Climate change makes for a “scary” situation in the city’s coastal areas — which is why zoning changes might be needed near shorelines, the head of the Planning Commission warned Thursday.
City Planning chief Carl Weisbrod said the changes his office are considering include new requirements to “help raise new buildings and existing buildings in flood prone areas.”
“We are further along than any other place in the country, but it’s a scary proposition,” Weisbrod told an Association for a Better New York breakfast in midtown.
“Sea levels are rising, and we are going to have to deal with that.”
He mentioned the East Side of Manhattan as one neighborhood “we can better protect from storm surges.”
Smaller homes in flood zones nationwide have been raised above ground level using stilt-like structures, frequently with the help of government subsidies.
The city began taking significant steps to address storm surges in 2012 following Hurricane Sandy.
But officials concede much more needs to be done.
Among the other waterfront neighborhoods hardest hit by Sandy were Red Hook and Coney Island in Brooklyn and the Rockaways in Queens.
New flood maps for the city released by the feds this year place about 71,500 buildings and 400,000 New Yorkers in flood zones.
Since 1900, New York has seen at least a foot rise in the sea level, according to the city’s website. By 2100, scientists project sea levels will go up another 18 to 50 inches.