San Rafael is negotiating a levee easement with the Marin Audubon Society for a sea-level-rise project near the Canal neighborhood.
The City Council will discuss the negotiation in a special closed session at 5 p.m. Monday, Oct. 19, at City Hall. The session also covers potential threats from El Niño and potential litigation, according to the city's posted agenda.
City Manager Paul Navazio, Assistant City Manager Angela Robinson Piñon and Public Works Director April Miller are listed as the city's negotiators. The agenda identifies six parcels involved, including one owned by the Marin Audubon Society.
The agenda's staff comment says the easement "relates to the Tiscornia Marsh Project," which the city's Sea Level Rise Subcommittee discussed publicly on Oct. 8. The council is scheduled to confer with its negotiators about the easement’s price and payment terms.
The Tiscornia Marsh sits on about 20 acres north of Pickleweed Park and the Albert J. Boro Community Center. The restoration project would expand the marsh by about 10 acres, build a new 600-foot levee and improve roughly 1,100 feet of existing shoreline levee. The project secured nearly $7 million in grants this fall, as the Marin Independent Journal reported in September. Marin Audubon Society president Barbara Salzman told the paper the project team had hit its funding goal and was seeking permits to begin construction in 2027, at an estimated total cost of about $10 million.
The closed session's first agenda item deals with the 2026-2027 El Niño emergency. Gov. Gavin Newsom declared a statewide state of emergency on Sept. 21, citing conditions of extreme peril from the developing El Niño event. The San Rafael City Council followed on Oct. 5, proclaiming a local emergency and authorizing up to $500,000 from the general fund emergency reserve for temporary pumps, generators, supplies, training and staffing, as the Marin IJ reported.
Officials listed for consultation on the El Niño threat include City Attorney Rob Epstein, Chief Assistant City Attorney Andrea Visveshwara, Deputy City Attorney Katherine Kasameyer, Police Captain Todd Berringer, Fire Chief Abraham Roman and Climate Adaptation and Resilience Planner Kate Hagemann. The council plans to formally review the emergency proclamation's status at its Nov. 16 meeting.
Another agenda item covers anticipated litigation involving an "unknown number of potential cases."
The agenda does not describe those potential cases.
Residents can comment before the council goes into closed session. The opening public-comment portion will be accessible in person in the third-floor conference room at City Hall, 1400 Fifth Ave., and virtually through the meeting agenda. Speakers have two minutes each to comment on agenda items. The closed-session discussions are not open to the public.
