Climate Resilience Committee - Regular Meeting

Thank you. Thank you.

Mushroom.

Jamie Molina said I press Aaron to Mayo.

Barbara business.

Silvio Frank Pupo Casco.

Over Jane.

Thank you.

And Miriam Miriam Flores.

Sonia Baker.

G. D. Solomon Office of City Attorney.

Thank you. All right. Item two is public comment. If anyone from the public is here and would like to make a comment. Do we have any online submissions? All right. So item three is approval of the minutes from September 15th, our last meeting. Can I get a motion to approve those minutes? Or do I have a motion to approve those minutes?

Motion to approve the minutes.

Thank you. Second. Thank you. All in favor? Aye. No abstainer, no votes. Did you vote or no?

Aye.

Unanimous. Thank you. And we don't have any presentations today, but we do have an update on the waterfront project. So item five is old business, the storm resolution update that we voted on at our September 15th meeting. That went to the following commission as it was sponsored by District 2. On that meeting, though, that was a busy day. They had a number of meetings, including budget meetings, and the item was deferred to the following meeting, which was, I believe, about two weeks ago. I attended that meeting as well and made public comment, and it was voted on by four of the commissioners who were at the dais at the time unanimously. So that resolution passed, which is exciting that we all proffered something that was successful. So I think it was a good example of what we can do here of getting a presentation from an expert and coming prepared with a good resolution and then working collectively to refine it and make sure it aligns with the goals of the committee. and uh and luckily it passed so um you know we'll hopefully get to continue tracking what the progress of the storm initiative is as there's those four items for uh for action to be taken all right so if there's now we move on to item item six which is city-owned waterfront projects we have a project update on the brickle bay drive seawall project um if you all are ready this is a this is an interesting project um i attended some of your public shreds a couple years ago at uh at the meeting in the park and then there was also one online i think with um with brickle homeowners association so um i think it's really interesting how we're going to adapt to the rising climate, and excited to see where you guys are at in this.

The Brickell homeowners meeting was an interesting one, but I remember that one.

I don't recall the exact details, but...

So I'm Ken Caban. I'm a civil and environmental engineer with Tetra Tech and...

With Tetra Tech, I'm a coastal ecologist. I've been supporting this project since day one.

Thank you so much. Miriam, the chief was just asking if we can get the presentation on our screens as well.

So it's Ken, Ken, and Diana?

Yes.

Yeah.

No, Ken and Aaron. This is Diana. Oh, okay. Diana Santander. Sorry. Good point.

Thank you.

So do you have it on your? We do. Okay. So like you said, this is kind of an update on this project and a status. Some of you may have some background on it, but I'll give a background and then an update on where we are. So the project is funded through the Miami Forever GOB and also through a grant from the Florida Department of Environmental Protection. It's located along Brickell Bay Drive from Southeast 14th Road to Southeast 15th Road, directly on the waterfront. And the existing conditions, this is a section through a piece of that roadway. And I'll start from the west side. So on the west side, there's a four to five foot sidewalk, a planted green area, curb and gutter, two lanes of traffic in both directions, and then a parking area on the east side, followed by another green planted area, and then another sidewalk, followed by a wall. I believe it's at four feet? Four feet, yeah.

There's only three car lanes.

Correct. There's one north-south, and then there's a parking line, a parking side on the far east. Got it. Yes. So that is the existing cross-section. This is just some of the existing conditions and why this is such a significant project. Right now, the current seawall height is at 4 feet. These images, I believe, are from Irma, where that storm overtopped That particular seawall, I believe the seawall to the north, the seawall to the south is higher. And this was kind of the Achilles heel for Brickell. And a lot of storm surge came into Brickell from overtopping that wall. Some more existing conditions, like I mentioned, it's a two-way roadway, 11 feet each, parking on the east side, and it has shero lanes or bike lanes that are shared with the existing through traffic. And then there are green areas both on the east and the west side with sidewalks. So the vision for the project, it has five different vision components. One is resiliency, obviously. The second is protecting and promoting economic investment. There's a lot of waterfront property here and a lot of condominiums and businesses and things like that. Connection to the waterfront areas through inland, from inland parks and inland areas. multimodal you know facilities environmental benefits and then celebrating our beautiful waterfront here we have in Miami so a little bit of a timeline project really started around 2021 22 Tetra Tech was selected as a prime consultant for the project we received a notice to proceed for a DCP consultation and The funding was approved and then in 2023, the Miami Forever Bonds and FDEP grants were formalized and signed. 2024, we prepared design criteria package and they were advertised. And then we also began the permitting process for the project, mainly the stormwater and some of the environmental permitting. And then in 2025, Bids were received from contractors, design-build firms, and contract negotiations with the lowest bidder began. We anticipate notice to proceed in November. And construction will go through, well, design and construction will go through 2026, final construction through 2028, and then the project closeout through 2029. So some of the elements, like we said, the roadway is an existing piece. So it has four main elements, the roadway, the seawall, the green space, and then a drainage system. I'll start with the roadway portion, and then I'll hand it over to Aaron. The proposed roadway is a two-lane roadway like it is today. One north, one south. The parking has been shifted to the west. I'm sorry, the roadway shifted to the west. The parking has been relocated inland or street over. The total section for the roadway is 22 feet, and we coordinated with the fire department to make sure that the roadway maintained emergency vehicle access.

Erin, you want to take over here? So now I'll cover the seawall portion. We had some constraints. So we had primary drivers on the seawall, we have seagrass that grows up to the seawall. So we performed some in-water surveys. And if you know much about the area and the seagrass, there was a lot of devastation, a lot of loss in 2015. So to mitigate for that, we knew it was going to be a really big challenge in working with DERM. So that really drove what we could do and how far we could work into the water. So our focus was to limit the impacts beyond the existing wall. And hearing back from the city was also to try to get an exemption to minimize the amount of time that permitting would take. So our wall, there's an exemption that if you work within 18 inches of the existing wall, that you could qualify for an exemption. So that also led to kind of some of these elevations and the width and the configurations. So just keeping that in mind as I walk through the design. So looking at the height of the wall, we looked back at historic storm events. We knew that Hurricane Andrew was about 6.7 feet NAVD. We also knew that looking at future storm waves of like 2018, I'm trying to remember when Irma was. But we also knew that elevations could get up to 10 feet in height. So our original proposal was 10 feet. That was obviously an issue. So we looked at, okay, where are we mainly, the main average elevation that we should target? And that was between six feet, which would align with adjacent walls, both to the north and to the south, and then also comply with where Hurricane Andrew was. Additionally, it would look at wave run-up, address wave run-up. And that is basically a stacking of the waves as they approach the shore. So our proposal was anywhere between six and eight feet. Our main design moving forward is somewhere between a six and eight foot wall. You can adapt to that height. So our design then includes an adaptable load so it doesn't stop at eight feet, but you can add on a couple more feet as time proceeds and as you find the need. Any questions on that just before I move forward so it's clear?

So you're building to six with the ability to adapt to eight?

So our total right now is eight. I just want to make sure because we've had some changes in feedback from the city. So right now it's eight.

Or you could go higher.

And it can go higher. So you can stack on top of that. The design allows for you to stack another two feet. The challenge is with The eight feet is that you have walls to the north and the south that are six feet. So there's flanking. So that's an issue that has been kind of a challenge with this project. Flanking is where the wall along Brickell will be at eight feet, but your adjacent walls are six feet, which means that you can stop the floods immediately landward of Brickell, but to the north and the south, the water can go on either side.

So what would they have suggested to you otherwise? I mean, they want you to build eight feet.

Ultimately, that would be kind of where everyone needs to go is to build higher, build higher.

