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It likely will be summer before any formal talks about annexation start between the city and the Castlewood Property Owners Association, residents were told at their annual meeting last week.
The association currently is served by a service area administered by Alameda County, and board members and members at large have expressed their concerns about the management by the county. The county district provides management of water, sewer and roads for the about 200 property owners and country club located south of Pleasanton.
In 2024, the association sued the county over a $1.4 million surcharge public works wanted to charge for cost over-runs on upgrades to the water system. The settlement mandated a membership vote on the charge, as the association believed was required by state Proposition 218, and it was rejected by more than 90% of residents who voted.
The results were announced at the June 17 board meeting. The $1.4 million loan to the area is on the county’s books, although there has been no effort to collect it, according to board members presenting the night of Jan. 20.
Board members updated residents on a variety of subjects, including the formation and operation of a steering committee made up of a county public works staffer, a representative from Supervisor David Haubert’s office and a representative from the private Castlewood country club. It was formed in the fall and board members said they felt they were making progress through it.
There are two major items on the table for the Feb. 5 steering committee meeting including a few water-related issues with a reliable water supply during electrical power outages topping the list.
The new water tanks high on Pleasanton Ridge are served by pumps located north of the Castlewood Valley Course. If the electrical power is intentionally shut off by PG&E or fails in an emergency, there’s a finite supply of water in the tanks (300,000 gallons if both are full). If an outage happened during a structure fire or wildfire with high water demand, the pumps would need auxiliary power to run so there would be water to fight the blaze.
Currently there are two portable generators on trailers that must be plugged in manually if the power is out and started, after the management firm is contacted and sends an employee to do so. It’s a high priority for the association and supervisors Haubert and Nate Miley to put a sustainable, long term solution in place with permanent generators and an automatic system to refill the tanks.
The second big topic on tap for the steering committee is the county’s completed assessment of the private roads serving Castlewood, which determined it would require an estimated $3.3 million to rehabilitate them to meet standards. That’s about $15,000 per household and then there’s the $160,000 annual estimate to maintain them. More information is expected Feb. 5.
The water committee also is working on solutions to reduce or eliminate the pressure surges when the pumps start up and shutdown that may be linked to the nine pipe breaks that have occurred since the new tanks were finished. The pressure changes stress the pipe joints and likely weaken them over time.
Long-term issues, such as the potential annexation to Pleasanton, await the start of formal discussions. The Local Agency Formation Commission, which must approve the annexation, has allocated $10,000 toward consultant costs once the formal discussions begin.
The property owners board also is continuing to talk with the county public works about the $1.4 million loan, legal fees assessed from the settlement and other operational issues including costs of consultants and sub-contractors.
Editor’s note: Journalist Tim Hunt is a freelancer for the Pleasanton Weekly. Hunt and his family live in the Castlewood area.
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There are several types of pipe systems that are used in municiple water networks, and the most common failsafe joining method is a mechanical coupling designed to maintain a seal under ground movement, pressure surges, and aging infrastructure. The most widely used options include ductile iron or HDPE pipe paired with restrained mechanical systems, which utilities rely on to prevent catastrophic leaks. Fusion is another method for joining when the pipe is put down.
City owned tree ruptured my sanitary clay tile pipe, I put in a seamless pipe using fusion technology. I sent the city a claim for the $13K. City insurance reimbursed me.