More than five years after Sandy, there are still hundreds of millions of dollars of unbuilt, unfunded projects needed to protect people and infrastructure from the next big storm. On top of that, sea level rise threatens to inundate tens of thousands of homes in the coming decades and permanently change our landscape. Planning for long term climate change adaptation cannot be accomplished town by town.

RPA has proposed a Regional Coastal Commission as part of its Fourth Regional Plan. The RCC would develop a consistent set of standards based on the latest climate science and coordinate and provide resources for long-term adaptation across the region.

The speakers on the Regional Coastal Commission panel at the upcoming 2018 RPA Assembly on April 27 will share their experiences in implementing adaptation across multiple scales and levels of government, and how the RCC could transform how we plan for climate change.

The esteemed panelists include:

• Ravinder Bhalla, Mayor of Hoboken, NJ
• Steve Bellone, County Executive of Suffolk County, NY
• Kate Orff, Founder and Principal of SCAPE, Director of the Urban Design Program at Columbia Graduate School of Architecture, Planning, and Preservation
• Moderator: Genie Birch, Lawrence C. Nussdorf Professor of Urban Research at the Department of City and Regional Planning, School of Design, University of Pennsylvania

Click here to check out RPA’s report on Coastal Adaptation.

To learn more about this year’s Assembly, click here.