By Kristina Pritchett
A sea level ride study (SLR) and a local coastal program amendment (LCPA) were approved by City Council during the Aug. 15 meeting.
Council approved a contract with DUDEK (and Moffat & Nichol), an infrastructure firm with a background in developing SLR studies and LCPAs, to address key issues to which the project is focused, according to a staff report.
On May 17, Council advised staff to submit an LCP grant application to the California Coastal Commission (CCC) to fund an update to the city’s LCPA to address the impact of sea level ride and climate change. On Aug. 12, the CCC awarded the city $135,000 for the project, which will cover all costs, according to the report.
The project will include two phases. First, the SLR study will evaluate and model sea level rise scenarios in conjunction with other coastal flooding factors. The second phase will identify appropriate policies for inclusion in the Coastal Land Use Plan and standards to be incorporated into the implementation plan, according to a staff report.
The staff report also said the study and findings will be utilized for an LCPA to create policies and standards to address the risks identified in the assessment and modeling portions of the project.
Multiple public outreach meetings will occur to allow the public to comment on the draft, the staff report said.
“This is an important study that we need,” said Councilman Joe Muller. “We need to focus on saving [Capistrano Beach]; it’s an important part of our community.”
City staff said the project will take 15 months to complete.
I’m not sure about sea level “ride” (sic), but The Global Warming of Doom hysteria about sea level rise is total nonsense. At any location, the local sea level is dominated by land movements, not climate change. And worldwide, coastal land areas over the past 30 years have actually increased (e.g. from river silting and land uplift) more than they have decreased (e.g. from subsistence), as revealed from actual satellite observations. If global warming were a significant factor in local sea levels, the coastal land areas worldwide would be decreasing, not increasing.
http://www.nature.com/nclimate/journal/v6/n9/full/nclimate3111.html
https://www.deltares.nl/en/news/how-the-earth-has-changed-over-the-past-30-years/
Well Mike, too bad your sources only address land mass areas changed by river deltas and dams. Those events (North Korea, etc) are not HERE, and that’s what we’re talking about. Perhaps these scientific sources will point it out more easily for you: https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/rising-sea-levels-will-hit-california-harder-than-other-places/
http://www.opc.ca.gov/webmaster/ftp/pdf/docs/rising-seas-in-california-an-update-on-sea-level-rise-science.pdf
Finally, nothing in the DP Times article even broached the subject of “Global Warming”–you did, in a typical knee-jerk denial way. Instead, the need to address the FACT of sea levels damaging our coastal community is what is being discussed. But go ahead, keep your head in the sand….but not for too long, or you might drown.
Even it is true and I believe it’s not, who’s responsibility is it anyways, the land
Owner, not the town. Looks like a waste of $135,000. Just like the waste of money on the parking consultant, we spent money for a guy to tell us we should have a committee. We should stop paying all of these consultants and instead build on those ugly lots and bring in revenue. Developers know more than academic consultants, they read and developers build. Enough with wasting our money on these so called consultants (they copy someone else’s work from the California League of Cities, repackage it and charge us thousands). Let’s build the downtown and stop with this waste of resources.