Deanna Moran

Stand in the middle of Boston’s Seaport neighborhood, close your eyes, and ask yourself: what will Boston’s waterfront look like in 30 years? What about 50 years?  Will buildings under construction in the city today still be standing after decades of climate change impacts? How much damage will rising seas, more intense rainfall and stronger storms create in both commercial and residential buildings?

These are the questions that developers and design and construction professionals need to ask themselves today. The truth is that we know sea levels are rising and flood risk is getting worse. We see it in the higher King Tides and the flooding of places like East Boston and Morrissey Boulevard in Dorchester. And it’s only going to get worse over the next several decades.

A new report from First Street Foundation underscores the dire state of America’s infrastructure. It found that approximately 16 percent of all residential properties and 21 percent of all commercial properties in the U.S. will face flood risk in the next 30 years. Here in Massachusetts, Suffolk County ranks number one for risk to residential structures, with about 19 percent of these properties at risk of flooding. Suffolk County also ranks fourth in risk to commercial buildings with about 31 percent of properties expected to see flooding by 2051.

Part of the problem is that buildings in Boston – and across the commonwealth – are being built based on inadequate state building codes that don’t take climate impacts into account. Not only is this a major economic and safety risk, but it could also leave the entire real estate industry vulnerable to legal liabilities in the future.

Local Work Underway

It’s time to take action. The good news is that there is legislation pending at the State House that, if enacted, would make sure building codes are designed to take future climate risks into account.

Current building codes rely on Federal Emergency Management Agency floodplain maps in determining where to mandate flood-resistant construction standards. Those maps are antiquated and backward looking as they only consider historical flood data, not projections for future flooding or other impacts associated with climate change. Similarly, flood-resistant construction standards do not factor in the changing climate conditions that Massachusetts and other New England states will experience, including more extreme heat and precipitation. For example, some estimates predict that the number of days Massachusetts experiences rainfall of greater than one inch could increase between 10 and 42 percent by 2050.

There are cities and towns across the commonwealth that are already planning and preparing for the impacts of climate change. A few months ago, the Boston Planning & Development Agency  released its draft zoning overlay that would create stronger rules and require developments to prepare for the effects that sea level rise and stronger storms will have. It’s a good first step, but it is still not enough to meet the challenges facing the built environment.

Updated Codes Could Mitigate Risks

Unfortunately for Boston, Massachusetts rules prevent cities and towns from enacting tougher standards than the current state-level building codes.

The pending legislation – and a separate proposal that Conservation Law Foundation made to Massachusetts Board of Building Regulations and Standards – would help address this gap. Both the legislation and the proposal would make sure that state building codes better incorporate climate risks like flooding and allow cities and towns to use better, more accurate flood maps and data instead of relying on FEMA. The legislation would also create consistency and predictability in planning for climate risks in state licensing and permitting, financing and capital projects.

For the design, construction and development industry, it is better to see updated building codes and standards now than to face legal liabilities in the future. Yes, in Boston, we are seeing developers who are seemingly only in it for the short haul; but that doesn’t mean that they lack legal risk. Design professionals and others could face liability in the future for failing to adapt to climate change. Compliance with current codes and standards is unlikely to serve as a shield to liability because of the increasing foreseeability of risks. We know that climate change is here, and we know it will have an impact on buildings. Updated building codes that take climate change into account could help to mitigate those risks.

Massachusetts can once again become a climate leader by updating our state building codes before disaster strikes our homes and businesses. Now is the time to make our neighborhoods more resilient so that the structures built today are still standing decades from now.

Deanna Moran is Director of Environmental Planning at Conservation Law Foundation