A New Approach to Sea Level Rise Resilience for the Bay

In 1960, Save The Bay’s first major victory to protect the San Francisco Bay was to lead the effort to create a new regional agency called the Bay Conservation and Development Commission. BCDC, as it’s known, was given the authority to prevent any filling of the Bay, because at the time unchecked shoreline development was threatening to choke the Bay from all sides. While preventing bay fill continues to be an important part of BCDC’s mission, sea level rise is posing a new set of challenges that flips the script – where the bigger threat to our communities is now a Bay bloated by rising tides rather than shrunken due to fill.

This risk of sea level rise is increasing every year. Adding to the challenge is that climate change is also causing more intense storms that cause serious flooding, and groundwater rise will bring water into other low-lying areas that may not be the first place you’d expect to find emergent water. Protecting our communities from these serious climate risks is not a small task, and it’s one where the state has not provided clear guidance. Because of that, some cities have started to plan comprehensively while others have delayed. But real flood resilience requires all of us working together because flood waters don’t stop at the city limits.

Infographic of flood risk factors in the San Francisco Bay Area

A key component of Save The Bay’s work is this challenge of sea level rise and flood resilience. We’ve worked for decades to restore and protect the Bay’s natural shoreline because we want to create a healthy and vibrant ecosystem. But these areas also act as buffers against rising tides and can absorb storm surges to protect adjacent communities. At the same time, we have to also ensure that cities are putting in place policies to guide development, upgrade infrastructure, and protect people from all forms of climate-induced flood risk. The last thing we want to do is reinforce development where we know it is going to be in harm’s way.

That’s why we supported a new law last year (SB 272 – Laird) that updated BCDC’s mission to include coordinating sea level rise preparedness and ensuring that our shoreline communities in the Bay Area are flood resilient. For the past year, BCDC has been developing guidance that cities will have to follow to prepare new “regional shoreline resilience plans.” Save The Bay has been directly involved in shaping these guidelines to ensure that they prioritize nature-based protections, like more healthy tidal marshes, as a strategy whenever possible.

Step 1: Plan

But planning for flood resilience is incredibly complicated and requires balancing ecological needs, community concerns, economic vitality, transportation efficiency, housing development, and many other regional priorities. That’s why Save the Bay asked BCDC to issue planning guidelines that emphasize the need to use nature-based solutions, which have multiple benefits for communities including flood protection. We also stressed the importance of centering solutions on the needs of disadvantaged communities who will have the least ability to respond to compound climate impacts like the mobilization of toxic waste that already affects places like East Palo Alto.

East Palo Alto
East Palo Alto

True to our roots, Save The Bay stressed the need to protect the habitats along the shoreline and access to the Bay that is held in the public trust; because we recognize the need to give a voice to the people and ecosystems that are so often underrepresented in local decisions involving tradeoffs. We also supported BCDC in efforts to emphasize that cities will need to work together on their shoreline plans, because collaboration will be key to effective projects.

On December 5th, BCDC formally adopted these new sea level rise planning guidelines. Many commissioners deeply praised the effort, with Commissioner Gioia remarking that it will “raise the standard [of sea level rise planning]” regionally and Commissioner Baptiste describing it as an “extraordinary undertaking.” Appropriately, many in the room also noted that the approval of the guidelines represented only an early milepost on the long road towards resilience. Sheri Pemberton, who represents the State Lands Commission at BCDC, put it best, saying that it was “a major step forward for climate adaptation in the Bay Area, but there’s still a lot of work to do.”

Horizontal levee
Green stormwater infrastructure

Step 2: Implement

Now that work of implementation begins as cities will have ten years to put together their plans. We’ll be working to advocate that cities move forward as soon as possible and put in place strong protections that utilize nature-based approaches whenever possible. And cities have an incentive to do so because they can receive priority for state funding – like the approximately $1 billion that will be available for coastal resilience through the recently passed Proposition 4 – once their plans are in place.

Every year that we delay leaves our friends and neighbors more vulnerable to the devastating impacts of flooding. Sea level rise is an accelerating process and isn’t waiting for us to act. Now with this new regional approach, the Bay Area has a framework for working together to meet the challenge. But this is just the start of the process. Save The Bay will be working to make sure cities follow through on the path forward that BCDC has outlined. Because having a plan is one thing, but real resilience is a constant pursuit.

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