Climate change is real.
What will Westport do about it?
The Parks & Recreation Department is thinking about beach erosion, resulting from sea level rise.
Public Works looks at infrastructure.
The Planning & Zoning Commission considers new land use regulations, perhaps regarding tree coverage and flood mitigation.
Flooding is on the rise in Westport. This was the scene earlier this month, at Parker Harding Plaza.
But is there a comprehensive, proactive approach?
Peter Gold thinks there could be.
He chairs the Representative Town Meeting’s Long Range Planning Committee. Their job, he says, is to look at where Westport will be in 10 or 20 years. They examine potential scenarios, address concerns, and come up with plans to mitigate or prepare for the risks.
Theirs is a broader approach than just one department or organization, like Sustainable Westport, Earthplace or Harbor Watch, says Gold.
This month, former Conservation Department director Alicia Mozian spoke to the RTM committee. Her discussion ranged from FEMA requirements and flood insurance, to tax incentives for energy efficiency and town acquisition of land that may become prone to flooding.
The RTM’s Long Range Planning Committee looks at a variety of regulations — from national FEMA-level to local ordinances — to address climate change. Many homes near Compo Beach have already been raised.
On February 1 (7:30 p.m., Town Hall), land use consultant Gloria Gouveia will meet with the Long Range members.
In another role — head of the Westport Transit District — Gold has learned that changing people’s behavior is hard. He works every day to get residents to embrace transportation alternatives.
But, he notes, Westport’s goal to be net-zero by 2050 is just 26 years away.
“Unless we take steps now, we won’t get there,” Gold says. “This is not about thinking ‘down the road.’ Things must be done now, if we’re going to get there.”
And — as part of the town’s legislative branch — he wants his committee to help move Westport’s long range planning forward.
Peter, I like the approach you’re taking as the new chair of the LRP. For too long it’s been a rudderless, unserious time waster of a committee. I wish you the best.
On a related note, many wonder what ever became of the town’s plan to restore Barons South. That’s the huge, abandoned public park in Downtown. It’s not just an embarrassment, it’s a scandal.
I’m aware that your predecessor was warned not to go there by the current administration. Hopefully, you’re made of sturdier stuff as I think the residents of Westport deserve an explanation – and, of course, a resolution. Certainly the current situation is not, as the kids like to say, sustainable.
Cheers!
You are so right. Particularly with regard to underutilized assets like the “Baron’s South.”
I will put out a simple thought of how areas in river and coastal Westport can have a lower cost ,faster solution to some of this latest sea level rise. As some may know the Saugatuck River and harbor channel have been silting unabated for two many years. My thought is that if the river from let’s say Old Kings Hyw down to the harbor basin below I95 out to the Sound is dreged a sinificat depth, that dredged material that is always an impediment and disposal of which is always now a major cost and disposal location problem could be carefully redeposited along areas on or adjacent to the Ssugatuck and anywhere along the beaches and harbor shores. This could be a long term permanent plan to how and where the climate change does now and in the coming years so negatively affect these areas.
The areas now with significant flooding like at Parker Harding can be eliminated by “lowering the river”. The flooding you see now at these areas is being caused by flooding water volume coming down the river and hitting the king tides now greater do to some sea level rise. Give this storm type water a deeper river volume passage and the increased rise in the river level will drop in low adjacent shoreline due to being able to reach the Sound , in greater volume and faster than it does now. Seems like a simpler solution to some of the sea level rise we are now faced with a possible SMART solution to two water body problems.
Hi Ray-
I thought the Saugatuck River is also an estuary to somewhere above the State Street Bridge.
And I was taught- “Water seeks its own level”.
In coastal towns with predicted higher high ocean tides (due to the effects of climate change and melting glaciers in Greenland and Antarctica) the sea level will be the key determinate of flooding on the coast and coastal estuaries. (See Miami and Norfolk VA where there is routine coastal flooding at high tide)
On inland rivers, the key determinant of flooding is the amount of rain runoff hitting the channel. So deeper and wider channels with levees make a difference. Climate change predictors suggest a substantial increase in torrential rain storms and episodic flooding in river flood planes.
If you live near an inland river it might be wise to move out of the projected flood plane!
If you are at Compo or Parker Harding Plaza plan to raise houses, build dikes and levees or move to higher ground. It also might help in the long run to reduce our carbon footprints anyway each of us can.
The issue with dredging the Saugatuck River is the whole “what lies beneath” conundrum. The last 40 years of accumulated muck is probably clean enough and could be re-deployed as Ray suggests.
However, that layer nicely encapsulates the Gowanus Canal problem below that comes from decades of dumping into the river, combined with the run-off from the old town dump.
I think this is a let sleeping dogs lie, otherwise who knows what will be dredged up and with it the endless litigation from shoreline residents.