Port of Redwood City loses private ferry service

“I don’t know if it was an expense thing or ridership,” she said.

Prop SF could not be reached for comment.

“We would love to have a similar service,” Zortman said, adding that there are no current plans for one. “We’re very focused on pushing forward the advancement of a public ferry in Redwood City and private ferries help educate the community and region that we have the ability to do alternative modes of transportation.”

During the pilot, Prop SF did come into conflict with recreational boaters who also use the port, but Zortman said those differences were largely ironed out and not the reason that Prop SF moved on.

“We did establish guidelines and communication improved everything,” she said. “But you won’t make everyone 100 percent happy all the time.”

If a private ferry service like Prop SF were to return to the Port of Redwood City, then recreational boaters won’t be the only ones with concerns.

On Feb. 27, Gail Raabe of the Citizens’ Committee to Complete the Refuge, spoke to the Port Commission about potential environmental impacts of private ferry service at the port.

She’s specifically worried about ferries traveling down Redwood Creek to F-dock, as was the case with Prop SF, and at speeds that generate wake.

“Wake waves can erode the banks of tidal marsh and you have tidal marsh on both sides of Redwood Creek,” she said.

She said those marsh lands are home to two endangered species: the salt marsh harvest mouse, which is only found in the San Francisco Bay, and the ridgeway’s rail.

“If you start causing erosion to the habitat then you have the potential to have problems,” she said. “The other thing that can happen is at higher tides wake wash from ferries can wash over the marsh plain and affect the animals. And the rails have floating nests and if you have wake waves washing over at high tide you could knock over the nest and cause problems that way.”

Raabe said ferries are especially concerning compared to other boats because of the frequency with which they travel the channel, adding that Prop SF was making 16 trips in and out of Redwood Creek every day, five days a week.

“One thing that can mitigate damage to tidal marsh is to reduce speed,” she said. “We feel environmental concerns about ferry wake definitely need to be addressed going forward if another ferry service contract is put in place.”

But Raabe’s concerns do not apply to the effort to potential public ferry service at the port because the plan is to construct the terminal further north so that ferries won’t be traveling through Redwood Creek. That project would also require a full environmental impact report.

The effort to bring public ferry service to the port is moving forward, slowly. Over the summer, The San Mateo County Transportation Authority approved $450,000 and Redwood City kicked in $60,000 to fund a feasibility study and cost benefit analysis of potential ferry service.

Redwood City management analyst Christopher Dacumos said previously if the project is determined to be viable in the feasibility study and is then approved by the Port Commission and City Council, an environmental impact report could begin in 2020. Typically it takes five to seven years after the feasibility study for ferry service to begin, Dacumos said.

zachary@smdailyjournal.com

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