Plans to raise Millbrae’s Bayfront Park generate questions: Funding, San Francisco International Airport ownership discussed during OneShoreline presentation

Around 80% of the project will be situated in Burlingame, and a large majority of the Millbrae portion is Bayfront Park. OneShoreline CEO Len Materman said the agency recommends raising the park to protect from flooding at a Millbrae City Council meeting March 24. 

The park parcel is owned by the airport, Millbrae Vice Mayor Stephen Rainaldi said, although SFO did not account for it in an environmental impact report on its own plans to defend against sea-level rise. He inquired about SFO’s role in protecting the shoreline in that area.

“Those conversations are ongoing, and it’s certainly something we would want to involve the city in,” Materman said. “I think that question is still to be determined. SFO recognizes something has to be done at Bayfront Park, we definitely do, and we want to come up with something that makes the most sense for us.” 

Historically, decisions made to protect the airport and its runways have not always been in Millbrae’s best interest, former Millbrae Mayor Ann Schneider said. She emphasized the interconnectedness between SFO’s plans and Millbrae’s plans to protect from flooding. 

“It would be nice if OneShoreline showed exactly what SFO is planning on doing and stopped acting like what is happening in Millbrae is standing alone,” she said. “Plans for SFO are significant … all of those will impact us.” 

SFO’s current plans are “focused on protecting runways,” OneShoreline Project Management Director Summer Bundy said, and do not currently include vulnerable Millbrae locations like the Highline Canal, Highline tide gate or Bayfront Park. OneShoreline has suggested the creation of a short flood wall on the north side of the Highline Canal that would connect to the airport’s planned flood wall. 

While OneShoreline has the funding to continue with a draft environmental impact report via state grant, Materman acknowledged the money to fund the construction of planned shoreline protection currently doesn’t exist. 

“To move forward on the project, we need to complete design and secure permits, and then we can start construction — and of course we need money to do all those things,” he said. 

The agency is provided taxpayer funding only in historically designated flood-prone areas, which doesn’t include Millbrae or Burlingame. 

Burlingame, where a larger part of the project is located, will also need to come up with funding for the bevy of proposed onshore resilience designs, habitat mitigation and levee that is proposed. However, as an early adopter of tight zoning standards on its Bayfront that require new construction in the area to conform to a 100-year Federal Emergency Management Agency standard in exchange for upzoned parcels, Burlingame does have the capacity to ensure new development pays for some of the shoreline enhancements. 

Despite the challenges, Materman said the work of building resiliency against climate change just can’t wait. 

“The need for climate change adaptation and resilience is not going to go away in two years. It’s something we’re gonna have to work at collectively, as a county,” he said. “We need to figure out how that work is funded.”