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Clearwater advisory board reviews city's 2025 legislative priorities including living seawalls and tree-preservation authority
Summary
Board members reviewed City of Clearwater priorities adopted by the city council in December and discussed living seawalls, Gulf Futures Grant applications, tree-preservation authority, and the state My Safe Florida Home program for home hardening.
The Environmental Advisory Board reviewed the City of Clearwater's 2025 legislative priorities during its Feb. 19 meeting and discussed several items that intersect with sustainability and coastal resilience.
Cassie Cordova, city staff, said the priorities were on the council agenda in December and have been adopted. Board members focused discussion on a "living seawall" concept that the city's stormwater engineering division has proposed for citywide application and for which the division has applied for a Gulf Futures Grant. Cordova said the city had submitted a "very strong application" and had not yet received word from the grantor.
Board members sought clarification about how a living seawall differs from a living shoreline and whether the technology is a hardened engineered seawall designed to encourage biological growth. One board member described the concept as a three-dimensional, 3D-printed seawall designed with crevices to encourage organisms to colonize the structure; speakers discussed examples in South Florida and comparisons to mangrove-lined stretches of city shoreline.
The board also discussed the legislative priority to allow local governments to regulate tree preservation, removals and replacements. Members noted the topic has been prominent in past years and that the priority implies supporting a change in state preemption on local tree regulation.
Members raised the state program My Safe Florida Home, which provides home-hardening assistance for single-family and some multifamily homes, and noted that the program is popular and has limited funding; Cordova said increasing state funding for the program was a priority. The board also noted recurring items on the city's legislative list including home-rule protections and offshore-drilling opposition.
Board members discussed how mapping and data could help allocate Community Development Block Grant funding or other assistance to low- and moderate-income residents for solar and home-hardening measures. Several members suggested the EAB could provide letters of support for council priorities or for specific grant applications if requested by staff.
No formal board action was taken at the meeting on the legislative priorities; members asked staff to provide further details on the Gulf Futures Grant application and to bring in project leads if the grant is awarded.
