{"id":429017,"date":"2026-10-16T00:12:08","date_gmt":"2026-10-16T00:12:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/429017\/"},"modified":"2026-10-16T00:12:08","modified_gmt":"2026-10-16T00:12:08","slug":"st-pete-oks-nature-based-stormwater-infrastructure-policy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/429017\/","title":{"rendered":"St. Pete OKs nature-based stormwater infrastructure policy"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. \u2014 The St. Petersburg City Council approved a resolution on Thursday requiring the city to consider nature-based solutions first for all stormwater infrastructure projects.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThis is huge,\u201d said Public Works Administrator Claude Tankersley. \u201cWe&#8217;re really excited that we made this progress.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Tankersley believes St. Petersburg is the first city in Florida to adopt such a policy. He said the ultimate goal is a hybrid approach that combines conventional or \u201cgray\u201d construction with nature-based or \u201cgreen\u201d solutions.<\/p>\n<p>The city\u2019s Health, Energy, Resilience and Sustainability Committee, known as HERS, had unanimously approved the policy before it went to the full city council for a vote.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI think it\u2019s really exciting to be able to say that we are a city that\u2019s going to take nature-based approaches seriously,\u201d said Council Member Gina Driscoll. \u201cTo think of that first as we move forward.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Sustainability and Resilience Director Maeven Rogers said the city incorporated a nature-based design into the St. Pete Pier, which includes trees and green space on the north side of the concrete bridge. Last month, <a href=\"https:\/\/baynews9.com\/fl\/tampa\/news\/2026\/09\/22\/st-pete-to-install-first-hydroplanter-system-in-m-stormwater-drainage-project\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Spectrum News first reported about how the city also plans to use HydroPlanters for a $7 million stormwater project<\/a> near the 54th Avenue North canal.<\/p>\n<p>Tankersley said requiring Public Works to consider nature-based solutions first could help the city win more state grants.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cA lot of grants will give you extra points if you can show you&#8217;re doing natural-based solutions to help the environment as well as to the problems of flooding,\u201d he said. \u201cIt should help us be more competitive for grants.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Will Michaels, Resiliency Chair of the Council of Neighborhood Associations Committee, said he supported the move.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI think that is a fantastic addition here. It&#8217;s good to see that that&#8217;s being emphasized,\u201d he said. \u201cThere&#8217;s a lot that can be done with mangroves, with swales, to help blunt the damage that&#8217;s done by storms.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The city\u2019s mandate is to explore nature-based solutions first for major public works projects. Tankersley said some projects may still require conventional construction if nature-based options are too expensive.<\/p>\n<p>The city council also approved creating a Resilience Advisory Committee and a General Obligation Advisory Committee. The GO bond committee will only take effect if voters approve a $600 million referendum in the November election to accelerate stormwater projects.<\/p>\n<p>The city said the GO bond committee would provide transparency and include a citizen member from each district.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. \u2014 The St. Petersburg City Council approved a resolution on Thursday requiring the city to&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":429018,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[2968,115,596,202,204,203,199,201,200,135,835],"class_list":["post-429017","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-st-petersburg","tag-josh-rojas","tag-news","tag-pinellas-county","tag-st-pete","tag-st-pete-headlines","tag-st-pete-news","tag-st-petersburg","tag-st-petersburg-headlines","tag-st-petersburg-news","tag-tampa","tag-vod"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/429017","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=429017"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/429017\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/429018"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=429017"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=429017"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=429017"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}