Right, so you can't.

But the flanking, you're still building to eight even though it's higher than the seawall to the north at six.

That's the proposal. And then the storm drains or the drainage improvements are allowing for wave over topping as well. So we've calculated the additional volumes that would be coming in, not all of the flanking, but some of the wave overtoppings if you did have higher than eight foot waves.

Are those separate from the standard storm drain drains or are they like a separate component for the overtopping?

Yes.

So there's like two sets of drains? Or maybe not two sets, but they're not connected to the storm drain system that's coming from adjacent Brickell?

So Brickell Bay Drive will have its own storm drain system. Right now it has kind of an existing system that has inlets that direct outfall. And then the stormwater system inland along Brickell Avenue, let's say, that's a whole different system. There's a city stormwater master plan that is being completed or it's actually completed. to that stormwater master plan concept, where they'll be doing pump stations and drainage wells and other types of things.

Do we have a slide? And then we can recover that or think of other questions. Through the chair, if I may, and I think a lot of the questions I had were asked, but how would the, you said you got pushback on the 10 foot, Well, it's too high because of the view.

Because of the view. So we had proposed different solutions to that, like a clear wall, but there was concern for maintenance that perhaps they wouldn't be able to keep up with maintenance on a clear wall. But that is being used elsewhere. It's being used in many other locations around the globe, really, to address that.

criteria package there is another design build firm that will handle the detailed and final finalizing the design of all the components the roadway the stormwater system the green areas and the seawall and they will have proposals so we've said we've identified criteria for each of the different components and they may come back and propose something different but at this time

So you're just a designer, and then the RFP that was one earlier is a different builder?

Design build team. Design build team.

Okay.

Okay.

Mm-hmm.

Okay.

And so just to clarify, that means that your role is mainly setting the city up for success on how the city does the RFP to be able to execute this? Is that right? Correct. Okay. Identified all of the criteria that that contractor and engineer will need to meet.

They've already done that.

All right, thank you so much Okay, so back to the wall specifically So I mentioned how we have all these other limitations such as the seagrass underwater and some of the challenges with mitigation in Biscayne Bay so we looked at a design that could limit that footprint and And what we proposed is a precast king piles so they can go deep, but they don't extend far into the water. Working with that would be precast concrete walls with a limited footprint and then another sheet wall, sorry, a sheet pile seawall in that design. So we did try to mainly just kind of limit the extent into the water and onto that submerged bottom. That was mainly what drove our design.

Mm-hmm?

Sure, if I may.

you go second phase to go 10 feet taller is it weaker because you're you're they're not all kind of structurally integrated like this is that's is you know that an extra two feet you go into in the future is that any any because it's not part of the design now would it be cheaper uh weaker to do in the future no so that that's really what what was our intent was to design

that would go deep enough to be able to support an additional load.

Through the chair, may I ask a question please? You may have mentioned this and I may have missed it, but thank you. How many linear feet of seawall needs to be raised to the eight feet? Has this been covered? You say that the water could go around and then there would be that issue for the area that you're protecting. How many linear feet do you need?

Yeah, I can't remember. Thirteen or fourteen? Fourteen, twenty?

Fourteen linear feet? Fourteen hundred. That's what I thought. It couldn't be fourteen. Fourteen hundred?

Mike, if you don't mind for the people online.

So it's 1,400 linear feet along Brickell Bay Drive. And then the seawalls to the north and the south are private property. So this is the public property portion in the city of Miami right-of-way. The other ones to the north and the south don't belong to the city. They belong to the condominium associations to the north and south. But it's 1,400 feet.

Of which they have... The city has updated seawall standards as of a few years ago for them to meet their height requirements right so so they're they're at six feet at six feet per city code based on the location south of I 395 I think is the cut off of the six

What are the implications for the private sector after this is done? Do they have like a timeline to meet?

I'm not sure.

Okay.

But I don't know about, the code says six, as they're telling us. So as of now, I guess they wouldn't have to meet V8. That was done three, four years ago, the updated seawall code, right?

Yes. Longer than that, I think it was... Before 2020. So it's a code.

Sorry, guys. Can you speak into the mic?

I believe it was around 2018. It was pre-2020.

So it's a code issue to get the private condos to meet the eight feet?

There's no code that drives the private homeowners to design to eight feet. Currently, it's six feet. So any new wall that goes in has to be designed to six feet. which is a vertical datum.

Has there been any engagement with the condominium property managers?

Yes, we had a meeting actually with the homeowners association in the area and it was very well attended. And we've also, we've spoken to pretty much all of them, but we also had a public meeting and they were part of this as well. So essentially, the city is exceeding the code requirement right now and kind of having some forethought, right? And maybe working a little bit and setting an example is how I would put it.

It's a similar concept as when you're building out, for instance, the bicycle network. The bicycle network is built when roadway projects occur with public works, and they have beginnings and ends. And sometimes that project ends not at the end of the planned location where that bike lane is supposed to end up. But, you know, either build it in piecemeal as projects come up, which is what we typically do in the city with public works, or they have to just come in and do this, like a massive project. So likely, this is going to be probably like how seawalls keep getting done unless someone comes in and does a long stretch because of perhaps a flanking issue, for instance. Correct?

Yeah, exactly. Okay. Thank you. Yeah, so an added benefit that we proposed for the design was to texture the wall. So you may be seeing it in other areas throughout the city. It's become quite popular. Mainly, it's a mitigation component. That's one. Is that, you know, when you put a vertically of a flush concrete wall, it doesn't allow for any minimal organisms to attract to it. When you add a textured wall, not only does allow for colonization of organisms, but it also provides some of that frictional components. So when you do have wave run up, it slows it down a little bit. So it kind of it's a twofold. Plus, it's just forward thinking for the city. You know, how are you going to do something better? So that was another another feature we included in the design. This kind of goes back to where Ken did some introduction on the landward side. So we were really looking for that multimodal space to have increased opportunities for park, you know, attract people recreationally along that parkway. Right now it doesn't have much vegetation. It's limited. It doesn't have, you know, it's limited space for more than just someone to walk alongside it. So we really did make a concerted effort to increase the value of that opportunity along the bay by adding canopy trees, you know, just increasing the vegetation, providing opportunities for sitting, additional amenities that just aren't there right now. It's really just some bollards along the path and then just a plain walkway. So we really tried to capitalize on that part of the design. And then this is just kind of showing that conceptual idea. It will be elevated, so you'll have the wall is going to sit higher than the road. So our design shows kind of a slow elevation. There's some, you know, the ADA access, but also some stepping up to the higher wall and to that higher walkway. It'll have a, there's a three-foot safety strip between the road and kind of that multimodal path. So there's that added protection. And then it's a 10-foot wide shared space along that multimodal path. And then I talked about kind of that green area. So really enhancing the public's experience along the walkway. And here's the drainage. Go back to Ken. I can. I'm kidding.

Okay. So... This is a snapshot, I believe, of the existing system and some of the flooding that occurs. So there's two types of flooding, right? Rain-driven flooding and then storm surge from sea walls. And what we're talking about now is rainfall. So right now the project area, you know, experiences rainfall that exceeds the capacities of the existing outfalls. And then that's somewhat exacerbated by the tide levels. So when we have king tides and the water levels are high, that combined with severe storms, it creates significant flooding in the area and the water cannot get out to the bay because of that high tailwater condition. And that's something that we were trying to solve as well. So the proposed stormwater system, it's going to increase the outfall sizes that discharge to the bay. There will be backflow preventers or tide valves that close when the tide is higher. We're adding water quality treatment kind of throughout the project, including in the raised area. which is a requirement of Durham, by the way, just, you know, they are, you know, requiring additional water quality. And then, like I mentioned earlier, we are including provisions for connections to a future pump station, either possibly on site or one associated with the master plan project. And ultimately with the goal of improving flood protection due to rainfall. So some of the water quality improvements that we've included are these, they're separators basically, but along the baywalk, they drain to these types of systems. They provide water quality prior to the stormwater going out to the bay. And a lot of times, you know, this system would, normally be not replaced, but French drains or exfiltration trenches are utilized instead of this type of a system, but our conditions along Brickell Bay Drive, the elevations, the tide levels, the groundwater level, somewhat limited us and we had to use these types of devices for the water quality. So that is the completion of our presentation and we could Take some more questions or corporate some answers from the city or however you'd like to proceed.

