San Mateo County has a big plan for Flood Park.
It includes cutting down the heart of the woodland.
The officially approved plan, called the 2020 Landscape Plan, calls for cutting down 72 park trees, 22 of them in the heart of the woodland, to be replaced by an additional soccer field, despite strong protests from people who want to keep the natural character of the woodland. The underlying problem is there’s not enough room in the park for everything wanted by different groups. You can read more below>>
There are community-developed alternatives that support the soccer, lacrosse, and baseball communities without removing so much of the woodland. You can read more below>>
The County is now in the process of revising its plans, and has held a community meeting, two pop-up events, and an online survey. Woodland advocates are encouraged that, in both the meeting and the survey, the community showed strong support for the woodland and the natural character of the park. You can view the results here. >>
The County says that revised plans and layout drawings will be posted online in May, 2022, and officially presented at a community meeting in early June. Although it says that the revisions will reflect the community’s demonstrated desires, so far, it’s unwilling to say whether the revisions will spare the heart of the woodland. In its public presentations, the County is still featuring the map that shows a new soccer field in the middle of the wooded area.
You can read more about the planning process below>>
There are some hints that the County might relent from cutting out the heart of the woodland, but so far, they’re unwilling to make any commitment, and it’s important that the community continue to show determination to see the natural character of the woodland preserved. Please help us by taking whatever actions you can — both working within the official planning process, and going beyond it. Will conservation advocates be able to muster enough support to influence the County’s plan? Farther down this page, you’ll find a list of actions you can take, starting with e-mails to the Parks Department and County Board of Supervisors. You can jump to the actions list with this link>>
There’s a lot of material below, perhaps more than you’ll want to read through in one sitting. If you take a break along the way, you can use the above links like chapter headings to pick up where you left off.
Thanks in advance for taking a look! I hope to see you in the park! — Assembled by Mike Murphy, 01-01-2022
In addition, it would be great if you could send us feedback about this page! Often times, we prepare a page like this, but never find out the response of people who view it. Please tell us what you think! E-mail your comments to info@FloodPark.org.
Background, Discussion, and Commentary
In its ambition to add multiple sports fields, the plan to Reimagine Flood Park falls far out of balance.
For decades, Flood Park has balanced sports, nature, and family recreation. The northeast side of the park is filled with sports facilities. On the southwest side, family play and picnic areas are nestled within a woodland — an expanse of oak, bay, redwood and other trees, many native to the site from a time before the surrounding cities were built, some inherited from the Flood estate when the park was founded, and some planted by park foresters.
The Woodland
The woodland has hosted generations of family celebrations, and on holidays, hundreds of picnickers fill the group sites. The playgrounds among the trees are used every day, birders track dozens of species, and many people visit this spacious natural environment as a refuge from urban bustle.
For people who live nearby in urban neighborhoods, starved for natural green space, Flood Park provides easy access to this historic woodland, which once spanned thousands of acres along the peninsula, but now has almost all been cleared, or is out of reach on private property.
In some years, the County has nurtured and honored the woodland. In others, the tree-and-grass ecosystem simply continued its quiet life, not getting much attention from County officials, but cherished by the community.
Many people count the woodland among their favorite places, for reasons deeper than fun or exercise. A walk in this grove can bring a sense of renewed peace, joy, and connection to the natural world.
If the County succeeds in its cutting plan, people will mourn for these trees.
Sports facilities
The most played sport in the park today is volleyball, on sand courts tucked in among the trees.
The large sports facilities were also very popular for many years, but have fallen into disrepair. Broken pavement makes the tennis courts hard to use, and the large baseball field has been sitting idle for years, its outfield riddled with ground squirrel burrows.
In May of 2015, the County Parks Department decided that, rather than just catching up on deferred maintenance, it wanted to “reimagine” the park.
