| | | | | | | | | | Item 6.
COMMITTEE MEMORANDUM | | | |
| | | | | | | | | TO: | Sustainability Resiliency Committee Meeting |
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| FROM:
| Jimmy L. Morales, City Manager
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| | DATE: | June 26, 2019
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| | SUBJECT: | DISCUSSION REGARDING PRIVATE SEAWALLS |
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| | | | | | | | RESPONSIBLE DEPARTMENT:
City Manager's Office | Public Works |
| | | | | | | | LEGISLATIVE TRACKING:
Item R7F - December 12, 2018 Commission Meeting |
| | | | | | | | SPONSORED:
City Commission |
| | | | | | | | BACKGROUND:
At the December 12, 2018 City Commission meeting, during Item R7F, private seawalls were discussed and assigned to Public Works for further dialogue at the Sustainability and Resiliency Committee. Subsequently, at the January 29, 2019 Commission Goals Conference Retreat, Commission Aleman requested that a financial seawall strategy be developed to encourage private property owners to retrofit seawalls. In addition, the Urban Land Institute’s Advisory Services Panel Report (2018) recognized the need to create financing for private seawall enhancements. The City Manager’s READY team is charged with vetting the ULI recommendations. As part of the READY team, John Woodruff, Chief Financial Officer (CFO), convened an interdisciplinary team to specifically examine funding and financing options for private seawalls. Private seawall elevation assessment and funding options were discussed at the March 20, 2019 Sustainability and Resiliency Committee and staff committed to conducting research and bringing back a framework of options as an interdisciplinary team. |
| | | | | | | | Analysis
The City of Miami Beach is investing in aging infrastructure to reduce flood risk, adapt to climate change, and is committed to building resilience on several fronts. Over the last few years the city has updated its land use development regulations for new construction to address water retention, setbacks and increase in base flood and freeboard elevation. These measures also contemplate sea level rise scenarios to reduce the risk to the new inventory of buildings.
While public investments and regulations are fully underway, the city realizes that the private homeowner, business owner and land owner need to take steps to invest in and protect personal private property. These investments, while beneficial in the long-run, can be rather expensive in the short-term. This issue is also of interest to the Southeast Florida Climate Change Compact (Compact) which includes Palm Beach County, Broward, Miami-Dade and Monroe and more than 100 cities.
The READY team’s objectives were to examine public and private financing options. The CFO examined options such as a Special Assessment District with the assistance of the Legal Department from the public perspective and private financing options with Julie Santamaria, the city’s financial advisor. Several challenging issues were identified with creating Special Assessment Districts for this purpose including:
• Seawall improvements would serve a private purpose versus a public purpose,
• Negotiating voluntary agreements with each individual property owner since access to private property would be necessary,
• Difficulty dealing with owners that opt out,
• The city taking on the construction risk of the projects as the project manager on behalf of the individual property owners
• Challenge of assessing properties inland benefitting from the improvements a portion of the assessment
• The cost of the projects (tens of millions) would be on the city’s books until the assessment is completely paid off which negatively affects the city’s debt capacity and bond rating
Ideally, the City would be a facilitator assisting property owners obtain private financing and vetting a pool of contractors. The Chief Resilience Officer (CRO) discussed the topic with the Staff Steering Committee of the Compact. Staff’s recommendation is to issue a Request for Interest (RFI) to survey the appetite of the financial and banking sector to create innovative and economical financing packages to incentivize owners to invest in their property. The innovative tool would be available to the four counties and cities of the Compact to address this item that crosses municipal boundaries and increasing the customer base for the financial and banking sector.
To provide adequate information needed for financing options, an understanding of existing private seawall elevation is needed. Staff is aware, anecdotally, of low-lying seawalls that have been overtopped during high tides and storm events and that have impacted public storm drainage infrastructure. To gather actual elevation data, staff examined data from Miami-Dade County, however it is not detailed enough to determine the height of seawalls. To understand feasible options, staff accessed the Business Case Analysis Pool of Qualified Consultants and examined in-house capabilities. Four options were explored, ranging from: drone photogrammetry- cost $13,000 (in-house), drone LIDAR- cost $93,000 (in-house), boat LIDAR- cost $270,000 (consultant), or aerial LIDAR for $415,350 (consultant).
Staff recommends conducting drone LIDAR in-house. Attachment 1 contains additional details on costs and benefits. In summary, the drone LIDAR can be conducted without accessing private property, will provide the highest quality data, and can be completed the fastest. The information can also be utilized by the city for multiple purposes ranging from planning to modeling. The city is fortunate to have staff capable of conducting the assessment. As the cost of the drone LIDAR equipment is not currently budgeted, the city is seeking grant opportunities since this equipment could potentially be utilized by other cities within the Compact and Miami-Dade County.
To move forward, a phased approach is recommended, including:
Phase 1: Release the Request for Interest (RFI) for the financial and banking sector. Seek funding sources for drone LIDAR equipment. Inventory initial areas of known areas of low elevation. (time estimate: three-months)
Phase 2: Prioritize funding and financing for the areas of low elevation, including notification to private property owners. Continue gathering the elevation of remaining private seawalls to create a full assessment of private seawall needs. (time estimate: four-months)
Phase 3: Categorize seawall vulnerability by elevation, assessing the timeframe associated with retrofitting seawalls to reduce risk. Expand funding and financing options and use. (time estimate: three-months)
Staff acknowledges that legislation will be needed if the intent is to require seawall improvements. For example, the City of Fort Lauderdale requires properties to raise seawalls if the seawall allows tidal waters to impact adjacent properties or the public rights-of-way.
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| | | | | | | | CONCLUSION:
This information is presented to the members of the Sustainability and Resiliency Committee for further discussion. Staff recommends working with the Southeast Florida Climate Change Compact to develop a Request for Interest (RFI) to survey the appetite of the financial and banking sector to create innovative and economical financing packages to incentivize owners to invest in their property. Staff also recommends that drone LIDAR be conducted in-house to reduce cost, achieve the best quality, and avoid needing to access private properties. Staff recommends that funding for the seawall elevation assessment be obtained through grants or through the city’s annual budget process. | | |
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