Napa Valley Register
Napa flood control district wants to sell Soscol Avenue land
A half-acre of publicly-owned land north of the city of Napa’s Oxbow district that was declared surplus 20 years ago could finally go up for sale.
The Napa County Flood Control and Water Conservation District owns the property at Soscol Avenue and McKinstry Street. It is left over from land that was needed for the Napa River flood control project and a related Napa Valley Wine Train replacement parking lot.
In November 2005, the flood district board voted to surplus the half-acre at 1317 McKinstry St. so it could be sold. But nothing further happened.
At the time, the city of Napa was interested in buying the land to use as a parking lot, the flood district’s manager Rick Thomasser said recently. The sale never materialized.
That left the land in a long limbo. The district has let the nearby Westin Verasa Napa use the property for overflow parking. In return, the hotel mows and maintains it.
Now the district has decided to follow through on that surplus action from two decades ago.
“We’ve got a few different excess properties that over time we want to sell,” Thomasser said. “We don’t need them and we can use the revenue for finishing off the flood project.”
Under California law, the first step is to make the land available to local public agencies and affordable housing developers. If none of them buy it, it can then be sold on the open market.
The flood district is undertaking two projects to provide further 100-year flood protection to the city of Napa. These already have funding from the federal government and local sources.
One involves building flood walls along the western banks of the Napa River from the Oxbow district to north of Lincoln Avenue. Construction could start next year.
The other project involves building a flood wall along the western Napa River from Imola Avenue north along Riverside Drive to near downtown. It is to follow the Lincoln Avenue project.
Beyond those projects, the flood district wants to pursue further flood protection for the Oxbow area.
Napa County launched its Napa River flood control project in 1998 with the passage of the now-defunct Measure A half-cent flood control sales tax. Projects completed include the Oxbow Commons river bypass, bridge replacements, downtown Napa flood walls and floodplains.