Development Areas
All buildings and entrances to subterranean parking and streets would be set at an elevation that is 36-inches higher than the present day 100-yr return period water level in the Bay. This 36-inch SLR allowance plus a freeboard of 6 inches will be used for finished floor elevations of all buildings. This will ensure that even if no shoreline protection improvements are undertaken, or in the event of a slope failure along the shoreline, buildings and transportation infrastructure would not be flooded for water levels 42 inches higher than current BFE. This would put it beyond the 2080 time frame according to the most aggressive sea level rise, and well beyond 2100 according to the highest IPCC projection.
Storm Drain System
The gravity-drained storm drain system will be constructed with an initial SLR allowance of 16-inches, and will be adaptable to higher levels of SLR with minimal intervention. It will thus function as a gravity-drained system until about 2050, beyond which the Adaptation Strategy will be implemented consisting of installing storm drain pumps.
Shoreline Protection
It is not practical to build a high wall around the project for a design condition that may not happen for several decades, because it would pose a visual obstruction and severely limit public access. At the same time, it is not practical to build to present sea level conditions and keep raising it as sea levels rise. Therefore, an allowance of 16-inches of SLR will be built into the initial construction, and the design will be adaptable to higher levels of SLR by leaving a significant development setback such that improvements can be made.