Shannon NickinsonThis map could be the key to improving our relationship with water for years to come.
If we make it come alive.
A chain of parks that runs underneath Interstate 110 and through the Longhollow neighborhood.
A “daylighted” version of Washerwoman’s Creek, which used to empty into Pensacola Bay near what is now the Baskerville Donovan office building.
Recreating in some form San Miguel Creek and Cadet Springs, waterways that used to flow in downtown Pensacola now lost to time, development and paved over in large parts.
All of those – and more – are part of a map prepared by Arcadis, along with recommendations to reduce stormwater flooding.
They are part of something called Pensacola Bay Eastern Sub-Basin Action Plan, a densely named item if ever there was one.
City and County staffs are preparing three grant applications for flood prevention projects and an accompanying master action plan for the Pensacola Bay Basin.
The grant with the biggest potential dollar total is the National Disaster Resilience Competition sponsored by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.
Bob McLaughlin, a former Escambia County administrator now working on contract to the City of Pensacola on stormwater issues, said the HUD grant is a $1 billion competition nationwide.
It would fund projects that would help communities better prepare for future natural disasters.
After the flood in April 2014, the city and county both identified projects that would address stormwater issues.
“You’re talking about hundreds of millions of dollars,” McLaughlin said. “The three studies the city did show almost $150 million. What the county needs to do is another $200 million. There’s no single pot of money for that.”
Which is why the idea of working together is appealing. So is the idea of having a plan in place.
“This graphic is what that is,” McLaughlin said.
The state of Florida is an applicant, and we’re part of the state of Florida’s application through HUD. The Florida Department of Economic Opportunity is the lead agency for the grant.
This month, McLaughlin says HUD will determine which states move to the second phase of the competition. That’s an engineering, technical phase, that’s submitted by October.
A decision on winners could come in December. The maximum award for any one applicant is $500 million.
“Florida is the third most populous state in the nation. Is the federal government going to turn down Florida, who has a lot of impacts in many facets of what’s going on in the nation? We feel we’ll move on phase 2,” McLaughlin says.
Pensacola is one of five Florida communities to submit applications.
What’s the priority?
“Clearly you’ve got to prioritize upstream,” said City Administrator Eric Olson. “And how do you decide after that? We need a comprehensive model.”
An early frontrunner for the top of the priority list is the Delano project.
Delano is in the 3,115-acre Eastern sub-basin of the Pensacola Bay basin, an area that covers city and county jurisdictions and drains a wide swath of Pensacola from north of Fairfield Drive, through downtown Pensacola and Aragon to the bay.
Delano is a $3 million project that aims to alleviate flooding in the neighborhood around Fairfield Drive, L Street, Herman Avenue and Pace Boulevard. County Engineer Joy Blackmon has had it on her radar for years.
“If you do this in Delano, now how much water do you have to worry about in Longhollow?” Olson says. “That modeling has not been done, but that’s one of the things we would like to fund.”
What would make the Delano project even better?
If Blackmon could have the current site of the Central Booking and Detention Facility for a stormwater pond, she believes flooding in the immediate area could be managed — and flooding downstream in places like Longhollow could be lessened.
But that means Escambia County commissioners will have to settle on where they will rebuild Central Booking, which was damaged by a flooding-induced natural gas explosion on April 30, 2014.
That is something they have been unable so far to do.
In the meantime the mayor, city administrator and county administrator should keep that Arcadis map handy, and keep an eye out for the multiple pots of money that will be needed to make this plan come together.
It would help to look for opportunities that come up to take small bites of the stormwater elephant as they arise.
Could, McLaughlin says, the redevelopment of the site of the former Main Street sewer treatment plant include some room for re-opening part of the creek bed for Washerwoman’s Creek, into an open creek like the Riverwalk in Austin to handle overflow there?
“You can put public walkways, cafes, along that open creek system and help alleviate some of the impacts when you get heavy rainfall. Those are some of the thoughts that are out there.”
Shannon Nickinson is the editor of PensacolaToday.com, a news and commentary website in Pensacola. Follow her on Twitter @snickinson.com.Column courtesy of Context Florida.
