Joshua

BACKGROUND

Against a history of flooding, the SFCJPA developed the “San Francisquito Creek Flood Protection, Ecosystem Restoration, and Recreation Project Upstream of Highway 101.” And, following rigorous CEQA review, the project culminated in a lengthy EIR, which EIR provided an excellent background of the setting here. We thus begin with extensive quotation from that EIR: “San Francisquito Creek originates in the eastern foothills of the Santa Cruz Mountains and drains a watershed that is approximately 45 square miles in size, from Skyline Boulevard to San Francisco Bay. The watershed contains three reservoirs (Searsville, Lagunita, and Felt) and several tributary creeks, including Los Trancos, West Union, Alambique, Bear, and Corte Madera Creek as well as many smaller tributaries that drain into the creeks. San Francisquito Creek begins at the confluence of Corte Madera Creek and Bear Creek, just downstream of Searsville Dam, and flows through Stanford University and the communities of Menlo Park, Palo Alto, and East Palo Alto to San Francisco Bay. San Francisquito Creek represents the boundary between Santa Clara and San Mateo Counties and the cities of Menlo Park, Palo Alto,…