Levee, water pump update inch forward

Given the opportunity to tax themselves in exchange for a $23.5 million project aimed at alleviating federal flood insurance mandates and better equipping the neighborhood to handle extreme storms, residents didn’t waste time in voting to form the North Shoreview Levee and Flood Control Facilities Improvement Assessment District. Administered by mail ballot, the district garnered 76.8 percent support from the 593 voters who submitted ballots by March 5, according to city records.

Now that residents are receiving updates to the timeline for flood improvements expected to keep tidal and storm water flooding at bay, their hopes of cutting down their costs of living on San Mateo’s Bayfront are inching closer to becoming a reality, said Cynthia Newton, president of the North Shoreview Homeowners Association.

“We are so happy that this is finally going to be resolved in the next few years,” she said. “We’re just thrilled that it’s all working out.”

Though a long road lies ahead for the improvements to be constructed, relief can’t come soon enough for those with mortgages who are obligated to purchase flood insurance and face annual rates ranging from $400 to more than $2,000 and even $5,000 in one extreme case, said Newton.

Fluctuating insurance premiums and property values are among a few of the headaches that have persisted for homeowners in the flood map categorized by risks of a 100-year storm, a challenge that pushed many to ask for the city to help lift them out of the flood zone by taking on the repairs some four or five years ago, she explained.

“It really behooves everyone to not be in the flood zone,” she said. “It’s not easy for everyone to pay all of this.”

By paying annual assessments ranging roughly from $110 to $179, depending on a property’s size and location, residents are expected to contribute some $2.4 million, or 10 percent, of the total cost of the improvements, according to a staff report.

Public Works Director Brad Underwood said the assessments would not be levied until the improvements are complete in 2020 or 2021. That way, residents aren’t paying for flood insurance premiums and assessments at the same time. He said designs for the project are nearly complete, and the city is working to obtain the last of seven permits needed to do the work, which involves raising the height of a levee and replacing a pump station at Coyote Point as well as replacing a pump station at Poplar Avenue.

Because the work at Coyote Point may involve rerouting a segment of the San Francisco Bay Trail, the project requires a permit from the San Francisco Bay Conservation and Development Commission, said Underwood. Once city officials obtain that permit, Underwood is hoping the project can go out to bid in the fall and break ground in the first half of 2019 to start a two-year construction timeline.

“We’re just excited that we’re getting so close to putting a shovel in the ground and helping our residents out,” he said.

Once the improvements are complete, officials can request FEMA consider removing the homes from the flood zone, a process that can take six to eight months, said Underwood. The process is not unlike the one the city undertook in the nearby Shoreview neighborhood when it made flood control improvements and helped remove nearly 8,000 property owners out of FEMA’s flood map.

In the years since the neighborhoods were included in the FEMA flood zone, Newton said neighbors have banded together to compare rates through a Facebook group and neighborhood association meetings. Though many have expected rates to rise in recent years, she said they have remained relatively stable for most and some have even found less expensive rates for the time being through private insurance providers that have entered the market.

“I think it’s been good that we’ve been able to kind of brainstorm together on where to go and what to do,” she said.

anna@smdailyjournal.com

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