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Taking aim at repairing damaged infrastructure and reducing future disaster risks, the San Benito County Board of Supervisors on Jan. 27 approved an $11 million federally funded package of road and environmental projects.
The work includes repairs to four county roads, cleanup of the Pacheco and San Juan creeks and a watershed study of Pacheco Creek.
The roads slated for improvements are Lovers Lane, Shore Road, Salinas Road and Cienaga Road. The plan aims to repair Lovers Lane, which was severely damaged in the storms that hit the county between February and April 2023. Work will also be done to mitigate future disasters.
County Executive Officer Esperanza Colio Warren told the supervisors the funding totals $11.4 million, but could increase by $5.6 million, bringing the total to $17 million, if other jurisdictions in the state receiving funding fall behind on their projects.
“The $11.4 million is sure,” Colio Warren said. “What we’re going to submit to the state are going to be potential projects that we might be able to get additional funding for.”
The funds were tied to the approval of the county’s Housing Element, the state-mandated housing plan for the coming years. The money was unlocked when the board approved the Housing Element on Jan. 13.
Though managed by the California Department of Housing and Community Development, the funding was appropriated by Congress and allocated to the county by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.
After reviewing past disaster allocations, both the state and federal agencies determined that more funds were available following the 2023 storms, and decided that San Benito County will receive $1.9 million more for disaster recovery and $9.5 million more for mitigation and resilience efforts.
At the recommendation of Public Works Administrator and County Engineer Steve Loupe, the supervisors approved $1.9 million in disaster recovery funds for repairs on Lovers Lane.
The remaining $9.5 million will be split; $8 million will go toward improvements on Shore Road—the section between Frazier Lake Road and Hwy 25—as well as Salinas Road and Cienaga Road, and $1.5 million will fund cleaning the Pacheco and San Juan creeks, as well as a watershed study to evaluate how much water Pacheco Creek can hold during storms, particularly near Lovers Lane and San Felipe Road. The study will also look at the creek’s overall capacity and the adequacy of its levees.
If the county receives the additional $5.6 million it is applying for, those funds will be used to improve Bitterwater Road, which connects South County and Hwy 25 to King City.
Following the supervisors’ approval, county staff will submit the proposed projects to the Department of Housing and Community Development in the coming days. If the projects meet the state’s criteria, they will be formally approved.
Besides this grant, the county also received a $7.6 million federal grant for road safety projects. The supervisors have not yet decided how those funds will be spent, and specific projects have not yet been selected. But among the roads mentioned in the Department of Transportation list of grant awardees are Fairview Road, San Justo Road, Fallon Road, Cienega Road and Shore Road.
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