Managed Retreat

13/11/2023 Edgemere, Queens, New York City, United States

In conversation with Veronica Olivotto from the New School

What happens when communities are forced to retreat out of the way of rising sea levels? This question is at the heart of Veronica Olivotto’s research. Olivotto is a PhD student at the Milano School of Policy, Management and the Environment and at the New School where she is part of the Urban Systems Lab. She studies the policy of climate adaptation, especially the managed retreat of the coastal communities.

New York State and the federal government have buyout programs for properties located on floodplains at risk of the rising sea level and future storms. The programs offer compensation in exchange for the people vacating their homes. However, the funds are rarely enough to buy a similar property in New York City, and the relocating communities face challenges in the city with an ongoing housing crisis.

Olivotto has worked with a community in the neighborhood of Edgemere in Far Rockaway at the far edges of Queens. Located on the Atlantic coast the neighborhood was devastated by the superstorm Sandy.

In Edgemere the local land trust and community organization RISE have attempted to gain control of the vacant lots to better serve the community’s needs. “When a lot is vacated it mostly remains fenced off. I participated in workshops organized by RISE envisioning how the vacated land could be used if it were given to community control,” Olivotto elaborates.

“The workshops proposed different pop-up uses that could be moved in the case of storm water surges. However, the city was not inclined to grant any, even interim, use for the lots due to liability concerns,” explains Olivotto.

The city led flood preparedness plans are not always sensitive to community needs. “In Edgemere the community was concerned about the plans to restore a piece of the shoreline as a nature reserve. The otherwise welcomed reserve was originally planned without lighting, which would have created a barrier between the residential areas and the boardwalk after the sun goes down,” describes Olivotto.

Even with the preparedness plans the approaches to land use on floodplains remain contentious. In Edgemere new developments have been granted construction permits even with the ongoing buy back program that aims to move the residents of the coast to safety. ”You have to think about who the community is you are serving