Realize Flood Park gets $1.3 million in grant funding

On December 5, the Santa Clara County Board of Supervisors  approved an agreement with the County of San Mateo to provide $1.3 million in grant funding for the Realize Flood Park project as part of the Stanford recreational grant program.

The 86-year-old park in Menlo Park is one of seven projects in San Mateo County that was designated in 2020 for inter-county funding by the Santa Clara County Stanford Mitigation Fund (SMF). 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).

“Clearly, the impacts of the campus development extend beyond the County line,” said Santa Clara County Supervisor Joe Simitian, whose District Five includes Stanford University. “I’m delighted Santa Clara County can make this contribution, which will help Flood Park become an ever-better recreational amenity.”

A 2015 assessment of the Park revealed that many of its features and infrastructure required repair or replacement; simultaneously, demand grew from the community for additional uses and sports fields.

Consequently, the San Mateo County Parks Department launched “Reimagine Flood Park”, a multi-year in-depth community engagement process to identify community goals and uses for the park’s redesign. The resulting concept plan, which reflected the community’s desires, went through environmental review in 2017 through 2019. In 2020, the Santa Clara County San Mateo County Board of Supervisors unanimously approved the Landscape Plan, which is now called Realize Flood Park.

The $1.3 million in grant funds received from Santa Clara County will be used entirely for the construction of improvements to Flood Park.

InMenlo file photo (c) 2022