Although planners duly noted that the community asked for the top priority to be “to preserve trees and natural park character,” their imagination was focused more on constructing new amenities, including gathering plazas, a demonstration garden, a long, paved promenade, and an array of new sports facilities, including basketball, new tennis and volleyball courts, a bicycle pump track, and — for the first time at the park — a field for soccer.
Unfortunately, there’s not enough room in the park to build the full wishlist of concepts that were proposed without taking out a large portion of the woodland prized by the community. This is the root planning problem that has led to six years of controversies.
Constituencies within the community that are usually supportive of each other (such as environmental advocates and youth sports) are finding themselves competing for space. A petition to save the native trees has been signed by more than 2800 people. Looking to the future, people are worried that the park might have to restrict access to avoid running out of parking when picnic sites and ball fields are both in demand. These are all symptoms of trying to build too many features into a space that isn’t big enough.
If you want to learn more about the troubled development process from 2015 until today, you can read the history at the independent web site FloodPark.org, and you can review some of of the official documents at the County website, https://parks.smcgov.org/realize-flood-park or at FloodPark.org
The current situation
As of April, 2022, the development process is still continuing, and the underlying problem — too many features, too little space — has still not been resolved.
The planners continue to assert that they are committed to “preserve trees and natural park character” — but the image they use to present their plan still shows a soccer field that will require cutting down the heart of the woodland, and the soccer amenity has actually grown, to two large fields.
Advocates for the woodland are pushing the County to accept any of several alternates that would reduce the amount of tree cutting.
It’s not yet clear what alterations the County might accept, if any.
To cut or not to cut … and where?
Let’s look a bit deeper at the County’s planned cuts and at possible alternatives.
The areas in red show the canopies of existing trees that will be cut down to make room for the soccer fields and other amenities. The 2020 Tree Removal plan calls for removing 72 park trees, 22 of which are in the heart of the woodland, in the lower part of the map.
Many of the advocates for conserving the woodland recognize the value of compromise, and are willing to accept removing trees along the eastern margin (the upper area on the map). Many of these are aging non-native trees in poor health. However, advocates ask that the promenade, plazas and playgrounds be revised to build around the historic oaks, rather than remove them, and they are very strongly opposed to clear cutting the heart of the woodland.
They’re proposing a range of alternates that would still serve the soccer, lacrosse, and baseball communities without requiring so many trees to be destroyed.
Alternates
To tackle the problem of “too many features, too little space,” it makes sense to try combining features, reducing features, eliminating some features, or making the space bigger.
Here are several alternate layouts that explore these approaches, while keeping a high priority on protecting the woodland.
For comparison, here’s the layout in the 2020 Revised Conceptual Landscape Plan.
Alternate A
Features of Alternate A:
- The heart of the woodland remains intact!
- Playing field availability the same as the 2020 Landscape Plan
- Dedicated full-size soccer field — does not require time-share with baseball.
- Second full-sized soccer area available as part of a very large multi-use overlay with baseball. Additional outh/practice/pickup area is available as well. Scheduling of multi-use allocation would be at the discretion of park officials.
- There is an additional non-shared playing area available for pick-up. practice, or youth competition.
- Possible to schedule baseball and soccer games at the same time.
- Reaches further into margin of woodland area than other multi-use alternates — about 8 additional trees would be removed.
- Loss of trees at the woodland margin is preferable to loss of trees in the middle of the woodland.
- Some features and amenities of the 2020 Landscape Plan need to shifted to accommodate the soccer field. The promenade has been shifted toward Bay Road. The gathering plaza has be moved to the other side of the adobe building.
Alternate B
Features of Alternate B:
- Central woodland remains intact!
- Three flex fields for competition, practice, and pick-up use
- Biggest field is full size for adult competition, smaller fields are great for practice, pick-up play
- More efficient use of multi-use space than the 2020 Landscape Plan
- Large budget savings from not cutting woodland trees and not having to grade and prep additional ground for turf
- Small field is always available, does not rotate with baseball
- Makes it easy to provide both programmed sessions and room for pick-up users
- One possible baseball and soccer/lacrosse 50% rotation — alternate days during the week, weekends could alternate Saturday/Sunday use
Alternate C
Features of Alternate C:
- Central woodland remains intact! However, this alternative does involve the trade-off of requiring removal of four mature oaks near the entrance. This tree loss could be eliminated by changing to a smaller field.
