Explore resources and examples, including local ordinances, that can help local governments adapt to, mitigate, or prepare for impacts of flooding and sea-level rise.
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December 6, 2021
In December 2021, the City of Burlingame, California, passed Title 25 into its zoning ordinance, creating guidelines and development performance standards for ensuring public access and resilience to flooding and sea-level rise. These standards include minimum buffer zones, shoreline building and infrastructure elevation requirements, drainage standards, and real estate disclosure requirements.
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The Town of Yankeetown, Florida is utilizing a state authorized land-use planning tool — called Adaptation Action Areas — to mitigate the impacts of sea-level rise on local ecosystems. Specifically, Yankeetown is experiencing coastal inundation due to sea-level rise that is causing large swaths of coastal forests to rapidly decline and salt marshes to migrate inland, creating a phenomenon known as “ghost forests.” Yankeetown has taken a unique approach to planning for coastal change by utilizing Adaptation Action Areas. Adaptation Action Areas are overlay districts local governments can utilize to increase management attention and oversight over defined areas within their municipality with the goal of increasing resilience to sea-level rise impacts. Yankeetown amended its local comprehensive plan to create a “Natural Resource Adaptation Action Area,” which is the first instance of a locality in Florida using this tool for the purpose of natural resource management rather than solely infrastructure protection. The tool is helping Yankeetown shape future growth and development to conserve and protect its natural resources in the face of rising seas. Local governments could consider adopting overlay districts like Adaptation Action Areas or other zoning, land-use, or planning tools to reduce or limit development in wetland and forest migration pathways as a part of comprehensive retreat strategies.
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July 15, 2020
The King County Transfer of Development Rights (TDR) Program in Washington State uses a unique market-based tool to achieve long-term planning goals and incentivize development in strategic areas that can be coupled with other legal and policy tools as a part of comprehensive coastal retreat strategies. King County created the TDR Program in response to state growth area management requirements and objectives. Participating local governments designate two areas "sending areas" — typically farmland, forest, open space, or priority natural resources areas — where they want to limit new development; and "receiving areas" in mostly urban areas where existing services and infrastructure can accommodate growth. Landowners in sending areas can sell their development rights to project proponents in receiving areas who can then use those rights to increase the size or density of a development project. Between 2000 and July 2019, 144,290 acres of rural and resource lands were conserved and protected through the King County TDR Program. The King County TDR Program provides one example of how several types of land acquisition programs and funding sources can be leveraged to achieve the benefits of both conservation and new, more resilient development. In a managed retreat context, TDR Programs modeled after King County can be used to preserve lands for ecological benefits through conservation easements, while ensuring new development is concentrated in areas that are less vulnerable to flooding and coastal hazards, such as sea-level rise and storm surges. This case study is one of 17 case studies featured in a report written by the Georgetown Climate Center, Managing the Retreat from Rising Seas: Lessons and Tools from 17 Case Studies.
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May 8, 2020
Passed on May 8, 2020, Maryland’s Senate Bill 457 authorizes local governments to establish and fund a Resilience Authority under local law, outlines the requirements to do so, and specifies the powers local governments may grant to an Authority. A Resilience Authority enables a local jurisdiction to flexibly organize funding structures for and manage large-scale infrastructure projects specifically aimed at addressing the effects of climate change, including sea-level rise, flooding, increased precipitation, erosion, and heatwaves.
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February 13, 2020
Adopted by the Broward County Board of Commissioners in early 2020, Broward County’s new flood protection standards establish, and account for sea-level rise in, baseline elevation and maintenance standards for coastal and shoreline flood mitigation infrastructure for tidally affected communities in the County. Broward County adopted a new policy (2. 21. 7) in the County Land Use Plan requiring tidally influenced municipalities to adopt a local ordinance consistent with the regional standards, which were incorporated into county code as a model ordinance.
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November 20, 2019
On November 20, 2019, the State of New York passed Senate Bill (S.B.) S6424A amending the state’s enabling statute for Transfer of Development Rights (TDR) programs to allow local governments to create a TDR program to mitigate risks from sea-level rise, storm surge, and flooding. TDR programs create market incentives to shift development away from areas where it is discouraged ("sending areas”) to areas where development is preferred (“receiving areas”). This is the first example of a state statute that explicitly includes language authorizing a local government to create a TDR program and designate sending areas for managed retreat purposes.
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August 3, 2019
On August 3, 2019, the State of New Hampshire passed Senate Bill (S. B. ) 285 to establish a coastal resilience and economic development program and provide local governments with innovative new tools to address climate emergencies due to sea-level rise, storm surge, and flooding. One notable provision of the bill allows municipalities to either alter their existing boundaries or create a new municipality by combining existing ones (Section 2, codified in New Hampshire Revised Statutes § 31:9-d).
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June 11, 2019
In June 2019, the Norfolk City Council adopted a policy authorizing the creation of Special Service Districts (SSD) to support implementation of local flood risk reduction and water quality improvement projects in the City of Norfolk, Virginia. SSDs enable a group of residents to agree to pay a tax to finance additional services in a particular neighborhood. The Norfolk policy allows SSD funding to be used to pay for flood mitigation, dredging, water quality improvements, and coastal protection projects.
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June 2019
In June 2019, the New York Department of State published model local laws to increase resilience as part of its required actions under the State’s Community Risk and Resiliency Act (CCRA). The model laws are divided into chapters addressing land use and zoning, wetlands and watercourses, coastline protection, floodplain management, and stormwater control. The first chapter addresses zoning and land use as resiliency tools, outlines how to use zoning policies to accomplish resiliency goals, and includes model language local governments can adapt to that purpose.
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June 2019
In June 2019, the New York Department of State published model local laws to increase resilience as part of its required actions under the State’s Community Risk and Resiliency Act (CCRA). The model laws are divided into chapters addressing land use and zoning, wetlands and watercourses, coastline protection, floodplain management, and stormwater control. The fifth chapter addresses stormwater control measures, including reduction of impervious surfaces and mitigation where reduction isn’t available, and includes model language local governments can adapt to that purpose.
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