Appreciate the presentation and coming back for a project update with us. The pump station. You mentioned, where would that be located.

You want me to take that journey.

Well, that's in the planning stages, so we don't have anything set yet. I know that we did look at a siding for it, but I don't think we came up with a location. Is that correct?

On 12th Street? The master plan pump station, the one associated with the master plan.

I need you just for the audience.

So the pump station that's associated with the master plan, located on 12th street and brickell bay drive so it's a little farther north of our project site we've included some provisions to continue a pipe to get the storm water to that pump station but that's a future project that's the location identified by the stormwater master plan in addition to that we did some preliminary investigations to see if we could locate a much smaller pump station within the brickell bay site um or just brickell bay drive but There's a lot of utilities. Right now, it's not something that's included, but we started looking into that.

And just to clarify, we don't have a project right now that includes a pump station. That would be a future project.

Interesting. Something I've noticed during King Tide evaluation is how water is backing up from the bay, not from rain, and it's backing up into low topography. But what if some of that land was isolated from the system with its own, you know, slightly higher outfall, or, you know, essentially just close that drain off from where it's connected to the larger system westward. And that's kind of where my question was earlier, too, of this system, especially if you're planning for the overtopping, the overtopping could then inundate the system where it's trying to drain from A lot larger geographic area and Brickell has, you know, a lot of hard surface and already has a lot of issues with drainage. So like Just bifurcating the system and making sure that that system operates on itself. I feel like would be really critical to not inundating the rest of the system because like part of these large scale adaptation projects like they do have a pretty large price tag and Looking at the long term effects of the stormwater master plan. that we don't want to hinder the future projects or even just the existing system?

Right. So the city, we've already gone through the first phase of adding the backflow valve preventers. There were like 75 locations, alpha locations, where we added those. And those basically allow water to go out. But when there is the king tide, they don't allow the water to come in. So certain neighborhoods, for instance, like Shorecrest, We had three that we added there that helped a lot, but we are still working with the Florida Department of Transportation because along 79th, for instance, they have an outfall and they haven't done the same thing. So then water comes through there. Just so you know, now we do have a project with another 75 valves along the river, along the bay to add those backflow valve preventers. So we are sort of moving in that direction, right? To add that protection.

Yeah, the backflows are essential. And sorry, I lost my train of thought for a second. But the tiles that you showed, are those currently allowed? Are those approved to be utilized currently? Not by you all, but the seawall tiles that you showed in the rendering on the seawall, are those allowed?

Are they allowed in the city or allowed as part of this project?

If if they were scoped, you know, continuing on with the drawings for the project, they would be allowed to be used.

So they're included in the design is kind of remember I was telling you where we have a limit on how far we can extend into the water. So they're included in that, that measurement. So as part of the permit application, we have that as part of the design, and it is being considered. So we're trying to offset Um, the, uh, the Biscayne Bay aquatic preserve requirement for, um, requiring additional, uh, uh, rip rap for habitat. And that was one measure to try to offset that.

And it's included in the budget right now. It's current like, uh, go bond budget for the project, the tiles.

Yes. Yes, part of the bid.

Excellent. I remember what it was I was going to mention about the or ask about the pump station that you mentioned tying into the north to 12th. But that's also the street that always has the flooding from Brickell Drive, right, or inland. So like tying in might add more inundation to that to the system, like it's already tying into Brickell. So is that that's kind of the reason to have its own miniature system down here to the south?

Yeah, we would have to look at that separately. We actually have, remember from the master plan, there was like 15 areas that we were moving forward with them as projects, but there's also other areas that we have in there that we just don't have the funding to get to. So there are going to be areas that we just have to leave out. Right, and as you're saying, we wouldn't connect it Because let's say the Brickle Bay Drive here, I don't know, I'm not exactly sure if it's a low point. But if it's a low point, you may get a lot of additional flooding there that's unwanted.

I would say I hope this discussion, I'm not sure if we're going to take any action or able to because we're probably starting design. But hopefully the design team takes into account the bifurcation of the system. Because we don't know if or when that pump station on 12th could happen. And my final comment would be, I think it's interesting, like you brought up the 10 foot and the the view corridors being a conflict and that just two feet, you know, 24 inches and that could also be It's also at the top of the berm. So like the view is only blocked from the west side sidewalk. If you're a pedestrian or from the limited amount of ground floor units in those adjacent buildings and ironically, it's Offering protection mostly to those ground floor units. So they're there. If there was comments and it was from those people. It's almost there. Creating the possibly putting themselves more in risk by hoping to create some small view window of the horizon that I think that this type of a comment is going to keep coming up. And I think it's going to come up before us in future presentations as well. And we're hearing about it now. But as we see more of these adaptation projects, it's going to be a question of what are we willing to trade for protection? Like what level of service?

I'm sorry I didn't bring the sample. So we actually had, we worked with a company overseas who designs clear walls. clear wave walls, and we had one designed specifically for Brickell Bay. So we had a sample, and it shows it's about this big, and just to show the city what it would look like if you had a wall like that. And they can put kind of a layer, an outside layer, so if it was vandalized, it can be easily replaced, not the whole panel. So there are other ways to go about it where it doesn't block the view shed. And clear walls are a means to get there. So it just has to be designed specifically.

For a proportion of the wall? Like a certain couple top feet or something?

Yeah, it could be the top feet.

Can you give us the name of that product? I'm super curious.

I can send it to you, yeah.

Yeah, I think it would be something good for us to know because if people come and they say, oh, we're worried about the view, we could then say, well, we understand there's an alternative. And the cost, just because that will always be asked, is it... This was a few years ago, so we'd have to... We don't know how similar it was, but I think it would be good for us to have that as a tool.

It wasn't necessarily from the public. The concern was more the city on maintaining that wall. So that was really the concern, is that the city hasn't used something like that, and they were concerned that vandals would come along, and if there's something new there, that they would try to destroy it. These walls are intended to take If it, you know, if there's some like sharp blunt force at it, it probably could damage it. But, you know, when we worked with the manufacturer, they could put, like I said, an outside kind of panel that could be replaced.

Did you look at the ones that are lifted with the force of the water during the hydraulic?

We looked at those as well at hydrostatic type walls. There was another concern from the city about maintaining something like that. We looked at many different versions of what you see now. And the main concern went back to maintenance on those systems. And the city was not prepared to maintain something that was different. Whenever there's non-standard elements, it's a challenge for us. It's a challenge. So we went back to a standard wall type with these added elements. And then, you know, you could always look at, you know, a glass panel wall in the future.

You said that there were other countries or cities around the world that uses glass or any of them American?

Yes, I believe more and more. I know, I think in New England, they started using them. I believe on the North Shore, north of Boston. One of our, actually our Coastal and Hydraulic Engineer worked on this, did a lot of research on it and found other locations where they're using it outside of the city here. More common than you think now.

