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AICP Mandatory Credit

Climate Change, Energy, and the Environment

Adapting Law to Promote Disaster Resiliency and Justice

Monday, April 27, 2026

8:30 AM - 9:30 AM CT

Location: HPCC, Room 140A-F

CM: 1 Law

Division Endorsement: Hazard Mitigation and Disaster Recovery Planning Division, Planning and Law Division

Moderator and Speaker(s)

Christine Marie Quattro, AICP

Assistant Professor
Appalachian State University
Boone, North Carolina

Slides

Speaker(s)

KM

Kimberley Mickelson, FAICP (she/her/hers)

Director of Law
Downtown Houston +
Houston, Texas
Oday Salim (he/him/his)

Director, Environmental Law & Sustainability Clinic
University of Michigan Law School
Ann Arbor, Michigan
Gabriela Juarez, AICP (she/her/hers)

City Planner
City of Los Angeles Dept of City Planning
Los Angeles, California

In the past year, communities from Los Angeles to Texas to the New York metropolitan area have experienced devastating disasters. The frequency and severity of wildfires, floods, earthquakes, hurricanes, and drought increase yearly due to climate change. Communities often remain unprotected due to outdated infrastructure, non-responsive laws and regulations, and federal and state legislative inaction.

A panel of planners and land use and environmental lawyers:

Outlines the legal frameworks and institutions that shape infrastructure;

Identifies common local codes and regulations that impede recovery responses;

Underscores the necessity of urgent action in light of lengthy, complex, and strict legislative and administrative processes;

Provides case studies of municipal efforts to adapt zoning codes and regulations to promote disaster resiliency and justice; and

Encourages reflection on the impact of climate change and inspires ideas for legal adaptations in local communities.

The time to amend land use and zoning codes is pre-disaster. Post-disaster adaptation is feasible but often difficult to accomplish while communities are struggling to provide basic necessities.
Closed Captioning

Learning Objectives:

Reflect on recent disasters and underscore the importance of proactive action given administrative and legislative timelines and constraints.
Explore the interconnections between infrastructure, the land use laws and regulatory systems that control it, and how codes and regulations can facilitate or impede reconstruction for resilience.
Analyze real world examples of legal reform both before and after disasters to improve environmental resiliency and justice.