A $1.3 million grant will go toward revitalizing 86-year-old Flood Park in Menlo Park near North Fair Oaks in a project dubbed "Realize Flood Park."

During a Dec. 5 meeting, the Santa Clara County Board of Supervisors approved an agreement with neighboring San Mateo County to grant the funds to the 21-acre county park located at 215 Bay Road through money designated to seven projects in 2020 being funded by the $10.3 million Santa Clara County Stanford Mitigation Fund (SMF). A construction timeline will be announced in 2024 once a contractor is selected for the project.

"Clearly, the impacts of the campus development extend beyond the county line," said Simitian, whose District 5 includes Stanford University, in a Dec. 5 press release. "I'm delighted Santa Clara County can make this contribution, which will help Flood Park become an ever-better recreational amenity."

Funds will go toward improvements to the park. Projects include a new baseball field with a multi-use field in the outfield, a second separate multi-use field, picnic and reservation areas, sports courts, utility infrastructure, walking paths and a new parking lot.

A pump track — a mountain/dirt bike course — opened in October near the Iris Lane entrance to the park.

According to previous Almanac reporting, the plans have faced pushback from neighbors who expressed concerns about the added noise and traffic the new playing fields and renovations could bring, while many youth and families in the community, especially young athletes from North Fair Oaks, argued that they need more fields for sports like soccer and don't otherwise have reliably accessible places to play.

The SMF is restricted to projects that aim to mitigate the loss of recreational facilities for campus residents and facility users due to development on the Stanford University campus resulting from approval of the 2000 Stanford general use permit (GUP).

History of the Flood Park project

A revamp of Flood Park has been in the works for years.

A 2015 assessment of the park found that many of its features and infrastructure needed to be repaired or replaced. At the same time, demand grew from the community for additional uses and sports fields. As a result, the San Mateo County Parks Department launched "Reimagine Flood Park" to identify community goals and uses for the park's redesign.

The resulting concept plan, which reflected the desires of the public, went through environmental review in 2017 through 2019, according to the project website.

In 2020, Simitian proposed that Santa Clara County staff explore ways to use remaining funds from the SMF. The board allocated $1.5 million of funds for Palo Alto's Adobe Creek/Highway 101 overcrossing project, which was in addition to $4 million previously awarded, and for the remainder of the funds were allocated to projects in San Mateo County.

Other projects, locally, included in the mitigation funds include:

• Holbrook-Palmer Park (Atherton): Construction of new accessible

pathways along the park entry and exit drives to access park recreation amenities as identified in San Mateo County's park master plan;

• Middle Avenue pedestrian/bicycle undercrossing (Menlo Park): Construction of a tunnel to provide safe pedestrian and bicycle access underneath the Caltrain railroad tracks, providing a direct connection between Burgess Park on the east side of the tracks with Middle Avenue on the west side of the tracks at El Camino Real;

• Martin Luther King Park Lighting (East Palo Alto): Installation of fixed lighting to allow for nighttime sports activity at Martin Luther

King Park. Mobile lights are also included as part of this proposal (thus allowing East Palo Alto to light other city parks with active sports facilities);

• Alpine Trail (Midpeninsula Regional Open Space District): Conversion of a closed portion of Alpine Road to a multi-use trail, south of Skyline Boulevard with the repair of washouts from major storm events and shoring up of other stream crossings that are at risk of failing. This trail would directly link with other Midpeninsula Open Space regional trails in the Coal Creek and Monte Bello Open Space Preserves, including the Bay Area Ridge Trail.

Call for bids

In November, San Mateo County called for bids for the Flood Park project.

Once a contractor is selected in early 2024, a construction timeline will be announced, according to the county.

Requests for information on bidding begins Jan. 5 at 5 p.m.

Bid information can be found at tinyurl.com/floodparkbid.

More information

For more on the Flood Park project, go to smcgov.org/parks/realize-flood-park.

For more on the project, watch this video:

Read more: County supervisors approve Flood Park renovations