DEFENDING ITS COAST, NEW YORK ELEVATES HOMES AFTER SUPERSTORM

Some houses in low-lying areas hit by Sandy will have to be 11 feet off ground

By Morgan Lee12:01 a.m.Oct. 2, 2013

Nearly a year after Hurricane Sandy inundated the Northeastern seaboard, New York City is enacting coastal building codes that will elevate some homes by as much as 11 feet.

New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg has pledged that buildings will not retreat from the coastline, as the city contemplates rising sea levels linked to climate change and extreme weather.

In many low-lying areas, that means bottom-floor construction will have to be moved high in the air, prompting concerns about the future of New York’s pedestrian-friendly neighborhoods and street culture.

The City Council on Monday approved building codes that allow for higher rooflines, raised utility services and would require a front porch in many instances so that sidewalks don’t become isolated, said Thad Pawlowski, an adviser to the mayor’s Office of Housing Recovery Operations.

“We’re expecting thousands of houses will have to be elevated,” Pawlowski said.

“We want to make sure that, as buildings change, we maintain some of what people love about the neighborhoods.”

The storm surge from Hurricane Sandy unleashed devastation in October 2012, with water rising 14 feet above normal at Battery Park in lower Manhattan.

Floodwaters poured into subway tunnels and destroyed thousands of coastal homes in the outer boroughs.

Areas of the city now considered prone to a once-in-a-hundred-years flood have roughly doubled in size, under revised federal maps that are tied to the underwriting for the insurance industry, Pawlowski said.

Since Sandy struck, New York officials, led by Bloomberg, have seized upon the storm as a harbinger of extreme weather and climate changes likely to come. In June, the city published a $19.5 billion plan to adapt to climate change.

“(Hurricane Sandy) also presented us with an opportunity — the opportunity to think more broadly than just hurricanes or Hurricane Sandy and to think more generally about the issue of climate change,” said Seth Pinsky, who led a post-storm initiative on rebuilding and making the city more resilient to natural disasters. He now works in the private sector.

The new city building codes, scheduled to go into effect next week, require inhabitable areas be elevated two feet above the 100-year flood line. Homes ruined by Sandy, or those whose value was reduced by more than 50 percent, must comply.

“We’re looking at flood elevations that are now 10 or 11 feet above grade in some neighborhoods,” Pawlowski said.

Tom Pedrazzi, an architect who specializes in coastal home design, calls the zoning and code changes an “architectural street facade nightmare” but sees little alternative if the public and politicians are not ready to discuss abandoning portions of the coast.

“These places are not being flooded every 100 years, they’re being flooded every other year,”
said Pedrazzi, of Studio Pedrazzi Architect, referring to New York and New Jersey communities also hit by Hurricane Irene in August 2011. “We are going to build higher and higher.”

With construction code changes in mind, New York City has been consulting with architects for creative preservation ideas, said Pawlowski, the urban planner.

“It’s really important … that our streets are maintained as great places to walk because we believe that is the foundation of having a healthy sustainable neighborhood,” he said.

http://www.utsandiego.com/news/2013/oct/02/tp-defending-its-coast-new-york-elevates-homes/