Regional group to address climate change, rising sea levels

Zoning board to talk with Southeast Florida Regional Climate Change Compact officials.

Climate change, and the extreme weather and sea-level rise associated with it, is something with which future generations of town residents will have to contend.

But what about the present generation? Should Palm Beach officials and residents be doing more to safeguard low-lying areas and infrastructure from flooding or salt water intrusion? If so, what?

Planning and Zoning Commission members can pose these questions Tuesday, when representatives of the Southeast Florida Regional Climate Change Compact visit to discuss climate-related topics. The meeting begins at 9:30 a.m. in the council chambers at Town Hall.

The compact recognizes Southeast Florida’s vulnerability to the impacts of a warmer climate and advocates a regional response. Created in January 2010 by Palm Beach, Broward, Miami-Dade and Monroecounties, it has representatives of those four governments, including county Commissioner Shelley Vana.

According to its website, the compact aims to promote climate-friendly legislation and to obtain state and federal funds needed to adapt to, or mitigate for, climate-related impacts.

It has developed a regional Climate Change Action Plan and hosts annual summits to review progress and discuss strategies. The most recent gathering, in early December in Jupiter, was attended by John Page, director of the town’s Planning, Zoning and Building Department, and by Bobbie Lindsay Buck, a former Shore Protection Board member recently appointed to the zoning commission.

“Sea level rise is probably the most compelling issue that any coastal community faces,” Buck said. “In Palm Beach, we need to pay more attention to our lower shoreline, on the lagoon side.”

Last year was the hottest on record for the contiguous United States, smashing the previous mark, set in 1998, by a wide margin, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

It also was “the second most extreme year on record,” unleashing 11 weather-related disasters including tornado outbreaks across the Great Plains and Ohio Valley and hurricanes Isaac and Sandy, NOAA said. Sandy battered the Southeast Florida coast, causing an estimated $6 million in structural damage and shore erosion in Palm Beach alone, before heading north to devastate much of the Eastern Seaboard.

Whether Sandy was a product of, or at least intensified by, climate change is a matter of debate.

Whatever the cause, more intense weather and rising sea levels are “simply a fact,” Buck said. Coastal communities, especially those on barrier islands, should be planning for them now, she said.

Rising sea levels are already affecting Monroe and Miami-Dade counties, which are lower in elevation than Palm Beach County. At high tide, storm sewers have backed up and flooded the streets of Miami Beach. For the first time, the city is taking into account rising sea levels while updating its storm water management master plan. Consultants are recommending the city spend about $206 million during the next 20 years on projects such as backflow preventers, more pump stations, raised seawalls and storm water storage.

Town Engineer James Bowser said Palm Beach doesn’t have that problem because it uses pump stations, rather than a gravity-based system, to remove storm water.

Buck, who has lived in Palm Beach most of her life, is concerned about flooding along the Lake Trail. Last fall, she noticed more extreme tides than in prior years.

“There was a lot more water splashing over the sea walls, where they were low, and parts of the Lake Trail between the Biltmore and the coral cut were flooded because of the tides,” she said.

Historically, seasonal high tides in the spring and fall cause some flooding along portions of the Lake Trail. “Any sea level rise would make the problem worse,” Public Works Director Paul Brazil said.

The town requires sea walls along the Lake Trail to be raised to an elevation of 5 feet whenever they are reconstructed, Town Engineer James Bowser said.

The town has healthy open space requirements, with up to 55 percent of some lots set aside for grass, trees, shrubbery and other landscaping, Page said. The town has remodeled Town Hall and a number of municipal buildings to be more energy efficient. The town’s fleet size also is being converted to small, more fuel-efficient vehicles.

Page said he invited the climate compact representatives to the meeting after commission Chairman Tanner Rose expressed interest in the subject.

“This is a first step in terms of educating the community about who is looking at these issues and what sorts of things they are focused on,” Page said.
 
 palmbeachdailynews.com

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