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The San Mateo County Board of Supervisors got a glimpse Tuesday, Sept. 24, of a revamped online breakdown of the county’s capital improvement projects before voting unanimously to accept a five-year plan that includes more than $765 million in spending.
The capital improvement plan is used as a tool to help guide the annual budget when planning for certain expenditures. The updated 2023-28 plan includes about $477 million for this fiscal year, nearly $175 million for the following year, and roughly $110 million projected for the following three years.
John Ridener, a county budget analyst, debuted an updated website at the meeting for the public to view all of the capital projects in the county for the current five-year plan.
A capital project is defined as “the purchase, construction, improvement, or replacement of major fixed assets such as land, buildings, or equipment.”
Capital projects also include maintenance and expenditures that occur over more than one year and require ongoing funding.
Capital projects are executed by the county’s Departments of Public Works, Information Services, Parks, and the County Executive’s Office’s Project Development Unit.
Some of the largest items in the plan are renovations of East Palo Alto City Hall, the San Mateo Medical Center campus, and a new county office building.
East Palo Alto City Hall is having its mechanical systems renovated and will have work done on its ceiling and roof, and is getting new elevators and improvements in security, lighting, and accessibility. The nearly $12.3 million project is included in this year’s budget. The work is expected to be completed in March.
Renovations to the San Mateo Medical Center campus are projected to cost $103.1 million during the five-year plan. That includes $50.1 million already allocated in this year’s budget, a projected $52.8 million in next year’s budget, and another $100,000 projected over the following three years.
The money will be used to demolish two buildings that are not compliant with seismic regulations and construct a new 87,000-square-foot building at the site on Edison Street in the city of San Mateo. The funding will also go toward renovations of the hospital and medical offices used by county departments.
At over $106 million, the county office building, being built at 500 County Center in Redwood City, was the costliest item of the dozens of projects in the capital improvement plan. The building is designed to be completely energy self-sufficient through solar panels and other energy-saving technology. More than 600 county employees will work out of the 208,000-square-foot building. It is expected to be completed later this year.
The county’s new website, smcgov.org/ceo/cip, allows users to see projects on an interactive map and see the type, cost and funding source of each project.
More detailed descriptions are available on each department’s website.
