Lake Forest Park advisors review climate impact summary, set vulnerability assessment, outreach for March

Consultants and city staff presented a draft Climate Impact Summary and outlined a Climate Vulnerability Assessment (VA) during a Lake Forest Park planning advisory meeting, and planners set a March check-in to present hazard maps and a public survey window targeting mid-March to mid-April.

The Climate Impact Summary identifies four primary hazards for Lake Forest Park — extreme heat, wildfire and wildfire smoke, increased flooding and declining summer precipitation leading to drought — and will feed a vulnerability assessment that maps the city’s assets against those hazards to rank exposure and sensitivity. "The RCP 8.5 scenario represents a high emissions future," said Sebastian Espinosa, a climate and sustainability analyst with Cascada Consulting Group, explaining the scenario used for the projections. Espinosa and project staff said the assessment will inform the climate element of the city’s comprehensive plan.

Why it matters: the assessment will guide which neighborhoods and critical services the city focuses on for resilience investments. Consultants told the committee they will spatially map assets such as community resources and housing, parks and natural areas, critical facilities (libraries, police, fire, town hall), transportation (arterials, bridges, culverts, bus routes), local businesses and water resources (stormwater facilities, reservoirs, tanks and wells) and then rate…