Resilient by Design Final Report

THE SUITE OF SEA LEVEL RISE PROJECTS IN NORTH RICHMOND, OUR-HOME EMERGES FROM THE COMMUNITY’S IDEAS FOR BUILDING HEALTH, WEALTH AND HOME OWNERSHIP FOR OVER 5,000 NORTH RICHMOND RESIDENTS – TURNING INVESTMENTS IN SEA LEVEL RISE ADAPTATIONS AND AGING INFRASTRUCTURE INTO OPPORTUNITIES FOR ALL.

The  ouR-HOME sea level rise response projects are linked to the health and financial well-being of residents that have been traditionally shut out of opportunities to improve health and family wealth. Small lot housing, a community land trust, social impact bonds and community infrastructure combine to lower the cost of entry to home ownership. Green infrastructure proposals to bring the ‘marsh to Main Street’ with a horizontal levee, and plant 20,000 trees to filter air and water, are strategies that can be implemented through existing local job and career programs – benefiting the people in North Richmond.

Building on a vibrant local history, neighborhood stabilization and strategies for home ownership underlie the vision for a resilient North Richmond. A community land trust and small lot splits use vacant lots as a catalyst to lower the cost of entry for ownership, key for residents to have agency to collectively and individually respond to climate change.

Community driven, pre-development collaboration is key to achieving multiple benefits. Infrastructure investment is one of the largest expenditures in the Bay Area. When historically disinvested communities participate in the decision-making process to direct that spending, residents can simultaneously build health and wealth, supporting self-determination and paths to housing ownership.

-WHAT-

ouR-HOME ’s holistic design approach focuses on a regional issue: using infrastructure dollars to leverage health and wealth benefits for disinvested communities. In North Richmond, investments include pump replacement and sea level rise protection for a wastewater facility, major arterial and drowning marshlands that provide critical habitat and support the largest eelgrass bed and oyster beds in the Bay. Building on the North Richmond Shoreline Vision Plan, local expertise in the community has shaped a suite of four projects.  

Five workshops with the North Richmond Community Advisory Board and countless discussions with stakeholders have resulted in concept level projects incorporating proven strategies that can have a profound collective impact in the community. These projects – planting trees for air and water filtering; using a range of levee edge typologies that change over time to protect Richmond Parkway, the wastewater facility and the neighborhood; introducing a muted marsh that co-exists with industrial uses and allows the marsh to transition upland over time; completing a multi-use path overpass to provide shoreline access and creation of a green mitigation fund that continues to grow local jobs – all provide direct and immediate benefits as well as long term value to the community.

As a foundation to the projects, small lot housing can lower the entry cost to home ownership. Larger lot housing redevelopments at Las Deltas, and Grove and Giaramita can help stabilize home ownership through exploration of a community land trust.

-WHERE-

The area of unincorporated west Contra Costa County known as North Richmond was a place of tremendous ecological diversity when Ohlone tribes first arrived there in the 6th century. The Bay coastline and marshlands of the Wildcat and San Pablo creek deltas provided critical resources for initial human settlers. The low-lying area with fertile soils provided good agricultural opportunities. African Americans arrived in the Bay Area from across the country during the WWII labor surge and were forced to settle in the low-lying and flood-prone topographic bowl adjacent to the Chevron refinery through de facto segregation. Cut off physically from adjacent resources by railroads and other infrastructure, community members also had to endure a lack of public services and travel long distances to their seat of governmental representation. This community derives strength from a long history of cultural, environmental and social justice issues. Today, the demographics of North Richmond’s 5,000 community members is changing, as Hispanic Americans find a home in the neighborhood. The spirit of advocacy and community organization continues to thrive, as evidenced through the work of neighborhood groups such as Urban Tilth, the Verde School, the Watershed Project and other organizations.

Wildcat Creek Trail: Residents want to picnic along the creek and safely get to and from the Bay shore, currently cut off from the neighborhood by Richmond Parkway.  A new pedestrian overpass links the Verde Elementary school to the rich ecology beyond via the existing Wildcat Creek.