To do this, we are introducing a five-phase plan that lays the frameworks within which new conditions of retreat can take place. We propose challenging this current notion of retreat that immediately prioritizes resettlement. Currently, the largest gain in points comes when a community chooses to retreat entirely out of a FPOD by resettling to a new location further inland. In this system, cities can implement certain measures, such as building levees, or creating a flood plan, to gain points which at certain thresholds, go toward reduced flood insurance premiums citywide. Since insurance is required for individual properties within the FPOD and an increase in catastrophic events has placed immense strain on the flood insurance system as well as taxpayers, FEMA has implemented the CRS as a collective way of mitigating risk before events happen. Additionally, the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) provides flood insurance for littoral areas, which directly affects cities through the Community Rating System (CRS). In Quincy, several layers of state and federal agencies such as the Massachusetts Water Resources Authority (MWRA) and the Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) have major infrastructural interests such as navigable waters, wetlands, levees, and major sewer/water lines. Through a transitional period of retreat and re-densification, we preserve the right to remain in place under rising sea levels while re-orienting the suburban community towards collective water management.Īs landscape architects, we mediate between multiple actors and timescales. In advocating for the residents of Quincy, our proposal for the near future city allows residents living within the FPOD the opportunity to alter their land in order to collectively reduce flood insurance premiums. This restriction on the construction or alteration of land presents challenges for a community that is deeply connected to the coast and a water-based lifestyle who still want the ability to express themselves spatially.
#Right to the city retreat code
Quincy, a coastal suburb of Boston, served as our case study, as it is especially prone to flooding and therefore adheres to a zoning code that prohibits the construction, alteration, enlargement or moving of new buildings, and greatly restricts the amount of work that can be done to existing homes. Zoning codes in Floodplain Overlay Districts (FPODs) currently determine how vulnerable areas can be developed and what must be done to manage water, exemplifying the need to separate the right to own and the right to use.
The right to use property: A landowner is entitled to use property in such a way that maximizes their enjoyment so long as that enjoyment does not unreasonably interfere or disturb the rights of adjoining landholders or create a private nuisanceĭespite common perception, current planning zoning practices, such as restrictions on use and form, and, more recently, severe restrictions on the use and development of existing property in flood zones, already challenge dominant conceptions of private property as a domain of exclusive use, and have already begun de-coupling use and ownership.The right to own property: The permanent and absolute tenure of an estate in land with freedom to dispose of it at will.Given the uncertainties of climate change in coastal communities, we must acknowledge the right to own a property and the right to use a property as distinct entities not inseparable from one another. We advocate for a near future city in which homeowners have the right to leave and the right to stay in place.Ĭurrent conceptions of American property law consider the right to own and right to use property as inextricably linked.
In Retreat Yourself: Moving Ground, Preserving Place, we propose reconfiguring existing conceptions of property from a domain of exclusive ownership and use in order to allow residents to manage their own retreat over time as opposed to depending on institutionalized retreat practices that focus on resettlement as the sole option. Through the acknowledgement of these four rights, we are altering the conceptions of property that have constructed the suburban landscape. The right to leave 4.The right to remain in place Under climate change, we acknowledge four main rights for homeowners: two under current property law, and two that exist under the contingencies of sea level rise: 1.
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