Miami Beach committee backs bringing living seawall incentives back for policy development

The City of Miami Beach Land Use and Sustainability Committee continued on Oct. 16 a discussion about incentives aimed at encouraging living seawalls on private property and in public capital-improvement projects and asked staff to return in January 2026 with policy recommendations.

Committee members and staff framed the item as an effort to use incentives such as expedited permitting, streamlined applications and permit fee waivers or abatements to expand use of living seawalls — engineered surfaces intended to support oysters, barnacles and other marine organisms — on the city’s roughly five miles of public seawalls and on private properties.

Public Works Director John Norris said the city is already considering living seawalls for at least two publicly owned projects: a section of the Collins Canal near the convention center and a pilot on West 60th Street. He urged staff to examine options including 3D-printed seawalls, tiles or panel systems and to evaluate cost and schedule implications for each site. “We definitely think there is a value in having…