South Padre Island staff report multiple coastal grants, Restore Act project to begin construction

At a recent South Padre Island task force meeting, city staff outlined progress on several coastal grants and projects, including finalized and newly awarded Coastal Management Program (CMP) grants, engineering work to make multiple beach accesses "shovel ready," and a Restore Act construction start.

Christina, a city staff member presenting the grants update, said two of three CMP Cycle 28 grants are closed and the Neptune Circle improvements are finalized but awaiting documentation to complete closeout by the end of the month. She said the Neptune Circle work included a permeable parking lot, an ADA pathway from Gulf Boulevard to a new ADA dune walkover and a permanent restroom.

Christina said CMP Cycle 29 funded engineering and design for three beach accesses — Harbor Circle, Blue Water Circle and Daydream Circle — and staff has received preliminary designs and plans to discuss design options at the task force meeting in October. She said CMP Cycle 31 awarded funding for ADA beach-access engineering for Gulf Circle (No. 3), Surf Circle (No. 7), Treasure Island (No. 11) and Poinsettia Circle (No. 15), and separately awarded construction funding for Beach Access Number 9. "We're hoping to start [Beach Access Number 9] in April," Christina said, adding that additional documents requested by the General Land Office are due in November and the projects will begin next year.

On dune restoration and plantings, Christina said the Cycle 13 restoration work has involved plantings and fence installations within a two-mile corridor in the city's northern limits and that planting will resume in October because "right now it's just too hot to plant." She identified the contractor as Steve of Coastal Transplants.

Christina said applications under Cycle 14 were awarded for beach renourishment (which is dependent on the Army Corps of Engineers' dredging schedule), a Bayside living-shoreline right-of-way feasibility and alternatives analysis for about 10 northern streets, and a beach-and-dune monitoring study that would expand annual monitoring to quarterly monitoring. She said the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation dune-restoration grant is pending closeout and that additional NFWF awards applied for earlier in the year will be announced at the end of the year. Christina also said a Texas Parks and Wildlife Department grant has been finalized and is awaiting the agency's administrative closeout.

Christina told the task force the city "finally received the notice to proceed from the U.S. Treasury" on a Restore Act-funded project. She said the city held a pre-construction meeting with the engineer and contractor and that the contractor "anticipates mobilizing tomorrow," with a groundbreaking ceremony scheduled for next Wednesday at 10 a.m. on site.

A task force member raised concerns about traffic at the Marisol Boat Ramp, citing recent increased congestion near a newly opened restaurant and describing the area as likely to have only one way in and one way out, angled parking and difficulties for vehicles towing boats to re-enter traffic on Padre Boulevard. The member said they were "a little nervous" about how usable the ramp will be given the existing traffic patterns. Christina responded that staff "do not really have an option" to move the project because the federal funding and designs have been in place for years.

On the proposed Wind and Water Sports Venue, Christina said staff are still in the permitting process and that U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service was drafting a biological opinion. She said the service is requesting additional conservation measures that staff have been prepared to include, and staff are drafting backend documents so the project can proceed after permit approval.

During public comment, a resident who said she lives at Access 24 described recent fence plantings around the beach access as successful: "The sand is filled up well, and the greenery has expanded to the fence line and beyond the fence line. So the fences are working great." City staff acknowledged the comment.

Procedural business on the consent agenda — approval of minutes from the Aug. 12 regular meeting and approval of an absence for task force member Solaris — was moved, seconded and approved without recorded roll-call votes.

The task force did not take additional formal actions on the grant items at this meeting; staff said when more updates are available they will bring them forward to future meetings.