Burlingame plots sea level rise plan

No decision was made at the meeting, but officials agreed a comprehensive flood prevention plan should be developed rapidly while pointing to a recent study showing the imminent danger facing Burlingame and surrounding areas.

“This is a more near-term issue than I had imagined,” said Councilman Michael Brownrigg, who suggested waters could breach the city’s defense system before 2040, if no action is taken.

Brownrigg said he had anticipated the issue faced a 20- to 30-year timeline when considering flood protection, but the study illustrated waters could begin to encroach sooner.

Councilwoman Ann Keighran shared a similar sense of urgency when discussing the threat of sea level rise.

“This is an extremely important issue that needs to be addressed,” she said.

The discussion arrived days after city officials hosted a town hall meeting providing community members a sense of which areas are potentially most susceptible to flooding and identifying mitigation opportunities.

To prepare for the meeting and subsequent discussion among councilmembers, officials released a study indicating the northern portion of the city’s Bayshore is exposed to the most immediate threat.

While a timeline has yet to be established for implementing a capital improvement program, Brownrigg said some property owners along the Bayshore have already received noticed from FEMA instructing them to purchase flood insurance.

Officials have said previously they plan to spend the rest of the coming year identifying potential mitigation approaches, before turning their attention to examining ways to finance the necessary measures.

Potential protections range from levee systems, to sea walls to environmental preservation — or some combination of those three methods — which can be implemented to best fit an area’s geography, officials have said.

For their part, councilmembers largely agreed a levee system is the preferred and most effective method of protecting portions of the Bayshore because it can be continuously improved over time.

But the city’s authority to build a levee is limited, as the San Francisco Bay Conservation and Development Commission, which oversees construction along the water, typically opposes filling in the Bay — even for protection purposes, said officials.

While some indicated the commission may be softening its position on the issue, Burlingame officials suggested they must prepare with expected restrictions on levee construction.

To strengthen the city’s negotiating position on the larger issue of waterfront protections, officials agreed regional collaboration is necessary. In pursuit of such an effort, Mayor Donna Colson said Burlingame has agreed to work alongside the county’s recently-formed Flood and Sea Level Rise Resiliency District.

Participation in the regional collective comprised of the county’s 20 incorporated cities should help Burlingame raise state and federal funds for any capital improvement projects, said Colson. She balanced that perspective though by noting the city will also likely be expected to contribute a fair amount of money to the effort as well.

“We are going to have to do these complex layerings over the years, and we’ll have to think about how we are going to do our piece,” she said.

While waiting for more information regarding the potential projects and costs associated with the initiative, Colson said officials have been reaching out to property owners along the Bayshore to increase awareness about sea level rise.

Keighran supported the effort, noting the need to keep informed those who have invested in the land first threatened by potential flooding.

“These are people’s assets and they don’t want to be losing these assets, so we need to protect them,” said Keighran.

Colson agreed and said officials will remain committed to outreach efforts as the city’s plan for combating sea level rise continues to take shape over the coming months and years.

“This is the first little step toward what will probably be a very long-term project,” she said.

austin@smdailyjournal.com

(650) 344-5200 ext. 105