{"id":11920,"date":"2019-11-01T20:28:02","date_gmt":"2019-11-01T20:28:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.environment-hawaii.org\/?p=11920"},"modified":"2020-12-07T19:07:46","modified_gmt":"2020-12-07T19:07:46","slug":"city-state-planners-explore-solutions-to-sea-level-rise-hazards-on-oahu","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/environment-hawaii.org\/?p=11920","title":{"rendered":"City, State Planners Explore Solutions To Sea Level Rise Hazards on O\u2018ahu"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"
Sam Lemmo of the state Office of Conservation and Coastal Lands briefs the Honolulu Climate Change Commission on efforts to address sea level rise.<\/sub><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe situation on O\u2018ahu regarding erosion is really terrible,\u201d state Office of Conservation and Coastal Lands administrator Sam Lemmo told the City and County of Honolulu\u2019s Climate Change Commission at its meeting last month. The Wai\u2018anae Coast is experiencing serious erosion; the North Shore has soft armoring along beachfront homes; and on the east coast, Kamehameha Highway is a giant seawall, he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He is convinced sea level has risen a couple inches in the last decade, but \u201cwe\u2019ve not been able to measure it correctly,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

More than a year ago, the commission recommended that the city start factoring into its Special Management Area boundaries and planning documents the 3.2-foot and 6-foot sea level rise exposure areas (SLR-XA) identified in the state\u2019s 2017 Sea Level Rise Vulnerability and Adaptation Report (SLR report) and online viewer. The SLR-XA maps show the areas throughout the state that will likely be chronically flooded due to the combined effects of passive flooding, annual high wave flooding, and coastal erosion. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

More recently, Honolulu Mayor\nKirk Caldwell has sought additional\nadvice from the commission on how to\nregulate shoreline areas in the face of sea\nlevel rise. At the commission\u2019s October\nmeeting, it became clear that wouldn\u2019t\nbe an easy task.\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Kaua\u2018i and Maui counties have already begun using the SLR-XA maps to guide planning and amend regulations, but have run into some trouble. As we reported in May<\/a>, those maps proved too crude for Kaua\u2018i planners to feel comfortable using them for development regulations that would affect individual landowners, but good enough to inform broad policy decisions. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe SLR-XA was sort of raw,\u201d Lemmo told the commission. Rather than investing in refining the maps, however, his office and coastal experts with the University of Hawai\u2018i (including commission member Dr. Chip Fletcher) will be working over the next year to develop guidance on how to interpret\nthe maps.\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Lemmo suggested that they may need to address each hazard \u2014 passive flooding, erosion, and high wave flooding \u2014 separately. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Erosion may require heavy-handed mitigation, high waves may require something lighter, and for passive flooding, \u201cmaybe something in between,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The team may end up creating an\naddendum to the SLR report, he said,\nadding that it will include counties to\nthe greatest extent possible.\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Even without additional guidance, Maui County has begun the process of working the SLR-XA into its shoreline setback regulations. Honolulu, on the other hand, is developing new erosion\nrate-based setback regulations similar\nto Kaua\u2018i County\u2019s. The city\u2019s current\nregulations were last updated in 1992 and\nrequire coastal setbacks of only 40 feet.\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Lemmo suggested that counties should move away from erosion-based setbacks and start looking at other hazards such as passive annual flooding. Honolulu Land Use Permits Division chief planner Katia Balassiano, however, said the city may not be able to incorporate the SLR-XA maps into its setbacks because of the lack of clarity over how to interpret them. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

That being said, she recognized Caldwell\u2019s 2018 directive to use the 3.2-ft. SLR-XA as a baseline for planning. \u201cWe are forging ahead, taking sea level rise head on,\u201d she said. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Balassiano said her department lacks funding for community outreach on proposed setback regulations and for expert help with updating the city\u2019s Special Management Area regulations and the daily review and processing of permits. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt would be\ngood to have a Sea\nGrant person [from\nthe University of Hawai\u2018i]. My planners\nare generalists,\u201d she said.\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Asked about the city\u2019s effort to assess\nsea level rise impacts on the elevated rail\nline being built, Balassiano said it\u2019s \u201ca\nwork in progress.\u201d\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe\u2019re in that uncomfortable situation where transit-oriented development (TOD) plans did not incorporate sea level rise when they were drafted. We are revisiting those plans, asking whether the density we envisioned would be appropriate,\u201d she said. The Downtown TOD plan, for example, was approved in August 2017, months before the SLR Report came out. \u201cWe are overlapping TOD and SLR-XA maps and seeing what we come up with,\u201d she said, adding that since some of the rail stations will be within the SLR-XA, the issue of whether it will be financially feasible to move roads and utilities out of harm\u2019s way is also being discussed. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAt least the rail is elevated,\u201d state\nCoastal Zone Management Program\nplanner Justine Nihipali said.\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The city has secured federal funding to work with a team \u2014 that includes Lemmo\u2019s office, Fletcher, and commission chair Dr. Makena Coffman, among others \u2014 on the setback regulations update. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

