A Decade After Sandy: Comptroller Finds Coastal Resiliency Projects Past Deadline With 27% of Federal Funds Still Unspent

 

Nearly a Quarter Trillion Dollars of Real Estate at Risk of Flooding by 2050

Ten years after Superstorm Sandy devastated New York City’s shores, an analysis by New York City Comptroller demonstrates the slow pace of recovery and resiliency spending. Of the nearly $15 billion of federal grants, the City has spent $11 billion, and a far lower percentage of City capital funds on key projects. Many coastal resiliency projects remain years from completion.   

The Superstorm took the lives of forty-three New Yorkers and caused an estimated $19 billion in damages. Looking ahead, the report assesses the economic risks to NYC’s real estate, property tax revenue, and essential infrastructure in the floodplain, finding that rising sea levels and more frequent storms will put $242 billion of coastal real estate at risk by the 2050s. 

“The climate crisis is moving far faster than we are,” said New York City Comptroller Brad Lander. “Superstorm Sandy was a wake-up call for the devastating risks that climate change poses to our city – but from the trudging pace of too many resiliency projects, it seems like we’re still asleep. Without significant improvements to infrastructure design and delivery, New York City will fail to get ready in time for the next storm.”  

In this retrospective, Ten Years After Sandy: Barriers to Resilience, New York City Comptroller Brad Lander tracks the progress the City has made in spending its storm recovery and resiliency aid dollars. 

• The City has spent $11 billion of the nearly $15 billion of federal grants aimed towards Sandy aid and recovery as of June 2022. 66.2% of the nearly $10 billion in FEMA Sandy grants. 92.4% of the $4.2 billion HUD CDBG-DR grants.  
• However City’s Sandy Funding Tracker only captures the spending of federal grants and does not include the City’s own capital contributions. The Sandy Funding Tracker only accounts for the federal funds (18%) of the $1.9 billion total East Side Coastal Resiliency budget. The Comptroller’s under-the-hood examination of total project budgets and actual spending found that the City has only spent 13.3% of the $1.9 billion ESCR budget.   
• The FY23 Capital Plan indicates that the anticipated completion dates for some of the uncompleted Coastal Resiliency Projects are as far out as 2030.   

Real Estate & Essential Infrastructure  

The second portion of this analysis examines the fiscal risk future storms could pose to waterfront real estate prone to coastal flooding. In the past decade as new waterfront developments have steadily increased, market rate values of real estate in the 100-year floodplain have increased to over $176 billion – a 44% increase since Superstorm Sandy. Rising tides and more frequent storms will put upwards of $242 billion (a 38% increase at today’s current market value) at risk of coastal flooding by the 2050s, with Brooklyn experiencing the most dramatic increases in property values at risk in coming decades.   

The tax lots in the current 100-year floodplain are estimated to generate $2.0 billion in annual property taxes. As the floodplain grows, more tax lots will be put at risk, threatening $3.1 billion in annual projected property tax revenues by the 2050s (using current property values). Significant essential infrastructure lies in the 100-year floodplain, including:  

• Public housing will be particularly impacted. Today, 17% of NYCHA’s buildings are in the 100-year floodplain; this number will grow to 26% by the mid-century.  
• 79% of transportation and utility land uses that support our electric and gas utilities, rail yards, airports, docks and piers, bridges, tunnels, and highways.  
• 67% of open space and outdoor recreation areas, from neighborhood parks that provide vital space for local residents to iconic parks that draw visitors.  
• 46% of the city’s industrial and manufacturing that house waste transfer stations, construction businesses, warehouses, and distribution centers. 

Comptroller Lander continues, “New York City is at risk of losing a quarter of a trillion dollars in real estate to coastal flooding by midcentury, as well as significant swaths of our public housing, transportation, recreation, and industrial spaces. We must accelerate the pace and complete the lifesaving infrastructure that communities from the Rockaways to Southern Brooklyn to Staten Island urgently need – and use new federal infrastructure and climate funds to protect vulnerable communities from the even wider range of climate risks that we’ve seen grow in the decade since Sandy.”     

The Comptroller’s report recommends that the City expand capacity to deliver capital projects on time and on budget as well as revisit and update the City’s long-term resiliency plans to address our current understanding of climate risks and maximize use of forthcoming federal funds. The report’s recommendations include:

1. Rapidly enact the initial recommendations of First Deputy Mayor Grillo’s Capital Process Reform Task Force to accelerate the pace of incomplete resiliency projects and push the pace of future capital projects forward on longer-term action. 
   
2. Improve public transparency of capital project tracking. 
3. Implement grant accounting procedures for federal funds to improve the City’s ability to track and maximize federal reimbursement. 
4. Fully fund operations and maintenance activities associated with emergency activation and long-term maintenance of new resilient infrastructure. 
5. Develop a citywide long-term resiliency plan to address long-term land use changes and codify design guidelines for resiliency infrastructure. 
6. Establish diverse and sustained funding sources for future resiliency investments. 

The report is available here.