Posted on March 21, 2017
By Kaitlyn Bartley, Half Moon Bay Review
The San Mateo County Resource Conservation District has submitted its application for a Coastal Resiliency Grant from the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration. If accepted, the RCD plans to use the money to restore the Butano Creek channel through the Pescadero Marsh.
Although the RCD won’t find out until October if its application has been accepted, Executive Director Kellyx Nelson has responded to community questions regarding the proposal.
The grant application comes after decades of winter flooding in the area that closes the main road into town and cuts off local businesses and schools from outside customers and students. The floods regularly immobilize the community until water levels subside.
Representatives from the RCD and from California State Parks, which owns the flooded marsh, were expected to attend Tuesday evening’s Pescadero Municipal Advisory Council meeting, which occurred after Review deadlines. Before the meeting, however, Nelson addressed questions submitted to the RCD by community members regarding the circumstances surrounding the grant application and the details of its proposal.
The proposal has already earned the support of state Sen. Jerry Hill, state Assemblymembers Kevin Mullin and Marc Berman, as well as the State Coastal Conservancy, which paid for much of the dredge design work. San Mateo County Supervisor Don Horsley has also expressed support for the grant and requested $1 million in matching funds from the county, according to Nelson.
The grant proposal includes a dredging concept with 30 percent of the final designs completed. In the coming months, the RCD will seek feedback from other stakeholders and complete 60 percent of the design with a two-dimensional model of the dredging. If funding is awarded from NOAA in October, the RCD would begin applying for the necessary permits in November, and release the completed designs for bidding in June 2018. Work would likely begin in late summer or early autumn of 2018.
Source: Half Moon Bay Review
