.Turning Today’s Foreclosures Into Tomorrow’s Wetlands

A Berkeley nonprofit has been buying cheap foreclosed properties so it can turn them into wetlands when the sea levels rise.

It’s no secret that global warming is expected to raise sea levels
by at least five feet this century, leaving much of the Bay Area
underwater. But even though this near-certain catastrophe is only
decades away, no one has taken bold steps to prepare for it. Except,
that is, for a relatively unknown environmental group that has found an
unusual, and some say “ingenious,” solution.

The shadowy Berkeley-based group calls itself Sustainable California
Acquisition Management and it has been quietly taking advantage of two
seemingly intractable problems — global warming and the
foreclosure crisis — in an effort to ensure that the East Bay’s
coastal environment is protected in the future. The group has been
buying cheap foreclosed properties throughout the East Bay in
anticipation of rising sea levels. The group plans to then turn the
inland properties into wetlands of the future.

When contacted for this story, members of the group were obviously
frustrated that someone had uncovered their plans. “Shit. How did you
find out about us?” asked the group’s spokeswoman Bailey Mudd, who then
pleaded with Future Watch to not write about them. “If you do, it will
ruin everything. When people realize what we’re doing, it’ll drive up
the price of land. And then speculators will outbid us for property and
turn it all into beachfront resorts and condos.”

Future Watch found out about the group after receiving tips from
concerned neighbors who wanted to know who was snatching up so many
foreclosed properties. A search of county property records revealed
that it was Sustainable California Acquisition Management. The group
has purchased at least four dozen foreclosures throughout the East Bay
during the past two years. The newspaper then fed the addresses of the
properties into mapping software and discovered that they extended from
Richmond to Fremont in areas that could be expected to be future
coastline once the sea levels rise. In Emeryville, for example, the
group purchased foreclosures upland from the Amtrak station, apparently
because property west of the station likely will be underwater in the
coming decades.

It’s not clear exactly how the group determined which specific
properties to target. The group refused to divulge that information.
But a map of the properties closely resembles the line of demarcation
on liquefaction maps developed by earthquake experts. Liquefaction
occurs when waterfront land essentially turns into soup during an
earthquake. Most of the East Bay’s coastline is expected to liquefy
when the next Big One hits. It turns out that the environmental group
is buying property uphill from the liquefaction zone, apparently
assuming that most of the land inside the zone will be underwater in
the next fifty to seventy years. “It’s actually an ingenious idea,”
said Craig Rolle of the US Geological Survey in Menlo Park. “The areas
of expected extreme liquefaction likely will be covered in water by
2079.”

But the Berkeley group’s actions have sparked resentment among
property owners closer to today’s waterfront. For example, owners of
the Bay Street Emeryville shopping center are worried that the
environmental group is driving down the value of their investment at a
time when property values are already plummeting. “I know that they’re
trying to protect the future health of the bay and all, but once people
realize that our property is going to be two feet underwater, it’ll
destroy our equity,” said Bay Street spokesman Taylor Barnes.

On the other hand, the Berkeley group’s buying spree may have a
positive effect on the Bay Area housing crisis. When developers and
speculators figure out what the group has been up to, they could create
a frenzy for future coastline property, thereby significantly
alleviating the area housing slump. In fact, Dallas-based
condo-building giant General Real Estate Enterprise Development is
already getting in on the act. Property records show that it has been
gobbling up foreclosures on the west side of the bay, from San
Francisco to Mountain View. “We know it may look like a gamble now,”
said spokesman Arnold Barrow. “But we’re confident it will pay off
someday.”

At this point, the Berkeley environmental group hasn’t purchased
enough East Bay property to create one continuous wetland of the
future. But if the current foreclosure crisis deepens, more and more
cheap homes will come on the market, thereby helping the group achieve
its goals. On the other hand, if a buying frenzy ensues, as the group
fears, then any hope of protecting the health of the bay in the next
century could be lost. This newspaper had an extensive internal
discussion as to whether to publish this article. But in the end, we
felt that the public’s right to know was paramount.

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