Several efforts to address flooding, sea level rise and coastal erosion in San Mateo County are already underway.
In 1959, State legislation established the San Mateo County Flood Control District to address flooding challenges in several specific flood prone areas called “flood zones.”
In 2015, the County’s Civil Grand Jury issued a Report, “Flooding Ahead: Planning for Sea Level Rise,” that posed the question: What actions can the County of San Mateo, and the 20 cities and two relevant local special agencies within the county, take now to plan for sea level rise?” It answered this question by recommending “that a single organization undertake SLR planning on a countywide basis.”
In 2016, the County’s Department of Public Works established a Flood Resilience Program that developed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) to plan three potential projects: Bayfront Canal/Atherton Channel (MOU with Menlo Park, Redwood City, and Atherton); Belmont Creek (MOU with Belmont and San Carlos); and Navigable Slough (MOU with San Bruno and South San Francisco).
March 2018, the City/County Association of Governments (C/CAG) convened the “Floods, Droughts, Rising Seas, Oh My!” water summit, bringing together regional experts and policy-makers to discuss San Mateo County water management challenges and opportunities. There, Congresswoman Jackie Speier identified the need for a countywide agency to address the challenges of flooding, sea level rise and coastal erosion. This agency would allow San Mateo County and its 20 cities to: 1) coordinate the planning and implementation of projects across jurisdictional lines, which enables uniform levels of protection and the sharing of technical information and resources, and 2) create a broad and unified vision and voice that would position the new regional agency and its projects to obtain funding and regulatory permits.
In April of 2018, the City/County Association of Governments of San Mateo County (C/CAG) Countywide Water Coordination Committee began to develop a proposal to form a countywide agency to address sea level rise, flooding, coastal erosion, and regional stormwater infrastructure. After analyzing various potential approaches to the agency, the Water Coordination Committee recommended that new State legislation expand the mission, geographic reach, and governing Board of the 1959 San Mateo County Flood Control District. This legislation, Assembly Bill 825 (Mullin), was signed into law in September 2019, and on January 1, 2020, the San Mateo County Flood and Sea Level Rise Resiliency District was born.