My question is a layman's question about pumps, the pump stations. You have a flood or you have water in a neighborhood and so the pump pumps the water. Does you pumping the water back into the bay or water area, to a layman, it sounds almost, how do you, why are you pumping it back into the area that is coming forward to flood the neighborhood? And if that's not where you pump it, would you please tell me where you pump it?

A couple of the pump stations, like the one we have on A Street that we just added probably six years ago, we do have, I believe it's two deep injection wells and an outfall, so we pump some of the water down into the ground for water quality, but you can only pump so much into the ground. The rest of it has to go out either to the river or to the bay.

And the reasoning is gravity, right? right no it's it's because it's pumped out right but you could only push so much into the ground you're asking like why would why would you need the pump like why are you pumping it back into the bay it we typically it's it's we use gravity outfalls so when you don't have enough gravity because the land is too low and the water is too high from whatever is causing it which may be a king tide or maybe a storm surge or maybe a rain inundation event that the gravity is no longer able to force the water through the outflow through the backflow preventer. So the water can't escape. So then the water backs up to the stormwater system, which is what causes the flooding that we see on the streets. So the pumps force the water from the stormwater system through the outfall through the backflow preventer. Yeah. Yeah.

Perfect. Good. And into wells into the wells underground. into the wells.

Thank you.

And, Chair, if I may kind of piggyback on, and I think, Barbara, this is where you're getting at, is we have water coming up from under us and we have water coming up in front of us. So if we keep pushing the water back out, what's the circulatory model look like? Or is it the same kind of water circulating?

I don't have the answer, but it seems somewhat circular.

Exactly, exactly. And so... And I believe that our Office of Economic Innovation is working on a digital twin for flood simulations of Brickell. I believe even the resilience office shared some information with Keith, which is leading some of those efforts. Have you looked at simulating? You know, I mean, on one side, one of my questions is like, you know, could we see one map that shows existing drainage systems and pumps and what that underground system looks like? And on the other side, what is this alternative kind of system, which I believe is what the chairman was getting at earlier in terms of like, okay, is that going to go no more inland? And personally, what I'd like to see is something not static, but more dynamic, where you can say, hey, look, this is a simulation of a category five coming at your city with the current system in place, the future system in place, plus current pump, plus potential future pump. So we could actually, in an intuitive fashion, take a look and understand what are the implications of one decision.

I don't think it's dynamic, but the master plan, I believe they looked into... like 20, 30, 40-year projections outward into the future. But I don't think it's dynamic in that sense. But they do have an understanding of where the flooding is going to be.

So you don't use any simulations to understand these scenarios? Or you just take NOAA data that says this is where the flood levels are, 50 on here, and you just use that?

So the stormwater master plan was prepared by a different consultant.

Yeah.

called CDM Smith. But I'll speak in general stormwater master planning terms. What they probably did, and I'm pretty sure of this, is they have several simulations, right? So they have rainfall simulations and models that produce different rainfall, five-year, 10-year, 20-year, 100-year. They also have hydraulic simulations for the piping systems that collect that rainfall and route that different rainfall and pumping and things like that. And then they will also likely, and this isn't always completed and I don't know the answer, but oftentimes they combine those simulations with a groundwater simulation, a groundwater model. because of what you're saying, right? So you're pumping in, is it coming back up? Things like that. I have reviewed that stormwater master plan. I just cannot recall in depth exactly what that was done, but I'm pretty certain that they looked into the different groundwater factors, especially along Brickell. Brickell Bay Drive is very low. BRICOL AVENUE IS HIGHER. OUR PROJECT IS IN THE LOW SPOT. SO WE AREN'T PROPOSING PUMPING WELLS THERE. AND THE MASTER PLAN IS PROPOSING PUTTING DRAINAGE WELLS IN THE HIGHER AREAS ALONG BRICOL AND OTHER PARTS. SO THE RAINFALL WILL GET COLLECTED ALONG BRICOL AND OTHER PARTS OF THE CITY. for that specific 12th Street pump station. It'll get routed to that pump station, pumped through a piping system to drainage wells in other parts of the area, Long Brickell and other parts, and then also go out of the outfall when the drainage well capacity is exceeded. That's what I recall. And to do that properly, you need to understand the groundwater dynamics and modeling and flow. So I'm pretty sure that that was completed, but you know.

But we have that in the report. Correct. I don't think we have like, I don't know if you were getting to like an app or something where a resident can go in there.

Or yourself even right like if you propose this project and design it if there's a way and maybe this doesn't exist, but it's an opportunity. Where you can combine your fluvial your hydraulic and your your your groundwater your ground level to run the simulation. So while you're designing for the city. this other contractor of the city, can kind of run your information through their model and kind of spit some of that out to you dynamically.

So we have prepared a hydrogeologic and hydraulic model for our project area, which includes rainfall, like I mentioned before, and sizing of the piping systems and the outfalls. We don't currently have a pump, That pumps into the ground. So we haven't done what you're asking for. But we have done a hydro geologic and a hydraulic model. For our project area, which is Brickell Bay drive from 14th to 15th nothing upland that basin or all the other basins in the city have been addressed by the stormwater master Is there a way that because you're in the middle of this, if you will, because then you're going to hand this off to someone else.

Right. as a professional this is really more aaron's field of expertise um how could we make sure that we have that continuity within like a common data environment so we can understand even the end contractor or resident or the resilience office for that matter to make sure that that the end product with this next phase of the contractor will also with their recommendations be connected into that model that's already been developed by our stormwater master. You know, like if we can keep using that original stormwater master plan and keep adding these elements to make sure it's always up to date and we always have an idea of the dynamics that will happen.

so we would likely hand over the work that we have done already to the next to that contractor and that design engineer our model which they will have to refine the design builds the design firm they will have to refine what we have done based on the detailed design that they complete right because they may move things they may change certain things so they're going to have to take what we've done and we will hand it to them so that they could utilize it, but they will have to update it for the current and final design. So that part of it will get transferred. And as far as the master plan portion, that master plan is publicly available, I believe, on the city's website. Anyone can look at it. And if another firm wanted that data, they could easily request it.

It's sheet B75.

What is it?

The sheet for this project is B75 from the stormwater master plan.

I have one question. When you guys were designing the seawall and you were trying to determine the height of the wall, was a benefit analysis done on how much water a six-foot wall would mitigate versus an eight-foot versus a ten-foot?

Mm-hmm.

Yes, that was part of the process in determining the volumes because we, as part of the stormwater design, we needed to integrate how much of the volume of overtopping we'd have to address. It's not an exact science because we don't have specific data from historic events to know exactly how much water will overtop. So a lot of that is based on estimates and those wave run-up calculations.

then based on that height of the wall i'm curious and i'm sure this goes to the questions that the rest of the board was having the difference between an eight foot and a ten foot wall was that substantial in the amount of water that would be mitigating we for that additional two foot yes depending on the storm event so it's all based on you know we looked at historic hurricanes and like i said we did recommend a 10-foot wall because of hurricane ian

Hurricane Ian reached 10 feet. So we were proposing, you know, if you're going to have another major storm event that approaches at that angle and has that much wave energy and that much storm surge and the right conditions, maybe at a king tide event, you know, you will see that again. So, you know, what we proposed is where most of the other storms occurred were somewhere, you know, eight feet or less. It could address wave run-up conditions.

I got one more, one more. Sorry, sorry. Can we go back to the slide that showed the proposed diagram with the new road and the elevated walkway and seawall? Are we raising the current road or the road that exists is staying?

It's staying at its current elevation, just shifting slightly west.

Right there? So the elevation of the road is staying the same. But we're raising the rest from the road to the water.

Correct. Right. So from the roadway to the water, it's going up.

