The resources presented here complement the information provided in our Green Streets brochure (right). This information is designed for municipal officials and staff people who want to learn more about planning for, funding, and implementing green infrastructure and sustainable stormwater solutions for communities around the San Francisco Estuary.
Click to read the brochure and then explore the tabs below for more resources and exemplary case studies.
Goals
Champion the Estuary
Actions
Action 24
NEW! Click here to download the Roadmap of Funding Solutions for Sustainable Streets, developed through a roundtable process by the Urban Greening Bay Area project team.
Developing a successful green streets plan or program requires policy guidance, tools and analytics, and coordination between multiple departments and stakeholders. Here are a few tools and examples to get you started.
Many green infrastructure projects in the Bay Area have successfully leveraged federal, state, and regional funds.
State Coastal Conservancy: $100.5M in grant funds for multi-benefit ecosystem and watershed protection and restoration projects, including water sustainability improvements and urban greening projects. Over the next several years, the SCC will offer up to four grant rounds per year. Some solicitations will be open to all eligible projects, others will target specific Prop 1 priorities identified in the SCC’s Strategic Plan. One funding round is expected in 2019. Learn More.
Storm Water Grant Program: $200M in grant funds for multi-benefit storm water management projects, which may include, but not be limited to: green infrastructure, rainwater and storm water capture projects and storm water treatment facilities. Storm Water Resource Plans, or functionally equivalent plan(s), are required to obtain grant funds for storm water and dry weather capture projects. The next round of funding will be targeted for implementation projects. Learn more.
Urban Rivers Grant Program: $20M in grant funds to the California Natural Resources Agency for green infrastructure that conserves water, buffers, climate change impacts, improves water quality, water supply, public health, reduces greenhouse gas emissions and energy demand, restores and protects rivers, creeks and streams (including acquisition). Learn more.
The integration of green infrastructure elements into planned capital improvement projects for local streets and sidewalks is an exceptional opportunity to address multiple issues, both above and below the surface.
Alameda County
Contra Costa County
San Mateo County
Santa Clara Valley
San Pablo Avenue Rain Gardens
This successful project retrofitted the conventional public right-of-way (street edge and sidewalk area) with a series of stormwater treatment cells (aka rain gardens) at two sites along San Pablo Avenue in El Cerrito. Learn more.
Newcomb Avenue Low Impact Development
Community members and city staff implemented the design for a green streetscape by planting trees and other drought-tolerant plants, installing specially designed stormwater-filtering planters to infiltrate stormwater runoff, installing traffic calming chicanes, and creating community gathering places. Learn more.
San Pablo Avenue Avenue Green Stormwater Spine
The San Pablo Avenue Green Stormwater Spine is a pilot project and model for Bay Area municipalities implementing green infrastructure projects as part of their stormwater management efforts. The project will design, build, and monitor an array of low impact development (LID) projects distributed along 12.5 miles of San Pablo Avenue, a major thoroughfare passing through a number of East Bay cities. Learn more.
Hacienda Avenue Green Street Improvement Project
As part of a comprehensive street improvement project (including 62 street trees, a road diet, street regrading, bike lanes, and streetlight upgrades), this three-quarter-mile road reconstruction project in Campbell added sidewalks and curb extensions with bioretention to decrease stormwater runoff rates and improve water quality. The City, opportunistically, coordinated upgrades of underground utilities while the street was reconstructed.
Serramonte Main Branch Library Stormwater Treatment Gardens
This project in Daly City created extended rain gardens, or bioretention cells, around the public library, collecting and treating nearly 4 acres of runoff from the parking lot and surrounding areas. Learn more.
GreenPlan Bay Area
Funded by the State Water Resources Control Board, GreenPlan Bay Area is a collaborative effort between the San Francisco Estuary Partnership, the San Francisco Estuary Institute, and Bay Area municipalities to develop spatial tools which will be used to develop plans that identify the optimal combination of green infrastructure LID features for achieving desirable outcomes at the watershed scale. Learn more.
Fremont Tree Well Filters
In 2012, the City of Fremont installed two tree well filters on Osgood Road to improve city aesthetics and treat urban runoff. Two distinct filter configurations were designed and built side by side so that they could be tested against one another for efficacy of pollutant removal and maintenance costs. Learn more.
Regional Trash Reduction Project
Trash is both a water quality problem and a visual nuisance in the Bay Area. Trash is carried by the region’s municipal storm drain systems to local creeks, the Bay, and on to the Pacific Ocean. SFEP is actively involved in reducing trash in our waters. Learn more.
Taking Action for Clean Water – PCBs in Caulk Project
SFEP’s PCBs in Caulk Project was created to address potential impacts of polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) in caulks and sealants released into stormwater runoff during demolition or remodeling projects in the San Francisco Bay Area. The project assisted the implementation of the Total Maximum Daily Load (TMDL) for PCBs in San Francisco Bay. The project is no longer active, but archive information is available. Learn more.
The results are alarming for our state’s future: an estimated four to five feet of sea level rise and loss of one to two-thirds of Southern California beaches by 2100, a 50 percent increase in wildfires over 25,000 acres, stronger and longer heat waves, and infrastructure like airports, wastewater treatment plants, rail and roadways increasingly likely to suffer flooding.