What is the San Mateo County Stormwater Resource Plan?
The San Mateo County Stormwater Resource Plan (SRP) is a comprehensive document that represents a significant transformation in watershed resource planning and stormwater runoff management. The SRP was developed by the City/County Association of Governments (C/CAG) of San Mateo County through its Countywide Water Pollution Prevention Program (Countywide Program), representing the twenty cities and towns and the County of San Mateo. The SRP is being prepared through a collaborative effort with stakeholders and the public and tailored to the specific stormwater runoff issues in the region.
The main goals of the SRP are to identify and prioritize opportunities to better utilize stormwater as a resource in San Mateo County through a detailed analysis of watershed processes, surface and groundwater resources, input from stakeholders and the public, and analysis of multiple benefits that can be achieved through strategically planned stormwater management projects. These projects aim to capture and manage stormwater more sustainably, reduce flooding and pollution associated with runoff, improve biological functioning of plants, soils, and other natural infrastructure, and provide many community benefits, including cleaner air and water and enhanced aesthetic value of local streets and neighborhoods.
Since the passing of Senate Bill 985 (Pavley, 2014), SRPs have been required in order to compete for state grant funds from any voter-approved bond measures. The San Mateo County SRP is intended to fill that role for future stormwater management projects in the County. Since the development of this plan, the San Mateo County co-permittees under the Municipal Regional Stormwater Permit have developed local Green Infrastructure Plans to further advance the implementation of green stormwater infrastructure. Flows to Bay (the San Mateo Countywide Water Pollution Prevention Program) has also developed a countywide Sustainable Streets Master Plan, which includes additional analysis of precipitation-based climate change impacts on the roadway network and establishes an updated network of prioritized sustainable streets opportunities, linking green infrastructure opportunities with other planned transportation related improvements and implementation mechanisms throughout the county.
Stormwater Resource Plan Approach
The San Mateo County SRP takes a watershed-based approach to prioritizing stormwater management projects. The screening and prioritization process is based primarily on critical watershed characteristics and processes, including land use, soil hydrology, land slope, and other relevant landscape features. Opportunities to manage stormwater are prioritized through consideration of overall community benefits and the potential to co-locate stormwater capture projects with other currently planned and future capital improvement projects.
Because ideal conditions for a suitable stormwater management project vary by type and size of project, projects were screened and prioritized into three overall categories: regional stormwater capture projects, green streets, and onsite stormwater management. Regional projects capture runoff from large drainage areas and typically require larger parcels for siting infrastructure, green streets capture runoff from smaller drainages along roadway segments, and onsite stormwater management projects only capture and manage the runoff from a particular parcel or site.
Twenty-two project concepts (see Appendix C) covering each of the three categories were developed in conjunction with the SRP to support potential grant applications by C/CAG’s member agencies. In December 2017, the State Water Board awarded $1.2 million in Prop 1 stormwater grant funds to four of the 22 concepts, including green street and parking lot projects in the Cities of San Mateo (plus an additional green street project concept created separately) and Redwood City. Also leveraging efforts from the SRP, the City of South San Francisco and Town of Atherton are proposing two regional stormwater capture projects at Orange Memorial Park and Holbrook-Palmer Park, respectively. Both agencies have coordinated with Caltrans to receive project funding through cooperative implementation agreements.
The SRP is a collaborative model for addressing the opportunities and challenges in stormwater management in San Mateo County. The SRP includes GIS (geographic information system) data layers and locally planned projects from C/CAG’s member agencies. C/CAG’s member agencies also provided important guidance and feedback while the plan was under development. As part of the public engagement component of the SRP, C/CAG held three public workshops in January 2017 to solicit public and stakeholder feedback on the SRP. Public workshop presentation slides can be downloaded here. Comments and responses are detailed in Appendix F.
Web Viewer
C/CAG created a web viewer to enable interested parties to view the results of the screening and prioritization process. The viewer shows locations and relative rankings of regional stormwater capture, green street, and onsite stormwater management opportunities. Instructions for using the viewer can be accessed here.
C/CAG also created a pilot stormwater calculator to begin to evaluate the potential for individual projects in the County to capture and treat urban runoff.
Status of the Stormwater Resource Plan
The final draft of the San Mateo County SRP, which was developed in coordination with C/CAG’s member agencies and includes 22 detailed project concepts from across the County, was approved under Resolution 17-04 by the C/CAG Board of Directors on February 9, 2017. The SRP was also accepted by the Bay Area Integrated Regional Water Management Plan (IRWMP) Coordinating Committee on February 27, 2017 and was submitted to the State Water Board for review and reception of its letter of consistency in March 2017.
Stormwater Resource Plan and Appendices
- Executive Summary
- Main Report
- APPENDIX A: Characterization of Imperviousness Study
- APPENDIX B: Results of Quantitative Prioritization of Projects
- APPENDIX C: Conceptual Design Fact Sheets
- APPENDIX D: Bayfront and Vista Grande Canal Projects
- APPENDIX E: Stakeholder List
- APPENDIX F: Public Comment/Response Table
- APPENDIX G: Stormwater Resource Plan Guidelines: Checklist and Self-Certification
For more information, please email rbogert@smcgov.org or call (650) 599-1433.