estimates that addressing the storm drainage alone will cost $10 (million) to $50 million,” she said. “We currently have $500,000, which will cover the cost of the study.”
The department expects to present the council with a finalized study in early 2026.
Lifelong resident and Vice President of the Parchester Village Neighborhood Council Lori Hart questioned the timeline, saying the council should allocate funding from the upcoming fiscal year’s budget.
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“The work that we are planning to do today cannot undo decades of underinvestment but it can begin to change the course for the future.”
— Janney Lockman, associate planner, Richmond Public Works
“If you are looking at waiting till 2027 (to budget the money) then that’s not going to work. Can you or will you prioritize a portion to be set aside for this, understanding that you don’t know the full costs between the $10 (million) and $50 million?” she said. “We don’t want to wait until 2027 to start looking at ways to fund this. That can’t happen because then we are looking at possibly 2030 to get something done in Parchester, which is unacceptable.”
District 2 council member Cesar Zepeda, whose district includes Parchester Village, said that he hopes the plan will address emergency access into the neighborhood, which only has two entrances along Collins Avenue and Griffin and Phanor drives.
“I still believe there’s an opportunity to put in an underpass or overpass somewhere in the area,” he said. “Along with all of these (updates), we can make Parchester pretty, open and welcoming, but if people can’t go in and out safely then we are just locking them in an unsafe location that looks pretty.”
Zepeda thanked public works for recently installing mobile pumps on Collins Avenue that will pump water from flood-prone areas but said additional work should be completed this summer.
Daniel Chavarria, director of Public Works, said the most time-consuming aspect of the project is figuring out where new drainage will be installed.
The process requires mapping out the location and depths of current utility lines in the neighborhood.
“We know the general location of them but not the depth. I’ve been on different projects like this in the past and can tell you, you have to do this unless you want to take the risk,” he said. “Public Works is not willing to take that risk because we are talking about human lives.”
Chavarria said that staff will work with the hired consultant to figure out which parts of the neighborhood are least likely to require underground work so they can, for example, begin with pavement and sidewalk improvement programs, assuming the city approves the budget for it.
“What benefit would it be to fix a roadway that we know a year and a half later we’re going to have to dig out and put in a new pipe,” he said. “The idea is that we are going to have to do temporary fixes until we are ready to do that pipe installation.”
District 3 council member Doria Robinson said she understands the “programmatic” approach that Public Works has emphasized in recent years but hopes that the department and the incoming consultant will try to take incremental steps to address some of the long standing issues, so residents don’t have to wait for everything to be done all at once.
Wow, $500,000 or half a million dollars for a study. It seems the problems and potential solutions are pretty well known and maybe that money could be used for some interim fixes.