draft environmental impact report - sfcjpa · 2019-07-26 · alternative 2: modify pope-chaucer...

Notice of Preparation Draft EIR: Flood Protection, Ecosystem Restoration & Recreation Project, Upstream of Highway 101

December 21, 2016

Revised Notice of Preparation

Draft Environmental Impact Report

San Francisquito Creek Flood Protection, Ecosystem Restoration, and Recreation Project

Upstream of Highway 101

This notice announces that a Draft Environmental Impact Report (EIR) will be prepared for the San Francisquito Creek Flood Protection, Ecosystem Restoration, and Recreation Project, Upstream of Highway 101 (Project) to identify, evaluate, and disclose possible environmental impacts, and to develop strategies to avoid, reduce, or compensate for any significant impacts.

As the lead agency responsible for compliance with the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA), the San Francisquito Creek Joint Powers Authority (SFCJPA) has determined that the Project may have a significant impact on the physical environment, and it will prepare an EIR to provide opportunities for public disclosure and public participation in the planning and decision making process. The purpose of the Draft EIR process is to develop and assess a recommended plan, evaluate feasible alternatives for the Project, and propose measures that avoid or mitigate significant adverse effects on environmental resources.

This document, which updates the Notice of Preparation (NOP) released in May 2013, serves as a Revised NOP required by CEQA and the State’s CEQA Guidelines (14 CCR 15082), and contains a description of the Project, including the Project’s goals and objectives, possible environmental impacts, and the resulting need for an EIR. It also discusses the process that will be used to determine the scope of analysis in the EIR, describes opportunities for public review of the EIR, and lists the best way to contact the SFCJPA during the EIR process.

On this Project, the SFCJPA is partnering with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, which has certified the Project hydrology and will prepare an Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) for the Project to fulfill federal requirements under the National Environmental Quality Act (NEPA). The SFCJPA EIR and Corps of Engineers EIS are assessing similar alternatives and will conduct joint meetings when appropriate, but will follow different evaluation criteria based on the specific obligations of CEQA and NEPA.

Project Overview Background

The San Francisquito Creek watershed encompasses the cities of East Palo Alto, Palo Alto, and Menlo Park, among others. The SFCJPA, a regional government agency, was founded by these three cities, the Santa Clara Valley Water District (SCVWD), and San Mateo County Flood Control District (SMCFCD) in 1999 following a major flood the preceding year.

Flooding caused by San Francisquito Creek has been a common occurrence. The most recent flood occurred on December 23, 2012, when the Creek overtopped its banks in several areas during a peak flow of 5,400 cubic feet per second (cfs), which is considered a 20-year event that has a

San Francisquito Creek Joint Powers Authority Page


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5% chance of occurring in any given year. In February 1998, a 7,200 cfs event (considered almost a 60-year event with slightly less than a 2% chance of occurring in any year) affected approximately 1,700 residential and commercial properties and caused $28 million in property damage. It is predicted that a 100-year flood event with a 1% annual chance of occurring would damage over 5,500 properties.

A primary objective of the Project described in the previous NOP from May 2013 was to protect areas upstream (west) of Highway 101 against the 100-year flow event. Yet, based on that Project’s anticipated impacts and uncertainties, and insufficient funding to construct it, the SFCJPA has determined that it is more feasible to move forward with a Project that may provide less than 100-year protection but would protect against the 1998 Flood of Record. This NOP announces the preparation of an EIR with revised objectives that are both meaningful and achievable.

In the future, the SFCJPA intends to conduct further evaluations of alternatives that provide 100-year protection and, should a preferred alternative be acceptable to the community and regulatory agencies, it may pursue the funding to implement such a project, which would be subject to supplemental environmental review.

The Project discussed in this NOP is a key part of the SFCJPA’s overall capital project plan. In June 2016, the SFCJPA and its member agencies initiated construction of the first project in its program for Flood Protection, Ecosystem Restoration, and Recreation, which will reduce flood risk and establish new marshland within a widened creek from S.F. Bay to Highway 101. In 2017, the California Department of Transportation will complete a complementary project to increase creek flow capacity of San Francisquito Creek bridges at Highway 101 and its frontage roads. Also, the City of Palo Alto is considering options to replace the 105-year old Newell Road Bridge; the new bridge may have a larger opening beneath the roadway to allow a greater creek flow at that location. These three independent projects will accommodate larger flows from areas upstream of Highway 101 and thus make possible the Project to be analyzed by this EIR.

