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Lower Cape Towns Considering New Floodplain Regulations
Carole Ridley of Ridley and Associates, Inc. and the Pleasant Bay Alliance, left, speaks during the coastal resiliency workshop Jan. 29, seated next to Shannon Hulst and Heather McElroy. EREZ BEN-AKIVA PHOTO
CHATHAM – With sea levels anticipated to rise two feet within the next 25 years and more than $10 billion in assessed property value estimated to be within the Pleasant Bay floodplain, local towns are in the very preliminary stages of exploring changes to their wetland regulations, wetland bylaws and zoning bylaws.
Members of the planning boards and conservation commissions for Chatham, Harwich and Orleans discussed those potential updates and revisions during a coastal resiliency workshop at the community center on Jan. 29, where a recommendation was made for towns to adopt certain proposed regulations and bylaws for regulating development in floodplains.
In Chatham, there are 1,837 parcels and 577 structures with a total assessed value of $2.9 billion within FEMA’s Pleasant Bay flood hazard area, according to Heather McElroy, natural resources program manager at the Cape Cod Commission. In Harwich, those figures are 1,962 parcels and 1,036 structures with a total assessed value also of $2.9 billion. Orleans has 1,620 parcels and 395 structures with a total assessed value of $2.5 billion within the flood hazard area. Including Brewster, the four Pleasant Bay communities have $10.2 billion in assessed value in FEMA’s floodplain.
“We're very vulnerable to flooding and erosion at the present time,” McElroy said. “We know that climate change is bringing stronger storms and more erosion, and sea level rise is just going to exacerbate the effects of those coastal hazards.”
Meanwhile, 19 percent of Cape Cod is located within a flood hazard area. With an additional two feet of sea level rise anticipated by 2050 and 3.5 feet by 2070, according to McElroy, that percentage could rise, serving as an impetus to further regulate development in flood areas.
“We have to acknowledge that our weather is changing,” McElroy said. “Storms are more intense. Together with sea level rise, there's going to be more wind-driven flooding and storms with real erosive effect on our shorelines. We have a responsibility to ensure that new development — as it is proposed, as it comes before our boards — is permitted and built to be as resilient as possible.”
Shannon Hulst, a floodplain specialist and deputy director at Barnstable County's Cape Cod Cooperative Extension, presented three proposed regulations or bylaws for towns to consider, the first of which was a “coastal resiliency” bylaw — that goes into towns’ wetlands bylaws — for conservation commissions that protects natural resources from impacts of development within the current floodplain while also allowing for regulation of future floodplain.
Second, Hulst shared a set of regulations that support the coastal resiliency bylaw and would address new development within the existing floodplain
“Those are performance standards that help to support that bylaw and give towns a little more guidance on how to actually get to the goal of what you've put into the bylaw,” she said.
Third, she presented a “zoning flood resiliency” bylaw that ties into the wetlands bylaw and regulations.
“The goal of the bylaws and regulations is to avoid, minimize and mitigate the risk of environmental damage, loss of natural resources, human suffering and the loss of life and property resulting from storms, flooding, erosion and continuing sea level rise by promoting greater resiliency within areas subject to coastal flooding currently and as sea levels rise,” Hulst said. “So that's the foundation there.”
The state is also developing regulations to address development in land subject to coastal storm flowage (the current floodplain), according to McElroy, though the timeline of when those might be promulgated is not known. The regulations presented Thursday were aligned with those developed by the Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection, McElroy said.
The proposed regulations and bylaws “provide options for additional performance standards” for land subject to coastal storms — beyond what towns currently possess or what the state may promulgate, Hulst said. There’s also the option to expand regulatory jurisdiction horizontally and vertically by creating a “Coastal Resilience Zone” which encompasses the “whole zone where we have current jurisdiction — land subject to coastal storm flowage — as well as those areas where sea level rise will pull new areas into the floodplain,” Hulst said.
It was recommended at the workshop that towns first adopt the regulations, which would only require adoption by conservation commissions, then put the coastal resiliency wetlands bylaw before town meeting. Proceeding in that order was recommended so as to make putting the bylaw before town meeting easier, since the regulations would already be covering land subject to coastal flowage, while the bylaw would authorize further regulatory jurisdiction.
