Commission considers twelve more feet of seawall

Historic City News reporters will be watching when a multi-party memorandum for a new seawall, 12 feet seaward of the existing Avenida Menendez seawall, goes before the St. Augustine City Commissioners for approval on Monday night.

After significant damage to the St. Augustine Seawall during Tropical Storm Faye in 2008, there have been a cluster of suggestions – and no action – to address corrective measures to refortify the City’s primary defense against the tidal force of the Matanzas River.

Over eight years ago, when City Manager John Regan was Utilities Director, the city submitted an application to Florida Inland Navigation District for a grant to finance a reconstructed seawall. Citizen meetings were held, $125,000 was budgeted for initial design studies; however, the seawall has yet to be reconstructed — merely patched.

Unfortunately, it would seem that despite the awareness of city officials, residents and commissioners — the implementation of an adequate preventive maintenance regimen and an ongoing systematic course of indicated repairs; has, well, “slipped through the cracks”.

The West Point Army Corps of Engineers completed construction of the seawall, south of the current Bridge of Lions, when Florida was in its earliest days as a territory of the United States.

As early as 1690, citizens in Spanish colonial St. Augustine petitioned the king for funds to construct a seawall to protect the low lying community from daily tides and frequent storms.

We don’t have to petition a king anymore, but our need to protect the community from the damage of tidal and storm water has not diminished.

The new seawall, extending 1,200 feet along the Matanzas River from the vicinity of the Santa Maria Restaurant south to the Florida National Guard facilities, would preserve the original coquina wall — which would be visible along a promenade.

The City estimates the total cost of the seawall replacement at about $7.1 million — 75% of which Assistant City Manager Tim Burchfield hopes will come from a Federal Emergency Management Agency grant. The City will be required to contribute about $2 million in matching funds which will come from reserve balances in the General Fund, according to Director of Finance Mark Litzinger.

Approvals from both the Federal Emergency Management Agency, through the Florida Department of Emergency Management, and the State Historic Preservation Office were required before the project reached this point.

Approval from the State Historic Preservation Office is conditioned on avoidance, minimization, or mitigation of impact on the historic seawall during the construction.

In order to demonstrate steps being taken to protect the cultural resources impacted, the city must provide an educational component as mitigation. An educational website about the seawall construction is being proposed.

If you are planning to attend — the regular St. Augustine City Commission meeting will begin at 5:00 p.m. Monday and will be held in the Alcazar Room; on the first floor of City Hall, located at 75 King Street in St. Augustine. It will be broadcast live on Comcast Government TV (Cable Channel 3) and is streamed over the Internet.

Photo credits: © 2011 Historic City News staff photographer