Project Objectives The SFCJPA plans, designs and implements capital projects that are comprehensive in both geography and function because they cross jurisdictional boundaries and they protect vulnerable populations against flooding, including flooding from projected sea level rise, foster and restore healthy ecosystems, and connect communities by enhancing trails. This Project supports this effort by taking an integrated watershed approach, with the following objectives:

• protect property and infrastructure from floodwaters exiting the creek, while minimizing impacts to adjacent communities and the environment;

• enhance habitat within the Project area, particularly interconnected habitat for threatened and endangered species;

• create new recreational opportunities and connect to existing bike and pedestrian corridors;

• minimize operational and maintenance requirements; and

• identify alternatives that would not preclude future actions to bring cumulative flood protection up to a 100-year flow event.



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Project Setting San Francisquito Creek is a perennial stream that originates in the Santa Cruz Mountains and drains a 45-square-mile watershed extending from Skyline Boulevard to San Francisco Bay. The watershed contains three reservoirs (Searsville, Lagunita, and Felt); its major tributary creeks are Los Trancos, West Union, Alambique, Bear, and Corte Madera, and many smaller tributaries drain into these creeks. San Francisquito Creek begins at the confluence of Corte Madera Creek and Bear Creek just downstream of Stanford University’s Searsville Dam. San Francisquito Creek represents the boundary between Santa Clara and San Mateo counties and between the City of Palo Alto and its neighboring cities, Menlo Park and East Palo Alto. Its 5-square-mile floodplain is primarily located within these cities.

Land uses adjacent to San Francisquito Creek in the Project area are predominantly residential, commercial, or open space, in the form of dedicated park lands. Residential neighborhoods include the Woodland neighborhood in East Palo Alto; the Crescent Park, Duveneck/St. Francis, and Downtown North neighborhoods in Palo Alto; and the Willows and Linfield Oaks neighborhoods in Menlo Park. Nearby commercial or office land uses are near the bridges at University Avenue and Middlefield Road. Open space is present between bridges at Middlefield Road and El Camino Real, where the City of Palo Alto operates and maintains two creekside neighborhood parks: the 12.4-acre Timothy Hopkins Creekside Park and the 0.5-acre El Palo Alto Park. Further upstream between El Camino Real and Sand Hill Road, on Stanford property is the Stanford Shopping Center, Stanford Medical Center, as well as housing and professional buildings. Upstream (west) is the Stanford Golf Course and to the west of Highway 280 is the Stanford Linear Accelerator Center (SLAC) research facility, Jasper Ridge biological preserve, agriculture and equestrian activities, all on Stanford land.

Figure 1 below depicts the San Francisquito Creek watershed and areas of potential Project work.

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Project Description The SFCJPA and its member agencies have conducted a preliminary analysis to determine Project alternatives for the creek reach upstream of Highway 101 that can be completed locally, while preserving compliance with federal standards and potential federal support for construction. When implemented, the Project would maximize flood protection, including protection against a storm event similar to the one that occurred in 1998, and enhance ecosystems and recreation. The Project would also minimize adverse impacts to adjacent communities and the environment, seek to minimize requirements for new land easements, and, where possible, incorporate green infrastructure.

Project Alternatives Consistent with the requirements of CEQA and State CEQA Guidelines, the SFCJPA has developed several Project alternatives to be analyzed and compared to determine which actions would best meet the Project’s objectives and minimize significant impacts.

In its Draft EIR, the SFCJPA will evaluate the No Action alternative and four other alternatives, each of which could be implemented as a stand-alone project to meet the objectives listed above. Following the implementation of the selected Project, a subsequent project utilizing these alternatives may be considered to provide greater flood protection. That subsequent project would require additional analysis, documentation, and public review beyond this EIR.

Alternative 1: No Action. As required by CEQA, through the EIR the SFCJPA will analyze the impact of not taking action and compare it to the alternatives listed below.

