Year: 2023

BRADENTON BEACH – One resident’s concerns about a proposed resiliency project garnered enough interest from Community Redevelopment Agency (CRA) members to seek an additional plans review.

After resident and board member David Bell presented his concerns and suggested alterations to the city’s plans during a Dec. 7 meeting, CRA member John Chappie suggested asking ESA Senior Environmental Scientist Brett Solomon to appear before the board in January or February to review the plans and address those concerns. The board supported that suggestion.

“This is one of our big projects for resiliency and we want to do right,” Chappie said.

CRA Chair Ralph Cole agreed and said it’s important to consider the potential impacts to the property owners along Bay Drive South.

The plans

The plans propose using the city-controlled rights of way between the bay and the eastern edge of Bay Drive South pavement from Fifth Street South to Third Street South as well as the Bridge Tender Inn shoreline property owned by Fred Bartizal to construct a 3-4-foot-high resiliency barrier from the Bridge Street Pier boardwalk to the corner of Fifth Street South. The sand-covered rock riprap barrier is designed to prevent rising bay waters from spilling over onto roadways and residential and commercial properties.

The existing rock and sand barrier along the Bridge Tender Inn shoreline would be raised and expanded. A new sand and rock resiliency barrier would also be constructed, extending from Third Street South to Fifth Street South and covered with an elevated walkway topped with semi-permeable pavers.

The plans also propose additional marsh grass and mangrove plantings along the shoreline and the installation of oyster bags and reef balls offshore of the existing rock riprap barrier near the clocktower and pier boardwalk to help dissipate waves.

Suggested modifications

“We haven’t talked much about the resiliency project since we saw the 60 % plans (in March). Now that we’re at 100% on those plans, I think it’s time that we take a deep dive into what’s going on there so we’re all on the same page,” Bell said. Bell and his wife, Mary, own and reside in one of the Old Bridge Village condos located along the west side of Bay Drive South.

As a retired landscape architect, he also expressed concerns about existing mangroves potentially being removed to accommodate the walkway.

“The plans say no mangroves would be removed, but the drawings and the profiles don’t show it that way. They show about a third to half the mangroves being removed and all the trees along Bay Drive South would go also,” he said.

To further illustrate his point, Bell temporarily placed orange flagging tape in the existing mangrove trees to illustrate where he believes the project impacts would occur. He encouraged the other CRA members to visit that area to see for themselves.

“One thing we definitely learned from Hurricane Ian is that mangroves provide their own resiliency. We also know that sidewalks don’t provide resiliency. So, our tradeoff here is that we’re getting rid of the natural resiliency that we have in that area to put in a sidewalk that has no resiliency whatsoever. In my mind, that’s not a very good trade-off,” Bell said.

Perry said ESA’s plans must account for any impacts to the existing mangrove trees and other plants currently located in the proposed project areas.

“It will be in the permit language, saying you may not remove mangroves. If they’re removed, I would be absolutely shocked,” Perry said.

She noted a FDEP representative walked the proposed project area and was comfortable with the plans.

Bell presented some recommendations for the CRA members to consider, including elimination of the plan elements north of Third Street South because of the existing higher elevations that exist there and focusing solely on the areas between Third Street South and Fifth Street South.

“Anything north of that is already out of the area of risk. The reason for this resiliency project – between Third and Fifth anyway – is so that we can keep Bay Drive South open because that’s a major access to and from Bridge Street,” Bell said.

He also suggested eliminating the elevated walkway to preserve the existing mangroves and said, “It really doesn’t serve a purpose for resiliency,” and recommended having a landscape architect redesign the barrier’s appearance to further enhance its scenic qualities while preserving the existing trees and plants.

Perry said some of Bell’s suggestions could likely be addressed without triggering a formal amendment to the FDEP permit but removing the proposed plan elements north of Third Street South would require a require a permitting amendment.

Chappie noted the resiliency project plans were discussed and public input was received during multiple public meetings, including an onsite public meeting in February. During some of those previous meetings, city officials stated the proposed barrier and walkway would not impede any dock access along that shoreline.

In response to Bell’s suggestion to remove the northern areas from the plans, Chappie said, “Holistically, it’s all part of the same project. That’s the way we chose to include that whole section, from Fifth all the way and around the boardwalk area.”

City officials hope to secure state funds in 2023 for the construction of a currently unfunded resiliency project along Bay Drive South.

Using a $92,433 resiliency grant from the Florida Department of Environmental Protection (FDEP), Tampa-based Environmental Science Associates (ESA) engineered the project, designed to lessen the impacts of rising tides, king tides, storm surge and sea level rise along Bay Drive South. Completed in August, the plans now await the FDEP permitting approval that will allow City Attorney Ricinda Perry and ESA to pursue the additional resiliency grants needed for construction.

Neither the city commission nor the CRA currently has any funds budgeted for the project which to date has no estimated cost or anticipated construction timeline.