Wildfire, flooding and sea level rise are top of mind in Corte Madera as the town seeks feedback on its draft climate change plan.
Town officials presented the draft at the Town Council meeting on Tuesday. The document is expected to be completed in February.
“It’s the most important conversation that we face as a community moving forward,” said Todd Cusimano, the town manager.
The town is one of the highest fire risk zones in the state and is in the top 3% of municipalities that will be impacted by sea level rise, he said.
Because of the town’s location and the lack of strategic planning during the post-World War II housing boom, most neighborhoods are susceptible to sea level rise near the marsh and wildfires in the hillside, according to the plan.
The 141-page plan splits adaptation actions into four geographic focus areas: “town-wide,” “shoreline,” “hillside,” and “central” Corte Madera.
Short-term actions in the plan include elevating Lucky Drive to reduce flooding during king tides; upgrading the California Lane connection on Christmas Tree Hill for emergency egress; and bolstering community centers and schools to create emergency hubs. The hubs would serve as evacuations center, cooling centers and charging stations during extreme weather.
The plan also includes actions to address sea level rise. The projected cost to fortify levees at the marsh near The Village at Corte Madera mall is about $14.4 million. To build protections around the Marina Village and Mariner Cove neighborhoods would cost about $44 million, according to the plan.
Mayor Eli Beckman said the intent is to protect all of Corte Madera from flood and fire.
“There’s absolutely no trade-off between flood protection and fire protection,” he said. “I think we all see it that these are equal threats that really impact the entire town.”
To pay for the plan, the town has secured 10 years of funding from Measure F sales tax revenue, which brings in about $2 million to $4 million annually. Another $1 million to $1.5 million will be earmarked through unrestricted funds for vegetation management, fire protection and capital improvement projects, Cusimano said.
Revenue dedicated to the plan would average about $5.5 million per year.
“That’s $50 million to $60 million over 10 years. What should we do years one through three? Years five through seven? Or 10 years from now?” Cusimano said. “This conversation tonight is the starting point. … I don’t want the community members to think that we’ve all of a sudden set a priority on one side of town versus the other.”
Out of that projected revenue, he said, the town has committed $18 million to $20 million in fire mitigation projects, education and code enforcement within 10 years.
In 2018, the town awarded the contract for developing the plan to Adaptation International. It is paying $300,616 to Adaptation International, $89,000 to the San Francisco Estuary Institute and $10,000 to Miller Pacific Engineering Group.
The town will use $200,000 in reimbursable grant funds from Senate Bill 1 and allocate $199,616 in Measure F sales tax and up to $125,000 of “in-house” staff time to pay the costs of the plan.
Some residents who live on Christmas Tree Hill called into the online meeting to express concern that the plan does not push harder to bury power lines, which they said pose the greatest threat.
Colleen Little said she has lived in the area for 20 years, and during that time power lines have come down several times.
“Luckily, both of those times these power lines came down, they actually came down during the winter months,” Little said. “So, it was during the rainy season.”
Cusimano said that while undergrounding would be a good step, it is costly, complicated and would not address the threat of fire.
The town will continue to collect public input on its website until Jan. 8.
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Corte Madera vets draft climate change plan - Marin Independent Journal
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