Coastal Adaptation
A Framework for Governance and Funding
to Address Climate Change
A Report of The Fourth Regional Plan
October 2017
Acknowledgments
This report highlights key recommendations from RPA’s Fourth Regional Plan for the
New York-New Jersey-Connecticut metropolitan area. The full plan will be released in November 2017.
The Fourth Regional Plan has been made possible by
Major support from
And additional support from
The Ford Foundation
The JPB Foundation
The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation
The Rockefeller Foundation
Rohit Aggarwala
Peter Bienstock
Brooklyn Greenway Initiative
Doris Duke Charitable
Foundation
Emigrant Bank
Friends of Hudson River Park
Fund for New Jersey
Garfield Foundation
Greater Jamaica Development
Corporation
Town of Hackettstown
Laurance S. Rockefeller Fund
Leen Foundation
Lily Auchincloss Foundation
National Park Service
New Jersey Board of Public
Utilities
New Jersey Highlands Council
Grants and donations from
Albert W. & Katharine E. Merck Charitable Fund
Anonymous
Fairfield County Community Foundation
Fund for the Environment and Urban Life/Oram
Foundation
JM Kaplan Fund
Lincoln Institute of Land Policy
New York Community Trust
Rauch Foundation
Siemens
New Jersey Institute of
Technology
New York State Energy Research
and Development Authority
(NYSERDA)
Open Space Institute
PlaceWorks
Ralph E. Ogden Foundation
Robert Sterling Clark Foundation
Rutgers University
Shawangunk Valley Conservancy
Stavros Niarchos Foundation
Suffolk County
Two Trees Foundation
Upper Manhattan Empowerment
Zone
Volvo Research and Education
Foundations
World Bank
We thank all our donors for their generous support for our work.
This report was produced by
RPA wishes to especially thank the following for their
advice and contributions to the report:
Lucrecia Montemayor, Deputy Director,
Energy & Environment, RPA
Emily Korman, Research Analyst,
Energy & Environment, RPA
Robert Freudenberg, Vice President,
Energy & Environment, RPA
Ellis Calvin, Senior Planner, Energy &
Environment, RPA
Sarabrent McCoy, Research Analyst,
Energy and Environment, RPA
Chris Jones, Senior Vice President &
Chief Planner, RPA
Dani Simons, Vice President for
Strategic Communications, RPA
Emily Thenhaus, Strategic
Communications Associate, RPA
Jesse Keenan, Harvard University,
Graduate School of Design
Ben Oldenburg, Senior Graphic
Designer, RPA
Steve Adams, Institute for Sustainable
Communities
Bennett Brooks, Consensus Building
Institute
Joyce Coffee, President, Climate
Resilience
Amy Cotter, Lincoln Institute for Land
Policy
Carri Hulet, Consensus Building Institute
Dina Long, Mayor, Sea Bright, New Jersey
Marvin Markus, Goldman Sachs
Nick Shufro, FEMA
Maura Spery, Former Mayor, Mastic
Beach, NY
Cover Image: Roman Babakin
Staff at the following departments
and commissions:
Bay Area Regional Collaborative
California Coastal Commission
Chesapeake Bay Program
Department of Energy & Environmental
Protection
Louisiana Coastal Protection and
Restoration Authority
New York Department of State
New Jersey Department of
Environmental Protection
Puget Sound Regional Council on Climate
Resiliency
Interstate Environmental Commission
San Francisco Bay Conservation and
Development Commission
San Francisco Bay Restoration Authority
Southeast Florida Regional Climate
Compact
Contents
Executive Summary / 2
A Growing Crisis / 4
Who Governs Our Coastline Today? / 8
A Vision for Regional Governance and
Dedicated Adaptation Funding / 14
Adaptation Trust Funds / 17
Implementing a Regional Coastal Commission:
Best Practices from Around the Country / 20
Next Steps / 25
Appendix: Models Around the Country / 26
Coastal Adaptation | Regional Plan Association | October 2017
1
Executive Summary
Over the next 30 years, the number of people living in
places at risk of flooding from an extreme storm in the New
York-New Jersey-Connecticut region is likely to double
from 1 million to 2 million. Sea levels are projected to rise
by two feet, putting 10,000 homes permanently under
water and greatly expanding the coastal floodplain. With
over 3,700 miles of tidal coastline, much of it densely populated with old and decaying infrastructure, the region’s
states and local communities face the daunting challenge
of making the physical and regulatory changes necessary
to adapt to this new coastline. Restoring wetlands, building
sea walls, raising buildings, retrofitting infrastructure and
buying out vulnerable homeowners are among the actions
that 167 coastal cities, towns, villages and counties will
need to consider and find the resources to implement.
While there has been substantial progress in planning for
climate change, adaptation is slow, sporadic, underfunded
and uncoordinated. Attention and resources rise in the
wake of storms like Superstorm Sandy, but soon dissipate
when the immediate crisis has passed. In many ways, the
needs are so great and the timeframes for implementation
are so long that it is easier to focus on more immediate
needs. While Superstorm Sandy provided an infusion of
funding for recovery and adaptation, there remains $28
billion worth of identified needs that has not been funded.1
To get ahead of the growing crisis, the region will need to
overcome several impediments:
⊲ Planning and investments are reactive rather than proactive. There is neither a plan nor a budget for adaptation
projects that can prioritize investments and prepare for
future contingencies. Instead, current funding sources
and policies depend on unreliable federal funding that
promotes short-term recovery over long-term investments.
⊲ Most of the region’s smaller cities, towns and villages
have limited capacity. The vast majority of the region’s
municipalities are governed by part-time or volunteer
mayors and councils, and even the larger municipalities
lack the staff capacity and resources to address and plan
for long-term climate changes.
1 Keenan, J.M. (2017). Regional Resilience Trust Funds: An Exploratory
Analysis for the New York Metropolitan Region. New York, NY.: Regional Plan
Association. http://library.rpa.org/pdf/Keenan-Regional-Resilience-TrustFunds-2017.pdf
2
Coastal Adaptation | Regional Plan Association | October 2017
⊲ Coastal flooding is a regional problem, but most planning happens locally. Each state and municipality has
different rules, policies and guidelines, and limited
incentives to collaborate. Coastlines and infrastructure
transverse government boundaries, and since water is
fluid, management practices in one state or municipality can have an inadvertent impact on others.
⊲ State coastal management programs leave several
problems unaddressed. The coastal management programs of the three states vary widely in approach, and
inconsistent policies can prevent important adaptation
strategies from being implemented across state lines. At
the same time, adaptation is not a singular focus of any
program, nor are issues of regional significance, such as
infrastructure.
A Coastal Commission
for the Tri-State Region
To give climate adaptation the priority it needs and to be
able to implement solutions at different geographic scales,
New York, New Jersey and Connecticut should create a
Regional Coastal Commission (RCC). The commission
would be empowered to maintain a dedicated focus on
the region’s climate adaptation needs, help mobilize the
region’s resources to address them, coordinate strategies
and develop common standards. It would also prioritize
funding that can be used for region-wide resilience projects. Based on successes and lessons learned from other
coastal commissions, the RCC would have the following
responsibilities:
⊲ Produce and update a regional coastal adaptation plan
that aligns policies across municipal and state boundaries and sets a vision for short-term resilience and longterm adaptation.
⊲ Develop and manage science-informed standards to
guide and prioritize adaptation projects and development in the region’s at-risk geographies.
Over the next 30 years, 59% of the region’s
energy capacity will be in areas prone to
flooding, as will all of our shipping ports,
four of our major airports, 21% of our public
housing units and 12% of our hospital beds.
⊲ Coordinate and encourage collaborative adaptation
projects across municipal and state boundaries.
⊲ Evaluate and award funding from new adaptation trust
funds that align with standards established by the commission.
State Adaptation
Trust Funds
The Regional Coastal Commission needs funding to
fulfill its mission. We propose establishing new dedicated
resources from adaptation trust funds to be established in
each state. 2 The trust funds would be organized as public
benefit corporations and would be initially capitalized
from surcharges on property and casualty premiums. The
funds would be managed by each state, but oversight and
authority to underwrite and allocate the funds as grants
and loans would rest with the commission. Each state trust
fund would finance a minimum amount of in-state projects, while residual allocations would be prioritized for
those projects and programs whose benefits would extend
beyond jurisdictional boundaries. The grants and loans
could support a range of projects, from short-term community resilience planning to long-term infrastructure finance
and could be used to leverage or match other funding
sources. Through the utilization of bond leverage, the funds
could operate independently and without subsidy from the
insurance surcharges within a 10 year sunset period.
Coastal Commission
Governance
Membership and governance of the Regional Coastal
Commission could take a number of forms, but should be
guided by the best practices of other coastal commissions
and regional collaboratives. Members should be designated
across jurisdictions (state, county and local) and should be
representative of different coast types (urban, suburban
and more natural conditions). Elected officials could have a
role on the commission to give it legitimacy and visibility,
but the governance structure must remain independent
from political cycles and direct political interference. Both
members and staff should include a variety of disciplines
to embed all aspects of resilience planning into decisions.
The commission’s work should be informed by the latest
science and flexible enough to shift as conditions along the
dynamic coast change over time. Funding allocations and
project selection should be guided by a clear set of standards and evaluation metrics.
Keenan, J.M. (2017). Regional Resilience Trust Funds: An Exploratory Analysis for Leveraging Insurance Surcharges. Environment Systems and Decisions.
doi: 10.1007/s10669-017-9656-3
2
Coastal Adaptation | Regional Plan Association | October 2017
3
A Growing Crisis
Across the globe, communities are beginning to grapple
with the reality that they will need to adapt to the changing
climate around them. Even if the goals of the Paris Climate
Accord are reached, the climate has already — and will
continue — to change in ways that make adaptation necessary. Coastal communities will flood more frequently, some
permanently. More intense rainfalls will overwhelm the
infrastructure of the built environment. Hotter days will
threaten the public health of the most vulnerable populations and test the integrity of our infrastructure, creating
higher demand for energy and burning more of the fuels
that have caused this problem in the first place.
A Changing Coastline is
Dramatically Increasing Risks
Nowhere is this crisis more acute than along our dynamic
coastline. The New York-New Jersey-Connecticut metropolitan region, with over 3,700 miles of tidal coastline and
23 million residents settled into highly urbanized places
with old and decaying infrastructure, faces an impending crisis. Today, just over one million regional residents
live in places at risk of flooding from an extreme storm. By
2050 — with approximately 2 feet of sea level rise — that
number will nearly double to around 2 million. Similarly,
the risk of permanent flooding from sea level rise inundation is also significant. As detailed in RPA’s report Under
Water (2016), one foot of sea level rise (possible as soon as
the 2030’s) could inundate nearly 60 square miles where
more than 19,000 residents in 10,000 homes live today, and
where approximately 10,000 people work. Three feet of sea
level rise (possible by 2080) could inundate over 130 square
miles where nearly 114,000 residents in 68,000 homes live
today, and where some 62,000 jobs are currently located.
Six feet of sea level rise (possible by 2100) could inundate
280 square miles where 619,000 residents in 308,000
homes live today, and where more than 362,000 of today’s
jobs are located.
At the same time vital pieces of infrastructure that keep
our region connected and thriving are located in these
same floodplains. Today, 28% of our energy-generating
capacity is located in areas that have a 1% chance of flooding in any given year. By 2050, 59% of our energy capacity
will be in areas prone to flooding, as will all of the region’s
shipping ports, four of our major airports, 21% of our public
housing units and 12% of our hospital beds.