- All the benefits of Alternate B, plus an additional medium-sized Flex Field near the entrance.
- The entrance field’s schedule would be independent of the baseball rotation. Great for full-time access for practice, pick-up users, and competition up to the U-11 middle school level. Can be programmed or free-access at discretion of schedulers.
- The multi-use field(s) would participate in rotation with baseball users. A possible rotation would be alternate days.
- This placement displaces both the demonstration garden and an event area. There are many locations they could be moved to, not indicated on this map.
Alternate D
Features of Alternate D:
- Central woodland remains intact!
- No permanent markings means maximum flexibility for configuration of field sports, for practice, competition, or pick-up play
- Most efficient use of multi-use space
- Large budget savings from not cutting woodland trees and not having to grade and prep additional ground for turf
- Right side of area does not require rotation with baseball, is available full-time
- Makes it easy to provide both programmed sessions and room for pick-up users
- One possible baseball and soccer/lacrosse 50% rotation — alternate days during the week, weekends could alternate Saturday/Sunday use
Alternate E
Features of Alternate E:
- Central woodland remains intact!
- The park is extended to include the site of the former James Flood School, now a vacant lot that belongs to the Ravenswood City School District. The site is right next to the park, separated only by a fence. Entry and Exit via the park prevents against neighborhood traffic issues. Would use existing parking.
- This alternate is a “long shot” because it would require the Ravenswood City School District to be willing to make the land available for Flood Park use. At this time, they’re hoping to lease the land to housing developers, to generate income.
- A full size Flex field would be placed on the newly acquired lot
- The Flood School fields are independent of the rotation with baseball users, available full time. Can be programmed or used for pick-up play at the discretion of schedulers.
- Extra green space can be used for additional sports fields, additional amenities. Or, relocate maintenance yard and use that space for other amenities.
- All the benefits of the maximum flexibility multi-use field of Alternate B
- Multi-use area would still share space with baseball, but the baseball schedule could now be given much greater priority
- Least disruption of both woodlands and other amenities
- Requires substantial financing
These alternatives have been brought to the attention of both the Parks Department and the planners hired to prepare the detailed designs, but it’s not clear what it would take to persuade them to adopt any of them.
How will the Reimagine Flood Park plan evolve?
What alterations will the community be allowed to ask for?
Here’s the County’s official timeline for the project (from January, 2022). The next phase calls for schematic design, to be presented in May/June, 2022, then detailed design.
The official public channel — the Community Meetings, Pop-up Events, and an Online Survey
Woodland advocates continue to hope that strong participation by many people in the official planning process will eventually result in a revised plan that will leave the heart of the woodland in place and protect the natural character of the nature-oriented side of the park.
Can the county actually be persuaded to revise its plan to that extent? At the time of this writing (April 28th,2022), after months in the process, that remains unclear, to the frustration of many in the community.
The first of this year’s Community Meetings was held Feb 2nd, 2022. Although it was billed as a community input meeting, most of the time was devoted to County presentations of the 2020 plan and scripted questions about usage of amenities. Many people in attendance had come to support keeping the woodlands and natural park character intact, and tried to register their position during the limited discussion periods and in the Chat channel. You can learn more about what happened at this meeting by clicking this link.>>
There was an official County public input survey from March 12th to March 31st. Many people indicated strong interest and support for the natural features of the park, and for keeping the heart of the woodlands intact. This seems to have made at least some impression on County officials and the planning consultants, CMG. You can learn more about the results of the survey by clicking this link.>>
The County persists in using the 2020 Landscape Plan map as its only official vision of the future of the park. However, when pressed, officials say that the 2020 Plan is “conceptual,” and that the size and placement of features is actually not yet finalized. They say that during April and May of 2022, they’ll be going through a fresh schematic design process, during which they’ll use the 2020 plan as a “base” and revise the layout in consideration of input from the community during the meeting, pop-ups, and survey cycle of February and March.