It is also in the midst of updating its development plan for the island\u2019s primary urban center (PUC). \u201cWe are coming to the conclusion [there will be] some areas from which we will not be able to retreat and there are other areas where we would prefer to see those legacy beaches maintained,\u201d she said. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In December 2018, the University of Hawai\u2018i Sea Grant Program issued a white paper on sea level rise in the PUC. Using the SLR Report, the program found that 3.2 feet of sea level rise, if unmitigated, would cause \u201cchronic flooding in 1,727 acres of land potentially impacting 1,627 buildings, displacing 4,325 residents, and flooding 24 miles of road,\u201d the white paper states. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Lemmo said that in East Coast states such as South Carolina and Massachusetts, government agencies are tackling flood threats holistically, working on strategies to address coastal inundation as well as drainage issues.
<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Regarding shoreline setbacks, Lemmo warned of the danger of adopting regulations that would be considered a taking of private property. The state\u2019s Department of the Attorney General has opined that the loss of property through erosion is not a taking. However, Lemmo said that is different from a government agency adopting a setback rule that would render a lot unbuildable. That\u2019s exactly what members of the South Carolina Coastal Council did decades ago to coastal landowner David Lucas, and \u201cthey lost miserably,\u201d Lemmo said. The South Carolina Supreme Court rejected Smith\u2019s takings claim, but in 1992, the U.S. Supreme Court overturned that decision. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Technically, for property owners on O\u2018ahu\u2019s North Shore suffering from erosion, Lemmo said the state could decide to stop letting them install protective sand burritos on the beach and say, \u201cIt\u2019s not our problem. It\u2019s nature working itself out.\u201d However, he said, it could also continue to grant emergency permits to allow for some fortification. \u201cWe don\u2019t know how long we can sustain that situation,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Credit: NOAA\/Sea Grant
Severe coastal erosion on the North Shore of O`ahu.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

For some property owners in \u2018Ewa Beach, planning efforts to minimize erosion may be moot, since the U.S. military is planning to build a large seawall there. Lemmo said local government agencies often don\u2019t have much say in what the military does because of \u201cfederal supremacy.\u201d \u201cThey\u2019re not going to come to us or the county,\u201d\nhe said.\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When asked by an \u2018Ewa Beach resident whether such a seawall would affect adjacent properties, Lemmo replied, \u201cOf course it would.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In her presentation to the commission on managed retreat, Nihipali said that even if low-hazard receiving areas are identified, people won\u2019t voluntarily move unless it\u2019s to somewhere better than they are. \u201cSomeone living on the coast may not want to live in a TOD [transit oriented development] infill area,\u201d she said. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

She said there are more questions than answers about the circumstances under which managed retreat would occur: Should we have a government mandate? What\u2019s the purpose? To remove people or protect beaches? Should infrastructure be moved to infill areas or other lands to keep communities intact? <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In some cases, cities may have to\nsimply be abandoned.\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Commissioner Bettina Mehnert\nmentioned earlier in the meeting what\neveryone at a recent resiliency workshop\non the East Coast was talking about.\n\u201cThey debated when is the time to\nabandon Miami. Sea level is infiltrating\ntheir water supply,\u201d she said.\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While he advocated for regulators to work towards easing the cost and social disruption of sea level rise, Lemmo said he believed that the market will ultimately drive a lot of what actually happens. \u201cThe insurance and reinsurance industries, FEMA, investors \u2026 Miami will keep building higher until they can\u2019t do it anymore and there will be an exodus,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2014 Teresa Dawson <\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

“The situation on O‘ahu regarding erosion is really terrible,” state Office of Conservation and Coastal Lands administrator Sam Lemmo told the City and County of Honolulu’s Climate Change Commission at its meeting last month. The Wai‘anae Coast is experiencing serious … Continued<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":11921,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11,460],"tags":[3],"class_list":["post-11920","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-climate-change","category-november-2019","tag-teresa-dawson"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/environment-hawaii.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11920","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/environment-hawaii.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/environment-hawaii.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/environment-hawaii.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/environment-hawaii.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=11920"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/environment-hawaii.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11920\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/environment-hawaii.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/11921"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/environment-hawaii.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=11920"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/environment-hawaii.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=11920"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/environment-hawaii.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=11920"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}