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Moving to Higher Ground: Protecting and Relocating Communities in Response to Climate Change

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Moving to Higher Ground: Protecting and Relocating Communities in Response to Climate Change MOVING TO HIGHER GROUND: PROTECTING AND RELOCATING COMMUNITIES IN RESPONSE TO CLIMATE CHANGE John Lovett* INTRODUCTION ............................................................................................ 25 I. IS THERE A TAKING WHEN GOVERNMENT CHOOSES NOT TO BUILD HARD INFRASTRUCTURE TO PROTECT PROPERTY? ......................... 28 II. WILL GOVERNMENTAL ACTORS BE WILLING TO USE EMINENT DOMAIN TO MOVE PEOPLE OUT OF HARM’S WAY? ................... 31 III. WHAT KINDS OF GOVERNMENT-SPONSORED BUYOUT PROGRAMS ARE MOST SUCCESSFUL? ........................................................ 33 IV. TAKINGS LIABILITY AFTER RETREAT? ................................................. 51 CONCLUSION ............................................................................................... 58 INTRODUCTION Amidst the intense political controversies facing the United States today, it is easy to forget that the risks posed by global climate change continue to mount. In the summer and fall of 2016, several major flooding events reminded us of the potentially devastating consequences of global climate change. In the span of eight days in August, an unnamed tropical storm that stalled over Southeastern Louisiana dumped an estimated 7.1 trillion gallons of water on the state—three times as much rain as Louisiana received during Hurricane Katrina.1 According to the Governor of Louisiana, the flooding caused by this unnamed storm damaged at least 6,000 businesses and 55,000 homes, a number that some suggest could easily double as applications for rebuilding assistance and inspections continue.2 In late September 2016, the Cedar River in Iowa crested many * De Van D. Daggett, Jr., Distinguished Professor, Loyola University New Orleans College of Law. The author gratefully acknowledges the invaluable research assistance of Sara LaRosa and Sarah Didlake, J.D. graduates of Loyola University New Orleans College of Law. 1. Jason Samenow, No-Name Storm Dumped Three Times as Much Rain in Louisiana as Hurricane Katrina, WASH. POST (Aug. 19, 2016), https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/capital- weather-gang/wp/2016/08/19/no-name-storm-dumped-three-times-as-much-rain-in-louisiana-as- hurricane-katrina/?utm_term=.8df30834b5b0. In many parishes, the rainfall totals fell in the 20–30 inch range, more rain than the City of Los Angeles has received in the last several years. Id. 2. Emily W. Pettus & Melinda Deslatte, Louisiana Flood Damage at Least $8.7 Billion, Governor Says, ASSOCIATED PRESS (Sept. 3, 2016), http://bigstory.ap.org/article/4ebe5296e9994d8fbd5 1a0de579d4ab6/louisiana-flood-damage-least-87-billion-governor-says. Subsequent estimates by the Governor were even higher—60,646 homes damaged and 30,000 people rescued. Independent analysis of the number of homes likely “affected” and actually “damaged” have varied widely. See Drew Broach, How Many Houses, People Flooded in Louisiana?, TIMES-PICAYUNE (Sept. 15, 2016), 26 Vermont Law Review [Vol. 42:025 feet above its normal flood stage, forcing citizens of Cedar Rapids to construct a makeshift levee over the course of just a few days to avoid catastrophic flooding in their city. 3 Finally, in early October 2016, Hurricane Matthew, which caused massive damage and loss of life in Haiti and then grazed the coast of Florida, Georgia, and South Carolina, produced extensive flooding in North Carolina. This led to an estimated $1.5 billion in damages to over 100,000 homes, businesses, and government buildings in that state alone, not to mention significant loss of life.4 My aim today is not to try to prove a specific causal connection between any of these tragic events and global climate change. I leave that task to the climate scientists. My focus is on what many scholars and public policy advocates now realize is an inevitable response: retreat. By retreat, however, I am not referring to elevating houses and other structures, although that is a valuable climate-change-adaption strategy in many cases. Instead, I mean moving households and entire communities to higher ground. This subject fascinated the U.S. Media during the past year. In May 2016, The New York Times profiled the challenges facing a small tribe of Native Americans who currently live on a disappearing island off the coast of Louisiana. The tribe received a large federal grant from the Department of Housing and Urban Affairs (HUD) to help relocate the entire community to higher ground. 5 A few months later, the same newspaper described another community in the tidelands of Virginia, many of whose members are resisting calls to relocate. Instead, they demand that the federal http://www.nola.com/weather/index.ssf/2016/08/how_many_people_houses_were_fl.html (noting that 109,398 people or households applied for assistance after the Louisiana Flood of 2016, according to FEMA reports). 