Title
Funding and Governance Evaluation Update
Recommended Action
Information only. No action requested.
Report
Issue:
Update and discussion on the Sea Level Rise Response Plan Funding and Governance Evaluation.
Staff Contact:
Pamela Braff, PhD, Director of Climate Programs, 360.753.8249
Presenter(s):
Rich Hoey, City of Olympia
Lester Kao, CohnReznick
Chris Livingstone, CohnReznick
Background and Analysis:
In March of 2019, the City of Olympia, LOTT Clean Water Alliance and the Port of Olympia completed the Olympia Sea Level Rise (SLR) Response Plan. The aim of the Plan is to protect downtown Olympia, the Port Peninsula, and the LOTT Budd Inlet Treatment Plant from flooding due to predicted sea level rise. The Plan provides a comprehensive strategy for adapting to rising sea levels in both the near and long term.
The Plan estimates the long-term (30+ year) costs of sea level rise adaptation to be $190M - $350M in 2018 dollars. Implementation of these adaptation strategies is expected to protect downtown Olympia from the impacts of sea level rise through 2100. Given the high cost of implementation, the Plan also identified the importance of creating a funding and governance strategy to address and equitably distribute these needed costs.
The Collaborative's 2023 work plan included the completion of the SLR Funding and Governance Evaluation to identify the most viable approaches to address future funding needs. The scope of work for this evaluation included the following tasks:
* Investigate funding opportunities (federal, state and private grants) for design and construction of Plan strategies.
* Evaluate the viability and pros/cons of forming special district(s) such as a flood or local improvement district, or other similar funding and governance models, to finance and oversee needed sea level rise resilience improvements.
* Identify potential needed legislative actions by the State to support sea level rise planning and strategy implementation...
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