Displacement and migration due to climate impacts are now commonplace. Hurricane Ian and other recent major events have laid bare the need for national, holistic policy for relocation that is forced upon communities by climate change. This panel explores the role affordable housing must play in relocation and climate migration as part of the country’s growing response to climate change. Failed comprehensive planning can result in furthering housing disparities, loss of personal assets, homelessness, and speculative real estate development after disaster. Speakers explore these challenges along with solutions that can advance through national and state-level housing policy.
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ NY & NJ Harbor & Tributaries Focus Area Feasibility Study (HATS), designed to ensure comprehensive solutions to historic flooding, has been met with both enthusiasm and consternation. This discussion considers what the region might realistically expect from the Army Corps of Engineers, both states, and New York City for HATS funding, implementation, and execution of projects. What are the right planning projections? How do we justify billions in investment that may not protect us before 2040 or 2050? Among the focal points for discussion are timelines, costs, state and federal processes, and other non-project, non-technical aspects of the study.
Community groups and design professionals are sounding the alarm about roadblocks within the waterfront permitting process of New York City and other jurisdictions. The importance of directly confronting the regulatory environment’s effects on waterfront and coastal permitting is greater now than ever. Given the scale and dimensions of the green, climate-resilient infrastructure needed in frontline and waterfront communities this is a timely discussion. Stakeholders point to the lack of flexibility for innovative design, permit review times, disincentives for innovation, and the complexity of permitting public access projects. This panel takes a hard look at the current system and opens a strong discussion on options for reform that prevent backsliding.