3. Kyle Munson, Cedar Rapids Flood is a Flop, and Thank God For That, DES MOINES REGISTER (Sept. 28, 2016), http://www.desmoinesregister.com/story/news/local/columnists/kyle- munson/2016/09/27/cedar-rapids-sequel-flood-flop-and-thank-god/91107802/. 4. North Carolina Estimates $1.5 Billion in Hurricane Damage to Buildings, REUTERS (Oct. 16, 2016), http://www.reuters.com/article/us-storm-matthew/north-carolina-estimates-1-5-billion-in- hurricane-damage-to-buildings-idUSKBN12G10E. For more detail about the loss of life and extent of damage in North Carolina attributable to Matthew, see Pam Wright, Flooding in North Carolina from Hurricane Matthew Incurs $1.5 Billion in Damage, Authorities Say, WEATHER CHANNEL (Oct. 16, 2016 1:15 PM), https://weather.com/news/news/hurricane-matthew-north-carolina-update (discussing damage in North Carolina due to Hurricane Matthew). 5. See, e.g., Coral Davenport & Campbell Robertson, Resettling the First American “Climate Refugees,” N.Y. TIMES (May 3, 2016), http://www.nytimes.com/2016/05/03/us/resettling-the-first- american-climate-refugees.html (detailing the complex issues in relocating communities). For more details about the planning process and objectives associated with the proposed relocation of this community, see LA. DISASTER RECOVERY UNIT, RESETTLEMENT AS A RESILIENCE STRATEGY AND THE CASE OF ISLE DE JEAN CHARLES 11–12 (2015), http://www.coastalresettlement.org/uploads/7/2/9/7/729 79713/idjc_prospectus_final_27oct15_updated_logos-2.pdf (stating details about the planning process and objectives associated with this proposed relocation). 2017] Moving to Higher Ground 27 government build a massive seawall to protect the community from rising sea levels.6 Several scholars have already begun to analyze the complex social dynamics, human rights issues, and regulatory challenges involved in relocating communities—particularly indigenous communities, in places such as Alaska—in the face of climate change.7 My particular goal in this paper is to offer some preliminary thoughts on four interrelated questions that all concern the challenge of protecting or relocating communities threatened by sea-level rise and climate change in the specific context of takings claims and government land-acquisition programs. I visualize these questions as forming a chronological decision tree that government officials, legislators, and courts will face. First, I address a question that may not be asked frequently today, but is nevertheless relevant to understanding the predicament that communities, like Isle de Jean Charles, are facing. The question is this: can property owners assert a valid takings claim based on a governmental decision not to build hard infrastructure that would protect land from sea-level rise and flooding? (My short answer is no. Takings liability does not exist in this situation.) The second question that follows from the first is: would governmental actors—federal, state, or local—use eminent domain to relocate property owners and entire communities to higher ground? (Again, my short answer is no. The political unpopularity of eminent domain will usually take this option off the table.) The third question I will address is perhaps the most difficult to answer: if governments will not use eminent domain to relocate communities to higher ground, what other strategies are likely to achieve the same end? Put differently, if the government wants to use public resources to create voluntary property-acquisition programs designed to facilitate the movement of households and communities to higher ground, 6. Jon Gertner, Should the United States Save Tangier Island From Oblivion?, N.Y. TIMES MAG. (July 6, 2016), https://www.nytimes.com/2016/07/10/magazine/should-the-united-states-save- tangier-island-from-oblivion.html. 7. See, e.g., Robin Bronen, Climate-Induced Community Relocations: Creating an Adaptive Governance Framework Based in Human Rights Doctrine, 35 N.Y.U. REV. L. & SOC. CHANGE 357, 393 (2011) (discussing how the humanitarian crisis surrounding the relocation of indigenous Alaskan communities demonstrates the need for a relocation policy framework founded on human rights principles and that accounts for the socioeconomic needs of the community); Robin Bronen & F. Stuart Chaplin III, Adaptive Governance and Institutional Strategies for Climate-Induced Community Relocations in Alaska, 110 PROC. NAT’L ACAD. SCI. 9320, 9320 (2013) (discussing the impact of climate change on Alaskan communities and proposing policy changes moving forward); Ashley Rawlings, Erosion-Induced Community Displacement in Newtok, Alaska and the Need to Modify FEMA and NEPA to Establish a Relocation Framework for a Warming World, 5 SEATTLE J. ENVTL.
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