Dick Spotswood: Flood-control fee funded district destined to fail

On the morning of Dec. 31, 2005, downtown San Anselmo was under 4 feet of flood water. That inundation caused millions of dollars in damage to homes and businesses across Ross Valley. According to the Hub City’s Historical Society, San Anselmo Creek overflowed its banks eight times during the last 100 years. The 2005 disaster wasn’t so much a shock as it was a wake-up call. The cry was “do something.”

The late Supervisor Hal Brown represented the area. Brown, well regarded for his consistent response to community concerns, understood that flood control would require a local source of funding. Leading county staff at the time was Marin’s “can do” Public Works Director Farhad Mansourian.

Brown proposed a “storm drainage fee,” essentially a parcel tax, to pay for flooding mitigation. When the “fee” measure narrowly passed, details of what was to be accomplished on site from the proceeds were unknown. In retrospect, construction details should have been developed before, not after, the measure was submitted to property owners.

The tax’s narrow victory resulted in creation of Marin County Flood Control District Zone 9. The levy was $120 per year per real estate parcel for 20 years. It’ll expire in 2027. Approximately $50 million has been expended mostly for paperwork including environmental reviews, engineering studies, public outreach and litigation. Today, about $7.8 million remains available to complete already committed projects.

Ross Valley flood control stumbled after Brown died in 2012 and Mansourian retired in 2011.

The result is a fiasco. Little that will mitigate flooding was accomplished during the past decade. The public became so disillusioned that in 2024 San Anselmo voters passed Measure F withdrawing the town from the district.

Last week, Marin County Department of Public Works “suspended” its Corte Madera Creek flood-control programs to “determine if its goals can be accomplished.”

That suspension was a prudent move so far as it went. It needs to be expanded so that the separate San Anselmo Creek flood control project is also suspended. Corte Madera Creek has a bureaucratic definition. It runs from San Francisco Bay near the Larkspur Ferry Terminal past Greenbrae and College of Marin to Ross where two creeks merge. North of that, the stream is named San Anselmo Creek.

It’s time for a reset of all Zone 9 projects with a start-from-scratch planning process before efforts are made to garner new funding. Impacted residents need to be on board at the start by providing them with full project details. If not, the American public’s inclination to litigate land use disputes will result in another 20-year fiasco.

Much has changed since the 2005 New Year’s Eve flood. Marin residents have begun to see the predicted effects of sea-level rise on Marin’s shoreline, including Corte Madera Creek, much of which is impacted by tidal flow.

The January confluence of king tides with stormwater runoff demonstrated that long-term effort to mitigate Ross Valley flooding needs to start at the bay, then proceed through the tidal zone and finally into upstream creeks. Flood mitigation that fails to factor in a 100-year sea-level rise horizon is worthless when on stormy days flood waters collide with an upstream flowing king tide.

There are a preposterous number of government agencies involved in infrastructure efforts. Ross Valley flood control is typical of those chronicled in Ezra Klein and Derek Thomson’s book “Abundance.” They describe the avalanche of well-intentioned regulations that make new U.S. public works projects virtually impossible.

Along Corte Madera and San Anselmo creeks, these agencies with veto power over aspects of the project include municipalities, Marin County, state and federal governments with the Army Corps of Engineers at the top. Getting them to all agree on details is impossible.

Don’t blame the public, creek-adjacent homeowners or those most impacted. Blame a process that’s designed to fail.

Columnist Dick Spotswood of Mill Valley writes on local issues Sundays and Wednesdays. Email him at spotswood@comcast.net.