Adapting to Rising Tides (ART) Bay Area Working Group Meeting #7 January 23, 2019 San Mateo County Center 555 Marshall Street, Redwood City 94063 Meeting Goals: • Share profile sheets for South Bay/Peninsula/San Francisco OLUs • Vet vulnerability and consequence statements for each profile sheet • Introduce Define step • Workshop issue statements for each profile sheet 9:00-9:30 Welcome and Introduction: Presentation (Dana Brechwald) • Meeting objectives and agenda • Updates on relevant projects in the area • Introduce Define Step • Working Group Member Updates: o Jeremy Smith (Stanford University: Sustainable Urban Systems) § The Stanford SURF tool can be used to model annual average loss to homes in flood areas § Working in North Fair Oaks and East Palo Alto on identifying and defining in depth vulnerabilities to then work towards adaptation strategies o Tess Byler (San Francisquito Creek Joint Powers Authority) § SFCJPA has developed strategies to advance sea level rise adaptation • SAFER Bay released in 2016 • SAFER Palo Alto to be released in the next month o Julie Weiss (City of Palo Alto) § City of Palo Alto has developed their sea level rise policy § To be released for public review in February and will go to City Council in April § This policy built out on existing vulnerability assessment that was performed by City Parks § Includes conceptual design for a horizontal levee at end of Embarcadero Road o Marcus Griswold (San Mateo County Office of Sustainability) § The SMC Office of Sustainability has been working to require capital one investment projects to address sea level rise § Currently testing this at Coyote Point with a sea level rise vulnerability assessment plan o Jasneet Sharma (San Mateo County Office of Sustainability) § Climate Ready San Mateo County to launch next Wednesday, January 30th o Heather Dennis (San Francisco Bay Conservation and Development Commission) § In launch phase of East Palo Alto and Dumbarton Bridge Resilience Study SB1 with MTC, Coastal Conservancy, CalTrans, San Francisquito Creek Joint Powers Authority, and BARC to identify adaptation strategies to protect the City of East Palo Alto and the Dumbarton Bridge west approach 1 Adapting to Rising Tides (ART) Bay Area Working Group Meeting #7 January 23, 2019 o Maggie Wenger (City and County of San Francisco) § City-wide vulnerability and consequence assessment to go to City review in March and will be public this Summer § In the process of consultant selection for SB1 project at Islais Creek and the first workshop will be in March SB1 o Michael Barber (Supervisor Pine) § In the process of reforming the San Mateo County Flood District to a Flood and Sea Level Rise Resiliency agency § Will be one of the first agencies in the state of its kind that is addressing sea level rise and flooding § Planned launch: July 1 o Mary Deschene (San Francisco Bay Wildlife Society) § Organization that partners with the Don Edwards San Francisco Bay Wildlife Refuge § Working to increase access points to the Refuge o Nixon Lam (San Francisco International Airport) § Have completed conceptual design for shoreline protection project § Plan to initiate the environmental review process and CEQA this summer • Questions on Presentation: o None 9:30-9:55 Shared Vulnerabilities, Consequences, and OLU Profile Sheets: Presentation • Review Vulnerability and Consequence Statements • Introduce OLU Profile Sheets and Engagement Exercise • Questions on Presentation: o Question: How and where in this project is critical infrastructure such as Waste Water Treatment Plants considered? § Answer If a critical infrastructure is within the boundaries of topic areas being explored in this project, then they are included as they are as part of our areas of interest. • Question: Are there Waste Water Treatment Plants within Priority Development Areas and Priority Conservation Areas? o Answer: In some cases. We also have addressed the functional relationship of critical infrastructure outside of, but serving, our areas of interest. § ART Comment: We know that this project has gaps and has not assessed every asset within the Bay Area. Please let us know what we are missing. We have tentative plans to expand this work following the conclusion of ART Bay Area to fill these gaps. We are trying to do the best we can with the topic areas within the scope of this project. 