What changed in the plan, and points of confusion to clarify
This page compares two snapshots of the City's five-year Capital Improvement Plan: the FY 2025-30 Adopted plan adopted by Council on June 24, 2025, and the FY 2026-31 Proposed plan proposed for Council consideration. Several projects show large changes between the two plans — in the carryover estimate, in the new money proposed, or in both. The OpenGov portal's default story view for the new plan does not display the carryover column, which made these changes harder to see until the underlying detail export was downloaded and reconstructed.
The goal is to surface the changes clearly so they can be discussed at public meetings and clarified by staff. Three structural questions drive the analysis:
- What money is available for each project right now?
- What money is needed for each project to progress on its real-world timeline?
- When the numbers change between plans, what does the change represent?
- FY 2025-30 Adopted 5-year expense envelope
- $201,201,598
- FY 2026-31 Proposed 5-year expense envelope
- $128,900,000
- Net change
- ↓ $72,301,598
- Projects down >$100K / up >$100K
- 45 down · 10 up
›Show source
Totals are summed by the v_cip_plan_comparison view across all projects (excluding the 000000 bookkeeping artifact), from the line detail in cip_plan_lines.
The two plans cover different five-year windows, so part of a project's change can be the window shifting by a year. Each figure is the sum of a project's expense lines (carryover estimate plus new money) in that plan.
Project-by-project comparison
Every project in both plans, default-sorted by largest decrease first. Sort any column, or filter. A severity flag marks the 6 projects flagged for clarification below.
Showing 67 of 67 projects. Click a column heading to re-sort.
The three structural questions
1. What money is currently available?
Of the $72,301,598 reduction in the five-year envelope between the two plans, how much represents money that was spent during FY 2025-26, how much represents Council de-appropriation actions, and how much represents re-estimation of prior carryover figures? Each is a different kind of fact about what money the City has available right now.
Example: Middle Avenue Caltrain Crossing (CPT005) showed a $7,307,439 carryover estimate in the FY 2025-30 Adopted plan and $0 in the FY 2026-31 Proposed plan. The project is at roughly 35% design and recorded project-level spending well below $7M during FY 2025-26. Possible explanations include re-estimation of the prior carryover, a Council de-appropriation not yet located in published action records, or both.
2. What money is needed?
For projects with contractual or regulatory deadlines that fall inside or near the planning window, what is the gap between what the new plan shows and what the project actually requires to meet those deadlines?
Example: Middle Avenue has a contractual deadline of November 9, 2027 under the Stanford Development Agreement. The design phase needed to demonstrate Substantial Crossing Progress carries an approximately $4.4M remaining funding gap. The FY 2026-31 Proposed plan shows $830,000 of total spending across the five-year window.
3. What do the year-over-year changes mean?
The OpenGov default story view for the FY 2026-31 Proposed plan does not display the carryover estimate column that appeared in the FY 2025-30 Adoptedview. The data is in the detail export but is not visible to a resident reading the OpenGov story. What is the precise data-model definition of “Carryover Estimate,” and what guidance does staff have for residents and commissioners reconstructing year-over-year comparisons across plans? This is a question to clarify, not a finding.
The flagged changes, in detail
For each, the data shows what changed; it does not state why. The possible explanations are starting points, each with a specific question for staff.
FY 2025-30 Adopted: $17,307,439→FY 2026-31 Proposed: $830,000(↓ $16,477,439)
Carryover estimate dropped from $7,307,439 to $0 between plans. New money proposed in the 5-year window dropped from $10,000,000 to $830,000. Total 5-year envelope decreased from $17,307,439 to $830,000.
- The carryover may have been spent on project work during FY 2025-26 (project actuals available in the published budget would help confirm or rule this out).
- Council may have de-appropriated the prior balance through a specific action that has not yet been located in published council action records.
- The prior carryover estimate may have been re-estimated downward without a corresponding council action.
