LEGISLATIVE ACTION ITEM
SPONSOR: Grover C. Robinson, IV, Mayor
SUBJECT:
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CITY OF PENSACOLA RESILIENT COASTLINES PROGRAM - FLORIDA DEPARTMENT OF ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION GRANT AGREEMENT R2116
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RECOMMENDATION:
recommendation
That City Council approve and authorize the Mayor to execute the acceptance of the Florida Department of Environmental Protection Grant R2116 in the amount of $75,000 to identify the locations of vulnerable infrastructure, critical facilities, stormwater structures and utilize other available datasets to link sea level rise risk assessment with the City’s Community Rating System program. Specifically, the City will develop language to comply with statutory requirements related to “Peril of Flood” and include outreach tools, such as a story map, to visualize work products and policy language.
Further, that City Council authorize the Mayor to take all actions necessary relating to the finalization of the grant. Finally, that City Council adopt a supplemental budget resolution appropriating the grant funds.
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HEARING REQUIRED: No Hearing Required
SUMMARY:
Northwest Florida is threatened by sea-level rise, record-breaking heat indexes, increasing frequency and long durations of extreme heat and drought, heavier rain events, wildfires, inland and coastal flooding, storm surges exacerbated by stronger hurricanes, and decreasing freshwater availability. Historical water level records from Pensacola, Florida National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) tide gauges have established a representative long-term historical SLR trend of 0.73 ft/century.
The City of Pensacola and its regional partners, including counties and other local governments, are pursuing an aggressive and overarching climate-planning objective to address underlying climate change threats. The City of Pensacola has the opportunity of ensuring more detailed and new planning initiatives to ensure the community is resilient to climate change. The first step is to understand better what changes are likely at the local (and regional) level and to prepare for these changes.
This grant scope of work advances five (5) key tasks that include: identifying coastal risk from sea-level rise, linking coastal risk to FEMA’s Community Rating System (“CRS”) program, developing a technical basis to plan for future sea-level rise (with mitigation and adaptation strategies) and communicating future sea-level rise risks to the public. The City is currently a Class Rating of seven (7), and data completed as part of this scope of work will serve as a strategy to improve the City’s Class Rating during its next CRS cycle. The City also has an excellent opportunity to move its vulnerability planning to the next step, building on work previously completed by the Climate Mitigation and Adaptation Task Force (CMATF) and other local and regional partnerships. To date, the City has undertaken some specific efforts to start its vulnerability planning efforts. All activities include:
• Report of Pensacola Climate Mitigation and Adaptation Task Force (2018).
• Florida Department of Economic Opportunity (FDEO) Vulnerability Assessment of Escambia County, which includes detail related to the City of Pensacola (2016)
• Santa Rosa County, in partnership with UF IFAS Sea Grant, University of West Florida (UWF), and Emerald Coast Regional Council (ECRC), applied and received funding from the Northern Gulf of Mexico Resilience to Future Flooding RFPI, to effect informed decision-making through assessing vulnerability and developing a flood risk cost estimator that will be communicated in a story map and web application (2019). The effort was undertaken by Cynthia Cannon, who will also spearhead this grant effort.
Pensacola will review existing policy guidance, best practices, and case studies to determine the most current approaches for complying with the Peril of Flood amendments. With the understanding that POF amendments have already been adopted in approximately 90 jurisdictions statewide, there are multiple models to work from to help the City’s process. The City has also completed an initial set of Climate Action Recommendations from which to build upon.
PRIOR ACTION:
None
FUNDING:
Budget: $ 75,000 FDEP Grant R2116
Actual: $ 75,000
FINANCIAL IMPACT:
Adoption of the supplemental budget resolution will appropriate the grant funds.
CITY ATTORNEY REVIEW: Yes
7/27/2020
STAFF CONTACT:
Keith Wilkins, City Administrator
Kerrith Fiddler, Deputy City Administrator - Community Development
Sherry Morris, AICP, Planning Services Director
ATTACHMENTS:
1) Supplemental Budget Resolution No. 2020-28
2) Supplemental Budget Explanation No. 2020-28
PRESENTATION: No end