On Oct. 4, CPB2 LLC presented its master development plan for 58 Fore St. at a neighborhood meeting, a requirement of the Portland city code. The presentation, hosted by a CPB2 partner, Jim Brady, was well scripted, with numerous architectural renderings, and was open for questions and comments.

From our point of view, there was one overriding serious deficiency in the presentation: CPB2 has not considered the problem of sea level rise and storm surges in the design of the proposed development.

Various daunting projections of the magnitude of sea level rise have been prepared by the Portland Society of Architecture, the Natural Resources Council of Maine and other sources, as described in the Portland Press Herald (Feb. 26, 2015) and the Bangor Daily News and available online (e.g., just Google “Predicted sea level rise in coastal Maine”).

Global warming and sea level rise are real and cannot be ignored in coastal urban planning. There is a good chance that Commercial Street and 58 Fore St. will be under water by 2100, with considerable flooding problems before then.

We should learn from the Dutch people, who have dealt with this problem for centuries. There is no mystery to the tools that can be applied: for example, sea walls, elevated walkways and buildings, jetties and massive pumping stations.

Dealing with the projected sea level rise should be the first principle of development of 58 Fore St. We say: “Back to the drawing board.”

Donald and Ada Olins

Portland

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