The County is urging the community to trust that their voices have been heard and will be respected, and to wait to see the revised schematic design (now expected to be posted online in May 2022 and officially introduced in early June). At this time, the County is not willing to give any indication of what the revisions might be.
The County is also strongly asserting that they consider their official meetings and surveys to be the only legitimate pathway for community input to the process (now closed until the new schematic design is presented). Opinions, alternatives, requests, and information arriving along other paths (social media, the press, community web sites, petitions, and such) “are not likely to be considered.” Many in the community consider this to be a very bad choice.
Moving forward, what if the revisions do not, in fact, keep the center of the woodland intact? What if the revisions do not respect the natural character of the park? Will there be time to give further input to the process and request necessary changes, or will time have run out? There is no time allowed in the official timeline for further discussion or revision. It simply shows the next stage of the process, Design Development, a stage at which it’s not usually possible to change the basic configuration of features.
You can see the official County descriptions and results of the process at the County’s “Realize Flood Park” web pages, which you can reach via this link.
If you want to give your input to the county, but can’t find a place to do it, we suggest writing to the Director of the Parks and Recreation Department, Nicholas Calderon, and to the Board of Supervisors. You can find the appropriate e-mail addresses at the action page of this website.
When you send an e-mail to a county official, please also send a cc: to this website, at info@floodpark.org so that we can be aware of the effect this page is having and the initiatives our readers are taking.
A parallel channel — the Working Group
In addition to the official, open-to-the-public Community Meetings (sometimes also referred to as Public Input Workshops), a second, parallel, invitation-only channel for input has been created, called the Working Group.
Official County Announcement
“As part of the community engagement process, the Department has formed a Working Group of diverse stakeholder perspectives to discuss goals and preferences for how to implement the Landscape Plan. The Working Group includes 10 to 12 representatives that will meet up to six times throughout the project.”
“The Working Group’s purpose is to provide a productive venue to listen to and share a range of perspectives, seek shared understanding about how to balance the goals regarding the park design, and enlist community leaders in sharing information on the park design process with the larger community.” — From the County web page parks.smcgov.org/realize-flood-park-project-update
As with the open Community Meetings, it’s unclear whether the County will allow the Working Group to consider moving the mid-woodland soccer/lacrosse field. Their first meeting was held December 13th, and did not take up the question. You can watch a recording of the meeting at www.youtube.com/watch?v=MtpNckefv1s&t=4s
So far, there is no official way for the public to give information to, or make requests of, the Working Group. One of the invited members of the Working Group is associated with the woodland advocates, and can provide that perspective to the group. In addition, there will be strong outreach to other members of the group, trying to persuade them to make choices that respect the woodland.
A third path — acting on our own
There’s a strong chance that neither the Public Input Workshop nor the Working Group will persuade the Reimagine planners and the Parks Director to move the soccer field out of the central woodland.
Advocates are also making the case directly to the County Board of Supervisors, which has final authority over both the plan and the parks department. And the same outreach efforts that will rally support and bring people to the Public Input Workshop will also encourage them to ask the Supervisors to intervene.
What will this outreach look like? What kinds of action might help?
How to take action to help save the woodland
Official County Methods
The County’s official Community Meeting of the Public Input/Schematic Design process took place Wednesday, February 2nd, from 5:30 to 7:00 PM
More than 100 people attended, and many people voiced concerns about the fate of the trees in the woodland, and their desire to see sports field placed in locations that allow the heart of the woodland to be be kept intact.
There have also been two pop-up events at which the county presented the 2020 plan and solicited people to take a paper version of their input survey.
