Marin lays groundwork for new flood tax pitch in Santa Venetia

After failing to win voter approval in 2021, Marin County is again considering a tax to support replacing a floodwall that protects nearly 600 homes in San Rafael.

The rapidly-deteriorating timber-reinforced berm made of compacted dirt and wooden boards in the Santa Venetia area now is proposed to be replaced with a composite sheet pile floodwall. The project cost has escalated from a $6 million estimate in 2021 to the latest calculation of $25 million.

“The estimated $25 million project cost assumes beginning construction in 2028, if funding sources are secured in 2026,” said Peter Feng, a county official. “This value is consistent with what was reported to the Marin County Board of Supervisors in 2023, adjusting for inflation, growing costs of building materials, and labor and other factors that include right-of-way acquisition and environmental mitigation.”

The county has completed the project design, which cost $1.2 million. About $900,000 came from a Federal Emergency Management Agency grant, and $300,000 were local funds, Feng said.

Additionally, the Marin County Board of Supervisors approved $300,000 in general funds in May to conduct community outreach, study the feasibility of public financing, such as a tax or assessment district, and finalize review required under the California Environmental Quality Act.

The county flood control district has no funding available for construction, Feng said.

Residents are invited to learn about the project and provide comments at an event scheduled for 6:30 p.m. Wednesday at the Marin County Civic Center at 3501 Civic Center Drive in San Rafael. The session, which will take place in Room 143D, will be livestreamed. Information is at bit.ly/43jKRQq.

Feng said the purpose of the meeting is to “re-engage the Santa Venetia community on the project, providing an update from the district on its status and potential funding options to allow the project to advance.”

The berm, which extends from Meadow Drive to Vendola Drive, was built in 1984 atop an earthen levee following devastating flooding in 1982 and 1983. The Santa Venetia neighborhood was built on landfill that has compressed over the years, leaving it below the high tide line.

The new floodwall would reduce the flood risk for up to 100-year flood events, which are severe floods that have a 1% chance of occurring in any given year.

As proposed, it would extend approximately 1.5 miles along more than 110 properties on Las Gallinas Creek. In order to do the work, the county will need to acquire easements on those lots.

In 2023, county officials said they planned to budget about $4 million to acquire the easements. The project team is now working to calculate what those easements will actually cost. An estimate is expected to be presented this winter, officials said.

Santa Venetia is in Marin County Flood Zone 7. At a meeting last month, county planners said Flood Zone 7 costs are outpacing revenues. Specifically, the district is spending double to maintain pumps and the berm than it used to because the infrastructure is at the end of its useful life.

Average annual Flood Zone 7 costs today are $759,000, while the revenue remains at $736,000. At this pace, a reserve fund balance of $250,000 is expected to be depleted in about 10 years, Hannah Lee, a county engineer, said at the Flood Zone 7 meeting last month.

“So the reason we’re talking about a levee project is to get out of this cycle, and get back into a more sustainable financial place,” Lee said.

Robert Stevens, president of CSW Stuber-Stroeh Engineering, a county consultant, is working as the project manager.

“If we don’t do something, the costs are going to continue (to grow), the deterioration accelerates, and we have a report from the Army Corps of Engineers that a failure of the berm is possible during a high tide situation,” Stevens told the flood board.

Stevens said planners are seeking grants to support the project, but they can’t rely solely on outside funding.

“If the district is successful in getting a grant, it creates the opportunity for us to move forward,” he said. “But as we’ve discussed in the past, any grant that’s awarded to us requires some form of a local funding, and right now, the only source of local funding that we think is available to us is some sort of public financing.”

Now the immediate task is discovering how much the area’s residents are willing to tax themselves to help cover the expenses, he said.

In March 2021, a seven-year, $297 per parcel tax expected to raise $1 million toward the project failed by three votes.

Resident Sean McClelland campaigned in 2020 to rally neighbors to support the tax. The fact that the county is considering trying another tax pitch is not unexpected.

“The price has continually gone up over the years, and I don’t think this will be surprising for anyone who has been following it,” McClelland said. “I think the county folks have gathered a good amount of information, they’ve been transparent about the issue and trying to get the word out; trying their best to find a solution. It’s time for the neighborhood to get involved or else it can fail again.”

Stevens said he would like to tease out a tax range from the community at the forum Wednesday. Officials also plan to solicit feedback through surveys to be distributed over the coming months, Stevens said.

A second forum, environmental review and a draft financial plan are also expected to be released this winter. More information will be posted at bit.ly/43ifcyQ.