The City of Mountain View has taken a variety of actions that will help the community adapt to climate change, including increasing the number of trees, completing infrastructure projects that will protect the community from sea level rise, and complying with regional stormwater pollution regulations.

Biodiversity Strategy and Urban Forest Plan

The City of Mountain View is developing a comprehensive Biodiversity Strategy (Strategy) to preserve and enhance the diversity of plants, trees, and wildlife in parks and on other public and private lands. The strategy will help inform and influence development plans, city master plans, landscaping requirements and ordinances. It will also help guide decisions regarding species that will increase local habitats, withstand climate change, and preserve
and rewild the urban forest. This effort will be a great investment in the long‐term sustainability of Mountain View.

The Strategy will also include a new Urban Forest Plan to replace the existing Community Tree Master Plan (CTMP). By incorporating and updating the goals and objectives of the CTMP, the new Urban Forest Plan will be a progressive framework for tree preservation and enhanced canopy through updated standards for landscaping,and tree protection, removals, and replanting.

For more information, visit the Biodiversity Strategy and Urban Forest Plan.

Sea Level Rise Adaptation

Mountain View's Shoreline Community is adjacent to San Francisco Bay, being one of many low-lying communities in the Bay Area that are vulnerable to rising sea levels and flooding. The City has studied current conditions and potential risks and identified measures to protect this area from sea level rise.

According to current projections documented in the City’s Shoreline Sea Level Rise Study Update, the Bay could rise between 23 and 42 inches by 2070, potentially flooding a large portion of northern Mountain View. To prepare the City from the anticipated impacts, the City developed a Sea Level Rise Capital Improvement Program (overview) that incorporates a collection of infrastructure and environmental projects, including levees, tidal marsh habitat restoration, floodwalls, and pump stations.  The Program includes 14 projects that are at various phases between planning and completion, as well as ongoing monitoring.

Many federal, regional, and local agencies are working together to manage sea level rise and flooding. These agencies include the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, the Santa Clara Valley Water District, the Bay Conservation and Development Commission (BCDC), the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), and the City of Mountain View. For example, FEMA accredits levees to ensure that they can withstand specific types of flooding events, while the City of Mountain View completes projects to improve local conditions, such as a proposed study of improvements for the Charleston Slough. The City is also partnering with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Services and the California State Coastal Conservancy on the South Bay Salt Pond Restoration Project, with a goal to restore former salt ponds to tidal marsh habitats that can be adaptive to the rising sea levels.

North Bayshore Precise Plan

In December 2017, the City Council adopted the updated North Bayshore Precise Plan to implement the 2030 General Plan’s policy direction for this area. The North Bayshore Precise Plan will help the City adapt to climate change by prioritizing development away from the Bay, which is vulnerable to sea level rise, and by enhancing ecosystems and habitats.

Staff used an Environmental Sustainability Framework to develop specific guidelines for the North Bayshore. This Framework considers factors such as climate change, land use and design, habitat, energy efficiency, renewable energy, transportation, and sustainable infrastructure.

By ensuring that future development follows these guidelines, the City will help limit greenhouse gas emissions in order to reduce the severity of sea level rise, the urban heat island effect, and other climate change impacts in the North Bayshore.

For more information, visit the Planning Division website.

Municipal Regional Stormwater Regulations

Climate change causes deviations in the amount, frequency, and timing of rainfall, which impacts stormwater runoff. To prevent water pollution, development projects meeting certain criteria must comply with Municipal Regional Stormwater NPDES Permit C.3 stormwater management regulations. These requirements help reduce runoff from developed areas and the amount of pollution in that runoff, which is discharged into the San Francisco Bay.

More information about stormwater regulations is available from the Santa Clara Valley Urban Runoff Pollution Prevention Program, Santa Clara Basin Stormwater Resource Plan (2019) and the C.3 Stormwater Handbook (2016).

Contact

If you have any comments or questions about this page, please contact the Sustainability Program by emailing sustainability@mountainview.gov, or by leaving a comment on Collaborate Mountain View.

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