The Marin County Flood Control & Water Conservation District has been working for the past several years on the San Anselmo Flood Risk Reduction (SAFRR) Project, which is a significant effort to protect lives and property during severe storms.
In 2018, the Board of Supervisors certified the Environmental Impact Report (EIR) for the Project.
The overall SAFRR project includes three components. One part involves the removal of the concrete bridge platform, known as Building Bridge #2 (BB2). BB2 is considered a historical obstruction of San Anselmo Creek’s water flow. Its removal will lower the base flood elevation to approximately 400 homes and reduce the amount of water leaving the creek channel that typically flows through San Anselmo Avenue causing damage to commercial buildings.
Since the EIR was certified, the Marin County Flood Control and Conservation District has been working on refining the designs for the downtown San Anselmo portions of the project, which includes removing BB2 and providing a newly visible section of San Anselmo Creek.
Through this design refinement process, most project parts stayed the same, but certain elements have been modified. The changes include (a) replacing an existing retaining wall along San Anselmo Avenue, which will facilitate the construction of San Anselmo’s Creekside Park Project, (b) adding abutments for a new pedestrian bridge, and (c) possibly adding a temporary baffle after removing BB2.
Those changes required a California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) review to evaluate whether the proposed modifications to the SAFRR project may result in any potential new impacts. The Marin County Flood Control and Conservation District conducted the CEQA review using a Supplemental Environmental Review Checklist. After the review, they found that the proposed changes – along with new information and changed conditions – would not result in new or substantially more severe environmental effects. The modified elements would not meet any of the conditions in State CEQA Guidelines Section 15162, and therefore, not require changes to the EIR.
The EIR addendum, that include this analysis, can be found on the Environmental Planning webpage and is available for public comment until December 1, 2023, after which it will be presented to the Board of Supervisors for potential adoption of the EIR addendum and consider approval of the project modifications on December 19, 2023. For additional information on the SAFRR project, please visit the project webpage.