Road flooded during high
tide in Mastic Beach, NY
4
Coastal Adaptation | Regional Plan Association | October 2017
Vulnerable infrastructure
In region
2015 population
Public housing units
In current flood plain
In 2050 flood plain
22,850,769
1,106,438
5%
1,941,959
8%
228,317
19,868
9%
47,382
21%
12%
Hospital beds
80,426
5,112
7%
9,214
140,862
6,750
5%
11,145
8%
32,636
9,127
28%
19,181
59%
Train stations
905
62
7%
115
13%
Train tunnels
12
12
100%
12
100%
Subway yards
21
4
4%
7
33%
Major airports
6
4
67%
4
67%
Shipping ports
6
6
100%
6
100%
Nursing home beds
Electric generation capacity (MWh)
Sources: U.S. Department of Health and Human Services; American Hospital Directory; NJ HSIP Health Facilities; American Hospital Directory; U.S. Department of
Housing and Urban Development; Energy Information Administration; Metropolitan Transportation Authority; New Jersey Transit; Port Authority of New York and
New Jersey; ESRI; U.S. census; FEMA; The Nature Conservancy
There is Neither a Plan Nor a Budget
for Adaptation in the Region
Addressing this crisis will require broad and significant
investment to improve protection for many communities,
buy-out those most at-risk in lower density neighborhoods,
upgrade energy, wastewater and transportation infrastructure, secure contaminated sites and restore and make room
for the benefits of nature. Investments in adaptation are
likely to be amongst the largest expenditures we make as a
region over the next generation, but we have neither a plan
nor a budget for them. Instead, we are largely stuck in a
vicious and perverse cycle of needing catastrophic storms
— and the recovery dollars they bring — to pay for adaptation projects. Most recent recovery and adaptation funding
has come from the federal government. But due to shifts in
politics and policy, it is very likely that future disasters will
come with the requirement that states pay a greater share
for recovery. 3 What’s more, current funding sources and
recovery policies continue to incentivize risky development
and promote short-term recovery over long-term adaptation.
The Region’s Municipalities
Have Limited Capacity to
Address Coastal Flooding
In the past twenty years,
638 damaging
flooding events*
in our coastal
counties have
accounted for:
73 direct fatalities
112 direct injuries
12 indirect fatalities
14 indirect injuries
*Days on which a flooding event occurred, as tracked and
reported by NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information’s Storm Events Database. Only those events which
caused or threatened acute damage were included by NOAA
in the database.
As the effects of climate change, like flooding, become more
severe, more municipalities will have to respond more frequently, issuing warnings ahead of events, providing emergency services during and after, communicating with risk
management agencies, assessing damage, managing the
3 A proposed federal rule known as the Public Assistance Deductible would
require states to cover a fix dollar amount for any given federal disaster prior to
FEMA’s provision of public assistance for the repair and replacement of public
infrastructure damaged by a disaster event. At the time of publication, this rule
was still being evaluated. See FEMA Docket ID FEMA-2016-003.
Coastal Adaptation | Regional Plan Association | October 2017
5
Oakwood Beach, Staten Island
Due to damage from Hurricane Sandy in 2012, properties in some
high-risk areas were acquired with buy-out programs to be used as
buffers against future flooding.
recovery process, and finally helping to invest in and manage repairs and other recovery and adaptation measures.
And they will need to do all of this with limited capacity
and tight budgets. Many of the region’s municipalities are
governed by part-time or volunteer mayors and local councils. Thus, the effects of climate change, such as frequent
or extreme flooding, represent a significant and additional
obligation that all too many towns are not equipped to
manage.
Coastal Flooding Is a Regional Risk
that Is Largely Managed Locally
While flooding knows no municipal boundary, our region’s
edge is governed by multiple stakeholders with different rules, policies, and guidelines, with few incentives to
collaborate or coordinate with one another. The lack of
guidance in terms of standards, unified science and data
across agencies and states makes it difficult to consolidate
or share information across jurisdictions or advocate for a
unified long-term vision. The result is poor inter- and intragovernmental coordination and conflicting interests, and
communities taking actions to protect themselves that can
have adverse impacts on surrounding communities. Design
teams that participated in the 2014 Rebuild by Design competition found that lack of regional coordination between
municipalities can make issues like ecological restora-
6
Coastal Adaptation | Regional Plan Association | October 2017
tion and stormwater management challenging to address.
This fragmented governance makes it nearly impossible to
address the effects of climate change in a comprehensive
and effective way. As flooding affects more of the region’s
infrastructure, regional decisionmaking will become
even more important to ensure quality of life in individual
municipalities.
Absent regional collaboration and stable funding, disjointed approaches across misaligned timelines will be the
norm, with each community or agency competing for the
same limited pots of funding. Perhaps no place illustrates
the problem more than the New Jersey Meadowlands, a
patchwork of road, rail, wastewater and energy infrastructure, interwoven with businesses, communities and natural
systems, all at significant risk of flooding from sea level rise
and storms. As conditions worsen, a comprehensive adaptation plan for all of these entities, carried out with clear
timelines and adequate funding, will be essential to ensure
that this critical confluence of infrastructure remains a key
part of the region’s economy or ecosystem.
The seriousness of the region’s exposure to flood
risk is underscored not just by its geographic extent,
which crosses all political boundaries, but also by
the density of people and infrastructure at risk.
Density of People and Infrastructure Exposed to the Projected 2050 Floodplain
Source: Regional Plan Association
Low
Ulster
Dutchess
High
Population and
infrastructure density
Litchfield
Litchfield
Sullivan
New Haven
Putnam
Orange
NY
Fairfield
Fairfield
NJ
Westchester
Sussex
NY
CT
Rockland
Passaic
Bergen
Warren
Morris
Suffolk
Bronx
New
York
Essex
Queens
Hudson
Union
Nassau
Kings
Hunterdon
Richmond
Somerset
Bergen
Middlesex
Mercer
Passaic
Bronx
Monmouth
New
York
Essex
Ocean
Hudson
Queens
Nassau
Union
Richmond
Middlesex
Coastal Adaptation | Regional Plan Association | October 2017
7
Who Governs Our Coastline Today?
Whether at the federal, state or local level of government,
managing the process of climate change adaptation is
complicated and shared across multiple divisions. Issues
around water, air and habitat quality are managed by environmental agencies. Maintaining and upgrading highways
and rail lines are managed by transit and transportation
agencies and local authorities. Land use and building decisions are made by planning, zoning, housing and development agencies. A host of other decisions, from adaptation
in parks to coastal engineering are made within and across
relevant agencies. All require input, decision-making and
action from local governments. More than 20% of the
region’s municipalities (167) face a future of coastal flooding (either intermittent from storms or permanent from sea
level rise). Adapting these communities and the infrastructure that serves them will require increased collaboration
and smoother processes, particularly as capacity at the
local level is limited in many municipalities.
management of the nation’s coastal resources across state
lines. Under the Coastal Zone Management Act (CZMA),
eligible states can create their own individual CMPs so they
can best address local challenges, working within state and
local laws and regulations. At the same time, participating
states must abide by the basic federal requirements stipulated in the CZMA.
Coastal Management
Programs
In addition to the National Coastal Management Program,
the federal government also helps to manage and regulate coastal development in at-risk areas with flood standards for federally-funded projects as well as by requiring
residents in flood zones to participate in FEMA’s National
Flood Insurance Program, which is federally subsidized
insurance for homes in FEMA-designated floodplains.
Premiums for insurance are reduced for those homes with
more resilient features, though the program does not discourage residents from being in the flood zone.
With a few exceptions at the municipal level, coastal
adaptation today is largely managed by coastal management programs, federally authorized programs that are
managed differently in each state. The following describes
the national program and summarizes the ways in which
each program is carried out in New York, New Jersey and
Connecticut.
The National Coastal Zone Management Program
Authorized by the Coastal Zone Management Act of 1972,
the National Coastal Zone Management Program is a
voluntary partnership between the federal government and
coastal and Great Lakes states and territories focused on
protecting, restoring and responsibly developing coastal
communities and resources.4 Administered by the National
Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), the
program aims to address pressing coastal issues such as
climate change, ocean planning, and planning for energy
facilities and development and encourage smart, consistent
4 NOAA Office for Coastal Management website, accessed October 2017.
https://coast.noaa.gov/czm/
8
Coastal Adaptation | Regional Plan Association | October 2017
Once a state’s CMP is federally recognized, it can receive
administrative and grant funding from NOAA to enhance
their programs. To incentivize cooperation with the
National Program, the Federal Consistency Provision (16
U.S.C. § 1456. Coordination and cooperation (Section 307),
(c)), ensures that federal actions with reasonably foreseeable effects on coastal uses and resources are consistent
with the enforceable policies of a state’s approved CMP.
This provision gives participating states a stronger voice in
federal agency decision making than they would not have
otherwise for activities that may affect their coastline.
Coastal Management Programs in the Region
Today, thirty-four of the U.S.’s thirty-five coastal states
have federally recognized Coastal Management Programs,
including New York, New Jersey and Connecticut. There
is minimal interstate coordination between these three
programs, despite their shared coastlines.
New York’s CMP, the second most robust program after
California’s, is embedded into the state’s governmental
structure, which allows regulators to set the tone for rules
and regulations relating to the coast and coastal development. In contrast, the New Jersey CMP is seen as a federal
program within the state, with most of its funding from
federal sources, while Connecticut uses its CMP mostly as
a regulatory agency, issuing and approving permits.
The underlying foundation of our region’s three active
Coastal Management Programs (CMPs) is the same — all
three states have limited regulatory power over land use
planning in individual communities, and consequently
work to guide their communities towards certain practices.
However, the varying ways in which each entity views and
values its natural resources makes the structure, policies,
interpretation, and implementation of the three programs
vastly different.
The New York State Department of State (DOS) views itself
as the administrator to one of the largest and most important CMPs in the United States, second only to California’s
program. As the State’s chief planning and development
agency, DOS makes a conscious effort to both influence
policy set by its municipalities and learn from how communities shape policies to reflect their unique priorities. It
does this largely through its Local Waterfront Revitalization Program, which offers local governments the opportunity to voluntarily demonstrate consistency with the
Coastal Management Program by preparing and adopting a
local waterfront revitalization program. For example, New
York City’s Waterfront Revitalization Program establishes
the City’s policies for waterfront planning, preservation
and development projects, carried out by its planning
department.
In contrast with its northern neighbor, New Jersey’s program seeks to provide municipalities with the information,
tools and technical assistance to make informed decisions.
Connecticut, on the other hand, views its program as
largely a regulatory agency, that enforces its policy direction through permitting, but with an important secondary
planning role. From its initial creation, New York’s program
was organized to be an inter-agency, publically-vetted,
consistent process, with an iterative structure and active
feedbacks between different levels of government. This
structure seems to create more consistent, effective coastal
management policies than its neighboring states.
Regardless, currently each state’s program acts independently from its neighbors, coordinating efforts on an ad hoc
basis when a project or a specific issue requires it. Inconsistent policies can prevent important adaptation strategies
from continuing across state lines, creating piecemeal strategies which can leave vulnerable gaps or hinder the effectiveness and impact of any one project. For example, New
York City’s Billion Oyster Project, an ecosystem restoration
initiative that is harvesting one billion live oysters in the
New York Harbor to restore reefs and increase protective
habitat, cannot be implemented across the entire Harbor
because the practice is illegal in New Jersey.
At the same time, adaptation is just one of multiple charges
that coastal management programs have in each state,
meaning there are multiple — and sometimes conflicting
— issues to manage around coastal land and water uses.
Coastal infrastructure that spans state boundaries, weaves
in and out of the coastal management zone and will require
continued adaptation, is not the specific charge of coastal
management programs. Issues such as these pose a significant challenge for creating a comprehensive, consistent
long-term adaptation strategy across the region’s coast.
