What you can do
The County responds to organized, informed residents. Here are six things that take ten minutes or less. The first one has a date on it: Tuesday, September 29.
1. Tuesday, September 29 — the Board of Supervisors votes on flood emergency funding
County staff are asking the Board of Supervisors for $3 million in flood emergency funding. Some of it is intended for Santa Venetia. How much has not been said publicly — and that is the thing worth asking about.
This should be supported. The money is needed. The request from this neighborhood is narrower: name our share, and commit it before the work window closes. Three questions do that work:
- How much of the $3 million is for Santa Venetia?
- What levee repairs will be under contract before the window closes in October?
- Which properties will be on sandbags this winter?
Any resident may speak during public comment — typically two to three minutes, no sign-up required beyond a card at the meeting. A written comment to the Clerk of the Board before the meeting carries too, and takes five minutes to send. If you can only do one thing, send the three questions in writing.
Meeting details and the agenda are posted on the County's Board of Supervisors page. We will send the agenda item and time to the email list once it posts.
2. Ask the County two questions — before mid-October
The work window for levee repair closes January 15, and anything not under contract by roughly mid-October will not be finished inside it. Two short questions, by email or out loud at a Zone 7 meeting, both with a factual answer:
- What levee repairs are under contract for this fall?
- Which properties will be on sandbags this winter?
If the answer is a short list, the neighborhood knows where it stands. If there is no answer, that is the answer — and it is worth having in writing before the rain starts. Background on the ask →
3. Join the email list
This is the single most useful thing you can do. When 600 households can be reached in one email, the neighborhood speaks with one voice at every hearing and every comment deadline. Sign up here
4. Write to Supervisor Sackett
Santa Venetia is in District 1, represented by Supervisor Mary Sackett. A short, polite email in your own words is more effective than a form letter. The points that matter:
- You live behind the levee, and you are not willing to spend another winter on sandbags. Ask for the existing levee and timber wall to be repaired to El. 10.0 feet this fall, along the full alignment.
- You want the permanent floodwall built as fast as possible. After five years there is still no schedule and no finance plan — ask for both, in writing, with dates.
- Before any Prop 218 vote, ask the County to commission an independent third-party engineering review of the easement requirement and the design alternatives.
Contact information for the Board of Supervisors is on the County website: marincounty.gov (search "Board of Supervisors District 1").
5. Show up
Board of Supervisors and Flood Zone 7 Advisory Board meetings are public, and public comment is your right. Two minutes at a microphone from a resident carries weight. Meeting schedules are posted on the County website; the email list will flag the ones that matter.
6. Talk to your neighbors
Most affected homeowners don't know the project's history — that it was a buildable $6 million project in 2021, or that the assessment could run $100–150 per month for 30 years. Forward this site. If you live along the levee alignment, the easement question affects you directly: make sure your neighbors know what's being asked of them, and what the alternative would ask instead.
If the County asks you to donate an easement
On September 24, 2026 the County posted a Flood Protection Easement Donation Process for this project. In plain terms, it works like this:
- You email the County's Real Estate Division to start it.
- The County coordinates a title report, a legal description and a surveyor's plat for your parcel.
- The County drafts the papers: a Right of Way Contract, a Permanent Easement Deed, a Temporary Construction and Access Easement, and an Acknowledgement for Donation.
- You review, sign and notarize them at a scheduled appointment.
- The District Board approves.
- The documents go into escrow and the permanent easement is recorded against your property.
Two things are worth understanding before step four. Donating is voluntary — the County says so. And an owner who donates is asked to "voluntarily waive compensation and, where applicable, appraisal rights." An appraisal is how you find out what the easement is worth; waiving it means giving up the number before you have seen it. Once recorded, the easement runs with the land, permanently, to every future owner of your home.
The County advises owners to consult a legal, financial or tax advisor before deciding. That is good advice and this site repeats it. Neighbors may reasonably decide to donate — but nobody should sign without knowing the width of the strip, what the District may do inside it, and what it would have been worth.
This is neighbor-to-neighbor information, not legal or tax advice. The County's process page and contact are on the Flood Control District website.
For homeowners along the levee alignment
If your parcel is one of the 111 where an easement is requested, you have the most at stake and the most leverage. Before signing anything, you are entitled to understand exactly what a permanent easement allows on your property, forever. If you have questions about what the easement documents mean in practical terms, email mail@svfloodfacts.org — a resident engineer who has reviewed the project documents will answer plainly and without charge. (This is neighbor-to-neighbor information, not legal advice — consult your own attorney before signing an easement.)