Marin set to advance lagging Santa Venetia flood project

Marin County is set to move forward with preliminary work on a key flood control project in east San Rafael despite lacking most of the estimated $14 million needed to get the job done.

Public works officials are still working to cobble together the money needed to rebuild a nearly 40-year-old timber-reinforced berm behind 115 homes in Santa Venetia to protect against tidal flooding.

The berm from Meadow Drive to Vendola Drive was built in 1984 atop an earthen levee/berm following devastating flooding in 1982 and 1983.

On Tuesday, county supervisors are expected to approve a $617,000 contract with CSW Stuber-Stroeh for additional engineering design, environmental compliance and public outreach.

“This flood protection project is crucial to addressing the near-term sea level rise needs of the Santa Venetia neighborhood residents,” said Public Works Director Rosemarie Gaglione.

The project was originally projected to cost $6 million, with construction costs accounting for $4 million. In March, the plan was put on hold when an updated construction cost estimate came in at over $12 million.

Public works officials say a firm, new estimate of the total cost won’t be available until after CSW Stuber-Stroeh completes its design work. Work on the project had been slated to begin this summer.

In an announcement noting the doubling of the cost estimate, the department attributed the increased costs to recent changes in the project design to address levee seepage, increased labor and material shortages, supply chain issues and general inflation.

Completion of the project requires securing right of way to 105 properties along the berm, many of which have improvements that complicate construction access and may create additional costs.

So far, 15 permanent easements have been acquired from private property owners, as well as seven easements on public lands, at a cost of $271,746.

Some number of temporary easements, which was not specified by public works, “will likely require renewal once construction funding is secured,” according to a staff report.

Before learning of the sharply higher project costs, supervisors had planned to consider authorizing an eminent domain process to acquire the remaining easements. The county said in a statement Monday that “it has no present intention to condemn or acquire the interests using eminent domain.”

If supervisors approve the contract with CSW Stuber-Stroeh, the money will come from the budget of Zone 7 of the Marin County Flood Control and Water Conservation District.

The area, which covers less than half a square mile in the community of Santa Venetia, has committed to spending an additional $1.6 million to fund the berm upgrade.

Zone 7 was one of the first developments in the county to be constructed on fill over bay mud. It was built in an era before the county had the authority to regulate or control development.

Because of the low initial elevation of the fill and the compressible nature of the underlying bay mud, the area is now below the high tide level.

On March 2, 2021, a ballot measure that would have imposed an annual $297 per parcel tax for seven years on Santa Venetia homeowners to generate $1 million for the project fell three votes short of the two-thirds support it needed to pass.

In August 2021, supervisors said they would fill that gap by allocating $1 million of American Rescue Plan Act money to the project.

The biggest piece of funding for the project has come from a $3 million Federal Emergency Management Agency grant. The public works department has asked FEMA for permission to reallocate about $1.5 million of that grant, which was earmarked for construction, so it can be used to pay for additional design and other preliminary activities.

If FEMA complies, Zone’s 7 share of the CSW Stuber-Stroeh contract cost will be reduced by $450,000. A response from FEMA is expected by the middle of this month.

The FEMA grant was initially due to expire in February but was extended to February 2023.

Due to the delay in moving forward with construction, the county will lose the remaining $1.7 million of the original $3.2 million FEMA grant.

To meet that deadline, CSW Stuber-Stroeh will need to finalize its design work by November, the department said.

The final design will be used to apply for additional grant funding from FEMA. Grant funding becomes available “each time a major federal disaster is declared in California, which has occurred multiple times per year since 2017,” the county staff report noted.

As a result, the public works department anticipates that the next opportunity to apply for funding will be in 2023.