Adapting to Climate Change : Understanding the Enabling Environment in California

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Adapting to Climate Change Understanding the
Enabling Environment in California Meg
Caldwell, Center for Ocean Solutions Sara Polgar,
SF BCDC Marshall, CA February 22, 2010
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Overview

• State Adaptation Strategy
• Legal Frames
• New Approaches
• Hazard Mitigation Planning
• Flood Insurances Perverse Incentives
• And other Federal Programs

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State Adaptation Strategy
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Ocean and Coastal Adaptation Goals

• Protect health and safety and critical
  infrastructure
• Protect, restore, and enhance ocean and coastal
  ecosystems
• Ensure public access
• Plan new development for long-term sustainability
  in the face of climate change
• Facilitate adaptation of existing development and
  communities, reducing their vulnerability to
  climate change impacts over time

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Ocean and Coastal Adaptation Strategies

• Strategy 1 Establish State Policy to Avoid
  Future Hazards and Protect Critical Habitat
• Near term
• Hazard avoidance policy (state agencies)
• Innovative designs (agencies employ or encourage)
  
• Habitat protection (state agencies)
• Establish decision guidance for local
  agencies(Ocean Protection Council in
  coordination with other state agencies)
• Long term
• Pilot studies (OPC in coordination withspecific
  cities/ state agencies)

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Ocean and Coastal Adaptation Strategies

• Strategy 2 Provide Statewide Guidance for
  Protecting Existing Critical Ecosystems, Existing
  Coastal Development, and Future Investments
• Near term
• Establish decision guidance for local agencies
  (Ocean Protection Council in coordination with
  other state resource agencies)
• Long term
• Pilot studies (OPC in coordination with specific
  cities/ state agencies)

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Ocean and Coastal Adaptation Strategies

• Strategy 3 State Agencies Should Prepare
  Sea-Level Rise and Climate Adaptation Plans
• Near term
• Adaptation planning (state agencies)
• Long term
• Adaptation plan updates (state agencies)

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Ocean and Coastal Adaptation Strategies

• Strategy 4 Support Local Planning for Addressing
  Sea-Level Rise Impacts
• Near term
• Public outreach (OPC in coordination with other
  resource agencies)
• Funding mechanisms (OPC in coordination with
  state agencies)
• Local government guidance (state agencies in
  collaboration with local jurisdictions)
• Long term
• Amend LCPs to address climate change adaptation
  (coastal jurisdictions in coordination with
  Coastal Commission)
• Amend GPs to address climate change adaptation
  (local jurisdictions around San Francisco Bay in
  coordination with BCDC)

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Ocean and Coastal Adaptation Strategies

• Strategy 5 Complete a Statewide Sea-Level Rise
  Vulnerability Assessment Every Five Years
• Long term
• Vulnerability assessment (OPC in coordination
  with all relevant agencies (consolidating
  existing efforts by the California Energy
  Commission and other agencies))

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Ocean and Coastal Adaptation Strategies

• Strategy 6 Support Essential Data Collection and
  Information Sharing
• Near term
• High-resolution mapping (state in cooperation
  with federal partners)
• Tidal data collection, ecosystem research,
  coastal and wetland process studies
• Long term
• Decision support (OPC in coordination with state
  ocean resources agencies, academia, and NGOs)

Image Example of high-res. SLR mapping being
undertaken in the Caribbean.
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Major Regulatory Paradigms

• Public vs. Private Property
• Public trust doctrine
• 5th Amendment
• Coastal Act
• Local Coastal Programs
• Other planning tools (permitting, GPs, CEQA,
  Climate Action Plans, hazard mitigation)
• Interactions with federal programs

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Public Trust Doctrine

• Set of common-law principles
• State and its agencies hold natural resources in
  trust for the public
• Transfers out of the trust only permissible if in
  the public interest
• Both bolsters and mandates ecologically sound
  resource management

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Public Trust Resources

• Tidelands
• Water resources
• Ecosystem services (e.g., water filtration,
  disease control)
• Species and surrounding ecosystem
• Aesthetics, recreational benefits, and public
  access

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Trustee Responsibilities

• Preserve the trust corpus
• Steward the trust resources
• Prevent harm to the trust resources
• Duty of loyalty to all trust beneficiairies

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Application of Public Trust Doctrine

• Provides authority to which regulations such as
  permit conditions may be anchored
• Background principle of common law that qualifies
  private landowner interests
• Private owners enjoy no right no impair public
  trust resources, so regulations that vindicate
  public trust interests are not uncompensated
  takings

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The 5th Amendment

• No person shall bedeprived of life, liberty or
  property without due process of law nor shall
  private property be taken for public use, without
  just compensation

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Local-level Action in CA

• Two coastal counties (SLO and Sonoma) that
  responded to the survey currently have plans that
  consider climate change impacts on their
  communities, though coastal impacts are not
  included. Four other counties are currently
  preparing climate impact plans, including coastal
  impacts.
• Among coastal cities surveyed, only one currently
  has a plan to deal with climate change impacts
  (Berkeley). Six more (Solana Beach, Goleta, San
  Francisco, Palo Alto, Alameda, Arcata) are in the
  process of developing climate impact plans.
• Moser and Tribbia (Marine TechnologySociety
  Journal 2006/2007)

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Obstacles to Local Action?

