To: Board of Supervisors
From: John Kopchik, Director, Conservation and Development
Report Title: California Resilience Challenge Planning Grant Opportunity
☒Recommendation of the County Administrator ☐ Recommendation of Board Committee
RECOMMENDATIONS:
ADOPT a Resolution to approve and authorize the Conservation and Development Director, or designee, to apply for and accept a grant in an amount not to exceed $190,000 from the Bay Area Council Foundation, California Resilience Challenge Grant Program, for the preparation of the Contra Costa County Sea Level Rise Community Education and Engagement Plan.
FISCAL IMPACT:
If awarded, the California Resilience Challenge (CRC) Planning Grant funds will be distributed among the lead applicant (County) and our partner, The Watershed Project, to develop and implement the Contra Costa County Sea Level Rise Community Education and Engagement Plan. This partnership will build capacity to educate communities along the County’s shoreline. Measure X funds for climate equity and resilience support the work of the Department of Conservation and Development staff who will be administering the grant. The CRC program does not require a County match.
BACKGROUND:
The California Resilience Challenge would fund Phase 1 of the Contra Costa County Sea Level Rise Resilience and Adaptation Plan (SLR Plan) development process. For Phase 1, Contra Costa County (the County) would partner with The Watershed Project to develop and implement a Community Education and Engagement Plan (Engagement Plan) over the course of 16 months from January 1, 2024, or upon execution of the project agreement between grantor and the County, to April 30, 2025. The Engagement Plan would center on a participatory community engagement process that builds on The Watershed Project’s existing successful community education and engagement campaigns to ensure all stakeholders are informed, activated, and served by this planning process.
Over half of the County’s under-resourced communities, disproportionately low-income and communities of color, are located along the shoreline adjacent to industrial and hazardous sites, putting them at risk of additional exposures to harmful pollutants due to sea level rise-related flooding. The Engagement Plan will prioritize work in these identified under-resourced communities adjacent to industrial land uses to accelerate movement towards implementation of sea level rise resilience and adaptation projects. Leveraging the support of sea level rise experts, community leaders will increase their understanding of sea level rise, general shoreline adaptation and resilience strategies, and existing vulnerability assessments through a series of educational and visioning workshops. These leaders will empower other members within their communities to engage in the visioning process through existing and new networks. Through the workshops, community members will identify preferred adaptation responses and create their vision of a shoreline resilient to sea level rise.
Building on the Engagement Plan, the development of the entire SLR Plan would cost approximately $619,000 for County, partner, and professional service firm staff time; community member stipends; and support services. The need for sea level rise planning funding is especially acute in the County. According to the recently released San Francisco Metropolitan Transportation Commission/Association of Bay Area Governments and BCDC Sea Level Rise Adaptation Funding and Investment Framework Final Report, of the estimated $110 billion cost to adapt to sea level rise in the Bay Area, it is estimated that $13 billion is needed to pay for adaptation in the County alone. The report makes clear that it costs more to do nothing. While the cost of tackling this regional challenge is significant, failing to adapt would result in a much larger impact on our under-resourced shoreline communities.
Staff recommends the Board approve the submittal of the CRC planning grant application to develop the Contra Costa County Sea Level Rise Community Education and Engagement Plan.
CONSEQUENCE OF NEGATIVE ACTION:
Should the Board not approve the grant application, the County would miss an opportunity to leverage funds for developing the Engagement Plan.
