As Climate Risk Grows, Cities Test a Tough Strategy: Saying ‘No’ to Developers

An article posted in the New York Times this week highlights the alarming rate of climate-vulnerable development occurring across the country and the measures that cities are taking to combat it, including imposing new rules on developers on building homes in floodplains, providing financial assistance for rebuilding in the wake of a storm, and rejecting proposed developments in floodplains outright.

"The outcome of that battle will shape Americans’ vulnerability to climate change for generations — and so far, development seems to be prevailing. In many coastal states, homes are going up at the fastest rate in the most flood-prone areas. The number of new houses in what experts call the wildland-urban interface, where the wildfire threat tends to be greatest, increased 41 percent nationwide between 1990 and 2010," according to the article.

Read the full article here.