We have an opportunity to upgrade the San Mateo levees which will eliminate, for those who live in Zone A, the ever increasing cost of flood insurance and get FEMA out of our lives by the end of 2010. The levee upgrades plus additional effort, as described below will be needed to completely remove Zone B residents from FEMA’s Special Flood Hazard Area. 
FEMA Special Flood Hazard Area Map
19th Ave. Park Detail – click on image for larger map
Around May 1 you will receive in your mail a ballot regarding an assessment district to pay for fixing the levees as required by FEMA to eliminate the Bay Flooding Risk. The district’s name will be the “City of San Mateo South Bayfront Levee & Flood Control Facilities Assessment District”.
Please vote YES. If a majority of US vote yes we will rid ourselves of the requirement to pay flood insurance by raising the money we need to improve our levees to FEMA's requirements.
See below for more details.
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Typical assessment costs are shown in this table:
When the Assessment District is approved the City has done the work necessary for the work to immediately begin. The levee improvement is to be finished by late 2010. This will eliminate the Bay Flooding risk, thereby taking all 19th Ave. Park homes in Zone A of the above map out of the FEMA Flood Hazard Area.
A group of our neighbors has been working to assure that ALL San Mateo property owners will no longer be face with the costs of being in a FEMA Flood. The group calls themselves San Mateo FACT [Flood Awareness Correction Team]. FACT’s immediate goal is to make sure the Assessment District Vote is YES.
FACT needs your help in informing all property owners in the FEMA Special Flood Hazard Area about the need for the Assessment District. Both money to pay for costs such as printing, mailing, and food for hungry workers and volunteers to work with us are needed.
The cards you have received and the video that is on YouTube (note below) are our first outreach efforts. We will be going on our first door to door effort on Saturday and Sunday May 2nd and May 3rd. We need your help.
To help with this, bring yourself and some friends to the Harbortown Club House at 9:30 AM on May 2nd, and 10:00 AM on May 3rd. to help us reach the residents. It will be fun and we will feed you. The Club House is at the corners of Marines Island Blvd. and Fashion Island Blvd. It is on the left as you enter Harbortown from Mariners Island Blvd.
Check out this video link to YouTube [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zx1ZGrHr4l4]. Also, there will be segments of a different news program on Peninsula TV. We will start airing it everyday this week (it appears within the program “Pen TV Community News” at 7 am, 12 pm 7 pm), please watch.
As the map shows, all but a few lucky 19th Avenue Park neighbors are in the FEMA Special Flood Hazard Area. The lucky ones live in homes that happened to have been built on slightly higher ground 50+ years ago. For the rest of us, being in the Special Flood Hazard Area means that any mortgage loans on our properties MUST – by Federal Regulation – be protected by flood insurance. The Regulations apply to present loans and/OR any future loans such as refinancing to raise needed money for an emergency or, should you want to sell your property, for the buyer’s mortgage. We have been warned that minimum insurance costs are to increase to $800 to $1400+ per year in 2009. It is likely that insurance costs will continue to increase in the future. [NOTE: these and all minimum insurance costs stated in this message are the approximate cost of insurance for the house only. It is our understanding that Federal regulations only REQUIRE insuring the house. The optional added cost of insurance coverage for the contents will depend on the amount of coverage you buy.] You should check with your insurance agent for the exact costs and other details.
The homes in Zone B of the above map are threatened by the risk of flooding from Bay Flooding PLUS the risk of storm water flooding from 16th Avenue Creek. To remove these homes from the FEMA Special Flood Hazard Area it will be necessary to remove BOTH the risk of Bay Flooding and the risk of Storm Water Flooding. The Bay Flooding risk will be eliminated by the levee upgrades that will be paid for by the Assessment District; removing the Storm water flooding risk will require a increasing the capacity conduit under Highway 101 to carry the FEMA required 100 year storm drainage. Cost of this has been estimated to be about $17M.
Members of the City Council and of FACT are dedicated to continue their efforts, until ALL San Mateo resident’s properties are out of the FEMA Special Flood Hazard Area! We will work with members of the State Legislature and Congress, CalTrans, and any other group that we feel can help.
Right now, the City and FACT members are working with Jackie Speier to try to get $6M in Federal funding. This funding is far from assured and, if it does come would be too late to help start this year’s South Levee Project. If any money comes our way from the Federal Government it may be used to correct Storm Water flooding, or to buy down the assessment for the South Levee Project.
Your help will be appreciated.
Sincerely,
FACT (Flood Assessment Correction Team)
Marshall Loring
(650)345-2654
(650)483-8676 Cell
cmarsh.l@att.net
and
Richard W. Hedges
(650) 619-2771 Cell
Hedghogg@ix.netcom.com
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