So I'm not an expert in water flow, but I had this issue in my personal house where I have a concrete wall behind my house. And when they built my patio, they built it below grade. So they had to grade the rest of my yard to matching. which meant my neighbor's water goes from their backyards to mine, and it doesn't drain. So in your proposed drainage system, are you only doing the drain that's there in the increased elevation close to the seawall, and the city is redoing or expanding their drainage where the street lies? Because you're going to have more flooding there because water is not going to be able to run off anymore.

So we have accounted for collecting the stormwater in the elevated portion and routing that to its own water quality system and then discharging it. And then we have the roadway, which does the same thing but separately. So we collect independently from the higher and the lower, both.

So what's there currently handling the roadway is going to be upgraded and expanded to hold and remove more water?

Yes, we're increasing the outfall sizes along the entire stretch of Brickell Bay Drive.

Your question was about this ROI and the 8-foot and 10-foot and different amounts of water. And you said you did that study. Could we request a copy of that with Miriam after this for us to review?

It's part of the design criteria package, so it'll be in there.

And then conceptually, you know, a lower wall in a certain storm event is going to let more water overtop it, meaning if you were trying to reach a certain level of service with a lower wall height, you're making a much larger pump and may not even be able to achieve that level of service. While at the same time, there's obviously flanking to be considered. As you said before, it's a tough part of the science to calculate because the different storms have different waves and different action. But, yeah, I think that it's a good question, and it's going to be important to continue to focus on the tradeoffs here. And a simple – you haven't used the word berm, but this kind of looks like a small berm to me, like the cost of a small berm and an extra – Two feet of Phil seems a lot more cost effective as far as maintenance and protection than a complex plexiglass or material and additional pump stations. For, you know, to hopefully not have to revisit this project for a long time. You know, we're trying to make sure brickles safe, there's gonna be a lot of dollars that need to be spent on all these other locations. to bring those up to eight or 10 feet. So hopefully it can be done larger. Thank you.

I just wanted to remind you, we did design it so it's adaptable, right? So it could be raised another two feet to meet that 10 foot height.

Funding dependent.

Pardon?

Depending on the funding.

Depending on the funding, yeah.

And that would be like, in this section that you're showing us, It's like about knee wall height above where someone's standing. And in that case, it would be a little more like chest height.

Yes. So the panels, from what I recall, at least the ones that when we worked with the original contractor vendor, they were three feet in height. So I think they can cut them down to two, but they were three feet.

And the difference being that, again, this adaptation would put that future potential wall increase at mid-height. whereas if you were to build it higher, the berm higher now, that the future adaptation would hit mid-height at an even higher elevation, say 12.

That actually ties into my current question. You're saying the current design is adaptable. I'm curious, according to the data you've seen and the estimates you've made, when do you estimate for this project to include more feet in the future? Do you think going to be in the next couple of years, maybe less than 10 years, as I've been estimated.

That's a funding issue. So I don't know that we can answer that.

So we don't have a plan of when it would get raised, let's say from 8 to 10 feet. I think, honestly, the It's more important really to focus on all the other walls that we have because we can raise 1,400 feet to 10 to 12. If everything else continues to be at six, then we got a problem. So we do have to spend a lot of money on trying to get all the other street ends where we have seed walls and some of the private ones when they come in for permits and stuff like that to get them to eight. And that way you have... you know, true protection in a sense, right?

Yeah. Yeah, continuous.

Thank you.

Your question was also on, like, timing of when it's necessary.

Yeah, when it's necessary. They already mentioned before that you have included, like, estimates on past hurricanes, past weather events. According to maybe estimates on, like, rising sea levels, do you feel like it would be rather sooner that this project would have to include adapting to a higher fee, and would it be kind of similar to this project timeline of like seven to eight years as well? Just curious.

If it's related to, for instance, having to get another bond out there, it's hard to tell, but they take time, those bonds take time to prepare them, they take We're already, what, at the fourth or fifth year, I think, of the bonds already. So we're trying to expand those dollars so it takes time to get the money, you know, to then raise it to 10 feet. Because it's going to be expensive.

As far as the need, though, you mentioned already that Ian was at 10 feet for its storm surge. So, like... It could be even far higher than that. So as far as when the need goes, again, it kind of gets back to what level of service we're trying to provide. The back bay would have been at 18 feet. So an additional eight feet even above that is what the back bay study barrier was looking to achieve. So it depends on what level of service they're trying to achieve. And as we heard, the flanking, even if it's a 10, but it's complicated.

It all depends on where the actual dirty side comes and it hits and how much surge comes in. Because I was in Fort Myers Beach right after Hurricane Ian, and it was over 10 feet there. Some places it was 14 to 20 feet, depending on where it came in. Same with Mexico Beach during Hurricane Michael. So, you know, I think the city's on the right path. We're trying to beautify the neighborhood, keep our appeal, but try to protect it at the same time. And we can't really determine exactly where a storm's gonna come in and where the highest surge is gonna be, but we just gotta continue moving forward and keeping the citizens safe and the curb appeal that Miami offers.

That's exactly right. Yeah, we can't predict when the next storm will come and what the water levels will be at that time. So we just try to work with historic occurrences to drive the design that was a reasonable height that could be, you know, wouldn't impact view shed and met the main objectives and was also similar in line with the city's goal for that six-foot NABD. So right now, again, it's sitting at four feet. So it's quite a big, you know, improvement to where it is right now.

Chair, yeah, I guess one thing that I'm sure must have come up was the living shorelines, and I know you've designed a lot around this particular area with living shorelines. You know why that wasn't involved in this? I mean, was that a Durham pushback in terms of a living shoreline? Or could you mention sort of where that came up in conversation or maybe why it wasn't designed on the outside? I see obviously you have those implications on the interior, which I love. By the way, it's maybe my favorite part of the project.

Yeah, so I work on a lot of living shorelines. This area would be challenged to, you know, we did look at and we had conversations initially with Durham about moving it inland. When you do that, you lose the inland space. You know, we were trying to balance the needs of the road, emergency access, multimodal path. We had all these needs to fit into this little space. And so the more you encroach inland, the less you have. on the land side. We just weren't afforded that opportunity here. So we really tried to incorporate like the textured tiles to improve habitat to be some improvement rather than just a vertical wall.

And the response you just gave was focused on inland being the factor that's dimensionally constrained because as there's already seagrass outside of the seawall, that's not an option. So there's already living shoreline there and the dimensional constraints don't allow like what other parks are doing. Like for instance, Morningside Park is going inland because they have acres.

Right. Yeah, Morningside has a lot of space on the land side. Here we don't really have that.

So they can do the tiered structure. And what I proposed for the back bay was a lot larger of an impact than this. So it's kind of like acknowledging that there's seagrass there and also other animals living, but it's for the greater good. Like it's, that's like a massive plan. But this is much more strategic and precise. So it's, it's protecting the bay.

And do you have an idea of the maintenance costs that are that are that are going into this in terms of the backflow valves or, you know, even, you know, the the the green spaces or anything else that we need to keep in mind in terms of anticipated maintenance?

So the backflow valves, we do already have, it's almost the same team that provides maintenance on the drainage structures. They're the ones that work on the backflow valves. If they do get damaged, sometimes you just have to replace them. So it's almost like you've got to replace it with a new one, but any other type of maintenance we can do with our forces.

And if, for example, Chief Grant, if you're in an emergency, how do you know which one of these streets are flooded if something happens in Brickell? I don't know if any of this infrastructure has sensor or other type of data that can inform emergency management.