2 Adapting to Rising Tides (ART) Bay Area Working Group Meeting #7 January 23, 2019 9:55-10:45 Engagement Exercise: Drafting Issue Statements, Round 1 • Review Vulnerabilities and Consequences within OLUs and focus areas • Draft Issue Statements and identify Key Planning Issues • Debrief: o Yosemite-Visitacion (Focus Area: Oyster Point and Sierra Point) § Key Vulnerabilities: • Contamination, railroad, ferry service and Bay Trail § Key Consequences: • Public safety and public health due to unquantified contamination of environment and Bay, disruption of regional transit, disruption of localized transit and recreational opportunities, emergency evacuation and commuter issues, economic issues § Issue Statement: • Unknown/uncertainty of implications on closed landfills for public safety and ecological health. Impacts to ferry and Bay Trail limit local connectivity and recreation. Ingress and egress are important here. Disconnect between commercial areas and housing and commutes to work. o Mission-Islais (Focus Area: Islais Creek) § Key Vulnerabilities: • Combined creek and tidal flooding a potential problem here as Islais Creek drains a large watershed from Twin Peaks • The Port of SF Pier 80/96 is the primary receiving locations for most of the aggregate/concrete the city uses for numerous construction projects in SF, including within PDA. • 3rd St Bridge repairs are happening but don’t take into account SLR, due to regulatory restrictions from state historic preservation office. § Key Consequences: • Rapidly changing demographics of neighborhood, however cumulative contamination score remains high. • 3rd Street bridge and T Third represent key North/South linkage (which lack redundancy) within eastern SF (and vulnerable community at BayView), disruptions to this corridor will cut off emerging and existing neighborhoods from jobs, services, and regional transportation. • MUNI concentrating light rail maintenance operations in area, east maintenance yard experiencing flooding at 108” TWL. § Issue Statement: • Key north/south transportation corridor (MUNI/3rd St Bridge) will limit ability of vulnerable community and emerging neighborhoods to access job centers downtown. Coordination between City agencies (Planning/MTA/ Public Works) to integrate SLR planning into bridge repair is critical. 3 Adapting to Rising Tides (ART) Bay Area Working Group Meeting #7 January 23, 2019 o Santa Clara Valley (Focus Area: South Bay Shoreline and Baylands) § Key Issues: • Disruption of roads and rails in this area will impact many counties and the entire region while also causing immediate impacts to the community of Alviso and other areas, including emergency services. This will also impact all aspects of life for the communities. o San Francisquito (Focus Area: East Palo Alto) § Key Issues: • Complex multijurisdictional area with stacked issues throughout including language access, RVs parked at Bay Road out to Pulgas Road, wildlife, contamination, Ravenswood Health Clinic, below sea level rise, lack of natural drainage, limited access, vulnerable community o Belmont-Redwood (Focus Area: Downtown Redwood City) § Key Vulnerabilities: • Inherently low-lying area with wetlands and creeks, flooding already occurs during storms in Bayfront Canal where water backs up, severe flooding impacts may be felt sooner in this area due to this stormwater issue; • Port of Redwood City is exposed early and critical for the movement of goods both locally and regionally, and other transportation routes in this area (US-101, Caltrain station) are functional linkages for commuters and residents across Peninsula; • Critical emergency services and government hub for County of San Mateo and Redwood City (new County Office of Emergency Services, multiple medical facilities); and • Many communities in the area are low-income and have limited English proficiency, and flooding has affected community members and their evacuation centers, which is already a major concern for the health and wellbeing of people. § Key Consequences: • Current flooding from Bayfront Canal may make inland flooding impacts to communities and businesses more severe, earlier, if adaptation actions are not taken; • Disruptions to Port of Redwood City, which is a Port specializing in bulk materials for building and construction, will have impacts locally as the Port is a major economic contributor to Redwood City, as well as regionally as the Port provides building materials to businesses and communities in San Jose and Silicon Valley area; • Disruptions to the US-101, a designated emergency route, will impact people locally and regionally as it is a main arterial road along the Peninsula, and impacts to the Caltrain station will allow have regional impacts as it is among the busiest Caltrain station in the region and is a transfer station and connection hub (buses, shuttles, bicycles, etc.); § Key Issues: • Flooding to transportation infrastructure impacts critical sub-regional services, economic impacts to vulnerable communities in Redwood City and North Fair 4 Adapting to Rising Tides (ART) Bay Area Working Group Meeting #7 January 23, 2019 • Oaks, critical arteries and services center