The Coastal Resilience Partnership is comprised of 10 coastal municipalities, including the City of Boca Raton, that have partnered with Palm Beach County in hopes to combat the effects of climate change with a focus on sea level rise. Other municipalities involved include Boynton Beach, Briny Breezes, Delray Beach, Gulf Stream, Highland Beach, Hypoluxo, Lake Worth Beach, Lantana and Ocean Ridge. According to a recent Sun Sentinel article, the partnership was formally created with a grant from the Florida Resilient Coastlines Program, an initiative by the Florida Department of Environmental Protection, to provide assistance and funding to coastal communities dealing with flooding, erosion and other changes.
The City of Boca Raton was one of the first cities to be a part of this collaborative effort in order to work together with other cities to assess the vulnerability to coastal communities because of the impacts of climate change not only at a local but regional level.
“We are currently working on a sustainability action plan that will include items that relate directly to reducing the causes and effects of climate change," explained Lindsey Nieratka, Boca Raton’s Sustainability Manager. “It will compliment the vulnerability assessment which will help determine the City’s areas of potential vulnerability to the impacts of climate change.”
The Office of Sustainability will be hosting a public input session regarding the sustainability action plan on March 27 from 6:30pm - 8pm at the Downtown Library (400 NW 2nd Avenue). Members of the public are encouraged to attend and participate. For more information: 561-393-7997.
On March 28, over 30 local representatives from different cities met to discuss and create official principles for the new partnership. In attendance was Lindsey Nieratka, Boca Raton Sustainability Manager, Zach Bihr, Assistant City Engineer, Chris Helfrich, Utility Services Director and Ingrid Allen, Senior Planner.