The input survey was also run online from March 12th to March 31st.
Although the official input channels are now closed until the next community meeting in early June, you can go to the County website for updates on the Reimagine/Realized Flood Park project: parks.smcgov.org/realize-flood-park-project-updates
Sign the petition to Save Flood Park native trees!
Tell the San Mateo County Board of Supervisors and other County officials that we want to save the heart of the woodland!
The revised park design will have to be approved by the Board of Supervisors. Community issues do sometimes cause them to take action, and they have already intervened once in the Reimagine Flood Park project, sending a proposal back for further work after neighbors objected to the placement of the soccer/lacrosse field. As the final authority in San Mateo County, they have a very strong influence on choices made in the Parks Department.
You can e-mail them directly at these addresses.
When you do, please also include a :cc to Contact@FloodPark.org, so that we can track the effectiveness of our outreach efforts.
Board of Supervisors
Don Horsley dHorsley@smcgov.org
Warren Slocum wSlocum@smcgov.org
Carol Groom cGroom@smcgov.org
Dave Pine dPine@smcgov.org
David Canepa dCanepa@smcgov.org
There is also an address that sends a message to the full board, used for board meetings: BoardFeedBack@smcgov.org
It’s also a great idea to speak out during the Public Comment segment at the begining of meetings of the board. You can speak for one or two minutes, depending on how busy the agenda is that day.
Board meetings are usually at 9:00 AM, Tuesday morning, every other week. You can see their event schedule at https://bos.smcgov.org/board-supervisors-events
Parks Commission
It can also help to be in contact with the Parks Commission, and to speak out during the Public Comment segment of their meetings. A good place to start is with the Parks Commission website at https://parks.smcgov.org/parks-commission
County Manager and County Parks Director
You can also send e-mails to the County Manager, Mike Callagy, and the County Parks Director, Nicholas Calderon. Mr. Calderon is the one directly in charge of the Reimagine Flood Park project. Here are their addresses.
County Manager, Michael Callagy mCallagy@smcgov.org
County Parks Director, Nicholas Calderon nCalderon@smcgov.org
Again, if you e-mail someone in County Government, please include a :cc to Contact@FloodPark.org so we can track the effectiveness of our outreach materials (such as this online essay).
Spread the word among your friends!
Direct person-to-person contact is a very powerful kind of communication. Tell your friends about the situation in Flood Park and see if they’d be willing to help you save the heart of the woodland. Bring your friends to the Public Input Workshop. This time around, success is largely going to be a matter of numbers.
You don’t have to be part of an organization, you can just go do it. 🙂
Join in neighborhood awareness gatherings!
During the month of January, we plan to hold gatherings on the neighborhood scale. Because of COVID-19, these may have to be online. We’ll be meeting in conjunction with neighborhood associations, local environmental interest groups, and local residents who have become interested through our outreach effort. We’ll be presenting our case, sharing stories of the park, and listening to what people in the neighborhoods have to say. Please join us! Use this form to receive e-mail notifications as these sessions are scheduled.
Help in advocacy work—outreach, research, front-line and more
Many of the efforts to save the heart of the woodland have been the work of a small group of volunteers from the community. We’re approaching “crunch time” and are in great need of help on many fronts. Here are things you could help us do right away.
- Deliver printed handouts to residences in areas including Menlo Park, North Fair Oaks, Redwood City, Atherton, Belle Haven, and East Palo Alto.
- Research the needs for soccer, lacrosse, and baseball fields in the area, which will involve contacting city staff, team coaches, league organizers, etc.
- Visit soccer, lacrosse, and baseball fields in the area to learn how heavily they are used and to reach out to these communities with handouts
- Help organize and run both online and in-person neighborhood meetings to spread the word and recruit people to attend the February Public Input meeting.
- Help prepare both digital and print outreach materials.
You can get more information by e-mailing Contact@FloodPark.org
You can learn more by choosing topics from the menu at the top of the page.