Venice council hears feasibility study on Flamingo Ditch; staff directed to pursue short-term fixes and buy nearby Lot 2

Venice City Council members on June 30 heard a feasibility study on Flamingo Ditch that concluded the low-lying Golden Beach area floods on minor rainfall events and that storm surge from hurricanes overwhelmed the system during the 2024 season. After presentations from city staff, special counsel and Coastal Protection Engineering (CPE), the council agreed by consensus to direct staff to pursue near-term improvements and to explore purchase of a nearby vacant parcel (Lot Number 2) to add stormwater storage.

The study, presented by Tom Piero and Joe Morrow of Coastal Protection Engineering, combined survey data, tide and gauge records and more than 100 numerical model runs. Piero said the ditch is a natural bowl that fills quickly: "This area floods from very minor rainfall events," and CPE calculated the existing storage inside the surveyed basin as 276,000 cubic feet. CPE modeled coastal surge (Hurricane Helene peaked near elevation 9.8 feet) and multiple rainfall events and found that modest pumps could reduce some street flooding but could not keep up with large surge events; very large pumping systems that would meaningfully reduce surge effects were judged infeasible for the site.

Derek Schroth, the city's special counsel, told council members the city has historically performed maintenance in Flamingo Ditch and because it voluntarily assumed that maintenance the municipality now "is obligated to continue that level of maintenance as the system…