Comment on 2024-1-18 DRAFT One Bay Vision

Joint letter logos

January 29, 2024

Bay Conservation and Development Commission
R. Zachary Wasserman, Chair, Rebecca Eisen, Vice Chair, Members of the Commission
Email submittal to PublicComment@bcdc.ca.gov

RE: Comment on 2024-1-18 DRAFT One Bay Vision

Dear Chair Wasserman, Vice-Chair Eisen and Members of the Commission,

The Sierra Club Bay Alive Campaign works to protect and enhance shoreline ecosystems and build community resilience to sea level rise.The Citizens Committee to Complete the Refuge (CCCR) has spent decades protecting the Bay’s tidal wetlands and listed and rare species, recognizing that the protection of the Bay's habitats is crucial in protecting the Bay and our communities as sea levels rise.

We are encouraged to note that BCDC is making progress on the Regional Shoreline Adaptation Plan (RSAP). We hope to see a final One Bay Vision that implements Bay Adapt’s six guiding principles, and makes clear to local governments and planners what it means to “Put Nature First Whenever Possible” and “Support Socially Vulnerable Communities” and explains clearly how they can do so.

With that in mind, we hope you will strengthen the draft One Bay Vision to:

  1. Emphasize the importance of the shoreline ecosystems services that we all rely on for Bay resilience and the health and safety of our communities.
  2. Embrace region-wide engagement to address past, current, and future inequities that lead to disproportionate sea level rise harms in communities with the least capacity to adapt.

Please consider the following suggested additions/modifications (in red):

Regional Overarching Vision    

In this future, communities are healthy, safe, and equitable and the critical ecosystem services provided by the Bay’s habitats are prioritized and protected. All Bay Area residents have access to our shorelines where they can experience the beauty and wonder of a thriving habitats along the Bay’s edge. San Francisco Bay. Our region remains connected so that networks of people and goods can move with ease and get to the places they need to go. The services we rely upon keep our communities and economies running and are designed for the long-term. Achieving this future will require governments, the private sector, and communities to collaboratively, thoughtfully, and efficiently take on complex, interrelated challenges, including disproportionate impacts to vulnerable communities, together. A resilient future for the San Francisco Bay Area starts now and continues for generations to come.
  1. Community Health and Wellbeing
    

Communities are healthy and vibrant.

  • Address risks to essential community assets, services, including Bay ecosystem services, and cultural resources.
  1. Critical Infrastructure and Services
    

Critical services are reliable.

  • Adapt existing local and regional critical infrastructure systems including natural infrastructure that provides ecosystem services, to maintain or improve service continuity for everyone, while minimizing vulnerabilities of new infrastructure networks to future flooding hazards.
  1. Ecosystem Health and Resilience
     Healthy Bay Ecosystems thrive
  1. Governance, Collaboration, and Finance
    

Regional Collaboration drives efficient and effective adaptation

  • Local and regional governments collaborate to address shared flooding risk, identify multi-benefit adaptation opportunities putting nature first whenever possible, and avoid adverse flooding impacts to other jurisdictions.
  • Vulnerable communities with the least ability to adapt are supported through community empowerment and coordinated regional investment in planning, infrastructure and outcomes.
  1. Housing, Development and Land Use
     Places are designed for a changing shoreline
  1. Public Access and Recreation
    

The Bay Shoreline is accessible to all

  • Balance human enjoyment to be compatible with healthy ecosystems so that all have access to a thriving shoreline.
  1. Shoreline Contamination
    

People and ecosystems are safe from contamination risks

  • Integrate emerging science on shallow groundwater rise and prioritize nature-based solutions, for that purpose, into planning and adaptation decisions.
  1. Transportation and Transit
    

Safe and reliable transportation connects the region

  • Use redesign of transportation projects to also protect and improve Bay ecosystem services and address equity issues.


Thank you for your consideration.


Sincerely,

Arthur Feinstein, Chair
Sierra Club, Bay Alive Campaign

Carin High, Co-Chair
Citizens Committee to Complete the Refuge

CC Jacklyn Mandowski, BCDC
Dana Brechwald, BCDC