McElroy said spring 2027 might be the town meeting for the bylaw that would enable a future floodplain to be regulated. There was also hope expressed during the workshop of looping Brewster into the discussion.
“There's a lot of work associated with convincing town meeting that there are good reasons for regulating not just the current floodplain but a future floodplain,” McElroy said.
Members of the planning boards and conservation commissions for Chatham, Harwich and Orleans discussed those potential updates and revisions during a coastal resiliency workshop at the community center on Jan. 29, where a recommendation was made for towns to adopt certain proposed regulations and bylaws for regulating development in floodplains.
In Chatham, there are 1,837 parcels and 577 structures with a total assessed value of $2.9 billion within FEMA’s Pleasant Bay flood hazard area, according to Heather McElroy, natural resources program manager at the Cape Cod Commission. In Harwich, those figures are 1,962 parcels and 1,036 structures with a total assessed value also of $2.9 billion. Orleans has 1,620 parcels and 395 structures with a total assessed value of $2.5 billion within the flood hazard area. Including Brewster, the four Pleasant Bay communities have $10.2 billion in assessed value in FEMA’s floodplain.
“We're very vulnerable to flooding and erosion at the present time,” McElroy said. “We know that climate change is bringing stronger storms and more erosion, and sea level rise is just going to exacerbate the effects of those coastal hazards.”
Meanwhile, 19 percent of Cape Cod is located within a flood hazard area. With an additional two feet of sea level rise anticipated by 2050 and 3.5 feet by 2070, according to McElroy, that percentage could rise, serving as an impetus to further regulate development in flood areas.
“We have to acknowledge that our weather is changing,” McElroy said. “Storms are more intense. Together with sea level rise, there's going to be more wind-driven flooding and storms with real erosive effect on our shorelines. We have a responsibility to ensure that new development — as it is proposed, as it comes before our boards — is permitted and built to be as resilient as possible.”
Shannon Hulst, a floodplain specialist and deputy director at Barnstable County's Cape Cod Cooperative Extension, presented three proposed regulations or bylaws for towns to consider, the first of which was a “coastal resiliency” bylaw — that goes into towns’ wetlands bylaws — for conservation commissions that protects natural resources from impacts of development within the current floodplain while also allowing for regulation of future floodplain.
Second, Hulst shared a set of regulations that support the coastal resiliency bylaw and would address new development within the existing floodplain
“Those are performance standards that help to support that bylaw and give towns a little more guidance on how to actually get to the goal of what you've put into the bylaw,” she said.
Third, she presented a “zoning flood resiliency” bylaw that ties into the wetlands bylaw and regulations.
“The goal of the bylaws and regulations is to avoid, minimize and mitigate the risk of environmental damage, loss of natural resources, human suffering and the loss of life and property resulting from storms, flooding, erosion and continuing sea level rise by promoting greater resiliency within areas subject to coastal flooding currently and as sea levels rise,” Hulst said. “So that's the foundation there.”
The state is also developing regulations to address development in land subject to coastal storm flowage (the current floodplain), according to McElroy, though the timeline of when those might be promulgated is not known. The regulations presented Thursday were aligned with those developed by the Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection, McElroy said.
The proposed regulations and bylaws “provide options for additional performance standards” for land subject to coastal storms — beyond what towns currently possess or what the state may promulgate, Hulst said. There’s also the option to expand regulatory jurisdiction horizontally and vertically by creating a “Coastal Resilience Zone” which encompasses the “whole zone where we have current jurisdiction — land subject to coastal storm flowage — as well as those areas where sea level rise will pull new areas into the floodplain,” Hulst said.
It was recommended at the workshop that towns first adopt the regulations, which would only require adoption by conservation commissions, then put the coastal resiliency wetlands bylaw before town meeting. Proceeding in that order was recommended so as to make putting the bylaw before town meeting easier, since the regulations would already be covering land subject to coastal flowage, while the bylaw would authorize further regulatory jurisdiction.
McElroy said spring 2027 might be the town meeting for the bylaw that would enable a future floodplain to be regulated. There was also hope expressed during the workshop of looping Brewster into the discussion.
“There's a lot of work associated with convincing town meeting that there are good reasons for regulating not just the current floodplain but a future floodplain,” McElroy said.
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