THE BOARD OF SUPERVISORS OF CONTRA COSTA COUNTY, CALIFORNIA
and for Special Districts, Agencies and Authorities Governed by the Board
IN THE MATTER OF
A RESOLUTION OF THE BOARD OF SUPERVISORS OF CONTRA COSTA COUNTY AUTHORIZING PREPARATION AND SUBMITTAL OF THE CONTRA COSTA COUNTY SEA LEVEL RISE COMMUNITY EDUCATION AND ENGAGEMENT PLAN PLANNING GRANT APPLICATION TO THE BAY AREA COUNCIL FOUNDATION
WHEREAS, climate change is accelerating rising sea levels, increasing storm frequency and intensity, and moving groundwater toward the surface. The confluence of more intense winter storms, extreme high tides, and higher runoff, with higher sea levels, will increase the frequency and duration of shoreline flooding long before areas are permanently inundated by sea level rise alone, threatening our economy, public health, and natural resources; and
WHEREAS, Contra Costa County is one of the nine San Francisco Bay Area counties and is one the five Sacramento San Joaquin Delta counties, with eight cities and twelve unincorporated communities along the 90 plus miles of shoreline; and
WHEREAS, the San Francisco Bay Area is a vibrant, diverse, ecologically unique, innovative, and pioneering region that will be deeply and deleteriously affected by climate change without tremendous effort and investments to adapt to a constantly changing shoreline. The San Francisco Bay shoreline constitutes approximately one-third of the California coastline, but the Bay Area is estimated to experience two-thirds of the negative economic impacts due to the flooding that would occur absent adequate measures to adapt and protect people, places, and habitats; and
WHEREAS, Sacramento San Joaquin Delta is the largest freshwater tidal estuary of its kind on the American west coast, providing invaluable ecological, economic, and cultural resources to Contra Costa County and the entire Delta region as well as drinking water for much of the population in California; and
WHEREAS, the Bay and Delta ecosystems are already stressed by human activities that have drastically lowered its adaptive capacity, and climate change will further alter the ecosystem by inundating or eroding remaining wetlands, changing sediment dynamics, altering species composition, increasing the acidity of waters, changing freshwater flows and/or salinity, altering the food web, and impairing water quality. Moreover, further loss of tidal wetlands will increase the risk of shoreline flooding; and
WHEREAS, flood damage to vital shoreline development, public infrastructure, and facilities such as neighborhoods, commercial centers, airports, seaports, regional transportation facilities, landfills, contaminated lands, and wastewater treatment facilities absent adaptation will require costly repairs and likely will result in the interruption or loss of vital services, large-scale social dislocation, and degraded environmental quality; and
WHEREAS, the increasingly frequent and severe impacts of climate change in the Bay and Delta do not conform to jurisdictional boundaries or the planning and regulatory authority of any one agency or organization; and
WHEREAS, the impacts of sea level rise in Contra Costa County have been well documented through numerous studies developed by the Bay Conservation and Development Commission, Contra Costa County, the Delta Stewardship Council, and other organizations; and
WHEREAS, Contra Costa County recognizes the urgency of taking bold action to mitigate greenhouse gas emissions and adapt to the impacts of climate change, ensuring a sustainable and prosperous future for all residents; and
WHEREAS, climate change impacts in Contra Costa County will be most acutely felt by children, seniors, low income populations, communities of color, and residents with unstable economic or housing situations; and
WHEREAS, the Vulnerability Assessment developed for the Envision Contra Costa 2040 General Plan indicates that the most vulnerable County residents, including households in poverty, low-income households, and persons experiencing homelessness, are more likely to be severely impacted by a changing climate, including flooding and sea level rise; and
WHEREAS, the California Resilience 2023 Challenge Planning Grant provide a unique opportunity for Contra Costa County to access funding, technical assistance, and resources to build the capacity of Contra Costa County jurisdictions along the shoreline to be resilient against the impacts of rising seas and develop cross-jurisdictional partnerships and collaboratives at a scale that addresses the needs and priorities of Contra Costa County’s unique shoreline communities; and
WHEREAS, the Board of Supervisors of Contra Costa County is eligible to receive the Bay Area Council Foundation funding for certain sustainability projects and programs and related work; and
WHEREAS, authorization, like a resolution, is required showing that the grantee is authorized to sign the grant agreement with the Bay Area Council Foundation planning grant before such funds can be claimed through the California Resilience 2023 Challenge; and
NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED by the Board of Supervisors of Contra Costa County, that the Conservation and Development Director, or designee, is authorized to apply for and accept a Bay Area Council Foundation, California Resilience Challenge planning grant, and if selected for an award, is authorized to execute funding agreements and other documents necessary for this purpose; and
BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED THAT the Board appoints the Conservation and Development Director, or designee, as agent to conduct all negotiations, execute and submit all documents including, but not limited to, applications, agreements, and payment requests that may be necessary for completion of the aforementioned applications.