Building and infrastructure destruction and redevelopment due to climate threats are a reality for frontline communities struggling to maintain viable commercial corridors, provide fair and safe housing, and practice community heritage. These communities are the crucible for the investment and implementation of resilience planning. Here, decision makers are weighing the social, cultural, ecological, and economic consequences of building, infrastructure, and land loss against building reuse, new development, and ecosystem restoration. They are seeking other viable approaches and tools to support decision making.

This conversation at New York Climate Week, convened by Cornell Atkinson Center for Sustainability and Regional Plan Association, invites the perspective of community leaders, policymakers, and design practitioners to discuss more than a decade of weighing near and long-term solutions and current perspectives on the role of zoning, resilience planning, adaptive reuse, and heritage practice in decision making. What opinions have communities formed about the fitness of solutions? Where have synergies emerged between strategies, and where do conflicts remain?