S-1935 : Still Just a Bill

Waterfront Community Revitalization and Resiliency Act of 2015

This bill requires the Department of Commerce to designate as a resilient waterfront community a unit of local government or Indian tribe that meets specified criteria and is:

• bound in part by the Great Lakes or the ocean, or bordered or traversed by a riverfront or an inland lake;
• self-nominated as a resilient waterfront community; and
• designated as one by Commerce on the basis of a community-developed plan.

In making such a designation and promulgating criteria and best practices, Commerce must work with the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the heads of other federal agencies to provide comparable services to waterfront communities not located on Great Lakes or ocean coasts.

Commerce must: (1) develop a resilient waterfront communities network to facilitate the sharing of best practices and technical assistance among waterfront communities, and (2) recognize such communities formally and publicly to promote tourism, investment, or other benefits.

Commerce must also establish a program to provide planning and implementation grants of between $50,000 and $1 million that leverage other sources of public and private investment to assist with development of resilient waterfront community plans, including planning and feasibility analysis costs, and implementation of strategic components of an approved plan.

At regular intervals Commerce must give a list of resilient waterfront communities to the applicable states and the heads of national and regional offices of interested federal agencies.

Commerce shall give designated resilient waterfront communities preferential status in its select grant and loan programs, including those of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and the Economic Development Administration.