St. Pete Beach neighborhood and city staff outline $28–30 million resiliency plan, request design funds

City staff and Don CeSar Place residents met to discuss repeated tidal and rainfall flooding, short‑term responses and a proposed neighborhoodwide resiliency plan that staff estimated at roughly $28,000,000–$30,000,000 and said would require design funding in the next fiscal year. Camden, a city stormwater staffer, told residents the city will ask the City Commission to include design money in the FY2026 budget and to competitively procure an engineering firm to convert earlier concepts into construction‑ready designs.

The presentation and discussion focused on why Don CeSar Place floods and what the city can do next. Camden summarized recent events, saying that on Aug. 10 the area recorded “almost 4 inches of rain in just a 2‑hour period” during a high tide and that the neighborhood saw record rainfall on Aug. 23–24. “The city as a whole, our stormwater network is designed to handle a 25‑year storm event,” Camden said, explaining that a 25‑year event has about a 4 percent annual chance of occurring. He added that the combination of higher tides and intense rainfall causes the compounding flooding residents are experiencing.

City staff described several existing and planned measures. The city has deployed three portable pumps to problem locations (Camden identified sites at 30 Sixth Avenue, Don Jose and the Alfonso intersection) and is mobilizing them during…