As they are responsible for the lion’s share of land use decision-making and infrastructure development in coastal communities in the United States, local governments will play a key role in climate adaptation — and they are facing hard questions about whether to build new infrastructure to adapt, continue maintaining existing infrastructure as is such as public roads or, in the instance of roads, for example, whether it is more cost-effective to abandon them. This session will discuss the findings of an interdisciplinary research project that consists of a regional analysis comparing how law both furthers and inhibits resilience planning and climate adaptation efforts across four South Atlantic states — Florida, Georgia, South Carolina, and North Carolina. Given that little legislative, policy, and funding has emanated from the federal government to support climate adaptation, local efforts — and the litigation that inevitably results in some instances — are establishing the framework for defining adaptation policy more broadly as well as influencing the contours of tort and land use law. Specifically, the session will provide an overview of relevant tort and property law. It will then discuss how differing duties and obligations at the state, county, and municipal level are likely to result in differing adaptation outcomes, making retreat likely to be highly inconsistent and difficult for local governments. While the session will primarily focus on roads, it will also draw insights from additional areas researched as a part of the project, including sewer infrastructure, septics, and historic properties.