I see change for the residents, boots on the ground, emergency responders going out, and then our life safety assessment teams doing their damage assessments right after a storm. That's really the only way to get real-world information. Outside of cameras that can sense how high the surge is coming and how much flooding is out there and other sensors that we can look into, but really the best way is getting out there.

I don't know if it would be helpful if some of these drains or other systems had anything there that could maybe automatically push something to you so you know, hey, this pump is at capacity or this street is flooded, so it would help populate no-go areas in case of emergency. If that's a conversation that's even...

It's like what the chief said. I mean, you have the IC change app that the folks documented. We also look at that as well. And then we have 311. They have the complaints through there. And then so we do keep track of that for when we actually have funds to come back and do a capital project. We can focus on the worst sections.

I know, speaking of Public Works, they're working on a project to add telemetrics to all of their pump stations. They used to have them at one point in time, but they've all been degraded. So that'll give us some real-time information on what the pumps are actually handling and how much water is flowing.

That's the SCADA system, yeah.

I'm not sure. I guess I would have two recommendations to close up. One of them would be if there's an opportunity to make sure that in your design, right, and when you do the handoff, if it's possible, and maybe this is something for public works and resilience to coordinate, for you to make sure that whatever that final design these guys end up, whoever the contractor is, could run through the model one more time, just to know what the status is of that. I think that that would be helpful just to know in general, in terms of all procurement or infrastructure in general, to always go through that practice so you have all that information on hand.

Well, you're saying the size of the alphas?

No, so...

If you're designing a building, you have your design build and then you have your as built when it's done. So in infrastructure, I'm assuming there's probably something similar.

Yes.

So if you keep the digital file of the design versus the as built and then that final, whatever that suggestion is, if you can go back to whoever did the stormwater master plan and say, hey, here's what we're going to do. Can you add this to the stormwater master plan model? It's not going to be added to the plan, obviously. Okay. But can you add it to the stormwater master plan model? So we always have an up-to-date model of not just this project, but maybe any infrastructure project that's related.

I'm not sure we have a component for maintenance of the actual master plan. We may, but I'm not sure. I'm not certain. We'll have to look into it.

That seems like it's an opportunity. And as my colleague said, I'd love to also see that glass, that transparent wall option, I think would be very interesting to take a look at.

I would say that what you are saying is done, but usually in a batch, like what you said. So they will take, let's say a master plan is oftentimes updated every five years. So when it's after five years, the stormwater master plan is that when they decide to do an update, the city will say, this is what happened on Brookway Drive. This is what happened to Shorecrest. And the consultant will then take all that information and do exactly what you're saying. They will update the... the infrastructure within those hydraulic and simulations to do exactly what you're saying, but it's not done like as built at the end of the project. It's done more in a batch manner as the master plan is updated.

It's not real life. Right, it's not live. As we would want it.

Jenny Lee?

Thank you. I had a question about the design from an ADA perspective. What are the considerations for ADA access, and is it a curbless sidewalk design?

So, we have incorporated ADA in a few ways. The west side is really less of an issue, so the west side of the project. The east side, where we're raising everything, is a little bit more challenging, but we have incorporated, Deanna, correct me if I'm wrong, we have staircases, but we also have ramps to allow for wheelchair access and things like that. So we have incorporated ADA on the east side as well, where it's being elevated by about four feet.

Thank you.

Well, really appreciate your willingness to go in-depth with all these questions tonight. We've prepared you for your next community outreach.

I'm kidding. No plans.

Well, looking forward to seeing this continue, and I appreciate all the hard work you guys have put into getting to this point. So thank you very much for attending here tonight.

Thank you, likewise.

Thanks so much. Yeah, thank you. All right. So moving to the next item, we have item seven, which is items to be voted on. We have a vice chair election because our previous vice chair, Nkosi Muse, stepped down off the committee a few months ago when he moved. So vice chair elections are done by a process of nomination, either a self-nomination or nomination by one of us. So I think we'll ask who wants to be nominated. If there's more than one, maybe just say a few words of why you want to be vice chair. And then we could do a roll call vote, which I believe is the procedure for our bylaws. And the I think that this would last until the next full election, which would be early 2026.

I'll make a nomination.

Okay.

I'd like to nominate Grant, Chief.

I'd like to nominate Sarahi Perez.

Do either of you accept the nominations?

I accept the nomination.

Okay. I defer to Sarahi.

All right. If there's no other nominations, then there's, what? Still got a roll call? All right. So we will do a roll call, I guess, from the right.

I nominate and vote for Sarahi.

I vote for Sarahi.

Do I also vote for myself? Yeah, I vote for Sarahi Prez.

Vote for Sarahi.

I vote for Sarahi.

I'll vote for Sarahi.

I vote for Sarahi.

Excellent. Congratulations. Unanimous. I have a new vice chair.

Thank you so much.

Thank you for accepting. OK, great. So next up, we have item eight, Office of Resilience and Sustainability Updates.

Hi, Sonia Brubaker, Chief Resilience Officer for the City of Miami. So I have a few updates for this meeting. First, I want to give an update on our heat sensors and homes program that we ran this summer for our 2025 extreme heat season. We put 78 heat sensors inside and outside of people's homes, starting in July for most of the homes. And so here in October, we have begun retrieving those sensors. We are almost complete with retrieval. We'll be completed by next week. So once we retrieve all of the sensors, we'll then be able to look at the and analyze the data, and then we're gonna develop a report kind of showing our findings as well as some recommendations on how to mitigate extreme heat in people's homes, some potential kind of opportunities to do that. So once we have more information about the final report, as we're drafting it, we'll share it with you guys. Alright, so the next update is our tree giveaway that we had here in October. We successfully gave away 500 trees over three Saturdays, with this past Saturday being the latest across all five districts. People were really excited to receive trees. we found that there were a lot of preregistrations, but there were also a lot of walk-ins. And so that was something really interesting for us to note. And that many, I would say most people, wanted more than one tree. So that was something very interesting for us to note too, to know that there's a want, a desire, as well as a need. for these events in the future. And so we typically have them in April. This was our first time having them in October. And so we're now thinking about additional timeframes to have them in. So as soon as we have that information, we'll let everybody know. But it was really helpful just, you know, the outreach that others did. as well really helped people know about this event.

So I want to thank you. It was really helpful.

And lastly, I want to give an update on King Tides. We are in King Tide season. Our last King Tide, prior to the one that we're in right now, our last one was our first kind of peak days. October 5th through 12th, we saw a lot of water, particularly because in addition to the Sunday day flooding, it rained. So we saw about two feet of water with that rain. which we were able to identify kind of before it happened where those locations were. Grant talked about last time all of the locations that we look at as well as the temporary pumps that we put up. And so we continue to do that for each of the king tides. Grant runs the king tide Action Group, and so for each of the King Tide periods, all of the departments get together to strategize and talk about how we're going to handle it. We are in King Tides right now, October 19th through the 23rd, and then our next one is November 3rd through 9th, and that's another peak. peak time that we'll see. And also during the last one, I don't want to forget that it was Sea Level Solutions Day on October 8th. And this is FIU for the past 10 years has held Sea Level Solutions Day where students go out and measure king tides throughout the city as well as throughout the county. And so the results of that will be shared by FIU.

And that's all I got. Hi, may I ask you a question about the tree giveaway? Yes. Could you tell us which neighborhoods seem to have the greatest representation in the requests and if you know which notices the people that showed up said how they found out about it, what was the most effective notice system?

Yes, yes, yes. So we had them in all districts. All of the districts are in need of trees. For this giveaway, we had them at locations that were different than the park locations that we had in April. And so because we had new locations and new dates, we knew that people didn't know about it. And so we did a lot more outreach to get people to know.

What kind of outreach do you do?

