The Bay Area’s current boom times represent a good news/bad news story. From Dogpatch to San Mateo to Alameda, bayside property is especially desirable — but increasingly complicated.
Category: Sea Level Rise: 2nd in a Series
In summer 2015, the Public Press first reported on how rising seas could inundate coastal land in the Bay Area. Since then, we have discovered that state regulation of waterfront development has loosened, while local governments have been slow to respond.
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.