City envisions wonder-wall to cure nuisance flooding

Racked by increasing levels of nuisance flooding, St Augustine’s fountain of half-baked and overpriced plans hopes that a “retaining wall” will help minimize impacts of rising tides in certain parts of town.  Right.

First Coast News reported this week that St. Augustine Public Works Director Mike Cullum, author of the Coquina Avenue land grab, will lead management’s plan to build a partial wall “around a marsh south of South Street”, referring to property just south of the Maria Sanchez Lake.

Cullum said, “it will be at the same elevation as the bayfront wall, but because the wetland here is at elevation 4-feet-high, it will be a 3-foot wall, to bring it up to 7-feet elevation.”  The math and engineering on that claim have not be independently verified.

Some residents with neighboring property and common sense are worried that if the wall is higher, floodwaters will be displaced to other parts of town. 

Cullum’s similar plan for the Coquina Avenue property, previously reported by Historic City News, building a partial wonder-wall around a single parcel of land, met with vocal objection from residents; overruled by four commissioners determined to spend City reserve funds to finance the unbudgeted and unplanned project.