Sea level rise work begins in Burlingame and Millbrae

“We quite literally are on the front line of climate change and dealing with the impacts,” said Assemblymember Kevin Mullin, D-South San Francisco, who secured the earmark. “This investment will help protect local and regional assets ranging from homes, local businesses and corporate campuses to SFO … as well as BART and Caltrain and other critical infrastructure.”

Water levels have a 66% chance rising by more than a foot in the next 30 years, and 2 1/2 feet by 2100, according to the state sea level rise guidance document, which notes the numbers could be much greater depending on environmental conditions. A Civil Grand Jury report last year estimated nearly $40 billion in property in the county was at risk due to long-term erosion and flooding.

The Burlingame-Millbrae infrastructure will protect the majority of land east of Highway 101, the highway itself, and a sizable strip west of the highway, which are projected to be inundated within the next 100 years if no action is taken.

While costs to protect the area are yet to be determined, the state’s investment represents a sliver of required funding and will cover a portion of design work. Over the next four years, the agency plans to identify total costs for the stretch and close any funding gaps, in addition to completing necessary environmental impact studies.

Countywide work will likely exceed $1 billion, with money planned to come from several potential sources including a new parcel tax likely headed to voters this November.

“For the whole thing, countywide, coastside, it’s a really big number,” Len Matermen, OneShoreline’s CEO, said. “It’s going to take a combination of resources, different pots of funding, different ways to piece together these projects.”

The countywide endeavor is the largest sea level rise undertaking in the state, and a large portion of work is slated to be carried out by private developers wishing to build near the water. Burlingame last year adopted zoning rules to that effect, and has already received plans for at least one corporate campus that integrates levees into its design.

The San Francisco International Airport will also construct its own infrastructure around its eight miles of shoreline.

“Things are different now, we can’t use the same funding models, just as we can’t use the same permitting regime,” Matermen said. “This is too expensive and too important.”

The parcel tax, which is still under consideration and being surveyed among voters, would establish a per-square-foot charge on land in the county. It would also provide money for wildfire-related work.

Matermen said such a funding stream was crucial for receiving state grants, which often require a local match. He said he hoped more state funds would be available in this year’s budget as a result of the significant surplus.

“It has to happen, in our minds,” he said of the tax. “Climate change is not waiting for a permit, it’s not waiting for us to figure out how we’re going to pay for these projects.”

He pointed to significant flooding in Burlingame and Millbrae that occurred last year after heavy rain in which a couple died in a submerged vehicle and several properties were damaged.

The agency’s plans call for infrastructure to be built with a height 6 feet above the current elevation of a “100-year flood” — an event with a 1% chance of occurring in any given year, or roughly 10 feet above today’s high tide.

For the stretch in question, that means walls or levees will be built up to 16 feet or more. Work would also be done along the county’s many creeks, which can overflow and back up when storms collide with high tides.

Matermen said a key focus was also to enhance affected areas. The Burlingame-Millbrae work, for instance, will likely include improvements to the trail that runs along much of the Bayfront.

“We’re trying to look at strategies that reduce the so-called gray infrastructure, the hardened things like flood walls and even levees, and increase the use of natural infrastructure, green infrastructure,” he said. “We can have nature help us protect ourselves, marshes and long sloped levees and things like that provide a buffer between the waves and the shoreline.”

The planned corporate campus in Burlingame offered a glimpse of what infrastructure could look like. Infrastructure there would come as a berm, and would complete a missing link of the Bay Trail. The developer said the construction of the berm along a quarter mile of the Bayfront and around a creek would cost close to $20 million. Nearby, a planned nature reserve park, which will also host a portion of the Bay Trail, will integrate protections by building up much of the parcel to effectively be a hill.

corey@smdailyjournal.com

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