Climate Change and the State Coastal
Management Programs
New York State and Connecticut both have specific legislative mandates to consider different aspects of climate
change in their Coastal Management Programs. New
York York State’s Community Risk and Resiliency Act
(CRRA) — being implemented largely by the Department
of Environmental Conservation (DEC) and the Department of State (DOS) — addresses climate change and sea
level rise and enables collaboration between individual
municipalities and other state agencies to identify and plan
for their coastal vulnerabilities.5 The law ensures that different aspects of climate change are accounted for in their
activities and programs. Under CRRA, NYS DOS and DEC
develop model local laws that consider risk from sea level
rise, storm surge, and flooding; and DEC and DOS develop
guidance for how to use natural resources and processes to
enhance resilience. Meanwhile, Connecticut’s 2012 Public
Act 12-101 incorporated sea level rise into the Connecticut CMP by requiring planners and developers consider
the potential impact of sea level rise, coastal flooding, and
erosion patterns on coastal development.6 For New Jersey, there is no specific regulation within the State’s CMP
that requires municipalities account for various aspects
of climate change. However, NJDEP’s Office of Coastal
and Land Use Planning has created tools to help coastal
municipalities account for climate change in various planning activities.7 Furthermore, the State uses its regulatory
permitting authority to set strict standards for development
in the coastal zone.
Following catastrophic storms, including Superstorm
Sandy, New York in 2013 established the Governor’s Office
of Storm Recovery in order to centralize recovery and
rebuilding efforts in the state. Today, the office continues
to oversee programs related to housing, small business,
community and infrastructure improvements, including
buyouts for willing municipalities. The agency is scheduled to sunset in 2022, when funds are fully dispersed and
recovery work completed.
New Jersey’s Blue Acres program is a state buyout program
established to purchase floodprone properties from willing
sellers. Originally funded through bonding, the program
received an additional boost of funding from Superstorm
5 “Community Risk and Resiliency Act (CRRA)”. New York State Department
of Environmental Conservation website. Accessed October 2017. http://www.
dec.ny.gov/energy/102559.html
6 “Guidance on P.A. 12-101, An Act Concerning the Coastal Management Act
and Shoreline Flood and Erosion Control Structures.” State of Connecticut Department of Energy and Environmental Protection. November 10, 2016. http://
www.ct.gov/deep/cwp/view.asp?a=2705&pm=1&Q=512226&depNAV_GID=1622
7 “Coastal Hazards of New Jersey: Now and with a Changing Climate.” New
Jersey Department of Environmental Protection website. Accessed October
2017. http://www.state.nj.us/dep/cmp/czm_hazards.html
Coastal Adaptation | Regional Plan Association | October 2017
9
Sandy federal recovery dollars and has since received additional funding through the state’s Corporate Business Tax.
To date, buyouts have occurred primarily along riverine
floodplains. In Connecticut, a limited number of buyouts
have taken place through the USDA Watershed Protection
and Flood Prevention Program.
Regional Estuary & Estuarine
Reserve Programs
Long Island South Shore Estuary Reserve
Administered by New York State Department of State, the
South Shore Estuary Reserve extends from the Nassau/
Queens line to the Village of Southampton, from the barrier islands’ mean high tide line to the inland limits of the
drainage area. The Reserve is charged with preparing and
advising implementation of a comprehensive management
plan aimed at improving and maintaining water quality;
supporting living resources; expanding public use; sustaining the estuary economy; and supplementing stewardship
and outreach11 .
New York-New Jersey Harbor Estuary Program
In addition to coastal management programs, which focus
largely on the built environment in coastal areas, there are
a number of estuary and estuarine reserve programs in our
region that focus on the quality and protection of estuaries of significant importance. These programs also serve a
critical role educating the general public about the importance of estuaries, particularly as climate change alters our
coastline and threatens our communities. Just as our communities will need to adapt, so will our natural systems. At
the same time, protecting and restoring natural systems
will help to shield the built environment from flooding and
storm damage. These programs will be important partners
in advancing adaptation, and include:
Hudson River Estuary Program
Working within the tidal Hudson and adjacent watershed,
from New York City up to Troy, the Hudson River Estuary
Program oversees restoration projects, protects land, facilitates educational opportunities, and monitors and maps
river conditions 8 .
Long Island Sound Study
Formed by EPA, New York, and Connecticut, the Long
Island Sound Study is a partnership between agencies,
user groups, and other organizations. Since 1994, they have
made strides restoring habitats, monitoring water quality,
educating the public, and reducing nutrient loads in the
1,300 square-mile Sound over which they preside9.
Peconic Estuary Program
With a study area extending from the headwaters of the
Peconic River to Block Island Sound, the Peconic Estuary Program is charged with creating and implementing
a comprehensive management plan to protect the estuary,
support habitat, educate the public, and improve water
quality10.
8 “Hudson River Estuary Program.” New York State Department of Environmental Conservation. Accessed October 2017. http://www.dec.ny.gov/
lands/4920.html
9 “About the Long Island Sound Study.” Long Island Sound Study. Accessed
October 2017. http://longislandsoundstudy.net/about/about-the-study
10 “The Peconic Estuary Story.” Peconic Estuary Program. Accessed October
2017. https://www.peconicestuary.org/discover-the-peconic/the-peconicestuary-story/
10
Coastal Adaptation | Regional Plan Association | October 2017
With a geographic footprint including the Hudson River
watershed and the watersheds of the Raritan, Passaic, and
Hackensack Rivers, but a core area focus on the HudsonRaritan Estuary, the Program works to restore and protect
healthy waterways, manage sediments, encourage community stewardship, and improve access12 .
Barnegat Bay Partnership
A partnership of federal, state, municipal, academic, business, and private organizations, the Barnegat Bay oversees
comprehensive planning for the estuary and watershed
that cover most of Ocean County and some of Monmouth
County, NJ. The role of the Partnership is to support
consensus building and problem solving between agencies charged with restoring, protecting, and enhancing the
natural resources of the namesake ecosystem13 .
Municipal Coastal
Governance
The role of a municipality in governing in the coastal zone
differs slightly, depending on which state it is located
within. In general, our region abides by “home rule,”
meaning all municipalities are free to pass their own laws
and ordinances, provided they comply with federal, state
or regional authority laws and regulations. This applies
to local land use decisions, including how municipalities
choose to develop coastal land. Still, given decades of
increased environmental and other regulations along the
fragile coast, many municipalities must navigate a tangled
network of agencies and regulations when making land
use decisions. Following a disaster, the federal funds that
largely pay for recovery often have stricter limitations (e.g.
rebuild heights) that local municipalities must comply with
as a condition of accepting public funds.FEMA’s National
Flood Insurance Program also offers a voluntary incentive
11 “South Shore Estuary Reserve Home.” New York State Department of State
Office of Planning & Development. Accessed October 2017. https://www.dos.
ny.gov/opd/sser/index.html
12 “About the Program.” New York/New Jersey Harbor & Estuary Program.
Accessed October 2017. http://www.harborestuary.org/about.htm
13 “Barnegat Bay Partnership Mission.” Barnegat Bay Partnership. Accessed
October 2017. https://www.barnegatbaypartnership.org/about-us/bbp-mission/
Our coastal areas involve a complex layer of governmental
jurisdictions. Take, for example, this parcel of land in the
borough of Sea Bright, New Jersey. Just this one strip of
land is subject to the management and oversight of a multitude of local, state and federal entities. Following a disaster, the amount of coordination required between
them for recovery and adaptation can test the limits of a
Sandy Hook Bay
municipality’s capacity.
Protecting just
one parcel of land in
Sea Bright, New Jersey
US EPA
NJ Division of Fish and Wildlife’s
Bureau of Land Management
Preserved as a Wildlife Management Area,
regulates recreational use
FEMA
Deemed ineligible (Coastal Barrier Resources Act, 1982) for most federal financial assistance and development incentives, including federal flood insurance.
Promoted conservation.
Requires regular monitoring of water impairment.
Administers the National Estuary Program, of
which the New York - New Jersey Estuary Program is a part. Regulates point sources that discharge pollutants into waterways.
NY
NJ
Atlantic Ocean
MONMOUTH
COUNTY
New York–New Jersey
Harbor Estuary Program
Develops and manages a Comprehensive Conservation and Management Plan for the New York New Jersey Harbor Estuary. Management Conference provides open forum for discussion, planning, and action on issues facing the Estuary.
Regulates activities (dredging, filling, removing, or otherwise altering or polluting) within coastal wetlands, inventories
boundaries.
USFWS
Sea Bright
Shrewsbury
River
NJDEP
NJ DEP Division of
Land Use Regulation
NY
CT
Require, define, and authorize specific stream
cleaning practices. Promotes projects which preserve habitat, limit work adjacent to the channel.
Determines compliance with the Flood Hazard
Area Control Act rules.
NJ DEP Division of
Coastal Engineering
Water (Inland)
USACE
Sets water quality standards, authorizes grants to state to monitor beaches. Monitors and assists
with Clean Water Act compliance.
Collaborated with Borough and DEP on
seawall design and funding.
NOAA
Serves as administrator of repair, gap
bridging efforts. Funded restoration in
part.
Is involved in permit review programs
for regulated activities in wetland
FEMA
Funded majority of repair and gap closure of seawall. Obligated the project
in November 2015.
High/Low Marsh
Wetlands
Municipality
Orchestrated collaboration between NJ
DEP and USACE on seawall repair
design and funding.
Sea Wall
US EPA
Sets and monitors tide stations,
provides data for the defining the
shoreline and its tidal datum variations - and the jurisdictional
boundaries defined by these variations.
US FWS
Conducts environmental contaminant studies, Natural Resource
Damage Assessments
NJ DEP Department of Land
Use Management
Plan and provide for existing and
emerging ocean uses.
NJ DEP
Monitor to identify and track pollution sources impacting coastal
waters.
Bulkhead
Water (Atlantic Ocean)
NJ DEP Division of
Land use Regulation
Oversees maintenance and
extension of bulkhead along
the Shrewsbury River. Bulkhead construction and/or reconstruction within coastal
areas generally requires a
permit from NJDEP.
Municipality
Sets codes, priorities, ordinances to make changes to and ultimately streamline bulkhead height and design
on Borough-owned property,
encourages private landowners to meet standards
through education
Private Property
Property owner, resident
Purchases NFIP insurance
NJ DEP Division of Land Use
Regulation
Reviews permitting, sets impervious
cover limits and vegetative cover percentages for developments within
certain proximity to CAFRA (Coastal
Area Facility Review Act) areas. Responsible for implementing USACE’s
proposed structure raisings.
Parking/Sidewalk
Municipality
Trash collection, sidewalk
maintenance
Private landowners
Landscaping, general
maintenance (owners)
Beach (Public Space)
Attaches requirements, i.e. raising
house, to recovery funding. Requires
purchase of NFIP insurance.
Roads
USACE
Municipality
Permitting, funding. Designated as coastal evacuation route.
FEMA
Zoning and land-use decision making.
Writes building code, informed by all
FEMA maps and including freeboard
of two feet, one foot higher than the
state requirement. Orchestrates allotment of private and Community Development Block Grant funding.
Sources: New York-New Jersey Harbor & Estuary Program.
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. NJ Future. NJ Department
of Environmental Protection. U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.
Federal Insurance and Mitigation Administration. U.S. Fish
& Wildlife Service.