So we went to parks, we went to the parks that we were giving out the trees that had after-school programs, as well as parks that were surrounding, also in the district, and gave out flyers. We did on-the-ground outreach for parents who were picking up after-school programs. we printed posters and put them at those parks as well as surrounding parks and also other centers that were close by we we posted on social media posted on our website the commissioners did a lot of did a lot of outreach a lot of outreach i got a couple of notices from those from city commissioners Fantastic. Yeah, we know that there were some individualized emails that went out from commissioners. So it was really, really helpful. Our communications team put it on social media repeatedly. We also put it on the digital display boards that are in downtown and Brooklyn and Little Havana and different areas of the city where those boards are at. as well as did a lot of kind of outreach within our city buildings at MRC as well as here.

And was your response that people came from every neighborhood? It was well, the whole city was covered pretty well?

Yeah, and I would say that people came primarily from the neighborhoods that they were held, but they also came from other surrounding neighborhoods.

I'm sorry, people came from neighborhoods that were what?

Where the tree giveaways were held.

Where they were held.

Yeah, and that's why we wanted to expand the locations, because we typically have them in the same locations, and so we wanted to expand to different areas of the city.

Thank you very much. Yeah, absolutely.

On the king tide aspect, you mentioned the higher tides from, they were contributed to from the rainfall, but there was also the two hurricanes that contributed, right? And that was helping to push some of the tides higher?

Yeah, that was at the same time.

I was reading a post from Brian McNoldy, who works with University of Miami Rosenthal School, and he presented Last year, I think it was March 2024, he was the first presentation I invited after becoming chair. And he recently posted about seven new daily record high tides from October 4th to 11th. So pretty considerable what we're seeing, the amount and severity of these king tides. I've seen a lot of posts about the amount of inundation over the last couple of weeks. There's going to be this this next king tide and hopefully people continue to document it. But, you know, all the more reason to make sure that when we have the opportunity to opine on projects like what we heard today that the higher level of standard is hopefully achieved. Because, you know, when events happen on top of what we're now seeing of multiple daily record high tides that, you know, can compound compound the issue. Chair, I have one recommendation.

on the tree giveaway if we're doing any surveys to follow up with people after the trees are given away or if there's any way for people to report where they planted it so we have like a record for our tree canopy or the condition that it's in or if we can even think about a way to incentivize that.

Yeah, thank you for that recommendation.

All right, we'll move to item nine open discussion. I have a couple, a couple items I wanted to bring up. So we have an annual report coming up. Miriam sent us information earlier today about what the annual report is supposed to include. I drafted it last year and then we all reviewed it and we edited it. There were some recommendations and then I went back and made those adjustments and then we voted on it. So probably do a similar process this year but open to suggestions if you review last year's annual report the mirror provided an email today and if there's anything you know structurally that you'd like to see different than that you know we should probably discuss at the next meeting also i think uh it's important to note i saw today that the reef line actually deployed their first um their first Not really sure what to call them art exhibit which off of the off of South Beach today, which I think is pretty historic toward future storm proofing of of South Beach and the barrier island protects Inland as well. So ensuring protection of the of the sand is critical because it costs a lot and it's not sustainable to keep bringing in sand. They just completed beach renourishment in Bell Harbor a month ago. And that takes a lot of trucks and a lot of energy to do that. So the reef line will hopefully protect the coastline. And also it offers tourism opportunity for looking at all the new reef habitat, which will hopefully pop up there. And then last thing is I wanted to recognize Avra for winning the Miami Center for Architecture and Design Urban Warrior Award and congratulate her. It's a pleasure to have you on the committee with us and you really exemplify leading by example in that it's not just communicating the ideas but you're executing them from saving trees, affordable housing, creating places for the community to come together, historic preservation, you know, the list goes on and seeing you actually execute on all those things simultaneously is very inspiring. So very, very deserving and congratulations. Barbara, you wanted to maybe, did you have an item on open discussion you wanted to discuss or anyone else?

I did want some direction on how to approach the idea of that Miami Beach has done of a private public project to help private property owners. Something wrong?

Get closer. Just closer to the mic.

All right, all right. Thanks. Uh-huh. How to proceed at this point on behalf of the committee to determine if the city would be interested in mimicking to a certain extent what Miami Beach is doing as a private public program to help private property owners raise their property in flood jeopardized neighborhoods. And I've understood that I think from Miriam and that I should meet with my commissioner to start the ball rolling. And I just wonder if the committee thinks it's a good idea to start it, and if there's any support within the committee for the project.

And this goes back to the conversation we had about when we were discussing potential budget recommendations, and you provided us the sample language from the Florida grant program, and were suggesting perhaps doing something on a local level to the same extent. I need to give it more thought, personally. Like, if I think that that is something that should be done at a local level, as I understand the Back Bay study, which is from the Army Corps, is looking at targeting home raising in a number of areas. And it'll be interesting to see how that project plays out as far as homeownership, the homeowners volunteering to do so, ability to execute on it and also that those dollars are being matched by the federal government which makes a lot more affordable and takes some of the cost burden off if it was going to be a purely city level initiative but what we had discussed i believe when we had talked about it during budget recommendations was a suggestion on ensuring that the city was aware of all available programs and was prepared to implement them when funding became available and to assist homeowners in achieving that because the state is making those funds available. But you can proffer any resolution you'd like for us to evaluate. And if you think that this is something that the city should be doing in some capacity other than that, we can review it. And I'd like to learn more about what Miami Beach is doing and then I think All of us can understand it better.

Well, I have, I think, prepared a summary of how Miami Beach is doing it and shared it, but I'd be happy to distribute it again. Essentially, they fund the program by requesting from the county that the county redirects resiliency funds that it would be directing toward the city, but redirect it to this program. And there's a grant of $20,000 to start it, which includes an engineer's assessment of how successful an improvement would be. And then that costs $2,500, I think. And then $17,500 goes to the improvement from the city and the rest to be met by the homeowner. I would think, I would expect me, I have started to have a meeting with District 2 where I live, Commissioner Pardo, and then I hesitated because I wasn't sure exactly what procedures to follow. But I think I'll go through with that meeting, share with the Commissioner how Miami Beach is doing it, and see if there's interest. There's certainly areas of District 2 that could benefit from it and determine if the homeowners are interested in participating.

Aaron, if I may, and Barbara, this is a great idea. If you can give me the week to do a little bit of research, work with the emergency managers from Miami Beach and the county, What you're describing is something that comes through the local mitigation strategy that the county puts out. We're actually putting that document through commission, I think, this next one coming up, where we're adopting the local mitigation strategy. And that's through a hazard mitigation grant program that we can look into getting that for the city. That would be great. Thank you. So before, if you can give me the week, I will promise I'll provide some information to the board. on what is available out there and how we can handle it maybe on our end through emergency management and make sure that the residents have access to that information. And before we move to the commissioners. So if you can give me a week. That would be great. I'll do some research.

That's what I needed is suggestions on the next steps.

Even better, Grant, you get a month. It's better that you do that and report back next month than you sending something and only the board members are gonna get that update. So not to be that person. I'll take a month, but I'll have it in a week.

I would like to point out that the state's program is directed toward counties that suffered hurricane damage. And this would be a more general neighborhoods that are flooding that perhaps would benefit from this program. But that's great. I appreciate your help. Thank you.

Absolutely.

Thank you for bringing it up. That's a city grant or that's a city proposal?

It's not a city proposal or a city grant. We can request dollars. to do something like that, but the majority of it is informing the homeowners that there is these grants available to do that. The city can adopt it if they wanted to spearhead it and take control of it, but I need to find out a little bit more information.

