Dear Corte Madera Residents,
The Town of Corte Madera would like to thank you for all of the input, comments, and constructive ideas you’ve submitted over the last few months on the initial draft of the Climate Change Adaptation Plan. Town leadership, Staff, and our outside consultants have reviewed and discussed your comments, considered additional information, reached out to partner organizations and agencies, and spent a significant amount of time revising and updating the draft plan.
The updated Draft Corte Madera Climate Change Adaptation Plan is now available for further review and comment.
Please take notice that the document has changed substantially since the initial draft was made available for review in November of 2020. Some of the significant changes include: 1) creating a new Executive Summary; 2) expanding the introduction to clarify the purpose of the plan; 3) expanding the discussion of “undergrounding” electrical utilities as it relates to Corte Madera, which includes the creation of a potential action to conduct a study to assess the feasibility, costs, and finance options for “undergrounding” in WUI neighborhoods; and 4) restructuring the Shoreline section to focus primarily on the risks that climate change poses to the community and the identification of some initial next steps that the community could take to explore and better understand these risks and consider adaptation actions. References to specific actions for certain neighborhoods, such as managed retreat, the potential construction of sea walls or levees, and property risk disclosures have been removed from this version of the Plan. In addition, the project team created a Frequently Asked Questions document (attached to this email) that is designed to provide answers to the majority of the comments received during the initial comment period.
Climate change poses a real and serious challenge to our community. Our priority in working with you to develop this Climate Change Adaptation Plan is to ensure that we protect you (our residents), your property, and the Town from the adverse effects of climate change. Town staff and elected officials are committed to protecting our residents, property owners, businesses, and infrastructure, but this can only be achieved by partnering with the community to develop and implement adaptation actions that are widely supported.
The adaptation actions included in the updated plan represent a list of potential options that could work well for our community. We have not committed to implementing any of these specific actions at this point. It is ultimately up to the Town to discuss these actions with our residents and take into consideration many factors in order to determine which actions get implemented in the future. The Town looks forward to receiving your comments in response to this Updated Draft Climate Change Adaptation Plan. More importantly, the Town looks forward to continuing to engage our community and work collaboratively with our residents as we rise and respond to climate change in Corte Madera. Through this collaboration, we will collectively decide on how best to allocate the necessary funding and resources to address these challenges.
In closing, please review the updated Draft Climate Change Adaptation Plan here: https://cortemaderaadapts.org/draftplan
Corte Madera’s Climate Change Adaptation Plan Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) worksheet has been attached to this email for reference.
Rather than responding directly to this email, please email any follow up questions, comments or concerns related to the updated Draft Climate Change Adaptation Plan to: pwcounter@tcmmail.org The comment period is open through March 31, 2021.
