Camden Launches Process to Draft “Resiliency Road Map” For Harbor Area
Jul 16, 2024
(Photo: Sarah Miller)
This summer’s (so far) gentler breezes haven’t wiped away Camden’s memory of the multiple storms that inundated our harbor facilities, blew away piers, and damaged trees last winter, or the storm a year earlier that decimated the town docks and boardwalk. Quite the contrary.
Town officials have taken another big step towards adapting the harbor to the rising sea-levels and stronger storms that hit with ever-greater regularity — and that will become still larger and more frequent as the climate changes.
On July 2, the Select Board voted unanimously to accept the recommendation of town officials and award a roughly $60,000 grant to Saco-based landscape architects Richardson & Associates, in partnership with international environmental and engineering consulting firm WSP, to draw up a “resiliency road map” for the harbor. The contract will start this month and is slated to end in December with an “actionable plan.”
The town was able to move quickly after the January storms into a full-harbor-front resiliency effort by getting the go-ahead from the state to move $60,000 in funding aimed at providing an action-ready engineering plan for the Public Landing into a wider, if less detailed “harbor resiliency” planning effort. What’s now covered under the effort geographically is the entire inner harbor and a bit beyond, including the badly damaged Yacht Club and Steam Boat Landing town-owned properties at either end and the Harbor Park seawall in between.
As town Planning and Development Director Jeremy Martin explained it to the Select Board, the idea is to use existing data on storm surges and rising sea levels related to climate change, rather than starting over; to examine design ideas and funding possibilities for follow-up action at the various public properties surrounding the harbor; and to develop the potential of the town staff to assist private property owners at an educational level in developing road maps and best management practices for different storm and sea-level-rise scenarios.
Options to be considered run the gamut from “flood-proofing” buildings, to “raising” structures, to “retreating,” Martin indicated.
The lead for Richardson/WSP will be Blake Sanborn, a senior project manager at Richardson & Associates, a native of Gorham, Maine, and now a resident of Camden. Some of you may remember him from a talk Blake gave in May at the library as part of CamdenCAN’s “Camden Talks Climate” series, or from an earlier presentation he made to the Camden Garden Club.
Lots of opportunities hopefully await us, the citizens of Camden, to become involved in that process. Sanborn indicated as much in remarks to the Select Board following Martin’s recommendation for the grant award. “My passion is looking at resilience through the lens of design” in partnership with engineers and with “the communities we serve,” he told the board, adding that he “absolutely welcomes everyone to participate.”
Making the resiliency plan that comes out in December a “co-creation” of the entire community, to use another Sanford phrase, is exactly what CamdenCAN and many others in the town have been hoping for in these too-often-divisive times.
CamdenCAN will be following it all closely, working with town officials and Sanborn to make sure all Camdenites have those opportunities to participate in developing the changes required if our beautiful and vibrant town is to transition to the coming era of warmer, wetter, and more turbulent and less predictable weather that lies ahead.
Upcoming Local Climate Change Events
Wednesday, 7/17/24, 5 pm, and Thursday, 7/18/24, 1 pm, Camden Public Library, CamdenCAN Climate Conversation Circles. These are held on the first and third Wednesdays and Thursdays of each month, at 5 and 1 pm respectively. See more here.
Camden CAN is planning a (free) “Camden Food Garden Tour” for early fall, with a tentative date of Thursday, Sep. 12. The aim is to encourage growing local food at that most local of all places, our own homes, given the challenges facing farmers and likelihood of even pricier food as the weather becomes more extreme. If you have suggestions or might like to help, call Beedy Parker, on 207 236 8732.
CamdenCAN Newsletter Summer Schedule
We’re advocates of exploration and immersion in this living world. As such we’ll be reducing our publishing schedule over the next several months while we seek adventures—we hope you’ll also have the chance to recharge in all the ways you enjoy.