CoastalResilience

Step 1: Amend Key Laws

The federal government and each state have a variety of shoreline management laws that predate the current period of awareness of sea level rise and global warming. At the federal level, the Coastal Zone Management Act, the National Flood Insurance Program, and the various FEMA Hazard Mitigation Programs all require amendment to reflect the realities of sea level rise.

At the state level, most coastal states have Coastal Zone Management Programs, wetlands protection statutes, shoreline protection programs, and other coastal policies. For most states, these programs only minimally address sea level rise – if at all. State programs need to be remodeled to provide for regulations and development standards that address sensitive habitat protection and restoration, restricted shoreline development, buffers, and post-storm redevelopment planning.

Local governments make decisions that impact the shoreline through land use planning and natural resource management, and need to modify their approaches to these processes to reflect the future condition of the shoreline. Specifically:

• Local wetland codes need improved buffer requirements;
• Shoreline management codes should restrict armoring to areas in which it will not significantly impair natural processes; and
• Zoning ordinances and comprehensive plans should redirect development away from vulnerable areas.

Examples

Some municipalities have implemented regulations and laws aimed at addressing some of the impacts of climate change.

Under its Local Waterfront Revitalization Program, the Town of Easthampton, NY instituted severe restrictions on shoreline hardening in order to address erosion problems. Adopted in April 2007, East Hampton’s coastal erosion overlay regulates the construction and alteration of shoreline protective structures. The overlays district establishes four coastal erosion zones to protect the natural shoreline, defined by physical and ecological features. In Zones 1, 2, and 3, which are all ocean or bay coast-side, the construction of new coastal erosion structures is prohibited. In Zone 4, where many erosion structures exist, a special permit is required to construct or alter any erosion control structure. The repair or construction of structures perpendicular to the shore is also prohibited, unless the alteration would reduce the size of an existing perpendicular structure or provide other environmental benefits.

The city of Olympia, WA, has instituted enhanced buffer areas and setback requirements. The ordinance establishes mitigation priorities, and includes 250 foot buffers for streams and important riparian areas, and a scale of variable wetland buffer widths, ranging from 50 to 300 feet, following the Washington State Wetland Rating System for Western Washington.

Rolling easements are another approach that should be considered by more municipalities. Rolling easements are regulatory mechanisms or interests in land that allow wetlands or beaches to migrate inland as sea level rises and thus transfer of the risk of sea level rise from the environment or the public to the property owner. When rolling easements are implemented as a regulation, they provide an alternative to prohibiting all development in coastal area, which may be politically infeasible, inequitable, or even unconstitutional.