2014/07/16 Council Agenda Packet

The Washington State Growth Management Act (GMA) and the Shoreline Management Act (SMA) each require periodic updates, providing an opportunity for local governments to begin the process of mitigation and adaptation planning. GMA updates are required by June of 2015 for most of the jurisdictions in the Puget Sound metropolitan area. The next round of SMA updates begin later in this decade. II. Local Climate Action Planning (LCAP) As noted, climate action plans should be comprised of two elements, mitigation and adaptation. Many states and local jurisdictions have undertaken some form of LCAP, addressing one or both of these measures and including climate impacts analyses examining: sea level rise, storm events, water supply, temperature and energy consumption. Along the east and west coasts of the United States, most large cities are now actively engaged in this process to some degree. Two cities - New York City and Boulder, Colorado - are worth noting here as examples of climate change vulnerabilities and the need to move with deliberate speed to develop LCAPs. Both cities have taken some steps to address climate change and found themselves overtaken by events they had to some degree predicted, but which came more quickly than had been anticipated. In New York, parts of lower Manhattan, Long Island and other New York boroughs are low in elevation relative to sea level and are located along the banks of the Hudson River. Under the leadership of Mayor Michael Bloomberg, New York City Authorities were aware of the dynamics associated with high tides in combination with high flow levels of the Hudson River and were developing strategies to adapt. In October of 2012, Hurricane Sandy struck along the New Jersey / New York cost and dramatically exposed this vulnerability with a massive tidal serge and rain that brought the Hudson River to high flow levels. The storm serge, high tides, and high flow levels combined to flood significant parts of New York and New Jersey. This set of vulnerabilities and circumstances is accurately described in John Englander's book "High Tide On Main Street". A remarkable aspect of Englander's book is that it was published exactly one week before Sandy struck the East Coast.(7) Boulder, Colorado is obviously not vulnerable to rising sea levels. They are, however. vulnerable to fires and flooding, both of which are exacerbated by climate change through drought and storm events. In the past two years, Boulder has experienced massive wild fires that engulfed whole neighborhoods and areas in and around the City, including the areas near where the National Center for Atmospheric Research is located. These fires were followed by massive rains and floods that have been estimated as 500 year storm events. These floods are the latest in a series of flood events in Boulder over the past 20 years that have exceeded the 100 year storm event statistical modeling. The time to plan for events associated with climate change is now. Furthermore, as the New York and Boulder examples illustrate, it may be useful to broaden our definitions of vulnerability and risk analysis, as well as time frames for such planning. 5