Redeveloping Deteriorated Urban Waterfronts: The Effectiveness of U.S. Coastal Management Programs

This article documents the progress U.S. coastal states have made in assisting communities undertaking the national goal of redeveloping their deteriorated waterfronts since passage of the 1980 amendments to the federal Coastal Zone Management Act (CZMA). Over 300 urban waterfront districts nationwide have benefited from the 25 state and territorial coastal management programs (CMPs) for which there are substantially complete outcome data. The most active states are in the Great Lakes, Pacific Coast, and North Atlantic regions; there is less activity in the Southeast and Gulf states, where two states’ programs concluded that waterfront revitalization was not an issue they needed to address. “On-the-ground” outcome indicators were designed to score three dimensions of revitalization: the extent of revitalization occurring in a state, the stage of revitalization achieved in each waterfront district, and the scope of waterfront improvements, programs, and activities realized. In order to demonstrate coastal zone management’s (CZM’s) niche role in what is otherwise the business of cities, we documented the linkage between a state