Anchor ads are not supported on this page.

4S Ranch Allied Gardens Alpine Baja Balboa Park Bankers Hill Barrio Logan Bay Ho Bay Park Black Mountain Ranch Blossom Valley Bonita Bonsall Borrego Springs Boulevard Campo Cardiff-by-the-Sea Carlsbad Carmel Mountain Carmel Valley Chollas View Chula Vista City College City Heights Clairemont College Area Coronado CSU San Marcos Cuyamaca College Del Cerro Del Mar Descanso Downtown San Diego Eastlake East Village El Cajon Emerald Hills Encanto Encinitas Escondido Fallbrook Fletcher Hills Golden Hill Grant Hill Grantville Grossmont College Guatay Harbor Island Hillcrest Imperial Beach Imperial Valley Jacumba Jamacha-Lomita Jamul Julian Kearny Mesa Kensington La Jolla Lakeside La Mesa Lemon Grove Leucadia Liberty Station Lincoln Acres Lincoln Park Linda Vista Little Italy Logan Heights Mesa College Midway District MiraCosta College Miramar Miramar College Mira Mesa Mission Beach Mission Hills Mission Valley Mountain View Mount Hope Mount Laguna National City Nestor Normal Heights North Park Oak Park Ocean Beach Oceanside Old Town Otay Mesa Pacific Beach Pala Palomar College Palomar Mountain Paradise Hills Pauma Valley Pine Valley Point Loma Point Loma Nazarene Potrero Poway Rainbow Ramona Rancho Bernardo Rancho Penasquitos Rancho San Diego Rancho Santa Fe Rolando San Carlos San Marcos San Onofre Santa Ysabel Santee San Ysidro Scripps Ranch SDSU Serra Mesa Shelltown Shelter Island Sherman Heights Skyline Solana Beach Sorrento Valley Southcrest South Park Southwestern College Spring Valley Stockton Talmadge Temecula Tierrasanta Tijuana UCSD University City University Heights USD Valencia Park Valley Center Vista Warner Springs

No one wants Lakeside's Linden Road

“Visitors have such a hard time driving in”

Linden Road. “Sometimes people fight too much about who owns it.”
Linden Road. “Sometimes people fight too much about who owns it.”

Carlos Contreras stands at the edge of a roadway that looks like a combination of sinkholes and earthquake damage. He points up the short, narrow street to a nice looking, well-kept house with a For Sale sign on it.

“People who come to look at my house, half can’t even get to it, the road is so bad,” Contreras says. “The county says they don’t own the road, but all the flooding water comes from roads the county does own and comes right down to Linden Road. Their road problems caused ours.”

Residents on the short road in Lakeside north of Bostonia have much to complain about. You can still see fragments of paving that haven’t snapped off and are covered with dried sediment. There are broad deep fractures and holes where sedans bottom out.

With the enormous rainfall in the past year, residents have seen more than a foot of standing water, sometimes for more than a day.

Sponsored
Sponsored

“My neighbors and I talk about putting some money together and paving it,” Contreras says. “But next rains, the road will fill up a foot deep like last time and just stand here. When it’s dry, the road looks like this.”

Some residents built their own retaining walls, which help the individual property but redirect water downhill, to Linden Road, neighbors say.

Who owns the road seems in dispute. At a meeting with residents a few weeks back, county public works staff said the county does not — which was echoed by Supervisor Dianne Jacob.

An old-timer told Contreras that the county maintained for a while and then withdrew from ownership and stopped maintaining it. The stretch of road that is now private is the low point east of Winter Gardens Boulevard in a mildly sloped subdivision.

“Sometimes people fight too much about who owns it,” he said. “The problem is the county has no stormwater drains even on the roads it owns so when it rains all the water comes to our street.“

A California Highway Patrol officer once pulled a resident over and wrote him a ticket, telling the resident: this is county-owned road.

The stretch of road is just east of Winter Gardens Boulevard, north of Royal. The turn in is marked by the Coo Coo Club, a self-described dive bar with karaoke every night, and the road becomes difficult just a few feet east of the intersection.

