Coastal Sector Laws and Regulations
This tab includes laws, legislation, regulations, agency guidance, and executive orders relevant to the coastal sector.
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167 results are shown below.
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May 4, 2016
In May 2016, the City Council of Satellite Beach in Brevard County, Florida approved Ordinance 1113, amending the Infrastructure, Coastal Management and Conservation, Intergovernmental Coordination, and Capital Improvements sections of the town’s Comprehensive Plan to adopt Adaptation Action Areas and a shared planning horizon and sea-level curve for city projects.
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April 25, 2016
The City of Laurel, Maryland, adopted Article IV of their Unified Land Development Code on April 25, 2016. Article IV, Floodplain Management, outlines building and structure regulations in the floodplain, including elevating critical facilities to the 0.2-percent chance flood level and enhancing flood protection setback standards.
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April 20, 2016
In 2016, the Commonwealth of Virginia established the Virginia Shoreline Resiliency Fund (Virginia Code § 10. 1-603. 25), a revolving loan fund for local governments to "help residents and businesses that are subject to recurrent flooding as confirmed by a locality-certified floodplain manager. " The fund is administered by the Virginia Department of Emergency Management. This Fund was amended and supplanted in 2020 by a broader version of the law, the Virginia Community Flood Preparedness Fund.
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March 2016
Prepared by Delaware’s Flood Avoidance Workgroup, this report outlines a set of principles and instructions for ensuring that existing and future flood risks are considered during site selection and project design, as required by Executive Order 41.
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February 1, 2016
On February 1, 2016, the city of Havre de Grace, Maryland, adopted additional provisions to mitigate flood risk, including elevating the city’s freeboard requirements, particularly for critical facilities.
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October 8, 2015
AB 1482 requires the California Natural Resources Agency (CNRA), in coordination with the Strategic Growth Council, to oversee and coordinate state agency actions to adapt to climate change. The bill requires CNRA to update the state’s climate adaptation strategy (Safeguarding California), by July 1, 2017, and every three years thereafter. As part of the update, the CNRA will coordinate with other state agencies to identify the agency or agencies to lead adaptation efforts in each sector. The updates to the plan are to include climate change vulnerabilities by sector and the priority actions needed to reduce risks, for at least the following sectors:
Water
Energy
Transportation
Public health
Agriculture
Emergency services
Forestry
Biodiversity and habitat
Ocean and coastal resources
To address the vulnerabilities as identified in the updated plan, state agencies are directed to fulfill the objectives of:
Educating the public about the consequences of climate change, such as sea-level rise, extreme weather events, the urban heat island effect, habitat loss, wildfire, drought, threats to infrastructure and agriculture, worsening air and water quality, and public health impacts.
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October 2015
The “Environmentally Compromised Road Segments” model ordinance provides a framework for local governments in Florida to recognize and proactively address two related challenges: changing environmental conditions that cause natural degradation of public roads and rising maintenance costs. The ordinance does so by creating exceptions to both levels of service and uniform design standards for “environmentally compromised road segments. ” Such road segments must meet certain maintenance cost thresholds and be within areas where typical repair activities and standards are infeasible due to naturally-occurring environmental conditions.
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July 1, 2015
Hawaii HB 444, passed June 16, 2015, authorizes the use of transient accommodations tax revenues for a beach restoration and conservation special fund. The bill was enacted to effectively develop and implement plans to slow the degradation of Hawaii’s beaches; as well as to restore beaches through the coordination of activities involving the counties and the formation of public-private partnerships. The legislation expands the uses of the beach restoration fund to allow the Department of Land and Natural Resources to include studies about the effect of sea level rise when developing beach conservation plans.
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June 17, 2015
In June 2015, Rhode Island House Resolution 5478 created an 11 member special legislative commission whose purpose was to study and make recommendations concerning the economic risks relating to and resulting from sea rise and flooding in the state. The Commission expired and disbanded on February 6, 2016 after reporting back their findings and recommendations to the House of Representatives.
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May 21, 2015
On May 21, 2015, Governor Rick Scott signed into law Florida Senate Bill 1094, “An Act relating to the peril of flood. ” SB 1094 requires consideration of future flood risk from storm surge and sea level rise in certain portions of local government comprehensive plans. In accordance with SB 1094, Florida Statute section 163. 3178(2)(f)1 now includes sea-level rise as one of the causes of flood risk that must be addressed in the “redevelopment principles, strategies, and engineering solutions” to reduce flood risk.
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