Resilience rezoning drives tech demand

New York City is adopting a comprehensive regulation, Zoning for Coastal Flood Resiliency, that will increase flexibility for building designs and retrofits that improve resilience. These include changes that "allow building owners to raise habitable spaces and other building support features above expected flood elevations, without causing poorly designed, tall and narrow structures that don’t match neighboring homes. Regulations would incentivize active uses to be kept at the sidewalk level, and floodproofed ground floors with improved streetscapes." While technology is not explicitly called out, the plan's floodplain definition will increase the number of buildings eligible for resilience retrofits by nearly 50 percent, creating a large potential market for technology-enabled solutions. These rules could create entire new markets for urban tech as property owners look for solutions to bring buildings into compliance with various regulations.