ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — The St. Petersburg City Council has approved a nearly $7 million stormwater drainage project for a neighborhood west of Fourth Street N. along the 54th Avenue canal, which includes the city’s first use of a HydroPlanter rain garden system, according to Public Works Administrator Claude Tankersley.
“They are boxes that we can put into the ground that will hold plantings, they can hold trees, they can hold bushes and shrubs,” he said. “Stormwater will then filter down through the soil in this HydroPlanter to provide treatment.”
Public Works will purchase the HydroPlanter system from GreenBlue Urban and will install the green infrastructure on the southside of 50th Avenue N. from Fourth Street to Seventh Street. Tankersley said the city must use the treatment system after the state tightened stormwater regulations last year.
“We have to remove more nutrients before it gets to the Bay,” Tankersley said. “The reason why that’s important is because it’s the nutrients that cause the algae growth in the Bay that kills off the seagrasses. So, we want to make sure that the Bay is healthy.”
The project will also include larger stormwater drainpipes and roadway elevation work. The city purchased a flooded home at Seventh Street N. and 53rd Terrace on a lot backing up to the canal and had it removed for the project. Public Works plans to use the property, which will remain undeveloped, to build an outfall to the canal.
“In that area, we get a significant amount of roadway flooding because the existing stormwater system is not large enough to move the water out,” said Tankersley. “This project will help move that water and get it out of the streets and into the canal to help the community.”
Public Works also plans to install a 42-inch stormwater pipe at 50th Avenue and Fourth Street N. to help reduce flooding on the busy road. Tankersley said older pipes in the area are not large enough to handle the amount of rain produced by current storms.
“When we look at the pipes that were put in back in the 1950s, they’re usually in the 15-to-18-inch diameter,” Tankersley said. “So, we’re looking at doubling the size, tripling the size.”
Resident Nikki Ursini, who lives in an elevated townhome development nearby, said she’s glad to find out the project will help her neighbors in the low-lying area.
“I think that’s great,” Ursini said. “I think that it will be a nice relief, peace of mind, for this street.”
The city received a $2.7 million grant from SWIFTMUD for the project. Public Works said it wants to incorporate green infrastructure into as many future projects as possible and will be looking to add nature-based solutions into city policy.
The project is expected to begin in early 2027 and will take about one year to complete. Public Works plans to conduct neighborhood outreach about the major construction impacts, which will go curb-to-curb, in November and December.