NJ DOT
NJ DEP Waterfront
Development
Permitting
Municipality
Set forth plan for improved
streetscape along Ocean
Avenue, incorporating design
elements to increase resiliency
NJ Department of Health
Ongoing beach replenishment program, With NJDEP, sets Standard Operating
Procedure for all recreational bathing
builds and maintains sacrificial beach
beaches to ensure that the State, local
berm abutting seawall.
health authorities, municipalities, and
NJ DEP
beach patrols are making every effort
Restricts development in special areas
to remove debris and hazards from
such as beaches, riparian zones, flood
beaches and bathing areas.
hazard areas. Manages coastal area
Municipality (DPW, Beach Patrol)
shore protection projects, including
beach replenishment, participating with Orchestrates removal of debris, orgaUS ACE on all Corps-sponsored protec- nizes training and stewardship when
beach profile undergoes significant
tion projects. Organizes routine cleanups and removal of larger debris, autho- change.
rizes permits to municipalities for beach
and dune maintenance and post-storm
restoration.
Coastal Adaptation | Regional Plan Association | October 2017
11
program to encourage greater flood protection measures
(beyond federal standards) through discounts on flood
insurance rates for participating municipalities.
The ability for any municipality to be proactive around
adaptation, in large part, depends on its size and capacity to operate beyond day-to-day management. As a result,
larger cities with full time mayors and multiple staff are
better equipped to focus on adaptation and secure funding to carry out projects. For example, New York City has a
full-time Resilience Officer, a fully-staffed program focused
specifically on resilience and recovery and has resilience
experts in other departments throughout the city’s agencies. As a result, New York City is a national leader on adaptation, with a long-range plan for resilience and multiple
ongoing projects with full or partial funding.
The vast majority of municipalities in our region, however
have volunteer or part-time leadership, with full time staff
focused largely on the essentials of ensuring a functioning
community. Longer-term issues such as adaptation often
don’t rise to a priority level. Given this limited capacity,
local governments could benefit from a regional approach
to coastal adaptation.
The Region’s Coastal
Management Programs:
A Patchwork of
Coastal Regulation
Connecticut
Enacted in 1980, the State of Connecticut’s Coastal
Management Program (CCMP) falls under the statutory umbrella of Connecticut’s Coastal Management Act
(CCMA). The Program is administered and implemented
by the Land and Water Resources Division, within the Connecticut Department of Energy and Environmental Protection (DEEP). Connecticut’s DEEP has regulatory jurisdiction over activity occurring in tidal wetlands and the
area waterward of the Coastal Jurisdiction Line, while an
individual municipality holds jurisdiction over all activity
that occurs within its municipal borders, landward of the
mean high water line of its coast. However, local planning
and zoning boards must frame plans under the guidance
of the CCMA. DEEP oversees, tracks, and shapes municipal activity in the coastal zone through its ability to issue
development permits, review site plans for proposed land
developments and zoning changes, and comment on such
plans to ensure they are consistent with the state’s CMP.1
In spite of the state’s oversight abilities, municipalities are
not required to abide by DEEP’s comments. In this reality,
DEEP works to guide municipalities towards certain best
practices. However, if DEEP believes a community’s plan
contradicts the state’s coastal management program and
the community refuses to listen to DEEP’s recommendations, the state can legally appeal the municipality’s decision. This power, however, is not used frequently. Connecticut’s program receives half of its funds from NOAA, with
the State government providing matching funds. In terms
of staff, the Program falls between New Jersey and New
York’s program in size, with approximately twenty-three
people.
“Connecticut Coastal Management Manual.” State of Connecticut Department of Environmental Protection. September 2000. http://www.ct.gov/deep/
lib/deep/long_island_sound/coastal_management_manual/manual_08.pdf
1
12
Coastal Adaptation | Regional Plan Association | October 2017
New Jersey
New York
The New Jersey Coastal Management Program, originally
recognized by NOAA in 1978, is managed by the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection’s (NJDEP)
Office of Coastal and Land Use Planning in DEP’s Land
Use Management Division. Statutory authority for the
state’s CMP comes from three major laws, which divide the
waterfront into three boundaries governed under different
rules: the Coastal Area Facility Review Act, which defined
the CAFRA Zone; the Waterfront Development Law of
1914, which defined the Hackensack Meadowlands District;
and the Wetlands Act of 1970. New Jersey SEA (NJSEA) —
formerly the Meadowlands Commission — is the designated
CMP manager for the Hackensack Meadowlands area. 2 The
Coastal Management Program considers any municipality
with tidally flowed waters to be within its planning region.
Through NJDEP and NJSEA, the state regulates land and
water uses that may have significant impact on coastal
resources.
The New York State Coastal Management Program
(NYSCMP) was created in 1982 by the New York Secretary
of State, born from the 1981 Waterfront Revitalization of
Coastal Areas and Inland Waterways Act (AKA: Executive
Law, Article 42) and Chapter 464 of the 1975 Laws of New
York State. The New York State Department of State (DOS)
administers the State’s Coastal Management Program, and
coordinates activities related to its implementation. 3 The
NYS Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC),
the agency tasked with protecting the State’s natural
resources, embeds the CMP’s policies into state practices
through its administrative authority for protecting coastal
erosion hazard areas; permitting authority for wetlands,
air quality, and water quality; and providing funding for
various activities. Other state agencies, including the
Department of Energy, the Public Service Commission,
and the Office of Parks, Recreation, and Historic Preservation, hold some responsibility for implementing the CMP’s
coastal policies, though the majority of Policies are carried
out through the DEC’s regular programming. New York
State is unique in how it enables consistency between the
state’s coastal communities and the federal government,
while structuring it so individual coastal communities can
tailor it to fit their individual needs. The DOS encourages
individual communities to prepare and implement a Local
Waterfront Revitalization Program (LWRP). An LWRP is
a locally-prepared, comprehensive land and water use plan
that provides a more detailed implementation of the State’s
CMP. By creating a LWRP, communities refine and tailor
the State’s CMP policies to match their own unique needs
and priorities. This holds a two-fold benefit, as the LWRP’s
inform the State government what each coastal community
values, which then helps shape State policy. Once a community’s LWRP is approved by the NYSDOS and NOAA,
all State and Federal agencies’ actions occurring within the
community’s coastal area must adhere to and be consistent
with the LWRP.4
All waterfront development in New Jersey is regulated by
the state. While development is subject to the local zoning and building regulations of its respective municipality, public and private development projects are required
to obtain NJDEP permits. Furthermore, the state’s rules
supersede local zoning — meaning developers are obligated
to conform to state regulations in addition to local zoning.
If a municipality is in a specific coastal zone, it must follow
the rules outlined by NJDEP.
The state’s Program is headed by the Office of Coastal and
Land Use Planning, but it draws information and input
from multiple DEP offices, including the Office of Policy
Implementation, the Division of Land Use Regulation, and
the Office of Dredging and Sediment Technology. Most of
the Program’s work is done by its leading office, which has
four planners and approximately seven additional technical
staff. The Office rarely coordinates with their counterparts
in New York and Connecticut — though they frequently collaborate with multi-state groups such as the NY/NJ Harbor
Estuary Program, the Delaware Estuary, and MARCO,
whose planning regions include portions of NJ.
Like Connecticut’s program, approximately half of the New
Jersey CMP’s funds are provided by NOAA, with the State
providing matching funds. However, the majority of New
Jersey’s resiliency work is supplied by NOAA’s annual grant
to the program.
State of New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection Division of
Land Use Regulation website. Accessed August 16, 2017. http://nj.gov/dep/landuse/coastal/cp_main.html
2
New York also stands out from its neighbors in terms of the
sheer size of its Program staff and budgetary sources. The
program has up to sixty staffers, and receives the majority
of its funding comes from the State, rather than the federal
government.
3 “New York State Coastal Management Program and Final Environmental
Impact Statement.” New York State Department of State. Revised June 2017.
https://www.dos.ny.gov/opd/programs/pdfs/NY_CMP.pdf
4 “Local Waterfront Revitalization Program.” New York State Department
of State Office of Planning and Development. Accessed October 2017. https://
www.dos.ny.gov/opd/programs/WFRevitalization/LWRP.html
Coastal Adaptation | Regional Plan Association | October 2017
13
A Vision for Regional Governance
and Dedicated Adaptation Funding
A Coastal Commission
for the Tri-State Region
To fill the void in climate adaptation, New York, New
Jersey and Connecticut should create a Regional Coastal
Commission modeled after successful coastal commissions
in other regions. The region has several examples of commissions and authorities that have coordinated municipal
and private actions to preserve and manage environmental
assets, such as the Highlands and Meadowlands Commissions in New Jersey and the Pine Barrens Commission on
Long Island. Other regions, including the San Francisco
Bay Area and the Chesapeake Bay region, have successful
region-scale coastal management authorities. A Regional
Coastal Commission (RCC) would coordinate adaptation
strategies undertaken by coastal communities, develop and
manage adaptation standards, and prioritize projects for
funding based on the potential for region-wide resilience.
Funding would come primarily from adaptation trust
funds proposed in this report, but the commission could
also prioritize projects funded from other federal and state
sources.
The mission of the Regional Coastal Commission will be to
advance adaptation planning and implementation across
municipal and state boundaries to reduce the risks posed
and expenses incurred by coastal flooding from storm
surge, sea level rise and heavy precipitation in our region’s
coastal communities, by:
⊲ Producing a regional coastal adaptation plan that aligns
adaptation policies across boundaries and sets a vision
for short- and long-term adaptation.
⊲ Developing and managing science-informed standards
to guide projects and development/redevelopment in
the region’s flood-prone places.
Commission Guidelines
The final structure and governance of a Regional Coastal
Commission could take a number of forms, but should be
guided by the best practices of other coastal commissions
and regional collaboratives (see more below) for maximum
efficacy. The following represents a brief set of essential
guidelines for the development of a commission in the
Region.
Be Inclusive and Cross-Jurisdictional
Members of the commission should be designated across
jurisdictions. Each of the three states should be represented, as should each of the coastal counties. While the
sheer number of municipalities within the boundary would
prevent complete participation, a representative number of
municipal members should be designated. The structure
should allow for free-flowing information between and
among all levels of government that have an interest and
stake in adaptation decisions, even if they are not represented on the commission.
Represent Different Coastal Conditions
The coast is not a monolithic place. Coastal place types
range from the highly developed urban shores of cities
like New York, Jersey City and Bridgeport to the suburban
communities along the backbays and barrier beaches of
Long Island and New Jersey to more natural settings like
Long Island’s east end. The region’s estuary programs and
reserves could serve as useful frameworks for ensuring
representation from each of these different coast types.
Engage and Build Trust with Communities
The commission should ensure that community outreach
is an important part of its activities and mission, to ensure
that all voices are heard and that trust is established
between the commission and communities.
Include Elected Officials
⊲ Coordinating and encouraging collaborative projects
across municipal and state boundaries.
⊲ Evaluating and awarding funding for projects that align
with the standards established by the commission,
utilizing funds created by each state’s Adaptation Trust
Fund.
14
Coastal Adaptation | Regional Plan Association | October 2017
Elected officials should have a role on the commission to
give it legitimacy and visibility, but the governance structure must remain independent from political cycles and
direct political interference.
Engage Across Disciplines
science and be flexible enough to change as conditions
on the ground change. The commission will also play an
important role in communicating scientific information to
government and community stakeholders.
Incorporating decisions and tools from the commission
into other government agencies will be a key component of
this collaborative. Both members and staff should include a
variety of disciplines (environmental, development, transportation, etc) to embed all aspects of adaptation planning
into decisions.