Alternative 2: Modify Pope-Chaucer Bridge and widen creek channel bottlenecks. This alternative would provide flood protection upstream of Highway 101 for creek flows approximately equal to the 1998 event by implementing in-stream work that generally matches the channel’s capacity in this area. Under this alternative, specific channel constrictions or “bottlenecks” immediately upstream of the West Bayshore Road Bridge and between Newell Road Bridge and Euclid Avenue that cause creek flows to back up and rise during high flow events would be widened to increase channel conveyance and thus reduce water surface elevation. The bridge at Pope-Chaucer Streets would be replaced to convey the flow that can be contained by the surrounding channel at that location.

Alternative 3: Construct one or more upstream detention basins. This alternative would provide flood protection upstream of Highway 101 against a storm event similar to 1998 by building or modifying one or more facilities in the upstream (west) areas of the San Francisquito Creek watershed to detain water and reduce peak flows during large storm events from entering the floodplain area.

Alternative 4: Construct an underground bypass culvert. This alternative would provide flood protection upstream of Highway 101 against a storm event similar to 1998 by constructing a new creek bank structure that would divert high flows into a culvert beneath city streets, thus allowing these flows to bypass the floodplain area.

Alternative 5: Construct floodwalls along the channel. This alternative would provide flood protection upstream of Highway 101 against a storm event similar to 1998 by modifying or constructing floodwalls roughly between Highway 101 and the Pope-Chaucer Streets Bridge, thus allowing these flows to be contained within the channel in the floodplain area.



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Possible Environmental Impacts and Need for an EIR Because of the potential for significant impacts to the environment, the SFCJPA has decided to prepare an EIR. The purpose of an EIR is to inform decision-makers and the general public of the environmental effects of a proposed project. The EIR process is intended to provide information sufficient to evaluate a proposed project and its potential to cause significant effects on the environment; examine methods of reducing adverse environmental impacts; and identify and evaluate alternatives to the proposed project.

Based on a preliminary review performed by the SFCJPA, the following environmental resources could be affected by construction of the Project:

• Aesthetics • Air Quality • Biological Resources and Jurisdictional Habitat • Climate Change • Geology, Soils, and Minerals Hazards and Hazardous Materials • Hydrology and Water Quality • Land Use and Planning • Noise and Vibration • Paleontological, Archaeological, and Historic Architectural Resources • Recreation • Traffic and Transportation • Utilities and Public Services

The Draft EIR will analyze the topics identified above in detail, and any others for which potentially significant impacts are identified. The Draft EIR will propose measures to mitigate (avoid, reduce, or compensate) for any impacts that are determined to be significant.

EIR Scoping Process This NOP initiates the CEQA scoping process through which the SFCJPA will refine the range of issues and alternatives to be addressed in the Draft EIR. The public is invited to comment on the proposal to prepare the EIR and on the scope of issues to be included in it.

The SFCJPA will host Scoping Meetings with similar presentation in three cities on:

January 18, 2017 at 6:30 p.m. at the Laurel School Upper Campus, 275 Elliott Drive in Menlo Park, CA. This will be a joint Scoping Meeting with the Corps of Engineers.

January 26, 2017 at 7:00 p.m. at the East Palo Alto City Hall Community Room, 2415 University Avenue in East Palo Alto, CA.

January 31, 2017 at 7:00 p.m. at the Palo Alto Art Center Auditorium, 1313 Newell Road, Palo Alto, CA. * Please note: this date has changed from the NOP filed on 12/21/16.

These meetings are part of the EIR scoping process during which the general public, public agencies, and private sector entities can provide input on specific topics that they believe should be addressed in the environmental analysis.



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Written comments may be mailed to:

Kevin Murray, Senior Project Manager San Francisquito Creek Joint Powers Authority 615-B Menlo Avenue Menlo Park, CA 94025 or sent by e-mail to: [email protected]

Comments must be received no later than 5:00 p.m. on Tuesday, February 21, 2017.

Public Participation in EIR Review All interested persons and organizations wishing to be notified when the Draft EIR is available for review should respond to this notice and provide a current address. The SFCJPA will compile a list of interested parties and will provide notice when the Draft EIR is available. When completed, the Draft EIR will undergo a 60-day public review and comment period. Information about availability of the Draft EIR will also be posted on the SFCJPA’s website (http://sfcjpa.org).

draft environmental impact report - sfcjpa · 2019-07-26 · alternative 2: modify pope-chaucer...

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