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— For residents in low-lying properties —
Today, the Mayor and City Commission passed a resolution creating a new Miami Beach Resilience Fund and allocating $666,666.66 annually for a new Private Property Flooding and Sea Level Rise Adaptation Grant. The program will be designed to provide matching funds of up to $20,000 to residents preventing flood damage in their low elevation properties.
“Private property adaptation is a vital component to Miami Beach’s overall climate resilience planning,” Mayor Dan Gelber said. “The city continues to do their part by working with global experts and investing in public infrastructure — ranging from road elevation, stormwater infrastructure, water treatment systems, and the efforts to dedicate more green space and trees to create more resilient, absorbable swales and surfaces. We are in this climate challenge together.”
For individual private properties, resilience investments could include green infrastructure additions such as rain gardens and bioswales; replacing impermeable with permeable materials; appliance and equipment elevation; dry or wet floodproofing; garage floor and yard elevation; installation blue or green roofs and more. The program is planned to be launched in 2021-2022.
“Generally, investment in private property is the sole responsibility of property owners, but most of my colleagues and I agree that we must play a leadership role by incentivizing projects that complement our various public efforts to strengthen Miami Beach’s resilience infrastructure as a whole,” Commissioner Mark Samuelian added. “Reducing the likelihood of flood damage will help to preserve and increase home values.”
Funding for the program stems from a referendum question on the November 6, 2018 ballot where Miami Beach voters overwhelmingly agreed by a 79.5% margin to dedicate the $2 million in guaranteed rent payments from the Convention Center Hotel Lease to enhance funding in equal portions annually, to projects in the following areas: stormwater projects (in lieu of rate increases), traffic reduction measures, and education. Until the hotel lease generates the $666,666.66 of annual funding for stormwater projects, the city will be using the Miami Beach Resilience Fund to fund the Private Property Flooding and Sea Level Rise Resilience Grant program on an interim basis.