Set Clear Criteria for Adaptation Funding
One of the roles of the Coastal Commission would be to
oversee and make decisions about how Adaptation Trust
Fund dollars are spent. The commission should ensure that
funding allocations and project selection is guided by a
clear set of standards and evaluation metrics.
Be Informed by Science and Flexible to Changes
The rising seas and increasing intensity of storms will
dramatically alter the region’s coastline. It is important
that the commission provide guidance based on the latest
Coastal Counties in the
NY-NJ-CT Region Vulnerable
to Sea Level Rise
Source: Regional Plan Association
Coastal County
Ulster
Dutchess
+1ft
+3ft
+6ft
Litchfield
Litchfield
Sullivan
Sea Level Rise
New Haven
Putnam
Orange
NY
NJ
Fairfield
Fairfield
Westchester
Sussex
NY
CT
Rockland
Passaic
Bergen
Warren
Morris
Suffolk
Bronx
New
York
Essex
Queens
Hudson
Union
Nassau
Kings
Hunterdon
Richmond
Somerset
Middlesex
Regional Coastal Commission Coverage Area
Mercer
Monmouth
Ocean
In order to adequately plan for a future with increased flooding from sea level rise along our coastlines, the commission’s
oversight area needs to extend beyond federal coastal zone
management boundaries of 1,000 feet beyond the shoreline.
We recommend the commission include each of the coastal
counties, municipalities that have land within the coastal
zone, plus any municipality with land at risk from flooding at
six feet of sea level rise. This second category would be a high
priority zone.This boundary could be periodically updated
by the commission to account for changes in sea level rise
projections and redrawn flood maps.
Coastal Adaptation | Regional Plan Association | October 2017
15
Why a Regional Coastal Commission?
The Institute for Sustainable Communities defines four
classifications by which governance structures can be characterized.1 These categories gradually increase in formality
and decrease in flexibility.
⊲ Informal Network: The least formal and most flexible
of these categories is an Informal Network, a group of
regional actors who agree to meet regularly to work
together towards a shared goal. The New York Region
Climate Adaptation Network, recently launched by
RPA in partnership with the Lincoln Institute of Land
Policy, can be considered an informal network, as it
convenes professionals working on climate adaptation
initiatives, uniting them by a shared goal but without an
official charter.
⊲ Chartered Network: A chartered network is a group of
people with a developed charter or system of agreedupon rules specifying how members wish to govern
their interactions and make decisions. The Southeast
Florida Regional Climate Compact is considered a chartered network, as members signed an official Compact
agreeing to a specific organization structure and means
of engagement in upon its formation.
⊲ Legal Entity: At the more formal end of the spectrum
is a Legal Entity, which has the ability to collect and
manage funding, hire staff, own assets, and enter into
contracts.
⊲ Regulatory Body: The most formal and least flexible of
the four entities, a Regulatory Body is granted authority
to act as an arm of the government, and consequently
can levy taxes and fines, set regulations, or enact policies.
In its most basic definition, a regional collaborative is an
entity where stakeholders representing an array of geographies, issues, and populations come together to identify
shared issues or goals, and work together to solve them
through a regional lens. Regional collaboratives can be
informal networks or regulatory agencies.
Flexible by nature, regional collaboratives have a higher
capacity to adapt to changing conditions, promote public
participation, and enhance policy dialogue. As a result they
often emerge as an alternative to centralized institutions
that manage natural resources. 2 Over decades and across
the country, regional collaboratives have formed to manage natural resources in large-scale, politically-complex
environments.
Successful regional governance structures focused on
climate change adaptation can (1) coordinate action across
multiple governments and sectors, creating a space to make
collective decisions and take action in a timely manner;
(2) reduce and resolve conflicts between stakeholders; and
(3) facilitate information and knowledge exchanges across
jurisdictional boundaries by pooling members’ funding,
capacity, and communications. 3
Climate adaptation initiatives are best implemented when
they are embedded into the solutions of other issues, like
infrastructure upgrades or affordable housing, presenting
an opportunity for climate adaptation solutions to simultaneously address issues like equity, affordability, and inclusivity, while also ensuring residents’ long-term well-being
in the face of climate change.
Collectives have an advantage when applying for funds.
Access to federal funding or other large grants is easier
through an umbrella organization that covers multiple
political jurisdictions. County staff participating in the
Southeast Florida Regional Climate Compact have been
able to leverage large pots of state and federal resources
because, as a collaborative working on climate changerelated issues over a broad geography, the Compact is an
attractive destination for funds coming into the region.4 It
has provided enough structure to help facilitate grants and
technical assistance for the participating Counties, as well
as widen community access to federal and state support.
Tanya Heikkila and Andrea K Gerlak. “The Formation of Large-scale Collaborative Resource Management Institutions.” The Policy Studies Journal,
2005. Vol. 33, No. 4.
3 Institute for Sustainable Communities 2016.
4 Institute for Sustainable Communities 2016.
2
1 Adams S, Crowley M, Forinash C, and McKay H. “Regional Governance for
Climate Action.” Institute for Sustainable Communities. 2016.
16
Coastal Adaptation | Regional Plan Association | October 2017
Adaptation Trust Funds
Investments in adaptation projects for communities,
habitats and infrastructure systems often come with a high
price tag. Recent research from Zillow estimates that the
region’s three states stand to lose $177.3 billion of housing
stock (305,310 homes in total) to permanent flooding from
six feet of sea level rise.14 And that’s just homes. Successful
adaptation investment models require a dedicated source
of funding that is stable enough to utilize bond leverage. As
federal funding for infrastructure, disasters and adaptation becomes less reliable, states are increasingly tasked
with advancing innovative financing models that operate to
address both a backlog of infrastructure investments and
to prepare for climate change. RPA proposes the creation of
three Adaptation Trust Funds for NY, NJ and CT, funded
by surcharges on insurance premiums. The funds would be
managed by each state as a public benefit corporation, with
underwriting and allocation decisions ultimately delegated
to the Coastal Commission. However, each state could
independently create trust funds under this model with or
without the formal establishment of a coastal commission.
14 NOAA, Zillow (via Zillow), 2017
The trust fund could be feasibly capitalized by a surcharge
on regulated property and casualty insurance premiums statewide, and put into a public benefit corporation
authorized by each state.15 A research team from Harvard
University’s Graduate School of Design, commissioned by
Regional Plan Association, looked at the unmet financial
needs identified in each state’s Community Development
Block Grant — Disaster Recovery amended Action Plans
following Superstorm Sandy. They determined the rate
of surcharge required to capitalize a trust fund and meet
these unmet needs over time. Without even utilizing leverage in the bond market, the following estimated insurance
surcharges for the average consumer were found to pay for
the identified unmet needs of each state16:
⊲ Connecticut: $1/month
⊲ New York: $5/month
⊲ New Jersey: $15/month
In general, the range of surcharges necessary to capitalize
the trust funds are a small percentage (e.g., 0.5% to 1.5%)
of the premiums currently paid. New Jersey’s is considerably higher because of the higher levels of identified unmet
needs in the state. Once capitalized, the trust funds could
support a range of potential project ranging from shortterm community resilience planning to long-term infrastructure finance. A primary role of the Coastal Commission would be to establish the criteria by which projects
are prioritized and to determine allocations to projects
submitted for funding.
15 Keenan, J.M. (2017). Regional Resilience Trust Funds: An Exploratory
Analysis for the New York Metropolitan Region. New York, NY.: Regional Plan
Association.
16 Based on an annual insurance premium of $1,200.
Coastal Adaptation | Regional Plan Association | October 2017
17
Coastal resilience features can and should
be integrated into park design, so that
they are a both a community amenity and
a safety measure in severe storms.
Lower East Side Coastal
Resiliency Proposal
Source: Bjarke Ingels Group
18
Coastal Adaptation | Regional Plan Association | October 2017
Sample Trust Fund Financed Projects
Funding
Mechanism
Borrower
Amount
Project
Project Description
Planning
Study
Study would include: a coastal area typology study; an inventory of potential
strategies for existing green infrastructure; adaptive processes for scienceinformed decision-making in local jurisdictions; case studies of existing
adaptation projects; and education and outreach materials. The state agency
could leverage the grant with federal funding through the HUD Sustainable
Communities Regional Planning Grant.
Small grant
$500,000
State of New York,
Department of Environmental Conservation
Large grant
New Jersey Sports
and Exposition
Authority
$15,000,000
Brownfield
Remediation
Grant would offset eligible project costs for remediating toxic chemicals
from land in the Meadowlands that is highly vulnerable to flooding and
future inundation. In addition to cleanup, the grant would help support
adjacent site assessments, ecological adaptation strategies for local habits,
and community planning and training. In partnership with local jurisdictions
and property owners, the Authority would leverage funds from the U.S. EPA’s
Brownfield Grant Program and the NJ Hazardous Discharge Site Remediation Fund.
Large grant
Norwalk Dept of
Public Works /
Stamford Office of
Operations
$1,000,000
Green Infrastructure
Design and
Maintenance
Training
Project would develop programs to train municipal and county public works
personnel to design and maintain green infrastructure that serves a dual
hazard mitigation purpose. Project funding could be leveraged from several
federal sources, including HUD’s Green Infrastructure and the Sustainable
Communities Initiative and the US EPA’s Clean Water Act Section 319 grant
program.
Concession
loan
Local Town, New
Jersey
$30,000,000
Managed
Housing Relocation Finance
Program
Project is based on a program to help finance the relocation of low-tomoderate income households whose properties are in highly vulnerable to
the risk of subsidence, storm surge and relative sea level rise. The program
would help finance the disposition of existing properties and the acquisition of in-land properties that were previously foreclosed. The net result is
that relocated households have a lower barrier to entry to in-land housing
markets and neighborhoods with previously foreclosed properties get an
injection of social and financial capital.
Concession
loan
GRID Alternatives
(non-profit)
$5,000,000
Photovoltaic
(PV) Installation in Public
and Senior
Housing
Project would serve the co-benefits of climate mitigation, as well as the
benefits of increasing the passive survivability of facilities supporting highly
vulnerable populations. With climate change, extreme heat and power
disruptions represent critical hazards for impacting human health. With an
aging society, passive survivability is a potentially important part of community resilience. In conjuncture with existing energy efficiency subsidies, this
concession loan provides the capital necessary to bring the levelized cost of
energy to within the means of financially strapped housing operators.
Prime rate
loan
$100,000,000 Gap Loan for
Nassau County
Bay Park WaDepartment of Public
ter ReclamaWorks
tion Facility
Project would provide the gap financing necessary to help the borrower
accommodate an $830 million renovation to the plant designed to mitigate
and manage the risks associated with storm surge, increased deluge events,
and sea level rise. In particular the loan would support the funding of: the upgrading of power and back-up systems; the elevating of chemical tanks and
electrical controls; the installing of new pumping systems; and the development of dual-purpose public spaces that promote the physical resiliency and
environmental sustainability of the adjacent neighborhood.
Prime rate
loan
$350,000,000 Infrastructure
Lower Manhattan
Finance for
Property Cooperative
Multi-Purpose
(non-profit)
Flood Protection
Project would provide supplemental efforts to the ongoing city led effort to
fortify Lower Manhattan. The borrower is a non-profit cooperative corporation whose members are property owners, large tenants, Con Edison and
the NYC EDC. As aging office buildings are replaced, this source of funding
helps finance coordinated lot and block improvements that synchronize with
the district level waterfront improvements. Eligible improvements include
those interventions in energy distribution, water management and public
space that contribute to the resilience of public and private operations in the
district.
