Mr. Michael Marrella is the Director of Climate and Sustainability Planning at New York City Department of City Planning (NYCDCP). Recently reorganized from the Waterfront and Open Space Division, DCP’s Climate and Sustainability Planning Division oversees New York City’s waterfront and climate agendas, and develops key planning policies such as New York City’s Zoning for Coastal Flood Resiliency (2019-2021) and Comprehensive Waterfront Plan (2021).
This interview was carried out on Aug. 1, 2022, at New York City Department of City Planning.
“For intact historic districts, structural elevation may not always be the ideal solution.”
Image source: New York City Department of City Planning, New York City Comprehensive Waterfront Plan (2021).
Ziming Wang: On May 20, 2022, DCP celebrated its new Comprehensive Waterfront Plan with multiple walking tours and public activities. Could you tell me a bit more about the motives and intentions behind the new Comprehensive Plan, and introduce how waterfront historic resources are positioned in its scope?
Michael Marrella: The 2021 Comprehensive Waterfront Plan came out at the end of the De Blasio administration, as a legislation that happens every 10 years as required by the City Council. The current Comprehensive Waterfront Plan succeeds Vision 2020, which was released in 2011. Making the 10-year waterfront plan has always been a very good opportunity to set up some markers for the future of NYC’s waterfront.
We have acknowledged waterfront historic resources in both Vision 2020 and the current Comprehensive Waterfront Plan. Historic resources play an important part in the city’s waterfront, and can be in various forms – such as waterfront structures, floating assets, or even bulkheads (you know, the Hudson River Bulkhead has been listed as National Register eligible).
Ziming Wang: How do you evaluate DCP’s progress in flood resilience policy-making, as compared to other cities or Federal agencies? What’s behind the Waterfront division’s new name — Climate & Sustainability Planning?
Michael Marrella: I feel humbled to evaluate our own work. I’ll quote Laurie Schoeman’s comment on our recent Zoning for Coastal Flood Resiliency (ZCFR): “It is the most progressive climate resiliency-focused land-use proposal of any city in the United States.”
When we started to work on the Flood Zoning, we learned that to the majority of the public, flood adaptation was often perceived as coastal protection measures (seawalls, sea gates, etc.) that take great cost and a long time to build. Through our policy-making, we were able to explore diverse tools (e.g. land use regulation and retrofitting guidelines) that allow for more rapid progress towards flood resilience.
With the name change, we’re ready to take the lead in planning for the larger scope of climate change and resiliency. This repositioning also reflects changes that happened with the incorporation of the Mayor’s Office of Climate and Environmental Justice.
Ziming Wang: Which governmental agencies or non-governmental organizations should take the responsibility to research, support, and oversee the flood adaptation of New York City’s historic built environment?
Michael Marrella: Definitely LPC. We actually work with LPC quite a bit. I’ve kept in touch with Lisa Kersavage since even before Hurricane Sandy, discussing issues regarding preservation and sustainability.
Ziming Wang: But I personally feel that LPC’s retrofitting guideline-making still remains relatively preliminary as compared to DCP’s studies such as the Retrofitting Buildings for Flood Risk report. I noticed that LPC has recently included some instructions on the installation of flood shields and barriers into its Permit Guidebook, but it’ll certainly be interesting to see more comprehensive research of building-scale design strategies.
Michael Marrella: Well, climate change and flood resiliency poses an interesting challenge to historic structures. The key question is financial motivator – many property owners choose to retrofit their properties for a significant reduction of NFIP premium. But if a property is listed on National Register, it can be totally exempted from NFIP regulations.
That being said, I also feel the need for an economic analysis on the flood damage to each historic building type in New York City’s waterfront. If you have a bungalow in the floodplain, a flood will likely destroy it; but if you have a mid-rise building of more solid construction, the flood impact will be comparatively moderate. The structure itself will likely withstand flood events; it is the building systems and equipment that need to be floodproofed or relocated. In this case, structural elevation may not always be necessary for the purpose of flood resilience.
Ziming Wang: We’re seeing many flood resilience projects being constructed or proposed in New York City — from NYC Build It Back to Army Corps of Engineers’ proposed seawall and the East Side Coastal Resiliency project designed by BIG. How do you imagine New York City’s future waterfront streetscape? And, how do you image New York City’s future historic streetscape?
Michael Marrella: Yes, we’re seeing some of these streetscape changes now. But for largely intact historic districts – such as West Chelsea, East Harlem and South Street Seaport – I again question whether structural elevation is always the ideal solution. But I reckon that under current NFIP & Building Code regulations, this is not a choice that we can make.
Ziming Wang: In both the fields of historic preservation and urban planning, it seems that we have many policy tools on the table — flood zoning, tax credit, historic district master plan, neighborhood-level resilience planning, preservation design review guidelines, etc. In your view, which tool is most effective in stewarding New York City’s waterfront built environment towards flood resilience? How should existing policy tools be revised to better facilitate flood adaptation undertakings?
Michael Marrella: Many of these policy tools are useful under different circumstances. But to individual homeowners and property owners, there is a precursor to the application of almost any policy tool that you just mentioned – the access to capital. Governmental bodies such as DCP or LPC may issue a permit, a research report or a design standard, but the missing piece would be direct investment on property-level to facilitate flood and climate adaptation.
Ziming Wang: From your perspective, what’s the biggest challenge in adapting New York City’s historic/existing built environment towards flood resilience?
Michael Marrella: Well, there is a challenge to New York City as a whole — our floodplain building stock looks very different than nationwide statistics, and only occupy a small percentage of FEMA’s risk portfolio. The historic buildings you are researching may be even further down on the checklist. But we have worked and will continue to work with FEMA — they have invited us to D.C. for discussions on flood policy and standards, and we’re one of the few city-level agencies that may have influence on FEMA’s decision-making.
Ziming Wang: This has been a really informative and thought-provoking interview. Thank you!
* This interview text has been transcribed and edited based on the interviewer’s notes.
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