In late 2020, the Portland City Council adopted One Climate Future, the City's climate action plan. One Climate Future capitalized on foundational work around climate change from the City's comprehensive plan, Portland's Plan 2030, and proposed, among many recommendations, an approach to zoning for climate resiliency. As One Climate Future states, "If we choose to develop flood- and inundation-prone areas, our cit[y] would likely face higher rates of property damage; greater risk to health and safety; higher costs to repair and maintain city infrastructure; and more strain on city resources. We have the opportunity now to guide future development to reduce that risk from coastal flooding" (204). One Climate Future also makes a case for the city-wide risks associated with higher intensity rainstorms and high heat.

The objective of the Climate Resiliency Zoning Project is to develop and integrate resiliency tools within the City of Portland's land use code. The scope will build off the work of One Climate Future's Resilience Memorandum, which suggested a set of zoning strategies that would operate at different geographies: a resiliency overlay in areas of likely flooding that would focus on adapting to risks from sea level rise and storm surge, and a city-wide set of land use standards that would focus on resilience in the face of higher intensity rainstorms and heat.

For more information and to access the RFP for the Climate Resiliency Zoning Project, visit the City of Portland's website or email jrl@portlandmaine.gov.