Prime rate
loan
New Jersey Transit
Project would provide additional financing for developing an innovative
micro-grid that accommodates a variety of extreme events from heat to
flooding. With an increasingly stressed and aging transit system, the project
seeks to increase reliability and reduce down time through the intelligent
management of distributed and renewable energy sources. Aside from the
core infrastructure improvements, the financing could support consumer
communications for re-routing when service is altered, as well as contingent
operations planning and operations redundancy for extreme events.
$100,000,000 NJ TransitGrid
Source: Keenan, J.M. (2017). Regional Resilience Trust Funds: An Exploratory Analysis for the New York Metropolitan Region. New York, NY.: Regional Plan Association. http://library.rpa.org/pdf/Keenan-Regional-Resilience-Trust-Funds-2017.pdf
Coastal Adaptation | Regional Plan Association | October 2017
19
Implementing a Regional Coastal
Commission: Best Practices
from Around the Country
Existing climate adaptation collaborative bodies are
incredibly diverse in terms of structure, size, jurisdiction,
authority, scale, and scope of mission, illustrating that there
is no prescribed format for such an entity (See Appendix).
However, RPA’s review of existing regional collaborative
entities indicates there are several important factors vital
to their success including: a shared long-term vision for
the entity; clear, distinct boundaries of jurisdiction; trust
between actors; and consistent information and data among
parties prior to the collaboration.17 To ensure the RCC’s
success, we identify best practices that inform the structure and authority, collaboration and effectiveness, membership, data and information sharing, and funding of the
commission.
1 Begin with a clear and targeted
mission, with the potential
to expand its mandate.
A clear, relatively narrow mission is essential for the success of the commission. This will make it easier for organizers to design its governance structure, identify potential
participants, and foster the support to bring it to fruition.
As it matures, the mandate can be expanded to tackle more
extensive issues as they arise, without losing sight of its
original mission.
One example of this is how the Southeast Florida Regional
Climate Compact has evolved and expanded its mission.
When it was founded in 2010, the Compact the signatories
agreed upon was relatively simple, but broadly focused on
one particular issue: coordinating climate change adaptation initiatives. The signatory county governments agreed
to coordinate their state and federal-level climate changerelated advocacy and policy positions, conduct analyti17 Bennett, Annie and Jessica Grannis. “Lessons in Regional Resilience: Case
Studies on Regional Climate Collaboratives.” Georgetown Climate Center.
2017.; Booher, David E. and Judith E. Innes. “Governance for Resilience: CALFED as a Complex Adaptive Network for Resource Management.“ Ecology and
Society, 2010. Vol. 15, Iss. 3.; Bulkeley, Harriet and Kristine Kern. “Local Government and the Governing of Climate Change in Germany and the UK.” Urban
Studies, 2006. Vol. 43, Iss. 12, pp. 2237-2259.; National Association of Regional
Councils. “A Survey of Regional Planning for Climate Adaptation.” November
2012. http://narc.org/wp-content/uploads/NOAA_White_Paper-FINAL2.
pdf; Anna Serra-Llobet, Esther Conrad, and Kathleen Schaefer. “Governing
for Integrated Water and Flood Risk Management: Comparing Top-Down and
Bottom-Up Approaches in Spain and California.” Water, 2016. Vol. 8, Iss. 10.
20
Coastal Adaptation | Regional Plan Association | October 2017
cal research on a regional scale, and to meet at an annual
summit. Within a few months, these goals led the Compact
to develop a regional preliminary inundation map, regionally consistent sea level rise projections, and a regional
baseline greenhouse gas emissions level. As the Compact
accomplished its goals, it then pivoted its workload towards
capacity building in municipalities through resilience and
adaptation workshops for local government officials. The
way the Compact set clearly defined, achievable, focused
goals early in its lifetime gave the collaborative the capacity to quickly unite county officials behind its agenda, and
gradually expand and update its responsibilities.
2 Involve elected officials
while staying independent
from election cycles.
Elected officials bring local expertise and the voices of their
constituents to the table. They can also help bring public
attention to the commission which is important especially as it is starting to help build more political will and
legitimacy to the body. Yet there is also need to embed the
structure within existing government agencies to ensure
that the work continues across administrations and is less
influenced by politics. Incorporating decisions and tools
from RCC into other government agencies will be a key
component of this collaborative.
When the California Coastal Commission was created,
the Commission was an administrative body in California’s executive branch and the State Legislature had the
power to appoint and remove two thirds of the Commission’s voting members at will. This made the Commission
extremely volatile and politicized until the early 2000s,
when the State Legislature amended the Coastal Act to give
legislative appointees fixed terms, and expanded all terms
from two to four years.18 To avoid these issues, instituting a steering committee composed of government staff is
beneficial.
18 Charles Lester. “CZM in California: Successes and Challenges Ahead”
Coastal Management, 2013. Vol. 41, pp. 219-244.
3 Represent a variety of disciplines.
Regional climate collaboratives should include an “interdisciplinary membership” to fully integrate adaptation into
all aspects of planning and community life. Transportation
planners, emergency response planners, and officials from
federal, state, local, and regional public bodies like MPOs
and watershed authorities are key players in climate collaboratives because they hold authority over policies relevant
to climate change and adaptation. These diverse representatives can also bring invaluable regional-scale perspective
and resources to the collaborative. A diverse membership
creates strong symbiotic relationships between the collaborative and its partners and enables information sharing
between them.
The Chesapeake Bay Program is an example of one entity
whose partnering organizations benefit substantially from
the diverse membership of the programs governing bodies
and advisory teams, which include state and local government officials, federal and regional agency representatives,
and scientific organizations and academic institutions. The
Program provides its state partners with technical support and scientific resources, while providing its scientific
constituent partners with an avenue to shape policy. The
Program’s existence enables these mutually beneficial
relationships where different parties receive information
they would not have access to otherwise, which improves
everyone’s work while also furthering the restoration and
protection of the Chesapeake Bay.
4 Structure the commission according
to specialization and subject area.
Uniting a collaborative’s stakeholders to work on a particular issue or subject area through a specialized committee is
an efficient way to exchange information and unify representatives behind a particular viewpoint. This strategy is
used by organizations like the Chesapeake Bay Commission
that need to manage large tracts of land and a large number
of agencies. To oversee 64,000 square miles of land spread
across six states and Washington DC, the Chesapeake Bay
Program divides work into seven goal implementation
teams based on subject matter, and then subdivides them
into workgroups for more detail. This allows the program
to exchange relevant information with experts from 19 federal agencies, nearly 40 state agencies, approximately 1,800
local governments, over 20 academic institutions, and more
than 60 non-governmental organizations in an efficient and
organized manner.
Because of the diversity of environmental and development
conditions along the NY-NJ-CT coastline, the commission
could have subcommittees based on geographic specialization. For example, a subcommittee for the NY-NJ Harbor
dealing with the dense urban coastline or for the Long
Island Sound. This would enable stakeholders to collectively agree on, design, and regulate adaptation projects
that will affect them regionally, and could be built from
successful existing programs like the NY-NJ Harbor Estuary Program and the Long Island Sound Study.
5 Disseminate information
across agencies and stakeholders,
and facilitate the adoption
of policy changes across
agencies at all staff levels.
Collaboration between multiple agencies and government
levels is important, but these efforts are only worthwhile if
they can infiltrate all aspects of a department or agency’s
policies. The presence of agency directors on a commission’s board does not guarantee that information will
permeate to official department policies uniformly. For
instance, the Louisiana Coastal Protection and Restoration
Authority’s Board expects its leaders to coordinate with
one another and share information, but it does not have the
infrastructure in place to coordinate implementation strategies internally within their own departments, nor externally on an interdepartmental basis. Having a consolidated
plan that describes what each agency is doing to further a
commission’s common goal can help the commission work
towards achieving them. Department leaders, who provide
agency “buy-in” and execute broader policy, need to have
a mechanism that allows them to coordinate with technical staff so policies can be integrated into all projects and
official policy.
The Bay Area Regional Collaborative (BARC) demonstrates
one framework for how an entity can successfully work
across multiple levels of government and through various
regional programs and state agency initiatives. BARC is a
consortium of four regional government agencies — the San
Francisco Bay Conservation and Development Commission
(BCDC), the Association of Bay Area Governments (ABAG),
Bay Area Air Quality Management District, and MetropoliCoastal Adaptation | Regional Plan Association | October 2017
21
tan Transportation Commission (MTC) — that collaborate
on regional planning issues that involve multiple agencies.
Working together to create coordinated policies, leverage
resources, and provide better services to local governments
struggling with climate-related issues, their collaboration
has distinguished each agency’s role and responsibility in
relation to climate change, and linked regional, state, and
federal programs in the creation of uniform policies.
6 Build trust with its
constituent communities.
The ultimate purpose of adaptation is to ensure the longterm wellbeing of people and communities vulnerable to
climate change. When implemented thoughtfully, this can
include addressing equity, affordability, and inclusivity.
The commission presents an opportunity to address these
issues in the way it undertakes its research and project
selection, and in how it maintains accountability and credibility. Engaging with individuals and local community
organizations would keep the commission accountable to
the needs of its constituents, and build support and “buyin” for its plans and projects.
Reaching out to individual communities for input during the planning process allows collaborative entities to
understand how their climate-focused work can mitigate
a community’s other needs. In completing its 2012 Master
Plan Update, the Louisiana Coastal Protection and Restoration Authority (CPRA) worked with advisory groups and
different stakeholders across the state to inform its planning principles and framework. The Authority organized
technical committees and focus groups, convened public
meetings, conducted community surveys, and targeted
local elected officials, groups, and legislatures for input on
its decision making process. This outreach work secured
legitimate community buy-in, which lead to NGOs and
organizations rallying around the Master Plan, conforming
their work to fit into the Master Plan. The CPRA built on
this effort in its most recent Master Plan Update, when it
solicited coastal improvement project proposals from local
government agencies.19 This helped ensure the best identified specific projects with local community support, which
represented sound, efficient investments for the State’s
Coastal Area.
While reaching out to municipal governments themselves is important, climate collaboratives need to take
their outreach a step further and form partnerships with
community-based organizations. 20 Such organizations are
well-rooted in their communities, and can provide insight
into how a community wants to mitigate issues in a way
municipal government cannot. These organizations can
also make collaboratives more effective at implementation.
The Chesapeake Bay Program has found that its efforts are
most effective in communities that have an organized local
government body or organization already working on the
ground to mitigate issues. Such organizations, regardless
of whether they have an explicit focus on climate change,
enable a collaborative to address a variety of community
needs while still directly embedding climate adaptation
principles into all community practices.
The San Francisco Bay Restoration Authority’s (SFBRA)
successful passage of the Measure AA initiative is an
example of how community support and advocacy are
essential in orchestrating a successful campaign. The ballot
initiative, passed in 2016, is a special parcel tax measure of
$12 per year on all nine Bay Area counties meant to fund
wetland restoration and protection projects in the San
Francisco bay. Leading up to its passage, the SFBRA led a
multi-year, multi-county public education campaign with
support from multiple organizations to raise awareness and
support for the Measure. Through this outreach effort, Bay
Area residents realized the economic, environmental, and
recreational benefits wetlands provide, and in 2016 voted
in favor of taxing themselves. 21 Through this effort, the
SFBRA now has the funding and leverage to support shoreline protection and wetland restoration projects throughout the Bay Area.
7 Include a third party mediator
to enhance collaboration and
coordination between entities.
