Push to exit flood control district leads in preliminary vote results
Measure F, which asks San Anselmo residents if they want to withdraw the town from Marin County Flood Control and Water Conservation District Zone 9, was leading with a 63% majority when 1,371 of the mailed ballots were counted Tuesday night.
Ballots counted included about 67% of precincts. The initiative requires majority support to pass.
Measure F's proponents asserted that millions of dollars in stormwater drainage fees collected by the district since 2007 had largely been wasted, and that a district plan to remove an old bridge in downtown San Anselmo to reduce flood risk is misguided.
Measure F proponents included San Anselmo Vice Mayor Eileen Burke and former councilmembers Paul Chignell, Matt Brown, Jeff Kroot and Ford Greene.
In 2007, residents in San Anselmo, Ross, Larkspur, Fairfax and the unincorporated communities of Greenbrae, Kentfield, Sleepy Hollow and Oak Manor narrowly approved the creation of a 20-year stormwater drainage fee to generate money for flood control projects.
However, Zone 9's initial plan to build five stormwater detention ponds ran into opposition from neighbors. In November 2015, San Anselmo voters approved a ballot measure that prohibited the use of Memorial Park as a detention basin.
The district was successful in building one detention basin at the former Sunnyside Nursery growing grounds just west of Fairfax. The district's plan is to combine the holding power of that basin with enhanced flow in San Anselmo Creek by removing the span known as “Building Bridge 2” in downtown San Anselmo.
Opponents of the plan have raised concerns regarding 49 downstream parcels that would see a slight rise in flood water levels if the plan is implemented and how that impact would be
mitigated.
Measure F proponents also oppose removal of Building Bridge 2. During the COVID-19 pandemic shutdown, the bridge became popular as an informal park and meeting place.
According to the Marin County Department of Public Works, the bridge could collapse during an earthquake and needs to be removed regardless of flood risk. Measure F proponents dispute this finding and have called for its preservation.
Supervisor Katie Rice, who has spearheaded flood
control project efforts in the Ross Valley, contributed $3,000 to the No on Measure F Committee. The committee also received a $5,000 contribution from Eric Warner. The committee supporting passage of the measure raised just under $11,000.
In an “impartial analysis,” San Anselmo Town Attorney Megan Holt Acevedo wrote that “withdrawal from the District is unlikely to release property owners in the Town from having to pay the Flood Fee to fund projects to which the District is already committed.”