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San Francisco Bay Delta

Urban Greening Bay Area

Urban Greening Bay Area is a large-scale effort to re-envision Bay Area urban landscapes to include green infrastructure (GI) making communities more livable and reducing stormwater runoff to the Bay. The project includes working with partner cities to plan for and track GI projects using the watershed-based GreenPlan-IT tool.ExitFinding long term funding for implementing green infrastructure in the region will be the focus of a series of roundtable meetings. In addition, the project will host a design charrette to develop cost-effective GI designs for typical roadway intersections, and construct a green street at Chynoweth Avenue in San Jose.

Project Facts

Recipient: San Francisco Estuary Partnership
Funding: $1,730,862 (non-federal match = $1,730,862)
Project Period: July 2015 -December 2018
Partners: Bay Area Stormwater Management Agencies Association; San Francisco Estuary Institute; Cities of San Jose, Oakland, and Richmond; SFBay Regional Water Quality Control Board

Environmental Results Summary: Urban Greening Bay Area

OUTPUTS (Activities, efforts, and/or work product during project period)

OUTCOMES (Environmental results)

SHORT-TERM
(1-5 yrs)

LONG-TERM
(5-20+yrs)

Refine GreenPlan-IT,Exita GI planning tool

Improve GI planning tool for municipalities to identify cost-effective locations for GI implementation and quantify their effectiveness for flow or load reductions

Municipalities around the Bay move from opportunistic to strategic GI implementation and integrate it with other city plans.

Develop a framework for watershed-scale quantitative plans for reducing contaminant loads and restoring hydrographs through a combination of GI and more traditional stormwater management features.

Incorporate results of GreenPlan-IT model runs for GI projects in Contra Costa County, Oakland, Richmond and Sunnyvale Implementation of GI at selected sites identified within the GreenPlans for achieving targeted flow or load reduction goals at watershed scale  

A framework to provide guidance at the watershed scale for alternative compliance with the municipal regional stormwater permit when project areas are too dense to allow for stormwater treatment on site

Regional Roundtable will develop a road map for integrating GI with climate change and/or transportation investments within the region Enhance partnerships amongst agencies and funding sources for future funding of GI Integration between relevant agencies and funding sources around GI use as a multi-benefit tool to address water quality/quantity and other issues
Host a design build charrette to develop transferable, low-cost, low-maintenance design specifications for standard intersection scenarios Up to two cities with 1 or more intersections built according to new design standards, resulting in approximately 5000 sq. ft. of new stormwater curb extensions treating a catchment area of about 3 acres Standard transferable design specifications will increase watershed-scale GI implementation on roadways by facilitating green street or sustainable street planning and implementation efforts by local governments
Build the Chynoweth Project in San Jose-  1,000 feet of urban roadway green infrastructure Treat 71,000 square feet of roadway runoff Annual removal of up to approximately 616 lb. of TSS, 1.39 Ib. of TP, 3.2 lb. of TN, 1.1 lb. of Pb, 0.45 lb. of Zn, and 0.09 lb. of Cu.  The project would also contribute to greenhouse gas reduction by encouraging pedestrian and cycling use in conjunction with other planned improvements along Chynoweth Avenue
The UrbanGreening Tracker tool for assessing the cumulative effectiveness of GI at the watershed scale Provide baseline information for tracking progress and better evaluating stormwater permit compliance Provides a valuable tool for Water Board and municipalities to track progress and evaluate permit compliance, and also to inform pollutant tradeoffs from one part of a Watershed to another

Full List of Project Summaries