Having a neutral facilitator is helpful in making a collaborative function successfully. Such an individual or entity
can lend their legitimacy and convening power to a collaboration to help bring people to the table. They can also
help individuals work through their “competitive resource”
instincts that make each representative fight for finite
20 United States Government Accountability Office. “Chesapeake Bay Pro-
19 Natalie Peyronnin et al. “Louisiana’s 2012 Coastal Master Plan: Overview of
a Science-Based and Publicly Informed Decision-Making Process.” Journal of
Coastal Research, 2013, Vol.67(sp1), pp.1-15
22
Coastal Adaptation | Regional Plan Association | October 2017
gram: Recent Actions Are Positive Steps Toward More Effectively Guiding the
Restoration Effort.” 2008. GAO-08-1033T
21 Robin Meadows. “San Francisco Bay Area Makes History With Wetland
Restoration Measure” NewsDeeply. https://www.newsdeeply.com/water/
articles/2016/10/14/san-francisco-bay-area-makes-history-with-wetlandrestoration-measure
resources solely for their respective community over the
collective community. The third party can help maintain a
regional perspective during contentious debates and ultimately steer the commission towards negotiations.
The Institute for Sustainable Communities (ISC) serves
as the neutral facilitator and coordinator of the Southeast Florida Regional Climate Compact. They support the
implementation of the Compact’s Regional Climate Action
Plan through tailored workshops focused on implementation challenges,such as integrating climate impacts into
land use, transportation and water supply planning. 22
8 Consider having an independent
science “arm” or committee
to add legitimacy.
The Commission should consider establishing an independent, but “in-house” advisory science committee group that
oversees data and science-based research and sets metrics
and standards for the group. An independent science advisory committee can add legitimacy and transparency. It
can also ensure that the science remains objective and not
politicized. In some cases, this can also serve as an avenue
for public oversight and participation.
A key element of the Chesapeake Bay Program (CBP) is
its Science and Technology Advisory Committee (STAC).
Administered by the Chesapeake Research Consortium,
STAC is an independent body that generates data and conducts independent reviews over CBP’s work. 23 Similarly, the
San Francisco Bay Restoration Authority relies on independent science institutions for its data and science methods.
Like many of California’s agencies, businesses, and NGOS,
the Authority’s most notable resource is the Bay Area
Estuary Institute, which provides stakeholders across the
State with independent science support and environmental
health data.
22 Institute for Sustainable Communities 2016.
23 GAO-08-1033T 2008.
9 Create a central data repository to
help overlapping organizations find
and share data across government
levels, institutions, and organizations.
Individual agencies in a shared region often work on
similar issues without collaborating with one another, and
consequently end up analyzing similar data points and
sources. In an effort to solve their unique problems, hundreds of manpower hours are spent identifying, downloading, cleaning, and analyzing the same information. A single
data repository, where all relevant scientific institutions
can store and share their data, would allow for data sharing
in a streamlined, transparent process. It could also create
an opportunity for greater public participation through the
publication of citizen science monitoring schedules and
identification of sampling gaps. How broad an inventory
would be and ways to verify or peer-review data are issues
that would need to be worked out in the process of creating
the repository.
The San Francisco Bay Area’s science and environmental
community has identified the need for such a data center.
The area collectively has several agencies — the Bay Area
Estuary Institute, the Bay Area Estuary Partnership, and
the Bay Conservation and Development Commission,
among others — and an assortment of academic institutions
generating environmental data for the same region. To
better share information, the agencies are trying to make
the Bay Area Estuary Institute the “holder of the region’s
science.” Pooling data between these entities will help the
agencies rely on a single data source and conserve their
limited resources, as well as build trust between peers.
10 A successful commission should
ideally have a diversified funding
portfolio, supplemented by a selfsustaining, revenue-generating
source of funding independent
from government or grants
There are many ways regional commissions can raise
revenue to complete their work, whether from grants,
government-supplied revenue, or from a dues structure.
However, identifying a way to generate its own source of
Coastal Adaptation | Regional Plan Association | October 2017
23
funding provides the most financial stability, allowing the
entity to more freely carry out its mission. The passage of
the San Francisco Bay Restoration Authority’s (SFBRA)
Measure AA parcel tax guarantees the Authority will
have an annual budget of $25 million per year for the next
twenty years, provided directly by taxpayers rather than
indirectly through budget allocations from the State legislature. This funding guarantees the Authority will be able
to to support its operation costs and to fund wetland restoration projects across the Bay Area on a long-term basis. It
also lets the authority create higher criteria standards for
projects applying for grant funds to abide by, and lets the
agency choose the projects it believes will provide the most
benefits to the Bay Area’s wetlands and residents.
In today’s political climate, agencies cannot consistently
depend upon receiving federal or state government funding
to continue their work. The Louisiana Coastal Protection
and Restoration Authority, for example, is primarily funded
by State mineral revenue, which can fluctuate between $13
million and $25 million per year, and an array of federal
funds. While the agency also receives some federal funding
and revenue from oil and gas production activity, the CPRA
is largely dependent on disasters to fund additional coastal
restoration projects. Natural disaster-related funding will
grow progressively erratic as the effects of climate change
exacerbate nationally, and federal disaster funding must
support the rebuilding of more disaster sites.
It is very difficult for a commission to remain effective and
fulfill its mission when its financial stability relies on government allocations. The Interstate Environmental Commission (IEC) is heavily reliant on state appropriations to
meet non-federal matching funds requirements. This was a
particular issue in 2009 and 2010, when New York and New
Jersey reduced their budgetary contributions to the statutory minimum of $15,000, down 95% from what they had
contributed in the past. Though the agency receives some
federal funding through the Clean Water Act, the reduction
in state funding was dramatic, especially since the agency
relies on state appropriations to meet non-federal funds
match requirements.
24
Coastal Adaptation | Regional Plan Association | October 2017
Next Steps
NYR-CAN Panel Discussion
Establishing a Regional Coastal Commission focused on
long-term adaptation and capitalizing state adaptation trust
funds are critically important steps our region needs to
take if we are to address the intensifying consequences of
climate change along our 3,700 mile coastline. Yet neither
can realistically be accomplished overnight. In the shortterm, informal collaboratives, such as the New York Region
Climate Adaptation Network of municipalities initiated by
Regional Plan Association, in partnership with the Lincoln
Instiute of Land Policy, can help to catalyze fruitful discussions, shared best practices and agreements on science and
adaptation standards. But more far-reaching and longer
term steps are required.
⊲ RPA recommends New York, New Jersey and Connecticut designate the coastal counties and municipalities
plus any municipality with land at risk from flooding at
six feet of sea level rise as areas of special interest and
concern.
⊲ RPA recommends the governors of each state direct
these agencies to collaborate in forming a tri-state commission that would advance climate adaptation for the
region’s entire coastal area.
⊲ RPA recommends the states also pass legislation to
create new public interest entities that can receive the
resiliency trust fund monies and pass them through to
the commission for projects, and that the state insurance boards issue a new surcharge on insurance.
Coastal Adaptation | Regional Plan Association | October 2017
25
Appendix: Models
Around the Country
RPA reviewed nine regional collaboratives that focus on
climate adaptation initiatives, looking to learn from best
practices the collaboratives employ, issues faced during
their tenure, and their vision for future work 24 . These case
studies serve as models of regional climate adaptation
collaboration done well; their successes, along with our
region’s unique needs, inform the blueprint for the tri-state
region’s own collaborative.
Interstate Environmental Commission
The Interstate Environmental Commission (IEC) is a joint
tristate air and water pollution control agency that serves
New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut. Established
in 1936, the Commission protects the environment and
ensures compliance with and enforcement of its Water
Quality Regulations. 25 The IEC is unique in that it is both
an intrastate regulatory and enforcement agency as well as
an interstate agency that has the authority to “cross” state
lines.
To achieve its goals, the IEC: coordinates interstate and
region-wide water quality programs; provides technical
assistance and support to its member States on water quality issues; and enhances public and legislative awareness
through water quality education and citizen science. The
IEC participates in regional planning efforts; conducts
ambient and compliance monitoring; engages in public
education and outreach programs with citizen groups and
government agencies; and runs numerous research projects
related to the region’s environmental health.
The Commission has jurisdiction over a designated area
that crosses state boundaries, known as the Interstate
Environmental District (IED). The IEC’s operating budget
(2015) is approximately $1.1 million. Approximately 56%
of its funding comes from the US Environmental Protection Agency; 44% from member-State appropriations; and
1% from grants. The agency has a small technical staff that
manages its environmental research, planning, and outreach programs, and is directed by fifteen Commissioners
(five from each state), all of whom are residents of the state
24 Literature reviews were supplemented with formal interviews with Collaborative representatives and related professionals.
25 Interstate Environmental Commission website. Accessed October 2017.
http://www.iec-nynjct.org/
26
Coastal Adaptation | Regional Plan Association | October 2017
they represent. The process for nominating or appointing a
Commissioner depends upon the terms provided by the law
of the state appointing them.
San Francisco Bay Conservation
and Development Commission
The San Francisco Bay Conservation and Development
Commission (BCDC) is a state planning and regulatory
agency focused on protecting and enhancing the San
Francisco Bay. Established in 1965, it is the oldest coastal
zone management agency in the United States. The BCDC
only holds jurisdiction over the San Francisco Bay, the
Bay’s shoreline band, and the Suisun Marsh — in total, this
is more than 1,600 sq. mi. of vital ecosystems and wildlife
habitat.
As an agency, the BCDC regulates all filling and dredging
activity within the San Francisco Bay; authorizes permits
for any fill or material extraction within its jurisdiction;
regulates development within the first 100 feet inland from
the Bay to protect public access to the shoreline; prioritizes
shoreline space for water-dependent industries and wildlife
habitat protection; manages the Bay Area’s Long-Term
Adaptation Strategy; and actively studies the San Francisco
Bay and amends the Bay Plan as needed.
In 2008, the California Assembly charged the BCDC with
leading the Bay Area’s climate change preparedness and
resilience efforts. Today, the Agency leads the region-wide
sea level rise adaptation planning effort through initiatives like the Adapting to Rising Tides (ART) Program, and
addresses the impacts of sea level rise on shoreline communities and assets.
Established in 1965 by the McAteer-Petris Act, the BCDC
is one of California’s three federally recognized coastal
management agencies, the other two being the California
Coastal Commission and the California Coastal Conservancy. As a federally-recognized coastal management
agency, the Commission receives federal funding from
NOAA, though the majority of what is allocated to California by NOAA goes to the CCC. The Commission’s power
is derived from the McAteer-Petris Act, the Suisun Marsh
Preservation Act, the San Francisco Bay Plan, the Federal
Coastal Zone Management Act, and other special area
plans, laws, and policies. 26
The Commission has twenty-seven commissioners — all of
whom are appointed by various agencies and officials — as
well as a professional staff that provide Commissioners
with technical support and legal services. The agency also
consists of three advisory boards and committees.
California Coastal Commission
Established in 1972, the California Coastal Commission is
an independent, quasi-judicial state agency charged with
preventing overdevelopment and environmental degradation along the coastline, as well as safeguarding it for public
access. As one of California’s three agencies responsible for
administering the federal Coastal Management Act, both
a planning and regulatory agency, the Commission manages development along the California coast, except for the
shoreline surrounding San Francisco Bay.
In cooperation with coastal cities and counties, the CCC
regulates land and water use within California’s Coastal
Zone: its responsibilities include monitoring development activity in the Coastal Zone, protecting the public’s
access to the shoreline, and regulating offshore oil and gas
development and protecting sensitive marine and coastal
resources. Furthermore, the CCC administers and implements sustainability requirements established by the
Coastal Act.
