Appreciated the article, and I agree with much of it, but as someone who spends a lot of time working on this issue, I want to say that there are many ways that planned retreat can be “managed” that don’t cross into the incomprehensible absurdity that you talk about.

The work that A.R. Siders documented in New Jersey (published last month), in which dozens of towns stopped or slowed building in the floodplain over two decades, is one example.