- Funding may have been re-routed to or from related projects in the same corridor.
What accounts for the change in carryover estimate and 5-year envelope for Middle Avenue Caltrain Crossing, given that the project carries a contractual deadline of November 9, 2027 under Section 5 of the Stanford Development Agreement?
FY 2025-30 Adopted: $31,653,000→FY 2026-31 Proposed: $0(↓ $31,653,000)
5-year envelope decreased from $31,653,000 to $0. The project is entirely absent from the new plan's new-money columns and shows $0 carryover.
- Scope may have been absorbed into Emergency Water Storage and Supply (CPW003), which increased by approximately $25.7M between plans.
- Project may have been deferred beyond the 5-year window.
- Scope may have been reduced or replaced with a different approach.
Was the Water Storage Reservoir Pumps project rebundled into CPW003 Emergency Water Storage and Supply, deferred, or de-scoped?
FY 2025-30 Adopted: $11,806,980→FY 2026-31 Proposed: $37,497,000(↑ $25,690,020)
5-year envelope increased from $11,806,980 to $37,497,000. The increase coincides with the disappearance of CPW015 Water Storage Reservoir Pumps from the new plan.
- Scope from CPW015 may have been absorbed into this project.
- Plan may reflect a strategic reprioritization of water infrastructure investment.
- May be supported by an as-yet-unstated funding mechanism (water rate study, bond financing).
Is the $25.7M increase in Emergency Water Storage and Supply absorbing scope from the discontinued CPW015 Water Storage Reservoir Pumps project, and what funding mechanism backs the larger envelope?
FY 2025-30 Adopted: $19,630,376→FY 2026-31 Proposed: $2,000,000(↓ $17,630,376)
5-year envelope decreased from $19,630,376 to $2,000,000. The new plan shows the $2M only in FY 2030-31. Carryover estimate moved from $7,630,376 to $0.
- The project may have been deferred beyond the 5-year window with a single placeholder appropriation in FY 2030-31.
- Scope may have been reduced or rebundled into a related project.
- The prior carryover estimate may have been re-estimated downward.
What accounts for the reduction in the Caltrain Grade Separation 5-year envelope, and what is the City's current planning posture toward grade separation participation?
FY 2025-30 Adopted: $3,437,681→FY 2026-31 Proposed: $0(↓ $3,437,681)
5-year envelope decreased from $3,437,681 to $0. The project does not appear in the new plan's new-money or carryover columns.
- Project may have been deferred beyond the 5-year window.
- Scope may have been completed during prior years.
- Funding strategy may have shifted to dependence on grants not yet awarded.
What is the planning status of the San Francisquito Creek 101 Flood Protection project, given that it does not appear in the FY 2026-31 Proposed plan?
FY 2025-30 Adopted: $3,522,405→FY 2026-31 Proposed: $11,350,000(↑ $7,827,595)
5-year envelope increased from $3,522,405 to $11,350,000. SMCTA Measure A&W Highway Program grant referenced in the April 2025 Complete Streets Commission presentation funds the project but the awarded amount is not publicly disclosed.
- Increase may reflect updated cost estimates from the April 2025 design progress.
- Increase may reflect newly secured grant funding for the construction phase.
- Increase may be a phased authorization aligned with project schedule.
What is the funding mix behind the $11.35M Willow Road Pedestrian and Bicycle Safety 5-year envelope, and what is the disclosed amount of the SMCTA Measure A&W Highway Program grant?
The two plans are loaded as snapshots from the City's OpenGov CIP detail exports: the FY 2025-30 Adopted plan and the FY 2026-31 Proposed plan. Each line is stored in cip_plan_lines; the v_cip_plan_comparison view rolls each project into a five-year expense envelope per plan and computes the delta.
Both snapshots are kept indefinitely so any future plan can be compared against this baseline, and so a resident can always reconstruct what changed between two published plans even after the City's live portal moves on.