San Rafael, CA – Stinson Beach could experience up to 10 feet of sea level rise by 2100, making it one of the many Marin County communities that is prioritizing climate change adaptation.
The Marin County Community Development Agency (CDA) received good news from California Ocean Protection Council (OPC), a state initiative created in 2004. Marin CDA has been awarded a $396,000 Coastal Resilience Grant that will fund a new adaptation and resilience collaboration project for Stinson Beach, the West Marin community most immediately at risk from rising ocean levels. The project will begin in May and continue through June 2024, and public involvement will be a key component.
Marin CDA has been awarded a $396,000 Coastal Resilience Grant that will fund a new adaptation and resilience collaboration project for Stinson Beach.CDA’s
Marin Ocean Coast Adaptation Report outlined a process for community-scale planning for each of West Marin’s seven coastal communities. The Stinson Beach project anchors the development of a long-term, implementable adaptation plan addressing critical infrastructure, natural resources, and community assets and risks.
Combined intensification of storm floods and erosion present a special urgency for Stinson Beach. The potential loss of the beach itself and permanent inundation of Highway 1 (Shoreline Highway) would eliminate a world-renowned natural and recreational resource.
More urgently for the coastal property owners, climate change puts hundreds of homes at risk. Residents and visitors both have much to lose, so they will be invited into the planning process, supported by County staff. Because Stinson Beach provides a low-cost recreation option and a relief valve for extreme heat events, planners will reach out to disadvantaged residents in Marin and throughout the Bay Area who use the beach as well as all other interested parties.
The project participants will identify adaptation measures and place them in strategic adaptation pathways that identify sequencing, triggers and decision points for the long-term, with greater detail on near- and medium-term adaptation solutions. A suite of potential adaptation measures for specific sites and timing will be analyzed and nature-based options will be evaluated along with additional alternatives. The County plans to work with stakeholders to develop and apply evaluation criteria, including economic benefit-cost analysis to both individual adaptation measures and adaptation pathways to assess feasibility, efficacy, environmental impact, equity, and economic factors.
The project will inform the County’s Local Coastal Plan update and West Marin Adaptation Planning processes, as well as ongoing updates to Marin’s Multi-jurisdictional Local Hazard Mitigation Plan and the Safety Element of the Countywide Plan.
The estimated cost of the adaptation planning project is $678,000. The anticipated $282,000 beyond the grant funding will come from a Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) Hazard Mitigation Planning Grant and Marin CDA.
More information is online about the 15 grants totaling more than $8 million in Proposition 68 funds for projects that will build coastal resilience across California in the face of sea level rise. Learn more online about Collaboration: Sea-level Marin Adaptation Response Team (C-SMART), the Marin County Climate Action Plan, and other programs of the Sustainability Team. Follow other news about sea level rise in Marin by subscribing to receive e-mailed updates from Marin CDA.