If Grant has a document available, I feel like it's pertinent to be able to circulate it.

Okay, so if it's a document, Sure, but it seems like he's going to get some information and then try and communicate that. Am I wrong?

How about I get what I find, I send it to Miriam, and she can direct it to you. Yeah, perfect. And then you can determine whether we're going to disseminate it or not. Perfect.

Sorry. I'll look into it as well, because I see you really want to focus on this and make it happen, so I'll do what I can to help facilitate as well. And I think, though, I want to clarify before we move on is the Miami Beach the flood private property adaptation program is $20,000 for eligible resilience projects. And I see that it's related to building elevation, which it lists first, and flood proofing, electrical life safety, mechanical flood protection, temporary flood barriers, wet flood proofing, flood resistant materials, drainage, permeable pavers, rain gardens, seawalls, and other improvements. So it's a whole suite of options, not just house raising, which is very complex and expensive and likely there's likely other higher roi activities that can be done right well the interesting thing is they're on their third cohort they've been doing this for a while successfully so that's why it's sort of interesting to for them to share their experience there was a there was a webinar on this program like a month ago i believe uh by by miami beach on either its successes or on the next level or something like that. I saw it. I didn't attend it, but it's likely recorded and online, and I'll try to watch that. That's online probably if any of you guys wanted to try to find it.

Thank you.

What's the name of the program again?

Yeah.

It's a PPA. That's what the initials are, private.

Public-private partnership?

Something like that.

What was the name that you found there?

It's Miami Beach Fight the Flood Private Property Adaptation Program.

Private property adaptation, that's the PPA, yeah.

So, Chairman, if I may, just to Barbara, Barbara, what I would do in your case is, and I think, you know, you obviously have a couple of good points here, particularly on the complication with the rise, but what I would do if I were you is I would contact the, I would find the resolution that was passed at City of Miami Beach. I would get that language, and I would circulate that through Miriam to the board, Then I would try to talk to the committee, the sustainability committee at the city and or the commissioner that sponsored that legislative item. Say that for me again. So there's an equivalent committee at City of Miami Beach like us.

Oh, okay.

Which is the sustainability committee. If you need a couple points of contact, I'm happy to put you in touch.

Great.

And I think with the draft resolution and some of those folks, maybe you might also want to talk to whoever the sponsoring commissioner is. So whoever sponsored that.

I know who that was. It happens to be the commissioner who had passed away. But his wife is now a commissioner and she supports it. And I've spoken with Amy Knowles, who is Sonia's counterpart, and also the engineering firm that they selected to help them. So... I've done a little bit of that, but I haven't done what you suggested.

Yeah, that language will give you the exact language that we might want to take a look at, and maybe that could be one of the proposed agenda items, so you could propose to the chair, hey, chair, I would like for one of the next discussion items for the next meeting agendas, whenever he would choose that to be, to be brought up again, and that gives Grant and the chairman and myself and yourself and Avra, which is also probably interested in this, an opportunity to kind of strengthen it some more.

Okay.

I would also add there's a big plus in being able to get county dollars to match city dollars. So you have a big win there. The chief support, I think, would help us top a separate pocket of funds. And I would add there is a Florida Department of Environmental Protection grant for Florida Recreation Development Assistance Program. I sent this over to be circulated.

For recreation?

For recreation, yeah, which is different than housing, but does align with the goals of what we'll be talking about here in the committee, which is, for example, can we buy a waterfront property and turn it into a park? You know, for similar thinking.

Let's stick on this, though. Yeah. Let's wrap up this point if you want to bring that up. Yeah.

I think that's complicating it. Sure. And so that's an example of state funding to do something similar that you can also kind of ideally stack, right, somehow maybe a neighboring property or something.

Sounds good. Thank you very much.

Great. Thanks, Barbara. And for open discussion items, Chairman, I'd like to also include a couple of other recommendations. chapter 17 and zero waste. If there's an opportunity for us to maybe host one more workshop on chapter 17 conversations, maybe with ICTB and our city arborist, I was able to get in touch with our city arborist and start some of that conversation. And then on zero waste, I know that's another pending item that we passed a resolution on. I was able to speak to our head of solid waste and I believe there's a There's a grant to Recycling Partnerships for America that the city is applying for. It'll be a small grant, but to help us understand what the feasibility of getting to zero waste or recycling is. I believe these are two broader conversations I would like to recommend for a future agenda. One of those topics under zero waste was brought up during Commissioner Gabala, during the was mentioned by him considering, you know, hey, we're not really recycling in the city, was a bit what my understanding is. I'm not sure where the details are on this, but, you know, they're proposing getting rid of it altogether. I believe there might be money there. So anyways, it's a complex topic like chapter 17. Perhaps we could find some time.

That's actively being discussed now, getting recycling on current agendas?

Yeah, during the budget hearings, the last few commission meetings, it came up as maybe just getting rid of it altogether. And that's when the waste department said that there are cities actively going to apply for a grant.

From what I recall, it was required that we had recycling from what I recall. We had presentations on it. It was a long time ago. Right. And the grant you mentioned?

It's a recycling partnership for America.

Which was that for?

I think they're going to... I'm not sure what the number is. I think it's between 75K to 250K max. And we recommended...

As one of our seven budget recommendations, we recommended a waste strategy?

Yeah, we recommended a zero waste consultant, which might be covered by that grant. So if the city secures that grant from recycling partnerships, that might be a way forward. So those are two things there to touch base on.

What are you recommending, though, as far as this zero waste? We made a resolution, and I believe it was in our budget recommendations as well. And if the city's staff is already going after that, they could reference the documents that we've already created as appendices or collateral in their grant, if that makes sense. I'm not quite sure. But I'm not sure what additional action or discussion we have right now is related to that specifically. if we weren't taking targeted additional actions? Do you have thoughts on that?

Maybe we can invite the Ways Department to give a quick update on where things are. So it seems like one of our commissioners is pushing to definitely update what's going on or get rid of it. The city's also applying for grants. I'm not sure where that lands, operationally speaking. Not sure. So either we can workshop with the waste department or just maybe invite them, invite Solid Waste to give us an update on what's going on there and what they think about some of the resolution we pass and how that might be able to get implemented.

Thanks. Go ahead.

I wanted to provide an update regarding contacting the county in regards to resilience and public works and bus stops and their shelters. They forwarded me to Natasha Wade. She's a transportation manager for City of Miami. They've already offered a meeting regarding the status of current bus stops and shelters and where we can potentially find improvements. So I just want to include that as hopefully next month's meeting. I should have an update on how the meeting went and where we can go forward with that.

maybe drafting some sort of resolution or seeing how we can i guess partner together in improving current bus stops and such so you're saying that you're planning to to meet with natasha okay great and if you would like you know i think it might be pertinent if you wanted to proper resolution that we would uh you know have a presentation and from natasha and other relevant parties on On the, on the topic so that we all can, you know, like, learn what you're learning and then be prepared to to discuss a resolution, kind of like what we did last month.

Gotcha. So instead of the meeting, would you like me to just invite her for a presentation, hopefully before the end of the year and then we can all hear together.

I think that'd be good. Yeah. And if you want it. And if we wanted to like vote on something related to it, thinking about that beforehand. If possible, because it's kind of hard to workshop on a spot, but we could also hear a presentation. Think about things. And then follow up on the next meeting if that needed to happen as well. But yeah, just see if she's available for any of our next future meetings.

Thank you.

Excellent.

All right. If there's no other open discussion points, I'll move to public comment. Anyone in the audience or online public submissions? No? All right. Well, thank you all so much for your time this evening, and look forward to seeing you next month. With that, we'll adjourn.

All right.