State agency for bay development prepares for sea-level rise

The state agency that for the past 50 years has controlled changes along San Francisco Bay has voted to take assertive new steps — not to stop the bay from being filled, but to prepare for sea-level rise. The unanimous vote Thursday by the Bay Conservation and Development Commission calls for a regional plan on how best to respond to climate change that the National Research Council estimates could cause average tides to climb nearly 6 feet by 2100. Yet even as BCDC took its strongest action on the issue, individual members were reluctant to take steps that might conjure fears among cities and counties of a top-down power grab. [...] some recommendations that were approved — such as a call to “explore new institutional arrangements” to cut through bureaucracy when sea-level rise is involved — didn’t include specific actions to make them happen. The seven recommendations that the commission endorsed — a second vote will come this summer after the final language is crafted by BCDC staff — follow a trio of public workshops this year where the agency asked everyone from business groups and open-space advocates to other agencies how the Bay Area could adjust to the likelihood that a changing climate will reshape the body of water at the center of the nine-county region. Leading the effort for regional information campaigns on the implications and science of sea level rise, with an emphasis on programs geared toward schools and youth programs. “If you start by educating the kids, who educate their parents, then maybe we won’t get pushback” that has stalled adaptation efforts in the past, said commission member Marie Gilmore.