James, a resident for just a few months, said he goes out to Winter Gardens to meet people and walk them back to Linden Road. “It’s just easier,” he said. “They have such a hard time driving in and they’re shaky when they park and get out of the car.”

Earlier this month, officials from the Regional Water Quality Control Board went out to meet with residents and county officials, according to the water board’s senior engineer Laurie Walsh. The board is now involved because the problem has to do with pollutants in storm water run-off.

“The development there has been done piecemeal over time and now it doesn’t function very well,” Walsh said. “We can look at this on a watershed basis – these are watershed issues – that are complicated by the difference between public and private roads.”

For Contreras, the slow movement to a possible resolution doesn’t help him much.

My realtor says that’s why no one makes an offer,” Contreras says. “Can you imagine what would happen if a mover’s truck or emergency vehicle came through?”

The latest copy of the Reader

Here's something you might be interested in.
Submit a free classified
or view all
Previous article

Reader writer Chris Ahrens tells the story of Windansea

The shack is a landmark declaring, “The best break in the area is out there.”
Next Article

East San Diego County has only one bike lane

So you can get out of town – from Santee to Tierrasanta
Linden Road. “Sometimes people fight too much about who owns it.”
Linden Road. “Sometimes people fight too much about who owns it.”

Carlos Contreras stands at the edge of a roadway that looks like a combination of sinkholes and earthquake damage. He points up the short, narrow street to a nice looking, well-kept house with a For Sale sign on it.

“People who come to look at my house, half can’t even get to it, the road is so bad,” Contreras says. “The county says they don’t own the road, but all the flooding water comes from roads the county does own and comes right down to Linden Road. Their road problems caused ours.”

Residents on the short road in Lakeside north of Bostonia have much to complain about. You can still see fragments of paving that haven’t snapped off and are covered with dried sediment. There are broad deep fractures and holes where sedans bottom out.

With the enormous rainfall in the past year, residents have seen more than a foot of standing water, sometimes for more than a day.

Sponsored
Sponsored

“My neighbors and I talk about putting some money together and paving it,” Contreras says. “But next rains, the road will fill up a foot deep like last time and just stand here. When it’s dry, the road looks like this.”

Some residents built their own retaining walls, which help the individual property but redirect water downhill, to Linden Road, neighbors say.

Who owns the road seems in dispute. At a meeting with residents a few weeks back, county public works staff said the county does not — which was echoed by Supervisor Dianne Jacob.

An old-timer told Contreras that the county maintained for a while and then withdrew from ownership and stopped maintaining it. The stretch of road that is now private is the low point east of Winter Gardens Boulevard in a mildly sloped subdivision.

“Sometimes people fight too much about who owns it,” he said. “The problem is the county has no stormwater drains even on the roads it owns so when it rains all the water comes to our street.“

A California Highway Patrol officer once pulled a resident over and wrote him a ticket, telling the resident: this is county-owned road.

The stretch of road is just east of Winter Gardens Boulevard, north of Royal. The turn in is marked by the Coo Coo Club, a self-described dive bar with karaoke every night, and the road becomes difficult just a few feet east of the intersection.

James, a resident for just a few months, said he goes out to Winter Gardens to meet people and walk them back to Linden Road. “It’s just easier,” he said. “They have such a hard time driving in and they’re shaky when they park and get out of the car.”

Earlier this month, officials from the Regional Water Quality Control Board went out to meet with residents and county officials, according to the water board’s senior engineer Laurie Walsh. The board is now involved because the problem has to do with pollutants in storm water run-off.

“The development there has been done piecemeal over time and now it doesn’t function very well,” Walsh said. “We can look at this on a watershed basis – these are watershed issues – that are complicated by the difference between public and private roads.”

For Contreras, the slow movement to a possible resolution doesn’t help him much.

My realtor says that’s why no one makes an offer,” Contreras says. “Can you imagine what would happen if a mover’s truck or emergency vehicle came through?”