Created via a voter initiative in 1972 in response to several
land development controversies, the California Coastal
Commission was made permanent by the California State
Legislature in 1976 through the Coastal Act of 1976. Its
mandate stretches over 1,100 miles of shoreline. The Commission is composed of twelve voting members (six locally
elected officials, six appointed from the public at large)
and three non-voting members representing different state
agencies, each of whom serve a four-year term. The Commission also has a professional staff that provides the Commission with technical support, and has an annual budget
of $22.4 million. 27
Chesapeake Bay Program
Created in 1983, the Chesapeake Bay Program is a regional
partnership that leads and directs the restoration and protection of the Chesapeake Bay. To manage the Chesapeake
Bay Watershed — approximately 64,000 sq. mi. of land
26 Jonathan Smith and Alan Pendleton, San Francisco Bay Conservation and
Development Commission: Challenge and Response After 30 Years, Golden
Gate University Law Review, 1998.
27 Dan Weikel. “Coastal Commission is on a shoestring budget, and Trump
won’t make it better.” Los Angeles Times. May 6, 2017. http://www.latimes.
com/local/lanow/la-me-ln-funding-coastal-commission-20170506-story.html
spread across six states and Washington, D.C. — the Program breaks down into different committees, work groups,
and action teams. This allows it to cooperate with 19 federal agencies, nearly 40 state agencies within its participatory states, approximately 1,800 local governments, over 20
academic institutions, and more than 60 non-governmental
organizations. In 2000, the Governors of New York and
Delaware joined the Bay Program’s restoration efforts. The
Governor of West Virginia followed suit in 2002.
The Program is led by its Chesapeake Executive Council,
which is responsible for establishing the policy direction
for the restoration and protection of the Bay and its living
resources; leading public support for the Bay effort; and
signing directives, agreements, and amendments that set
goals and guide policy for Bay restoration. The Council
is accountable to the public for progress made under Bay
agreements. Members of the Executive Council include
the Governors of Maryland, Pennsylvania, and Virginia;
the mayor of Washington DC; the administrator of the US
Environmental Protection Agency, and the Chair of the
Chesapeake Bay Commission (a Tri-state legislative body
that serves Maryland, Pennsylvania, and Virginia). 28
The Chesapeake Bay Program was created by the Chesapeake Bay Agreement of 1983, and is managed by the US
EPA and staffed by employees from several federal and
state agencies, nonprofits, and academic institutions. It also
collaborates with 35 partner agencies. The CBP receives
$20- $25 million in annual appropriations from Congress.
Louisiana Coastal Protection
and Restoration Authority
The Louisiana Coastal Protection and Restoration Authority (CPRA) is a state entity responsible for planning, designing, and implementing coastal protection and restoration
projects. It was established in 2005 during a special session
of the Louisiana State Legislature to address recovery
issues post- Hurricanes Katrina and Rita. The CPRA
emerged as the State’s effort to unite piecemeal local and
state coastal protection efforts under a central authority
that would represent the State’s wishes, oversee all activities and funds, and coordinate a plan of action with clear
goals and achievable objectives. When the agency formed,
it was charged with developing and creating a Comprehensive Coastal Protection Plan that would be updated every
five years.
The CPRA is divided into two distinct entities: the CPRA
Board and the CPRA Authority. The Board represents the
state’s policy position relative to the protection, conservation, enhancement, and restoration of the state’s coastal
region. It oversees the Coastal Protection and Restora28 Chesapeake Bay Program website. Accessed October 2017. https://www.
chesapeakebay.net
Coastal Adaptation | Regional Plan Association | October 2017
27
tion Trust Fund; updates the State’s Coastal Master Plan
every five years; creates annual plans for integrated coastal
protection projects that focus on protecting, conserving,
and enhancing the coastal region. The Authority, in turn,
acts as the Board’s implementation and enforcement arm.
It is responsible for executing the Board’s Master Plan and
Annual Plans; implementing and inspecting storm damage and flood control measures within the coastal area;
administering the Board’s programs; and overseeing the
administration of all matters related to the study, planning,
engineering, design, construction, improvement, repair,
and regulation of integrated coastal protection. 29
The agency’s annual budget can range from $13-25 million,
and is primarily derived from mineral revenue. However,
the agency also receives federal funding from FEMA and
HUD, state funding, and some funding from Deepwater
Horizon. In fact, many of the coastal enhancement projects in the CPRA’s 2012 Master Plan update are funded by
Deepwater Horizon money. The agency holds jurisdiction
over Louisiana’s Coastal Zone and contiguous areas that
are subject to storm or tidal surge (its “Coastal Area”).
San Francisco Bay
Restoration Authority
The San Francisco Bay Restoration Authority (SFBRA) is
a regional government agency responsible for raising and
allocating resources for the restoration, enhancement, and
protection of wetlands and wildlife habitat in the San Francisco Bay and along its shoreline, as well as for associated
flood management and public access infrastructure (San
Francisco Bay Restoration Authority, 2016). The authority
was created in 2008 by the California State Legislature to
access and raise new local funding sources for the Bay’s
restoration.
What sets the SFBRA apart from Coastal Management
agencies like the California Coastal Commission, the
California Coastal Conservancy, and the BCDC is that the
SFBRA’s focus is specifically on restoration.
The SFBRA has financial authority in its ability to: raise
funds and award grants for projects within the Authority’s jurisdiction; levy special taxes or property-related
fees; issue revenue bonds; incur debt; apply for and receive
grants from federal and state agencies; receive and manage a dedicated revenue source; and solicit and accept gifts,
fees, grants, and allocations from public and private entities.
The Authority is managed by a seven-member Governing
Board composed of local elected officials from each Bay
region. Each representative gets one vote and there is no
29 Louisiana Coastal Protection and Restoration Authority website. http://
coastal.la.gov/
28
Coastal Adaptation | Regional Plan Association | October 2017
specific term duration. All are elected to their position by
their local constituents and then appointed to the Board by
the Association of Bay Area Governments. The agency also
has an Advisory Committee and an Independent Citizens
Oversight Committee. The agency’s authority extends
throughout the “San Francisco Bay Area,” meaning “within
the State Coastal Conservancy’s San Francisco Bay Area
Conservancy Program.” (Authorizing Legislation, Updated
as of 2015). Its boundaries include Alameda, Contra Costa,
Marin, Napa, San Francisco, San Mateo, Santa Clara,
Solano, and Sonoma Counties.
The SFBRA gives priority funding to projects that meet the
selection criteria of the State Coastal Conservancy’s San
Francisco Bay Area Conservancy Program and are consistent with the BCDC’s coastal management program for the
San Francisco Bay segment of the California coastal zone
and the San Francisco Bay Joint Venture implementation
strategy updated list of Ongoing and Potential Wetland
Habitat Projects.
The Authority uses technical support and temporary staff
provided by various state agencies or the Association of
Bay Area Governments. It has the power to enter into and
perform all necessary contracts, as well as enter into joint
powers agreements pursuant to the Joint Exercise of Powers Act.
Southeast Florida Regional
Climate Compact
The Southeast Florida Regional Climate Compact is a collaborative effort between four counties in Southeast Florida
to develop regionally consistent resilience and adaptation
strategies. The Compact was formally adopted in January 2010 by the Commissioners of Broward, Miami-Dade,
Monroe, and Palm Beach Counties. In signing the Compact,
participants agreed to: dedicate staff time and resources to
develop and implement a Regional Climate Action Plan for
the Counties; craft joint policy positions on both State and
Federal legislature related to energy and climate-mitigation
and resilience; develop preliminary inundation mapping
and regionally consistent sea level rise projections for the
coming decade; and create a uniform technical foundation
for regional climate issues.
The Compact’s structure and activity methods emphasize
collaboration, data sharing, voluntary approaches, and
scientific coordination. The Institute for Sustainable Communities, South Florida Water Management District, The
Nature Conservancy’s Florida Chapter, and Florida Climate
Institute work with the Compact as key Partners to help
ensure the Compact’s commitments are fulfilled. The Compact also has several Committees and Working Groups that
work on specific issues as needed. Federal agencies including the US Army Corp of Engineers, NOAA, and the USEPA
help advance the Compact’s work by providing relevant
local and regional organizations with technical support,
information-sharing tools, and funding to implement the
Compact’s goals. The Compact brings different levels of
decision makers, both governmental and nongovernmental
bodies, together to integrate policies and build supportive
coalitions. This helps ensure the Compact’s objectives are
met and fully integrated.
annually. The primary administrative functions of the Collaborative — including web posting, noticing, and support
at meetings — is provided by ABAG and MTC. 30
Its primary decision-making body is the Staff Steering
Committee. The Steering Committee includes two highlevel staff members from each participating county, four
non-voting municipal representatives (one from a city in
each county), and one non-voting member from the South
Florida Water Management District. All members of the
Steering Committee are senior professional staff, who serve
across the terms of elected officials. When making decisions, each county has two votes, regardless of its geographic size or population.
The Puget Sound Regional Council on Climate Resiliency
(PSRCCR) is an informal regional climate collaborative in
the central Puget Sound region of Washington. The Collaborative represents several entities working on climate
adaptation efforts in the region, including the Puget Sound
Regional Council, the City of Seattle, Snohomish County
Department of Emergency Management, University of
Washington, Port of Seattle, King County, and Pierce
County.
Bay Area Regional Collaborative
The Bay Area Regional Collaborative (BARC) is a formal
consortium of four Bay Area agencies to address crosscutting, multifaceted regional issues under the lens of climate
change. BARC’s four member agencies — the Association
of Bay Area Governments (ABAG), Bay Area Air Quality
Management District, Metropolitan Transportation Commission (MTC), and San Francisco Bay Conservation and
Development Commission — work collaboratively to coordinate policies and best practices, leverage resources, and
provide better services to the region’s local governments
and special districts undertaking climate change adaptation efforts.
Puget Sound Regional Council
on Climate Resiliency
The Collaborative’s mandate includes roughly four million
residents and two million jobs across two urban centers,
several suburban and rural communities, and two ports.
The collaborative’s goal is to unite the region’s government,
academic, and business stakeholders behind resiliency
measures, address them more effectively in planning activities, and align planning around common data sets and management strategies. As of 2015, the Collaborative is working
with ISC to develop a governance structure and create an
agenda for resiliency action. 31
The Collaborative coordinates agency action on national
and state legislation related to climate change, as well as
coordinate multi-laterally on the adaptation projects they
each undertake. A benefit of the collaborative is that it
clearly distinguishes members’ roles and responsibilities
over climate initiatives, as well as fosters links between
regional, state, and federal programs. It also provides the
agencies with a coordinated regional voice to support policies benefiting the Bay Area.
BARC is led by an Executive Director, who is responsible
for creating an annual work plan that projects two years of
the Collaborative’s efforts. The collaborative’s Governing
Board approves the organization’s work plan and budget.
The Executive Directors Group, composed of the executive director of each member agency and BARC’s Executive
Director, meet every two months to share information,
coordinate and address policy and program issues, and
identify issues that would benefit from coordination across
the agencies. The organization also has additional staff
cross-agency work teams. BARC is supported by annual
contributions from its member agencies, which can change
30 Bay Area Regional Collaborative: Organizational Plan. 2015.
http://bayarearegionalcollaborative.org/pdfs/BARC_Org_Plan_Approved_2015_3_20.pdf
31 “Puget Sound Regional Council on Climate Resiliency.” Institute for
Sustainable Communities, 2017. Web. http://us.iscvt.org/team/puget-soundregional-council-on-climate-resiliency/
Coastal Adaptation | Regional Plan Association | October 2017
29
Regional Plan Association is an independent, not-for-profit civic
organization that develops and promotes ideas to improve
the economic health, environmental resiliency and quality of
life of the New York metropolitan area. We conduct research
on transportation, land use, housing, good governance and
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RPA has produced three landmark plans for the region and is
working on a fourth plan due out in 2017. For more information,
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