June 7, 2023
Senator John Laird
1021 O Street, Suite 8720
Sacramento, CA 95814
Dear Senator Laird:
Thank you for your leadership in authoring Senate Bill 272. The City of South San Francisco is a mid-sized city with a popula�on of approximately 67,0000 residents. Located along the Bay, the city is highly suscep�ble to sea level rise and flooding. The City appreciates your leadership in providing a pathway for funding for local governments that have received approval for sea level rise planning and adapta�on.
The City of South San Francisco is proudly diverse with over 80% of our households iden�fying as households of color and approximately 60% speaking a language other than English at home. South San Francisco is known as the “Industrial City”, with historical roots in steel plants and ship building. While the City maintains some light manufacturing and warehouse industries, the City also has a large Life Science cluster of over 200 biotechnology firms located east of Highway 101 along our shoreline.
Sea Level Rise con�nues to threaten the economic vitality of our region, with billions of dollars’ worth of economic assets at risk. Addi�onally, cri�cal infrastructure, such as the city’s wastewater control plant is in a low-lying area suscep�ble to sea level rise. It also threatens our city’s lowest income census tracts, which includes our most vulnerable neighborhoods consis�ng of primarily La�nx households.
The City of South San Francisco con�nues to study Sea Level Rise and a feasibility study is underway, however, mi�ga�on measures are costly. Many local governments do not have the resources or the funding to implement recommended measures to protect our communi�es against Sea Level Rise. We believe Senate Bill 272 provides a pathway for poten�al implementa�on and funding and support your efforts.
Thank you for your leadership.
Sincerely,
Mayor Buenaflor Nicolas
City of South San Francisco
Cc: South San Francisco City Council
Sharon Ranals, South San Francisco City Manager