Comments
Sponsored

The latest copy of the Reader

Here's something you might be interested in.
Submit a free classified
or view all
Previous article

Reader writer Chris Ahrens tells the story of Windansea

The shack is a landmark declaring, “The best break in the area is out there.”
Next Article

Hike off those holiday calories, Poinsettias are peaking

Winter Solstice is here and what is winter?
Comments
Ask a Hipster — Advice you didn't know you needed Big Screen — Movie commentary Blurt — Music's inside track Booze News — San Diego spirits Classical Music — Immortal beauty Classifieds — Free and easy Cover Stories — Front-page features Drinks All Around — Bartenders' drink recipes Excerpts — Literary and spiritual excerpts Feast! — Food & drink reviews Feature Stories — Local news & stories Fishing Report — What’s getting hooked from ship and shore From the Archives — Spotlight on the past Golden Dreams — Talk of the town The Gonzo Report — Making the musical scene, or at least reporting from it Letters — Our inbox Movies@Home — Local movie buffs share favorites Movie Reviews — Our critics' picks and pans Musician Interviews — Up close with local artists Neighborhood News from Stringers — Hyperlocal news News Ticker — News & politics Obermeyer — San Diego politics illustrated Outdoors — Weekly changes in flora and fauna Overheard in San Diego — Eavesdropping illustrated Poetry — The old and the new Reader Travel — Travel section built by travelers Reading — The hunt for intellectuals Roam-O-Rama — SoCal's best hiking/biking trails San Diego Beer — Inside San Diego suds SD on the QT — Almost factual news Sheep and Goats — Places of worship Special Issues — The best of Street Style — San Diego streets have style Surf Diego — Real stories from those braving the waves Theater — On stage in San Diego this week Tin Fork — Silver spoon alternative Under the Radar — Matt Potter's undercover work Unforgettable — Long-ago San Diego Unreal Estate — San Diego's priciest pads Your Week — Daily event picks
4S Ranch Allied Gardens Alpine Baja Balboa Park Bankers Hill Barrio Logan Bay Ho Bay Park Black Mountain Ranch Blossom Valley Bonita Bonsall Borrego Springs Boulevard Campo Cardiff-by-the-Sea Carlsbad Carmel Mountain Carmel Valley Chollas View Chula Vista City College City Heights Clairemont College Area Coronado CSU San Marcos Cuyamaca College Del Cerro Del Mar Descanso Downtown San Diego Eastlake East Village El Cajon Emerald Hills Encanto Encinitas Escondido Fallbrook Fletcher Hills Golden Hill Grant Hill Grantville Grossmont College Guatay Harbor Island Hillcrest Imperial Beach Imperial Valley Jacumba Jamacha-Lomita Jamul Julian Kearny Mesa Kensington La Jolla Lakeside La Mesa Lemon Grove Leucadia Liberty Station Lincoln Acres Lincoln Park Linda Vista Little Italy Logan Heights Mesa College Midway District MiraCosta College Miramar Miramar College Mira Mesa Mission Beach Mission Hills Mission Valley Mountain View Mount Hope Mount Laguna National City Nestor Normal Heights North Park Oak Park Ocean Beach Oceanside Old Town Otay Mesa Pacific Beach Pala Palomar College Palomar Mountain Paradise Hills Pauma Valley Pine Valley Point Loma Point Loma Nazarene Potrero Poway Rainbow Ramona Rancho Bernardo Rancho Penasquitos Rancho San Diego Rancho Santa Fe Rolando San Carlos San Marcos San Onofre Santa Ysabel Santee San Ysidro Scripps Ranch SDSU Serra Mesa Shelltown Shelter Island Sherman Heights Skyline Solana Beach Sorrento Valley Southcrest South Park Southwestern College Spring Valley Stockton Talmadge Temecula Tierrasanta Tijuana UCSD University City University Heights USD Valencia Park Valley Center Vista Warner Springs
Close

Anchor ads are not supported on this page.

This Week’s Reader This Week’s Reader