Join a Bay Alive Local Team to Shape Solutions in Your City!
Sea level rise planning is getting started in several Loma Prieta Chapter communities and the Bay needs your help ensuring its natural ecosystems and community members are uplifted and protected. The Bay Alive Campaign is launching local advocacy teams to monitor and influence local sea level rise plans, and we will need all hands on deck! Strong community oversight and advocacy is essential to ensure natural and nature-based solutions, equity, and climate resilience are fully realized.
Bay Alive teams are forming now in the following areas:
- San Mateo County (Belmont, San Carlos, Redwood City, Menlo Park, East Palo Alto),
- Santa Clara County (all shoreline cities),
- San Mateo,
- Brisbane, and
- Millbrae and Burlingame.
Get involved today! If you are interested in anything from educating community members, to scanning local plans and policies, to meeting with elected officials, there is a role for you. Join a local Bay Alive Campaign team today, and help us rise to the challenge of adapting to a rising tide.
In accordance with state law, all coastal communities in California must submit an approved sea level rise adaptation plan by 2034. In the Bay Area, the Bay Conservation and Development Commission (BCDC) has been tasked with creating guidelines and criteria for what will grant a plan approval. Thanks to strong advocacy from the Bay Alive Campaign and other like-minded organizations, these guidelines, the Regional Shoreline Adaptation Plan (RSAP), passed in late 2024 with several nature and equity focused standards that local plans should comply with.
Although these standards give us a strong hook to advocate for the importance of protecting our natural Bay ecosystems, their implementation is not guaranteed. The RSAP was created with lots of flexibility to meet cities where they are at in sea level rise planning and account for regional differences, but this flexibility may create loopholes for key standards to be sidestepped or forgotten. So, we need dedicated advocates to watchdog the creation of these plans, educate and engage their communities, and hold our decision makers accountable.
Several jurisdictions in our chapter have initiated their planning process. Sea level rise planning at this scale is brand new to elected officials and city planners, so this is the perfect time to get involved as a volunteer and learn the novel process as it unfolds. Let’s ensure our Bay has a resilient future for generations to come!