Climate Change Taken Seriously in New Law

On the first full day of fall this year, at the very height of the hurricane season, Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo signed a landmark bill on climate change that could have significant impact here. The Community Risk and Resiliency Law, which takes effect in April, is intended to help prepare New York for environmental changes and protect against increasingly severe weather and sea level rise.

The law requires state agencies to consider future risk of flooding, rising seas, and storm surges in all but the most minor regulatory and permitting decisions, whereas they now need to review only immediate effects. It orders the Department of Environmental Conservation to make official predictions about changing shorelines and sea levels, and to update these projections at five-year intervals.

The key concept is that state permits, including those from the D.E.C., will now have to take into account the “predictable adverse effects” of proposed projects on the environment and wildlife, public health and safety, water and air quality, and historic, cultural, and recreational assets. Notably for the East End, the law will require these considerations with regard to the protection of farmland, coastal rehabilitation, and areas covered by local waterfront revitalization plans.

Additionally, under the law, the state is to prepare model laws to help local governments, like those perched precariously on Long Island’s two forks, adopt their own code changes to deal with climate risks. This bring-it-home aspect will provide suggested rules for land-use and redevelopment based on predictions about the likelihood of extreme weather events in the future — something local governments have generally found difficult to do in the past. To take one high-profile example, the United States Army Corps plan for downtown Montauk, which has already secured state approval, might have taken a very different path had the new law been in effect.

Expect a rush for state permits and approvals of projects in local coastal zones already under review. Officials in the towns and villages should start moving now toward the date in the spring when the changes become effective. In the meantime, they should begin working on how to adjust local regulations to better adapt to the rapidly changing climate reality.