Some environmental advocates say long-standing state rules governing soil pollution, traffic congestion and flood control will be weakened by legislation pushed by Democratic lawmakers from San Francisco and signed by Gov. Jerry Brown that will “streamline” land-use regulations to speed housing construction.
Category: Environment
Posted inBay Area Smart Growth, City Hall, Climate Change, Economy & Business, Environment, Government & Politics, Housing, Law & Justice, News
California’s Push for Affordable Housing Could Weaken Environmental Law
The Legislature’s efforts to ease the housing-affordability crisis could chip away at longstanding protections in the state’s landmark environmental law. Two such bills were introduced by San Francisco lawmakers.
Posted inClimate Change, Environment, Government & Politics, Sea Level Rise: 2nd in a Series
Local Planners Brace for Faster Antarctic Ice Melt
Across California, policymakers and urban planners at every level of government are struggling with how to respond to new computer models that show massive ice sheets in Antarctica on the brink of collapse.
Posted inBay Area, Climate Change, Environment, Neighborhoods, Sea Level Rise: 2nd in a Series
Visionary Solutions to Bayfront Inundation
Responding to sea level rise requires actions that fall into three categories: fortify infrastructure, accommodate higher water and retreat from the shoreline. Given the economic and cultural ties Bay Area residents have to the water — retreat is a hard sell.
Posted inArts & Culture, Climate Change, Economy & Business, Environment, Land use, Neighborhoods, Sea Level Rise: 2nd in a Series
By Weakening Law, Developers Shift Sea Rise Burden to Cities
Two years ago, the California Supreme Court overturned decades of land-use law by upholding lower court rulings that cities could no longer require developers to take into account the effects of climate change on their projects. That decision has unsettled public officials and planners, and critics say it will allow real estate interests to saddle taxpayers with a gigantic bill to defend against rising seas.
Posted inClimate Change, Economy & Business, Environment, News, Sea Level Rise: 2nd in a Series
Timeline: Lawyers for Developers Share Tactics to Blunt CEQA
Invoking recent court decisions, developers are pushing back on the ability of Bay Area cities to use the California Environmental Quality Act to regulate waterfront development and protect residents from rising sea levels
Posted inClimate Change, Environment, Land use, Neighborhoods, Sea Level Rise: 2nd in a Series
Projects Sailed Through Despite Dire Flood Study
A city-commissioned environmental study that detailed how the Mission Bay neighborhood would be inundated by rising seas in coming decades went unpublished for more than a year while two showcase waterfront developments won key approvals from city officials and voters, a Public Press review of records shows.
Posted inEconomy & Business, Environment, Land use, Neighborhoods, Open Government, Sea Level Rise: 2nd in a Series
Emails Show How Flood Study Finally Became Public
Officials offer explanations for 18-month delay in releasing city-funded study that foresees serious climate-related flooding in Mission Bay in the decades ahead. The release followed a public-records request by the Public Press.
Posted inClimate Change, Environment, Media, News
Q&A: History Will Condemn Today’s Leaders for Ignoring Rising Seas
We recently caught up with Nate Kauffman, a landscape architecture and urban planning consultant whose work focuses on sea level rise adaptation, at a presentation at the Exploratorium on how cities can better manage development along the waterfront. The talk’s setting was apt: The science museum focused on children’s education sits on stilts just a few feet above the San Francisco Bay along the Embarcadero, a facility almost sure to be flooded within 100 years.
Posted inClimate Change, Environment, Neighborhoods
Researchers: Abandon Neighborhoods, Avoid Flood Zone to Limit Sea Level Rise
The vision of a future San Francisco buttressed by dikes, levees and seawalls over coming decades is being overshadowed by an increasingly accepted alternative: moving away from the waterfront. Some experts argue that physical barriers offer only the illusion of protection and that cities should accept that some neighborhoods will need to be abandoned.