Impending resiliency projects top $600 million

Still navigating the aftershocks from back-to-back hurricanes, St. Petersburg will spend at least $633 million over the next five years to bolster the city’s environmental resiliency.

Councilmember Brandi Gabbard requested Thursday afternoon’s status update on several infrastructure and resiliency plans. She noted city officials first discussed their latest initiative, the Resilient St. Pete Action Plan, at a Sept. 19 meeting in preparation for a worst-case scenario “decades into the future.”

Gabbard said the scenario played out a week after the meeting during Hurricane Helene. “And then it happened again two weeks later,” she continued, during Hurricane Milton.

Gabbard believes residents have overcome the initial shock and are now planning their future on a peninsula increasingly susceptible to storm impacts. “They need to know that we’re doing the same,” she added.

“They need to know we haven’t taken our eye off the ball.”

Councilmember Brandi Gabbard, a longtime environmental resiliency advocate, represents the flood-prone Riviera Bay neighborhood. Photo by Mark Parker.

The city has budgeted $116 million for resilience-specific projects in fiscal year 2025. Claude Tankersley, public works director, said the total for all upcoming water-related infrastructure projects is $140 million.

He expects to spend $633 million of a $780 million water-related capital improvements budget – about 80% – on resiliency projects through 2029. Tankersley also announced that Mayor Ken Welch has hired a new director of sustainability and resilience.

Maeven Rogers will assume an increasingly important role that Allison Mihalich vacated in July. Her first day on the job was Oct. 14, in Milton’s immediate aftermath.

Rogers previously served as the chief sustainability and resiliency officer for the City of Palm Coast, and Orange County Government’s sustainability public information officer. Tankersley said she spent her first two weeks with St. Petersburg in the community helping provide recovery resources.

Rogers and other administrators will have their hands full for the foreseeable future. The city has embarked on 14 resiliency or water-related plans in the past eight years.

Officials have completed a topographic survey and condition assessments for a City-Owned Seawall Study. Tankersley said they will now prioritize projects, discern costs and conduct public outreach.

While the city is home to roughly 100 miles of aging seawalls, it owns just 14. Tankersley noted that “thousands of different individuals” own the remaining 85%. “So, that makes our seawall resiliency a challenge,” he said.

Resilient St. Pete, conducted in partnership with the Tampa Bay Regional Planning Council, will offer proactive solutions to “make the next generation of residents less vulnerable to flood risks.” Tankersley said a Florida Environment Protection Agency grant will fund the first step, a vulnerability assessment that identifies the most at-risk, critical community and emergency facilities.

He said Resilient St. Pete will expand upon the Stormwater Master Plan, which already outlines $1 billion in projects over the next 30 years. Tankersley expects to complete the former initiative in 2026.

“Wow, that’s a lot of planning,” said Councilmember Lisset Hanewicz. “We don’t lack plans. What we do lack is funding.”

Tankersley said Welch’s recently announced St. Pete Agile Resilience (SPAR) plan would “run parallel” to Resilient St. Pete. He said it would focus on flooding and storm surge impacts, particularly at the city’s sewage treatment facilities that recent storms rendered unoperational.

SPAR would accelerate planned projects to align with a changing climate and increasing storm impacts. Tankersley said the program would launch in 2025, before Resilient St. Pete’s completion, and discern ways “we can do things more quickly than we would normally be able to do.”

St. Petersburg will spend $3.48 million to replace 310 linear feet of storm-damaged seawall and sidewalk along the bustling downtown waterfront. Photo by Mark Parker.

Administrators are also developing a new resilience initiative with the College of Marine Science at the USF St. Petersburg campus. Tankersley said the partners will share innovative technologies, modeling platforms and data vital to predicting and mitigating extreme weather events.

Councilmember Gina Driscoll appreciated Resilient St. Pete putting previous action and master plans “under one umbrella” to create more holistic and updated strategies. “There is great progress being made,” she said.

“And because this is so large and has so many components, it really is hard to see the successes along the way.”

Hanewicz said administrators should not rely on utility fees to fund resiliency projects. She suggested a bond issuance approved by voters through a referendum.

Councilmember Richie Floyd agreed with both sentiments. He also suggested highlighting tax contributions from new developments to show the public benefits associated with growth.

City Administrator Rob Gerdes said he would provide council members with “some ideas and thoughts for further discussion” in early 2025 regarding alternative funding sources.

“I do want to thank the city council for raising water closet fees on new development this past year,” Gerdes continued. “I think that’s exactly what you’re referencing. That was significant.”