Marin City flooding in 2019, per the Marin Independent Journal
One year ago, more than $2 million in funding was secured to develop a stormwater plan for Marin City and upgrades at the Golden Gate Village housing complex to the tune of $784,000.
The allocation came in addition to $10 million in state funding approved to plan defenses for recurring flooding on Highway 101 that blocks the only road in and out of Marin City. The money is available because of an amendment to the 2022 state budget requested by Mill Valley’s state Sen. Mike McGuire. U.S. Rep. Jared Huffman, a Democrat from San Rafael, secured $650,000 of that amount by making it one of his earmarks in the 2023 federal budget.
Officials at every level of government say they are ramping up efforts to combat sea-level rise around the Manzanita Park and Ride, one of the most notoriously flood-prone sections of southern Marin that officials hope will get its own defense against sea-level rise. Caltrans is proposing protections for the area along Richardson Bay between Marin City and Tamalpais Valley, namely the inclusion of the Manzanita Park and Ride lot and the Highway 101 interchanges at Shoreline Highway and Donahue Street. An online public meeting was held in February 2024 to introduce the plans at bit.ly/3ud2ovl.
Now comes word that Marin City is among a dozen economically disadvantaged communities across the nation selected to receive up to $10 million in assistance from the federal government to complete small public works projects. The $120 million in projects is being funded with money from the $1.2 trillion Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, which was signed into law by President Joe Biden in 2021.
Marin City’s successful proposal was submitted by the Marin City Community Services District in collaboration with the nonprofit Marin City Climate Resilience and Health Justice. Matt Rabe, a spokesperson for the assistant secretary’s office, said the decision was also influenced by recommendations by members of Congress and other governmental representatives of communities applying for assistance. Rep. Jared Huffman, a San Rafael Democrat, and Marin County Supervisor Stephanie Moulton-Peters both submitted letters of support for the district’s application.
In her letter, Moulton-Peters referenced the community’s establishment during World War II as shipyard workers moved to the area from other parts of the country. She noted that because of housing discrimination, 73% of the community’s residents were African American by 1950. “The community qualifies for reparations,” Moulton-Peters wrote, “and should be given high priority due to the historic institutional racism the residents have suffered for many generations.”
Huffman said, “I personally engaged not only with the Army Corps locally, but all the way up the chain with the assistant secretary of public works. I think this is a potential breakthrough.”
The Marin County Public Works Department is already using millions of dollars in state money to address flooding in Marin City. In 2022, Sen. Mike McGuire, a Democrat from Sonoma County whose district includes Marin, secured $10 million in state funds to address flooding in Marin City as part of an amendment to the state budget.
The Marin County Public Works Department plans to use $2.5 million of that funding to purchase two portable pumps and install 1,400 feet of pipes to transport rainwater more quickly to Marin City Pond, a 3-acre detention basin next to the Gateway Shopping Center.
The Marin City watershed is a relatively steep and bowl-shaped area encircled by a ridge. Water flows downhill through residential areas into a series of storm drains that feed into Marin City Pond.
Because Marin City is near Richardson Bay, the chance of flooding increases during high tides. When tides rise, it becomes more difficult to move water from Marin City Pond into the bay via a culvert that passes under Highway 101. A gate that connects the pond to the bay has to be lowered during high tides to prevent water from the bay from flowing into the pond.
The portable pumps are only an interim solution. The public works department has secured $884,000 from the Federal Emergency Management Agency to create plans for a permanent, more powerful pump station at the pond, a floodwall and storm drain upgrades.
The Transportation Authority of Marin, which was named as the agency to administer and distribute the state’s $10 million, has allocated $400,000 to the permanent pump station project, $750,000 for the construction of a permanent floodwall, and $3 million for the removal of sediment from the Marin City Pond.
Rosemarie Gaglione, the county’s public works director, has said she will apply for a $12 million grant from FEMA to cover the cost of building the permanent pump station. Gaglione said Marin City’s selection for federal assistance won’t deter the public works staff from moving forward.
“We will continue with our plans to apply for a FEMA grant for construction of the permanent pump station. We believe that this is a good project that will provide much needed relief,” Gaglione said in an email. “We have no way of knowing at this time whether the Army Corps will come up with a different solution or how long it might take to implement a new solution.”
Gaglione said her department will cooperate with and share any relevant materials and data with the Army Corps.
Tommy Williams, an engineer for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, San Francisco District, said the process will begin with the Army Corps working with the Marin City district to clearly define the problem and formulate a list of possible solutions.
“After which the planners and the engineers roll up their sleeves and go to work on fleshing out the alternatives and coming to a tentatively selected plan,” Williams said. “That could span a year, a year and a half, or even up to three or four years.”
Marin County Flood Control District 3 is already creating a new stormwater plan for Marin City. The San Francisco engineering firm Schaaf & Wheeler is being paid $784,000 to develop the plan, with more than $312,000 earmarked for community outreach. It comes on the heels of $400,000 spent by the county on studies of the Marin City watershed in 2017.
“The goal of the project is to provide community protection and safe access in the face of near- and long-term sea-level rise in a way that does not degrade the sensitive habitat of the shoreline estuaries,” said Matt O’Donnell, a spokesperson for Caltrans. “The intent of this outreach is to incorporate public input early in the Caltrans’ project development process, to ensure project development is informed by the community in a transparent way.”
O’Donnell indicated that project planning is just getting started, and Caltrans officials have not decided on what will be proposed or a project budget. O’Donnell said planners are considering projects like elevating the infrastructure or raising the bayside Mill Valley-Sausalito bike path. Other options could involve repositioning parts of Shoreline Highway where it passes under Highway 101 to a higher elevation, he said.
A high-range cost estimate could be $200 million to $1.8 billion, depending on what strategies officials use, O’Donnell said.