The City of St. Petersburg is launching a long-term plan aimed at strengthening nearly 15 miles of city-owned seawalls as coastal flooding, erosion and sea level rise continue to pose growing risks along the waterfront.
City leaders say the Seawall Master Plan is designed to assess the condition of municipal seawalls, identify vulnerabilities and guide future repairs, upgrades, and extensions — with some sections potentially raised as high as six feet. The effort comes after years of storm damage that residents and city officials say are impossible to forget.
“We’re always thinking about hurricanes — always,” said Brejesh Prayman, St. Pete’s director of engineering and capital improvements.
Prayman remembers the destruction left behind by Hurricane Helene, when storm surge pushed bay water into neighborhoods and living rooms along the coast.
“There were collapses,” he said, recalling damaged seawalls that failed under the pressure of the storm.
Those memories stretch back even further. In 2019, storm surge inundated the Vinoy Resort’s parking garage, trapping dozens of vehicles.
City officials say those events underscore the need for a proactive approach as extreme weather becomes more frequent and severe.
“We’re trying to be proactive for our residents,” Prayman said.
St. Petersburg owns roughly 80,000 linear feet — about 15 miles — of seawalls. In contrast, privately owned seawalls account for an additional 500,000 linear feet, or about 95 miles, throughout the city. Across Pinellas County, which is nearly surrounded by water, there are approximately 588 miles of coastline, nearly half of it hardened with seawalls.
The Seawall Master Plan will inspect and analyze the condition of all city-owned seawalls, but officials say it goes beyond immediate repairs. The plan is expected to develop a long-term implementation and funding strategy that identifies priorities, timelines and costs. That strategy would allow seawall projects to be incorporated into the city’s annual capital improvement budget, while also helping the city pursue outside funding and coordinate with other resiliency efforts.
“This is planning for resiliency and addressing vulnerability,” Prayman said.
The project is being funded through a federal grant secured in 2020, along with Penny for Pinellas funds, which is a 1% sales tax that funds infrastructure, public safety and community projects across Pinellas County.
Officials stress that public input will play a key role in shaping the final plan.
“The residents will have that opportunity to understand where their sea walls are, where the private sea walls are and where the risk is,” Prayman said.
The city is encouraging residents, property owners and other stakeholders to share feedback through virtual public meetings and an online survey.
While St. Pete can’t control the calm — or chaos — of the water that surrounds it, city leaders hope the Seawall Master Plan will bring residents a greater sense of security about what lies ahead.
The first virtual public meeting is scheduled for Tuesday, Feb. 10, at 6 p.m., followed by a second meeting on Tuesday, Feb. 17, also at 6 p.m. The city’s goal is to finalize the Seawall Master Plan by May.
For more information, visit the city’s website.