Dear Miami Beach Resident,
What are we doing about sea level rise?
Here is a short summary of Miami Beach’s resiliency efforts.
On April 26th, the city entered into a contract with Jacob’s engineering firm (at a cost of $800,000) to research and focus on three objectives:
- Blue-Green Concept Plan – This is a comprehensive plan that will provide conceptual plans and drawings for drainage and landscaping ideas across the city, analyzing and vetting different approaches as proposed by the Urban Land Institute’s Report and other prior studies. In short, it is a master plan/culmination of all the research done to date, and will highlight the most effective landscaping and drainage techniques.
- Road-Raising Evaluation – Jacob’s is tasked with evaluating Miami Beach’s current street elevation plan at 3.7 NAVD height (this is higher than most existing homes and buildings), and whether this is a valid protocol. The report will provide a recommendation regarding street height.
- Prioritized Project List – Jacob’s will complete an analysis of the entire city and decide which areas are in the greatest need of mitigation. The company will provide an action list, determined by weighted criteria including neighborhood condition of water and sewer infrastructure, location, and individual neighborhoods’ desire for project work.
The reports on these three objectives will take six months to complete, so by the end of the year we will have a much better idea of how to best manage storm water and sea level rise.
Some critics claim that taking a “pause” to research and plan is the wrong decision, but I believe that gathering more information is the smart way to plan. This way, when we finally intrude on neighborhoods to complete infrastructure work, we can be confident that Miami Beach is implementing the best engineering and technology modalities available in today’s market.
Hopefully this provided you with some basic insight into Miami Beach’s current resiliency efforts.
I look forward to the results of these studies and the robust community conversation that will follow.
Kristen
P.S. Please join us at our upcoming event.