• Lack of mandate
• 57.7 of CA coastal managers surveyed by Moser
  and Tribbia perceived the lack of a legal mandate
  requiring local managers to take climate change
  into account as a mayor hurdle
• Passing the buck?
• Local managers wait for money, technical
  assistance, a legal mandate and leadership from
  higher-level policy-makers
• State-level managers look for bottom-up pressure
  from local decision-makers and federal
  leadership and funding

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Local Coastal Programs Overview

• Basic planning tools developed by local
  governments in partnership with Coastal
  Commission
• 75 coastal municipalities develop LCPs and
  implementing measures
• LCP adopted by local legislative body and
  reviewed by Commission for consistency with
  Coastal Act

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LCPs and Adaptation

• Local agencies should begin incorporating firm
  restrictions and guidelines to guard against
  losses associated with sea level rise
• Consider LCP amendmentfocusing on sea level
  rise, erosion, and flooding

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LCP Case Study Malibu

• The City of Malibus LCP consists of
• Land Use Plan
• http//www.ci.malibu.ca.us/download/index.cfm/fus
  eaction/download/cid/1577/
• Local Implementation Plan (LIP)
• http//www.ci.malibu.ca.us/download/index.cfm/fus
  eaction/download/cid/1578/

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Malibus LIP

• Was adopted by the CCC on September 13, 2002
• Its goals
• Assure orderly, balanced utilization and
  conservation of coastal zone resources
• Protect, maintain, and where feasible, enhance
  and restore the overall quality of the coastal
  zone environment and its natural and manmade
  resources.

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Malibus LIP

• According to the LIP any siting and design
  of new shoreline protective devices should take
  into account anticipated future changes in sea
  level, especially an acceleration of the historic
  rate of the sea level rise, potential impact on
  beach erosion, shoreline retreat, and bluff
  erosion rates.

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Application Submittal Requirements (1)

• All applications for new development on a beach,
  beachfront or bluff-top property shall include
• an analysis of beach erosion,
• wave run-up,
• inundation and flood hazards,
• prepared by a licensed civil engineer with
  expertise in coastal engineering.

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Application Submittal Requirements (2)

• All applications for bluff-top development shall
  include a slope stability analysis, prepared by a
  licensed Certified Engineering Geologist and/or
  Geotechnical Engineer or Registered Civil
  Engineer with expertise in soils.

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Reports

• These reports shall address and analyze the
  effects of said development in relation to the
  following
• Profile of the beach
• Surveyed locations of mean high
• tide lines
• Availability of public access to the beach
• Need for a shoreline protection structure
• Future projections in sea level rise
• Slope stability and bluff erosion rate.

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Other Ideas

• Require proponents of new shorefront development
  projects to examine impacts of increased sea
  level rise
• Consider future increases in bluff erosion when
  establishing bluff edge setback criteria
• Managed retreat for Municipal
• capital improvements

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Other Ideas?

• Reaffirm Public Trust Duties
• Map high hazard areas in LCP
• Amend Coastal Act LCP review requirements

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Beyond LCP Hazard Mitigation Planning
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Beyond LCP Hazard Mitigation Planning

• 2007 State Multi-Hazard Mitigation Plan update
  addresses climate change
• Includes qualitative discussion and plans for
  more rigorous assessments in future updates
• Survey of local plans within the state none had
  addressed climate change

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Beyond LCP Hazard Mitigation Planning

• Local governments are required to develop
  local-level hazard mitigation plans to access
  federal non-emergency assistance
• Safety element in GP also provides opportunity
  to lay outclimate-associated hazard strategies

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Beyond LCP Hazard Mitigation Planning

• Local General Plans and hazard mitigation plans
  should touch on climate change related effects
  on
• wildfires
• drought
• floods
• rising sea levels

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Beyond LCP Hazard Mitigation Planning

• Example hazard mitigation planning strategies
• Develop future conditions flooding and sea
  level maps and use those maps for zoning and
  planning when updating General Plan
• Update building codes to enhance flood resistance
  in future floodplains
• Consider climate change impacts to stormwater
  runoff and consider enhancing management capacity
• Consider climate change impacts on natural
  hazards in establishing design levels for new and
  replacement infrastructure

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A word about private insurance

• Linked to 100 year flood zone mapping
• Currently no incentive to build so as to minimize
  climate change related risks

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A word about private insurance

• State does regulate private insurance
• State could impose forward-looking building
  construction requirements in high hazard areas
• Rate restructuring might give private insurers
  incentives to take future change into account
  and pass on costs to insured

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Coordination with Federal Authorities

• NOAA Coastal Services Center
• FEMA State hazard mitigation planning efforts to
  meet federal requirements beginning to account
  for climate change
• Flood zone mapping Army Corpscurrently coming
  up with new CA maps for 100 year flood zone